Customer Contribution to Improving Service Quality in the Hospitality Industry

Service quality is referred to a valuation of how good a delivered service meets the customer’s expectation. Upper management

For different types of companies, quality might refer to quality of products or quality of service. Compares with quality of products, service quality is much more difficult to measure because service is intangible and acts and processes only existing in time. In addition, service has unique characteristic which cannot be found in products, such as customer influence, inseparability of production and consumption, heterogeneity, perishability and labor intensity (Nie & Kellogg, 1999). Even though, there are still many practitioners and academics are keen on measuring service quality because it has already emerged as a key strategic issue. Companies want to better understand service quality, and to establish methods for improving quality to achieve competitive advantage and build customer loyalty (Abdullah, 2006). Based on the importance of service quality, an increasing number of literatures and companies pay attention to measuring

A medium size firm; Flashy Flashers Inc., manufacture an assortment of automotive electrical components and supplies. It produces various auto parts stores who employs approximately 900 employees and 150 managerial and administrative personnel. Johnny Bennett is the founder and president of Flashy Flasher Inc, producing only cable assemblies in his garage that is how he initiated his company. With ambition, commitment and reliability in the quality of the product, Mr. Bennett managed to enlarge his business into a hefty enterprise now supplying over 90 auto parts stores which has been a success for the enterprise.

Customer preferences are important concept within services marketing theory. According to my review, service quality have significant relationship with customer preferences. Their finding indicates that the service quality provided by staff is fundamental and crucial to the customer satisfaction in the restaurants. Furthermore, customers will choose the restaurants based on their satisfaction level. In another study by Cronin and Taylor (1992), the study have shown the perceived service quality can greatly affect customers’ satisfaction and customer preferences. Many restaurants out there will pay more attention on service quality because it will directly influencing the customer preferences which will lead to customer revisit and customer will become loyalty to the restaurants. And will directly affect he restaurant revenue. In addition, Yüksel & Yüksel (2002) stated that service quality had the most significant impact on dining satisfaction at the aggregate market

Mani, N. K., & Srivalli, P. (2014). A study on factors influencing Service Quality in Restaurants'. Annamalai International Journal Of Business Studies & Research, 6(1), 1-9.

Service is important in the food and beverage industries, that customer always have a high expectation and needs while dining in the restaurant. To find out how well the service provided, quality is a main element to every service. According to Haksever et al (2000), “Quality is ‘the totality of features and characteristics of a product or service that bears on its ability to satisfy given needs’”. Therefore, service quality is one of the main point in every restaurants to allow them improve and upgrade their level of image and reputation. In this report, Bella Italia was chosen to have an overview of its service quality. It will be find out how well the service practice was made and which part of service can be improve within the restaurant by using the service quality analysis, service recovery, customer feedback mechanism and benchmarking.

Hospitality Management is a difficult and competitive market, and any lack in customer service can result in defecting customers or the termination of a relationship between a customer and a service provider. In this paper we will look at Hilton a company that has continually ranked amongst the top ranking hotels and continues to improve. Hilton’s customer service ranks as one of the top hospitality providers in the United States. We will look at the history of how Hilton came to be the name brand it is today and some of their process the used to narrow the customer service gaps such as Hilton Honors, the Hiltons Reservation Customer Care, and RESMAX. We will look at how they look at how Hilton manages the customer expectations through the use of employee training and their decreased the customer service gap through employee retention. We will also look as how Hilton co-partnered with Citibank in order to offer its Hilton Honors member additional benefits in order to keep in line with the customer service that the customers have come to expect.

Traditionally, Service quality can be portrayed as the result from client comparison between their assumptions about the service they will use and their insight about the service company. That implies that if the insight recognitions would be higher than the desired the service will be considered as fabulous, if the desires rise to the insight observations the service is viewed as great and if the desires are not met the service will be viewed as awful. For a service to be considered as good the organisation is required for making customers satisfied and service quality should be associated with customer perceptions and expectations. (Carlsson, 2010)

Customer service is very important element in hospitality industry. A good restaurant or a good hotel always have an excellent service first. Hotels and restaurants put added value in their products and service make guest love it. Some hotels give guest drink when they arrived or prepare small birthday gifts to their loyalty guests. But sometimes hotels spend lots of money to added value of customers’ experience but customers still don’t like their service. So, what’s happening? Hotels gave service and improved service are not customers needed or most needed. That’s the gap between you and your customer. “You know your hotel inside out, but do you ever see it through your guests' eyes? In many cases, there is a disconnect between what hoteliers think

The consistency of meeting the customer needs. In the hospitality industry, the customers need is imperative. First the customer needs to be greeted and handle with dignity and respect. This will make the customer feel comfortable about their entry into the establishment. When a customer does not receive a warm, sincere greeting on their pre-check in it may cause a tension among the hotelier and customer. The hotelier primary responsibility is to make the customers feel welcome and provide optimum service from the first contact. This need to be addressed because it will have an impact on day-to-day business and a reputation of the hotelier.

Service quality represents a fundamental aspect of delivery, which strongly influences consumer satisfaction and, as a result, loyalty. In today’s global market a customer’s service expectation has to be met and exceeded eventually in order to retain customers as well as achieve success. Perceived quality of a product or a service is becoming one of the major competitive factors in the business world and has led to the innovation of the ‘Quality Era’ (Peeler, 1996). In simple words, the comparison of customer expectations with service performance is service quality. On the other hand, customer satisfaction is defined as a pleasurable fulfilment response toward a good, service, benefit, or reward (Oliver, 1997). Both of these

Service is the most important aspect when it comes to handling a hotel. A hotel’s main objective is to provide the best service and tend to all of the guests’ needs and requirements. If there is no service then there would be no business. When running a business, the costumer is always placed first. Poor services can results in a complaint from a guest. But that complaint can be used to better the business in the future.

The role of standard service quality in front office of five star hotels in Tehran in order to satisfy customers.

This paper delves into the realm of customer complaints in the Hospitality Industry. Issues that relate to customer complaints in general, complaining as a process, the impact of customer complaints, the most common complaints in the Hospitality Industry, hotel brands with the highest rate of complaints, and handling guest complaints are discussed.

2. Literature Review 2.1 Previous Theory on Service Quality and Customers Satisfaction Parasuraman et al., (1985, 1988) proposed service quality model for the first time and they said service quality can be measure through functional quality dimension which has five components (tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy). This model identifies the gaps of service quality of the service organization which describe five gaps during the service expectation till the actual service delivery. First gap is the service providers do not know what the expectations of the customers about the service. Second gap is the service provider does not recognize the standard of service that customer expect. Specifications of the service and delivery of service is the third gap. Forth gap is related with delivery of the service. Last and final gap is the customer’s expectation about the service and the perceived service. In latter part Haywood-Farmer (1988) mentioned that there are three important attributes in a service quality for instance (1) physical facilities and processes (2) people’s behavior (3) professional judgment. However, Brogowicz et al., (1990) developed a model for