Recap
üChapter 3: Service Quality
- Historic perspectives on quality
- The quality gurus
- Why quality is important?
- Outcomes of service quality
- Service quality measurement
RECAP
Service quality models
- The Nordic Model (Technical & Functional)
- Two-dimensional quality (Process-output)
- The Gaps Model (Expectations & Perceptions)
- SERVQUAL (Five dimensions using gap principle)
- SERVPERF
Understanding and Engaging
Customers
CHAPTER 4
Introduction
üIt must understand, engage, and satisfy its customers to remain in business
üService quality & customer satisfaction – important in creating a loyal
customer
üTo further understanding customers – how to stay attuned to them, in
touch with them and in a constant rate of listening and engagement with
them
üNeed to create a genuine ‘ customer listening’ organization culture
üFocus on internal customers and external customers
üCollect customer information by using various methods to fulfill customers’
expectations and measure the performance
The Importance of Understanding Customers
üA hospitality or tourism firm’s competitive advantage – service excellence and
differentiation –a customer-centric focus
üHow they provide the service makes them feel different to the customer
üCustomer’s perceptions of the firm’s service quality – sustainable basis of differentiation
üStrategic advantage of adopting a customer-orientation – improve market share &
profits
üCustomer related issues within a business context
- Customer satisfaction
- Customer care
- Customer expectations
- Customer loyalty
- Customer value
- Customer relationships
- Customer engagement
- Customer centricity etc.
Customer Centricity/ Customer Orientation
üDrucker (1973)
- “to satisfy the customer is the mission and purpose of every business”
- Four fundamental issues and challenges
- Organizational culture, structure, process and financial metrics
- Starting with leadership commitment, organizational realignment, changes
in systems and process support, and more appropriate customer-centered
financial metrics
- The first challenge – to identify just what those expectations are
- Two major causes of poor performance
- Lack of understanding and connection to customers
GUESTOLOGY
- To focus everyone’s attention on the study of guest behaviour.
- Forcing the firm to look systematically at the customer experience from the guests’ point
of view
- For example; Disney collects customer feedback through a variety of listening posts
including
- Face-to face research
- Guest communications
- Websites and social media
- employee communications
Categories of Customers
üInternal customers
üCurrent external customers
üCompetitors’ customers
üEx-customers
üPotential future customers
The Importance of Customer Information
üCustomers expectation and perceptions are constantly changing – is the nature
of the service offered by competing organizations
üCustomer-perception research
üQuantitative research
üQualitative research
The Importance of Customer Information (Cont.)
Establish answers to the following sorts of questions:
- Why did a customer buy (or not buy) a particular service?
- Is the customer satisfied or not with the service?
- Will the customer return?
- What were the customer’s expectations about the service before purchase and
consumptions?
- How do customers experience and perceive the different components of a given
service?
- What are the trends in customer preferences over time?
- Would the customer recommend the service to someone else?
- What types of things do customers in a particular market segment like?
- What is currently trending?
- And many others!
Customer-perception Research
Most Commonly Used Methods
1. In-depth interviews with individual customers
2. Focus group interviews with selected groups of customers
3. Market surveys
4. In-house customer satisfaction surveys
5. Net Promoter Score (NPS)
6. Critical-incident technique (complaint analysis)
7. Mystery shoppers (customer experience evaluations)
8. Customer-to-customer communication
Figure 4.1 Sample Net Promoter Score
Figure 4.2 Sample from a Restaurant Mystery Shopper
Questionnaire
Figure 4.3 Open-ended Questions on a Mystery
Shopper Questionnaire
Utilizing Customer Information
üIt is vitally important to have a mechanism –any urgent customer feedback is
considered and acted upon by management immediately
üA definite time period should be designated for the gathering of information,
and for subsequent action on any identified issue.
Listening to the Internal Customers
üQuality internal service and satisfied internal customers are essential if an
organization is to establish an effective customer-oriented service culture.
üInternal Service
- J.W. Marriott, President of the Marriott summed up the idea that ‘We must do
all we can to ensure that our organization’s systems, methods, and policies serve
the people who serve the customers’
üEmployee Research
ü- to better understanding the employees’ needs and changing expectations
üInseparability makes employees important
Listening to the Internal Customers (Cont.)
üManagement involvement
üEffective two- way communication – support employees
üThe importance of feedback from employees
üEmployees as customer advocates
üA personal relationship with the customer becomes established
üA new sense of responsibility for knowing the customers
Linking Internal and External Customer Research
üEffective feedback systems ensure a continuous flow of information from
employees to management, and back again
üTo fully understand the expectations and perceptions of external customers,
service managers
ümust also engage with its internal customers
ükeep the channels of communication open and inviting
ücreate a genuine culture of listening to all of customers to achieve
competitive advantage
Group Presentation
üCase Studies
1. Long Beach Hotel, Mauritius (Page 261)
2. Cactus Jack’s Restaurants, Australia (Page 263)
3. Emporium Hotel, Australia. (Page 266)
4. Spicers Retreats, Australia (Page 268)
5. Haidilao, China (Page 270)
Presentation time: 15 minutes
Questions and answers: 20 minutes
Presentation Schedule:
16.1.2025 (Thursday) – Group 1,2 & 3
18.1.2025 (Saturday) – Group 4 & 5
Note: All group members must be present on the day of the presentation. Absentees
will not earn marks.
Thank You!