LESS0N 1: INTRODUCTION TO QUALITY SERVICE MANANGEMENT IN

TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY

INTRODUCTION

In the tourism and hospitality industry, establishment of quality is one of the

prime reasons that an entity will be patronized. It should always be remembered that
customers (guests as we call them) have a lot of choices. With over decades of
existence in operations, the determinations of quality has changed through the
years. Add it up to the impatience and sophistication of our guests, this concepts
should always be inculcated in all services providers in this industry.

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

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

LO 1 Define what is quality;

LO 2 Determine the different dimensions of quality;
LO 3 Identify the distinction between goods, services, and service products;
and
LO 4 Gain insights on the contributions made the pioneer of total
management and service management.

LESSON PROPER:

 SERVICE PRODUCT: GOODS 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.

 However, the definition of product does not only involve tangible goods such
as those that are purchased in restaurant like burgers, fries, and drinks are
what embody the nest term, which is goods.
 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.
 Services, meanwhile, have four features. Lovelock (1983) connoted this as
the IHIP characteristics:
1. INTANGIBLE,
2. HETEROGENEOUS,
3. INSEPARABLE, AND
4. PERISHABLE
 Services are intangible in nature. It means that they cannot be touched as
they are not physical and can only exist in connection to other thing.

 For example, the warm smile and grateful service of a food attendant in a
restaurant cannot be touched but can be felt and can only exist because you
have ordered a food item in a restaurant.
 Similarly, services are heterogeneous due to their dependence on the
workforce which dies the act. In hospitality, this concept is sometimes referred
to as “inconsistency.”

Example: The service that a hair therapist renders to his/her client at 10am would
be different quality and dimension as to when he/she does the service at 8pm.
This is why the industry has the concept of “service recovery” in place. Just like
when a famous pizza house delivers its pizza on time, if it falls to do so, the pizza
would be free.

 The concept of heterogeneity is also brought about by the differing likes and
dislikes of the guest. Even though a standard is set, the satisfaction of each
guest varies greatly and of course, as previously stated, the guest defines the
concept of high quality; that is why, commonly, the service staff adheres to the
request 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.

For example:
 In spa, the service rendered by a spa therapist cannot be done while the
guest is still at the office. The guest should be presented for the massage
service to be done. Using technical criteria to define services could afterwards
be procured.” This is especially true for hotels where the main product is the
sale of its guest rooms.
 Other example, if the sales team of a particular hotel does not perform its job
properly, usually the chance where a room can be sold is lost forever. The
sale cannot be brought back again for that specific day and time. Because of
these characteristics, implications exist, which will be tackled in the next
chapters.

 DIMENSIONS OF QUALITY FOR SERVICE PRODUCTIONS

Garvin (1986), in an article in Harvard Business Review, mentioned that

because of the competitions for high quality goods and services and with the
internationalization of said concepts, the following dimensions for quality should be
observed and considered:

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

characteristics.
 Usually in the hospitality and tourism industry, as we are
catering to intangible dominant concepts, performance often
means prompt service.
 This dimension of quality has very measurable attributes that is
why brands can usually be ranked objectively on their respective
aspects.
 Although measurable, it is quite hard to measure overall
performance ranking as they involve benefits that not every
consumer needs.

2. Features - are 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.

 Examples would include free drinks on a plane, free Wi-Fi

service in guest rooms, and complimentary hot tea after a full-
body massage.
  Sometimes, identifying features from the primary performance
characteristics is difficult as they accentuate the actual
performance indicators. But what is important to know is that
features involve objective and measurable attributes that can be
clearly observed which sometimes affect their translation in
quality differences.

3. Reliability - it refers to the ability to perform the promised service product

dependently and accurately.
 *This means that being able to provide service as promised is one of
the main consideration in assessing this dimension.
 The guest assesses quality by gauging that when he/she is promised
to for his/her pizza to be delivered in 30 minutes, it should be delivered
in less than or exactly 30minutes. When the guest is promised for a
mouthwatering dining experience, then the ambiance, service, and
food should all be complimentary to deliver the said experience.
 Reliability can also mean dependability in handling guests’ service
problems, in that every challenge or difficulty that may arise be treated
right the first time.

4. Conformance - this quality dimension means that a service product’s

design and characteristics should meet the standard set.
 Juran became one of the pioneers who specialized in this area.
 Service products to be accomplished and performed properly need to
have specifications.
 When new products offerings or service provisions are developed,
dimensions are actually set to become standards for evaluation.
 These specifications are treated as the “targets” to be met in a specific
service product.

5. Durability - this dimension is more detectable in goods rather than in service

and it has both technical and economic dimension.
 Technically, durability can refer to the amount of use before a specific
products deteriorates.
 For example, a commercial oven can be measured y the number of
years it may service a specific kitchen inside a restaurants, or an
espresso machine in the case of coffee shop. In the case of service
aspect, in both personal and company reputation, costs in training and
hiring of qualified and complementary staff may be considered within
this dimension.
6. Serviceability - the sixth dimension of quality, again more inclined toward
goods rather than services, is serviceability or the speed, courtesy,
competence and ease of repair.
 Guest are concerned with the breakdown of the products that re
actually offered to them. Connecting to service concepts, this
dimension can also cover how fast a hotel can transfer a guest to
another hotel after he/she was declined because the initial hotel was
fully booked, or how the restaurant management can deal with
accidents and give service recovery at the soonest possible time.

7. Aesthetics - this dimension, along with the last dimensions, are highly
subjective.
 Aesthetics--- how a service product is perceived—is clearly a matter of
personal judgement. It reflects him a guest is as an individual.

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 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. Some brands even ship from outside the country to
maintain service quality and to deliver value as they promised it to their
guests.
 Corporate reputation is its most prized possession and is the focus
perceived quality.

 NOTABLE PEOPLE IN SERVICE QUALITY

1. Walter A. Shewhart - was an American physicist, engineer, and

statistician. He is also known as the father of Statistician Quality Control
and also related to the Shewhart cycle.

2. William Edwards Deming - was 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 “Shewhat Cycle” which
had evolved into Plan-Do-Study-Act (PDSA).

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 Japanese philosophy on quality management and in no
small way worked to help shape Japan’s economy into the industrial
leader it is today. Dr. Juran was the first to incorporate the human aspect
 of quality management which is referred to as Total Quality Management
(TQM).

4. Philip B. Crosby - was a businessman and the 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 Perishing missile program. Crosby was credited
with a twenty-five percent reduction in the overall rejection rate and a thirty
percent reduction in scrap costs.

5. Armand V. Feigenbaum - was 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 – is 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. Thus, 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 - was engineer and statistician. From the 1950s

onward, he developed a methodology of applying statistics to improve the
quality of manufactured goods. Taguchi methods have been controversial
among some conventional western statisticians, but others have accepted
many o he concepts introduced by him as valid extensions to the body of
knowledge.

 In services marketing and management, the following have made significant

contributions noteworthy to be recognized:
1. James H. Donnelly - in his works, highlighted the differences between
the marketing “channels” used for services and those used for physical goods
and implications for marketing strategy.

2. A. “Parsu” Parasuraman, Valarie A. Zeithami, and Leonard L. Berry

- developed their pioneering “gaps model” of service quality which
highlighted the importance of effect 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
Services. Marketing among order titles, such as author, professor and
consultant. He was also known for his excellent case studies.

5. Theodore Levitt - was 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 their 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 he guest point of view (GPOV)
when viewing service quality in the tourism and hospitality industry.