Service Quality in Tourist Accommodation Organizations - Research Paper Example

Service Quality in Tourist Accommodation Organizations Introduction This paper reviews the literature on service quality in operations management. Service quality plays an integral role in matching performance to customer expectations that may be based on past experience or advertised services. Managers in service organizations are responsible for ensuring reasonable consistency and high levels of quality in service interactions. Managers often have to contend with priorities pulling in different directions, for instance in the tradeoff between service quality and service productivity. The findings in this paper will be applied to the customer-service provider interactions in the accommodation sector, particularly between guests and staff members of accommodation organizations. Accommodation organizations offer varying levels of service ranging from simple guest houses and apartment hotels to high-end five-star hotels offering a range of services to guests. Clearly, the quality of service provided by the staff at the reception, housekeeping, restaurant and other areas of the hotel has an impact on the overall experience of the guest. It is the responsibility of the hotel manager to ensure that staff members remain informative, courteous, respectful, engaging, and polite at all times towards guests. The paper also discusses how the field of operations management and service quality supports decision making in accommodation organizations. Literature Review Service organizations are in a unique position in that their service quality depends to a greater extent on qualitative aspects of operations management (Rees, 1995). Managers in these organizations are therefore required to focus more on qualitative or soft aspects that can help them to initiate culture change and consequent improvements in the customer-service provider interaction process. At the same time, operational efficiency is vital to maintain service quality levels. Talluri, Kim and Schoenherr (2013) test whether operational efficiency and service quality can coexist in service organizations. They determine that managers should ensure that operational efficiency is compatible with service quality as service providers depend on predictable, consistent operations to maintain service quality levels. On the other hand, Calabrese and Spadoni (2013) have conducted research into the trade-off required between service productivity and service quality. They verify that managers need to compromise service quality to increase service productivity and vice versa. They state that through incentives, managers can motivate service providers to prevent the trade-off and maintain compatibility between productivity and quality. However, this would incur additional costs for the organization. Another study by Maddern et al. (2007) suggests that technical service quality is an important determinant of customer satisfaction in financial service organizations. Thus, they propose that managers should pay attention to the quality of technical processes. They also state that technical service quality also helps managers to improve overall business process performance. Huang (2011) offers similar insights based on a study of service quality levels in wineries, which form an important part of the tourism industry in several countries. Based on findings from the SERVQUAL and SERVPERF models, the author concludes that both tangible and intangible aspects are essential to maintain high and consistent service quality levels. Mattsson (1994) redefines the manager’s role in managing the service quality in person-to-person interactions. Mattsson (1994) recommends that the task of the manager is to manage the interfaces rather than the people. Vertical and horizontal information systems are needed to provide support for monitoring quality. Flat organizations are better suited to improvements in quality of person-to-person interactions. This approach would help to avoid a common shortcoming in service quality management identified by Soltani et al. (2012) where managers assume a short-term approach to making quality changes at the time of customer-service provider interaction. Rather, the managers should adopt a long-term view and develop approaches that can simultaneously fulfill customer requirements and meet organizational objectives. Oliva and Bean (2008) state that the process of learning about service delivery systems and improving them is a great challenge for managers. On the basis of their research, the authors recommend that the simulation method is an effective way of enabling managers to learn about the needs of specific service interactions and to make subsequent improvements. Yee, Yeung and Cheng (2008) identify another area that managers need to address to improve service quality. The authors state that employee satisfaction positively influences service quality and customer satisfaction, which in turn leads to profitability. They suggest that managers view this as a cycle where employee satisfaction through profitability leads in turn to improved service quality, customer satisfaction and profitability. However, it is extremely important that managers at all levels in the organization agree about the importance of service quality determinants and the kind of interventions needed to address them. Soltani et al. (2010) explain that service quality suffers when lower-level managers are compelled to follow the instructions of senior managers who often do not have access to information about customer satisfaction. Therefore, senior managers should trust lower-level managers to take both customer satisfaction and organizational interests into consideration. In line with Yee, Yeung and Cheng (2011), Dedic, Pavlovic, and Miocevic (2011) also state that perceived high levels of service quality can influence the behavioural intentions of customers. This could translate into repeat business and visits to the service organization. Therefore, managers should develop systems that can monitor perceived service quality levels. The findings of Piligrimiene (2012) offer valuable lessons for managers in conducting surveys on service quality. The author suggests that using single-item survey scales may be beneficial in some instances such as getting a general understanding about service quality levels. However, for more detailed information on specific issues, managers can benefit from using multi-item surveys scales. When developing service quality monitoring and evaluating systems, managers should ensure that they consider various variables simultaneously rather than in isolation. Soteriou and Zanios (1999) state that managers in service organizations often fail to grasp the service quality performance when they evaluate service benchmarks in isolation. Rather, a better strategy is to analyze service quality, profitability and operational efficiency simultaneously. Going a step further, Little and Little (2009) propose a model for developing service improvements that integrates marketing, operations and human resource aspects to develop the service provider as a tangible brand of the intangible service aspects for the customer. Application of Service Quality Concepts to Accommodation Organizations This section explores how the ideas and concepts discussed in the previous section may be applied to improve service quality levels in tourist accommodation organizations. Guests select a particular accommodation organization because they expect a certain level of service quality. Managers can use the ideas presented in this paper to improve their monitoring of the significant determinants of service quality so that customer satisfaction can be achieved. A number of studies discussed above have supported the view that employee satisfaction is vital for service quality. Managers should ensure that hotel staff in customer facing roles such as concierge, reception staff and room service are motivated through financial and non-financial incentives. Non-customer facing staff such as housekeeping and backend operations employees should also be sufficiently motivated to maintain accuracy in service delivery and operations management. It is also important for senior managers in these organizations to develop communication systems that enable them to stay informed about customer satisfaction as well as employee satisfaction levels. On the other hand, lower-level managers can benefit from gaining a strategic or business-level perspective of organizational goals. This goes to say that as recommended by Mattsson (1994) above, accommodation organizations should have fewer hierarchical levels so that frontline staff and senior management are equally well-informed about customer experiences with service. This will ensure less distortion of information as it travels across managerial levels. Operational managers in accommodation organizations should also engage actively with marketing managers and help them develop accurate marketing messages. As advertising plays an integral role in shaping customer expectations, operational managers can inform the marketing department about the operational processes and systems so that they can make realistic promises in their marketing campaigns. Regular surveys with guests should also be conducted to evaluate the fit between customer expectations and actual service delivery. Operations Management and Organizational Decision Making Operations management contributes to organizational decision making in a number of important ways. Organizational decision makers, particularly in traditional command and control organizations, tend to be insulated from the customer experiences. Operations managers, with their focus on the quality of service delivery and associated tangible aspects, can inform decision makers about the capacity of the organization to match its service to customer expectations. As customer satisfaction is an important determinant of firm profitability, operations management can play a crucial role in increasing the profitability of the business. Operations managers themselves have to act as decision makers for their department. Operations management is the most outward facing department of any organization, especially in the tourism industry because the customer interacts with operations personnel each time the service is consumed. By collecting information regularly about customer and employee satisfaction as well as problems and obstacles in the service delivery process, managers can take better decisions about adding or removing service components, or redesigning the service offering entirely. In this way, operations management can contribute to the long-term strategic decision making and financial planning in the organization. References Calabrese, A., and Spadoni, A. (2013). Quality versus productivity in service production systems: An organisational analysis. International Journal of Production Research, 51(22), 6594-6606. Dedic, G., Pavlovic, D. K., and Miocevic, D. (2011). An inquiry into service quality, customer satisfaction and behavioural intentions relationships. Proceedings of the International Scientific Conference, Juraj Dobrilla University of Pula, Department of Economics & Tourism, 853-874. Huang, L. C. (2011). The measurement for the service quality of rural wineries. Journal of Marketing Development and Competitiveness, 5(5), 29-45. Little, A. B., and Little, D. W. (2009). The “home team” approach to service quality: Linking and leveraging communications between human resources, operations and marketing. Journal of Organizational Culture, Communications and Conflict, 13(2), 57-70. Maddern, H., Maull, R., Smart, A., and Baker, P. (2007). Customer satisfaction and service quality in UK financial services. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 27(9), 998-1019. Mattsson, J. (1994). Improving service quality in person-to-person encounters: Integrating findings from a multi-disciplinary review. The Services Industry Journal, 14(1), 45-61. Olivia, R., and Bean, M. (2008). Developing operational understanding of service quality—through a simulation environment. International Journal of Service Industry Management, 19(2), 160-175. Piligrimiene, Z. (2012). Measurement issues in health care service quality. Economics and Management, 17(1), 289-296. Rees, C. (1995). Quality management and HRM in the service industry: Some case study evidence. Employee Relations, 17(3), 99-109. Soltani, E., Barnes, B., Syed, J., and Liao, Y. Y. (2012). Does management’s approach impede service quality? Production Planning and Control, 23(7), 523-540. Soltani, E., Liao, Y. Y., Singh, A., and Wang, W. Y. (2010). Managing service quality: The managers’ orientations and their consequences—case study evidence of current practice. Total Quality Management, 21(6), 673-685. Soteirou, A., and Zanios, S. A. (1999). Operations, quality, and profitability in the provision of banking services. Management Science, 45(9), 1221-1238. Talluri, S., Kim, M. and Schoenherr, T., 2012-11-17 "The Relationship Between Operating Efficiency and Service Quality: Are They Compatible?" Paper presented at the annual meeting of the 43rd Decision Sciences Institute Annual Meeting, San Francisco Marriot, San Francisco, CA Online . 2014-05-20 from http://citation.allacademic.com/meta/p584629_index.html Yee, R. W. Y., Yeung, A. C. L., and Cheng, T. C. E. (2008). The impact of employee satisfaction on quality and profitability in high-contact service industries. Journal of Operations Management, 26(5), 651-668. Read More