Beruflich Dokumente
Kultur Dokumente
Musaidullah Muhammad
Student Iqra University
Abstract
Chapter 1: Introduction
Overview
Customer satisfaction is considered as important for supply chains specifically in service.
Delivering quality services increases the satisfaction level and wins repeat customers as
well as new customers. Evaluation of service quality is essential for determining not only
customer satisfaction but also to identify areas for improvement.
The service supply chain provides a variety of services to satisfy customer expectation. In
order to assess the degree to which the SC is meeting customer expectation
questionnaires are used to invite customer opinion on the existing services and
suggestions for further improvements. Karimi, Sanayei and Moshrefjavadi (2011) also
conducted a research particularly on customer satisfaction about quality of service in
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 2
hospitality sector including hotel industry through SERVPERF model (Cronin & Taylor,
1994).
The key elements of supply chain had been studied under hospitality sector to look at
customers perception and their satisfaction. Generally, hotel or hospitality sector largely
depend on service and quality offered to win future clients. Routine customer surveys are
conducted as customer leave after staying in the hotels. In order to have a more
comprehensive assessment several models such as SERVQUAL, SERVPERF have been
developed to assess service quality. This research projects proposes to use SERVPERF
model for hotel industry.
In Pakistan, there is a lack of such type of research. The purpose of this thesis was
evaluating that how customers are satisfied in hotel industry by using SERVPERF model.
This thesis project particularly proposes to examine that how the service and quality
affect customers to make them satisfy using SERVPERF model to analyze the service
hotels in Karachi.
Problem Statement
Customer satisfaction is considered as an essential factor of supply chain. The hotel
industry has to depend of the quality of service offered to win future customers. Routine
customer surveys are conducted as customer leave after staying in the hotels. In order to
have a more comprehensive assessment several models such as SERVQUAL,
SERVPERF have been developed to assess service quality. This thesis project proposes
to use SERVPERF model for the local hotel industry in Karachi.
The research method had been discussed in chapter number three. This chapter contains
method of data collection, technique of sampling to collect data from population, total
sample size i.e. number of observations to be analyzed, data collection instrument such in
this study a comprehensive questionnaire had been developed and statistical technique
applied for the purpose of testing research hypotheses. This had been also divided into
validity and reliability test. The next issue was how research model to be developed.
The results, findings and interpretations of the study had been discussed in chapter
number four. At the end of the chapter number four, hypotheses assessment summary had
been shown to see which hypothesis had been accepted or rejected.
In final chapter of the study, discussions, conclusion, implication and future research had
been discussed.
Definitions
Customer satisfaction: It means the frequency of customer to attain the same service.
Service Quality: It means the food, rooms and the environment provided by the hotel to
the customers.
Parasuraman et.al (1985) originally explored service quality with ten dimensions
classifying them into five categories as below:
Tangibility: Appearance of workers, organization’s physical facilities and appearance
of their physical equipment
Reliability: Conveying and delivering the promised services
Responsiveness: The response speed, immediate service and help to clients
Assurance: To rouse confidence and trust in organization by information, reliability of
the representatives and politeness.
Empathy Eagerness and competence to give individual attention regarding a
customer
Parasuraman et.al (1985) subsequently surveyed these five dimensions and evaluated
them on the basis of input to two declarations that assess:
1) The common desires of clients involving a service
2) Observations of clients in regards to service level actually offered by company.
The score for gap is computed as the variation between Perception (P) and expectation
(E). Pursuing this estimation, higher the P-E score, better is the service superiority
Many research scholars illustrated some weakness of SERVQUAL.
Cronin and Taylor (1992) concluded that five dimensions don’t appear to be totally
generic and generally depend upon the nature of the business. Nevertheless, apart from
these weaknesses, the model remains a valuable and effective tool for service-quality
(Ladhari, 2009). According to Ladhari (2009), service managers can exploit SERVQUAL
to assess their own particular service attributes and correlate with their adversaries.
SERVQUAL might be used to fragment customers on the premise of their evaluation
scores. Ladhari (2009) further explained that is additionally practical to explore
perceptions and customer’s desires on the basis of geographical and demographic.
Additionally to examine the association's execution on the premise of service extents, a
qualitative study could be grasped through talks and meetings with their customers to
gain data about their desires.
A few specialists like Parasuraman et al. (2005) have additionally created specific e-
service quality scales, for example, improving E-S-Qual, for reviewing electronic
examination excellence. E-S-QUAL comprising of twenty two items isolated in four
dimensions:
1) "Proficiency" (which depicted as pace of monitoring and using the site)
2) "Contentment" (the intensity to which the site guarantees about request
conveyance and items accessibility is satisfied)
3) "System accessibility" (the right specialized working of the site)
4) "Protection" (the extent to which the site is sheltered and secures client data)
Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Berry (1996) created a SERVQUAL questionnaire contains
two sections. Customer’s expectations are measured in the first section and customer’s
perceptions are measured in the second section of the questionnaire. Cronin and Taylor
(1994) concluded that by utilizing the second section of SERVQUAL instruments, a
more reliable outcome can be acquired which is commonly named as performance based
measurement; SERVPERF.
SERVPERF Model
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 5
The SERVQUAL model provided by Parasuraman et al. (1985 & 1988) used actual
performance with customer expectation for comparison. Cronin and Taylor (1992) argued
that only performance component of the model provides superior representation for
quality service. The difference between SERVPERF and SERVQUAL is that
SERVPERF only considers the actual performance only and not a high undefined
perceived quality (based on expectations).
Another problem encountered with rating expectation often introduces different types of
expectation and respondent of SERVQUAL model are unsure on the expectation score
(Teas, 1993)
Customer Satisfaction
To satisfy the customer is a core objective of supply chain; whether service or
manufacturing. If the customer derives the required service or when services exceed
customers’ expectations, the customer may be delighted and consequently satisfied.
Customer satisfaction may come from five factors (Parasuraman et al. 1985),
Figure 2.1
Service Quality & Customer Satisfaction (Cronin & Taylor, 1992)
Research Hypotheses
The hypotheses of the study are as under:
H1: Tangibility significantly affects consumer satisfaction in hotel industry.
H2: Reliability significantly affects consumer satisfaction in hotel industry.
H3: Responsiveness significantly affects consumer satisfaction in hotel industry.
H4: Assurance significantly affects consumer satisfaction in hotel industry.
H5: Empathy significantly affects consumer satisfaction in hotel industry.
The chapter covers the detailed information regarding sources of data collection, sampling, size
of the sample and theoretical and research model developed.
Sampling Technique
Unrestricted non probability technique had been chosen to collect data from relevant
sample.
The above table 3.1 shows the case processing summary about how many observations
had been used as sample for the analysis of the study and how many cases are valid and
excluded. The N in the above table shows the total number of observations included in
this study was 300 and one observation was excluded from the analysis due to particular
reason.
Working
Job
Remuneration
Employee
Satisfaction
Turnover
Decision to
Quit
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 8
The Cronbach’s Alpha value was (0.823) which was greater than 0.5 that suggested that
categorical data used in the study was reliable for analysis. On the strength of Reliability
test, now Regression analysis may be applied to examine customer satisfaction in hotel
industry of Karachi by using SERVPERF model.
Figure 3.1
SERVPERF Model (Cronin and Taylor, 1992)
Tangibility
Assurance
Reliability
Empathy
Statistical Technique
Multiple Linear Regression test had been run for investigating customer satisfaction in
hotel in industry of Karachi by using SERVPERF model.
Chapter 4: Results
This chapter of results contains thesis findings and interpretation of the data analysis.
Table 4.1 indicate model summary of study. R in the above table was coefficient of
correlation between the variables which was 65.3% which was greater than 50% that
means the correlation was statistically significant among study variables. The R Square in
above table is coefficient of determination. The R square value (0.426) specifies that
42.6% of variation in dependent variable such as customer satisfaction was elucidated by
above mentioned five predictors. As value of R Square (0.426) was approaching to 0.50;
therefore, it indicated that study model was fit for the analysis as per data provided.
Table 4.2 demonstrates matrix for Analysis of Variances (ANOVA). The sig value
(0.000) in above table 4.2 was less than 0.05 (α=0.05), thus, the study rejected the null
hypothesis and accepted the alternate hypothesis that customers are highly satisfied if the
hotel industry of Karachi use SERVPERF model.
Also, the value of F statistics is greater than 3.8 (i.e. 43.127>3.8), therefore, F value also
proved that customer are satisfied if the hotels followed SERVPERF model factors
The sig value for Tangibility in the above table 4.3 was 0.000, which was less than level
of significant (α=0.05), therefore, study rejected null hypothesis and accepted alternate
hypothesis that tangibility significantly affect consumer satisfaction in hotel industry.
Thus this thesis found that if management of the hotel sector in Karachi takes care of
decoration and physical appearance of the hotels, then the customers may be highly
satisfied and can visit the hotel again and again and finally can become loyal.
The table 4.3 also shows the sig value (0.617) for 2nd independent variable (i.e.
Reliability) which was greater than level of significant (α=0.05), (0617>0.05), therefore,
study rejected the alternate hypothesis that reliability has significant impact on customer
satisfaction in hotel industry and failed to reject suggested null hypothesis.
In table 4.3, the sig value for 3rd independent variable (i.e. Responsiveness) was 0.005
which was less than level of significant (α=0.05), (0.005<0.05) therefore, the suggested
that null hypothesis of the study was rejected and the alternate hypothesis was accepted
that responsiveness has significant impact on customer satisfaction in hotel industry.
Finally, the study found that employees in hotels were responsive in providing quality
services.
The sig value for 4th independent variable in above table 4.3 (i.e. Tangibility) was 0.002,
that was less than 0.05. Therefore, study rejected the suggested null hypothesis and
accepted alternate hypothesis that Assurance had significant impact on customer
satisfaction in hotel industry. Thus the study found that employees were well versed with
the special knowledge to serve at the best which instilled confidence in customers that
whatever told by employees is right and perfect to serve.
The table 4.3 also shows the sig value (0.000) for 5th independent variable (i.e. Empathy)
which was less than 0.05, therefore, study rejected null hypothesis and accepted alternate
hypothesis that empathy has significant impact on customer satisfaction in hotel industry.
Thus, the study found that staffs of the hotels provide customers with exclusive attention
and understand specific needs to solve problem. The overall results of the study
suggested that customers were delight with the services of the hotels in the Karachi when
hotels were able to deliver quality service to the customers. SERVPERF helps hotels in
assessing customer satisfaction.
Following was the hypotheses assessment summary for acceptance and rejection of the
study hypotheses.
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 11
This chapter covers discussion, conclusions, implication and future research etc.
Discussion
For a service sector company, having a satisfied or even delighted customer is key to the
success of a supply chain. In highly service oriented such as hospitality customer
satisfaction is crucial as it leads to repeat customer and word of mouth recommendations
that bring new customers. Measuring customer satisfaction has been a constant effort on
made by service providers in hotel sector. Parasuraman et al, (1985) model was first
comprehensive effort measuring service quality through what is known as SERVQUAL
model. In this model Parasuraman et.al (1985) initially explored service quality with ten
dimensions classifying them into five categories such as tangibility, responsiveness,
reliability, empathy and assurance. The model considered consumer expectations and
actual performance information was collected in the above five categories and the gap
between the two provided the information on areas of improvement. Cronin & Taylor
(1994) argued that customer expectation varies a great deal and the gap between
expectation and service provided could be misleading. The study proposed using the
actual performance component of the model and called the SERVPERF model. This
model was the subject of this thesis. A questionnaire developed for the survey using
SERVPERF model was used to assess the performance of hotel industry. The thesis
shows that SERVPERF model is simpler, avoids the unknown or even absolute customer
expectations and can be used to directly assess the service customer received.
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 12
The thesis shows that this model is simpler, requires less customer time for the survey
and is probably an improvement on SERVQUAL model.
Conclusion
The analysis of collected data shows that SERVPERF model provides a good tool for
checking service performance. The hypotheses selected were accepted with the exception
of hypothesis on service reliability. This is unexpected as reliability of service is also
important, additional data may be required to recheck this hypothesis.
SERVPERF model is easier to implement, which reduces the data requirement and is
likely to be a more effective tool in performance measurement
Policy Implications
This study focused on different aspects of service quality in hotel sector of Karachi by
using SERVPERF model prototyped by Cronin & Taylor (1992) to provide customers
with quality services to make customers satisfied. The study shows that SERVPERF
would be an easier tool to implement; the information is more useful as which gives a
direct assessment of service provided and is not affected by some exalted expectation.
Future Research
This study was confined to hotels serving only in Karachi, future studies can be extended
to Pakistan. SERVPERF application on other service sector can also be researched.
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performance-based and perceptions-minus-expectations measurement of service
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