Service Quality Gaps Evident at the Remington Hotel - Case Study Example

Quality Service Management Contents Contents 2 Service quality gaps evident at the Remington Hotel 3 One dimension of service quality that needs improvement by Madeline 4 Impact of customer expectation data on improving service quality 5 Other forms of information required to ensure that the strategies so adopted are in right direction 6 References 7 Service quality gaps evident at the Remington Hotel Service quality gaps are a result of an organization’s inability to meet the quality standards and satisfy its consumers. Remington Hotel was facing a lot of challenges as it was not been able to upgrade its quality standards so to enhance customer satisfaction level. As per Mr. Spencer he had experienced a lot of difficulties while his stay at Remington Hotel which was not at all a very pleasant experience for him or his family. There were major service quality gaps in the form of knowledge, service, communications, and quality standards. The first quality gap that was witnessed by Mr. Spencer was in maintaining quality service by the hotel staff as a result of which he and his family had to wait for a long time before they could finally check in into their room. There were also unavailability of staff to escort them to their room as they had luggages and also a kid. They had to struggle to reach their room this indicates a clear service quality gap as the hotel was not being able to meet the basic requirements of their guests. The guests waited for a long time in queue due to inefficiency of the front desk operators. The hotel even did not possess an effective knowledge management which resulted into same room being allocated to two guests. There was even lack of communication between the hotel staff and guests and this caused the guests to wait for a long time for services such as availability of even room keys. The staff of the hotel also did not take to deliver appropriate services to the guest and there were no staff available to attend the guests if they came after 11pm. Remington Hotel was not able to handle queries of the customers and neither had efficient staffs who could deliver the guests standard services and even could contribute towards making the experience of their guests at their hotel a memorable one. One dimension of service quality that needs improvement by Madeline The most important service quality dimension that needs to be considered by Madeline for further service improvement was assurance. The hotel staff and even design of the facilities that were offered to the guests was very low in assuring that they were able to meet quality standards in comparison to other hotels. Madeline needs to improve assurance factor so as to deliver high quality services to all its guests. The main factors that build this assurance aspect are well trained staff, technologically advanced system and quick services as per the requirements of their guests (Lockyer, 2013, pp. 75-76). These factors need to be handled very effectively so that the guests do not come up with such queries as that of Mr. Spencer. Assurance is a very important service quality dimension as it signifies that the choice made the customer and this factor even links to customer satisfaction. Hospitality industry is a very sensitive industry as it does not rely on any tangible element but only the service that is delivered by the staff of hotels. The same instance was that with Remington Hotel which was not being able to develop the assurance factor in its business operations. The guests of this hotel often left with not a very good experience and remained unsatisfied by the service that was being delivered by the management and staff of the hotel. The guests had to wait in a long queue before they could check into their room and they were also not attended very warmly by the front desk staff. The communication level was also not that strong which resulted into the staff making wrong commitments to their guests and increasing the dissatisfaction level of the guests. The first step towards improvement that should be taken by Madeline would be to improve the staff base of the hotel by making them well trained and skilled so that they can handle technologically advanced systems and hence reduce the time that the guests would otherwise have spend waiting in the queue. This would even enable the hotel to deliver the appropriate quality standards of service to the guests. Impact of customer expectation data on improving service quality The customer expectation data that was collected by the manager focused on the perceptions of the guest towards their experience at the Remington Hotel. They were some primary data that was collected so as to reveal what the customers actually felt about the hotel. This data has helped Madeline to a great extent as it has been able to clearly outline the factor that was responsible behind the continuous poor performance of Remington Hotel. This data is composed of various perceptions of different guests at the hotel. The customer expectation data has been able to clearly distinguish the factors that needs to be considered by the management of the hotel in the present state and even encompasses some other factors that can be considered by the management at a later stage. Madeline was not being able to decide on the aspect that needs to first improve so that the hotel can maintain its reputation in the industry. There were a lot of challenges that was being faced by Remington Hotel but as per the survey the customers felt that there was a need for the management to look into the assurance factor. This would even enable the hotel management to change the staff or impart the necessary skills and training to the staff so that they are able to deliver high quality service to their guests. The data has proved to be beneficial as it has helped to choose the major aspect of quality dimension that needs to be currently dealt with by the management of the hotel. It even reveals the perceptions of guests towards the services being delivered by Remington Hotel. This data has helped to analyze a specific dimension of service quality which needs to be considered majorly by Madeline. This has helped in framing the decision of what factor needs to be handled effectively so as to improve the level of service quality. Other forms of information required to ensure that the strategies so adopted are in right direction The strategies that would be adopted by Madeline would be aligned towards the assurance factor of the Remington Hotel. This factor is very essential in the present scenario as this has a direct impact on the performance of the hotel. Madeline needs to develop strategies that are in respect of this selected dimension of service quality. In order that the strategies achieve the right direction it is very important that the guests at the hotel are continuously asked questions that whether they are being given the required service or not. This can also be done in the form of an exit survey where the guests can be asked to rank the hotel on various quality parameters and not only that they should also be asked to give some suggestions as to which of the factors linked to the hotel needs further development. This would provide the information to Madeline as the strategies that has been set is meeting the performance standards and whether they are aligned to the right direction of execution or not. This information that would be gathered based on a customer satisfaction survey with the major aim to measure the effectiveness of the strategies that is been adopted by the management of the hotel. The other information gathering method can be ranking the employees on the basis of their performance and even giving surprise visits so as to encounter whether they are performing as per the set standards or not. This can be further extended to gather information regarding the profit margins of the hotel in specific time frames so as to notify whether the strategies have taken the right direction or not. References Lockyer, T. 2013. The International Hotel Industry: Sustainable Management. Singapore: Routledge. Read More