CHAPTER 1

Introduction to Quality Service

Management in Tourism and Hospitality
 Reality Bites
Anne and her family decided to dine out one night and chose to settle in a mall due to convenience
purposes. Due to a limited selection of health issues of her family, their choices were narrowed
down into two restaurants because namely: Camiling Rèstaurant and Shery's Diner, which are
Filipino fusion restaurants. There were some decisions to be made because it was already everyone
was hungry. They got to Shery’s Diner first, but they were caught in the long line of customers. Since
there was a long line in the waiting list, they do to go to Camiling Restaurant, which was an all-you-
can-eat buffet restaurant. It seemed that this was a good choice for the whole family because there
was a great selection of food items and there were no lines. Since Camiling Restaurant is also well-
known for its food and has been serving Filipino dishes for almost 30 years, the family expected so
much. Upon entering the establishment around 7 pm, the family saw that there were still a lot of
people eating. Since there was quite a crowd, the family expected to see a lot of food; but to their
dismay, there were only a few of left, and yet the restaurant was still allowing new customers to
• The family waited for the crew to replenish the food, but when Anne asked a crew member he/she just
plainly said that there was no more food. Nonetheless, Anne and her family adjusted and simply stayed
since they were already in the restaurant. After this instance, a lot of disappointments cluttered up, such
as the glasses of water, which should be given at the start of service, were not provided despite her
family's several requests; the bathroom with no soap and dysfunctional air dryer; and the melted ice in
the halo - halo station. The family was very displeased with the type of service that they had and they
decided not to go back in the said restaurant again.
• Question
1. What is the basis of quality for this kind of instances
2. Who defines quality, the restaurant or the customer?
3. What could the family have done to avoid circumstances such as this?
 CONTENT
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.

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.

How to determine the "highest quality”?

To determine the "highest quality," one must first understand the concept or
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 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 estaurant, 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 knife is of good quality or not. lt is because it is not
fit for him/her to use it.
The International Organization for Standardization (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 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 from which
he/she will address the criteria for quality.
Service Product: Goods and Services -the concepts of products and services
and goods. (needs and wants)
Product (Tangible and Intangible )
Goods- ( Tangible )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 market
Services a( Intangible ) in nature. It means that they cannot be touched as they
are not physical and can only exist in connection to other things. 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.
Salt Soft drinks Detergent Fast foods Outlet

Automobile

Cosmetics sINTANGIBLE DOMINANT

TANGIBLE DOMINANT Advertising Airlines

Agencies
Invesment
Management
Consulting
Fast Food Outlet Teacher
 Garvin’s 8 Dimensions of Quality
1. Performance - A performance characteristic describes a product's essential function.
Hospitality and tourism industry we catering INTANGIBLE dominant concepts, PERFORMANCE often
means prompt service
For a smartphone, performance would include characteristics like clear phone reception, data speed
etc.
2. Features - Features are a secondary aspect of performance. They're "the bells and whistles" of products and
services.
They're the ones who add extra functionality to their essential functions.
Example: Spa(free tean/ coffee (coffe shop free wifi)
3. Reliability - Reliability is the ability of a product or service to perform as expected over time.
This means that being able to provide service as promides is one of he nain considerations in assessing
this dimesions.
Example : The delivery food as promise be delivered 30 minutes is should be 30 minutes to be exactly
4. Conformance - This quality dimension means that a service products design and characteristics should meet
the standards. service product to be accomplished and performed need to have specificatons.
5. Durability - is the measurement of product life. This defines the amount of use the customer
could get from the product before it deteriorates.
Reliability is the probability of failure over a specified period. Durability is measured by
the number of cycles or the time a component will function properly as a part of the product
life.
6. Serviceability - Serviceability is the ease at which a user can repair a faulty product or get it
fixed.
It could be measured in terms of how much time and effort it takes to get a faulty
product repaired and returned to regular use.

7. Aesthetics - Aesthetics refers to the appearance of a product or service. It includes all aspects
related to the physical appearance of a product, for example, the weight, colour, size,
texture, packaging design etc.

8. Perceived Quality - Perceived quality is the overall opinion of the customers towards the
product. It's the combined effects of factors such as brand name, price, salesperson
Reputation is themost prized possession and is the focus of perceived quality.
 Notable People in Service Quality
Walter A. Shewhart - was an Americanphysicist, engineer, and
statistician. He is alsoknown as the father of Statistical Quality
Controland also related to the Shewhart cycle.
William Edward Deming - was anAmerican engineer, statistician,
professor,author, lecturer, and managementconsultant. He
championed the work ofWalter Shewhart, including statisticalprocess
control, operational definitions, andwhat Deming called the “Shewhart
Cycle”which had evolved into Plan-Do-Study-Act(PDSA).
Joseph M. Juran - made manycontributions to the field of
qualitymanagement in his more than 70active working years. His
book, QualityControl Handbook, is a classicreference for quality
engineers. Herevolutionized the Japanese philosophyon quality
management and in no smallway worked to help shape
Japan’seconomy into the industrial leader it istoday. Dr. Juran was the
first toincorporate the human aspect ofquality management which is
referred to as Total Quality Management (TQM).
Philip B. Crosby - was a businessman andauthor who contributed to
managementtheory and quality management practices. Heinitiated the
Zero Defects program at theMartin Company. As the quality
controlmanager of the Pershing missile program,Crosby was credited
with a twenty-fivepercent (25%) reduction in the overallrejection
rate and a thirty percent (30%)reduction in scrap costs.
Armand V. Feigenbaum - was anAmerican quality control expert
andbusinessman. He devised the concept ofTotal Quality Control (TQC)
which inspiredTotal Quality Management (TQM).
Kaoru Ishikawa - is notable forrejuvenating the norm in the workplace.
Healways believed that quality should notstop in reinventing a product
alone. He wasone of the few people who believed thatdelivering
quality does not stop inpurchasing the product; it goes beyond
thetransaction itself. Thus, he highlighted andreinvented the concept of
customerservice, giving us the concept of after-saleservice and warranty. He
was also the onewho coined the “Ishikawa” or “fishbone” diagram that
highlights the cause and effect of the activities and processeswhile in
constant search of quality in operations.
• Genichi Taguchi - was an engineer andstatistician. From the
1950’s onward,he developed a methodology forapplying
statistics to improve thequality of manufactured goods.
Taguchimethods have been controversialamong some
conventional Westernstatisticians, but others have acceptedmany
of the concepts introduced byhim as valid extensions to the body
ofknowledge.
Services marketing and management, the following have made significantcontributions
noteworthy to be recognized:

James H. Donnelly, in his works, highlighted the differences between

themarketing “channels” used for services and those used for physical
goodsand implications for marketing strategy.
 A. “Parsu” Parasuraman, Valerie A. Zeithaml, and Leonard L. Berry developed their pioneering “gaps
model” of service quality whichhighlighted the importance of efforts made to assess quality
inservices.Mary Jo Bitner and Bernard H. Booms developed their expanded“marketing mix” for
services which took into account the distinctivecharacteristics of service identified in the “crawling
out” stage” intangibility,inseparability, heterogeneity, and perishability. They added three more Ps tothis
original marketing mix to make it more appropriate to services: people,process and physical evidence.
Christopher Lovelock was best known as a pioneer in the field of
ServicesMarketing among other titles, such as author, professor, and consultant.
Hewas also known for his excellent case studies.
Theodore Levitt - was an economist and professor at Harvard
BusinessSchool. He was also an editor of the Harvard
Business Review who was especially noted for increasing the
Review’s circulation and for popularizingthe term globalization. In
1983, he proposed a definition for corporatepurpose: Rather
than merely making money, it is to create and keep
acustomer.
Walt Disney and the Disney Company - while crafting their
concept forthem parks also pioneered the thought of the service
providers not only asteam players but also as “cast members” just like
in a movie or theater.
Bruce Laval, an industrial engineer of the Disney Company,
Conceptualizedthe terms “guestology” and the guest point of view
(GPOV) when viewingservice quality in the tourism and hospitality
industry.