Analyzing Quality Services Impact on Customer Satisfaction at Marriott

This research proposal examines the influence of quality services on customer satisfaction within the hospitality industry, specifically focusing on Marriott. The proposal begins with an introduction to the topic, highlighting the importance of customer satisfaction for organizational success and emphasizing the role of quality services in achieving this. It outlines the research questions, objectives, and rationale, aiming to analyze the concept of quality services, investigate customer satisfaction, and evaluate the impact of quality services on customer satisfaction. A comprehensive literature review explores existing research on quality services, customer satisfaction, and their relationship. The proposal details the research methodology, ethical considerations, and a research plan, including resource allocation and data analysis methods. The conclusion and recommendations will summarize the findings and suggest future research directions. References are provided to support the research.

RESEARCH PROPOSAL

Table of Contents
Research topic.............................................................................................................................1
Background.................................................................................................................................1
Rationale aim and rationale.........................................................................................................1
Research questions......................................................................................................................1
Research objectives.....................................................................................................................2
Literature Review........................................................................................................................2
Research methodology................................................................................................................6
Ethical implications.....................................................................................................................8
Research plan and procedure......................................................................................................9
2.1 Match resources effectively to the research question.........................................................10
2.2 Undertake the proposed research investigation...................................................................11
TASK 2B.......................................................................................................................................13
Data analysis.............................................................................................................................13
Conclusion and recommendations............................................................................................18
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................21

Research topic
To analyse the impact of quality services on customer satisfaction in hospitality
industry: A case study of Marriott.
Background
The success of an organization is purely depends on the satisfaction level of the
customers. However, It is necessary to uplift the consumer satisfaction level by rendering fine
services. In hospitality industry, quality services plays an essential role because organizations are
able to offer the same then it will directly improve the position of the companies. Whereas,
quality services can be explained the satisfaction level of the consumers matches up with
services offered by the organizations. If both the things are on equal level then it can de defined
as quality services. These services can be provided by identifying the requirements and
expectations of the customers. However, the organizations need to identify the customers needs
and satisfaction in order to improve them. If the services are as per the needs of customers then it
will have an positive impact on the satisfaction level of the customers.
The present proposal is prepared with a motive to evaluate the impact of quality services
on the satisfaction level of the customers. As a result, this project is consist of literature review
which will explain the ideas and thoughts of different authors with reference to the considered
topic. In addition to this, with the consideration of research methodology, the researcher will be
able to initiate the research and reach up to the desired end conclusion. This research is being
conducted on the hospitality industry for which Marriott is taken into consideration. Whereas,
Marriott is one of the leading hotel aims at rendering fine hospitality services in UK and other
parts.
Rationale aim and rationale
The present research project is prepared with an aim to analyse the impact of quality
services on customer satisfaction: A case study of Marriott. Earlier, several studies were done on
this selected topic but effective conclusion is still not evaluated. However, this report is
conducted with the motive to identify the impact of quality services. This analysis will provide a
guidance to whole industry to identify the importance of quality services to the customers. After
this analysis the companies will be able be able to take corrective measures.
Research questions
Define the concept of quality services in hospitality industry?
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Illustrate the importance of customer satisfaction for the success of hospitality industry.
What is the impact of quality services on the customers satisfaction?
Research objectives
 To define the concept of quality services
 To investigate the importance of consumer satisfaction in hospitality industry
 To evaluate the impact of quality services on consumer satisfaction in hospitality
industry.
 Recommendations
Literature Review
Concept of quality services
According to the author (Akbar and Parvez, 2009). in hospitality industry it is very
important to provide quality services to meet the need of the customer. In the competitive market
quality services increase the competitiveness of the organisation. Quality service actually means
satisfying the expectations of the customers. Assessment of quality of services is done by the
service provider so that they can provide high quality service. According to the Author (Chang,
Wang and Yang, 2009). the operators identify the problems very quickly so that they can provide
better quality services to the customer. This means providing of efficient, very fast and friendly
services which build the strong relationship between clients and the hotel Marriott. This concept
is best if the organisation want the customer to come back which ensure potential customer and
long term success of the organisation. New customers are always good but if the customer will
not come back it will not help the organisation to run for long time and this can only be done by
providing high quality services so that they are happy with the services provided by the hotel and
want to come back. If the customers are happy they will surely do marketing for you to their
relatives, family and friends through words of mouth that the services provided by the hotel was
amazing. To retain the customer it is the key way to provide personalized services which make
customers feel that they are not just a source of income and more than that by making them feel
that hotel values their patronage.
According to the author Quality services providers ensure that the customers are fully
satisfied when they are leaving from the hotel. There are five ways through which the Hotel can
meet the expectations of the customers by providing them with physical facilities, Equipments,
and communication materials. The hotel should meet accurately all the promises made by the
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service provider which will increase the trust of the customer. Clients will be more happy if you
provide prompt services and if hotel is quick to provide with the help to the customer. Employee
of the hotel should have knowledge and courtesy so that customer likes to talk to them and can
share the problem they are facing these measures increase the quality of services provided by
them. For enhancing the quality hotel can provide help desk or complain desk and hotlines so
that customer can go there for asking any queries. Concept of quality services is a core for
successfully running the business in the hospitality sector. While contacting to the customer hotel
must keep in mind about that employee attitude towards the customer must be good. Treatment
to the customer must be excellent. Quality of services must improve on daily basis according to
the expectations of the customer and present market condition so that organisation can easily
survive in the market. Best way to create good impact on the customer is through empathy which
means taking care of there needs, giving proper attention to each individual will enhance the
quality of the services and improve the profitability of the hotel as it will attract more and more
customer.
Investigate customer satisfaction
According to the author Customer satisfaction is a key to success for hospitality industry.
As customer who is satisfied will always be loyal to the hotel and will prefer that hotel for
visiting again. And best part of customer satisfaction is they do marketing of hotel to the people
while talking about them so it is very important that customer should provide with good
feedback. In the present scenario customer search for hotel online so while choosing the hotel
they compare the hotels with each other so it’s very important for the hotel that it have good
reviews of the customer who visited the hotel and that is only possible if the customer is fully
satisfied than only he will give a good review. When handling the calls for booking it is very
important that the employee should be very friendly while talking should be helpful and make
customer understand the policies of the hotel so that there is no doubt in the mind of customer so
the satisfaction of the customer starts from booking itself. Hotel when become master at meeting
the expectations of the customer and fulfilling the needs of the customer it reaches the level of
creating the overwhelming customer loyalty. For meeting the needs of the customer it is
important to have a good management. Management should provide proper training to the staff
so that running of the hotel can be smooth and there can be a good customer satisfaction.
Satisfaction of customer mostly based on the physical services that the hotel provides. Based on
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the money hotel is taking for providing rooms hotel can provide complementary services which
will make the clients happy and make them to visit again in the hotel which will lead to a
successful business.
According to the author it can be said that satisfaction of customer depends on how well
organisation communicate with the customer. By communicating to the customer hotel can come
to know what are weak and strong points of the hotel so it can improve and work on the weak
points. This will make customer feel good and wanted which will enhance the customer
satisfaction as well as the management of the hotel. There are many customer satisfaction tools
available which the organisation can use to increase the satisfaction such as hotel reservation
service tools if this tool is used properly hotel can increase the new customer as well. There is a
huge competition in the hospitality industry so customer satisfaction is very important as it leads
the organisation to success which will help the hotel Marriott to run in the long way. Satisfaction
of the customer can be measured by how much he is happy while leaving the hotel and how well
they response to the staff while leaving the hotel. If the customer is satisfied they will definitely
want to come back and visit the hotel.
Impact of quality service on customer satisfaction
According to the author (Matzler and Hinterhuber, 1998) the entire service sector
industry for increasing the satisfaction of the customer they enhance the quality of the services
provided by them. In order to achieve the expectations and need of the customer hotel Marriott
focuses on enhancing the quality standards so that they can increase the customer and surely they
will return to visit again to the same hotel if they are satisfied with the services provided to them.
The impact of providing good quality is that the customer will remain loyal to the hotel.
Providing of services is the continuous process so improvement in the services is must. To gain a
competitive advantage in a hospitality industry hotel should go for providing premium quality
service. Expectations of the customer depends upon various uncontrollable forces such as what
they felt about the services provided by the other hotels. Advertising done by the hotel.
Expectations vary from person to person as they belong from different culture. According to
their values they will judge the services so while providing the services to the customer it is very
important to know about the customer which means creating a healthy relationship so that they
can easily share the problem they are facing so that you can provide better services which they
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will prefer. The evaluation in the thinking and habits of the customer has changed the market of
hospitality industry as there is a huge change in the expectations of the customer the quality
matters allot to the customer these days which directly impact the satisfaction they get through
services provided to them. The judgement is done on the basis of quality of services they are
providing so it directly impact on the image that is created in the mind of customer. Once the bad
image is created they will never visit again so quality is the core to stay in the market for long
run. Positive experience of the customer on constant basis leads to growth and profitability of the
hotel Marriott.
As per the Author for customer memorable experience organisation provide their
customer positive services which are liked by them. These days reviews of the customer has
become the need in the hospitality industry as everybody search for hotels online they read the
reviews of the visitors and than they choose to visit for a good review customer satisfaction is
very important part as bad feedback can damage the image of the hotel. Organisation needs to
provide the quality services as promised by them so that it can gain the trust. Entire business in
the hospitality industry depend on how well you re providing the services and what is the quality
of services that you are providing. These 2 questions are very bid for the industry and to meet the
expectations you need to provide the services with better quality which will satisfy the needs of
the the customer and that will need to create a good image in the mind of customer and this will
increase the clients as well as the profitability of Hotel Marriott.
Recommendations
As per the (Johnston, 1995) there are many ways to improve the quality of the services
provide by the Marriott hotel best way to improve the quality is to give proper training to the
workers working in the hotel about how to treat the customer, how to make good and healthy
relationship with the customer, training to the employee must be given on timely basis so that
they know how to create a friendly atmosphere for the customer. Using of resources in the best
way is very important for the organisation as it will increase the productivity. Department can be
created so that work can be divided properly to the individual according there skills in which
they are best. For the purpose of communication hotel should appoint the person who is best at
communicating so that he can create a healthy relationship with the customer. Quality circles can
be organise by the hotel so that they can know where the improvement is required so that they
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can work on that area which will enhance the quality of the services provided by them. Quality
control department can give training on the basis of the recent market conditions and needs of the
customer. To track the mistakes is the part of quality check so the organisation should know
where they are making mistake and where is the scope to improve. So that quality department
can work on it.
According to the author choose the tools for measuring the quality of the services. Hotel
must take feedback from the customer so that they can know the weakness and strength. another
tools is set the quality standards which should be fulfilled by the employee. and workers.
Deviations can be measure between set and actual standard which will let the hotel know what is
the performance of their employee and according to this training can be provided. Total Quality
management tool can be used by the hotel for providing the training. Invite customer to provide
suggestions to know the needs and wants of the customer. Effective customer service desk can be
introduced so that they can call their for any problem. Setting up of an effective communication
channel so that management can be in touch with the workers and customers all the time.
Services can be provided online which will make easy for the customer to approach the hotel.
According to the author (González, Comesaña and Brea, 2007) these are the recommendation
which the hotel can use to increase the efficiency of the work performance of the workers. It will
enhance the quality of the services which are provided to the customer. And this will also
increase the competitiveness of the Hotel Marriott. By using these useful tools hotel can grow
sustainably with high profitability.
Research methodology
Research approach: In order to analyse the impact of quality services on customer satisfaction
in hospitality industry: A case study of Marriott the research has two approaches i.e. inductive
and deductive. With the consideration of inductive approach, the new theories are generated with
the help of gathered data and information. This research is mainly concerned with qualitative
method. This research initiates with specific to and ends on general basis. On contrary to this,
deductive research is one in which the existing theories are being tested. Here, the researcher
focuses on the present theories through which the end conclusion can be generated. Therefore,
the researcher can adapt inductive approach for the analysis of impact of quality services on
consumer satisfaction. With the help of this approach, the existing theories will provide an
assistance to gain the result (Saravanan and Rao, 2007).
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Research design: Research design can be explained as the process which provides an outline on
how a research is being investigated. This step helps an investigator to decide the process of data
collection and what will be the instruments that ate considered in the process. The researcher has
three methods available for the research process such as descriptive, exploratory and case study.
However, descriptive research is one in which the characteristic of the existing population is
being analysed. According to this method, the researcher is not required to prepare the questions
consisting of what, when and why questions. In this method the researcher is required to
formulate a questionnaire which will be filled by the population. Besides this, exploratory
research is one in which the problem of the research is not properly defined. For the present
research project, the researcher adopts descriptive research design so that consumer satisfaction
level can be analysed (del Río-Lanza, Vázquez-Casielles and Díaz-Martín, 2009)
Research type: There are two types of research available for the investigator i.e. qualitative and
quantitative. Whereas, qualitative research is one which is conducted to gain the opinions and
thoughts of the respondents. This can be done at primary level where the data and information is
gathered by the research on the basis of attributes. With the help of this research type, the
researcher gets a clear idea or solution of the problem. In order to collect the requisite data,
survey method is one of the useful tool. On another side, quantitative method is adapted when
the researchers need to make a direct analysis of the numbers and figures. It is all about the
figures and information related with numerical data. This method is mainly adopted for the
analysis of attributes and opinion of the respondents. This is adopted for the measurement of data
and information with the implementation of formulas and tools. Therefore, the investigator can
use qualitative method of research where the opinions of the population with the gathered with
the help of survey.
Data collection: In order to collect data and information for the present research project, the
investigator has two methods available such as primary and secondary data. The primary data is
one in which the information is collected with the help of different sources like questionnaire,
interviews and surveys. As the name suggest, primary data is also known as fresh data which is
not gathered form existing sources. On contrary to this, secondary data is also one of the another
source in which the information is collected with the help of internet, books, journals and
articles. For the present research topic, the investigator can adopt both the methods for the end
conclusion. Whereas, primary data can be used for gathering the opinions of population.
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Secondary data will be used for analysing the importance of consumer satisfaction (Guenzi and
Pelloni, 2004).
Sampling: Sampling can be explained as the technique or method through which the data or
information can be gathered. The researcher can adopt the two methods of sampling i.e.
probabilistic and non-probabilistic sampling. Whereas, probabilistic sampling can be defined as
the method where each and every individual has an equal opportunity for getting selected.
Whereas, non-probabilist sampling is the method where individuals does not equal chance of
getting selected in the sample. Fro the present project, the researcher can adopt random sampling
methods where each and every will have equal chance of being a part of the research process.
For the same, sample of 20 respondents taken from the customer of Marriott.
Data analysis: Data analysis can be explained as the process through which the gathered data an
information can be analysed and evaluated. With the help of this process, the researcher will be
able to get an effective conclusion of the stated problem. There are two methods are available for
the data analysis i.e. thematic and numerical methods. The thematic analysis is used to evaluate
the qualitative data and information. On another hand, numeric data is used for the analysis of
quantitative data and information. In order to analyse the gathered data and information, the
researcher can use thematic approach which will assist the researcher to make themes of the
research objectives. It will help in getting the end conclusion of the research. With the help of
this method, the researcher will be able evaluate the impact of quality services on the customer
satisfaction. The researcher is going to adopt the thematic approach because the available data is
a qualitative data. Here, the opinions and thoughts of the individual are being analysed.
Ethical implications
While conducting research, ethical implications are necessarily for the researcher in order
to attain the research objectives and aims. It is the duty of researcher to collect data and
information form the authentic sources. In addition to this, it is also important for the investigator
to maintain the authenticity of the data. This will help the researcher to attain the research aims
and objectives in an effective manner. Besides this, sometimes it also happen that the researcher
face issues at the time of conducting research. However, it is the responsibility of the investigator
to make sure of avoiding the copy and paste the information for the adopted sources. In order to
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conduct the effective research, the investigator needs to focus on the stated methods and
techniques that are explained.
Research plan and procedure
Research plan for the present study has been explained in the Gantt chart below:
Sr.
No.
Activities List of activities Weeks Preceding activities
1 A Meeting and consulting supervisor 1
2 B Developing and finalizing proposal 1 A
3 C Proposal submission 2 B
4 D Approval of supervisor 1 C
5 E Critical literature review 5 D
6 F Data Collection 4 D
7 G Analysis of data 4 E,F
8 H Interpretation of data 3 G
9 I Drafting the complete project 4 E,G
10 J Reviewing the complete project 2 I
11 K Finalizing the project 1 J
12 L Submission of the project 1 K
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Figure 1: Gantt chart
Figure 2: Network Diagram
2.1 Match resources effectively to the research question
In order to conduct research effectively, the researcher is required to match up the present
resources as per the requirements so that suitable outcome can be attained. At the time of attain
research, the availability of the resources are necessary such as human, financial and other
resources. In this proposal, the researcher has adopted both the methods i.e. primary and
secondary. With the help of both the methods the researcher will be able gather ample of
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