Hospitality
Today’s teaching focuses on the course instructional objectives: detecting service weaknesses and strengths through the measurement of service. We will begin to examine expectations and perceptions. Following that we will discuss the 5 attributes for measuring service. Next, once you measure service, four core principles of service excellence known as Gap Theory.
GAP theory shows you five attributes that may for the most part be universal to measuring or evaluating the service of a business. Various businesses such as including hotels and restaurant chains have their standardized ways for measuring their own service performance.
Learning objectives from this handout:
• Understand the difference between expectations and service.
• Understand the five attributes of service.
• Become familiar with the four principles and the actions under each principle responsible for optimizing the chancesof successful service delivery. When the customer/guests expectations are met or surpassed, we will describe this as meeting our service objectives.
The key to understanding measuring service can be found, “If you cannot measure it you cannot fix it.” Secondarily, excellent service can also be found in the quotation, “not everything that counts can be counted.” Therefore, through a combination of objective (i.e., can be counted) and subjective (i.e., harder to measure concretely) assessments are you likely to be better at measuring your service.
Expectations and Perceptions
Evaluating the service delivery you receive for most individuals is very simple. They go with an expectation (E) of what they will receive. They leave with a perception (P) of what service they received. If the service received is perceived as greater than equal to what you expect, then the service is evaluated favorably (P > or = E). If the service deliver is perceived as worse than expected then the service is disappointing (P < E). The most essential part of GAP Theory for service delivery is based on the difference between expectations of service and perceptions of delivery of service. The most important reason for measuring service performance is to find weaknesses and strengths in the service of a company.
Universally, GAP Theory communicates that there are five attributes for measuring service delivery including:
Reliability: The ability to perform the promised service accurately and dependably.
Assurance: The knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to convey trust and confidence.
Tangibles: The physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials.
Empathy: The caring, individualized attention the firm provides its customers.
Responsiveness: The willingness to help and provide prompt service to guests.
In this manner, the best way to measure service is to find the expectation and then find the perception of the delivery of that expectation. This simplifies the process as in reality every guest has a different expectation and worth given to each of the attributes of Rel, A, T, E, and Res. For the sake of simplicity, we assume equal importance across the five attributes. Thus if we can the questions on the next page to a guest and ask them to rate their perceptions of service at X business, we can at least come up with a service score on the 7 point scale. Or we could use a 10 point scale. Or we could use a 100 point scale. The choice is arbitrary but I think the more points the better. American Customer Satisfaction Index uses a 100 points for their service scores for their businesses.
Notes for simplicity:
1) For every service delivery, there is an expectation of RATER.
2) For every service delivery, there is a perception of RATER.
3) So if we have a survey that helps us score RATER, we can put a number on the delivery of service.
4) Below is the survey used to measure RATER. Usually a 5 or 7 point scale is used where 1 is strongly disagree and 7 is strongly agree and 2,3,4,5, and 6 are degrees towards good (7) and bad (1).
5) The simplest way to measure service using this survey is to answer the questions based on your service delivery or to ask your guests or customers to answer the survey and for each attribute you arrive at a mean score and then you average the mean scores
A tool for detecting service weaknesses and strengths, allowing the company to differentiate between the delivery (total perceptions of the guests and the company) and expected service.
Gap Theory Assessment Instrument:
The instrument gives you 22 questions that together measure RATER. For example, if you sum the total questions of T then you can get the mean perception of T. The means of all the RATER together provide a baseline for service quality.
Figure 1: The SERVQUAL Instrument
DIRECTIONS: This survey deals with your opinions of __________ services. Please show the extent to which you think firms offering _________ services should possess the features described by each statement. Do this by picking one of the seven numbers next to each statement. If you strongly agree that these firms should posses a feature, circle the number 7. If you strongly disagree that these firms should possess a feature, circle 1. If your feelings are not strong, circle one of the numbers in the middle. There are no right or wrong answers – all we are interested in is a number that best shows your expectations about the firms offering ________ services.
DIRECTIONS: The following set of statements relate to your feelings about XYZ. For each statement, please show the extent to which you believe XYZ has the feature described by the statement. Once again, circling a 7 means that you strongly agree that XYZ has that feature, and circling a 1 means that you strongly disagree. You may circle any of the numbers in the middle that show how strong your feelings are. There are no right or wrong answers – all we are interested in is a number that best shows your perceptions about XYZ.
• P1/E1 XYZ has up-to-date equipment.
• P2/E2 XYZ’s physical facilities are visually appealing.
• P3/E3 XYZ’s employees are well dressed and appear neat
• P4/E4 The appearance of the physical facilities of XYZ is in keeping with the type of services provided.
• P5/E5 When XYZ promises to do something by a certain time, it does so.
• P6/E6 When you have problems, XYZ is sympathetic and reassuring.
• P7/E7 XYZ is dependable
• P8/E8 XYZ provides its services at the time it promises to do so.
• P9/E9 XYZ keeps its records accurately.
• P10/E10 XYZ does not tell customers exactly when services will be performed.
• P11/E11 You do not receive prompt service from XYZ’s employees
• P12/E12 Employees of XYZ are not always willing to help customers.
• P13/E13 Employees of XYZ are too busy to respond to customer requests promptly.
• P14/E14 You can trust employees of XYZ.
• P15/E15 You feel safe in your transactions with XYZ’s employees.
• P16/E16 Employees of XYZ are polite.
• P17/E17 Employees get adequate support from XYZ to do their jobs well.
• P18/E18 XYZ does not give you individual attention.
• P19/E19. Employees of XYZ do not give you personal attention.
• P20/E20 Employees of XYZ do not know what your needs are.
• P21/E21 XYZ does not have your best interests are heart.
• P22/E22 XYZ does not have operating hours convenient to all their customers.
• Note: E questions relate to consumer’s expectations. In a perfect world, you ask your consumers coming in what their expectations are on R,A,T,E,R.
• Note2: When your consumers leave you give them the same questions on R,A,T,E,R
• Note3: Then you differentiate the scores on P – E.
After the 5 attributes of service were named, the researchers involved in this research provided four major reasons for the gaps between perceptions and expectations of consumers. These called principles below stand for generic tools a business can follow to maximize the difference of perceptions of guests when they visit our business AND their expectations when they come in the business. We want to DBT2 always – with any business. Did we surpass their expectations (i.e., blow their expectations out of the water) and provide a positive transformational service encounter to the guest? If not, we have room to do it better than that. Note: to measure service hand out the 22 questions for a specific business asking the guests what they expect walking in. When they live give them the 22 questions again. Find the differences. This is what is referred to as GAPs. In this case the gap between what the guest expected and what the guest perceived they received. Of course we always want P > E whenever possible. If P=E, expectations are met. If P<E, likely the guest is disappointed unless an appropriate recovery is launched. I call this the leverage of service potential to change something blink into something bright.
The essence of measuring service is that service designed appropriate is capable of bringing joy. The joy, managed and measured well and sustained over time converts to shareholder wealth maximization if guest loyalty can be achieved in a better way than similar other businesses
Expectations come from multiple sources and include word of mouth communication, advertising, personal needs for the product or service, and from past experiences. Therefore when beginning a service encounter, each guest has aexpectations of something related to product and service. After you visit, you have perceptions of how that visit was.
The constant comparisons of the expectations and the perceptions become service evaluations for the service quality of the business. If there perception was greater than or equal to our perception then the service delivery was acceptable or excellence. If however the perception of the experience was less than our expectation based on some part of the business or service performance, then the service quality was overall lacking as to what we expected from it.
After performing much research across hundreds of service businesses using the 22 question survey below, the researchers of GAP Theory determined that there were four major principles or actions responsible for why the expectations of guest were exceeded or not met. These four principles can be universally applied to a service business to help service leaders exceed the customer expectations.
Principle 1) Knowing what the customer expects – this principle gives three way to know what the customer expects that should be followed for all businesses
Principle 2) Build the service delivery system based on what the customer expects – that is place what the customer expects into the plant and facilities through policies and procedures that are easily understood and followed by all team members – this principle provides four things to follow for each company to insure that principle two is met,
Principle 3) Service delivery is to deliver the service according to what the customer expects. This principle gives 7 things to follow and make sure are in place in order to deliver the best service possible.
Principle 4) Make sure all communications in the company are accurate about what service is delivered to the guest or customer. This means not overpromising or under-promising to the guest on what service is delivered. This principle provides two things to follow in the company to make sure that this principle is met.
The table is divided into actions and considerations. The actions are the things to do to make sure the company avoids the pitfalls of the principle. The Considerations are questions that go along with each action so that you can detect whether the company is meeting the action called for.
Four Service Principles where Perceptions may differ from Expectations
Principle I: Knowing What the Customer Expects
Action Considerations
Find out the extent to which managers make an effort to understand customer expectations through formal and informal information gathering activities.
Is the research conducted regularly to generate new information about customer wants?
Is the research focused on service delivered?
Are the research findings used?
Do managers mingle with customers to find out what they expect?
Establish lots of upward communication –
Top management must seek,
stimulate, and facilitate the flow of information from employees at lower levels. Do managers encourage service improvement suggestions from front line?
How often do managers have face time with frontline, formally and informally?
Have as few levels of management as possible – this means from the top of the company to the bottom or most front-line of the company. Do too many managerial levels separate top managers from those responsible for dealing with and service customers?
Once you have measured this gap, improvements can be made using the following actions:
• Use complaints strategically
• Research what customers want in similar industries
• Research intermediate customers
• Conduct key client studies
• Create customer panels
• Track satisfaction with individual transactions
• Engage in long-term customer expectation studies
Principle II: Service Quality Specifications to Deliver What the Customer Expects can be accomplished with 4 main actions along with the questions of consideration for each action.
Action Considerations
Get management to commit to service quality, building it into the vision and mission and demonstrating it from the top down Are resources committed to improving service?
Do internal programs exist for improving service?
Are managers who improve service rewarded?
Does the company emphasize sales or service?
Are upper and middle managers committed to service?
Have realistic goals – all must believe that the expectations can be met with available tools (employees and customers) Do we have what we need to deliver what is expected, financially and operationally?
Are policies flexible to support necessary change?
Standardize tasks using hard and soft technology. This allows for great customization and greater creativity. Is information fluency present in all phases of service delivery?
Are operations plans flexible to support necessary change?
Set goals based on customer expectations rather than customer standards.
How are service goals set?
Are the goals clear?
Is performance measured?
Are goals customer centric rather than company centric?
Once you have measured this gap, improvements can be made using the following actions:
• Set specific service quality goals to meet customer expectations. Make surethat those goals are accepted by employees, that are built into job functions, and are regularly measured and reviewed with appropriate feedback.
Principle/GAP 3 is delivering service according to what the customer expects. This is the most challenging principle to control successfully and often creates the largest gap in hospitality organizations. There are 7 key parts of delivering service that can help any designer or deliver or manager of service in a business. They include role clarity, role harmony, employee job fit, technology job fit, evaluation and reward system, employee empowerment, and teamwork,
Principle III. Delivering Service According to What the Customer Expects
7 Actions for Delivering
Excellent Service: Questions to ask:
Role Clarity: employees are clear on what is expected from them in satisfying mangers, customers, and co-workers; the opposite of role ambiguity Do employees have unanswered questions about how to satisfy constituents?
Role Harmony or Role Peace: employees are confident in their abilities to satisfy the demands of their jobs; the opposite of role conflict Are employees comfortable in their roles?
Employee Job Fit: employees have skills to meet customers’ needs and other job requirements Are employees hired for what they are qualified to do?
Technology Job Fit: employees have the tools and systems needed to do their jobs well Do problems arise daily due to theinefficiencies of hard or soft systems? (Hard systems refer to equipment and machine-related service delivery aids; soft systems are systematic rules that help ensure desired outcomes.)
Evaluation and Reward System: service delivery goals must be aligned with appropriate recognition and feedback Are employee evaluations conducted regularly and professionally?
Are employees appropriately compensated?
Are unsatisfactory and exemplary performance both accurately addressed?
Employee Empowerment: employees are allowed flexibility to delight customers and promptly address service delivery crisis Are employees able to address customer concerns independently?
Do employees feel inhibited in meeting special customer requests?
Teamwork: managers and employees work together to meet customer needs How is teamwork delivery evaluated?
Principle IV. Clearly and Accurately Communicating the Service You Deliver
(Internally and Externally)
Principle/GAP 4 was communicating accurate about the service you are delivering to your internal and/or external stakeholders.
Two Actions for
Minimzing Miscommunication
Questions to ask:
Internal Communication:
Honest Vertical Communicaton between top management and all other levels on what is being promised to the guest.
Honest horizontal communication betweenall departments. Ensure that what is being promised to customers is clear and possible to deliver. This includes all departments.
Operations
Are policies and procedures consistent across departments?
Do salespeople interact with front-line employees to discuss service levels?
External Communication:
Make external communication to the customer consistent with what the customer will receive.
-To what extent are the front- line employees made aware of the external communication to the customer?
Do front line employees have advanced input on advertising?
Thought for the Day:
Excellence does not come easily – don’t fool yourself! If it is too easy, you are not achieving your full potential. The majesty of excellence lies in the tenacity of waking up every day and DBT2.
Additional points of view:
• P(RATER) – E(RATER) = “actual service delivered” minus “service expected” = evaluation or measurement of service quality.
• P(RATER)>E(RATER) = “actual service delivered” greater than “service expected” = positive service quality.
• P(RATER)<E(RATER) = “actual service delivered” less than “service expected” = negative service quality measurement.
• Remember RATER is reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy , responsiveness
Assessments:
Service Reflection 5 and Service Reflection 6 and Final Essay Examination Question