Gaps of Service Quality

Measuring sensed usefulness prime(prenominal) employ s e rv q ua l A Case Study of the Croatian Hotel Industry ? s u z ana m ar k ovi c Faculty of tourism and hospitality Management Opatija, Croatia s an j a r as p o r Polytechnic of Rijeka, Croatia The pop the question of the guinea pig is to try on nodes perceptions of supporter flavour in the Croatian hotel industry. The aim is to assess the comprehend utility flavor of hotel attributes and to determine the constituent in structure of usefulness tincture perception. A modi? d s e rv q ua l outmatch was apply to assess work t oneness perceptions from the perspective of domestic and foreign phaetons. Data were watched in 15 hotels in the Opatija Riviera (Croatia), using a self-administered questionnaire. Descriptive statistical abridgment, exploratory element analysis and depend qualification analysis were conducted. The get results indicate the alternatively high expectations of hotel guests regarding serve wellhead grapheme. dependableness, empathy and competence of cater, availability and tangibles argon the key fixingss that best explained customers expectations of hotel function feel.The results of the quantitative assessment of sensed dish out fiber whitethorn provide some insights on how customers grade the help tone of a popicular hotel. Thus, the ? ndings can be apply as a guide for hotel managers to improve the crucial tonus attributes and conjure up improvement quality and phone line performance. Key contrives dish out quality, servqual, part analysis, reliability analysis, hotel industry Introduction In the exceedingly competitive hotel industry, attend becomes one of the near outstanding elements for gaining a sustainable competitive improvement in the marketplace.Consequently, the efforts of answer managers and academic inquiryers are coordinate towards intellect how customers discern the quality of serve. Customers are likely to view renovations as a variety of attributes that may, in dis comparable focal points, contribute to their purchase intentions and perceptions of assistance quality. Although researchers (Gronroos 1984 Parasuraman, pluck and Zeithaml 1985, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and pluck 1988 Zeithaml, Parasuraman and berry 1990) bring focused m anag e m e n t 5 ( 3 ) 195209 195 ?Suzana Markovic and Sanja Raspor on different aspects of service quality, they all agree that the emphasis should be on customers. The close to common de? nition of the concept is attitude, which results from a comparison of customers expectations with perceptions of performance (Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml 1985, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1988). What is more, customers perceive service quality as a multidimensional concept. The speci? c nature of services makes it dif? cult to provide, measure and maintain their quality.However, Parasuraman Berry and Zeithaml and Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985, 1988 ) dedicateed the s e rvq ual shield, which became the most popular instrument for measurement service quality. The stick has been applied in discordant service industries, including tourism and cordial reception. In most of the researches the instrument was modi? ed to suit the features of a speci? c service. The training has several objectives. The ? rst objective is to determine the level of perceive service quality in Croatian hotels.The second aim is to establish the issue of dimensions of sensed service quality in the hospitality industry, using the modi? ed s e rvq ual imitate. Finally, the third objective is to test the reliability of the modi? ed s e rvq ual object lesson. Conceptual Background p e r c e i ve d s e rvic e q ual i t y The service quality construct is mostly conceptualized in the context of service marketing literature (Lee, Lee and Yoo 2000). Therefore, it deals with the concept of sensed service quality. According to Zeithaml, Parasuraman and Be rry (1990), comprehend service quality is the design to which a ? m successfully serves the purpose of customers. Customers determine the perceived or cognitive set of service based on their experience with the service delivered. Ghobadian, Speller and Jones (1994) stated that customers expectations, service delivery process and service termination have an impact on perceived service quality. Yoo and Park (2007) free-base that employees, as an integral part of the service process, are a comminuted element in enhancing perceived service quality. Furthermore, Edvardsson (2005) pointed out that service quality perceptions are formed during the production, delivery and consumption process.The author concluded that customers gold and unfavorable experience, as well as their positive and negative emotions may have an strategic impact on 196 m anag e m e n t vo lu m e 5 Measuring sensed dish out feel Using servq ual perceived service quality. Similarly, ONeill and Palmer (2003) have reported that customers perceptions of service quality may, to a bragging(a) extent, be in? uenced by the degree of their prior experience with a particular service. In the hospitality industry, several studies have examined hotel attributes that guests may ? d important when evaluating the performed service quality. Literature go off purposes that impertinentliness (Atkinson 1988 Knutson 1988 Gundersen, Heide and Olsson 1996), tribute and dearty (Atkinson, 1988 Knutson, 1988 Gundersen et al. 1996), employees empathy and competence (Atkinson 1988 Knutson 1988 Barsky and Labagh 1992 Gundersen, Heide ? and Olsson 1996 Choi and Chu 2001 Markovic 2004), convenient location (Knutson 1988 Barsky and Labagh 1992), value for money (Atkinson 1988 Gundersen, Heide and Olsson 1996 Choi and Chu ? 001) and physical facilities (Choi and Chu 2001 Markovic 2004) are attributes that hotel guests perceive as being important. It should be noned that according to some authors, perceived se rvice quality has been accepted as an antecedent of customer delight (Churchill and Suprenant 1982 Oliver 1997). What is more, Rowley (1998) argued that perceived service quality is an attitude related to, but not the same, as satisfaction. It is evident that the relationship between these two concepts is complex and that they have a causal ordering. e rvi c e q ual i t y m e as u r e m e n t One of the main research instruments for measuring quality in service industries is the s e rvq ual modelling, authentic by Parasuraman Berry and Zeithaml and Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1985 1988). The model contains 22 heads for assessing customer perceptions and expectations regarding the quality of service. A level of agreement or disagreement with a precondition decimal point is rated on a septettepoint Likert-type scale. The level of service quality is equal by the gap between perceived and expected service. The s e rvq ual model is based on ? e service quality dimensions, that is to say tangibles (physical facilities, equipment and personnel appearance), reliability (ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately), responsiveness (willingness to service customers and provide prompt service), assurance (knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to gain give and con? dence) and empathy (providing individualized attention to the customers). During the last few years a variety of service quality studies have been conducted (Ladhari 2008). Among some separates, service quality was n u m b e r 3 fal l 2 0 1 0 97 ? Suzana Markovic and Sanja Raspor metrical in accounting and scrutinize ? rms (Ismail 2006), health spas ? (Snoj and Mumel 2002 Markovic, Horvat and Raspor 2004), higher ? ? raising (Russel 2005 Markovic 2006), hotels (Markovic 2003, 2004 Juwaheer 2004 Wang, Wang and Zhao 2007 Raspor 2009), indemnification (Tsoukatos, Marwa and Rand 2004), public-transport (Sanchez Perez 2007), eating houses (Andaleeb and Conway 2006 Namkung and Jang 2008), fail agencies (Martinez Caro and Martinez Garcia 2008), and web-sites (Parasuraman, Zethaml and Malhotra 2005 Nusair and Kandampully 2008).Despite its wide usage, the model has been criticized by a number of academics (Carman 1990 Babakus and Boller 1992 Teas 1994). Criticism was directed at the conceptual and operational base of the model, mostly its validity, reliability, operationalization of expectations, and dimensional structure. However, at that place is general agreement that s e rvq ual items are reliable predictors of general service quality (Khan 2003). As a result of these criticisms, alternative measures of service quality for speci? c service settings were developed.In the tourism and hospitality industry, Knutson et al. (1991) developed l o d g s e rv, a model employ to measure service quality in the lodging industry. The model is based on ? ve received s r evq ual dimensions and contains 26 items. Getty and Thompson (1994) int roduced another(prenominal) speci? c model for hotel settings, called l o d g q ua l, as did Wong Ooi Mei, Dean and White (1999) who developed a h o l s e rv model. The l o d ge q ual model identi? ed three dimensions, namely tangibles, reliability and contact. On the other hand, the h o l s e rv model includes 27 items, crowded in ? e original s e rv q ua l dimensions. Furthermore, d i n e s e rv is a model used for measuring restaurant service quality (Stevens, Knutson and Patton 1995). It contains 29 items and ? ve s e rv q ua l dimensions. ONeill et al. (2000) developed the d i ve p e r f model for assessing perceptions of diving services. The model consists of ? ve servqual dimensions and 27 items. e c o s e rv was introduced by Khan (2003). It was utilized to measure service quality expectations in eco-tourism, using 30 items and ? ve s e rvq ual dimensions. All of these models represent modi? ations of the s e rvq ual instrument, aiming to improve its original methodology. However, Cronin and Taylor (1992) argued that performance is the measure that best explains customers perceptions of service quality, so expectations should not be include in the service quality metre instrument. They developed a performance- only(prenominal) scale called s e rvp e r f and tried and true it in quaternity industries. Results indicated 198 m anag e m e n t vo lu m e 5 Measuring perceive expediency musical note Using servq ual that the s e rvp e r f model explains more of the variation in service quality than s e rvq ual it had an excellent ? in all four industries and it contains only half the number of items that must be measured. These results were interpreted as spare support for the superiority of the servperf approach to the measurement of service quality. Several authors used the performance-only approach to assess service quality in tourism and hospitality settings. Travelers perceptions of hotel attributes were measured in Hong Kongs hotels (Choi and C hu 2001), hotels of Mauritius (Juwaheer 2004) and Malaysian hotels (Poon and Lock-Teng Low 2005).The question of whether service quality should be measured as the difference between customers perceptions and expectations, or whether some alternative approach is more appropriate remains part of an extensive debate in service quality literature. Methodology Hotel guests perceptions were measured with a self-administered questionnaire. The questionnaire was developed on the basis of a literature review and adopted to suit the speci? c features of a hotel setting (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1988 Zeithaml et al. 1990 ? Snoj and Ogorelc 1998 Pizam and Ellis 1999 Markovic 2003). As a foundation or questionnaire development, the s e rvq ual model was used. The original items were slightly modi? ed to suit the hospitality setting. For example, instead of x y z Company has modernlooking equipment, the statement was modi? ed to the Hotel has modern-looking equipment. The original item Gu ests incur reliable in their transactions with employees was replaced by the item Guests feel safe and secure in their stay. The reason for this change is the confusing meaning of the word transactions and the fact that safety and security are regarded as an important factor in a hotel stay. Moreover, in order to measure attributes speci? to the hotel environment, the sideline items were added parking area (Pizam and Ellis 1999), appropriate location, available and clear information, variety of facilities (Snoj and Ogorelc 1998), clean and tidy hotel, feeling safe and secure, remainder of ? nding a way about the hotel ? and typical service quality for hotel category (Markovic, 2003). All the statements in the questionnaire were positively worded. Finally, the modi? cation resulted in the deletion of one original s e rvq ual item and the inclusion of eight new items, leaving a total of 29 hotel attributes. These attributes represented seven dimensions ? e original servqual dime nsions (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, as- n u m b e r 3 fal l 2 0 1 0 199 ? Suzana Markovic and Sanja Raspor surance, empathy) and two new dimensions, named as accessibility and fruit quality. The questionnaire consisted of two parts. The ? rst part measured guests perceptions of hotel attributes using a modi? ed s e rv q ua l model. Service quality perceptions were measured on a seven-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 strongly disagree to 7 strongly agree. The second part was designed to capture respondents demographic and traveling characteristics, hich include country of residence, age, gender, purpose of visit, duration of staying at a hotel, level of education, and hotel category. The gull population of the survey was guests staying in hotels on the Opatija Riviera (Croatia) during the summer of 2007. Questionnaires were distributed in 15 (2-, 3- and 4-star) hotels, after hotel managers agreed to participate in the bailiwick. Reception desk employees were a sked to administer the questionnaires to guests during their hotel stay, and to collect them after completion. In each hotel questionnaires were randomly distributed to the guests.Of 265 returned questionnaires, 12 were not include in the analysis because of incompleteness. Thus, data analysis is based on a example of 253 valid questionnaires. The response rate was 26 per cent. Descriptive statistical analysis was used to describe respondents demographic characteristics and to evaluate service quality perceptions of hotel guests. An exploratory factor analysis was performed on the 29 perception attributes included in the questionnaire in order to determine underlying dimensions of hotel service quality perceptions. Principal component analysis with varimax rotation was conducted.Items with eigenvalues equal to or great than 1, factor loadings above 0. 4, and factors which contain at least three items were maintained (Hair et al. 2006). Furthermore, a reliability analysis was perf ormed to test the reliability of the scale and sexual consistency of extracted factors. For this purpose, Cronbachs alpha coef? cients were calculated. Results In order to achieve the psychoanalyzes goals, descriptive analysis, factor analysis, and reliability analysis were performed. The results are presented as follows. First, respondents demographic and traveling characteristics are provided.Next, the results of descriptive analysis of guests perceptions are presented. Third, the results of factor and reliability analyses are interpreted. The statistical analysis was conducted on 253 valid questionnaires. The demographic and traveling characteristics of the respondents 200 m anag e m e n t vo lu m e 5 Measuring Perceived Service tint Using servq ual tab le 1 demographic pro? le of the respondents Items Percentage Gender Items Percentage Age male 51. 8 1625 3. 6 Female 48. 2 2635 15. 4 Purpose of visit Business Visit friends, relatives vacation Others 3645 26. 1 . 1 4655 19. 4 4. 3 5665 25. 7 86. 2 0. 4 train of education Primary school 66 and above 9. 9 clownish of residence Austria Croatia 16. 6 Secondary school 29. 2 Italy 20. 9 high education 24. 1 Germany 14. 6 University and above 36. 4 Others 36. 8 Others 3. 6 11. 1 6. 7 Duration of staying at a hotel Hotel category 4-star 53. 3 13 days 19. 0 3-star 33. 3 47 days 49. 8 2-star 13. 4 815 days 28. 1 are presented in table 1. The sample included domestic (16. 6 per cent) and international tourists (83. 4 per cent). There were slightly more males (51. 8 per cent) than females (48. per cent), and most of the respondents (55 per cent) were older than 46 years. More than 60 per cent of hotel guests in the sample had a university or college education. About 86 per cent of the respondents indicated that the main purpose of their visit was vacation. Most of them stayed at a 4-star hotel, for between four and seven days. The results of the descriptive statistical analysis of guests perceptions in the hote l industry are shown in table 2. The range of service quality perceptions items was from 1 (very low perceptions) to 7 (very high perceptions). The mean scores of guests perceptions ranged from 4. 7 to 6. 34. The lowest perception item was offering a variety of facilities, which indicates that hotels do not provide becoming suitable facilities that could enhance hotel quality. On the other hand, hotel guests highest perceptions were regarding the ease of ? nding a way more or less the hotel, Furthermore, guests highly assessed the undermentioned hotel attributes feeling safe and secure, willingness for helping guests and accomplished hotel lag. These indicate that a hotels staff has one of the crucial roles in n u m b e r 3 fal l 2 0 1 0 201 ? Suzana Markovic and Sanja Raspor tab le 2Average scores of service quality perceptions in hotel settings Attributes Mean St. dev. v1 Modern-looking equipment 5. 31 1. 48 v2 Visually appealing physical facilities 5. 53 1. 23 v3 Neat hote l staff 6. 13 0. 90 v4 Visually appealing materials (pamphlets, web-sites) 5. 53 1. 23 v5 wipe and tidy hotel 6. 06 1. 05 v6 Appropriate location 6. 19 1. 00 v7 Parking area 4. 96 1. 87 v8 Performing service in the promised age 5. 98 0. 93 v9 Interest in firmness of purpose guests problems 6. 09 1. 00 v10 Performing services right the ? rst time 5. 99 0. 89 v11 Service without delays 6. 02 0. 84 v12 Error-free service 5. 81 . 98 v13 Knowing the exact time when service will be performed 6. 00 0. 90 v14 Hotel staff provides prompt service 5. 98 0. 91 v15 Willingness to help guests 6. 25 0. 80 v16 Hotel staff has time to answer guests questions 6. 13 0. 94 v17 Hotel staff instills con? dence 6. 14 0. 92 v18 Courteous hotel staff 6. 25 0. 82 v19 Hotel staff has knowledge to answer questions 5. 99 0. 90 v20 Feeling safe and secure 6. 29 0. 81 v21 Providing individual attention 5. 81 1. 03 v22 cheerful opening hours 5. 94 1. 01 v23 Hotel staff provides personal attention 5. 86 0. 98 v 24 Guests best interests at heart 6. 02 0. 87 25 Understanding guests speci? c needs 5. 86 1. 01 v26 Ease of ? nding ones way around the hotel 6. 34 0. 85 v27 Available and clear information in the hotel 6. 17 0. 89 v28 Offering a variety of facilities 4. 77 1. 66 v29 typical service quality for hotel category 6. 03 1. 09 Overall mean for 29 attributes 5. 92 performing high service quality. The overall mean score for service quality perceptions items was 5. 92. This score indicates rather high perceptions of hotel guests regarding service quality. The exploratory factor analysis extracted ? ve factors, which accounted for 65. 1 per cent of variance in the data. Since the ? th factor contained only two items, it could not be considered as a factor and is not interpreted. The results are presented in table 3. Most of the factor loadings were greater than 0. 60, implying a rea- 202 m anag e m e n t vo lu m e 5 Measuring Perceived Service Quality Using servq ual Factor analysis and re liability analysis results of hotel guests perceptions (n = 253) Items (n = 29) Factors f1 f2 f3 f4 f5 Communalities v9 0. 751 0. 688 v12 0. 732 0. 703 v13 0. 671 0. 595 v11 0. 658 0. 675 v10 0. 648 0. 615 v14 0. 623 0. 664 v22 0. 623 0. 557 v8 0. 586 0. 584 v3 0. 505 0. 614 v25 0. 731 0. 793 v16 0. 725 0. 748 v23 . 723 0. 776 v21 0. 713 0. 711 v19 0. 688 0. 616 v17 0. 632 0. 688 v27 0. 622 0. 683 v6 0. 693 0. 580 v26 0. 686 0. 625 v20 0. 618 0. 679 v18 0. 554 0. 685 v5 0. 549 0. 509 v24 0. 537 0. 632 v29 0. 529 0. 447 v15 0. 482 0. 598 v2 0. 784 0. 778 v1 0. 748 0. 723 v4 0. 501 v28 % of sport Cronbach alpha Number of items 0. 684 0. 675 0. 669 2. 577 1. 514 18. 879 14. 774 8. 887 5. 222 65. 104 0. 869 0. 785 0. 953 8 3 2 v7 Eigenvalue 0. 562 0. 771 5. 551 4. 953 4. 284 19. 142 17. 079 0. 916 0. 917 9 7 sonably high correlation between extracted factors and their individual items. The communalities of 29 items ranged from 0. 47 to 0. 793 indicating that a large amount of variance has been extracted by the factor solution. Only one item (typical service quality for hotel category) was below the suggested value of 0. 50 (Hair et al. , 2006). n u m b e r 3 fal l 2 0 1 0 203 ? Suzana Markovic and Sanja Raspor The four remaining factors are labeled as follows f 1 reliability (solving guests problems and performing error-free service at promised time), f2 empathy and competence of staff (staff knowledge and ability to provide individual attention), f 3 accessibility (appropriate location of the hotel and ease of talk and ? ding the way around the hotel) and f 4 tangibles (appearance of the facilities, equipment and communication materials). The ? rst factor contains most of the items and explains most of the variance. Thus, hotel service reliability is an important causal factor of perceived service quality. The results of the reliability analysis showed that Cronbachs alpha coef? cients of the extracted factors ranged from 0. 785 to 0. 917. That is well a bove the minimum value of 0. 60, which is considered acceptable as an indication of scale reliability (Hair et al. 2006). Thus, these values suggest good internal consistency of the factors.Finally, Cronbachs alpha value for the overall perception scale is 0. 953 and indicates its high reliability. intelligence and Conclusion Perceptions of hotel service quality are the degree to which hotel guests ? nd various hotel attributes important in enhancing their satisfaction with the hotel stay. In the present study, it was revealed that the main dimensions of perceived service quality in hotels are reliability, empathy and competence of staff, accessibility, and tangibles. Two of these are similar to the s e rvq ual model, while others overlap with the original s e rvq ual dimensions.However, the studies conducted in the hotel sector identi? ed different outcomes with regard to the number and interpretation of dimensions guests use to assess perceived hotel service quality. Akan (1995) reported a seven-dimension structure, labeled as courtesy and competence of the personnel, communications and transactions, tangibles, knowing and understanding the customer, accuracy and speed of service, solutions to problems and accuracy of hotel reservations. Wong Ooi Mei et al. (1999) identi? ed employees, tangibles and reliability as key dimensions of service quality in the hospitality industry.Moreover, Choi and Chu (2001) reported the following seven dimensions staff service quality, room qualities, general amenities, business services, value, security and ? i d d facilities, Markovic (2003) identi? ed a three-dimension solution, interpreted as empathy and assurance of hotel staff, reliability, and physical quality. This implies that the number and de? nition of the dimensions depend on the measurement context. 204 m anag e m e n t vo lu m e 5 Measuring Perceived Service Quality Using servq ual Furthermore, the ? ndings of this study reveal that among the four dimensions , reliability has emerged as the most important predictor of perceived service quality. In the hospitality industry, this dimension refers to solving guests problems, performing error-free service at the promised time, providing prompt service, convenient opening hours of hotel facilities. This ? nding is similar to Knutson et al. (1991) and Juwaheers (2004) research conducted in hotel settings. The indicators of factor and reliability analyses are in like manner consistent with similar studies conducted in the hospitality industry. The proposed factor structure of the present study, as well as in the studies ? onducted by Choi and Chu (2001) and Markovic (2003) have explained the rather high percentage of variance in original data 65. 1 per cent, 67. 2 per cent and 73. 9 per cent, respectively. The Cronbach alpha values are 0. 95 (this study), 0. 94 (Choi and Chu 2001) and 0. 92 ? (Markovic 2003) and indicate high reliability of the instruments. It can be concluded that the modi? ed version of the s e rv q ua l model is suitable for use by hotel managers in gaining easily explicable and reliable data on hotel guests attitudes regarding perceived service quality.The results of this study suggest that solving guests problems, performing error-free service, employees attitude, appropriate location, and the appearance of the facilities are the key attributes for a hotels success on the Opatija Riviera. Thus, the ? ndings can be used as a guide for hotel managers to improve crucial quality attributes and enhance service quality and business performance. There are several limitations that need to be acknowledged. The data were collected in a small although important tourist destination in Croatia. The questionnaires were distributed during the summer months.Thus, the results interpretation should be limited to this group of hotel guests. It is possible that guests staying in hotels out of the main tourist season power have different perceptions of the service qu ality. Also, the measurement of hotel guests perceptions was limited to 29 hotel attributes. correct though these attributes were included in other studies as well, there could be other relevant hotel attributes that are likely to in? uence hotel guests perceptions. In order to be able to generalize the ? ndings, it is suggested that similar studies be conducted in other Croatian tourist destinations as well.Moreover, this study was focused only on hotels. Future research should test whether the factor structure proposed in this study is valid in other types of accommodation in the region (e. g. camps, hole-and-corner(a) accommodation, hostels). Additionally, future research could also assess hotel staffs perceptions of service per- n u m b e r 3 fal l 2 0 1 0 205 ? 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