Service Quality Analysis and Management for Canary Wharf Hotel

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of service quality, focusing on the case of the Canary Wharf Hotel. It begins by defining service quality and its significance in retaining customers, emphasizing the importance of customer satisfaction and competitive advantage. The report then delves into the management and measurement of service quality, highlighting the benefits of ensuring superior service, increasing customer satisfaction, and boosting profitability, while also addressing waste reduction. The report explores various service quality management methods, including SERVQUAL, Just-in-Time, and Six Sigma, recommending the adoption of the Just-in-Time approach for waste reduction. The second part of the report discusses the service delivery methods employed by an organization, their impact on employees, and their managerial implications, with specific reference to the Canary Wharf Hotel. Finally, the report proposes a customer feedback system to monitor and improve service quality, providing a practical approach to enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

Service Quality

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................1
1. Significance of measuring and managing service quality and appropriate suggestion for
adopting service quality method..................................................................................................1
P2. Service delivery method used by an organisation and its effect on the employees and
managerial implications...............................................................................................................6
P3. Produce a Customer Feedback System:.................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................12
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Service quality refers to an action or an exercise which offered by one party to another
which is usually intangible in nature and can not effect ownership. According to Philip Kotler
and Gary Armstrong “Service quality is the ability of a service firm to hang on its customer.” In
their opinion customer retention is best measure of service quality. In the service industry, it is
very important for the organisation to provide better quality facility to their customers in order to
retain them. The better customer service will lead to more customer satisfaction for organisation.
As superior facilities to customer attract more number of customers and which will ultimately
leads to increase in customer loyalty and company's profitability. As service quality becomes
unacceptable when expectations of customers are not met.
To better understand this concept, the case of Canary Wharf Hotel is being analysed by
this report. This is 3 star hotel in Canary Wharf, East London. The hotel has 100 modern and
stylish en – suite rooms, which includes standard, executive and premier. In this project, the
importance of managing and measuring service quality and suggestion for adopting adequate
service quality is being explained. The impact of current delivery service / practices on the front
line employees is discussed in this report. As customer feedback system which is helpful for
organisation to monitor and improve their service quality, is also explained in this report.
MAIN BODY
1. Significance of measuring and managing service quality and appropriate suggestion for
adopting service quality method
Service quality is an important and crucial tool in hospitality in order to gain customer
satisfaction and competitive advantage. This offers great opportunity to the organisation to make
differentiation in market by providing unique service quality to the customers. The high quality
services offered by The Canary Wharf Hotel enables them to achieve customer satisfaction and
build positive relationship with customers. By providing better quality to the customers, The
Canary Wharf Hotel can build the positive brand image, enhanced customer loyalty and high
competitive advantage within given time period. Service quality act as variable in the industry.
As some people who has high income group prefer the luxury service where as people who are
from middle class family prefer the affordable cost services.
Managing service quality:
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The managing and measuring quality services and product is very important in order to
provide the better services to customer and gain customer satisfaction. As measuring of quality
in hotel is very important because it allows hotel to deliver smooth services to customers. In the
hotel service is main concern for customers as well as organisation. If hotel is unable to
appropriate services than there is less possibility that customer will visit again. So The Canary
Wharf Hotel need to measure the current services and if they find any deviations than take action
for its improvement
(KauraDurgaPrasadandSharma2015JoonChoiandSikKim2013IzogoandOgba2015Elliot, Li and
Choi, 2013). This will also help organisation to meet needs and expectation of customers and
also achieve the organisation objectives effectively. This is very important for organisation to
manage and measure service quality effective as significance of managing quality is discussed
below:
Helpful in ensuring superior quality service and product:
The managing quality of service is very helpful in flexibility, reliability and performance
of business. Quality is crucial element that enables an organisation to make differentiate in
market and take competitive advantage. Today's market is very dynamic and there is huge
competition in market so by providing the superior quality The Canary Wharf Hotel can attract
more number of customers and can be sustainable in market. There is different quality
management approaches which enables organisations to provide superior quality to its
customers. The hotel needs to put more focus on quality irrespective of quantity as because it
will allow them to increase there profitability and customer satisfaction. Measuring and
managing service quality is very important in order to eliminate errors from the procedure and
set a standard quality benchmark. This can enable hotel to provide customised services in order
to satisfy customer needs and wants. As hotel can charge the high prices also for tailored services
which they are providing to their guest (Kim and Hwang, 2012).
Helps in increasing customer satisfaction:
Customers are king pin of every industry so it is very important to satisfy needs and
demand of customers. The management of proper quality is crucial to enhance customer
satisfaction. As consumers prefer to those business who meet their needs and expectation. The
simplest way to satisfy customer is to fulfil their needs and expectations. This will increase the
customers loyalty towards that particular organisation. The managing adequate quality will
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enable company to enhance customer experience and increase customer satisfaction. It also
helpful in gaining more market share and increase the customer base through customer
satisfaction. The Canary Wharf Hotel can increase their customer satisfaction and their loyalty
by managing and providing adequate services. As it can be seen from case that employees are
not communicating properly which leads to customer dissatisfaction.
Increase profitability:
Management of proper quality assurance is very helpful in the increasing the profitability
of organisation. As by providing superior quality The Canary Wharf Hotel can charge significant
amount from its guest and visitors and which will ultimately lead to increasing profitability of
hotel. This enables to provide customized services to customer so for that particular customized
services it can charge higher prices and can increase their profitability also. With increased
profits hotel can also increase the base of services which they are currently providing (Lau and
et.al., 2013).
Assist in reducing the waste:
This is very important for the organisation to reduce their different waste like raw
material and inventory waste in order to produce quality services. As there are some inventory
management tool such as Just in time and LIFO etc. enables organisation to eliminate waste or
excess material from their pipeline and improve quality of services and products which they are
offering. The waste reduction will help in managing superior level quality in hotel which will
facilitate more number of customers loyalty towards The Canary Wharf Hotel.
Measuring service quality:
Measuring refers to the evaluation of performance of a business within marketplace. Is is
very important to measure the quality of service which is currently provided by the hotel. As
there are various tools which enables organisation to measure their service quality and than take
improvement action for that. The measurement of service will enable the hotel to expand their
business base by improving their offerings in existing service systems. This includes the
infrequency of measurements and big manual work to carry measurement.
Importance of measuring quality of service:
 The measurement of service quality assist the organisation to create two way
communication among agents and management of company. This specify organisation
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regarding where the improvement needed and scope of improvement is also specified by
this measurement.
 This brings the attention of quality manager of The Canary Wharf Hotel regarding
inefficient process, policies and other issues which leads to loss of revenue and decrease
hotel sales. With help of proper measurement the operational conflicts can be reduced
and quality of service can be enhanced. As measurement is very important for the
improving quality of offering their services.
 The Canary Wharf Hotel can improve their quality of offerings by measurement. As it
also helps in identifying the training needs and than provide the training to required
employees. This will enable maximising profits and customers satisfaction within
organisation.
Service quality management:
This includes the various processes that are needed to be access service quality according
to requirement and expectations of customers. The service quality management is becoming very
popular now days due to the customers who are service oriented and who prefer high quality
services. As every organisation wants to provide the better services because poor facility leave a
bad impact on organisation and on growth of its business. The service quality principle
management offers an opportunity to the The Canary Wharf Hotel for improving their customer
satisfaction level and increase the customer loyalty (Liang, Ma and Qi 2013).
Principles of service quality management:
There are various principles which are related with the service quality management. As
these principles will help The Canary Wharf Hotel in order to improve performance of in market
place. These principles are being discussed below:
Customer focus:
This is the primary principle of SQM which is related with the customer focus. As
customers are king of market so it is important to identify needs of customers and meet their
expectations. The customers of The Canary Wharf Hotel facing various issues at hotel such as
long waiting time, non effective communication with employees, not listening to grievances of
customers etc. As this principle will enable organisation to resolve these issues and fulfil
customer demand and needs.
Leadership:
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This is related with management of hotel as at The Canary Wharf Hotel employees are
doing work on part time basis and there is high staff turnover. So the leader of hotel needs to
motivate its employees and staff so they provide the better customer service. As they should
provide some bonus or incentives to their employees so they will be fully engaged to the work
and maximise customer satisfaction. The ineffective leadership can leads to mismanagement
among staff members and at workplace.
Involvement of people:
The employees are valuable and key assets for organisation so if they are properly engage
towards their work than it will lead to maximum customer satisfaction. If employees are not fully
involved in activity of organisation than this will result in improper utilisation of resource and
low customer satisfaction (SivakumarLi and Dong, 2014).
Continual improvement:
The continual improvement in service is very important in order to nurture quality of
service which is provided by the hotel. This enable the hotel to increase their capacity in order to
avail new opportunities and improved working potential. If The Canary Wharf Hotel is not
focusing on continuous improvement than it could lead to decrease in customer loyalty
simultaneously decrease in profitability of business.
Method of service quality management:
There are various methods for service quality management which can be analysed and used
by The Canary Wharf Hotel, these are discussed as below:
SERVQUAL:
This is the basic tool for managing the subjective element of service quality. With the
help of this an organisation acknowledges the feedbacks and reviews of customers regarding
services provided by them. Being quality consultant, one can make changes in The Canary
Wharf Hotel.
Just in time approach:
The just in time management is very common and popular tool which is used by various
organisation in order to increase their efficiency, reduce cost and eliminate inventory waste. As
The Canary Wharf Hotel can use this approach to reduce waste by the aligning their production
schedule to the raw material supplier so they can send the material whenever the resources
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required. In case of The Canary Wharf Hotel JIT can enable manager in ordering materials such
as commodity, food, electronic items and bedsheets as when required.
Six sigma:
This is a quality management tool which helps company to manage its quality in adequate
manner. With help of this concept one can eliminate the errors from its process. It can enable
The Canary Wharf Hotel to improve its quality of service and gain competitive advantage.
By analysing above methods, The Canary Wharf Hotel can adopt the Just In Time
approach in order to manage service quality within organisation. As this can help in reducing
inventory waste and increase quality service (Sousa and Voss, 2012).
P2. Service delivery method used by an organisation and its effect on the employees and
managerial implications
The Canary Wharf Hotel is three star hotel which has 10 minutes walking distance from
Dockland railway station which is helpful for hotel in enhancing their guest presence. As this
offers executive, premier and standardised rooms to the customers according to profitability.
Apart from this, it provides conference rooms for business meetings and banquet halls for
wedding functions. Beside this it offers the various other services to their guest which are as
follows:
 A dinning area where lunch and break fast is served at Brasserie.
 Restaurant and bar during the lunch time with various international cuisines.
Problems and issues faced by customers:
There are various issue and problems which is faced by the customers from hotel staff
side. As guests are used to wait for 1 hour long for check in. The hotel is unable to provide
proper compensation to customers for issues which they have faced. In the hotel, there is
shortage of staff and also high staff turnover and bookings are more so there is complete
mismanagement at the hotel.
Impact on Front line employees and their involvement towards work:
Front line employees are those which directly make communication with the guest and
solve their queries. As it is very important for staff of The Canary Wharf Hotel to have effective
interaction skills so that they can make communication with guest. The hotel manager needs to
identify the need of training and provide training to the employees. There is some front line
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workers at The Canary Wharf Hotel such as receptionist, waiters, cashier and housekeeping. The
impact on front line employees and their engagement due to staff shortage is discussed below:
Receptionist and cashier:
This comes under the front line employees category as earlier, the number of entries were
less so there was proper consideration of customers needs and expectations. After the renovation
and new add ons the customer base of The Canary Wharf Hotel has been increased so it
becomes difficult for the front line workers to manage and solve every single customer query.
Due to this the check in time has been increased and and customers are not feeling satisfies with
the services of hotel. The cashier and receptionist workload has been increased due to shortage of
staff as they were supposed to perform various other activities along with their regular work. So
this was making impact on their regular work as they were not able to manage it effectively. As
employees are also not getting any rewards and incentives for their work. So they started feel
demotivated and started leaving their job (Srivastava and Sharma, 2013).
Waiters:
In context of waiters, it is crucial to facilitates consumers according to their wants and
requirements. But the tendency of variations in desires and wants of the consumers leads to
change in serving patterns or items within short time interval. The waiters are the workforce of
the hotels and requires to give fair compensation accordance with their work, posts the services
provided by them. But basically, in hotels like Canary Wharf & events increased up-to 200%
and workforce compensation as well as their turnover is high. The primary- line employees
doesn't have ability to perform their works with their full potentials as well as at level of
satisfaction (Sousa and Voss, 2012). Waiters of restaurants and bars doesn't delivers food and
beverages properly. .Even in some cases they made wrong delivery of orders to customers. In
other case, because of huddled prior benches in bars and restaurants, it becomes critical to book
these tables and it consumes irrelevant time. As due to of insufficient staff members , it becomes
difficult to manage the work for waiters as large number of customers are not managed properly
by limited staff. Customers have several questioning about the services rendered by them, from
which they were not satisfied by working at their job and because of this reason they wants to
quit job. They are not getting their bonuses from their employer.
Housekeepers:
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Housekeepers are the individuals engages with the work of cleaning rooms, cloth sheets,
toilets and furniture in prominent manner. But as number of customers increased and members of
housekeeping department reduced, managing work in desiring manner which is impossible.
Quality of service facilitates by housekeepers is low due to dirty rooms and not maintaining of
decorum properly. Even after bad reviews given by their guests, satisfaction reviews response
not yet received. This is all due to insufficient staff members and incapable mentor or the hotel
manager combine make the non-effective management system which leads to downfall in the
number of customers as well as the revenues.
Managerial implications:
This refers to the practical use of observation and information at the time of taking
practical decisions within an organisation. As this is related with the strategic, investment and
managing financial structures of company. It has been observed from case study that managers
of The Canary Wharf Hotel used to check review of customers at trip advisor once in month. As
due to increased work load the managers and other employees of hotel are unable to address
these feedbacks which leads to customer dissatisfaction. The managers are obliged to take action
regarding this and give proper direction to subordinates so that they can assist customers
properly.
 According to the employees, the hotel manager is not giving adequate guidance regarding
the work and also not providing training to them in so that they can perform effectively.
To overcome these issues The Canary Wharf Hotel needs to give training to their
employees so they can deliver according to their capabilities (Wong and Fong, 2012).
 As at The Canary Wharf Hotel have no welfare programme and there is no incentive for
the employees and bonus scheme for their hard work. It is decreasing productivity of
workers and also leads to decrease profitability for the business.
 An another problem which is faced by the staff members is that there is no adequate way
to recruit the employees. As the person recruited without any degree and no training is
being given to worker for the job role. As to resolve this issue management of The
Canary Wharf Hotel need to take the appropriate decision so that appropriate recruitment
can be done at right place.
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P3. Produce a Customer Feedback System:
Information coming directly from the customers about the satisfaction or the
dissatisfaction that they feel from the product or service is called Customer Feedback. And the
ways by which a Hotel gets the feedback from the customers is called Customer Feedback
System. The sources by which an organisation can get the feedback of customers is by
conducting surveys, SMS, online chat, getting feedback at the time of checking out, mailing,
social media, using polls, by putting a feedback button on the website. In case of Canary Wharf
Hotel, it can also use the same ways in order to get feedback from the customers and also it will
make the Hotel to understand the needs of the customers and the opportunities for improvements
in their services (Sumaedi, MahatmaYudaBakti and Metasari, 2012).
The reason why working on customer's feedback is important for Canary Wharf Hotel is
because it provides an opportunity to them to improve the quality of their services they are
providing to their customers. When the Hotel will ask for the opinions about their experience
from the customers, this will create a positive affect on the mindset of the customers. This is
because it will make customer to realize that their opinions' importance are considered here. So
even the quality of the services was not better but the customer may visit again so as to check
whether some changes has been made or not. The following are the ways by which the Hotel can
improve their knowledge about customer's experience and can also make sufficient changes in
their services. These are:
Provide Proactive Live Chat Support:
Live chat an address many issues such as the customers may check the availability,
payment, queries, etc. Chat support can help the Hotel in reaching more closer to its customers
by better understanding their needs and challenges. It also helps in identifying the long-term
issues which most of the customers are facing again and again by making a comparison between
the conversations. So these issues regarding the quality of the services can be cured by Canary
Wharf Hotel.
Conducting Surveys:
Surveys can be said as bread and butter for getting the feedback from the customers.
They are easy to conduct, can reach to large scale, and easy to analyse. Sometimes the feedback
are not helpful but the conduction of the survey must be in a way that attracts the customer and
reach in a way that proves useful for the Hotel. The length should be short, must be written in a
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simple language which can be easily understand by others, and asking only those questions
which are helpful. Canary Wharf Hotel can make benefit from the surveys as it will be clearly
visible that where are the services lacking behind? And actions can be taken in accordance with
the needs improvements.
Social Media:
Another platform for getting the customer feedback is from the social media. According
to a survey, approx. 93% of the global travellers reserve their bookings in the hotels on the basis
of online reviews. The Hotel can also have an account on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter in order
to get reviews about their services from the customers. It is also seen that increase in the online
reviews also give an increase in the online reservations also. This is because the reviews are
placed mostly by those people who has their visit in the Hotel and are sharing their experience
with others. This will help Canary Wharf Hotel in creating more customers and will also get to
know about the problems faced by them in the quality of their services they are providing (Turan
Katircioglu and et.al.,2012.).
Put a Feedback Button on the Website:
The Canary Wharf Hotel can also place a feedback button on its web site. The customers
who are visiting Hotel can place their comments regarding the services in the website's portal
apart from social media. The bookings are mostly done by the official website of the Hotel
instead of doing it from any other site so the feedbacks will put a positive effect on the person
who is viewing the page. The feedback may be positive or negative. So it is providing both the
opportunities to the Hotel of improving the quality of services and also attracting new customers.
Usability Tests:
When the customers uses the services of the Hotel, it is important to analyse what the
customer is using most? What is catching customer's eye? Where they are confused? So the
analysis of all these questions will help in getting rid of the bad things and make an improvement
in what the Hotel is having on. The test conducted on the customers regarding the services they
like at most can be placed at the website of the Hotel in order to catch more eyes. It will help in
attracting more customers as the common quality of the Hotel that attracts most of the customers
is used. So using this way will also provide an opportunity to the Hotel.
Use Polls:
Polls can be an effective way of getting feedback from the customers due to their user-
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