Quality Service Operations in Tourism and Hospitality PDF

Lesson 2 QUALITY SERVICE OPERATIONS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY "Service is the Heart of Hospitality" 1. A service is defined as any activity or benefit that one player offers to another in an exchange process, which is essentially intangible and does not...

Lesson 2 QUALITY SERVICE OPERATIONS IN TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY "Service is the Heart of Hospitality" 1. A service is defined as any activity or benefit that one player offers to another in an exchange process, which is essentially intangible and does not result in ownership of anything. 2. It is a transaction in which no physical goods are transferred from the seller to the buyer. The benefits of such a service are held to be demonstrated by the buyer's willingness to make the exchange. 3. Service is an act of courtesy not only providing what the customers want but giving them beyond their expectations. Although most of the time service providers are only limited with the provision of basic services and products, they must be mindful of what everything the customer needs. 4. Service is not only giving customers what they want, but also providing something beyond their normal expectations. 5. The service provider must address these less obvious customer needs (such as listening with empathy). 6. When the service provider's perception about the service which he a providing and the customer's expectation are not the same, there develops a gap between the expectation and satisfaction level. Characteristics of Service Services have several unique characteristics that make them different from products. Some of the most accepted characteristics are: 1. Intangibility a. Can't be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smell before purchase. b. Teaching is an intangible service. The following intangible characteristics of service, which make them distinct from products: A service cannot be touched. Precise standardization is not possible. There is no ownership transfer. A service cannot be patented. Production and consumption are inseparable. There are no inventories of the service. 2. Inseparability a. Can't be separated from service providers. 3. Heterogeneity a. This refers to the multifaceted different experience that may be had from a single type of service, considered as a factor to distinguish goods from services. b. Heterogeneity of services means the quality of a service may vary from one  service provider to another or may vary for the same service provider at different times of the day or week. 4. Perishability a. This is not a stack of fixed assets, and it is not possible to store services in inventories. b. Can't be stored for later sale or use. 5. Ownership a. Ownership remains with the service provider. b. In case of purchase of a product, the customer becomes the owner of the product, but in case of a service there is no ownership or title passes from the service provider to the customer. Service Matrix 1. The service process matrix is a categorization matrix of service industry firms based on the characteristics of the individual firm's service processes. 2. A service matrix is an established unique resource in the financial industry. 3. It provides you with a comparative analysis of your service offerings and differentiates you from your competitors. Creating a service matrix will help you identify the level of service your clients will receive when they work with your firm. 4. The matrix was derived by Roger Schmenner and primary appeared in 1986. 5. The service matrix can be helpful when investigating the strategic changes in service operations. 6. In addition, there are unique managerial challenges connected with each quadrant of the matrix. By paying close attention to the challenges associated with their related classification, service firms may perk up the performance. The classification characteristics take in the degree of labor intensity and jointly measured degree of customer interaction and customization. 1. Labor intensive refers to a process or industry that requires a large amount of labor to produce its goods or services. 2. Customization refers to the need and ability to alter the service to please the individual customer's particular preferences. 3. Customization service is any service that's tailored to the needs of individual customers. The math is simple – if the service better fits their needs, you'll be more successful in service, sales, and retention. The phrase "customized service" is used in two ways. Management of Service Quality 1. Customers test the quality of service of a firm at every encounter. Each of the customer encounters is called 'moment of truth and a series of moments of truth lead to a relationship, 2. If the experience from service encounters is bad, it may not lead to customer satisfaction. Management of service quality is a growing concern for a service marketer. 3. Quality management involves deciding on quality standards and implementing a method of assurance on performance level of the staff and the facilities. 4. Quality has emerged as a major competitive element in service company  strategies. 5. Service providers are giving increasing emphasis on creating reputation for good quality of service as this provides a positive image for their organization. 6. The service quality management process involves matching evolving customer expectations. 7. Customers have their own service expectations from a firm. A customer is satisfied when his expectation matches the perceived service. When the perceived service passes over the expected service, the customer is delighted. Failure in meeting expectations results in customer dissatisfaction, complaint, and withdrawal of the service consumption. There are three reasons for the increasing relevance of quality management in the services sector. Increasing Relevance of Service Quality Management 1. Companies need to find ways of creating a differential advantage by having better service levels than their competitors. 2. Increased level of consumerism and greater media attention on quality have meant that companies must be more responsive to quality issues. 3. There has been a growing sophistication of consumer markets, with the non-price factors of image, product positioning and service delivery processes becoming more important. a. A reputation of good quality is a major advantage because perception of risk for many service providers is very high. b. Good quality bridges the gap between pre-use perceptions and post- use experience of the service consumed. c. Product quality means incorporating features that have a capacity to meet consumer needs (wants) and gives customer satisfaction by improving products (goods) and making them free from any deficiencies or defects. Five Stars of Service Quality RATER MODEL... Reliability Assurance Tangibles Empathy Responsiveness 1. Reliability a. Consistency of performance b. Being able to be trusted to do what is expected or has been promised. c. The guest assesses quality by gauging that when he/she is promised to for his/her pizza to be delivered in 30 minutes, it should be delivered in less than or exactly 30 minutes. d. When the guest is promised for a mouthwatering dining experience, then the ambiance, service and food should all be complimentary to deliver the said experience. e. Reliability can also mean dependability in handling guests' service problems, in that every challenge or difficulty that may arise be treated right the first time.  2. Assurance a. Assurance is the knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence. Customers expect businesses to be the experts in the service they deliver. b. Examples of quality assurance activities include process checklists, process standards, process documentation and project audit. 3. Tangibles a. Since most of the hospitality products and services are intangible in nature, service provider should include necessary physical evidence of the service to make it more tangible in nature. b. Tangibles are the physical features of the service being provided, such as the appearance of the building, cleanliness of the facilities, and the appearance of the personnel. 4. Empathy a. It is defined as the ability to understand the thoughts feelings or emotions of someone else. b. In customer service, empathy means that you can connect with and affirm a customer's feelings, even if you are unable to resolve the problem. c. Providing empathy in customer service means that you allow the customer to feel heard by acknowledging their feelings. Doing so helps to enhance the experience. 5. Responsiveness a. Responsiveness is the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. Responding quickly to customer questions and concerns is vital, especially in today's fast-paced world. b. How well does the company react to unusual situations, which can happen frequently in a service company? Quality Management Approach can be divided into two categories, namely Product Attributed Approach and Customer-Oriented Approach 1. Product Attributed Approach a. Product attributes are the characteristics of a product that describe its features and influence customers to buy it. b. Product attributes directly affect customer purchase decisions. In short, product attributes matter because they inform the buyer extensively about the product. The more descriptive they are, the better they perform in terms of increasing buys. 2. Customer Oriented Approach a. Customer orientation is a business approach in which a company solves for the customer first. It's all about focusing on helping customers meet their goals. b. Essentially, the needs and wants of the customer are valued over the needs of the business. For customer service, this means your support team is focused on meeting customer needs.  A service is made up of tangible and intangible components. Researchers have made attempts to define service quality and, in the process, have made distinction between objective measures of quality and subjective measures of quality. According to Gronroos, a service can be broken down into two components, namely technical quality, and functional quality; both dimensions are relevant to customers. For a service provider, it is the starting point to know how quality is judged by customers and what are perceptual processes of this judgment towards the quality of service experienced. Two Dimensions of Quality 1. Technical quality refers to what is delivered whereas functional refers to how it was delivered, and both develop customers' perceived service quality (Rauch et al., 2015; Tamwatin et al., 2015). 2. Functional quality refers on how the customer receives the service, the expressive nature of the service delivery (e.g., courtesy, attentiveness promptness). The technical quality is relatively objective and therefore, easy to measure. Dimensions of Service Quality 1. Quality is a concept related to the attitude of the customers and their comprehensive evaluation of the service. 2. It is built upon a series of evaluative experiences of the services delivered by the organization to the customers. The service quality can only be accessed after the service is consumed. 3. The assessment of service quality is made during delivery of service when customer encounters the service personnel. 4. Customer satisfaction with service quality is defined by comparing perceptions of service received with the perception of expected service of the consumers. When the expectations exceed, service is perceived to be of exceptional quality and gives a pleasant surprise to the customer. 5. Dimensions of service quality refer to the elements which customers judge as relevant in developing a good quality service. Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry suggested that the criteria used by consumers that are important in molding their expectations and perceptions have ten dimensions. Reliability 1. It means ability to provide what was promised dependably and accurately. Tangibility 2. It means physical facilities and equipment and the appearance of the personnel. Credibility 3. It means honesty and trustworthiness. The quality of being believed or accepted as true, real, or  honest. Responsiveness 4. It means the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. Communication 5. It means keeping customers informed in a language that they can understand. Security 6. It means physical, financial and confidentiality for the service delivery. Competence 7. It means possession of required skills and knowledge to deliver the support services. Access 8. It means the ease of approach and contact with the organization personnel. Empathy It means degree of caring and individual attention provided to customer's needs and demands. In customer service, empathy means that you can connect with 9. and affirm the customer's feelings, even if you are unable to resolve the problem. Providing empathy in customer service means that you allow the customer to feel heard by acknowledging their feelings. Doing so helps to enhance the experience. Courtesy It means politeness, respect, or friendliness in delivering the services. 10. Example: Holding the door open for someone, writing a thank- you note for a gift, and letting the pregnant lady have the last seat on the bus are all courtesies that would make your parents proud. There are four key factors that can influence the customer's expectations, which may help customers in shaping their expectations of a service: 1. Word of Mouth Communication 2. Personal Needs and Preferences 3. Experience 4. External Communication Word of Mouth This is the communication that flows from one person to 1. another in a social loop and helps in formulating service quality perceptions.  Personal Needs and Preferences 2. The relative importance that the person gives to the service as an essential part of the offer. Experience 3. The customer's expectations also depend upon past experiences of the customer with the service provider. External Communications External communications like advertising, public relations and 4. other publicity tools also influence the quality- of-service perception. Service Gaps 1. A service gap is a deviation, a discrepancy between what was planned and what is done in the end, or between what was expected and what is perceived. 2. The service performance gap is defined as the discrepancy between the specifications for the service and the actual delivery of the service. 3. A service gap is the difference between what the customers expect and what they perceived was delivered. Example of Service Gap Marketing- False Advertisement 1. The wrong message is being delivered to customers giving them unrealistic expectations. 2. Serving of Food Picture VS Actual Serving 3. An example would be a restaurant that has printed on its menu that it serves 100% vegetarian food, but it serves non-vegetarian food as well. In this situation, consumer expectations are not met. This gap arises when the consumer misunderstands the service quality. Service Quality Gaps 1. The service provider does not know what customers expect. 2. The wrong service quality standards are set. 3. Standards are not met. 4. What is delivered does not equal what was promised. 5. Gaps 1-4 (word-of-mouth communication, personal needs and preferences, experience, and external communication) lead to service that does not equal expectations. Role of Services in Economy 1. The growth of the service sector has long been considered as an indicator of a country's economic progress. 2. Services lie at the very hub of economic activity in any society. Infrastructure services, such as transportation and communications, are the essential links among all sectors of the economy, including the final consumer. 3. Individual households are self-sufficient, service activities are necessary for the economy to function and enhance the quality of life. 4. Consider the importance of a banking industry to transfer funds and a transportation industry to move products to areas that cannot produce them. Moreover, a variety of personal services such as restaurants, lodging, cleaning, and childcare, have been created to move former household functions into the economy. 5. In a complex economy, both infrastructure and distribution services function as intermediaries and as the channel of distribution to the final consumer. 6. Infrastructure services are a perquisite for an economy to become industrialized; therefore, no advanced society can be without these services. 7. Government services play a critical role in providing a stable environment for investment and economic growth. Services such as public education health care, well-maintained roads, safe drinking water, clean air and public safety are necessary for any nation's economy to survive and people to prosper. 8. Thus, it is imperative to recognize that services are not peripheral activities but rather integral parts of society. They are central to a functioning and healthy economy and lie at the heart of that economy.