TABLE OF CONTENTS
Title Page – – – – – – – – – i
Declaration – – – – – – – – – ii
Certification – – – – – – – – – iii
Dedication – – – – – – – – – iv
Acknowledgements – – – – – – – – v
Abstract – – – – – – – – – vi
Table of Contents – – – – – – – – vii
List of Tables – – – – – – – – – x
CHAPTER ONE: INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study – – – – – – 1
Statement of the Problem – – – – – – 3
1.3 Objectives of the Study – – – – – – 4
1.4 Research Questions – – – – – – – 4
1.5 Research Hypotheses – – – – – – – 5
1.6 Significance of the Study – – – – – – 5
1.7 Scope of the Study – – – – – – – 6
1.8 Limitations of the Study – – – – – – 6
1.9 Definition of Terms – – – – – – – 7
CHAPTER TWO: REVIEW OF RELATED LITERATURE
2.1 Introduction – – – – – – – – 9
2.2 Conceptual Framework – – – – – – 9
2.2.1 Concept of Service – – – – – – – 9
2.2.1.1 Characteristics of Services – – – – – – 10
2.2.1.2 Classification of Services – – – – – – 11
2.2.3 Service Mix and Service Differentiation – – – – 13
2.2.4 Managing Service Brands – – – – – – 16
2.2.5 Service Quality – – – – – – – 16
2.2.5.1 Determinants of Service Quality – – – – – 17
2.2.5.2 Tangibles – – – – – – – – 22
2.2.5.3 Assurance – – – – – – – – 23
2.2.5.4 Responsiveness – – – – – – – 23
2.2.6 Service Performance – – – – – – – 24
2.2.7 Customer – – – – – – – – 25
2.2.8 Perception – – – – – – – – 26
2.2.8.1 Levels of Perception – – – – – – – 27
2.2.8.2 Factors affecting Consumer Perception – – – – 28
2.2.8.3 Characteristics of Perception that affects Consumer – – – 31
2.2.9 Service Quality, the Gap between Expectations and Performance – 32
2.2.10 Hotel Industry – – – – – – – – 33
2.2.10.1 History of hotel industry – – – – – – 34
2.2.10.2 Types of Hotel Industry – – – – – – 36
2.2.10.3 Customers Perception of Service Quality and Performance of
Hotel Industries – – – – – – – 40
2.3 Review of Previous Studies – – – – – – 42
2.4 Theoretical Framework – – – – – – 44
CHAPTER THREE: RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
3.1 Introduction – – – – – – – – 49
3.2 Research Design – – – – – – – 49
3.3 Population of the Study – – – – – – 50
3.4 Sources of Data – – – – – – – 50
3.5 Sample Technique and Sample Size – – – – – 51
3.6 Methods of Data Collection – – – – – – 52
3.7 Method of Data Analysis – – – – – – 52
CHAPTER FOUR: DATA REPRESENTATION AND PRESENTATION
4.1 Introduction – – – – – – – – 55
4.2 Brief history of Eemjm Hotels – – – – – 55
4.3 Presentation and analysis of data – – – – – 56
4.4 Test of Hypotheses – – – – – – – 66
4.4.1 Test of hypothesis one – – – – – – 66
4.4.2 Test of hypothesis two – – – – – – 67
4.4.3 Test of hypothesis three – – – – – – 67
4.5 Discussion of Findings – – – – – – 68
CHAPTER FIVE: SUMMARY, CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS
5.1 Summary – – – – – – – – 70
5.2 Conclusion – – – – – – – – 71
5.3 Recommendations – – – – – – – 54
5.4 Suggestion for Further Research – – – – – 72
References
Appendices
LIST OF TABLES
Table 2.1 – – – – – – – – – 18
Table 2.2 – – – – – – – – – 19
Table 1: Personal details of respondents – – – – – 56
Table 2: Visiting Frequency of the respondents – – – – 57
Table 3: Guest relationship with the owner of the hotel. – – – 57
Table 4: medium of awareness – – – – – – 57
Table 5: Major reason for visiting EemJm hotel – – – – 58
Table 6: contribution of tangibles to service performance – – – 58
Table 7: Tangibles in Eemjm hotel – – – – – – 59
Table 8: tangibles contd – – – – – – – 59
Table 9: Tangibles contd – – – – – – – 59
Table 10: Tangibles contd – – – – – – – 60
Table 11: Tangibles contd – – – – – – – 60
Table 12: Responsiveness and service performance – – – – 61
Table 13: responsiveness contd – – – – – – 61
Table 14: Responsiveness contd – – – – – – 61
Table 15: Flow of communication with the customers – – – 62
Table 16: Responsiveness contd – – – – – – 62
Table 17: Responsiveness contd – – – – – – 63
Table 18: Assurance and service performance – – – – 63
Table 19: Assurance contd – – – – – – – 63
Table 20: Assurance contd – – – – – – – 64
Table 21: Assurance contd – – – – – – – 64
Table 22: Assurance contd – – – – – – – 64
Table 23: Assurance contd – – – – – – – 65
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
Background to the Study
Due to increasing global market competition, many hospitality firms are facing challenges in acquiring and retaining customers (Ganesh, Arnold and Raynolds, 2000). Studies after study reveals that service quality raises customers satisfaction and by extension company’s performance comes as a result of quality service delivery. Most establishments nowadays place emphasis on quality as witnessed by the rise in the number of businesses earning quality awards such as the ISO awards. The service industry has not been left behind and the hospitality industry has produced world renowned establishments via quality awards.
Service sector has increasingly been considered as an important sector, contributing a considerable percentage of country’s GDP especially those of advanced nations (Akbaba, 2006; Jensen, 2011; Petri et al. 2012). The share of service sector contributing to output and employment is also growing, which is confirmed by Soubbotina (2004). The rapid development of the service industries in the 21th century and the inevitable rise in competition between rival companies have resulted in an increasing need for service providers to identify service quality gap in the market in order to improve service provision, retain customers and create new customers. This encourages firms to search for competitive advantages through placing more emphasis on the quality of their products—either goods and/or services. Firms that achieve high levels of service quality tend to realize high levels of customer satisfaction and sustainable competitive advantage (Guo et al., 2008).
Quality service has contributed significantly to firms’ market shares, greater return on investment and lower production costs (Mueller and Bedwell, 1993; Phillips et al., 1983; Reichheld and Sasser, 1990), higher profitability (Gundersen et al., 1996) and customer satisfaction (Oliver, 1997). Providing quality service improves satisfaction of customers and this is believed to lead to the increased customer loyalty to the firm, repeat purchases of the same products, and long-term relationship commitment. Service quality has become an important research topic because of its perceived relationship to costs (Crosby, 1984), customer satisfaction (Bolton and Drew, 1991), customer retention and positive word-of-mouth communications (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990).
In a highly competitive hotel industry, individual hoteliers must find ways to make their products and services stand out among the others. One way to achieve this is for hoteliers to understand their customers’ needs and then set out to meet (or exceed) these needs. In general, service quality promotes customer satisfaction, stimulates intention to return and encourages recommendations. Customer satisfaction also eventually increases profitability (Torres & Kline, 2013) market share and return on investment. As a result, and because of increased importance from the service sector, researchers are defining quality from a customer’s perspective.
This study thus intends to investigate customers perception of service quality and its impact on the performance of hotel industries using Eemjm hotel, Uyo. Akwa -Ibom State as a case study focusing primarily on tangibles, responsiveness and assurance
1.2 Statement of the Problem
The customers are one of the forces that preserve every business, because there is no business that can survive without having people (customers) that would patronize their good or services as the case may be. Thus, in the decision making process of every industry, the perception of the customers can never be ruled out, because the major aim of the existence of every firm is to satisfy the needs of the customers, and as such, any firm that wants to experience growth in its performance must prioritize the needs of the customers even before considering making profit because when customers are happy, it would be very easy for the firm to grow. In as much as the growth of every industry depends partly on both the quantity and quality of the customers that they have, it is not always an easy task to reach every customers satisfaction. As a matter of fact, some customers seem impossible to satisfy, as they would always have complains to feed out to the public concerning the services rendered in a firm in which a hotel is our focus in this study.
Furthermore, some hotels do not ensure that there is an effective maintenance and occasional upgrade of their facilities to meet up with the current trend of world class facilities. This is also enough to reduce their performance as the customers would always prefer a hotel that has state of the art facilities that are very neat and up to date.
As common in most private enterprises in Nigeria, cheap labour characterized by unqualified personnel may be the case in most hotels, Some may not be very fluent in English language, some may be limited in their reasoning due to their background, some may be constrained by a low sense of judgment and interpretation, some may even break the code of secrecy which is very much a vital rule in all hotels and for other attitudes, this would end up registering a negative effect on the hotel. Some of the personnel may possess ugly characters such as rudeness, hot temper, and repulsion. All of these are capable of discouraging customers which will in turn affect the performance of the business. Thus, this study will investigate into specific service quality variables which are tangibles, responsiveness and assurance and how it affects the performance of the hotel industry as customers are the bedrock of every industry.
1.3 Objectives of the Study
The primary objective of this study is to examine customers perceptions of service quality and performance in hotel industries in order to identify the gaps between client expectations and perceptions and to examine its impact on the performance of hotel industries. Specifically the study seeks to;
examine the contribution of tangibles to service performance
assess the contribution of responsiveness to service performance.
examine the contribution of assurance to service performance.
1.4 Research Questions
The research questions for the study are as follows;
to what extent does tangibles contribute to service performance?
to what extent does responsiveness contribute to service performance?
to what extent does Assurance contribute to service performance?
1.5 Research Hypotheses
This research addresses a number of questions which examines the contribution of Tangibles, Responsiveness and assurance to customer’s perception of service quality and performance. Accordingly, we offered the following hypotheses to guide
Ho1: tangibles does not significantly contribute to service performance
Ho2: responsiveness does not significantly contribute to service performance
Ho 3: assurance does not significantly contribute to service performance
1.6 Significance of the Study
The study aims to identify customers perception of service quality and performance using service quality variables such as tangibles, responsiveness and assurance. These findings will lead to a better understanding of quality dynamics involved in the hotel industry and ultimately lead to customer satisfaction. The findings made from the study are significant as they will form basis for further research. Scholars and academicians will be able to identify further areas for research on service quality in hotel industry that will enhance better service delivery and organizational performance. Academicians will also make references and deductions from the findings and conclusions of the study since it will provide additional information to the body of literature in the field of service quality management.
1.7 Scope of the Study
The research study restricted specifically to customers perception of service quality and performance of hotel industry. To give a comprehensive research finding, the researcher selected Eemjm Hotel and Suites where he used as a point of contact to numerous respondents and marketing managers to ascertain customer’s perception of service quality and performance.
