Critically Evaluate Quality of Customer Service through the Level of Customer Satisfaction in Hospitality Industry

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TABLE OF CONTENTS

CHAPTER # 1: INTRODUCTION1

Background of the Study1

Problem Statement4

Aim5

Objectives6

Rationale of the Study6

Research Hypothesis9

Significance of the Study9

Definition of Terms10

Implication of the Study12

Contribution of Research15

Thesis Disposition16

REFERENCES18

BIBLIOGRAPHY21

CHAPTER # 1: INTRODUCTION

Background of the Study

Research on customer satisfaction and service quality has flourished over the past two decades and has become one of the most popular topics in the service marketing literature. Factors that influence consumers' judgments of satisfaction and service quality were identified, and measurements of satisfaction and service quality have been extensively discussed. However, a majority of the studies have overlooked how consumers' satisfaction judgments or perceptions of quality change over time, and most have ignored the mechanics of how they are adjusted.

Several researchers (Holt and Taylor, 2004:9, Grinstein, 2008:115, Baker and Sinkula 2009: 411) have verified that consumers revise and update their overall assessments of a service firm based on their prior cumulative experience and recent individual service encounters. Furthermore, there is some evidence (Altinay 2006:108, Bhat Reddy 2008:32) that as consumers accumulate more experience with a service firm, the impact of their recent individual service encounters on their cumulative overall satisfaction lessens (Holt Taylor 2004 9). This also suggests that consumers' prior overall satisfaction should have more impact on their cumulative overall satisfaction than the individual service encounters do. However, several researchers found opposing results. In a study of service quality, Holt and Taylor (2004) found that customers, who have more past experience, update their perceived overall quality by weighing their recent individual service encounters more heavily. On the other hand, those who have less previous experience tend to rely more on their prior cumulative perceptions of service quality.

Customer satisfaction has been a dominant benchmark among marketers in measuring their success as a fundamental factor to the well-being of individual customers and to the profits of organizations supported through purchasing and patronization. Much literature demonstrates customer satisfaction is considered the main antecedent of customer loyalty. Research has proven that satisfied customers show loyalty by purchasing more products or services, recommending products to others, and being fewer prices sensitive. Previous studies question whether satisfied customers are truly loyal and some have also begun to emphasize customer delight, which is beyond satisfaction, and may produce greater loyalty or attractive attitudinal or behavioural states (Grinstein 2008 115).

Customer delight can be the key to reaching loyalty through offering the "wowing" experience for the customer and delight can be an important factor of profitability and competitive advantage, provided that particular service is not easy to imitate, nor costly to implement. However, despite the wide acceptance of the customer delight concept, this idea has not been given a clear theoretical foundation, measurement instruments, and identification of antecedents and consequences of customer delight, nor has customer delight been empirically related to customer satisfaction or loyalty.

Customer satisfaction (CS), combined with product and service quality (SQ), has been one of the most powerful marketing tools of European industries for more than two ...