Service Quality Management in Tourism and Hospitality

Module 1

I. Module Title:

INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY SERVICE MANAGEMENT IN

TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY
II. Content Summary:
In this module discussed what is quality, goods, services, and service products and know the
notable pioneers of total quality management.

III. Learning Outcomes:

At the end of this module, the students should be able to:

a. Define what quality is;
b. Determine the different dimensions of quality
c. Identify the distinction between goods, services, and service products; and
d. Gain insights on the contributions made by the pioneers of total quality management and
service management.

IV. Lecture Notes:

Introduction

In the tourism and hospitality industry, establishments of quality is one of the prime reasons
that an entity will be patronized. It should always be remembered that customers (guest as we call
them) have a lot of choices. With over decades of existence in operations, the determination of quality
has changed through the years. Add up to the impatience and sophistication of our guests, this concept
should always be inculcated in all service providers in this industry.

Knutson (1990) reflected in his research that the intense competition in the hospitality industry
has led many businesses to look for ways on how they can profitably differentiate themselves from their
competition and capture the highest quality. Similarly, Weiermair (2000) noted that in the tourism
sector, even though the production and distribution of services involve different experiences on both
parts of the tourists and the suppliers, the ultimate goal is still to achieve the highest quality possible.

To determine the “highest quality” one must first understand the concept of “quality”. For our
guests in the tourism and hospitality industry, one will be using specifications, standards, and other
measures to evaluate quality. This is now a piece of evidence that quality can be understood, defined,
and measured. Especially for our guests, sometimes if asked on quality, they could not define it but
would immediately know one when they see one. It will now be critical for quality to be seen. To
illustrate, as what the quote says, “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder,” so is quality, and more
importantly, our guests define it.

Joseph Juran, one of the pioneers in “quality” research, defined quality as “fitness for use”. This
means that the concept of quality is variable to the one defining it. We cannot say that the service of a
 Service Quality Management in Tourism and Hospitality
casual dining restaurant has high quality if we have no intention of dining in the said restaurant. It is
because we are not intended for the said restaurant, so we have no means in determining quality. A
dining staff member that has no experience in the kitchen cannot decipher the difference whether a
kitchen is of good quality or not. It is because it is not fit for him/her to use it. The international
Organization for Standard (ISO), the world body for standard formulation, also defined quality as “the
totality of features and characteristics of a good or service that bear on its ability to satisfy a given or
implied need.” In the definition, it is clear that a “given or implied need” should be addressed and this is
usually defined by the user, in our case, our guest or restaurant staff form which he/she will address the
criteria for quality.

Service Product: Goods or Service

Many have been mentioned already with the concepts of products and services. A product can
be defined as anything that we can offer to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that
could satisfy a need or want. Goods, according to Hill (1999), refer to physical objects for which a
demand exists; their physical attributes are preserved over time; and their ownership can be
established, can exist independently of the owner, and can be traded on markets. Service, meanwhile,
have four features. Lovelock (1983) connoted this as the IHIP characteristics: intangible, heterogeneous,
inseparable, and perishable.

Services are intangible in nature. It means that they cannot be as they are not physical and can
only exist in connection to other things. Similarly, services are heterogeneous due to their dependence
on the workforce which does that act. In hospitality, this concept is sometimes referred to as
“inconsistency.” The concept of heterogeneity is also brought about by the differing likes and dislikes of
the guest. Inseparability, meanwhile, means that the production (act of delivery of service staff) and the
consumption (guest experience) cannot be separated from each other. In a spa, for example, the service
rendered by a spa therapist cannot be done while the guest is still at the office. The guest be present for
the message service to be done. Using technical criteria to define services, Smith (1776) states that a
service will “perish in the very instant of its performance, and seldom leave any trace or value behind
them for which and equal quantity of services could afterwards be procured”.

Dimensions of Quality for Service Products

1. Performance – it refers to a service product’s primary operating characteristics.

2. Features – dimensions of quality, which are usually cited as a secondary aspect of performance. They
are secondary in such a way that they supplement the basic functioning of a service product.

3. Reliability – it refers to the ability to perform the promised service product dependably and
accurately. This means that being able to provide service as promised is one of the main considerations
in assessing this dimensions.

4. Conformance –means that a service product’s design and characteristics should meet the standards
set.
 Service Quality Management in Tourism and Hospitality
5. Durability – dimensions is more detectable in goods rather than in services and it has both technical
and economic dimensions. Technically, durability can refer to the amount of use before a specific
product deteriorates.

6. Serviceability – the speed, courtesy, competence, and ease of repair. It also cover how fast a hotel
can transfer a guest to another hotel after he/she was declined because the initial hotel was fully book,
or how the restaurant management can deal with accidents and give service recovery at the soonest
possible time.

7. Aesthetics – how a service is perceived – is clearly a matter of personal judgment. It reflects how a
guest is as an individual. Even with this fact, there appears to be some patterns in guests’ like and
dislikes when it comes to basis of tastes. Their taste of course are affected by a variety of factors,
including their demographic and psychographic characteristics. Because of this, hotels, resorts, and
other hospitality and tourism establishments need to conduct market segmentation to develop their
target segments; as what the quote says, “You can’t have it all.”

8. Perceived Quality – guests usually do not have a complete guide on a service product’s dimensions;
unknowingly, they are indirectly measuring and this measurement is the only basis for them to compare
brands. A tour experience for example cannot be observed directly; it usually must be gauged by a
number of tangible and intangible aspects of the tour package.

Notable People in Service Quality

The emerging demand for studies in total quality management and services marketing leading
to the study of service quality:

1. Walter A. Shewhart – an American physicist, engineer, and statistician. He is also known as the Father
of Statistical Quality Control and also related to the Shewhart cycle.

2. William Edwards Deming – an American engineer, statistician, professor, author, lecturer, and
management consultant. He championed the work of Walter Shewhart, including statistical process
control, operational definitions, and what Deming called the “Shewhart cycle” which had evolved into
Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA)
 Service Quality Management in Tourism and Hospitality
3. Joseph M. Juran – made many contributions to the field of quality management in his more than 70
active working years. His book, Quality Control Handbook, is a classic reference for quality engineers.
- He revolutionized the Japanese philosophy on quality management and in no small way
worked to help shape Japan’s economy into the industrial leader it is today.
- He was the first to incorporate the human aspect of quality management which is referred to
as Tool Quality Management (TQM)

4. Philip B. Crosby – a businessman and author who contributed to management theory and quality
management practices.
- He initiated the Zero Defects program at the Martin Company. As the quality control manager
of the Pershing missile program, Crosby was credited with a twenty-five percent (25%) reduction in the
overall rejection rate and a thirty percent (30%) reduction in scrap costs.

5. Armand V. Feigenbaum – an American quality control expert and businessman. He devised the
concept of Total Quality Control (TQC) which inspired Total Quality Management (TQM).

6. Kaoru Ishikawa – notable for rejuvenating the norm in the workplace. He always believed that quality
should not stop in reinventing a product alone.
- He was one of the few people who believed that delivering quality does not stop in purchasing
the product; it goes beyond the transaction itself.
- He highlighted and reinvented the concept of customer service, giving us the concept of after-
sale service and warranty.
- He was also the one who coined the “Ishikawa” or “fishbone” diagram that highlights the cause
and effect of the activities and processes while in constant search of quality in operations.

7. Genichi Taguchi – an engineer and statistician.

- He developed a methodology for applying statistician to improve the quality of manufactured
goods. Taguchi methods have been controversial among some conventional Western statisticians, but
others have accepted many of the concepts introduced by him as valid extensions to the body of
knowledge (1950s)

In service marketing and management, the following have made significant contributions
noteworthy to be recognized:
 Service Quality Management in Tourism and Hospitality
1. James H. Donnelly – highlighted the difference between the marketing “channels” used for services
and those used for physical goods and implications for marketing strategy.

2. A. “Parsu” Parasuraman, Valerie A. Zeithami, and Leonard L. Berry – developed their pioneering
“gaps model” of service quality which highlighted the importance of efforts made to assess quality in
services.

3. Mary Jo Bitner and Bernard H. Booms – developed their expanded “marketing mix” for services
which took into account the distinctive characteristics of service identified in the “crawling out” stage:
intangibility, inseparability, heterogeneity, and perishability. They added three more Ps to this original
marketing mix to make it more appropriate to services: people, process, and physical evidence.

4. Christopher Lovelock – was best known as a pioneer in the field of Service Marketing among other
titles, such as author, professor, and consultant.
- He was also known for his excellent case studies.

5. Theodore Levitt – an economist and professor at Harvard Business School. He was also an editor of
the Harvard Business Review who was especially noted for increasing the Review’s circulation and for
popularizing the term globalization.
- In 1983, he proposed a definition for corporate purpose: Rather than merely making money, it
is to create and keep a customer.

6. Walt Disney and the Disney Company while crafting their concept for theme parks also pioneered the
thought of the service providers not only as team players but also as “cast members” just like in a movie
or theater.

7. Bruce Laval – an industrial engineer of the Disney Company, conceptualized the term “guestology”
and the guest point of view (GPOV) when viewing service quality in the tourism and hospitality industry.