SERVICE QUALITY IMPROVEMENT IN THE THAI HOTEL INDUSTRY
by
Nida Thntirattanasoontorn
Faculty of International Business
University of South Australia
Abstract
At present, hotels in Thailand have been experiencing dramatic changes, leading hotel practitioners
to pay attention to service quality improvement. Empirical research, using in-depth face-to-face
interviews, has been conducted to examine service quality improvement in the Thai hotel industry.
Thirty hoteliers were recruitedfrom five-star hotels in Bangkok, Thailand, to find out their problems in
customer service, their critical success factors, barriers to success, what should be done to overcome
those problems, and what more could be done to continue to improve service quality. Though service
quality improvement initiatives in the Thai hotel industry are successful to some extent according to
respondents 'views, the findings, however, indicate hotels in Thailand might not exactly understand
their problems or have misallocated their resources to solve the problems. Therefore, hotels have to
increasingly solve customer service problems, improve quality initiatives, and create more necessary
quality programs based on present experiences and expertise.
INTRODUCTION
Services are taking on an increasing importance
both domestically and internationally (Dean
eta!., 1999). Ingram (2000) states that in today's
changing global environment, many businesses are
facing intensifying competition, and, in order to
achieve competitive advantage and efficiency,
businesses have to seek profitable ways to differentiate
themselves. One strategy that has been related
to success is the delivery ofhigh service quality,
especially dliTing times of intensive competition
in the domestic and international markets
(Duran & Eccles, 1997). Maxwell et al. (2004)
concurs that service has increasingly played a critical
role in a hotel's operations. This concept has
been the subject of many conceptual and empirical
studies, and it is generally accepted that quality
has positive implications for an organization's
performance and competitive position.
LITERATURE REVIEW
Service Quality and its Determinants
Parasuraman et a/. (1985) described service
quality as the ability of the organization to meet
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or exceed customer expectations. Customer expectations
that may be defined as the "desires and wants
of consumers", i.e., what they feel a service provider
should offer rather than would offer. Definitions of
service quality, therefore, focus on meeting the customers'
needs and requirements and how well the
service delivered matches the customers' expectations
of it. Moreover, Parasuraman eta/. (1988) offer the
most widely reported set of service quality dimensions.
They suggest that the criteria used by consumers
that are important in moulding their expectations
and perceptions of delivered service ultimately fit into
ten dimensions. These were subsequently condensed
into five dimensions of service performance known
as SERVQUAL: Tangibles., Reliability, Responsiveness,
Assurance, and Empathy.
However, O'Neill (2001) points out that there
are difficulties in defining service quality. The factors
affecting customer satisfaction and service
quality are many and as varied as the number of
potential customers themselves. Different things
are important to different people for different reasons
and as such are perceived in different ways.
In conclusion, with the different definitions of
service quality, there is as yet no real consensus as
to what these definitions and their detem1inants might
be.
หน้า2
Concepts of Service Quality Improvement
In an attempt to achieve sustained competitive advantage,
hospitality organizations are now investing
quite heavily in a host of service quality improvement
initiatives. O'Neill (2001) observed that the hospitality
industry has been investing heavily in raising quality
standards through human resource development.
Oliver (1996) describes these initiatives as belonging
to the total quality management movement, advocating
organizational strategies and changes, which are
thought to make a finn more customer friendly.
Characteristics of the Thai Hotel Industry
Tourism plays an important role in the
economy of Thailand. It is one of the territory's
largest service industries. Like the hotel industry
in other countries, the Thai hotel business environment
has also changed substantially. Major
changes are detailed below.
First of all, hotels around the world, particularly
in Thailand, are now experiencing severe
competition from local and overseas hotels as well
as other accommodation competitors due to financial
deregulation and globalization (Thai Hotels
Association, 2003).
Secondly, in general, customers' expectations
and needs for services have substantially increased
(Lee eta/., 2000; Lockwood, 1995; Meyer et al.,
1999). Customers will search for services that
offer the best value for their money (Lee ez a/.,
2000). Like other customers, Thais have become
better educated; their expectations and needs for
hotel services have substantially increased. For
example, there is a high demand for new facilities
and convenient delivery channels; therefore, hotels
have to improve their services to meet their
customers' needs and expectations (Thai Hotels
Association, 2003).
The third major change is the development of
technology, which facilitates the creation of new
services and distribution channels, provides convenient
services and drives quality (Lockwood,
1995; Griffiths et al., 2001). To be more competitive,
hotels have to invest more in technological
development. This will in tum increase customer
expectations and demands in the quality and variety
of services provided, which finally leads hotels
to invest in more limited resources (Thai Hotels
Association, 2003). Consequently, these changes are having a profound impact on the Thai hotel industry. To compete
with their rivals and to maintain their survival, hotel
practitioners must seek a kind oflong-term corporate weapon-better service quality.
Need for Service Quality
In general, hotels offer similar kinds of services
in the accommodation market, and their competitors
can imitate new differentiated services in
a short period oftime (Knowles, 1998). Such cases
also happen in the Thai market. However, customers
can perceive differences in terms of service
quality offered. This is due to the fact that service
quality is difficult for competitors to copy (Barker
et al., 2003; Ennew & Binks, 1996; Maxwell et
a/., 2004; Reichheld & Sasser, 1990).
At present, hotel providers in Thailand have
taken service quality into consideration, but they
have assigned to it different degrees of importance
depending upon their policies and capabilities.
However, there is still a need for more attention
from all staff to reinforce their quality initiatives
since quality improvements require continuous
action and involvement. After an extensive search,
no published research was found concerning service
quality improvement in the Thai hotel industry
regarding all types of hotels. So this research
may be one of the first studies to provide knowledge
and empirical findings about service quality improvement
in the five-star hotels in Bangkok, Thailand.
Problem Identification
The major problem for this study was to explore
the service quality improvements in practice
in the Thai hotel business environment. The
research questions were comprised of five main
areas to be examined:
(1) Determinants of service quality in the Thai
hotel industry,
(2) Problems of customer service,
(3) Barriers in improving service quality,
(4) Success in improving service quality,
(5) Actions necessary for service quality improvement.