Improving Service Quality: A Report on Premier Inn's Strategies

This report evaluates the service quality management principles and theories applied by Premier Inn, a leading British hotel chain. It explores the relationship between customer expectations, perceptions, business performance, and satisfaction, focusing on the SERVQUAL model and total quality management. The analysis covers service design, setting, and encounter, alongside employee empowerment and HR practices. Furthermore, it proposes a Customer Feedback System (CFS) framework for Premier Inn, detailing the relevance, pros, and cons of various feedback tools, and includes a template for each chosen tool, aiming to monitor and continually improve service quality. The report emphasizes the importance of adapting to the rapidly changing tourism industry and maintaining customer loyalty through effective service quality management.

Service Quality

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
Evaluation of principles and theories of managing service quality along with its importance.
................................................................................................................................................3
Concept of service quality through relationship between expectations, customer perception,
business performance and satisfaction...................................................................................4
Comparative analysis of different evolutionary theories of service quality management.....5
Service Quality Management Process through Service Design, service setting and service
encounter:...............................................................................................................................5
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................6
Service quality with reference to Premier inn........................................................................6
Employee Empowerment.......................................................................................................8
HR/recruitment practices........................................................................................................8
Task 3...............................................................................................................................................9
Produce a Customer Feedback System (CFS) framework that the selected organisation can
utilise to monitor and continually improve service quality....................................................9
Explain the relevance/pros and cons of each one followed by development of actual template
for each one of the chosen CFS tools...................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES:.............................................................................................................................15
Books and Journals...............................................................................................................15
Online...................................................................................................................................15

INTRODUCTION
Organisations should regularly track their operations so that they can maintain the quality
of their services. It is important for businesses to deliver right quality of services to their targeted
audience so that they can retain them for longer period of time. It is required to involve
improvement practices and procedures so that quality can be maintained in appropriate manner
(Biswas, Nusari and Ghosh, 2019). This will enhance the productivity and profitability of over
all organisation with the help of maintaining standard and quality in the services. This report is
based on Premier inn which is a British limited hotel and largest brand of UK' s hotel. It was
founded in 1987 by Whitbread and it is headquartered in Dunstable, UK. They have number of
hotels which provide quality services to large number of customers. This report will include
about importance of measuring and managing quality of service and adoption of appropriate
quality management methods. Current practices are analysed with the help of assessment which
create impact on the front line employees. This report also include about customer feedback
system which organisation uses in order to improve their services.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
Evaluation of principles and theories of managing service quality along with its importance.
Tourism industry is growing rapidly and involve constant changes which should be
effectively adapted by an organisation. Service quality management become important in order
to provide quality services to the targeted audience (Zhang and et.al., 2019). The demands of
customers can be satisfied by analysing their demands and requirements. Premier inn focus on
their operational procedures which eliminate unnecessary mistakes and defects. They use
SERVQUAL model which is a multi dimensional instrument basically developed for measuring
perception of service and identify demands of customers. This model work on five dimensions
which can be discussed as follows:
Reliability: It shows the ability of an organisation which provides services in accurate
manner. This element is responsible for measuring the promises which can be fulfilled by an
organisation or not (Brochado, Rita, Oliveira and Oliveira, 2019). Premier inn ensures that they
provide reliable services which effectively satisfy the needs of targeted audience.

Assurance: It majorly focus on the skills of employees who are responsible for carry out
different operations (Shah, 2020). Premier inn should hire employees who can effectively
maintain good relationship with their targeted customers from the market by providing good
services.
Tangibles: organisations require large number of resources, equipment, communication
material and personnel which comes under this dimension. Premier inn try to provide all the
resources to their employees so that they can commence operations without any difficulties.
Empathy: According to this dimension, organisation should focus on the demands of
their targeted customers so that they can effectively fulfil them. Customers of Premier inn
require higher quality of services which results in higher revenue.
Responsiveness: The willingness of an organisation to cater the needs of the customers
in included in this dimension. All the promises are effectively fulfilled by Premier inn which
makes them priority for large number of customers.
Concept of service quality through relationship between expectations, customer perception,
business performance and satisfaction.
In order to achieve excel in businesses, it is important to focus on the service qualities.
Organisational goals can be achieved when employees produce and manufacture products and
services in appropriate manner (Yuen and et.al., 2018). Premier inn uses different tools and
techniques so that they can maintain quality of their products and services. It is important to
involve service quality management practices and models which assist in maintaining
productivity.
Customer perception: The feeling and mentality of customers towards the organisation
is referred as customer perceptions. Premier inn focus on interaction with their customers so that
they can analyse their perceptions. They use social media platforms for analysing customer
perception with the help of reviews and feedbacks so that they can provide customized services
and goods. It helps in maintaining loyal customer base which results in higher revenue
generation and profitability.
Customers’ expectations: The set of ideas of customers fall under this category which
focus on demands and requirements (Büyüközkan, Havle and Feyzioğlu, 2020). Premier inn
aims to satisfy the expectations of customers so that they can retain them for longer period. The

expectations of customers directly related to the business performance as they have to offer
products and services which are expected by targeted customers.
Customer satisfaction: Premier inn focus on satisfying the expectation of their customers
by evaluating their performances on regular period of time. Maintaining effective service quality
assist organisation in achieving competitive advantages from market which results in capturing
large market area. Premier inn has captured large market area with the help involving procedures
which can regulate quality of services.
Business performance: Businesses can improve their performance by providing best
quality of services and products to their customers. Premier inn ensures that they utilise available
resources in effective manner so that they can commence operations in desired manner. It is
important to ensure the right performance so that business t=can grow and expand their business.
Comparative analysis of different evolutionary theories of service quality management.
Service quality majorly aims to accomplish the satisfaction of customers by applying best
procedures in the production. Premier inn uses different theories for maintaining appropriate
quality which are different from each other. They use SERVQUAL model which ensures to
identify the expectations of the customers with the help of 5 dimensions (Eboli, Forciniti and
Mazzulla, 2018). Those dimensions include responsiveness, reliability, empathy, physical
evidence and assurance. On the other hand, they use total quality management which focus on
the maintaining quality of products and services with the help of different tools and techniques. It
works of 7 concepts which includes quality tools, customer focus, supplier quality, employee
empowerment, process management, product design and continuous improvement. They both are
different with each other in terms of their application in procedures. SERVQUAL understand the
perception and taste of targeted customers so that Premier in can carry on their services in
appropriate manner. They differently measure the quality and operations which are based on
different parameters. The components of SERVQUAL and GAP theories identify the
significance of the operations on the basis of their performance.
Service Quality Management Process through Service Design, service setting and service
encounter:
Organisations have to measure their qualities so that they can fulfil the requirements of the
targeted customers in the best possible manner. It is required to track the performance so that
actors and mistakes can be eliminated in order to improve the appropriate quality. Customer

satisfaction is main aim which organisations have to meet by providing the products and services
according to their preferences. Premier inn focuses on their services so that they can retain their
customers by enhancing the experience of the customers. This will result in better growth and
exposure of an organisation which is essential for them. The service quality management
processes can be conducted with the help of service setting, service design and service encounter
which can be studied as follows:
Through service design: This is human centred approach which majorly focuses on the
experiences of targeted audience and the quality of products and services which is essential for
getting success (Farooq and et.al., 2019). Premier inn ensures that they arrange their all the
available resources in appropriate manner so that they can carry out operations in effective and
efficient manner. Managing resources like material people communication components and other
infrastructural elements can assist organisation in maintaining best service in design for their
customers. It provides in-depth insight of the needs and demands of customers so that
organisation can offer customised and specific services to them. This results in building a healthy
relationship among organisation and their employees which results in better improvement of
customer loyalty towards organisation.
Through Service Setting: It is used to evaluate the tangible physical environment in which
customers can experience their services. The intangible and tangible igloos of environment can
assist potential customers, stakeholders, clients and employees in understanding the better
services ideology and characters. Premier inn focuses on maintaining relationships by providing
positive environment to their customers. They always ensure that products should be delivered
on time which assist them in providing better quality services.
Through Service Encounter: It refers to the idea which describes the direct contact of
customers with their respective service providers (Fauzi and Suryani, 2018). It also involves
face-to-face interaction of customers and organisation which results in better experiences of
services. Premier inn always interacts with their customers on regular basis so that they can
understand their behaviour and attitude towards their organisation. The transactional interaction
is highly required in order to establish the positive brand image in the respective industry.

Task 2
Service quality with reference to Premier inn
Organisational objectives and goals can be only achieved when they focus on the quality of
services which they offer to their customers. All the essential factors should be analysed by
managers of an organisation so that they can eliminate unnecessary activities which can affect
the quality. Premier inn effectively competes with their competitors by providing higher quality
and standard services to large number of customers and cost-effective manner.
Service Quality Culture
It can be expressed as the culture of company that majorly focus on the services of the
customers which they have to provide in order to accomplish their goals. According to this
company focuses on their processes and missions on catering the requirements of customers on
the basis of priority (Javed and Liu, 2018). Premier inn opt for service culture as it and courage is
the excellent experience of customers service which improves their revenue generation. Service
quality culture is one of the main reasons of successful business which should be focused by
organisations. Premier inn can easily create different ways of service quality culture which are
mentioned below:
Develop system that can promote quality culture: Organisations have to involve clear
and is strong culture so that they can apply different policies and procedures in each and every
department which is effective for them. Premier Inn involves a strong governance in their
organisation so that they can effectively establish a quality culture. In order to involve quality
culture, they invest in research about their performance analysis so that they can understand their
strengths and weaknesses. Managers of premier inn collect all the relevant data about their
operations so that they can improve their performance and established better quality culture
which increase the revenue generation rate.
Encourage collaboration: It is evaluated that workplace collaboration is great idea in
order to enhance quality culture in overall organisation (Özkan and et.al., 2019). Premier inn
always focuses on cross functional working so that they can generate creative ideas which can
improve their operations. They also focus on interdepartmental working which assist their team
members in enhancing their confidence level which results in higher productivity. Managers of
premier in have to encourage their employees in establishing workplace collaboration so that
they can add value is in their products and services.

Offer financial awareness and incentives: Organisation should become open for
providing awareness about their financial status to their employees so that they can become a
part of quality culture development. Defining the gross profits and other cost of businesses assist
employees in maintaining better quality of required products and services. Premier inn also
focuses on enhancing the morale and motivation of their employees by providing them financial
incentives. It improves the ability of employees in order to contribute their positive efforts of an
organisation of value them in appropriate manner.
Promote quality ownership: It suggest that each and every employee of an organisation
should take responsibility in order to develop the appropriate quality culture. All the rules and
regulations which are formulated for following the procedure should be taken into consideration
while performing operations (Rajaobelina and et.al., 2021). Premier inn makes their employees
accountable for their actions so that they can keep in mind about the measurement of quality.
Quality ownership can be promoted by using different types of testing on the services and
products which results in identification of quality. Manual product testing assists them in
analysing different negative factors and errors which are present in operations. Employees can
eliminate them by applying different strategies so that they can improve the experiences of the
customers by providing better quality services.
Employee Empowerment
It is a management criterion which focuses on the importance of providing resources as
support and autonomy to the employees so that they can become accountable and independent in
order to formulate their own decisions at workplace. It is essential to empower employees in an
organisation as it boosts creativity of an individual which can improve their productivity and
performance on regular basis. This results in job satisfaction, stronger job performance and better
commitment to an organisation. Premier inn provides various benefits to their employees so that
they can feel valued at work place which results in better working environment. They also
involve each and every employee in planning and decision making process so that their
involvement affect their productivity to great extent which is positive factor (Sampaio and et.al.,
2018). Employees of Premier inn regularly upgrade their services which contributes in
manufacturing or producing higher quality products which results in better engagement of their
customers. They provide freedom to their customers in planning according to their preferences as
they are responsible for their regular activities in operations. This makes them more confident in

order to formulate effective decisions for important operations. All the team members of premier
inn are equally treated by management so that they can develop interest in order to achieve
collective goals in successful manner. In order to motivate employees Premier inn, offer various
benefits and perks to their employees such as incentives, bonuses, promotions and appraisals.
HR/recruitment practices
It is the process of identifying, selecting and hiring of potential employees so that
organisation can commence their operations in appropriate manner. It bridges the gap of vacant
positions by hiring skilled and experienced professionals according to their capabilities. HR
department of premier inn focuses on different recruitment practises and steps which are
mentioned below:
Hiring right candidate: HR department should focus on selecting and hiring right
candidate for particular position as it requires lot of resources in hiring candidates. Premier inn
focusing on fulfilling the positions which are essential as over hiring can result in wastage of
essential resources. Candidates should be tested on the basis of job requirements so that
organisation can find best assets for accomplishment of their goals and targets (Shah, 2020). It is
necessary to identify the positions which are vacant so that recruiters can carry out interview
operations according to that which can provide them positive outcomes.
Innovative job posting: It is attractive manner to post about the vacancy of positions so
that candidates can apply in effective manner. The job posting should be accessible easily so that
candidates does not find difficulties in finding their best suitable position. Premier in post job
positions in appropriate manner which can be accessed by laptops, mobile, computers and other
devices which save lot of time of potential candidates. They also use job portals and different job
websites in innovative manner which accomplish their goal of finding capable candidates.
Right interview process: Interview process which organisation select in order to find their
candidates should be meaningful for both the applicant and for the organisation (Yilmaz, Ari and
Gürbüz, 2018). Premier in tried to make their interview process more interactive which make
their candidates comfortable during the interview session. They use better communication skills
for understanding the required skills of their candidates which results in positive outcomes.
Innovative selection process: It is important to involve innovation in selection process as
it develops the interest of candidates towards organisation. It makes recruitment processes more
interesting for all the respective individuals who are involved in it. Premier inn uses various test

and small projects for selecting employees by checking their efficiency with the help of the
outcomes of projects (Sharabati and et.al., 2019). Different capability test assists them in
analysing the required skills of candidates so that they can effectively select most appropriate
individuals for particular position.
Task 3
Produce a Customer Feedback System (CFS) framework that the selected organisation can utilise
to monitor and continually improve service quality.
Customer feedback system is important for organisation as it is a framework of different
techniques and tools in order to obtain feedbacks from different sources and platforms which can
improve the experience of customers. Organisations can also exist real-time feedback and
reviews of the targeted audience so that they can understand the actual position of their services
in market. Premier in can use interviews, questionnaires and comment cards so that they can
gather reviews of customers in order to measure the quality of services. It improves overall
services of an organisation which results in better revenue generation (Su and et.al., 2021).
Premier inn always focuses on the expectations and requirements of the customers and interact
with them after providing services so that they can get opportunities to alter required procedures
and services. There are different quality assurance tools are present which assist organisation in
ensuring their internal and external quality. It provides them preventive actions against weak
points and negative factors so that they can operate in best possible manner. Questionnaire can
help Premier inn in analysing their performance on regular basis which assist them in
accomplishing their targets. It can effectively manage customers by analysing insights with the
help of reviews and feedbacks. Some of the questions related to the organisation which
customers have to answer are mentioned below:
Question 1 How can you describe the services of Premier inn?
A) Love the innovation
B) Quality products and services
C) Focus on Customers experience
Answer B) Quality products and services
Question 2 What is the best thing about Premier inn which makes them unique?

A) Staff attitude
B) Food and beverages
C) Infrastructure
Answer B) Food and beverages
Question 3 What would you like to rate the services of Premier inn?
A) Average
B) Good
C) Excellent
Answer C) Excellent
Explain the relevance/pros and cons of each one followed by development of actual template for
each one of the chosen CFS tools
Questionnaire is beneficial for organisation as it assists them in analysing their current
situation and competitiveness in market. Premier inn has analysed number of pros and cons of
their questionnaire which are mentioned below:
Cost saving: Organisations can use digital platforms and other platforms like telephonic
questionnaires which are highly affordable for them. Premier Inn also uses their website so that
they can analyse the views of their regular customers by asking them questions. It does not
involve any printing, paper, labour and postage expenses which is beneficial in terms of
maintaining a budget and utilisation of available resources (Su and Teng, 2018). Online
questionnaire is a cost efficient approach which need to be undertaken by organisations so that
they can improve services with the help of gathered information. Along with the cost it can save
lot of time of organisations as well of customers as it allows recording feedbacks according to
their time schedule.
Reach people quickly: Organisations can easily share their questionnaire with the help of
text, emails, messages, website links or downloadable QR code. Premier inn can help their
customers regarding providing answers according to their availability. Organisations can cover
large market area at single time by sharing questionnaire which is highly flexible in nature.
Respondents can easily interact with their respective organisation by providing feedback in quick
and efficient manner through messages. This assists them in maintaining healthy relationship
with targeted audience by analysing their views regarding products and services.

Easy visualisation: The reviews which are quantitative in nature assist organisation in
analysing the results in appropriate manner. It provides opportunities of carrying out scientific
research and evaluation of statistics with the help of answers which customers have provided
through questionnaire. Premier inn can complete their interaction session with the targeted
audience in best possible manner with the effective utilisation of questionnaires. Analyses of
gathered data provides opportunity in offering customers services to the customers according to
the taste and preferences. It results in enhancement of brand image and satisfaction of customers
all together which is a positive factor for an organisation in order to grow their business.
Comparability: The results and data analysed with the help of questionnaire can be used
further in compare and contrast with another research. Organisations can use these results in
order to measure changes which are essential for caring out better performance (Tian and et.al.,
2019). Premier inn can improve their services with the help of comparison from past records so
that they can engage more and more customers on regular basis. They provide monthly and
yearly questionnaire to their customers so that they can direct their operations on regular time
interval. It increases the chances of altering related services so that customers feel satisfied in
effective manner.
The positive side of questionnaires helped a lot Premier inn regarding improving their
expected performance. Gathering feedbacks and reviews on regular basis assist organisation and
achievement of their objectives and goals Along with pros of questionnaires there are number of
cons which make them less preferred for some of the organisations. These cons are mentioned
below:
Unanswered questions: Sometimes customers leave questionnaires as it is without
answering questions is they feel it useless. It is one of the biggest disadvantages of
questionnaires which creates lot of problems for organisation in analysing their reviews and
feedbacks. Premier in also faces these types of challenges while sharing their questionnaires
large number of people Skip and avoid questions without answering them. It makes the processes
more complicated for organisation which results in lower down of performance and productivity.
Difficult to convey emotions and feelings: Surveys and questionnaires does not fulfil the
criteria of capturing feelings and emotional responses of the targeted customers. It lacks in
personal interaction because of presence of online platforms or through messages (Um and Lau,
2018). Premier inn feels differences because questionnaires that does not involve reactions, facial

expressions or body languages of their customers. Without these factors it is hard to understand
the actual meaning of the data and information which is provided by customers. It results in
creating misunderstanding between organisations and customers which affect their overall
profitability.
Some questions are difficult to understand: There are various type of questions are
present in questionnaire which produce and gather data. It is easier to understand the answers
recorded in form of graphs or multiple-choice question but organisations face difficulties in
interpreting open ended questions. Individualised answers which are provided against open
ended questions are not easy to be quantified in appropriate manner. Premier inn requires human
assistance for reviewing open ended question which results in duplication and alterations.
Organisations should have to carefully select questions for their customers so that they can
eliminate complexity.
Accessibility issues: It is one of the biggest threats of questionnaire which organisation
faces on regular basis as it lacks in accessibility. It is not possible that question years can be
suitable for all the users. Some customers are visually impaired or may suffer with other
challenges such as illiteracy (Wong and Szeto, 2018). Premier in faces number of challenges in
reaching all the customers in order to record their reviews. It results in lack of interaction and
communication between organisation and their customers. Due to lack of accessibility, it may
create inconvenience in getting accurate answers form the customers which results in improper
alteration in services.

CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that services should be maintained according to
the prescribed standard so that organisation can create their loyal and trustworthy customer base.
Service quality should be measured on regular basis so that it can fulfil the expectations of
targeted audience by providing them appropriate offerings. It is necessary to become responsible
for the requirements of customers so that they can build healthy relationship in order to generate
higher revenues. Focusing on service qualities customers feel valuable which is a positive factor
in order to achieve success and growth. This report included about concept of service quality and
its relation between expectations, customer perception and business performances. Different
theories are compared in order to explore the importance of service quality and it’s a process is
also evaluated. Service quality culture is defined and its related issues are also identified.
Employee empowerment and HR recruitment practises are discussed in this report so that it can
be improved in effective manner. A customer feedback system framework is a produced so that
organisation can improve service quality with the help of this framework. Different negative and
positive aspects are also discussed regarding the customer feedback system in this report.

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service quality: Themes in online reviews. International Journal of Contemporary
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