COLONIAL CONCEPT AND FORGING GUEST SATISFACTION
2.1 Introduction
In
this chapter, going to discuss and review the theoretical and empirical studies
which relevant to the subject of the research. Here, the researcher aims to
discuss the theoretical and practical scenarios that have found by prior
researchers. The relevant literature has been appropriately referred under this
chapter. From this chapter can get knowledge of the nature and characteristics
of guest satisfaction in hotels. In addition, literature of this part considers
to the significance of guest satisfaction and dimensions of guest satisfaction
in hospitality industry.
2.2 Definition of Guest
Those
who buy the goods or services provided by companies are customers. In other
words, a customer is a stakeholder of an organization who provides payment in
exchange for the offer provided to him by the organization with the aim of
fulfilling a need and to maximize satisfaction. Sometimes the term customer and
consumer are confusing. A customer can be a consumer but a consumer may not
necessarily be a customer.
2.3 Hotel and Hotel Industry
The purpose of hotels is to provide guests shelter,
refreshment, food and similar kind of services and goods, offering on a
commercial basis things that are customarily furnished within households but an
available to people on a journey away from home. In past when we consider about
hotels, they had also taken on many other functions, serving as business
exchange, centers of sociability, places of public assembly and deliberation,
decorative showcases, political headquarters, vacation spots, and permanent
residences. Then considering about hotels as institutions and hotels as an
industry, transforming travel in America, hastened the settlement of the
continent, and extended the influence of urban culture.
2.4 Guest Satisfaction
During
the past few decades, customer satisfaction and service quality have become a
major area of attention to practitioners and academic researchers. Both
concepts have strong impact on business performance and customer behavior.
Customer satisfaction is widely used term in business to measure the kind of
products by a company to meet customer expectation. Customer satisfaction is
believed to be the company key performance indicator. According to Hansemark
& Albinso (2004). Satisfaction is an overall customer attitude toward a service
provider or an emotion reaction to the difference between what customers
anticipate and what they receive regarding the fulfillment of some need, goal
and desire.
According
to schiffam & Kanuk (2004), customer satisfaction is defined as the
individual’s perception of the performance of the products or services in
relation to his or her expectations. Also can be define customer satisfaction
is viewed as a post- choice evaluation judgment of a specific purchase occasion
(Oliver, 1993).
According
to the Guest satisfaction, we can apply this concept to the hospitality
industry Applying to the hospitality industry, there have been numerous studies
that examine attributes that travelers may find important regarding customer satisfaction.
Atkinson (1988) found out that cleanliness, security, value for money and
courtesy of staff determine customer satisfaction. Knutson (1988) revealed that
room cleanliness and comfort, convenience of location, prompt service, safety
and security, and friendliness of employees are important
Considering about the booming
firms they define their strategies in guest-oriented comportment. According to
Kotler (2000) mentioned that satisfaction as a person’s good desire and
disappointment resulting from comparing a product is perceived performance
according to their expectations. When it comes to Oliver (1997), he took a more
myopic view and stated guests’ satisfaction as for a guest’s fulfillment
response. It is like a result that product or service feature, or the product
or service itself that provides a good level of consumption related fulfillment.
In other way, it is the overall level of contentment with a service/ product
experience.
Guest
satisfaction very important factor of any organization especially service
providing industry like hotel industry. When consider about the above
definition about the customer satisfaction according to Schiffma and Karun
customer satisfaction base on customer perception and performance of service or
product. (Hamesemerk and Albinsson, 2004). (as cited Mohsan, Nawaz, Khan,
Shaukat, & Aslam, 2011) presented their definition base on customer
anticipation, perception and need and wants. Considering wit prior research
about the customer satisfaction, customer satisfaction is gap between product
or service quality and customer perception, anticipating and expectation.
Service or product quality below that customer perception customers are
dissatisfied and service or product quality more that customer expectation customers
are satisfied or delight.
Satisfaction
is an “overall customer attitude towards a service provider” (Levesque and
McDougall, 1996, p. 14), or an emotional reaction to the difference between
what customers anticipate and what they receive (Zineldin, 2000), regarding the
fulfillment of so2.1me need, goal or desire (Oliver, 1999). Gerpott et al.
(2001) who propose that satisfaction is based on a customer’s estimated
experience of the extent to which a provider’s services fulfill his or her
expectations provide a similar definition.
Considering
about guest satisfaction in a hotel they expect a maximum service from the
hotel. When it comes to hospitality industry, there are main three types of
services, such as accommodation and amenities, food and beverages and
hospitable service. When considering about the accommodation in a hotel it must
be very clean and there has to be enough space and very much comfortable, if
not guests are not going to satisfy with accommodation in the hotel that will
be badly effect to the retain guests and build up the guest loyalty. Other
thing is the food and beverage; it must be very delicious and very tasty. In
addition, food dishes and the quality of the foods must be in a high standard.
Then guest satisfaction will increase and that will be very much profitable for
the hotel. Considering about the friendly service in a hotel that is a one of
very important component. During the check in process guest will have the first
impression about the hotel and after butler service must be very friendly and
active then only guests can take the first impression until they check out,
therefore all those three types of service must be in the top of level for the
purpose of satisfy guests.
When considering about the Customer service
and hospitable behavior, a system of activities comprises customer support
systems, complaint processing & friendliness & quick service delivery.
The key to achieve sustainable advantage lies in delivering high quality
service that results in satisfied customers (shemwell.et.al.1998)
2.5 Definition of Guest Loyalty
When we consider about guests, they are displaying
different types of loyalty, commitment and allegiance in various aspects of
their daily interactions. Considering about guest loyalty it is a positive
emotional experience and satisfaction based on physical attribute and the
perceived value of an experience, which includes from the service that they had
in the hotel.
The loyal guests are like;
1. Repeatedly purchase a good service over time, and
2. Hold favorable attitudes towards a good service.
Customer loyalty consists of three separate
dimensions: behavioral, attitudinal, and composite. Behavioral loyalty
considers measurements of consistent, repetitious purchase behavior as an
indicator of loyalty. In particular, it interprets a form of customer behavior Directed
towards a particular brand over time (Bowen and Shoemaker, 1998).
2.6 The Colonial Concept in a hotel
Colonialism is a concept, which has a very long
history. The European colonialism has begun in the 15th century.
Colonialism is a process of European human settlement also controlling of
politically the world including Australia, Parts of Africa, America and
specially Asia. It explains the specificity between the colonialism and imperialism
that given difficulty of consistently distinguishing of two terms which entry
will use colonialism as a broad concept that is referring to the project of
European government domination from the 16th to the 20th
centuries that ended with the national liberation movements. And the first
decolonization was happening end of the 18th and early19th
centuries. Most probably after the decolonization started to begin the colonial
type buildings specially hotels as monuments of by-gone colonial era. Most of
them were the official accommodations which used by colonial empires. When it
comes to Sri Lanka, the several famous colonial hotels are Galle Face hotel,
Bandarawela hotel and Galle new Oriental Hotel etc.
2.7
Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory (EDT)
According to the satisfaction, there are plenty of
research studies and also concepts. But the most acceptable conceptualization
of the customer satisfaction concept is the expectancy disconfirmation theory
(Barsky, 1992; Oh and Parks, 1997; McQuitty, Finn and Wiley, 2000). The
Expectancy Disconfirmation Theory has developed by Oliver (1980). He has
considered the satisfaction level is the difference between the expected
performance and the perceived performance.
Under this concept, Oliver has mentioned that there
are expectations, perceived performance, disconfirmation and satisfaction like
that four components. When it comes to Expectation, it means the aspiration of
the performance about the product or service. Also the Perceived performance
means, the customer’s experience after the consuming the product. It can be a
better or worst experience. Finally, the Disconfirmation means the difference
between the expectation and the perceived performance. It can be positive or
negative. If positive customer has a satisfaction of the product or service if
it is negative, customer has a dissatisfaction of the product or service.
2.8 Service
Quality
Service quality is very important things in the hotel
industry. Because hotels provides intangible product for guests, therefore have
to more concern about service quality as the same time concerning about the
guest satisfaction. The prosperity of the business is depending on those two
categories. When the service quality is less than the customer expectation,
customers will dissatisfy. In addition, if the service quality is high than the
customer expectation, customer will satisfy.
According to the Gronroos (1982) the total service
quality is the difference between the perceived service and expected service
which from customer’s perception. Asubanteng,Mccleary and Swan (1996) discussed
the service quality as the difference between customers’ expectations for
service performance prior to the service encounter and their perceptions of the
service received. In addition, the service quality as the subjective comparison
those customers make between the quality of the service that they want to
receive and what they actually get according to Gefan (2002)
When providing any services to guests prefer is a
starting point for giving guest satisfaction.The easy way to conclude that what
services guests expected is simply to ask them. According to consideration of
Gilbert and Horsnell (1998), and Su (2004), guest comment cards have the
majority to use for identify the hotel guest satisfaction. Guest comments cards
are always circulate among hotel rooms, at the reception desk or in somewhere
in a possible place. However, many studies give out several hotel chains use
guest satisfaction evaluating methods based on inadequate practices to create
special and complex managerial decisions (Barsky, 1992; Barsky and Huxley,
1992; Jones and Ioannou, 199, Gilbert and Horsnell, 1998; Su, 2004). In
addition, most commonly made faults should be separate into main three areas,
such as; quality of the sample, data collection and analysis and design of the
Guest comment card (Gilbert and Horsnell, 1998). For improve the validity of
hotel guest satisfaction measurement practice, there is a new sampling
procedure which named as ‘‘quality sample’’. That decreases non response bias by
offering encourages for completing the questionnaires. Barsky and Huxley (1992)
According to the components of the questionnaires is
mainly focus on dis-confirmation paradigm expectancy theory. In here guests can
discover whether service was above or below according to their expectations. In
addition, are based on dis confirmation paradigm and expectancy-value theory. In
this manner, guests can indicate whether service was above or below their
expectations and whether they considered a particular service important or not.
Moreover, Gilbert and Horsnell (1998) had developed a list of measurements for
guest comment card content analysis. The issues of question clarity, survey
timing, validity and scaling question order and sample size (Schall 2003).
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Customer satisfaction. (n.d.).
Retrieved March 18,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_satisfaction
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and Management, 2, 65-85
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M. (2000). TRM: Total Relationship Management, Lund: Studentlitteratur.
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Administration
Wikipedia, 2014
Customer satisfaction. (n.d.).
Retrieved March 18,
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Customer_satisfaction
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