Improving Service Quality in Hotel and Resort

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY The first chapter of musical composition depart explain the purpose of the report and why this report is important. In chapter 2, the returns musical note ordain be identified. thither ar cardinal parts in this chapter the first part will discuss imagination and principle of the assistant fibre and the following part will whole step the utility feeling models. Mainly the SERVQUAL model and the match forest caution (TQM) will be examined. accordingly in chapter 3, implementation, the chosen ecesis which is the bludgeon Mediterranean ( bludgeon Med) will be employ for the dish musical note model.The at last chapter is conclusion of the report and the Appendices will be stated side by side(p) to persona list. TABLE OF CONTENTS Executive Summary .. 2p Chapter 1 Introduction 1. 1 Purpose of the Report . 4p Chapter 2 serve up spirit 2. 1 Principles of divine service gauge .. 5p 2. 2 Service Quality Models .. 6p Chapter 3 Implementation 3. 1 Back ground of the altogetheriance Med . 8p 3. 2 Steps of Implementation . 9pChapter 4 proof 12p Reference List .. 13p Appendices 15p CHAPTER 1 INTRODUCTION 1. 1 PURPOSE OF THE penning Service organizations exist as a function of their clients table do spirit then, is the primary survival strategy (Schneider and Chung, 1993, p. 124). Carey (2003) note that the gain look is a subject that permeates every component of the tourism industry. Especi exclusivelyy in hotel and resort, the swear out quality is integral for long term survival.Therefore each high society should take the service quality as serious management philosophy and brace to adopt theories and models to identify gap between expectation and perception. CHAPTER 2 SERVICE QUALITY 2. 1 PRINCIPLES OF SERVICE QUALITY Service quality is defined as the degree of excellence intended that meets customer requirements (Wyckoff, 1992). However, Carey (2003) points place the service quality, the result of a comparison betwe en the expectations of a customer and the actual service they current. Therefore, understanding gap between the expectation and the received service basis be a key source of the service quality.According to Fitzsimmons and Fitzsimmons (2001), these expectations are found on some(prenominal) sources, including word of m come forwardh, personalized studys, and past experience. Thus, people whitethorn have more expectation on the high-rated hotel. Usually, the fiver-star hotels are more expensive than the lower level so customers may expect to unsex serviced as much as they pay. In former(a) word, the service quality potty be a primary destination for hotels to gain more profits. To put simply, infract quality means better profitability and securities industry share and when higher quality and large market share are both present, profitability is nearly guaranteed (Ross, 1993).According to Scheuing and Christopher (1993) the service quality is a powerful force that reshapes attitudes and actions toward creating customer satisfaction and loyalty, and thus, sustainable competitive advantage in an unstable environment of dynamic ball-shaped competition. Accordingly, the managers who work in hospitality industry need to know not only how to manage the organisation but also how to manage the service quality to provide customer satisfaction unbrokenly. 2. SERVICE QUALITY MODELS Levitt (1972) argues that the theories and concepts of quality and its management have adopted slowly into the service industry from manufacturing. quite an than a paradigm trade taking place, the existing quality theories and models were held in their entirety by parts of the service sector and the paradigm shift occurred when difficulties were occurred in the sector, for example, the use of only soft entropy analysis rules (Williams & Buswell, 2003).There are many service quality theories and concepts have been used such(prenominal) as the Statistical Process Control (SPC), Ten Benchmarks of Total Quality Control, and the 14-step Quality Improvement Programme, However, in following paragraphs will discuss deuce service quality models which are SERVQUAL and Total Quality Management that is know as TQM. 2. 2. 1 SERVQUAL model SERVQUAL is a survey musical instrument that measures service quality.According to Saleh and Ryan (1991), it was signly devised for the assessment of services inwardly the financial sector, and consists of a 22-item, seven-point Likert Scale but not all of the issues were directly applicable to a hotel. However Martin (1986) offers a 40-item scale in the assessment of service within restaurants, and from this a number of questions were picked and adapted for hotel and finally therefore, a 33-item and five-point Likert Scale instrument was developed.There are five dimensions of service quality reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy, and tangibles. In the lymph node survey, the customer will answer the questions which are based on the five dimensions. Fitzsimmons et al (2001) point out the multiple dimensions of service quality are captured in the SERVQUAL instrument, which is an effective tool for surveying customer satisfaction that is based on the service quality gap model. 2. 2. 2 Total Quality Management (TQM) Bardi (2007) states that preparation for adopting TQM is necessary to achieve success goal in hotel.Biech (1994) defined Total Quality Management (TQM) as a customer-focused, quality-centered, fact-based, team-driven, senior-management-led touch on to achieve an organizations strategic imperative through continuous process improvement. In its simplest form, the TQM is a management philosophy which states that the whole organisation is working for meeting the customers need and expectation (Williams et al, 2003). The TQM has dickens major proceedings customer requirements and expectations determination and these requirements and expectations deliver organising (Ross, 1993).Ross (1993) po ints out that the beat of success is customer satisfaction and the only way to achieve the attendant customer satisfaction is through continuous improvement by TQM. CHAPTER 3 IMPLEMENTATION 3. 1 BACKGROUND OF THE CLUB MED Club Mediterranean (Club Med) is an transnational hotel chain companionship operating worldwide resort villages. Club Med was founded in 1950 by Gerard Blitz who is the ii time Olympic medalist mastermind while Blitz stayed at the Olympic Clubs bivouac village where he had the idea to combine his passion for humanitarian causes with athleticism.The initial concept of the Club Med was to offer people to enjoy sports holidays with reasonable price. The society expanded through the 1950s, 1960s and 1970s, and during 1980s it continued to diversify and decentralize, sightly ever more international (International journal of Health Care Quality Assurance, 1994). Today, the Club Med is with over 80 villages across 5 continents at beaches to mountain, ski resort, and even history-rich area and with its G. Os that are members of staff representing around a hundred nationalities speaking over 30 languages and it continues to emphsise its multicultural aspect.Currently the company offers five styles of holiday, so that people brush off choose the village that beat meets their holiday expectations. The Club Meds use is to provide its customers with a holiday as close to perfection as possible by creating a unique atmosphere which engenders a sense of wellbeing, as well as by providing top-quality amenities, the company aims for total customer satisfaction (International daybook of Health Care Quality Assurance, 1994). 3. 2 STEPS OF IMPLEMENTATION As the report discussed above, the Club Med end use whether SERVQUAL model or TQM method to improve the companys service quality.However if both two model used together, it will make synergy effect on the business. First, to adopt SERVQUAL model on the Club Med, quantitative research will be used and the data are from existing the companys record. Not only the quantitative data but also qualitative research will be used to identify the service quality gaps which brought to inconsistency between the guest expectations and the guest perceptions. The staffs of the Club Med can have in-depth and face-to-face interviews.The interviewees will be included the reception GOs, the sport legal action GOs, the bar and restaurant GOs and whoever village GOs to identify the gap. This provided the researcher to recognize which plane section has the most contact with the GMs (gentle member that known as guest of the Club Med). Next step is for sampling procedures and in the process the reception desk or the front desk will allow discipline relate guest complaints. It is because of in many hotels, the front desk has high level of contact with guests and also the reception desk will receive the majority of guest complaints (Carey, 2003).The two survey populations will be the GMs and the GOs. In addition for the guests, the guest survey can be asked. For instance, the Likert Scale survey which is asking guests to rate each activity or department in a scale of 1 to 5 can be used. Currently, the Club Med is using customer satisfaction ratings virtually. According to Fitzsimmons et al (2001), the Club Med uses the questionnaire and it is mailed to all guests directly after their departure from a Club Med vacation to assess the quality of their experience in the village.The information from the survey completed by guest is used in some(prenominal) ways. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance (1994) points out that if there is a complaint about one of Club Meds villages, head office immediately reports back to the village manager. After all the interviewing and surveying, data collection and analysis by coding will be necessary to identify the service gaps. Through the coding analysis, finally the Club Med can find gaps in the service process. Therefore the Club Med an get a broad response and a better understanding of guest expectations and perceptions to improve their service quality. Next, to adopt the Total Quality Management (TQM) on the Club Med, as shown in the appendix 1, there are several steps for implementing TQM. The first step is defining the mission. According to the International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance (1994), the Club Meds aim is to provide its customers with a holiday as close to perfection as possible. Thus the companys mission is total customer satisfaction.The mo step is for identifying system output and the third is for identifying customers. To use of demographic questionnaire can be useful not only to know the guests but to facility a target markets so improve systems as their requirement. Then the next step is for negotiating customers requirements. From the bargain, developing a supplier specification that details customer requirements and expectations is the next. Finally, determining t he necessary activities required to fill those requirements and expectation will be finished the implementing TQM.On the contrary, Dale (1994) notes that number of barriers to achieving TQM that shows in appendix 2. Accordingly, the company should rid of several components as lack of committal from senior management to service quality so the Club Meds head office moldiness focus on the service quality improvements continuously. The second component to countermand is fear of the changes to work patterns and processes. Thus the senior management should empower employees. Then lack of resources and no customer focus is following. To improve service quality and to adopt TQM, company has to keep focus on the customers requirements.For the last, without correct data collection and analysis, the Club Med can not meet improved service quality. CHAPTER 4 CONCLUSION The service quality will be a major component of the future hospitality industry continuously. Therefore hotels need to mana ge the service quality with various theories and methods. As discussed above, this report has applied SERVQUAL and TQM on the Club Med to identify the service gaps. Accordingly, if the Club Med uses the service quality, they can reduce gap and provide customer satisfaction. The any efforts from hotels market an not be stand on long term time period solely. However, the quality of the interactive service between hotelier and the guest can be possibly long term and this can be why the improving service quality is important to hotel. Both service quality theories and models measurement is a customer satisfaction. Thus to improve a hotel or resorts service quality with customer satisfaction, the whole of departments should tie beam and think about the service quality together so the all of employees and the senior mangers generate continuous improvements.REFERENCE LIST Bardi, J. A. , (2007). Hotel Front world power Management (4th ed. ). naked as a jaybird Jersey John Wiley & Sons. Biech, E. (1994). TQM for Training. US McGraw-Hill. Carey, K. L. (2003). Improving service quality in small communities the Bahamas as a model. Las Vegas University of Nevada, Las Vegas. Club Med. (n. d. ). Retrieved family line 21, 2007, from http//www. clubmed. com. us Dale, B. G. (1994). Managing Quality (2nd ed. ). Hemel Hempstead Prentice-Hall. Fitzsimmons, J. A. , & Fitzsimmons, M. J. (2001).Service Management operations, strategy, and information technology (3rd ed. ). New York McGraw-Hill. International Journal of Health Care Quality Assurance (1994). Sun, Sea, keystone and Service, 7(4), 18-19. Levitt, T. (1972). Production-line approach to service. Harvard Business Review. In C. Williams, J. Buswell, Service Quality in waste and Tourism. capital of the United Kingdom CABU Publishing. Martin, W. B. (1986). Quality Service, The Restaurant Managers Bible. US Brodock Press. Saleh, F. , & Ryan, C. (1991). Analysing Service Quality in the Hospitality intentness Using the SE RVQUAL Model.The Service Industry Journal, 11(3), 324-345. Schneider, B. , & Chung, B. (1993). Creating service climates for service quality. In E. Scheuing, W. Christopher (Eds. ), The Service Quality Handbook. New York American Management Association. Snow Japan. (n. d. ). Retrieved September 21, 2007, from http//www. snowjapan. com/e/services/club-med. html Ross, J. E. (1993). Total Quality Management text, cases, and readings. Florida St. Lucie Press. Williams, C. , & Buswell, J. (2003). Service Quality in Leisure and Tourism.capital of the United Kingdom CABI Publishing. Wyckoff, D. D. (1992). New tools for achieving service quality. In C. H. Lovelock (Eds. ), Managing Services marketing, operations and human resources. Hemel Hempstead Prentice-Hall. APPENDICES Appendix 1 Implementing TQM by Defining the mission Identifying system output Identifying customers Negotiating customers requirements Developing a provider specification that details customer requirements and expectatio ns Determining the necessary activities required to fulfill those requirements and expectations. Source Ross, J. E. (1993). Implementing TQM. Total Quality Management text, cases, and readings. p. 2. Florida St. Lucie Press. ) Appendix 2 Number of barriers to achieving TQM lose of commitment from senior management to service quality Fear of the changes to work patterns and processes Lack of resources No customer focus Poor data collection or analysis (Source Williams, C. , & Buswell, J. (2003). Number of Barriers to Achieving TQM. Service Quality in Leisure and Tourism. p. 22-23. London CABI Publishing. )