Service Quality

Main Body

1. Importance of managing and measuring service quality, recommending the adoption of appropriate service quality management methods

Persons visits to the hotel and restaurant with the expectation that they get better service. Service quality is associated with how effective a service is delivered, compared to consumer expectations. It is the responsible of organisation to deliver the best and quality service to their customers. Delivery time can be minimum and as per the desire of consumers so that they can satisfy. The importance of service quality has increased for various organisation such as : hospitality and service industry, marketing and sales industry, banking sector etc. It is important for a company to manage the service effectively so that persons can satisfy and they attract towards the corporation. Sunderland International Hotel can manage the service quality effectively so that more number of persons come in the hotel and get the benefit of superior service. Importance of managing service quality are as follows:

To satisfy the consumers:It is important for an organisation to provide better services to its consumers so that more numbers of persons can attract towards the company. It is essential for and organisation to deliver quality service to their consumers so that they will visit the hotel again and again. It is the responsibility of quality management consultant of Sunderland International Hotel, that it ensure the hotel is able to provide the food, beverage and other facilities as per the needs of customers. To improve the delivery of service it can provide the training to their employees so that they can able to satisfy the persons and fulfil their expectations. If hotel can provide effective and quality products and services that people can feel satisfy and they want to visit hotel again and again as per the their requirement. Customers also suggest their friends and relatives to visit Sunderland International Hotel (Thaichon, Lobo and Mitsis, 2014).

To increase profitability of organisation : It is important for the company to deliver quality service to their consumers so that they feel satisfy. It an organization is able to meet the expectations and provide the products and services as per the need and wants of customers than they always prefer that specific hotel whenever they want to come. It is the responsibility of quality management consultant of Sunderland International Hotel, that effectively manage quality service and fulfil the desires of persons. When ever a consumer give the order than staffs should try to complete that order within stipulated time period and as per the wants of person. So that consumers like to visit the hotel and also do word to mouth publicity to their neighbours, colleagues and relatives about that specific hotel. If more numbers of persons visit than image and reputations can be increase which leads to maximize the revenue and profitability of organisation.

It is important for an organisation to measure the service quality so that it can know the what services company is provided they are as per the expectations of consumers or not. It is the responsibility of quality management consultant of Sunderland International Hotel, to ensure that hotel is able to deliver services as per the needs and wants of organisation. To satisfy the desires of customers it is essential to fulfil the wants of them so that they can satisfy. The importance of measuring service quality are as follows :

To improve the quality services : It is importation to measure the service quality so that organisation can know what type of services are needed by the consumers. There are various ways thorough which company can measures its quality services such as : follow up servery, social media monitoring, feedback of various persons, comments and views at review sites. Through it organisation can the area of improvident so that persons can satisfy. It is the responsibility of quality management consultant of Sunderland International Hotel, to measure the services so it can understand what are the areas in which services of hotel can be improve and it able to deliver better and quality services to their customers. So that persons will feel satisfy and always prefer the hotel when customers want to visit. It help the organisation to improve its services so that more number of people can attract towards the company. If more persons will attract towards the organisation than its brand image can be increase as a result it profits can be maximize (Hekmatpou and et. al., 2012).

To deliver customize services : It is the objective of every organisation to deliver the batter services to their consumers and fulfil the needs of them. So that customer can be satisfy. It is essential for a company to provide the products as per the needs of consumers so that they attract towards the organisation. It is the responsibility of quality management consultant of Sunderland International Hotel, to provide that services which are demanded by the people. For example, if a consumer order something and demand a specific ingredients should be included in the food so it is the duty of its staffs to deliver food as per the wants of customer. So that they feel happy as a result persons always want to prefer that particular hotel only and more number of consumers can attract towards the organisation if it deliver customize and quality services. So it is important to measure the service quality so that hotel is able to deliver the products and services as per the desire of people and they can get satisfy with the organisation.

To manage the quality of products and services is essential to ensure that the organisation is able to satisfy the consumers and it helps it accomplish the goals and objectives. To provide the services effectively there are various quality management methods which help the organisation to satisfy the needs of consumers. Sunderland International Hotel can generate more revenue by using various methods of service quality management.

Methods of service quality management are as follows :

Pot service rating : It is the quality service management method which can be used by the organisation to enhance the quality of services. It is important for a company to ask consumers to rate the service right after it's been delivered. This method can be recommend by quality management consultant of Sunderland International Hotel, so that it can know the view of persons about the products and services of organisation. If persons feel that hotel have to improve the service quality management than it can take necessary steps to improve it. For example, hotel can use it application through which they can know the ratings and feedbacks which are provided by the consumers at the particular application of that hotel. It helps the organisation to understand the drawbacks so that in future it can focus to maximize the service quality management.

Social media monitoring :Now a days it is going to be very popularbecause all organisations have it page at social sites and there are various social sites such as : Facebook, Instagram, twitter etc. This method can be recommend by quality management consultant of Sunderland International Hotel, so that it can know the ideas, comments and views of various consumers and they give by using social media. Different reviews and feedbacks from various persons help the hotel to know the loopholes which are needed to be improve in their service quality management.

App survey : This is the method which can be used by the organisation to improve its service quality management. Now a days it is very popular because most of organisations are using their own app to know the views and comments of consumers. This method can be recommend by quality management consultant of Sunderland International Hotel, to use app their mobile app and know the ratings which are given by the persons to the hotel in context to its service quality management. It helps the organisation to know the understand areas of improvements which are needed to be enhanced in their service quality management. If hotel improve it and provide better services as per the needs of consumer than more number of persons can attract towards the organisation and its image can be improve in the market (Methods of service quality management,2018).

Follow up survey :This method can be used by the organisation to enhance the service quality management in the organisation. It help to analyse the reviews and comments of persons so that company can know it and if improvement is require than it can be done as per the expectations of consumers. This method can be recommend by quality management consultant of Sunderland International Hotel to ask their customers to rate their service quality through an email survey for example via google forms. Through it hotel can take benefit over the post service rating because it can know the perceptions of consumers and according to that it will try to provide quality services to them. It help to improve quality service management in the hotel as a result more number of persons show their liltingness to visit the hotel.

2. Current service delivery practices and its impacts on front line employees

The Sunderland International Hotel is operating its business in Canary Wharf, London, UK and it is a three star hotel. As it is near to the railway station, hence it is asy to reach place for the tourists (DAILY, KIEFF and WILMARTH JR, 2014). It is providing good facilities to its customers. Some of its positive and negative service delivery practices are as follows:

Good practices:

• Facilities are very good:The hotel is providing good facilities to the visitors that helps to satisfy them. It also help to gain their trust and establish good relations with them. As the hotel is related to hotel industry hence it is very important for all the organisations who are operating business under this industry to provide good services to the customers.
• Refurbishment in the hotel:Hotel is able to attract business and leisure guests that helps to increase profits. To gain more monetary benefits the hotel is planning for renovation so that it can attract more visitors. The refurbishment has resulted in a huge increment in the booking of hotel rooms and events.
• Manager instruct the hotel staff to refer all the customer complaints to him:The staff members of Sunderland International Hotel have instructed by the managers to directly inform them about the issues of customers so that they can resolve them appropriately. This can help the managers to guide hotel employees to improve their service quality and provide best services to the customers when they visit next time.

Bad practices:

• Poor services:The customers are not satisfied with the services that are rendered by the hotel staff and it is very important for the managers to deliver good services. Visitors of Sunderland International Hotel complaints about the services as they are not of good quality (Wilson and et. al., 2012).
• Delay in checking the reviews of visitors:The managers of Sunderland International Hotel check the reviews of customers one time in a month which cannot aware them about the service delivery system and the issues of customers. It is very important for the managers to check the reviews on daily basis so that all the issues can be dealt effectively and changes can be made in delivery system.
• Higher waiting time:Customers have to wait for check in and it frustrates them because there is no proper management in the hotel. If visitors face such delays than they mostly prefer to visit another hotel rather than waiting (Oyman and Singh, 2015).
• Issues of staff members:There are various issues of staff members that are related to their wages, no reward scheme or active empowerment and managers have no value of them. All the problems have resulted in low work quality of employees and decreasing staff turnover.
• No planned approach in recruitment:The managers are selecting employees with no specific approach for recruitment as they just want to increase their staff turnover so that continuous check ins can be managed. It creates issues for the hotel as well because sometimes such candidates are recruited by the managers who are not able to handle the problems effectively.
• Lack of proper training:The new hired employees do not get proper training so that they can be aware of their job responsibilities. It create problems for them while delivering services as they have not received proper training from the supervisors.

All the above mentioned service delivering practices have been identified by the service delivery consultant of Sunderland International Hotel and all the practice can affect the employees and their engagement. Staff members are concerned with delivering services to the visitors hence it will affect them.

Impact of service delivery practices on front line employees and their engagement: As the service delivery practices are concerned with employees directly hence it will definitely leave impact on employees and their engagement (Kongstvedt, 2012). All the positive as well as negative impacts are as follows:

Positive impacts:

• Enhancement in service delivery system:As the facilities provided by the hotel are great hence it will help to enhance the service delivery system because this can help to gain trust of the customers. It is very important for the hotel staff to deliver good services the customers so that they can be retained by Sunderland International Hotel.
• Effective communication with managers:As the managers of Sunderland International Hotel instruct employees to refers them when any customer is having issue. This will increase effective communication among managers and staff members about problems that are faced by customers. It can also remove the barriers that employees have to face while interacting with top executives of Sunderland International Hotel.

Negative impacts:

• Reduction in number of customers:In Sunderland International Hotel visitors have to wait for checking and the waiting time is very high they also get poor service which is a big issue. When customers are facing various kinds of problems which using services of the hotel than they will not prefer same place to visit again. This may reduce number of visitors and reduce profitability of hotel (Dye, Reeder and Terry, 2013).
• Reduced work quality of employees and less involvement in their job responsibilities:When staff members of Sunderland International Hotel are not getting appropriate wages and they have a thought that manager do not value them. This will result in decreased engagement of them in the work and they will not fulfil all their responsibilities at job. If they are not considered as a valuable part of the organisation it will affect their work quality.

Managerial implication:These are the actions that are taken by the managers of the organisations to deal with the problems that results adversely. As Sunderland International Hotel's customers and employees are facing different problems that are related to service quality, waiting time and wages. Following are the implications that are going to be affected by the good and bad service delivery practices:

• Inappropriate appraisal to the employees:When managers wont interact with the employees than the actual performance of them cannot be recorded by the management of the organisation. This will also result in decreased effectiveness and engagement of the employees. Managers will not be able to appraise all the staff members appropriately.
• Less effective decision making:Bad service delivery practices will affect the decision making process of employees as they will not be able to form appropriate decisions regarding the issues that customers are facing. When appropriate decision are not made by the managers than this will affect overall profitability of the organisation because they will not be able to find solutions for customer's problems.
• Lack of support from the staff members:If staff members are having issues with management regarding their wages and value this will create problems for the management of the organisation because the employees wont support them. Management is responsible to direct and instruct staff members so that they can perform all the tasks appropriately and when they are not supporting the management than it is not possible to operate all the executional activities appropriately.

All the above described impacts are identified by the service quality consultant of Sunderland International Hotel. It has been suggested to the managers to establish good relations with their employees and give them value so that all the issues of the customers can be resolved appropriately.

3. Customer Feedback System that can be used to monitor and continually improve service quality

Consumer Feedback System: A System which is used to collect information directly from consumer about satisfaction and dissatisfaction they feel with a product and a service is known as CFS. Comments and complaints that are given to business are important resource to serve consumer by addressing their wants. In today's changing scenario consumers satisfaction is preferred at first position by every business. As it is believed that a satisfied consumer will always turn as an asset for business. In this case, Sunderland International Hotel is serving large number of consumer and they personally take reviews of guests after 15 minutes of check-in.

Consumers are not attended by hotel staff properly and to resolve issues guests needs to wait for hours. Due to bookings on continuous basis staff is not able to attend guests properly and no opinion is shared by them. Sunderland International Hotel now also available with conference hall facility, meetings and venue for weddings and other function facility. As area to provide service has increased and bookings are at 200% then before. But in comparison to this, no extra focus is made in providing satisfactory services to consumers. This leads to dissatisfied consumer group and negative image of hotel is created. Technology plays very important role to provide information to interested visitors about quality of service is provided by Sunderland International Hotel. Trip advisor provides reviews to hotel that includes various issues that need to be resolved. Also guests of hotel are mentioning their comments on Facebook page of hotel and no reply is given to them (Oriol, Marco and Franch, 2014).

To solve various issues relating to quality of service provided by hotel, reviews of consumers must be in needed and various methods to get consumer feedback are as follows-

At the Hotel Itself

The earliest and most effective method to collect reviews of hotel by their guests is at the time when guests are present in hotel. Best part about this feedback is to transport a negative feedback into positive one by handling issue at same time and satisfying guests about issue involved. If a guest is unhappy with some services then can be provided with better services at same time.

At hotel, manager and staff members can approach consumers about their feedback through-

• Feedback Card-This is one of the oldest way, but remarkably effective. Cards are provided to consumers in their rooms, at hotel lobby, in restaurant and at reception. Every guest should be asked to fill that card and provide their reviews regarding what improvements are suggested for better services. Feedback such as “Great facilities but Poor services” creates a negative impact and providing feedback card stops this type of comment to spread more. Problems are resolves and compensation is provided on the spot (Emerson, McGill and Mansell, 2013).
• Feedback Via Phone Call- Consumer relationship manager at hotel personally call to their guests and check how they are enjoying their stay. Their feedback for any other service is also needed to be taken. Despite of feedback having a conversation with guests about their stay will make them feel that hotel staff really cares about them. In Sunderland International Hotel front desk is busy and guests can not interact with managers this call facilitates consumers to gather required information on phone call only.
• Personal Interaction- Hotel staff is reluctant to speak to their guest, thinking they are disturbing their privacy. Personal interaction must be done at right time and do not interact while guests are in middle of something or in rush. Guests are quite friendly at breakfast table,in pool area and in activity areas. Guests should be interacted in such manner that it did not look like any investigation. Issues like 1 hour check-in time and accommodating wedding guests attracts attention when guests are personally asked for quality of service provided.

Social Media:

Use of social media is continuously increasing and in today's world online feedbacks are available on social media. Travellers all over the world made online bookings for their stay and reviews at social media have huge impact on their decision. It is seen that increase in positive online reviews is proportional to increase in reservations. Social media is considered as a right channel to get consumer feedback.

• Online Interaction With Guests-Having Hotels Facebook, Instagram and twitter page and encouraging consumers to tag hotel in their posts. Providing reviews in comments box at hotels page and posting their experience helps to know about consumers suggestions. As Facebook page of Sunderland International Hotel is getting negative feedbacks and no revert is provided to them. This creates negative image of hotel to online consumers and in current situation most of bookings are done online so Facebook reviews must be taken seriously.
• Handling Disgruntled consumers online- Social medial has become an engaging platform when it comes to expressing views and opinions. Feedback on Facebook page of hotel is very common and a hotel staff should always check this page on regular basis. Any grievances should be resolved before situation become out of control.
• Online Reviews-Online travel review website gives insight of what travellers have to say about property. Consider each review equally important and any negative feedback is to tack seriously and steps are taken to resolve them (Bowling, 2014).

Feedback Email

Send email to outgoing consumers with an attachment to fill reviews about consumers. For this method mailing address of consumers are required.

Consumer feedback loop:

Consumer feedback loop is considered as one of the most effective method to improve quality of service provided by Sunderland International Hotel as per consumers need. This feedback loop helps to constantly collect, learn and apply suggestions that are provided by consumers. In a research it is concluded that approximately 79% of consumers like to make another purchase if experience to enjoy that service was good. In this competitive world 89% of consumers switch to other competitor if service is not satisfactory.

Consumer Feedback Loop is a strategy for constant improvement in services based on users suggestions and opinions. It is based on the naturally recurring pattern “mutual casual interaction”. In this action of both the parties have a mutual impact on each other. On negative feedback by consumer company will react and on every positive step of hotel consumers react positively.

Using feedback loop will brings many benefits. It is a foundation of consumer engagement process. Through this feedback system Sunderland International Hotel's management staff will be up to date with needs and complaints of consumers. Following this method that focuses on more satisfied consumers will uncover more opportunities to have good relationship with consumers. Quickly reacting to needs of consumers will reduce consumers complaints. This consumer feedback loop have three stages that are followed to improve quality of service by Sunderland International Hotel these steps are as follows-

• Gather:To solve any issue, first of all that issue must be known to hotel. There are variety of ways that are discussed above to collect feedbacks of consumers. This is one of the most effective method to collect issues that are required to solve to improve quality of service provided by Sunderland International Hotel.
• Analyse:Once data is collected it has to be analysed. Only collecting problems is not sufficient but also a valid solution is required to solve each problem. After collecting various feedbacks and noting different issues such as-

- poor services and more waiting time to check-in

- front desk is busy to make any inquiry and staff is not properly responding to different issues of guest

- guest at wedding are not attended properly and manager took weeks to resolve any issue.

All these issue are analysed under this loop and a pattern of issues will be created. Identify causes and points of this issue and also various steps are drawn to resolve these issues one by one (Hermann and Flecker, 2013).

• Apply:When management is available with solution to theses problems its time to fix all these issues. A good starting point is a most critical issues. Consumers must be kept updated with improvements that are provided in hotel services. Its very important to inform consumers that their feedbacks are very important and all possible steps are taken to solve them.

Big issue relating to non availability of manager for a week and problem is not solved on the spot. Instead of this refund if provided to consumers which was not necessary as negativity reviews is created. And providing refunds after long time doesn't make any sense. Sunderland International Hotel must follow consumer feedback loop to attract more consumer by providing better quality services.

Conclusion

From the above project report it has been concluded that for all the business entities who are operating business under hospitality industry it is very important to offer and render good quality services to the customers. This will help to gain trust of clients and gather their feedback so that modifications can be made in service delivery system. If customers are not satisfied with the services of an organisation than it is the main responsibility of the staff members to satisfy visitors and resolve all their issues.

References

Books and Journals:

• Chen, H. G. and et. al., 2012. The impact of financial services quality and fairness on customer satisfaction. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal.22(4). pp.399-421.
• Thaichon, P., Lobo, A. and Mitsis, A., 2014. An empirical model of home internet services quality in Thailand. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics. 26(2). pp.190-210.
• Hekmatpou, D. and et. al., 2012. A survey on the quality of medical services in teaching hospitals of Arak University of Medical Sciences with SERVQUL model in Arak, 2010.
• DAILY, J. E., KIEFF, F. S. and WILMARTH JR, A. E., 2014. Introduction. InPerspectives on Financing Innovation(pp. 13-16). Routledge.
• Wilson, A. and et. al., 2012.Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm(No. 2nd Eu). McGraw Hill.
• Oyman, O. and Singh, S., 2015. Quality of experience for HTTP adaptive streaming services.IEEE Communications Magazine. 50(4).
• Kongstvedt, P. R., 2012.Essentials of managed health care. Jones & Bartlett Publishers.
• Dye, C., Reeder, J. C. and Terry, R. F., 2013. Research for universal health coverage.
• Bowling, A., 2014.Research methods in health: investigating health and health services. McGraw-Hill Education (UK).
• Oriol, M., Marco, J. and Franch, X., 2014. Quality models for web services: A systematic mapping.Information and software technology. 56(10). pp.1167-1182.
• Emerson, E., McGill, P. and Mansell, J., 2013.Severe learning disabilities and challenging behaviours: Designing high quality services. Springer.
• Hermann, C. and Flecker, J. eds., 2013.Privatization of public services: impacts for employment, working conditions, and service quality in Europe. Routledge.

UPTO50%

Avail The Benefit Today!

To View this & another 50000+ free

Enter Email

Submit