Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry of Karachi-Aservperf Analysis
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry of Karachi-Aservperf Analysis
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry of Karachi-Aservperf Analysis
ASERVPERF ANALYSIS
by
MUSAIDULLAH MUHAMMAD
A thesis
submitted in partial fulfillment of the requirements
for the degree of Master of Business Administration
to Office of Research, Innovation & Commercialization
(formerly IQRA University Research Centre - IURC)
at Iqra University
main campus, Karachi
Karachi, Pakistan
JUNE, 2016
Acknowledgments
Allah the Most Gracious and the Most Merciful, Alhamdulillah, all praises to Allah for
the strengths and His blessing in carrying out this thesis having title “Customer
goes to my thesis supervisor, Dr. Masood Subzwari, for his direction, mentorship and
persistent support. Under his professional supervision, I found the passion of conducting
the academic research and developed the needed skills. His precious support and
productive comments and suggestions all through the thesis work had added the
achievement of my thesis. Also, I like to specially thank ORIC (Office of the Research,
My genuine gratitude goes to my beloved parents for their love, prayers and
encouragement, without which it was not possible to reach the current position in life.
I am also thankful to all those who directly or indirectly contributed in this thesis with
ii
Abstract
For a service sector company, having a satisfied or even delighted customer is key to the
that bring new customers. Measuring customer satisfaction has been a constant effort by
service providers. The model was first comprehensive effort measuring service quality
through what is known as SERVQUAL model. In this model Parasuraman et.al (1985)
initially explored service and quality with ten different angles classifying them into five
categories such as, responsiveness, reliability, tangibility, empathy and assurance. Cronin
and Taylor (1994) argued that customer expectation varies a great deal and the gap
between expectation and service provided could be misleading. The study proposed using
the actual performance component of the model and called that SERVPERF model. This
model was the subject of this thesis. A questionnaire developed for the survey using
SERVPERF model was used to assess the performance of hotel industry. The thesis
shows that SERVPERF model is simpler, avoids the unknown or even absolute customer
expectations and can be used to directly access the service customer received.
iii
Table of Contents
S.NO. DESCRIPTION PAGE
NO.
1. Acknowledgements…………………………………………….. Ii
2. Abstract…………………………………………………………. Iii
3. List of Tables…………………………………………………..... V
4. List of Figures…………………………………………………… Vi
5. Chapter 1: Introduction…………………………………………. 1
1.1 Overview…….…………………………....................
1.2 Problem Statement………………………………………
1.3 Background, Objectives and Significance of the Study.
1.4 Outline of the Study……………………………...
1.5 Definitions…..………………………………………
8. Chapter 4: Results………………………………………………. 15
4.1 Findings and Interpretation of the results………………….
4.2 Hypotheses Assessment Summary…………………............
iv
List of Tables
S.NO. TABLES Page
Number
1. 3.1 Case Processing Summary 13
2. 3.2 Reliability Statistics 13
3. 4.1 Model Summary 15
4. 4.2 ANOVA 15
5. 4.3 Coefficients 16
6. 4.4 Hypothesis Assessment Summary 18
v
List of Figures
vi
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 1
Chapter 1: Introduction
1.1 Overview
service. Delivering quality services increases the satisfaction level and wins repeat
determining not only customer satisfaction but also to identify areas for improvement.
The service supply chain provides a variety of services to satisfy customer expectation. In
questionnaires are used to invite customer opinion on the existing services and
suggestions for further improvements. Karimi, Sanayei and Moshrefjavadi (2011) also
hospitality sector including hotel industry through SERVPERF model (Cronin & Taylor,
1994).
The key elements of supply chain had been studied under hospitality sector to look at
customers perception and their satisfaction. Generally, hotel or hospitality sector largly
depend on service and quality offered to win future clients. Routine customer surveys are
conducted as customer leave after staying in the hotels. In order to have a more
developed to assess service quality. This resaerch projects proposes to use SERVPERF
In Pakistan, there is a lack of such type of research. The purpose of this thesis was
evaluating that how customers are satisfied in hotel industry by using SERVPERF model.
This thesis project particularly proposes to examine that how the service and quality
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 2
affect customers to make them satisfy using SERVPERF model to analyze the service
hotels in Karachi.
hotel industry has to depend of the quality of service offered to win future customers.
Routine customer surveys are conducted as customer leave after staying in the hotels. In
SERVPERF have been developed to assess service quality. This thesis project proposes
This thesis aimed at examining correlation between services provided and the
Karachi, Pakistan. The replica created by Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985) for
observing quality of services in four different service businesses to investigate the service
quality which was not covered before and is still undefined to some extent. This model
can be used to develop propositions for future to improve quality performance in service
management.
discriminate well in the assistance construct; which offers larger capacity to explain
different versions. The objective of this thesis is analyzing an effects of service provided
in the hotel industry on satisfaction level of the consumers using SERVPERF analysis.
This study had comprised of five chapters where chapter number one contains
introduction of the study. An introduction chapter also contains overview of the study,
statement of the problem, background, significant and objective of the study. At the end
of the chapter number one, definitions of the study variables had also been given to make
The literature review of the thesis in discussed in chapter number two which was written
from more than fifteen research papers to make clear understanding of the topic under
study. As of the literature review chapter end, possible hypotheses of this thesis had been
discussed. The purpose of this chapter was to differentiate this study from previous work.
The research method had been discussed in chapter number three. This chapter contains
method of data collection, technique of sampling to collect data from population, total
sample size i.e. number of observations to be analyzed, data collection instrument such in
this study a comprehensive questionnaire had been developed and statistical technique
applied for the purpose of testing research hypotheses. This had been also divided into
validity and reliability test. The next issue was how research model to be developed.
The results, findings and interpretations of the study had been discussed in chapter
number four. At the end of the chapter number four, hypotheses assessment summary had
In final chapter of the study, discussions, conclusion, implication and future research had
been discussed.
1.5 Definitions
service.
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 4
Service Quality: It means the food, rooms and the environment provided by the hotel to
the customers.
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 5
is the approach that has animated noteworthy consideration and open deliberation in the
research literature.
Oliver (1980) demonstrates that service quality is gained through customer satisfaction.
Oliver (1980) further described that customer’s expectations may establish the service
Kodadah and Issa (2008) concluded that satisfaction of the client after obtaining the
service can be seen in the emotions of joy or disdain resulting from the difference
between the expected and actual execution of the client. According to Gitomer (1998),
customer contentment had effect on almost each industry. When clients, for instance,
recognize excellent services in the hotel, everyone may encourage almost ten individuals.
That has been estimated that “word-of-mouth” contribute about 50% in American
business. Griffin (1995) concluded that profits can raise 25 percent or more if
dissatisfaction has a much bigger impact on the end result. Unsatisfied customers who get
inadequate service may tell their poor experience to more ten or twenty people due to
which average American organizations loses ten to twenty proportion of its clients every
year. The expense of picking up another client was almost 10 times more liability of
Anderson and Zemke (1998) argued that satisfied clients upgrade business and
verified and treated at par with tangibility. As a result organizations which would like to
grow may understand significance of this factor (McColl-Kennedy & Schneider, 2000).
For the purpose of evaluating quality service Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985)
initiated SERVQUAL model. SERVQUAL serves as a tool for examining the quality
gaps and determines the factors that may affect consumer satisfaction in hotel sector.
Parasuraman et.al (1985) originally explored service quality with ten dimensions
:
Assurance: To rouse confidence and trust in organization by information,
customer
Parasuraman et.al (1985) subsequently surveyed these five dimensions and evaluated
The score for gap is computed as the variation between Perception (P) and expectation
(E). Pursuing this estimation, higher the P-E score, better is the service superiority
Cronin and Taylor (1992) concluded that five dimensions don’t appear to be totally
generic and generally depend upon the nature of the business. Nevertheless, apart from
these weaknesses, the model remains a valuable and effective tool for service-quality
(Ladhari, 2009). According to Ladhari (2009), service managers can exploit SERVQUAL
to assess their own particular service attributes and correlate with their adversaries.
qualitative study could be grasped through talks and meetings with their customers to
A few specialists like Parasuraman et al. (2005) have additionally created specific e-
service quality scales, for example, improving E-S-Qual, for reviewing electronic
dimensions:
4) "Protection" (the extent to which the site is sheltered and secures client data)
two sections. Customer’s expectations are measured in the first section and customer’s
perceptions are measured in the second section of the questionnaire. Cronin and Taylor
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 8
more reliable outcome can be acquired which is commonly named as performance based
measurement; SERVPERF.
SERVPERF Model
The SERVQUAL model provided by Parasuraman et al. (1985 & 1988) used actual
performance with customer expectation for comparison. Cronin and Taylor (1992) argued
that only performance component of the model provides superior representation for
SERVPERF only considers the actual performance only and not a high undefined
Another problem encountered with rating expectation often introduces different types of
expectation and respondent of SERVQUAL model are unsure on the expectation score
(Teas, 1993)
Customer Satisfaction
manufacturing. If the customer derives the required service or when services exceed
Customer satisfaction may come from five factors (Parasuraman et al. 1985),
facilities and employees then this factor is described as satisfaction from tangibles.
If the service is consistently of required specifications and as per customer order then the
If the customer receives prompt service and customer can feel the desire of the company
service. Customer trust in the firm and vice versa is described as assurance while an
empathy.
Service Quality
The satisfaction and non satisfaction of customer hinges on quality of service received.
satisfied customer may promote the firm through word of mouth communication and
repeat orders (Tripathi, 2013). Service quality is strongly associated with the satisfaction
Ostrom and Iacobucci, (1995) pointed out several studies in which quality services had
been correlated with the customer satisfaction. Service quality could be measured from
reliability, assurance, and tangibility and their impact on customer satisfaction can then
Figure 2.1 demonstrate link between different aspects of quality service offered and
consumer satisfaction.
Figure 2.1
Hotel industry is highly competitive and gaining new customers and retaining the
previous ones is crucial for the hotels. As hotels enhance their quality of serving
customers, the consumers are delighted and promoted that hotel through word of mouth
which boosts sales of hotels (Dominici & Guzzo, 2010). The hotel industry must
recognize customer needs and its impact on customer satisfaction. The hotels must
provide the environment and services that meets service quality requirements of the
customers.
The management must provide product and services that meet or exceed customers need,
creates a brand image in customer eyes and creates loyal customers (Dominici & Guzzo,
2010).
The customers are demanding increasingly high quality of services and the hotel industry
is creating the desired services to have a competitive advantage over the other players in
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 11
the field. Providing high quality and high level of services is what creates customer
The chapter covers the detailed information regarding sources of data collection,
sampling, size of the sample and theoretical and research model developed.
Because of the qualitative nature of the study, the primary source for Data
collection had been used. To achieve this objective a comprehensive survey questionnaire
had been prepared to ask relevant respondents to provide rational answers to the
Unrestricted non probability technique had been chosen to collect data from
relevant sample.
As for as the size of sample is concern, this study comprised of 300 respondents.
business.
responses from the selected sample size for the purpose of collecting data. The
The validity test is run to verify whether data collected through particular
questionnaire is truly reliable for the analysis or not. The criteria were that if reliability
test value was larger than 0.50, then it was be considered that the data is truly reliable.
But on the other hand, if the value was less than 0.50, then it was considered that the data
is not reliable for the analysis. When the test was applied through SPSS software, the
Table 3.1
N %
Cases Valid 299 99.7
Excludeda 1 .3
Total 300 100.0
a. List wise deletion based on all variables in the procedure.
The above table 3.1 shows the case processing summary about how many observations
had been used as sample for the analysis of the study and how many cases are valid and
excluded. The N in the above table shows the total number of observations included in
this study was 300 and one observation was excluded from the analysis due to particular
reason.
Table 3.2
Reliability Statistics
The Cronbach’s Alpha value was (0.823) which was greater than 0.5 that suggested that
categorical data used in the study was reliable for analysis. On the strength of Reliability
test, now Regression analysis may be applied to examine customer satisfaction in hotel
Figure 3.1
Tangibility
Assurance
Reliability
3.6 Statistical Technique
Empathy
Multiple Linear Regression test had been run for investigating customer
Chapter 4: Results
This chapter of results contains thesis findings and interpretation of the data
analysis.
Assurance, Empathy and Reliability, and one dependent variable such as customer
satisfaction were proposed for analyzing customer satisfaction. The independent variables
are taken from Cronin and Taylor (1992) model of SERVPERF model. The results that
Table 4.1
Model Summary
Table 4.1 indicate model summary of study. R in the above table was coefficient of
correlation between the variables which was 65.3% which was greater than 50% that
means the correlation was statistically significant among study variables. The R Square in
above table is coefficient of determination. The R square value (0.426) specifies that
above mentioned five predictors. As value of R Square (0.426) was approaching to 0.50;
therefore, it indicated that study model was fit for the analysis as per data provided.
Table 4.2
ANOVA
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 16
Table 4.2 demonstrates matrix for Analysis of Variances (ANOVA). The sig value
(0.000) in above table 4.2 was less than 0.05 (α=0.05), thus, the study rejected the null
hypothesis and accepted the alternate hypothesis that customers are highly satisfied if the
Also, the value of F statistics is greater than 3.8 (i.e. 43.127>3.8), therefore, F value also
proved that customer are satisfied if the hotels followed SERVPERF model factors
Table 4.3
Coefficients
The sig value for Tangibility in the above table 4.3 was 0.000, which was less than level
of significant (α=0.05), therefore, study rejected null hypothesis and accepted alternate
Thus this thesis found that if management of the hotel sector in Karachi takes care of
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 17
decoration and physical appearance of the hotels, then the customers may be highly
satisfied and can visit the hotel again and again and finally can become loyal.
The table 4.3 also shows the sig value (0.617) for 2nd independent variable (i.e.
Reliability) which was greater than level of significant (α=0.05), (0617>0.05), therefore,
study rejected the alternate hypothesis that reliability has significant impact on customer
In table 4.3, the sig value for 3rd independent variable (i.e. Responsiveness) was 0.005
which was less than level of significant (α=0.05), (0.005<0.05) therefore, the suggested
that null hypothesis of the study was rejected and the alternate hypothesis was accepted
Finally, the study found that employees in hotels were responsive in providing quality
services.
The sig value for 4th independent variable in above table 4.3 (i.e. Tangibility) was 0.002,
that was less than 0.05. Therefore, study rejected the suggested null hypothesis and
satisfaction in hotel industry. Thus the study found that employees were well versed with
the special knowledge to serve at the best which instilled confidence in customers that
The table 4.3 also shows the sig value (0.000) for 5th independent variable (i.e. Empathy)
which was less than 0.05, therefore, study rejected null hypothesis and accepted alternate
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 18
hypothesis that empathy has significant impact on customer satisfaction in hotel industry.
Thus, the study found that staffs of the hotels provide customers with exclusive attention
and understand specific needs to solve problem. The overall results of the study
suggested that customers were delight with the services of the hotels in the Karachi when
hotels were able to deliver quality service to the customers. SERVPERF helps hotels in
Following was the hypotheses assessment summary for acceptance and rejection
Table 4.4
Test Specification
Empirical
S. No Hypothesis Beta Sig Conclusion
Coefficient Value
H1: Tangibility significantly affects
1 consumer satisfaction in hotel industry. .188 .000 Accepted
For a service sector company, having a satisfied or even delighted customer is key
to the success of a supply chain. In highly service oriented such as hospitality customer
that bring new customers. Measuring customer satisfaction has been a constant effort on
made by service providers in hotel sector. Parasuraman et al, (1985) model was first
model. In this model Parasuraman et.al (1985) initially explored service quality with ten
reliability, empathy and assurance. The model considered consumer expectations and
actual performance information was collected in the above five categories and the gap
between the two provided the information on areas of improvement. Cronin & Taylor
(1994) argued that customer expectation varies a great deal and the gap between
expectation and service provided could be misleading. The study proposed using the
actual performance component of the model and called the SERVPERF model. This
model was the subject of this thesis. A questionnaire developed for the survey using
SERVPERF model was used to assess the performance of hotel industry. The thesis
shows that SERVPERF model is simpler, avoids the unknown or even absolute customer
expectations and can be used to directly assess the service customer received.
The thesis shows that this model is simpler, requires less customer time for the survey
5.2 Conclusion
The analysis of collected data shows that SERVPERF model provides a good tool
for checking service performance. The hypotheses selected were accepted with the
SERVPERF model is easier to implement, which reduces the data requirement and is
Karachi by using SERVPERF model prototyped by Cronin & Taylor (1992) to provide
customers with quality services to make customers satisfied. The study shows that
which gives a direct assessment of service provided and is not affected by some exalted
expectation.
This study was confined to hotelsserving only in Karachi, future studies can be
researched.
Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 21
References
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Customer Satisfaction in Hotel Industry- A SERVPERF Analysis 23
Zeithaml, V. A., Berry, L. L. & Parasuraman, A., (1996). The behavioral consequences of
Appendix
SPSS Output
N %
Cases Excludeda 1 .3
Reliability Statistics
.823 12
Model Summaryb
ANOVAb
Coefficientsa
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