Expedia: Evaluating Quality Management and Customer Service Strategies

This report examines the quality management challenges faced by Expedia, an online travel booking service. It identifies issues such as poor customer service, including unresponsive communication, unreliable service, and a lack of empathy. The report analyzes the competencies needed to improve service quality, focusing on human, physical, and financial resources. It discusses quality management elements like planning, assurance, control, and improvement, including the application of Kaizen and Total Quality Management (TQM) methodologies. The report provides an overview of the current problems and suggests strategies for improving Expedia's service delivery and customer satisfaction.

Management Report

Table of Contents
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY.............................................................................................................1
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................2
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................2
Current issues experienced by Expedia.......................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
Analysing the correct ability and competency in order to better quality of Expedia..................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................7
Effect of various methods in delivering effective quality management.....................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Management quality is not easy work and it is difficult for keeping satisfy to make them
customer happy and peaceful. In hospitality sector, visitors attracts towards top companies which
provide best quality services at reasonable price. Expedia is an online booking website which is
offering million of people from web services. They mainly booking the tickets of airlines, travel
booking, provide tour packages, hotels reservation, give cars on rent for travelling. All these
services provided from internet and telephone. They has been seen for earning maximum profit
by enterprise. Organisation is facing quality problems or issues which has been described in this
report.
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INTRODUCTION
In recent time period, quality management is important for tourism and hospitality sector.
It can involved agreeable to delivery of products and services according to the expected
standards of such services. This can be determined as one of the major challenges which can face
by company manager and also it will be essential condition of growth and success. The report is
describing the issues which are faced by Expedia regarding specific quality. It is also famous
among customers for the name of online travel reservation site which provide new way to the
customers to examine and book travelling (Li and et. al., 2014). This project help in explaining
two different techniques which has been discussed and these were assist in delivering consistent
and good management of quality.
TASK 1
Current issues experienced by Expedia
Expedia is largest online travel booking service site which is mainly known as
Expedia.com which offers visitors a new way to search and reserve the travelling tickets. This
will assist in developing and also grow on the regular basis in proper manner. It is seen that
charges of online booking is more in comparison to manual booking and it increased by 14%.
Along with this, the turnover can increasing and rise with 15% in the first quarter of 2017.
despite in the financial situation, the venture is acquiring negative response from their customers
and increasing the rating of sites. This has been proved that Trip Advisor which provides quality
services by Expedia is decreasing constantly. The reason behind poor reviews on Trip advisor
which relates to their booking activity and customer services due to fail in delivery. There are
various issues experienced by Expedia that are discussed are as under: Assurance- Organisation are not capable to provide sureness to their customers. At
sometime, many flights are rerouted and company is not give any information and notice
to their passengers (Seetharam and et. al., 2015). Apart from this, firm can not repay
additional cost which are given by customers that can occurred. There is no resolution for
such issues or problems which exist and negatively impact on brand image of the firm. Responsiveness- Organisation is playing role as non- respondent when clients are ask
question and they are not given any answer to them related to products and services. For
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example, if any visitor contact to Expedia by using email and other source and firm are
not given any response. Slow performance- This will occur in the case of postponed of any meeting, individual
call is not done to the customers or employees and also make them aware about every
thing (Slater, 2010). Along with this, they assist in increasing number of customers in
waiting line. For example, sometime they are putting the customer call on hold for more
time. Rude communication- In this, sometime manager or employers are behave with rude
manner with their users and communication skills are believing in beyond the values or
beliefs. This has been observed that manager are shouting on few clients which is not
appropriate. Unacceptable services- Trip advisor company is providing poor services to their
travellers. If a customer is pay their payment on given time then it is also the
responsibility of firm is to provide them refund money to them in fast speed services in
case of any cancellation. This has been analysed that clients are waiting for their refund
amount for long time period. But 5 weeks has been passed but still they did not get any
payment of refund. Unavailable service- At sometime, service facilities is not accessible in Expedia. This
can proved such incident when a customers has advised by British Airways that his
flights was cancelled and they provide information to Expedia about such things
(Svensson, Host and Regnell, 2010). It is that condition of customer service of the
booking site which is unexpected and poor. Reliability- Sometime organisation is losing trust among customers as they expected to
them which are not met. Even they are not giving information regarding particular time
such as cancellation of flying, re-routing of flights etc. on given time and by this
passengers are face different type of problems.
 Empathy- Employees or workers of company do not demonstration any sympathy to their
customers and also present that there is no solution for their complain about products and
services.
Various services are offered by Expedia which is totally based on difficult business
operations because this will includes another businessperson for developing specific services. In
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reservation of flights, airline house are actual supplier of flights and Expedia play role as a third
person and as became agent. Further, it has not control on their activity which are taken by
airways (Westgard, 2010). The decision which are taken related to cancellation or rerouteing of
flights is totally belongs to supplier of airline and this outcome is generating the disturbance in
the procedure of delivery services and by this prospect of customers are not fully completed.
Even this disruption has not affected the expensive time but user make new position for fulfil
new payments. Therefore, Expedia has not receive growth and success in protecting the arising
issues or conditions which have been produced for unsatisfying delivery of services in proper
manner. Apart from this, they does not prepared fast emergency outcome when some changes or
modifications will happened. Addition to this, improvement process was not created at the
accurate modular which reduces the corporal and business condition for their customers. The
best services which has to be fulfilled expectation and requirements of customers. It is fully
based on positive behaviour of employees towards their specific jobs.
TASK 2
Analysing the correct ability and competency in order to better quality of Expedia
Expedia is giving very poor consumer services, it is important to find out different ways
for rising the service of delivery. For offering more professional services, cited organisation need
to appraise ability and competencies in proper manner. There are three factors which has directly
impact on betterment of different services that are discussed as follows: Human resource- It refers to the employee workforce of corporation which require
special attention because they are interfacing with customers in various ways in different
condition. Expedia has been improve their process of selection and recruitment so that
they are hire skilled and potential of employees for specific job roles. This require to
maintain quality of such sector (Yoder-Wise, 2014). Along with this, they can present
assessment method in order to motivate their personnel department for delivering best
quality of services to their customers. But employees needs more training and
development programmes for achieving these objectives and targets. This has been
observed that communication skills is not effective or good which require to improved,
firm should provide necessary training to them where they try to provide accurate
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solution for issue of customers in appropriate manner. The work force require to declare
the vision and mission idea and perform best for reaching desired goals and objectives. Physical resource- Corporation require to focus on the physical resources so this will
ought to offer more in correct and appropriate information and guidelines of their
customers by reduces the human errors (Abdullah and Islam, 2011). The information
should be given for better explaining the demand of users when they became part of
Expedia. For this result, it can be proved that the organisation require to arrange essential
resources so the quality of services should be improved. At sometime, disruption is the
operational process which may reduce through betterment in communication
transmission with the help of provider by assembly information at actual time period.
 Financial resource- Expedia require to gather important assets so that they become
strong in financially and they are able to resolve major problems and issues for delivering
services. It has been observed that till now enterprise is financially good and effective as
booking the tickets of rate which increasing by 14% and their income has been enhanced
by 15%.
Along with such factors, Expedia require to concentrate on quality management
approach. There are majorly four elements of management quality which are explained as
follows: Quality planning- In first time, venture need to identify those areas where they alter the
quality in proper manner. After this, they has been plan some strategies and policies for
doing same. Quality assurance- It is that way of protecting human barriers or errors and imperfection
while producing products and services in appropriate manner (Bell and et. al., 2012). This
includes confront the problems at the time of delivering services to customers or clients.
By this process, employees quality team can check their work that are satisfy customers
or not. Quality control- It is that method which focus on evaluating fault. With the assistance of
this, corporation can assure different tools, techniques, process, approaches and methods
which are designed in this report that are correct in effective manner. Such activities
represents the observation and verifies the projects deliver in defined standard of quality.
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 Quality improvement- It is one of the most essential approach which analyse the
performance and systematic work of employees so by this quality should be maintained.
There are different concepts for improving quality which includes TQM (Total Quality
Management), CQI (Continuous Quality Management), etc. Continuous quality
management refers to that procedure which assist in maintaining quality on regular basis
so there are no issue will occurred (Boniface, 2013). Different cycle such as reporting and
metrics, analysing and understanding, modelling and planning and take active decisions.
Another is TQM which defines management concept for developing long term growth by
satisfying customers (Total quality management phases. 2017). There are four phases
which are discussed as under:
◦ Plan- In first stage, planning is done where different strategies and policies which are
designed so that quality can be improved properly.
◦ Do- Second is allotment of work will be done in order to maintain management
quality.
◦ Action- Action is taken if any imperfection are recovered in other process or finished
goods and services.
◦ Check- It is the last stage where investigation is done on the basis of quality.
Employees supervise each method and process which determine the standard of
quality which can be achieved or not and according to this activities should be
performed (Chaffey and White, 2010).
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Illustration 1: Total Quality Management, 2017
(Source: Total Quality Management, 2017)
TASK 3
Effect of various methods in delivering effective quality management
There are two types of techniques which can be used by Expedia for delivering consistent
and effective management quality which are discussed as under:
Kaizen:
This is Japanese word whose actual meaning is continuous improvement. Such type of
tools and techniques can be used by enterprise. Expedia will also use Kaizen for getting success
and growth. In this procedure, small step is taken on continuous basis which can provides great
changes in future time period (Evans and Lindsay, 2013). This process is low and steady in
feature and improvement is done in appropriate manner.
Implementation of Kaizen
It is important to be familiar with these techniques so this is the way of thinking but
method of achieving all tasks. Training required by employees of Expedia so this process consist
of some guidelines which need to be followed by this important changes will be brought. For
example, firm can change practice of paper work without discussed with teams or group
members. The new changes will directly impact on employees teams who resist to change.
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Company manager require to motivate them regarding modifications before taking any decisions.
Training and development programmes required by workers so that they can develop effective
changes. This method bring high recommendation and modifications in proper manner (Ford,
Sturman and Heaton, 2012). It can be proved that Expedia that can make important changes in
their services for long time period.
Benefits after implementing Kaizen
There are advantages of Kaizen which are described as under: Employee engagement- It will play an essential role in engaging and involving all the
employees in creating changing and finding solutions towards quality based issues or
problems. By doing this method, all the person skills and mind work in similar direction
and effective result can bring out this.
 Customers are first precedence- It is that method which gives first priority to customers
and make proper changes in the present process as per their demand and needs.
ISO:
ISO stands for international Standard Organisation. This is international standard setting body
which is combination of representatives from various national standard organisation. It is another
method for maintaining management quality. Expedia should implement such methods at the
time of booking sites. In every firm need to follow some guidance rendered by this techniques.
There are certain guidelines and significant international standard that are as follows:
 ISO 9001:2008 Quality management system
 ISO 14001 Environment Management system
 ISO 50001 Energy Management Standard
Such standard help organisation for doing work according to the criteria. Firm has to earn high
amount of profit for selling increasing rate and satisfy level of customers (Hassan and et. al.,
2012). For this process, entire quality of delivering services are improved and users get satisfied.
CONCLUSION
As per the above mentioned report it can be concluded that quality management is
important for tourism and hospitality sector. It can involved agreeable to delivery of products
and services according to the expected standards of such services. Expedia is largest online travel
booking service site which is mainly known as Expedia.com which offers visitors a new way to
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search and reserve the travelling tickets. This will assist in developing and also grow on the
regular basis in proper manner.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Li, Z., and et. al., 2014.Method and apparatus for managing quality of service for multimedia
applications. U.S. Patent 8,824,453.
Seetharam, A., and et. al., 2015. On managing quality of experience of multiple video streams in
wireless networks.IEEE Transactions on Mobile Computing. 14(3). pp.619-631.
Slater, R. C., 2010. Managing quality of life in the older person with a stoma. British journal of
community nursing. 15(10).
Svensson, R. B., Host, M. and Regnell, B., 2010, September. Managing quality requirements: A
systematic review. In Software Engineering and Advanced Applications (SEAA), 2010
36th EUROMICRO Conference on (pp. 261-268). IEEE.
Westgard, J. O., 2010. Managing quality vs. measuring uncertainty in the medical laboratory.
Clinical chemistry and laboratory medicine. 48(1). pp.31-40.
Yoder-Wise, P. S., 2014. Leading and Managing in Nursing-E-Book. Elsevier Health Sciences.
Abdullah, M. M. and Islam, R., 2011. Nominal group technique and its applications in managing
quality in higher education. Pakistan Journal of Commerce and Social Science. 5(1).
pp.81-99.
Bell, D., and et. al., 2012. Managing quality. Routledge.
Boniface, P., 2013. Managing quality cultural tourism. Routledge.
Chaffey, D. and White, G., 2010. Business information management: Improving performance
using information systems. Pearson Education.
Evans, J. R. and Lindsay, W. M., 2013. Managing for quality and performance excellence.
Cengage Learning.
Ford, R. C., Sturman, M. C. and Heaton, C. P., 2012. Managing quality service in hospitality.
Demar cengage learing.
Hassan, J. A., and et. al., 2012. Managing quality of experience for wireless VOIP using
noncooperative games. IEEE Journal on Selected Areas in Communications. 30(7).
pp.1193-1204.
Online
Total quality management phases. 2017. [Online]. Available through:
<https://bizfluent.com/about-5110630-continuous-quality-improvement-model.html>.
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