Introduction
The UAE's tourism segment grew radically in the last decade. This is due partially to the rush in regional voyage in the Middle East and the growth of international tourism. The UAE comprises for nearly 33% of Middle Eastern voyage and tourism demand, based on 2009 estimates. The implication of the UAE's tourism segment in the region is reflected in the number of arrivals visiting Dubai, Abu Dhabi which receives the largest number of visitors of any Arab destination apart from Egypt. The Emirati government created a federal tourism organization and regulatory body, the National Council of Tourism and Antiquities (NCTA), to signify and promote the UAE's tourism industry to the rest of the world. The NCTA will build up a coordination structure among the various emirates' tourism authorities and create an emirate-wide statistical record on tourism.
The strong economic growth in the Middle East has facilitated favourable tourist arrival expansion in the UAE in recent years, sideways from the slowdown in 2009. One of the prime factors of growth in visitor arrivals from other Middle Eastern states has been the high oil price and the effect this has on real incomes. In 2010, there was a revival from the preceding year's acute slowdown in Dubai, with the total number of hotels and hotel apartment guests were increased by more than 9% to about 8.3mn. The foreign tourist also rose by about 9%. As part of marketing strategy by the Dubai Department of Tourism and Commerce Marketing (DTCM), which is the prime authority for the planning, management and development of tourism in the emirate, Dubai has made significant pace in promoting itself as a tourist destination. In 2008, the DTCM launched marketing campaigns in the US, South Africa and China (with East Asia a particular target).
In today’s scenario, the companies to deal with heavy competition have to provide quality service to its customers to sustain in the market. And in service industry, Hotel industry is one of most competitive one, where service managers and researchers have to continually work on understanding their customer’s perception of quality service . In this report, the Servqual attributes will be investigated on hotel industry. As per , the most prominent way of trying to systematize service quality is SERVQUAL model, which was primarily developed to find out customer’s perception of service quality in different service sectors, but initially for financial service sectors. The researchers agreed that in a service industry, to understand the aspects of service quality, the focus needs to be customers. Especially in hotel industry, the managers need to be on their toes to maintain service quality and Servqual model became the most common method for measuring service quality in hospitality industry .
According to Foskett and Ceserani (2007), customer is the most important aspect of any business especially in the hospitality industry, as services are developed and delivered to them as they provide the source of revenue and are required for the financial viability of the operation. As cited by Woods and King (2002), that any business would fail in the absence of customers. They also stated that success and survival of the hotel depend upon retaining loyal guests with high quality service. As per Harris (2007), existing customers have high value as they are aware of the environment and services but they would not tolerate any decline in the services but will consider new service offerings quiet easily. And also a loyal customer will provide positive word of mouth which is helpful in the hotel promotions (Man, 2011). Functional value of a product or service highlights the product function and utility value of a product. A product or a brand has functional value if it has certain functional attributes and satisfies the customer’s purpose for using the product (Sheth, 1991). It is generally associated with issues of utility, durability, product appearance, and price. Product or service attributes and functional value are considerably related satisfaction (Chang, Ho, and Tseng, 2007, p: 247). Style, prestige, comfort, enterprise image, and brand are intangible product attributes that satisfy the emotional needs of a customer. Then is emotional value to a customer which is associated to feelings and aesthetics. When a product or service is able to change the feelings or emotions of a customer, then the product or service has emotional value (Sheth, 1991). This value could be aroused by advertising (Sheth, 1991) and governed by the service environment atmosphere (Foxall and Greenley, 1990). Third is social value to a customer for a product or service is the core concept of sociology and anthropology. From the viewpoint of structuralism, individual behavior is deeply influenced by the overall environment. The best way to understand consumer behavior is to carefully observe the society, the culture, the system, and the environment where consumers are located. Consumption thus becomes a display of social status, functional and emotional status.
For building up a good image and increasing revenues, maintaining service quality is the most important aspect in a hotel. According to Clacher (2001), to retain or to attract customers, the key strategic variable in the organizational efforts is the service quality. It is also defined as “satisfaction of expectation”. Expectations are subjective in nature and are based on cognitive descriptions of service process and outcomes. It is the needs and requirements of the consumer which when fulfilled by the service provider according to customer’s expectation which increase or decrease the happiness in them (Man, 2011).
The chain below explains how quality service could generate profits for the firm.
Fig 1 Chain of quality service to increase in profits
Purpose of the Study
This study aims to investigate the SERVQUAL attributes on a service industry in Abu Dhabi, particularly, Holiday Inn hotel. The study aims to test the reliability of the model in hotel industry, whether the customers are satisfied with the service quality of Holiday Inn Hotel, Abu Dhabi. This study would be helpful in examining customer’s perception of service quality of Abu Dhabi hotel industry.
- How does consumer perceive the service quality of Holiday Inn Hotel, Abu Dhabi?
- Are customers satisfied with the service quality provided by the hotel staff?
The prime aim of this study is to discuss the attributes of SERVQUAL model that is, reliability, (Providing services as promised, dependability in customer’s service related problems, performing services right, at the first stage, offering services at assured time and keeping accurate records), responsiveness (letting customers educated about when the services will be performed, swift service to customers, willingness to help customers, readiness to respond to customer’s requests), assurance (staffs who encourage confidence in customers, making consumers feel comfortable and safe in their dealings, staffs who are reliably considerate and staffs have the awareness to respond to customer’s querries), empathy (providing customers specific attention, personnel who deal with customers in a caring fashion, having the customer’s best concern, at heart, having staff who understand the needs of the customers and suitable corporate hours), tangibles (contemporary equipment, visually attractive facilities, employees who have neat, professional appearance, visually appealing material associated with the service).
Literature Review
In today’s era, all businesses are operating in a global economy, markets are described by hyper competition and businesses have to adapt themselves to the empowered customer. Companies are required to focus on consumer’s needs and wants, quality and customer retention through quality service. Increasing room occupancy and revenue were the prime aim of hotels, so they actively seek out different measures to attract more and more customers (Minghetti, 2003). According to Minghetti (2003), the hotel managers should have deep understanding of the requirements of the guests.
The efficiency is possible only if the demands of the customers are properly monitored and analysed, as well as defining and controlling the process and implementing the improvement needed in the system . The service quality especially in the Hotel industry is a crucial factor for successful business.
Hospitality Industry in Abu Dhabi, is boosting up after 2012, and many new hotels came up in the same year. But as per the hospitality experts, this boost have led saturation point in hotel industry of Abu Dhabi, and have led to rate war. If hotels cut prices to face heavy competition, then they have to compromise with their profits, so its quality service where they can prove themselves. So the service professionals need to measure the service quality based on customer’s perceptions and expectations. SERVQUAL model suggested by is most popularly used means of measuring service quality today. In the words of , service quality is defined as, “the discrepancy between consumers’ opinions of services being offered to them by a specific firm and their prospects about firms offering such services”. A consumer rates the service quality low, if it found to be lower than what is perceived, and similarly is the quality of service is above his expectations then he rates it to be high. A consumer’s decision is not only based on his service experience but also includes his needs, word-of-mouth and communications with service provider . According to , there is an impact of customer’s expectation, service delivery process and service outcome on the perceived service quality. Service quality is a wide term and involves various elements, and all elements are necessary to achieve hundred percent quality, for instance if only one element is missing, then the overall quality of the service will be impossible to obtain . SERVQUAL model developed by , is one of the prime research tool developed for measuring service quality, especially in service industry. The model comprises of twenty two elements for calculating customer’s perceptions and expectations of service quality. A seven point likert-type scale is being used to rate agreement or disagreement. The level of service quality is being represented by gaps amidst perceived and expected, services. It is based on five service quality dimensions which are assurance, tangibles, responsiveness, reliability and empathy (Markovic & Raspor, 2010).
Despite of its wide usage, the model is being criticised by varied researchers. But it is generally being agreed that SERVQUAL model is a reliable predictor of complete service quality of any industry. However it is difficult to measure the service quality due to its intangible nature and also it deals with human nature of customer’s expectations and perceptions of service quality, which is difficult to be assessed.
The SERVQUAL MODEL
Source:
This model is about strategic component within the organisation, with the help of which the gaps established between what is expected by the customer and what is being delivered could be analysed. The five gaps are summarized as:
- The gap that exists between the customer’s expectations and what the company believes that expected: The first gap is known as the knowledge gap, that occurs due to differences in managing knowledge and the real expectations of the customers. This gap could further lead to other gaps. This could be mainly because of lack of marker researches, lack of information, lack of feedbacks and too many organisational layers .
- Gap between what the company thinks and what the service provides, also known as gap of standards. This occurs mainly due to lack of planning, lack of clear goal management, and insufficient support from top management .
- Gap between planned service and that really is being offered.
- The gap amid what has been delivered to the customer and what has been reported, also known as communication gap, mainly because of lack of communication with the market, insufficient coordination, and exaggeration through advertisements.
- Gap between customer expectations and what has been
This model has five service quality dimensions, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, empathy and tangibles. The prime objectives of Servqual model is to find out the average gaps of service attributes between a customer’s perceptions and expectations and to measure any company’s service quality. This model has twenty two attributes for measuring customer’s perceptions and expectations related to quality of service, which is being rated on a seven point likert scale .
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The dimensions of SERVQUAL model are discussed below :
Reliability:
- Providing services as promised
- Dependability in customer’s service related problems
- Performing services right, at the first stage
- Offering services at assured time
- Keeping accurate records
Responsiveness:
- Letting customers educated about when the services will be performed
- Swift service to customers
- Willingness to help customers
- Readiness to respond to customer’s requests
Assurance:
- Staffs who encourage confidence in customers
- Making consumers feel comfortable and safe in their dealings
- Staffs who are reliably considerate
- Staffs have the awareness to respond to customer’s querries
Empathy:
- Providing customers specific attention
- Personnel who deal with customers in a caring fashion
- Having the customer’s best concern, at heart
- Having staff who understand the needs of the customers
- Suitable corporate hours
Tangibles:
- Contemporary equipment
- Visually attractive facilities
- Employees who have neat, professional appearance
- Visually appealing material associated with the service
As services are intangible in nature, therefore for measuring a customer’s perception of service quality, it is necessary to interact with the service provider and the customer, then only the service provider could find what exactly a customer wants . That is why in research findings of this study, based on these 22 dimensions of SERVQUAL model, the questionnaire will be prepared to analyse and investigate the opinions of customers who visited Holiday Inn hotel, Abu Dhabi.
Research Method
The main purpose of this study is to investigate the attributes of SERVQUAL analysis on a service industry in Abu Dhabi, and for this study Holiday Inn Hotel in Abu Dhabi is being selected which will set a model for different hotels to analyse and improve their service quality. In the research, both critical literature review technique and primary data collection through systematic and random sampling method has been adopted to develop detail understanding of the SERVQUAL Analysis model that is being used by front line staff of Holiday Inn hotel, Abu Dhabi is the basis for this study. The research required qualitative and quantitative data which were presented by the theoretical literature reviews and the related theories discussed from literatures, including books and review papers, journal articles, business review, and quantitative data from annual reports, market results, analysts expectations and various survey results. These empiric evidences are then investigated to rationalize the theories related to the research questions.
Questionnaire approach is being applied in this study. The perceptions of guests in hotel were being measured with a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire is being developed based on the literature review, and adopted to suit the features of hotel. Therefore, the basis of questionnaire is SERVQUAL model, but slight modifications were being done to fit as per the hotel settings. The questionnaire is being distributed both employees and customers of the hotel. Likert scale from ‘strongly disagree’ to ‘strongly agree’ is being used to collect the opinions of the customers and employees of Holiday Inn Hotel, Abu Dhabi. The reception of the hotel was kind enough to help us in completing the survey and collecting the data in the form of questionnaires. Manual data collection is being done, and randomly sample was being collected. The variable determined in the study through primary and secondary research includes the following:
Reliability
Assurance
Responsiveness
Empathy,
Tangibility
The questions are developed based on these variables, and customers and employees reponse is being collected manually to do the further analysis.
100 respondents were randomly selected, of which 40 were hotel employees and 60 customers. Descriptive analysis is being done for the demographic profile of the respondents. MS Excel is being used for the analysis of the collected data.
Research Type
The research is the combination of descriptive and exploratory in nature. The research explains how SERVQUAL Model is being used by the staff of Holiday Inn, Hotel, Abu Dhabi and could retain and attract more customers. The primary research is also undertaken to understand SERVQUAL Model and its application in the hotel industry.
The research is completely based on the five attributes SERVQUAL model and how that could be applied in the hotel industry. The data is being collected from websites of particular companies, their journals, market reviews, magazines etc. This formed the basis of the research. The attributes of SERVQUAL analysis model is being deeply analysed.
Research Approach
The research required both qualitative and quantitative data, so two kind of approach is followed in the study.
- Structured Approach
- Unstructured Approach.
The structured approach is applicable for the quantitative research undertaken with an intention of validating the hypothesis. This approach confirms that everything in the research is predetermined which includes the research design, sample, objectives, and questions that the respondents were asked.
The unstructured approach refers to qualitative aspect of methodology is being adopted in this research. Since the nature of the research is related to human nature and psychology of guests, this unstructured approach was sometimes more significant than the quantitative structured approach. In this case, it was very necessary to assess the nature of the problem without quantifying it as the nature of the problem itself is psychological and deals with how people respond to a particular change. The main aim was to describe the variation in the response of individuals towards environmental changes, cultural changes and changes in their tastes and preferences and there affects on the mood of guests after any service quality being offered. This requires description of an observed situation; it also required an account of the experiences people have had and the issues they have faced dealing with those experiences.
Hence, due to the above mentioned reasons both structured and unstructured approaches formed a significant part of this research. Both of these methods had its upsides and downside.
Research Process
The research process in case of this research consists of two important aspects:
- The research Problem i.e. the issue that the researcher is trying to resolve. Several research hypothesis were framed for this purpose
- Research methodology i.e. the method adopted for solving the issue at hand. The path adopted to solve these issues is the methodology of the research.
At every step of this research, the researcher was required to make a choice of models, procedures and methods that can be possibly adopted for this research and helped the researcher to achieve the research objectives in varied ways.
Research Findings
This section provides the analysis of the quantitative and qualitative data collected by various methods. Data analysis includes customer data from surveys, interviews, company based, product based, sales report, analyst reports. Responses to the questionnaire are being collected manually with the help of staff at the reception. Questionnaire is being made, one with a view to understand point of views of both employees and customers of the hotel, to investigate the attributes of SERVQUAL analysis tool in Holiday Inn Hotel, Abu Dhabi.
The research is being conducted manually using questionnaire which is being mentioned in this section. The research would be helpful for measuring customers perception of service quality of Holiday Inn hotel, Abu Dhabi, which is a four star hotel located centrally in the city. The demographic profile of the respondents is as follows:
The questionnaire for both customers and employees depending on each attributes of SERVQUAL model is as follows:
This questionnaire was circulated among employees and customers for understanding their perspectives regarding service quality of the Holiday Inn, hotel, Abu Dhabi.
Demographic profile of the respondents:
The response of customers is being recorded first and later the employees. Sample size of customers is 60. The same questionnaire based on SERVQUAL model, was being distributed amongst the employees of the hotel, to understand the views of the service provider. Sample size of employees is 40
The two tables below shows the perceptions of customers and employees of Holiday Inn hotel, in the likert scale. It was observed that the perceptions of service provider are slightly more optimistic than what customers actually expected. The prime attributes of the perceived quality being observed in hotel involved, reliability, empathy, accessibility, tangibles and dependability of hotel staff and facilities. While taking interviews it was revealed that “promises by the service provider to deliver any service and doing it” is a service quality attribute included well than other elements among the reliability elements . There was variety in the response towards empathy attributes due to cultural differences. But most of the guests were happy with the services in the hotel which included food, ambience, staff and their service, value, able to relax, hygiene and cleanliness as attributes of good quality service in the hotel. Few found that location and amenities wise the hotel is not a good option . But most of the customers found it very comfortable, and would like to visit again, and would recommend to others.
Customer’s response, on the service quality offered by the Hotel:
Employees Response;
But from the analysis it was found that its difficult to evaluate service quality, as expected quality by customers exceeds the perceived quality as customers expectation are found to be always more than the perception of services .
Managerial Implication
This study is being conducted using SERVQUAL model, to investigate its application on a four star hotel in Abu Dhabi. The questionnaire approach used in this study using SERVQUAL model would also be helpful in evaluating customer’s expectations of the perceived service in other hospitality sector. This is a fine model to assessing service quality of hospitality industry. It may not hold good for all the sectors but for tourism and hospitality industry, holds good.
The academic researchers and service professionals in any hotel could use SERVQUAL model for evaluating their service quality. It would help them in finding gaps in offering services to their customers and filling those gaps then would be possible. But responses of the respondents could not be generalised, as their responses would differ based on their cultures, economies, and religions.
Thus, the management of the hotel could benefit from the study by knowing the differences between the services expected by the customers and what they perceive. Measuring of service quality would help the management of the hotel in getting reliable data, which could be utilised in monitoring and maintaining service quality. This analysis would help in increasing customer satisfaction and finding strengths and weaknesses in the service quality of the hotel.
After doing this analysis the researcher would be able to answer the following questions and would prove that this study would be helpful in examining customer’s perception of service quality of Abu Dhabi hotel industry.
- How does consumer perceive the service quality of Holiday Inn Hotel, Abu Dhabi?
- Are customers satisfied with the service quality provided by the hotel staff?
Conclusion
This study aimed to determine the overall service quality perceived by customers in a hotel in Abu Dhabi. On the basis of the information collected through primary and secondary data availed from questionnaires and previously done researches, it concluded that the customer play the most vital role in hotel industry. And the staff employed does apply every strategy to make him happy and comfortable. Customers now have higher expectations and knowledge regarding their rights and needs. It is also observed that even though the staff tries their best to deliver best quality service, the service mishaps or failures are inevitable in hospitality industry. Since in hospitality and services industry service failures are inevitable, as they survive in all human environments and also the question of service creation and delivery happens only when a customer enters in to the premises In this research SERVQUAL model is being discussed briefly in literature view and based on that and 22 dimensions of the model, analysis is being done. Theoretical and managerial implications of the model are also being discussed in this report. This study helped in understanding the role of service quality in hotel industry and all the elements of quality are required to be achieved. This model is proved to be excellent tool for measuring quality of service in hospitality industry, however, it involves complexity of human nature of customers which is difficult to assess and also intangible nature of service also not easy to be calculated. Thus, the efficiency is possible only if the demands of the customers are properly monitored and analysed, as well as defining and controlling the process and implementing the improvement needed in the system . As per Harris (2007), existing customers have high value as they are aware of the environment and services but they would not tolerate any decline in the services but will consider new service offerings quiet easily. And also a loyal customer will provide positive word of mouth which is helpful in the hotel promotions (Man, 2011). As being observed from this study that the functional value of a product or service highlights the product function and utility value of a product. A product or a brand has functional value if it has certain functional attributes and satisfies the customer’s purpose for using the product (Sheth, 1991). It is generally associated with issues of utility, durability, product appearance, and price. Product or service attributes and functional value are considerably related satisfaction (Chang, Ho, and Tseng, 2007, p: 247). Style, prestige, comfort, enterprise image, and brand are intangible product attributes that satisfy the emotional needs of a customer. Then is emotional value to a customer which is associated to feelings and aesthetics. When a product or service is able to change the feelings or emotions of a customer, then the product or service has emotional value (Sheth, 1991).Thus, it is the service quality especially in the Hotel industry is a crucial factor for successful business.
Thus from this study the attributes of SERVQUAL model, reliability, (Providing services as promised, dependability in customer’s service related problems, performing services right, at the first stage, offering services at assured time and keeping accurate records), responsiveness (letting customers educated about when the services will be performed, swift service to customers, willingness to help customers, readiness to respond to customer’s requests), assurance (staffs who encourage confidence in customers, making consumers feel comfortable and safe in their dealings, staffs who are reliably considerate and staffs have the awareness to respond to customer’s querries), empathy (providing customers specific attention, personnel who deal with customers in a caring fashion, having the customer’s best concern, at heart, having staff who understand the needs of the customers and suitable corporate hours), tangibles (contemporary equipment, visually attractive facilities, employees who have neat, professional appearance, visually appealing material associated with the service) are being discussed theoretically and then being analysed practically. It is being observed that this model holds good in service industry, especially hotels, and could help in finding the gaps in perceived and expected quality of service in the hotel, and thus could generate competitive advantage for the hotel. Thus, despite the model was being criticised by varied researchers, it is widely accepted and it is generally being agreed that SERVQUAL model is a reliable predictor of complete service quality of any industry. However it is difficult to measure the service quality due to its intangible nature and also it deals with human nature of customer’s expectations and perceptions of service quality, which is difficult to be assessed.
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