In today’s rapidly developing hospitality sector, customer satisfaction becomes one of the key concepts. Hotels can use this term to support their competitive advantages and attract more customers. Service quality is the key factor that impacts customer satisfaction, and its poor organization leads to many negative reviews. In this connection, it is important to explore service quality determinants and the ways to improve staff professionalism and enthusiasm. This literature review aims to research the current evidence on service quality in hotels, including its premises, behavioral intentions, the impact of abusive supervision, and the ways to increase it. The academic peer-reviewed articles are chosen for this paper, which are organized according to the main aspects of the topic being discussed.
Links Between Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction
In the hospitality industry, customer reviews play a key role in defining the quality of the work that was done by the staff. Service quality impacts the process of service consumption as well as post-consumption periods, when customers tell about their experience to others. According to the findings that were discussed by Ali (2015), the perceptions of customers regarding a hotel staff’s politeness and ambiance are decisive in their overall satisfaction. Based on a structural modeling approach, the authors determined that appropriate staff performance and knowledge are likely to lead to positive behavioral intentions of guests. Ali (2015) suggests that more attention should be paid to a hedonic aspect of services that can also reflect culture or a certain theme. Therefore, ambient conditions should be created and monitored by managers, who need to adjust the services and ensure their quality.
The analysis of online reviews is one of the methods to determine customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction. Using a text mining approach, Xu and Li (2016) established that online reviews are a critical component of the so-called electronic word of mouth spreading of information about one’s experience of staying in a hotel. Considering that more and more customers plan their trips via the Internet, online reviews serve as an important communication instrument. While the premises of customer satisfaction may vary depending on a type of the hotel, general factors included facilities, parking, noise, room cleanliness, and overall service level. For example, noise may come from the street, music, swimming pools, air conditioner, and so on. It is especially essential for customers who choose limited-service hotels that their rooms are quiet (Xu & Li, 2016). The upgrade of facilities is identified by the authors to address noise, and it is also mentioned that the increased attention from stuff can reduce customer dissatisfaction.
The ability to understand the root causes of customer dissatisfaction with service quality is useful to identify the practical implications of this problem. The structural topic model and text analysis made by Hu, Zhang, Gao, and Bose (2019) showed that people choosing low-end hotels are more concerned with facility issues, but those ordering high-end hotels focus on services. Communication is known to be the basis for customer satisfaction since the guests, who feel that the staff is concerned with their problems, are likely to provide better reviews. Professional service and enthusiasm about resolving customer issues are identified as the target goals of improving staff performance (Luo & Qu 2016). Namely, it is critical to explain to employees that their attitudes towards customers largely determine how guests perceive the entire system of services.
Job satisfaction and work engagement are often noted among the factors that motivate hotel employees to provide high-quality services. Consistent with Ali (2015), Lu, Lu, Gursoy, and Neale (2016) state that compared to the first-line employees, supervisors are more engaged in their work. At the same time, it should be stressed that job satisfaction does not significantly differ among the members of the identified groups. Unhappy employees cannot ensure that their job is done properly, and customers can feel their indifference. In this connection, the authors assume that workplace dedication should be targeted by managers. The study by Lu et al. (2016) is the first attempt to understand the workplace-related factors in relation to different employees, which makes it a valuable article. The continuous training and mentorship are mentioned as the methods that can be employed by mangers to educate their staff, developing relevant skills and knowledge.
To have a better team of employees in the modern challenging environment, hotels need to pay attention to leadership. Mishra, Mishra, and Singh (2019) focused on a transformational leadership style and its mediating effect on team performance in the tourism sector. The authors formulated the theoretical framework and discussed emotional intelligence in terms of understanding one’s feelings in various situations and the ability to use them in the best way. Emotional intelligence also includes understanding other people, how their emotions affect their decisions, which allow a leader to build relationships with others effectively (Mishra et al., 2019). The authors found that in combination with transformational leadership, emotional intelligence improves team performance, where each of the staff members tends to act better. These results are also consistent with the previous articles that pointed to the fact that employees with higher emotional intelligence are more successful (Ali, 2015; Lu et al., 2016). The implementation of various training programs is suggested as a feasible strategy to implement these findings into practice.
Along with appropriate leadership and management efforts, employee personality also matters. The use of the questionnaire survey allowed Horng, Tsai, Yang, and Liu (2016) to understand that proactive personality promotes creativity and also impacts the intrinsic motivation of an employee. In the tourism sector, managers can hire talents and support new ideas to foster a supporting and encouraging environment. In turn, Lyu et al. (2016) state that abusive supervision is not effective as it fosters the link between negative organizational identification and abusive power of managers. To avoid such an approach, all the managers should be trained and explained to practice proactive behaviors (Lyu et al., 2016). The allocation of supportive resources and building interpersonal connections are important to increase employee enthusiasm. For example, customers complaining about noise should be provided with psychological comfort and offered some options to improve their experience.
Conclusion
To conclude, customer satisfaction closely related to service quality in the hospitality sector. The main concerns of customers are noise, facilities, impoliteness of staff, and a lack of attention from employees, which negatively impact their perceptions and online reviews. Staff and management training, transformational leadership, and emotional intelligence are noted as the strategies that can improve staff enthusiasm and professionalism. The reviewed literature is consistent with the previous studies, yet little attention is paid to the implementation of the suggested strategies into practice. The overall perspective on the topic seems to require more research since the current literature lacks clarity on enhancing service quality by focusing on staff performance.
References
Ali, F. (2015). Service quality as a determinant of customer satisfaction and resulting behavioural intentions: A SEM approach towards Malaysian resort hotels. Tourism: An International Interdisciplinary Journal, 63(1), 37-51.
Horng, J. S., Tsai, C. Y., Yang, T. C., & Liu, C. H. (2016). Exploring the relationship between proactive personality, work environment and employee creativity among tourism and hospitality employees. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 54, 25-34.
Hu, N., Zhang, T., Gao, B., & Bose, I. (2019). What do hotel customers complain about? Text analysis using structural topic model. Tourism Management, 72, 417-426.
Lu, L., Lu, A. C. C., Gursoy, D., & Neale, N. R. (2016). Work engagement, job satisfaction, and turnover intentions. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(4), 737-761.
Luo, Z., & Qu, H. (2016). Guest-defined hotel service quality and its impacts on guest loyalty. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospitality & Tourism, 17(3), 311-332.
Lyu, Y., Zhou, X., Li, W., Wan, J., Zhang, J., & Qiu, C. (2016). The impact of abusive supervision on service employees’ proactive customer service performance in the hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 28(9), 1-46.
Mishra, N., Mishra, R., & Singh, M. K. (2019). The impact of transformational leadership on team performance: The mediating role of emotional intelligence among leaders of hospitality and tourism sector. International Journal of Scientific & Technology Research, 8(11), 3111-3117.
Xu, X., & Li, Y. (2016). The antecedents of customer satisfaction and dissatisfaction toward various types of hotels: A text mining approach. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 55, 57-69.