Service Quality, Human Resources, and Operations at Ocean Park - Case Study Example

TOUR09005 Tourism Operations Management -– Formal Report Report - Proposal Form Please complete and submit directly to your for discussion NAME:_______________________ Student Number:________________________ Date:_________________________ Name of Tourism / Hospitality (or related) organisation proposed: This proposed research is intended to explore the nature of operations and strategic planning in the Chinese tourist attraction known as Ocean Park. This is comparable to Disneyland, however the method by which it is marketed against competition is unique. This organisation involves many divisions that are connected with human resources, operations, line management, leadership, and strategic intention. 3 Reason for this choice: Ocean Park will help to explore tourism and elements of service quality in an environment with a complicated operational system. Strategic tourist planning will be compared to systems that drive operations and strategy formation in theory. Secondly, Ocean Park is a diverse and competitive organisation, therefore it should maintain elements of continuous improvement since it involves large public groups and relies on positive reputation in the local marketplace. Finally, Ocean Park can serve as a template for service quality management, since this is the line leader and managerial position with a direct associated with customer interaction. Proposed content and structure of the report: The report will be constructed to include a focus on the relationship between service quality, human resources, and operations in the planning and development stages of tourism planning. It will include a literature review regarding theory of tourism planning and development as well as real-life examples of management or events planning at Ocean Park. Findings will be synthesized according to theoretical secondary literature. Proposed plan of work : The work will involve research into Ocean Park’s planning and strategy formation activities with a comprehensive overview of what is involved in operational conditions within the park. Its contribution to tourism lies in any determined recommendations about how to improve processes in this type of environment. Questions or concerns to be addressed: There are no limitations proposed to this study based on secondary resource volume and no primary data required, thus relying on no scientific analysis of quantitative information. Approved by tutor:__________________ Comments: Critical evaluation of service quality, human resources and operations at Ocean Park BY YOU YOUR SCHOOL INFO HERE DATE HERE Introduction Ocean Park in Hong Kong is an amusement-focused business model that sustains attractions involving wildlife, festival presentations and a variety of amusement rides to satisfy local consumer groups and foreign tourists. Ocean Park sustains a business in a competitive environment, concerned with other major market share holders in the region that include Disneyland. The goal in the planning stage at Ocean Park is understanding the external market where the business is operated, including customer values and preferences, what competition is doing that makes them innovative and then attempt to redesign the business model to fit these needs. In many cases, Ocean Park is driven by the external market conditions that require a redevelopment of internal structure and leadership focus. Operational context at this business is a strong human resources model and a strategic focus in tourism planning and service quality measurement since most revenues rely on customer experience and interaction with staff and leadership. Critical evaluation and discussion Ocean Park realized early on in the first stage of its expected life cycle that it could not compete effectively against Disneyland due to their more substantial resources (Lau 2010). In order to make the company stand out with this type of powerhouse leader, the company had to cater to more local needs and lifestyles, thus focusing more on special events such as Halloween and the Chinese New Year (Lau). Service quality planning for Ocean Park involved recognizing what was driving external customer needs, in relation to the influence of competition, therefore redesigning the concepts of service to differentiate service offerings. The goal is to sell the business and its local-focused attitude in a way that provides meaning for local customer groups and measures service quality through customer surveys or through simple revenue analysis. As mentioned, part of the process of ensuring a quality aspect of service is to understand what customers are demanding. Ocean Park works with a competitor that has a diverse target market that includes adults and children, since Disney name recognition is common in local and foreign tourism markets. “The Disney brand is Teflon – occasionally PR messes sizzle in the pan, but they slip right off” (Murphy 2006, p.15). This implies that Ocean Park is working with competition that does not falter easily, therefore it is always a business risk in terms of keeping customers and maintaining total service quality and perceptions of it within their desired customer groups. This is why the operational model is always changing as Ocean Park works to diversify the business so that is does not grow mundane to local tourists. One research study conducted in a service environment that relies heavily on customer and staff intervention identified that repetitive usage of the same brand can lead to decreased levels of satisfaction due to boredom (Pleshko & Baqer 2008). At the same time, it was determined that euphoria with a brand name decreases over time with repetitive usage (Pleshko & Baqer). If these represent genuine human behaviour elements when it comes to making additional purchases to enjoy the Park, the business cannot afford to allow its internal operations to be perceived as without value. It must have a value proposition and understanding the emotions and needs of diverse, yet highly localized clients using a marketing approach blended with innovation. Ocean Park is also reliant on economic or environmental issues that impact the business when determining strategy on how to gain customer loyalty and improve sales volumes. In 2004, the East Asian region experienced concerns over the SARS epidemic that impacted the ability of tourist businesses to draw customers (Landreth 2005). Though this sector recovered, as part of planning the goal is to create interest in customers with a concentrated focus on marketing in the operational model. External events radically alter buyer behaviour in this type of market and the business must develop contingency activities in order to survive a collapse of revenue-producing customers. Human resources efforts would need to include expertise that understands complicated marketing strategies by identifying a new role of marketing manager or some decision-making role that can handle complex environmental scenarios. Service quality is also measured in the level by which staff members relate and connect with consumers interactively. “Personal relationships exert a strong influence on an individuals’ thoughts, feelings and behaviours related to specific activities” (Kyle, Absher, Norman, Hammitt & Jodice 2007, p.400). Social theories suggest that customers in this type of environment rely heavily on their peer assessments of these types of organisations before making more purchases. Ocean Park relies on interactive talents of animal trainers, environmental specialists as well as generic staff members that fulfil a specific operational role in foods services or ride maintenance. This is a very interactive environment that relies on individuals with a customer satisfaction attitude and the ability to deliver service in a method that is acceptable and valued by local customers who will either return or conduct a negative post-purchase evaluation in their peer circles. Therefore, the human resources model must be in-line with stakeholder attitudes in order to be considered effective at Ocean Park. Stakeholder collaboration, in this case the employees, involves face-to-face interactions that lead to dialogue and negotiation (Bramwell 2000). Training and education regarding customer values and involvement in localized decision-making processes would be necessary at Ocean Park when the key stakeholders are actively representing the goals and reputation of the business. The importance of service quality involving interactive staff members is reinforced by Sandoff (2005) who identifies that human beings are absolutely essential to service production and tend to respond based on their emotions and interpretations of events. Those who manage food service activities or perform/entertain audiences must have the skills and personality necessary to satisfy a broad, mass market type of environment catered to local preferences. Their emotional sensitivity, a sense of emotional intelligence, must be instilled either through a needs analysis process or through some sort of HR assessment tool to measure service quality and the motivation to achieve company goals. When customer perceptions of the experience are so strongly related to whether the company achieves profit and customer loyalty, human resources model need to include a transformational model that works on employee development and coaching. Currently, Ocean Park is finishing up a five-year special project redevelopment goal that included more themed advertising and a restructuring of attractions and human resources (Savage 2006). Research tools provided knowledge that the park needed upgrades and improvements, therefore the goal was to redesign the park to better suit these external customer demands. Service quality is measured in this system by the ability to gain research understanding about client behaviours and then link this to the HR performance management system. Long-term expectations for improving service quality, and remaining profitable, include understanding very key goals related to strategy development. These include asking questions such as where does the business want to be in five years time and outline the specific mission and goals necessary to achieve new project outcomes (Vanhove 2005). In order to achieve this, since this is so customer-centric, is to discover the relationship between loyalty and satisfaction that can be reduced through repetitive brand exposure (Pleshko & Baqer). Murphy (2006) identified the challenges of Disneyland and their multiple segmentation strategies to isolate and connect with children and adults both foreign and domestic. Without the same volume of financial resources associated with Disney and its many product lines, Ocean Park must ensure that its service is superior and the quality of post-purchase consideration is positive within local market groups. Even though Ocean Park receives some foreign tourists, it is the local market and their satisfaction levels that are going to bring positive results or leave the business with a bad local reputation. How does this apply to service quality? There are concepts in advertising and promotion regarding brand understanding. This deals with brand awareness, an informal stage and then progresses through brand preference if a business is able to outperform other competitive products. Ocean Park is attempting to expand beyond brand awareness to brand preference by “positioning Ocean Park as a totally different experience” (Savage 2006, p.11). This is reinforcing its commitment to unique service offerings and as an experience rather than through brand name link-ups that cost a high investment. The competitive environment supports an absolute need for high quality service since there is much at stake for losing customer revenue to larger competition such as Disneyland in Hong Kong. Planning stages include knowledge of the external environment and its conditions, along with the economic and social attitudes in different market groups that will reflect either poorly or negatively in the local community and surrounding areas. Since it does not have the resources to advertise globally with the same resolve as Disneyland, it must have a well-developed human resources model and the capable talent needed to maintain a localized reputation and preference. Evolution is part of the planning process at Ocean Park and how to merge and allocate resources more effectively to guarantee higher service by a much larger competitor. Conclusion and recommendations The most relevant issue discovered with the Ocean Park case study was the idea that loyalty is expected to decrease over time as euphoria wears off or through boredom, as identified by Pleshko & Baqer (2008). This would be substantial for all phases of operations as well as human resources strategy since it would require a constant state of evolution to avoid lost interest. Coupled with changing attitudes and social trends, developing a service-focused system that can also measure service quality would be difficult when in a constant stage of internal change. Because of this, it is recommended that Ocean Park consider a more transparent advertising scheme for better tourism development. Social worlds and relationships determine feelings and behaviours that will lead to buying behaviours, as identified by Kyle et al. Affiliation involves the level of contact that each tourist receives from internal staff and other attraction expertise. Since relationship-building is required in order to remain competitive and establish a long-standing value in the community, more interactivity with clients is recommended. Advertising special events that include spotlighting key guests for their inclusion in certain acts and performances would add a new dimension of service quality not found in Disneyland or in the local community. Understanding ahead of time that local talents would be identified would spark more interest without the heavy investment of reorganizing operations. By establishing a sound training and development model that reinforced psychology and socio-cultural needs, local interactivity would improve. With the growth in Asian reliance on social media and its common practice in these environments, it would serve as even more motivation to build a higher profit outcome. These recommendations are based on the idea that human resources, the customer and their social value systems, and the limitations imposed by resource restrictions create. All of these factors, along with a system designed to measure success of certain planning and development activities, must be included when considering how to evaluate service quality and the successful delivery of it. When cost is an issue and competition is heavily advertised, tourism development does not have to be an expensive under-taking with simple shifts, rather than large ones, in operational improvement. Local citizen showcasing represents continuous improvement within a stable budget guideline and avoids the customer perceiving they are bored or the euphoria of Ocean Park has worn off for good. References Bramwell, B. (2000). Tourism, Collaboration, and Partnership: Politics, Practice and Sustainability, Buffalo: Multilingual Matters. Kyle, G., Absher, J., Norman, W., Hammitt, W. & Jodice, L. (2007). A modified involvement scale, Leisure Studies. 26, 4, pp.399-427. Landreth, J. (2005). In the Far East, a focus on family, Amusement Business. 117, 8, p.8. Lau, J. (2010). Ocean Park has local edge over Disney rival Financial Times. London. March 20, p.9. Murphy, J. (2006). Morale crisis shakes HKs House of Mouse Media Hong Kong. May 19, p.15. Pleshko, L. & Baqer, S. (2008). A path analysis study of the relationships among consumer satisfaction, loyalty and market share in retail services, Academy of Marketing Studies Journal, Cullowhee. 12, 2, pp.111-128. Sandoff, M. (2005). Customization and standardization in hotels – a paradox or not?, International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 17, 6/7, pp.529-536. Savage, M. (2006). Ocean Park taps WE to boost figures Media Hong Kong. June 30, p.11. Vanhove, N. (2005). The Economics of Tourism Destinations Amsterdam: Elsevier. Read More