Category: Service

The number of civil services in Malaysia seems to be “high” because the definition covers the defense and military sector (police and military), health and education. Not all countries have a comprehensive definition like Malaysia. There are many constraints of having huge size of civil service.

First constraint to be highlighted in this issue is increase public spending (Carvalho, Sivanandam, Rahim, & Tan, 2019). Our current Prime Minister Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamad pointed out that the size of the civil service has become huge and has been a long-term concern as it continues to boost the government’s financial burden and reduce the allocation for development purposes at the same time. If the situation was uncontrolled, the high cost of management spending for the government will continue to take the bulk of the state budget each year and will slow down economic growth. He also explained, that the government is looking at the feasibility of privatizing parts of the public sector in a bid to address its bloated size. The government had introduced a similar drive that touched on the functions of the private sector in national development and have reduced financial burden while improving efficiency and quality of work, stimulating economic growth and improving the effective distribution of resources in 1983. For example, this can be seen in the success of privatizing Telekom. Its employees were transferred to a private company. This has reduced the number of civil servants working in the public sector. Moreover, cutting off the size of the civil service does not mean that job opportunities are lacking. This is especially true when privatization takes place. Then, the government believes that size can be reduced without affecting the delivery of services, performance and income sources for the officers involved. Next, among the factors that drive high cost of living are due to the rise in civil service salaries. When the government increases civil servant salaries, the public sector will follow it, and the cost of living will continue to rise. Lastly, he also explained that there are various bodies with big amount of salaries that can reach tens of thousands of ringgits per month have been set up by the previous government. Therefore, all will be discontinued because their services are not required.

Second constraint to be highlighted in this issue is nonetheless than transparency in the civil service (David, 2019). The existence of bureaucracy leads to red tape where there are so many procedures to be followed yet each single one of them are compulsory even though it has taken a long time to wait for settling even one matter. Restricted movement of process somehow could make one’s loss patient, yet people always demand for an effective and faster means to get things done. Thus, these group of people who wish things to be done quickly somehow willing themselves to involve in corruption as an alternative. Datuk Seri Akhbar Satar, the former president of Transparency International-Malaysia (TI-M), has stated that there are 55.1 per cent of Malaysians involved in graft. Based on the statistic shown which has been observed within five years since 2013, the average age of Malaysians who are committed in corruption are between 20 and 39 (Arif, 2019). Not only that, these people are in fact find themselves comfortable with the ‘easy-money’ concept which was practiced by the previous government before Pakatan Harapan (PH). Dr. Mahathir stressing on this matter where the country’s wealth is meant to be shared equally. Otherwise, the country would be in full chaos. As for the long-term effects, the next generation will be the one whom will face the consequences as the aftermath.

Third constraint to be highlighted in this issue is redundancy of the job (Tan, 2018). Redundancy of the job will make a civil service do not productivity and low of performance. Civil service needs to meet their KPIs in doing their job to improve their quality of services (Wong, 2019 ). Government need to take an action to stop employment. Stop employment means not to fired civil services right away but to reallocate the civil services. Civil services that have a redundancy job need to reallocate to area that shortage of manpower. Shortage of manpower can be solving by having reallocate of civil services rather than hire new civil services that will make an increasing number of civil services. For example, JAKIM has transferring the teachers to another department or Ministry. By having the transferring, JAKIM has reducing their budget which is RM800mil just to pay the salaries of 30,000 religious’ teachers. Besides that, government can reduce the number of foreign workers. Reducing of foreign worker can make the Malaysians work overseas return to work at the country especially those with expertise and skills. Government can pay the Malaysians with the suitable salary instead pay the foreign worker. The Government need to study and identify the right size of the manpower needed for at least in 5 years plan. For example, MACC and the Attorney General Chamber is the department that need more manpower resource. Find a right size right now is better rather need to down-size later.

Fourth constraint to be highlighted in this issue is huge political appointment. After the previous election in our country (GE14), the new government have come out with an idea to terminate 17,000 officers. These officers were being said to be elected due to the political appointees. According to our current Prime Minister, Tun Dr Mahathir Mohamed, there were too many contract officers which was elected through political appointees. He added that the some of the officers was recruited to fulfill the administrative requirements. However, there are a huge number of them was being elected due to their “political” game (Tun M, 2018). According to the United States of Government Ethics, a political appointee is any employee who is appointed by the president, vice-president or the Head of Agency. The main question to this issue in the context of Malaysia is to understand and identify who the appointees are. Based on the statement given by the United States of Government Ethics, the political appointees in Malaysia are the Prime Minister, Deputy Prime Minister, Ministers and the Head of State Government (www.thestar.com). For example, the Chief Secretary Datuk Seri Dr Ismail Bakar has previously stated that the one that should be served by the civil servants are the people including the taxpayer and not the politician. According to our Prime Minister, many civil servants refused to work with the government while raising the issue of sabotaging the government policies. Added more my Datuk Seri Dr Ismail Bakar, civil servants job performance shall be in line with the slogan of “Clean, Efficient and Trustworthy” and all performance shall be served ethically (Bernama, 2018).

As a conclusion, there are many constraints of having a huge civil service which is financial burden to government, transparency in civil service, redundancy of the job and huge political appointment. Government need to down-size the amount of civil services and find the right size for civil services in Malaysia.

INTRODUCTION

Hospitality and guest service management are responsibilities for managing and handling customers and other hotel operations. He ensures that all tasks are executed in a proper way. There is major role of this person to increase customer engagement and satisfaction. The responsibilities of the manager involve an essential part in outcome of the hotel. The hospitality organisation considered in this report is Marriott organisation. This is an American multinational diversified company that manages and franchises a large portfolio of hotels and other related lodging facilities. This was founded by J. Willard Marriott. This is the third largest hotel chains in the world and there are around 30 brands with approximately 7000 properties. This report discusses about guest service management. It shows how hotels can adapt to changing consumer preference and how changing consumer preference impacts guest service management.

When it comes to defining excellence in guest service the first challenge is to remain objective. One person’s service expectation may not be the same as another persons. Let’s first agree that our needs as clients are generally the same; courtesy, a listening ear, an understanding of our requirements and a willingness to help when we need it.( https://www.customerservicemanager.com/definition-of-excellent-guest-service/)

Service provided

Beverage

• Per person consummation is significant proof of the good wealth of each part of beverage industry due to the fact that that reflect increases and decreases in the marketplace (Mayer T., Chon K. 2010) that is affected by trends.
• Due to social acceptance demographic graphics shows that beer, wine and spirits has an increase in business and societal trends, instead for the young people with age under twenty-one it’s an increase of soft drinks.

Foodservice

• Restaurants that has a theme has a binder to offer to the clients a better experience and distinct.
• Instead this kind of restaurants has a higher price.
• Meeting, conventions, and special events
• Meetings was on a second plan of the hospitality industry, but nowadays are serious business and offer a significant boost to host destination.

Spa

• Hotels offer luxurious spa facilities like steam, sauna, fitness, swimming pool and offer massages, facial and body treatments.
• Nowadays the spa encourage the families to come with their children, and they provide services like gymnastic and dance classes.

Quality management

Guest service manager is focusing on needs and requirements of clients and ensures that they are being fulfilled. They have to implement various strategies which will help in improving hotel facilities and eventually leads to increase exceptional services. It is ensured that the customers are accompanied in their rooms and they are pleased with the rooms received after they are helped with check-ins procedure. For verifying of inventory suppliers and making order in proportion with the request. When organisations make use of total quality management, there is high probability of improving effectiveness and efficiency of all organisation. This can be explained by an example- Marriott International has applied various techniques of total quality management for ensuring a positive outcome. By the assistance of executive management, employees are trained on the concepts of offering good quality services to customers and clients. (James L. Heskett, W. Earl Sasser, JR, Leonard A. Schlesinger,1997 ) Marriott International is using technique of employing qualified staffs who are responsible for providing a positive approach to various sensitive areas such as serving customers within short time, check-in drinks, solving customer problems and offering a friendly approach.

Cleanliness of rooms and good housekeeping services provides pleasant experience to customers. This overcomes all other wrongs that they face in the organisation. One of the aspects that contributes to good reputation of the company is cleanliness especially the attractive housekeeping services which are offered.

Also, for making their total quality management systems more effective, Marriott organisation provides extensive training to various area managers by hiring a lot of people on regular basis. If this organisation is not having effective leadership, it can be very challenging for it to provide best services to customers and accomplish organisational goals and objectives.

When managers are hired in Marriott, these are provided one-week training program where they are equipped with necessary knowledge and skills for enabling them to serve customers in a well-mannered way. When this training is done, they are responsible for teaching other members of staff on how to provide quality services to clients and customers.

It is analysed by study of various researchers that outcomes of poor-quality services in business are very expensive. Poor service experience that happened due to employees who are not motivated for solving quality services to the organisation. It is occurred by the employees who are not willing to provide adequate results. Negative experiences of customers and guests within the organisation is not thing for the company as it results in decline of customer satisfaction (Frank Hochsmann, 2014). The management of the organisation is source of poor service delivery because of failure to acknowledge that each individual is held responsible for what they are doing.

How the hotel adapts to changing consumer preference

There are various approaches towards improving customer care. Marriott International has managed to launch 18 lodging brands which include limited service and full service which has variety of services to serve needs of any guest. This hospitality organisation is managing and contracting different hotels and resorts under Marriott. Due to this expansion, there is growing in customers at global level. Marriott is having a good documentation of expansion for the period and also financial base of the company is also high.

Marriott is one of the biggest hotels which operates globally. It provides quality services and has good reputation. This has adopted general system of formal total quality management. This system is made for ensuring increase in customer coverage with best services of good and high quality. Another deal of responsibility depends upon guest service manager. For ensuring success, there must be demonstration of excellent organisation and time management skills. There must be good and effective leadership skills in these managers, and they have to supervise and train staff and employees effectively.

Marriott International concentrates making customers happy and satisfied by sharing positive experience of company with employees. Reputation and image of brand depends by the reaction of customers. It is easy to achieve customer satisfaction by the application of quality management. Because of the wide experience of management of Marriott International for long period of time, there are basically two main areas which are criticised by guests. Check-ins and rooms are most sensitive areas which needs high quality services in front office. In context of Marriott International in these areas are highly qualified staff and employees. The impression and first contact that guests receive in a service industry is essential as these guests can come back or may never desire such experience.

Quality management is useful for Marriott International but on the other hand, it faces various criticism. Quality issues are part of functional side and should not be treated as separate parts.

How changing preferences impacts guest service management

As technology is becoming more advanced and people have become more modern, requirements and preferences of people changes at a fast pace. Due to this, it became important for an organisation to cater these changes as efficiently as possible so that their customer base can be retained for maximum time period. In case of hospitality sector, requirements and needs of people are constantly changing. Due to this guest service management is also influenced and need appropriate changes. In earlier time, main preference of people while staying at hotel is to have a decent place to stay and good food to it so that they can complete their journey in a comfortable manner. But now these aspects have changed considerably. In present time, people expect highest level of hospitality where each and every service is required to be highly standardised.

Also, instead than getting a comfortable place to sleep, people now a days prefer to stay at theme-based rooms which will provide them a soothing experience for their journey. In case of Marriott hotel, changing needs and preferences of customers have leads to changes in guest service management. (Frank Hochsmann, 2014) Guest services in context with Marriott hotel are the amenities and services which are offered by the staff of hotel to their customers. It includes activities like laundry, room service, concierge etc. At present, people have become very sophisticated and they cannot handle any single mistake while getting served. Below are mentioned some aspects that will denote the manner in which changing preferences and expectations of the customers leads to change in guest service management:

In case of laundry, guests prefer to have washed clothes as soon as possible due to which housekeeping manager has to upgrade their machines to wash and press clothes. This will help the hotel management to do laundry of customers in fastest time possible.

Earlier, people prefer to come on the reception of hotel for booking and reservations but due to changing preferences of customers, they now prefer to perform reservations via online.(Valerie A. Zeithamal, A, Parasuraman, Leonard L. Berry,) In this context, front desk department at Marriott has improved their social media presence so that appropriate interaction and communication with customers via digital media can be carried out.

During the stay at hotel, in earlier time customers do not requires rooms with themes and elegant environment. But now, they are very particular about the rooms in which they are staying. Due to this, Marriott hotel provide themed rooms to their customers. Other than this, to provide pleasure, hotel has also decided to offer customised rooms which will be decorated as per the requirements of customers.

Services and facilities are changing needs of customers will help the Marriott hotel in earning high revenues and profits due to which they will be able to sustain a strong presence in market against their rivals. Also, by this, customer base of company will be retained for maximum time period without any distress.

CONCLUSION

Aforesaid, it is seen that guest service management is fundamental and play a very important role in providing good services to customers. This is important as there is huge competition in market of hospitality sector. There is drastic increase in number of hotels within market. Therefore, for a hotel to keep the guests and clients, it is essential to offer quality services. As result the application of this is beneficial for every organisation. The teamwork of management team and all levels of employers can work best for this system. If employees want to follow this system, there is need of big support from top level management of the hotel.

REFERENCES

1. Frank Hochsmann, 2014. Service quality from the guest’s view. Manual for more service quality in hotels and restaurants
2. Kaye Chon, Thomas A. Mayer, 2010. Welcome to Hospitality… an introduction
3. Guest Service Manager Responsibilities, 2019. https://www.customerservicemanager.com/definition-of-excellent-guest-service/
4. Valerie A. Zeithaml, A. Parasuraman, Leonard L. Berry. Delivering Quality Service, Balancing customer perceptions and expectation
5. James L. Heskett, W. Earl Asser JR, Leonard A. Schlesinger ,1997. The service profit chain , How leading companies link profit and growth to loyalty, satisfaction, and value
6. M. Jesus Alvarez, Carmen Jaca, Elisabeth Viles, Anna Colomer, Quality management in hotels in the Basque Country
7. Robert C. Ford, Duncan R. Dickson, 2008. The journal of applied management and entrepreneurship, vol 13, no.3
8. Rebecca Klein, Kevin Steele,2014. “Be our guest” :crafting a magical client experience

To manage the resource in order to improve customer service we need to see whether the current demand is being met so then a focus can be made on improving customer service. If the targets are being met, then a focus can be made on the quality of work of the team and how to improve customer service customer. Also, is the team overstaffed as we do not want to be wasting resource either or to increase demand depending on the organisational objectives. A spare resource can be used for other parts of the business where they are underperforming. If the targets are not being met, then managers need to identify why as this could be from underperforming staff or being understaff.

To improve customer service, it is important to monitor the work that is being completed by staff and this can be done by individual meetings to discuss a strengths and weaknesses. If the member of staff is not meeting their targets, then is there a personal or work issues that can be addressed as if it is then this staff will work better when they are happy at work. It may be worth tailoring performance report to see what actions that need to be taken to meet their targets or identify any training needs. Also, a manager can conduct team meetings to discuss areas of the business that need improvements so it can be addressed. By having performance stats provided to staff gives them an idea of how the team is performing on a whole and identify any weaknesses that need to be addressed.

If the team are aware of what the Key Performance Indicators are then they know what to strive for and it can be discussed with staff in their personal meetings along with their achievements to motivate them to deliver the best and meet their targets. If this is addressed it will have a positive affect on the targets. To improve customer service, a manager should conduct audits of work and quality checks when staff are dealing with customers. This can help identify areas they need to improve on and any mistakes that are being made. This sort of feedback can help staff improve their service to customers. If managers oversee what the customer does at work and when they are dealing with customers, they can offer feedback from a third party point of view so they know what to improve on. To improve customer service, staff should be rewarded for hard work or when going above and beyond in their role so this level of customer service can be maintained.

It is important to have process in place to handle complaints and monitoring these as well. The complaints can be used to address common themes that can be used to improve the level of service we provide to customers. For example, if there is a common complaint such as long waiting times then to improve service, we can highlight why appointments are taking so long or whether a front of house staff is required to keep a track of customers going into the business. Thing like this can help improve customer service that the business offers. Another way to manage resource effectively is to take on board feedback from front facing staff as they are deal with the customers directly and use the system therefore they will be able to identify ways we can improve the service offered, it is the manager responsibility to obtain this either by open forum, suggestion box or asking staff directly. Another way to ensure the resource is managed effectively is to ask customers for feedback on the service and address these concerns.

The customers are the users of the service and they will be the best people to know what needs improving or what they are not happy with. It is very important to train staff in order to improve their customer service skills so this may require training whether internally or outsourced by an external company. By training the staff it will help them to identify areas to improve or even new techniques that they can implement. It is also important to have an employee engagement team who focuses purely on concerns of the employees. By having this platform, it gives areas where employees have concerns and by ensuring their needs are met then they will deliver a better service when they feel their employer values them. The company objectives and team targets should be constantly discussed and mentioned to the team to remind them of what the team/business is trying to achieve and how it will be achieved. This will give the team a sense of direction of what they are trying to achieve and something to work towards.

To improve customer service, we can use to use budgeting allocation on better IT systems to help deliver a better service. The systems used can sometime slow down the service being provided so by having a more effective service that can also quicken the work that is done can help provide a better service overall.

This report is for the Chartered Quality Institute (CQI), to help identify how to achieve service success through the service encounter.

It could be argued that in a perfect world a customer should continuously have positive encounters when using any organisation, however that is not always the case and many customers may experience a negative encounter which could influence their consumer choices in the future(Clarke David, N.D).

In this report, there will be an analysis of how significant the importance of customer satisfaction and loyalty is in today’s competitive market. This will be identified by examining what service quality measurement tools can be utilized and if they are used for the management or consumers benefits. By using a large chain UK (United Kingdom) airline (BA) British Airline to identify the current service offerings within the hospitality and tourism industry. There will be an outline of the positive and negative factors that advancements in these markets create and how the organisations need to adapt their customer service encounters to stand out from the competition.

Furthermore, the significance of superb complaint communication in a service organisation is likewise viewed which indicates the notion of how vital the element is in having great power over the influence of consumers choices.

INTRODUCTION

Creating or retaining client devotion in today’s market is considered as one of the most imperative promoting procedures for creating competitive differences in demanding and rapidly developing business world (Raab.G et al. 2016). Building or holding client devotion, one needs to centre on improving the client relationship by guaranteeing excellence when delivering their services which would be the exact requirements and desire the shoppers want. This is done by companies utilizing marketing methods in order to gain an understanding as to where the improvements are needed within their service encounters to ultimately better their service delivery given, however there are many arguments that some service management modules are not sufficient enough to consider both the managers and customer’s needs.

Numerous service organisations convey quality services to sustain great client relations, yet they neglect to comprehend approaches to keep up client loyalty (Noone, 2009). A critical examination of service marketing academic journal uncovers that the nature of service experience mirrors the genuine level of client loyalty for service organization (Paul Hague and Nicholas Hague, 2018).

Consumer loyalty is a crucial tool for progress, particularly in a service offering organisation (Saini and Singh, 2020). Examining a service quality framework by employing a ‘service blueprint’ process can provide numerous advantages as it encourages reflection through fragile territories of service conveyance, internal and external interactions making this method more transparent (Hossain, Enam and Farhana, 2017). After recognizing the more fragile regions, progressions should be possible for guaranteeing that practices are not repeated which would prompt higher benefits and expanded client dedication (Baranishyn, Cudmore and Fletcher, 2010).

For services, the calculation of quality is made during the service delivery process. Every client contact is a chance to fulfil or dissatisfy the client’s expectations. Client satisfaction with a service can be defined by contrasting observations and desires of service. When desires are not met, administration quality is considered unsuitable and dissatisfaction happens. At the point when expectations are affirmed by apparent assistance, quality is palatable(Morris, 1999).

MEASUREMENT METHODS

It is a requirement of the ISO 9001 standard that all organisations measure customer satisfaction (Richard Keen, 2019). It is argued that utilizing the correct measurement method for individual businesses is crucial in identifying a company’s employee and customers satisfaction (Gonzalez and Santamaria, 2008). Below are some of the most utilized service quality measurement methods.

(Illustrated below in figure 1) SERVQUAL or RATER model an analytic tool developed from the study of Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry in 1895 with ten dimensions of service quality were dependability, approachability, access, expertise, communication, trustworthiness, security, awareness/knowing the consumer and the tangibles of the service provider (Arash, 2011). This model is the most utilized by promoting specialists and researchers, despite the fact that it is an exploratory investigation and does not offer a reasonable estimation strategy for gaps at various levels. This model has been refined during the years and some accept that lone exhibition should have been estimated as SERVPERF model to discover impression of service quality (Cronin and Taylor, 1994).

(Illustrated below in figure 2) 7 Ps of Booms and Bitner marketing tool technique broadens the original marketing mix devised by marketing professor Jerome McCarthy which involves four basic components from Boom and Bitner’s version, these elements are product, price, promotion and place. As services have distinctive characteristics for example heterogeneity, inseparability, perish-ability and intangibility, this method can provide an idiosyncratic look into service qualities within differentiating companies (Vliet Van Vincent, Nd).

More recently a new approach to measuring and managing service encounters has been created (illustrated below in figure 3) The Human Sigma (Asplund and Fleming, 2007). According to (Sutton, 2014), this approach is said to have played a major part in the distancing from segregated employee and consumer satisfaction measurements. Dr Sutton described this method as “a more powerful and emotional dimension of engagement” which ultimately could help businesses remain competitive when enticing and obtaining both consumers and employees.

THE HUMAN SIGMA

(Batra Madan, 2016)

DISCUSSION: WHAT WORKS AND WHY

Parasuraman, ZeithamI, and Berry (1985), exhibited that service quality is characterized in the model as the distinction between purchaser desires and observations, which thusly relies upon the focus and size of the four gaps related to the conveyance of service quality on the marketers side (Mauri, Minazzi and Muccio, 2013).

Moreover, Brown and Bond (1995) expressed that the calculation of service quality likewise called the expectation – perception gap model is the greatest received and highly heuristically important factor to the service literature. The model recognizes the key inconsistencies or holes identifying with administrative views of service quality, and undertakings related with service conveyance to clients (Brown and Bond III, 1995).

(Goi, 2009) suggests that some key marketing policies have changed considerably. In a journal by (Virender Sanghvi, 2014) it is argued that pricing is considered to be the most crucial marketing strategy although in a survey done by (Udell G Jon, 1964) pricing was only ranked sixth in importance. The service profit chain (illustrated in figure 4) can establish the relationship between profitability, customer loyalty and staff satisfaction, loyalty and productivity (Voudouris Christos, 2008). (Udell, 1968) discovered that effort in sales were rated the most important, closely followed by product efforts, pricing and delivery. Product related measures where found to be the most crucial by LaLonde (1977) followed by delivery, price and marketing. It could be argued that from the examinations made that business executives do not actually look on the four P’s as being as important as one another, however, do consider price and product components to be the most vital (Bert J. Kellerman et al 1995).

According to Popovic (2006) the theory of 4P’s has been disparaged as being more production focused definition of marketing and not consumer driven. Lauterborn (1990) argued that each key variable should also include the consumers perspectives. This transition is achieved by successfully adapting products into consumer solutions, place into convenience , price into cost and publicity into communication, also known as the 4C’s. In a publication by Moller (2006) there where 4 key condemnations given in regard to the Marketing Mix Strategy:

• The framework does not contemplate consumer behaviour and is internally orientated.
• The framework considers consumers as inert; it does not allow communication and cannot obtain a connection.
• The method has no theoretical content; it works predominantly as a simplistic method that is management focused.
• Does not offer help for characterization of marketing activities.

(Oliver, 1980) argues that customer satisfaction is efficiently catering the consumers expectations and it is the overall satisfaction a customer is left with after using the merchandise or service (Evans, Martin (Martin J. ), Jamal and Foxall, 2009).

The lean measuring tool gives five estimations of service quality including responsiveness, reliability, quality, compassion and affirmation: utilizing a five-point scale. This standard assists analysts with finding the estimations of administration quality by resembling the uniqueness in the midst of customers’ expectations in real life experiences. In any case, this distinguished service quality tool has been condemned on both methodological and hypothetical grounds (Babakus and Boller 1992). Likewise, scientists have questioned in favour of exploring service quality through various levels with both essential and sub-measurements, as customers form expectations in service quality through different assessments (Rafiq, Lu and Fulford, 2012).

Kwateng (2017) also stated that retailers selling have minimal offerings baring their services, consequently associations ought to guarantee and offer great quality services. In the travel industry and hospitality industry Briggs, Sutherland and Drummond (2007) suggest that there is an irregularity in data between service providers and consumers which makes it hard for clients to have adequate comprehension of the qualities and charges provided to them by service providers and it seems that consumers only find out the reality after they have made a purchase.

With fast advancements in the travel industry clients have a vaster scope of specialist organizations to browse than previously, this makes the adequate execution of the guidelines for service quality to be extremely critical. As indicated by Sutherland (2007) the quick increment in mobile technology service providers , will prompt inconsistency in the quality given to consumers.

BRITISH AIRLINES

As the airline production continues to rapidly increase and advance, the present airline leaders such as BA, are met with the preliminary of matching long-haul strategies with momentary answers. Consumer satisfaction has grown extensively in significance for airlines main focuses and as a result service satisfaction plays a vital part in this sectors growth (Ringle, Sarstedt and Zimmermann, 2011). According to Phamvan Vincent (2018) using Lean principles can assist companies in becoming more efficiently customer-focused and give a more competitive advantage.

During the time Margret Thatcher was part of office, the government made the decision to privatize the main British companies. BA was the main company chosen to be sold to the public, as BA had one of the worst reputations for customer service standards within the travel and hospitality industry, so the government wanted to try enhance BA,s value before stock became available for sale. BA. Marshall who was in control of this enhancement process soon discovered that an attitude shift was essential due to the fact that in the 70s and 80s BA employees thought that they where doing the public a “favour” by letting them fly on their plans, they made sure the public knew this by their content and there body language and tone of voice when addressing a consumer. Due to this a program was developed called; Putting People First, that would hopefully make the 36,500 BA employees improve their approach to service encounters. After completion of this BA began to invest time on the complaints handling procedures as this was a major floor within there service encounter process. They introduced a $6.7 million computer analyses program to help analyse customer preferences with the main aim to help them retain customers for life. BA argued that 67% of there passengers would fly with them again if their complaint was handled efficiently. However, has time has gone on according to Hussain Amar (2020) British Airways still suffer from an inadequate customer service approach and have been struggling to keep up with competition from more low-cost carriers. They still face wide arrays of complaints including poor customer service and unexplained fees and refund issues, Customer services are said to not reply to any of there social media complaints pages leaving customers more frustrated.

CONCLUSION

In conclusion , the challenge and adequacy with which a complaint is dealt with is seen as an indispensable part of accomplishing great service successes through the service encounter. As per Sutton and Rafaeli (1988); Lovelock (1983) expressed that buyers are regularly ready to exchange of the instant factor with personalisation. Every one of these components are incredibly regarded by the customers when weighing out a negative service encounter and the recuperation of that service.

As indicated by Mulki et al (2007) the primary obligation of representatives is to draw on the impacts made by the changed arrangement of hierarchical workers so as to make valued offers for clients. As confirmed by Ustuner and Godes (2006) to be productive, representatives need ‘access to the correct data, the capacity to distribute it to the perfect individuals, and the ability to facilitate endeavours of groups of individuals to convey value to the consumer.’

Subsequently to have fulfilled clients, the organization should likewise have content representatives cooperating for them. As stated by Parasuraman, Leonard, Berry and Becker (1992) ‘Internal advertising is enticing, creating, persuading and retaining qualified workers through occupation products that fulfil their necessities. It is the way of thinking of regarding workers as clients, furthermore it is the technique of forming work items to fit human needs.’ Grönroos, (1998) states that internal marketing helps management to realize and make adjustments in the mentality and behaviour of the employees toward their occupations and the consumers and helps to accomplish a more client-oriented service encounter.

According to many literature reviews that have been identified within this report, the key to having a successful service encounter is efficiently utilizing the organisations strengths and considering at all times not only the individual consumers desires but also the employees. This will make staff feel important and needed ultimately giving them the drive to deliver superb customer service giving the consumer an excellent service encounter which in turn will make them feel valued and respected and enable the organisation to

• stand out from competition.
• Increase customer loyalty.
• Increase the amount of money each consumer spends.
• oIncrease how often a customer makes purchases.
• Generate a positive repour and create future possible consumers.

Introduction

This report is aimed at all health services in the UK, these include NHS England and Clinical Commissioning Groups, With the aim to provide information on a range of ways to involve service users, patients and carers in these services. The report sets out several key points for health care services on how to involve service users, these include:

• co-production.
• Self-management (expert patient program).
• How CCG’s can involve patients in the commissioning process.
• How participation can be measured.
• Barriers to involvement.
• Recommendations on how to involve patients in health services.

What is involvement?

Involving service users in healthcare provision means encouraging the participation of patients, service users and carers in the development of care plans and services, using patient’s knowledge and experiences to shape how care is implemented. This approach to health care can lead to many benefits for both service users and provider ,these include a better understanding of patient’s needs, a more equal share of power in decision making, and more effective provision (Gilbert, 2015, as cited in Wilson 2019 A ). Involvement can be implemented in different ways such as.

Having a more person-centred approach, this means treating the service user as an individual, acknowledging that they have valuable knowledge and expertise of their own care needs and allowing them more control over what care and support they receive. Co-production of care is one way of achieving this, as it requires care providers to identify health care needs collectively with patients. This approach also involves cultural shifts in terms of seeing service users as equals to service providers, when this is implemented successfully it can lead to a more effective service. (Boyle and Harris, 2013, as cited in Wilson 2019 B).

Education on Self-management of care is an approach that involves patients learning how to successfully manage their own health care needs with more confidence than they may have had previously. Educating people about their health also helps to create a more equal share in power, as it gives patients transferable skills that can be used when collaborating with professionals.

Service users, patients and carers can participate in the clinical commissioning process, CCG’s should encourage public participation in the commissioning of services, allowing service users to voice what is important to them, to contribute to plans, proposals and decisions about services that they use or may want to use in the future.

Ways in which service users, patients and carers can become involved in health services

Arnstein’s ladder of participation (please see figure 1) can be used to measure the extent to which people might be asked to participate and also to measure what degree their participation had an impact over decisions made (Arnstein, 1969, as cited in Wilson 2019 , C). The ladder explores different levels of participation that range from superficial participation, where taking part does not affect outcomes, to more significant involvement called citizen power, in which participants can impact on decisions made. The ladder is a useful visual tool that can be adapted to suit different situations across health care. However, there are criticisms that it does not, as user having different circumstances and assumes that everybody wants to or can participate to the same degree which is not always the case.

One approach that aims to include patients on the upper rungs of Arnstein’s ladder is co-production of care. Co-production aims to restructure the patient and professional relationship, with a more equal share of power between the two. INVOLVE, a national government-funded advisory group set out five key principles for co-production in research, these principles help to outline what co-production is in practice (Hickey et al., 2018, as cited in Wilson 2019, D).

1. Sharing of power – Patients and professionals work in partnership to tailor support to suit what is best for that individual patient.
2. Including all perspectives and skills –Involving all service users in their service regardless of ability or backgrounds.
3. Respecting and valuing the knowledge of all those working together on the research – Service user and provider are all of equal importance, everyone is involved in the design and delivery of services.
4. Reciprocity – Everybody benefits from working together practitioners can learn from patients and move forward positively together.
5. Building and maintaining relationships – patients need to feel like their input is valued and respected by professionals.

Although co-production can bring positive changes into the way healthcare is organised , it is not free from criticism, with some researchers stating that co-production in research can lead to poorer quality outcomes due to the lack of knowledge from lay participants (Staley, 2009, as cited in Wilson 2019 E ) it could be said that these attitudes devalue a patient’s input and could discourage involvement.

The expert patient program developed by the department of health and social care in 2002 (Wilson, 2019, F) is another significant way of involving service users through educating patients about self-management of care needs. This course aims to empower service users by providing them with the information and skills they need to look after their own care needs and also work more effectively with professionals in developing the best support package to suit their wants and needs. This approach helps to break down power imbalances as patients are more educated and therefore can be equal partners in the decisions. On the other hand, this approach does not account for more complex patients (Kroon et al, as cited in Wilson 2019 G) who may, for example, have learning disabilities and not understand the course information. There is also criticism that the program aims to change the person and does not consider external social factors that can affect healthcare such as the economy and living environments (Wilson et al 2007 as cited in Wilson 2019, H).

Clinical Commissioning Groups are responsible for anticipating what services a population will need and for delivering on this within a certain budget, usually set by local authorities and paid for by taxpayers (Wilson,2019, I). Patients and the public are at the heart of the clinical commissioning cycle (as seen in figure 2). Some of the ways CCG’s can get the public involved include surveys and community engagement events, these strategies are the easiest to carry out, but are often seen as tokenistic gestures, in that they give a platform for sharing ideas but do not give the service providers any real say in decisions that are made.

A more meaningful way for patients to participate in commissioning is through patient participation groups, these are usually made up of experts by experience. These participants can be included in discussions surrounding decision making, service design and in the monitoring of services such as Care Quality Commission inspections of hospitals .Sometimes professionals can discourage participation in this due to their attitudes towards participants due to worries that they are there to lobby for individual needs rather than that of the population .

Barriers to involvement

Barriers to involvement can occur for many reasons, this is because each patient has their own set of circumstances and experiences that will impact both on their desire and ability to be involved (Okolo and Matthews, 2016; Beresford, 2013, as cited in Wilson 2019,J). Certain groups within society are often harder to reach and not as involved in services, these groups include minority ethnic groups, those with multiple impairments and complex needs. We see an example of this in the case study of Mohammad who has complex care needs who lives with Amina his wife and also his main carer (Wilson,2019 K). Amina struggles with aspects of Mohammad’s care, however, she is not confident in putting forward suggestions to services on how to make care more easily accessible for Mohammad, due to issues related to stigma, lack of knowledge and cultural barriers holding her back. Beresford (2013) as cited in (Wilson 2019, L), set out these following barriers to participation.

• Devaluing – This is when practitioners attitudes discourage involvement, for example, in co-production professionals devalue lay participants by not valuing their contributions and saying it leads to poorer quality research (Staley, 2009, as cited in Wilson 2019, E) . This could be overcome by educating patients in the management of their conditions, making them expert patients, so that they can provide educated answers and suggestions and useful professionals.
• Tokenism – This is when participation does not have any effect on outcomes, in this case, it would be important to make participation meaningful with service users gaining more citizen power when being involved with services , they must feel their taking part has an impact.
• Stigma –Stigma is when people have negative assumptions about someone or something due to certain characteristics such as culture, religion, disability etc. Amina was afraid to speak out as she dressed in traditional Pakistani clothing and feared her religious beliefs would mean people would make assumptions about her (Wilson,2019 K). Barriers like these can be overcome by ensuring participation groups include a diverse range of participants with different experiences, circumstances, and backgrounds to ensure the population is being considered as a whole and that minority groups have a voice.
• Low confidence and self-esteem – In the case study Amina (Wilson,2019 K) has low confidence and self-esteem which meant she felt her ideas would not be taken seriously. The expert patient program could help in this sense to help build on the patient’s self-esteem and knowledge about handling their condition.
• Inadequate information about involvement – Information could be shared in different ways through word of mouth directly from health care providers, leaflets, social media. information could be available in different languages or be written to be more culturally sensitive like suggested in Bibi study on diabetes and communication with south Asian communities (Bibi et al 2014, as cited in Wilson 2019 M).

Recommendations

• A. Making involvement in health services as accessible as possible, providers should make reasonable adjustments to ensure participation can happen, for example. the attendance of an interpreter at appointments for those who do not speak English, text messaging services for the hearing impaired, braille available for the visually impaired.
• B. Information on how to get involved should be clear, easily understood, and also be shared over a variety of platforms such as email, leaflets given at appointments or posted out, advertisement through posters , all providing clear details on whom to contact to discuss participation further. The information should also be available in different languages, this ensures hard to reach groups have access to it.
• C. CCG’s ensuring participation is meaningful and not tokenistic, the public should feel their participation has an impact on outcomes. therefore, it is important to avoid tokenistic gestures where possible. It is also important to encourage minority groups to become involved in commissioning of services, this way CCG’s can be assured the whole population has been taken into account ,as often voices of these groups are left pout and in turn, services are not directed or adapted for them in any way .
• D. Educate patients so they can make fully informed decisions, allowing them to work more efficiently with professionals and share power equally in care. It would seem for service users to gain more power in their care that participation should always fall into citizen power category ,however , not all participants want to get involved or can get involved to the same degree, therefore, practitioners should not view participation in itself as the main goal but focus on how best to involve individuals to suit their own health needs or circumstances.

Summary

There are many ways health services can involve service users, these all range in levels of participation, from more tokenistic involvement like surveys to more citizen control type involvement like co-production. It could be said co-production and Educating service users help to give more citizen control as they aim to shift the balance of power and put patients on a more equal footing with health care providers. The commissioning process must consider the needs of everyone; however, when it comes to involvement some minority groups are under-represented and the attitudes of professionals towards lay participants can create barriers to involvement. The biggest challenges to involvement appear to be creating equal opportunities, involving minority groups and power issues in care.

In any nation financial advancement relies upon the development and development of the three divisions of the economy. Anyway as of late the service area developing at an exceptionally quicker rate in the creating nations and is contributing a significant offer as far as yield, pay and business. Indeed, even the profitability per laborer is getting higher in service division when contrasted with horticulture and modern segments. As of now the service segment is prevailing in the created nations. In the event that agribusiness segment is dormant, new service exercises are developing and adding to the service segment making the economy to develop. Consequently service area is assuming a significant job in monetary advancement of any nation.

The significance of the services division can be measured by its commitments to various parts of the economy.

Business incorporate both residential exchange just as outside exchange. Exchange as a service division exercises encourages the trading of the merchandise and enterprises among makers and purchasers. Local exchange alludes to the trading of merchandise and enterprises with in the nation. Which gives pay and work to the individuals who have occupied with this exercises. Remote exchange assumes a significant job in the advancement of the nation. Imports of apparatus and hardware which can’t be delivered in the underlying stages at home are basic. Such imports which either help to make new limit in certain lines of creation or expand limit in different lines of creation are called formative imports. The imports which are made so as to utilize the gainful limit are called support imports.

Account as a service segment action assumes a significant job in embraced any monetary exercises. Money alludes to assets of fiscal assets required by singular, business houses and the administration. Individuals needs assets to meeting their present prerequisite or everyday of costs for purchasing capital products. A business house require assets for paying wages and pay rates, for purchasing crude materials, for buying new hardware or supplanting an old one and so forth. Government needs assets to offer different types of assistance to its subject. Money establishments gives assets to different gatherings of individuals for assortment of exercises. Right now service segment exercises gives pay and work to the individuals of a nation.

In the earlier days this part is liable for appropriating the yield of the essential and optional divisions for the middle of the road and last utilization and furthermore for the giving an assortment of services to makers just as buyers. Exchange, transport and capacity exercises guarantee dispersion of products and enterprises where and when required by customers. Business and money related services encourage assembly of assets and their improvement in the exercises of various area of the economy.

Service division exercises commonly require moderately less capital speculation than exercises in different parts. In any case, a lion’s share of these exercises additionally require generally less space for tasks service segment is an information serious area and significant HRD inputs are the vital for growing the vast majority of the services division exercises.

Today, in India service area accounts in excess of 50 percent of India’s Gross Domestic Product (GDP). There is a huge changes in sectoral commitment of every division to India’s GDP over some stretch of time. In 1950-51 the essential area was contributing about 56.5 percent to the Indian GDP. It is trailed by the optional area with 13.6 percent and tertiary part with 29.9 percent. During 1990-91 the portion of farming part in India GDP was 34 percent. It was trailed by optional segment with 23.2 percent and tertiary part with 42.8 percent. During 2007 the commitment of essential segment boiled down to 18 percent, and mechanical area expanded to 29 percent segment to 53 percent (Misra and Puri, 2009). During 2008-09 the portion of essential segment was 15.7 percent, the portion of optional segment was 28 percent and the portion of service area was 56.4 percent (GOI, 2010) which features the way that the portion of tertiary part is raising continually over some stretch of time. The portion of the economy that offers types of assistance to its shoppers is the tertiary segment. This incorporates wide scope of organizations and furthermore including monetary establishments, schools, transports and cafés. And furthermore known about the tertiary part or service industry/division.

India stands one of the main economy since its development has been driven by the Service area. It’s a bigger piece of the Indian economy both regarding business potential and its commitment to national salary.

Request and supply factors have prompted this development. In the interest side high development of services is the economy was for the most part because of the components, for example, the expanding input use of services by different segments. In the stock side is the expanded exchange services following exchange advancement arrangements and different changes of 1990s prompted this development.

The exchange advancement is answerable for the improvement of money, transport correspondence and other service segment action remembering for service lodging and eatery. Alongside this the increment popular for wellbeing and instruction additionally prompted extension of these segment.

The services segment in future giving about the 70 percent of the new position open doors in the economy as the offer farming in complete business previously falling, in the coming years, the portion of services would increment.

The Indian economy has added to the services area of about 55.2 percent share in G.D.P its developing by 10 percent every year, adding to the absolute business, a high offer in remote direct venture and 33% of all out fares and recording exceptionally quick at 27.4 percent in send out development of the main portion of 2010-11. While most recent accessible information has been taken from the national and global sources.

A few services, for example, framework incorporate the streets, railroads, common aeronautics, budgetary services and social services. The social services including the wellbeing and instruction assume a significant job in upgrading the commitment of service segment to its Indian economy.

Significance of the Present Study

Service division is rising as a command area among the three areas of the economy as of late. In the creating nations even today in excess of 50% of the work power packed in the horticulture part. In lessening the weight of the agribusiness segment the service division assumes a significant job. The work portion of the service segment can be expanded to diminish it’s weight. Presently a days service segment is contributing in excess of 50% of salary to the national pay. As economy develops there is a degree to extend service division exercises. At the point when the essential needs from the farming area is satisfied, there is a less extension for the development of horticulture division. In any case, the development of modern and service segments could expand national salary and yield and furthermore business openings can be given to work power of the nation. Service segment exercises can create new work openings in the economy.

Requirement for the Present Study

In globalized period the service segment is growing and can create work and pay at full scale level as well as at smaller scale level. The financial advancement can be made increasingly comprehensive by service part extension at grass-root level, which at last lead to practical improvement.

The advancement of service area prompts the expansion of the essential and optional areas. The advancement of service part elevates and increases the value of the agrarian division. Service segment gives account, advertising, transport, protection for the improvement of the agribusiness part. The extension of service area exercises help the optional segment exercises also. The service division not just gives fund, promoting, transport to the mechanical exercises, yet additionally boxes interest for the merchandise created by the segment. Henceforth the present subject is picked for the indepth examination.

Service segment can assume an imperative job in advancing parity local advancement. As service area exercises can be built up anyplace in the retrogressive districts. Which would prompt the decent advancement in the nation.

Creating nation like India has aboundent work fource comparable to capital. So the service segment can give work opportunity least capital venture. Service area can assume a significant job in diminishing imbalances in the dispersion of salary in the economy. Service area exercises can be set up by the destitute individuals with least capital venture prompting the financial strengthening of needy individuals and lessen disparities in the dispersion of salary. At present India is experiencing various financial issue because of absence of monetary chances. By extending service division exercises the socio-financial matters issues can be settled. During 2004-05 around 37 percent of the Indian populace is leaving beneath the destitution line (Sridhar, 2009) they can be given work and pay in the service division and lift them above neediness line. There is a degree in extending the interest for service segment by the expanding Indian white collar class, through which work and salary can be created for the needy individuals of India.

Service area can add to the reviewing of parity of installment issue. The expansion in the fare of services can win progressively outside trade and decrease the parity of installment shortage.

Summary

Service quality is defined as the outcome of a comparison between the expectations of a service and what is perceived to have been received (Li, 2012). The need for service quality in hospitality has grown exponentially, which has led to customers to have higher expectations for the quality of service than ever before. This paper seeks to evaluate the service quality of the hotels in Yunnan province of China. Despite the growth in Yunnan’s hotel industry, there has been a considerable gap in customer satisfaction and service quality. Some common service failures include: poor communication between departments, lack of enforcement in regulations and standards and low service quality. This research uses six main objectives to evaluate the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. The six main objectives are:

• Service quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction.
• Customer satisfaction has a positive effect on customer loyalty.
• Service quality has a positive effect on customer loyalty.
• Customer loyalty has a positive effect on brand image.
• Service quality has a positive effect on brand image.
• Customer satisfaction has a positive effect on brand image.

This study was conducted using four variables, which are service quality, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and brand image. The variables are defined as follows:

Service quality is defined as an assessment of how well a delivered service conforms to the client’s expectations (service quality, 2019).

Customer satisfaction is defined as the degree of satisfaction provided by the services of a company as measured to the customer’s perception of the outcome to the customer’s expectations (Kotler & Keller, 2009, pp. 164).

Customer loyalty is defined as a repeat purchase behavior which is influenced by a customer’s favorable attitude towards a service. (Kotler & Keller, 2009, p. 786).

Brand Image is perceptions about a brand reflected as associations existing in the memory of the consumer (Kotler & Keller, 2009).

This research uses both qualitative and quantitative analysis to achieve unbiased results. The qualitative data was gathered using face to face interview with the customers and the quantitative was gathered via questionnaires, which was analysed using Structural equation modelling (SEM). The quantitative analysis of the data reveals the following results:

• The service quality has a positive effect on customer satisfaction by a factor of 0.91
• The customer satisfaction has a positive effect on customer loyalty by a factor 0.30
• The service quality has a positive effect on customer loyalty by a factor of 0.69
• The customer loyalty has a positive effect on brand image by a factor of 0.75
• The service quality has an adverse effect on brand image by a factor of 0.18
• The customer satisfaction has a positive effect on brand image by a factor of 0.43

(Li, 2012)

This shows that each of the variables have interrelated effects on each other. The qualitative analysis is conducted to find out the following objectives: customers’ perception of target hotel, customers degree of satisfaction, customers’ loyalty to the hotel, brand image of the hotel in the customers mind, change in customer perception with change in service quality and to know the influence of service quality on customer satisfaction and loyalty. The study shows that the customers are satisfied with the hotel due to the high understanding of customer needs by the hotel resulting in high service quality. The service quality was the main deciding factor for customers to stay loyal to the hotel. The brand image was primarily dependent on good standards of service which increased their overall level of satisfaction resulting in a good brand image of the hotel. Finally, it was concluded that the service quality was a crucial factor in evaluating the loyalty to the hotel in the eyes of the customer. It was also found that customer satisfaction is influenced first rather than loyalty with respect to an increase in service quality.

The study was implemented in short term and long-term strategies for the hotels. Short term changes were implemented based on four variables. For service quality, the hotels took two approaches, which were providing better facilities like gymnasium to the guests and improve the standards of service like faster service, courtesy and employee service skills. To improve customer satisfaction, the hotels were asked to optimize their services according to customer needs. To create customer loyalty, the hotels must design the services that add value to the customers’ experience and fulfil their expectations so that they remain loyal towards the hotel and keep revisiting. All the factors mentioned above contribute to the building a better service experience for the customer, which leads to a better brand image for a hotel. Long term implementations of the study required the hotel to have an improved employee training and have value-added service trainings and language service. This helped create a welcoming environment for the guests and reduce the hierarchical nature of the organization for the employees. There is a certain limitation to this study such as the limited sample size for the survey and the interview, the static nature of the data compared to the dynamic needs of the customer and the limited scope of the literature. The research could be further improved by considering more variables and increasing the sample size.

Reaction Statement

In our opinion after reading ‘Service Is Power: Exploring Service Quality in Hotel’s Business, Yunnan, China by Xiangyu Li’ we agree with the ideas presented by the author in this research paper. The six main objectives and the four main variables of the service quality are presented in a precise manner and are sufficiently supported by the quantitative and qualitative analysis. However, we believe that the customers’ perception of service quality is not limited by the four variables described in this paper. In a dynamic industry like hotels, there can be many factors that can affect the service quality and through further research and analysis, we can use the learnings to improve customer’s experience further.

Findings

The primary outcome of this study shows that even a slight change in service quality can have a positive or negative impact on a customer’s experience. From a customer’s perspective, the service quality of a hotel influences their satisfaction, loyalty and brand image. A positive experience will encourage the customer to return and build a positive brand image. Poor service quality destroys the perception of brand image and turns away the guest. The qualitative results were based on the data collected from 8 individuals. This data was evaluated, and the following six objectives were obtained. To understand the customer’s perception of the hotel the customers were encouraged to assess the service components of the hotel. Good attitude of the staff and facilities provided by the hotel were some of the vital components of service quality improvement. The customer satisfaction is directly proportional to the service quality provided by the hotel. The environmental factors like clean environment, location, noise levels and sanitation levels play an essential role in building customer loyalty towards the hotel. The visual imagery, sense of security and unique services provided by the hotel conveys a positive brand image. A visible improvement in the service quality of the hotel creates a loyal customer, which further leads to a positive brand image for a hotel. The quantitative results utilize the 412 responses to the questionnaire (Li, 2012). This data was then interpreted using the Structural equation modelling (SEM) technique, which demonstrates a linear relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction. The service quality, tangible, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and technical quality are indicators of service qualities, as well as important factors to customer satisfaction, customer loyalty, and the negative indications about brand image.

Importance of the research

This research is critical in determining the key aspects of service quality that influence customer service expectation, customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and perception of brand image. Service quality is a developing concept which requires in-depth study however, this study focuses on limited aspects of this concept. It provides us with a better understanding of the customer needs and expectations. The hotels can use this research in improving their service quality in crucial areas which effects customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and perception of brand image. This will result in better management and service trainings for the employees ensuring higher returns for the hotel and loyal customers.

Conclusion

This research proves that there is a direct correlation between customer service and satisfaction. Loyalty and brand image are secondary outcomes of excellent customer service. The findings of the research were in congruence with the objectives put forward by the author. Furthermore, the application of this research in Yunnan hotels proved that improvement in service quality had a significant effect on customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and perception of brand image. The research could be further improved by improving the analysis techniques and variables such as the phycological behaviour of the customer and its relation to customer satisfaction. Some of the phycological behaviours include empathy, customer value, awareness and safety. To increase the scope of the study, different hotels in different countries and diverse group of people can be considered. With the advancement of technology the data can be collected in a faster and more accurate way helping make our research more in-depth and dynamic.

References

1. Li, X. (2012). Service Is Power: Exploring Service Quality in Hotel’s Business.
2. service quality. (2019, January 22). Retrieved from BusinessDictionary.com: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/service-quality.html
3. Kotler, & Keller. (2009). Marketing Management (13th ed.). New Jersey: Pearson Education International.
4. Harris, L. C., & Goode, M. M. H. (2004). The four levels of loyalty and the pivotal role of trust: a study of online service dynamics. Journal of Retailing, 80, 139-158. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jretai.2004.04.002
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Customers view reliability as a mixture of keeping promises. The reliability dimension comprises of “promises” and “doing it right” sub-dimensions (Dabholkar et al., 1996). consistent with a survey by Pricewaterhouse Coopers, Asian consumers demand superb quality, especially the provision of merchandise in stores way more than the Western customers.

Service is alleged to be distinguished from goods because of its Intangibility. The tangibility aspects of a service have a major effect on perceived service quality. Physical aspects of retailer include equipment and fixtures, physical facilities, convenience of physical facilities and layouts. The importance of physical environment in a retail service setting is because to its ability to influence consumer attitudes, behaviour intention and satisfaction and loyalty. As service consumption process conducted within a physical environment, the physical environment will have a huge impact on customers’ perception of service experiences. Bitner (1992) also noted that physical environment is commonly used as cues of a firm’s competences and quality by consumers before buying. Specifically, proper layout in a retail store will reduce shopper’s search time, colour combine with lighting were suggested to “affect consumers” cognitive representation and affective reaction”, and a light and pleasing scent affects shoppers’ perceptions of a shopping environment within which the latter will have a major effect on shoppers’ mood.

The interaction between store personnel and store customers are important as customers are more loyal to a store if the shop is seen as warm, friendly, and impulsive. Odekerken-Schröder et al. (2001) in their research emphasized the importance of inter-personal relationship which refers to “the opportunity for customers to affiliate with other individuals during the retail encounter”. Personal Interaction inspiring confidence of consumers includes error-free sales transactions and record, the power to answer customers’ questions, the behavior of employees during this store instils confidence in customers, and customers feel safe in their transactions with this store.

Problem Solving is that the problems with handling not only products returned but also exchanges and complaints. The matter solving dimension of shops includes: willingness of shops to handle returns and exchanges, sincere interest in solving the matter and handling customer complaints directly and immediately.

The policy captures aspects of services quality that are directly influenced by store policy. As an example, when customers evaluate a store on the premise of convenient hours, it’s viewed as whether the store’s policy is attentive to customers’ needs. The upper customers appreciate policy, the higher the evaluation of retail service quality is. Dabholkar et al. (1996) elaborated store policy to incorporate top quality merchandise, parking facilities, convenient operating hours, acceptance of major credit cards, and store’s own credit card.

All the five RSQS dimensions significantly influence the Overall Service Quality of the Retail Sector. Here, we can conclude that the Retail service quality dimensions account for 65.8 percent of the variance in Overall Retail Service Quality and policy and reliability had achieved the strongest association with the overall perception of service quality. Policy features a small to medium effect on the Service Quality whereas Problem Solving and Personal Interaction has medium to high effect on the Customer Satisfaction. Reliability and Physical aspects has the utmost effect on the Customer Satisfaction. Reliability has more effect than Physical Aspects in the Customer Satisfaction. Overall service quality dimensions account for 86.9 percent of the variance in Overall Customer Satisfaction.

Satisfying customers is one of the important objectives of each business. Businesses recognize that keeping current customers is more profitable than having to win new ones to switch those lost. Management and marketing theorists underscore the importance of customer satisfaction for a business’s success (McColl-Kennedy & Schneider, 2000; Reichheld & Sasser, 1990). Accordingly, the prestigious Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award recognizes the role of customer satisfaction as the central component of the award process (Dutka, 1993). Services and products are the two major orientations of business. Products – also mentioned as goods, are the physical output of a business. These are tangible objects that exist in time and space. These are first created, then inventoried and sold. It is literally consumed after purchase (Sureshchander, Rajendran, & Kamalanabhan, 2001; Berry, 1980). The concept of customer satisfaction consists of several components from different sources (McColl-Kennedy & Schneider, 2006). Customer satisfaction starts with clear and operational definitions from both the customer as well as the organization. Understanding the motivations, expectations, and desires of both gives a foundation in a way to best serve the customer. it’s going to even provide information on making improvements within the nature of business.

This can be the centre of research into customer satisfaction (Naylor & Greco,2002). The importance of clearly defining the key concepts and elements of satisfaction provide a template by which information can be gathered about what is working and what is not working. This includes both the hard measures – people who are more tangible and observable (i.e., number of complaints, average waits time, product returns, etc) and the soft measures – those less tangible aspects (i.e., friendliness, helpfulness, politeness, etc) (Hayes, 1998). The bottom line is that so as to understand about customer satisfaction, one has to know what to search for (Mitchell, 1999). The firm has to seek this information from both within and without.

Service is a word that we always use in our daily lives. It acts as an important role in many businesses and is a leading indicator to measure customer loyalty. Service is a kind of product that is not physical and not tangible such as some medical care and food delivery. These are the things that people cannot touch or feel. Kolter (2000) suggested that a service is an act or performance that one party can offer to another that is essentially intangible and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its production may or may not be tied to a physical product. Although services seem to be different from products, there are some suggestions show that there is a relationship between them.

Service dominant logic (SDL) is another way to see service. The conventional nation views service as the dominant logic for marketing. However, under the service dominant logic, it is viewed that service is the governing marketing phenomenon as it unifies different relationships from marketing to production and from consumption to resource pronouncement. Vargo and Lush (2004) define is SDL implies that all businesses are service businesses and covers all economic and social activities. They also mention that service is the exchange of service and it is the main process of using resources to benefit other parties. The idea of SDL is not about exchanging knowledge and between producers and consumers. It is mainly about how the consumers integrate, apply and use the resources to a specific producer. For example, some families use the lawn robot every day which is a complex technical product. It helps to maintain the length of the grass. The same service can be provided by a gardener who can mow the lawn three times a week. It shows that the lawn robot provides a service with lower prices and greater reliability. However, the prerequisites are that we have to know how to use the machine and install the technical boundary wires. It depends on our ability, knowledge as users of the service and willingness to co-create in this context and it determines the value of the product. Therefore, service dominant logic shows that products may not be different from services. A company can offer potential value to customers without direct interaction. The value co-creation between firms and consumers has capabilities of combining their skills, experiences and knowledge. It means that the product has no value until an offering is used as customers are always a co creator of value.

One of the main areas for consumers to purchase services is consumer experience. Consumer experience is based on the effective communication efforts its package and interaction between consumers and employees. It is the internal and subjective response customers have to any direct or indirect contact with the company (Schwager and Meyer, 2007). Emotions and moods are factors that can influence consumers’ experience. According to the interpersonal theory of emotions (Parkinson, 1995), emotions and their expression are elicited in the context of an implicit or explicit social situation and are perhaps the most proximate variables to an individual’s reaction to an event and any subsequent cognition or action. Oliver (1997) suggested that positive emotions increasing satisfaction while negative emotions decreasing satisfaction.

Marketers use the buying decision-making process to identify and track the decision making process of a customer journey from start to finish (Lucidchart.com, 2017). It includes 5 main stages, problem recognition, information search, alternatives evaluation, purchase decision and post-purchase evaluation. The moods and emotions in these steps can affect consumers’ satisfaction in their experience. It can bias the way that they judge the service providers. For example, a person orders food delivery after having a bad day. The consumer may be impatient and annoyed about the delivery time even it is the same or faster than normal. However, if the consumers have positive emotions when they are served, it gives prominence to the good experiences and leads to better evaluation. Besides, moods and emotions also affect our memories about the information that consumers absorb from the service. For example, if a customer goes to a gym room and able to meet many new friends and becomes fit. The customer may have a positive feeling and good memories whenever the customer thinks about that gym room even its equipment are not as good as other gym rooms. It is mainly because of their emotional state. Quality and the moods of the service employees also affect the consumers’ experiences. If the consumers are served well, they will have positive emotions and experiences but the interactions and emotions between consumers and serve employees will be affected if serve employees are rude. Therefore, it shows that emotions and moods act as an important role in consumers’ experiences. Organizations can improve their quality of services by observing the consumers’ emotional responses.

Customer expectations of service play an important role in delivering satisfactory services and can be used to judge the services. They are any set of behaviours or actions that individuals anticipate when interacting with a company. Parasuraman et al. (1991) proposed that customer expectations comprise two levels, desired and adequate. Desired expectations represented that the level of service a customer hopes to receive and how they want the service to perform. For example, the desired expectations of a 5-star hotel for the customers are clean, elegant and excellent room service. Adequate expectations are a lower level of expectation. It is the customers’ acceptable level of performance. For example, customers may have higher expectations from 3mobile than O2. When 3 mobile can provide better service and solve their problems completely but needs longer waiting time to get in contact with the customer services while O2’s service may not be able to solve the customers’ problems instantly. People may still feel disappointed with 3 mobile even the quality efficiency of their customer services are better.

There are many factors can affect customer expectations. For the desired service expectations, two factors are included. Firstly is the personal needs. They are related to conditions that are essential for customers’ physical or psychological well-being. Personal needs can be physical, functional and psychological. The second one is lasting service intensifiers. Liu et al. (2000) suggest that lasting service intensifiers refer to the stable service factors that allow the customer to have a higher understanding of service. Customers are always part of a large group and their service expectations can be influenced by group dynamics and experiences easily. Adequate service expectation is mainly affected by 5 factors (Zeithaml et al, 1993). They are temporary service intensifier, perceived alternatives, customer’s self-perceived service role, situational factors and predicted service. Temporary service intensifier means the short term factors and situations that customer realizes the need for service such as insurance as it is an emergency personal need. Perceived alternatives refer to other service providers the customers can choose from. Customer’s self-perceived service role means that customers have a perception of how much they can influence the level of service they receive. Situational factors mean a service can be compromised because of situational factors that are beyond the service provider’s control.

Predicted service is the level of service the customers believe they are most likely to get. It is the performance that the customers predict to get and the estimation of the performance level. Technology is another factor that influences services. There are two classes of technology affect service industries, such as automatic telling machines and self-checkout machines. There is rapid development for the internet in recent years and it has already been a host of new services.

There are different kinds of new services on the internet such as online buying, online banking, live chat and writing reviews or feedbacks online. According to the report, there are more than 4.57 billion of people around the world are internet users (Kemp, 2020). Customers prefer simplicity nowadays. Technology can simplify the process of serving and makes everything convenient. For example, many companies have moved face-to-face service to mobile service or live chat on the internet. Customers can also do research and know more information on the internet by themselves. However, some information on the internet are not correct and misleading. If customers receive that information, their service expectations can be affected.

In conclusion, service can affect consumers’ choices and purchase behaviour although it is intangible. It is also hard for employers to set a price for the service. Services can be improved through analysing customers’ experiences and expectations. There is an increase in using technological services. However, it is believed that it will not replace traditional services. It is because face-to-face interaction is important to people. It tends to be more persuasive when customers and serve employees are both seen and heard

ntroduction

The service industry is key to most economies in the world. Several theories have been used to analyze the service industry. Based on the different challenges in management, a process matrix alongside empirical data would form the classification rather than simple observation. Despite empirical data forming the basis for classification in the service industry, misconceptions may occur (HSPH, 2014). A misconception in classification may occur when service industries share similar characteristics, as evidenced by the process matrix. This paper analyzes the professional service marketing at Starbucks with a focus on the nature of the service, the target population, customer behavior as well as a model to explain the components of service product.

What is the nature of the service using service classification theory?

Service may be classified based on the nature of the process and what is being processed. The processes in service include the customers and pricing category for the services. Service classification by customers includes their involvement while that of pricing consists of the financial cost and mental effort associated with the service. Furthermore, services may be classified according to tangibility. For instance, services directed towards the minds of individuals and those directed towards intangible assets. However, the matrix for the classification of service includes nine categories. Classification based on the effect of goods to individuals, temporary or permanent change attributed to the service, reversibility of the service, mental or body effects as well as the marketing characteristics (Guzman, & Iglesias, 2012). Starbucks is one of the companies that has established its market base on customers and ethical behavior as opposed to the investment of millions in advertisement forums that turn out with little or no benefit. At Starbucks, there is usually a high demand for coffee with individuals regularly visiting the cafes. However, the main challenge for Starbucks is to establish an effective customer retention strategy.

Under the marketing classification, service is further subdivided into tangible or intangible, relationship with customers, and whether it is formal, continuous or not, whether the service allows room for customization or not, the nature of supply or demand as well as the level of interaction between the supplier and the customer. However, personalization or standardization and the availability of goods are the main basis for the classification of service. Starbucks began in Seattle in the year 1971 and has since then grown from a single store to several stores (Jacoby, 1971). Starbucks has over one hundred and sixty thousand employees and is well known to serve clients globally with the best beverages, which includes coffee. Starbucks operates on a mission statement of inspiring one person with one beverage at a time while reaching out to the neighborhood. In the United States, over half of the youthful population spends more than forty million dollars on Starbucks beverages annually. Starbucks has always been competitive amidst competitors such as McCafe through innovative marketing strategies.

Who is the target market?

Success in business requires an effective marketing strategy to attract customers and establish a remarkable brand identity. Starbucks applies demographic market segmentation, whereby the main target group is that of the working class aged between twenty-five and forty years. The second target group is that of the richer population aged between eighteen and twenty-four years of age. On the other hand, mass marketing focuses on the wider public whereby the criteria for customer focus is a high salary or young age. Starbucks selects its target market based on the customer perception of the product or service. Service analysis enables Starbucks to decide on the type of product or service to sell and to whom. The company strives to provide high-quality coffee and other creative beverages to difficult customers as well as fresh, interesting beverages to the younger population while sustaining the image of the company (Turner, 2011). Most customers like to associate with Starbucks since its target is to offer high quality to the upper-middle class.

Customer behavior

There has been very little attention paid on the market positioning at Starbucks due to the tangible and intangible perceptions of the product. There is the risk of perception whereby customers believe that they are consuming the best quality and have developed a personalized experience which is enhanced through the trained staff. For instance, intangible service is evidenced by writing the customer’s name on the cup they would be served in. In this way, Starbucks has developed a brand name that beats all existing competitors. While Starbucks differentiates between the product and service, they gain a competitive advantage. Selling in a fast-paced world is common at Starbucks, where customers decrease social interaction and connect more with the staff. However, there are claims that despite Starbucks being a leader in hotel beverage service, there is a concern based on the personal approach to clients. Franchising of Starbucks has led to the loss of some of the glory and magic in beating the competition. Customers at Starbucks now feel neglected and treated similarly to any other fast-food regular customers. Starbucks is at the risk of losing its competitive advantage (Morriss, 2012).

What are the different components of the service product?

Ansoff or BCG matrix may be used. The BCG matrix enables Starbucks to have an idea of how its products are performing in the market. The matric enables Starbucks to not only focus on the market share but also avoid missing out on the opportunities for growth. Starbucks invests more in products that are doing well and less in those that are not. Some products that do not show any signs of improvement are phased off from the market. The BCG matrix is best applied in combination with the Ansoff matrix. Based on Ansoffs matrix, the strategic move for Starbucks would be product development through the introduction of evening coffee, which has become increasingly popular. Marketing at Starbucks includes market segmentation, targeting, position, and differentiation. Several activities occur at Starbucks to address the needs of the target market. The products at Starbucks are inclusive of Served food and beverages, take away coffee, and mugs. While beverages attract the most profit, the mugs on sale is a culture adopted worldwide that helps Starbucks develop a global identity (Starbucks Store, 2014). Also, customers enjoy packed coffee the same as for the one taking the coffee in the restaurant. Nevertheless, the customers at Starbucks are of the opinion that coffee in larger stores is of lesser quality, is less enjoyable and to some extent, it always feels that the aim of Starbucks was profit-making other than creating a friendly customer environment.

Starbucks is not only famous for its ideal locations but also present in large and small cities both in Europe and America. In smaller villages, promotion for Starbucks products is usually by personal interaction as opposed to mass media. The use of fidelity cards is also common. However, the main drivers for marketing at Starbucks include the social image, ethics, as well as effective relationship with the public on social media platforms (Porter, & Kramer, 2011). Customers like to associate with the code of ethics upheld at Starbucks. Another component of the service is the use of specific language for ordering store products which are unique to the company.

Moreover, summer campaigns inform customers on the different ways they can take coffee such as slushies, lattes, and milkshakes, which promotes organization sales. Furthermore, Starbucks employees are well trained to address the emerging challenges based on the set models. The staff is highly motivated to work since the social programs in place, enabling them to develop careers, and the work allows for flexibility of time. The staff is also entitled to a percentage of shares at Starbucks based on their position at work (Wood, 2011). Starbucks is a trusted brand since it allows for transparency and public accessibility among individuals to promote awareness of the origin of the coffee and other beverages in liaison with trade organizations that offer comprehensive reports. Another component of the service is the enhancement of the interior design making attractive to customers who pride in Starbucks.

A SWOT and PESTEL analysis for Starbucks creates an understanding of the internal and external factors affecting the success of the company, thus facilitates the formulation of an effective marketing mix. External factors are those that are out of control by the organization, yet they influence the success of the organization. External factors may include competitor companies or certain political factors associated with the growth of coffee beans. For instance, the existing regime may put to inquiry the conditions of the coffee workers or highlight issues on child labor. Besides, tariffs and additional taxation would affect the economic standing of Starbucks by decreasing its share of profit. Starbucks is also at the pressure to adjust to environmental laws. At the same time, there is a need for flexibility in the product where the youth resolve to take more tea than coffee. The development of new technology such as home coffee makers may also affect the customer preference for restaurant coffee. On the other hand, technology may be used constructively through the use of gift card in social media (Zapolski, 2010).

Conclusion

In conclusion, Starbucks has professional service marketing which relies on direct communication to clients, customer loyalty, and adherence to the code of ethics at Starbucks as well as community involvement. Both internal and external factors that affect Starbucks may be analyzed through an effective model such as PESTEL. Despite Starbucks as a renowned brand, several issues may put the organization at the risk of its competitors. The issues on tax and mass production may affect the brand image, thus discouraging clients from becoming loyal to Starbucks. There is a need for Starbucks to adopt effective service marketing strategies that focus on the specific needs of the customers.

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