A Research Project for the Hotel Industry Essay

A Research Project for the Hotel Industry - Essay Example For example, the book included the research undertaken by Pegg and Suh, which examined the activities involved in service recovery, planning, responsibilities, outcomes and evaluation. (p. 31-34) What Prideaux, Moscardo and Laws provided for this study was a general framework that contextualized the subject within the hotel industry. There was a clear link between service, recovery and the hospitality business. In line with this resource is another important work, which is that by Young and Burgess (2010). Their research investigated and described service recovery as a form of marketing technology. It provided several empirical evidences that demonstrate how service recovery can address service aberrations. Furthermore, the researchers were also able to describe the relationship between service recovery and positive customer attitude. An understanding of the theoretical paradigm behind the importance of service recovery is critical in making sense of its relations to customer satisfa ction or profitability for hotels. In this respect, Bitner, Booms and Mohr (1994) designed a model based on the interaction between an organization and its customers. The investigated almost 800 critical service encounters as reported by employees in several hospitality enterprises such as hotels, restaurants and airline companies. The research revealed how service-related variables such as service recovery collectively dominate the factors that create a high quality interaction, which eventually leads to customer satisfaction. This theme was also the subject of study by Bolton as she investigated how organizations have embraced relationship marketing. This research found that organizations need to address the issues in different stages of their relationship with their customers and that once the customer experiences are not satisfactory; the relationship is likely to be very short. A fundamental element in Bolton’s finding is that the incidence and quality of service encount ers are critical indicators of whether an organization’s relationship with the customers will flourish. Literature specific to actual experiences on service recovery include Zeithaml, Berry and Parasuraman’s work on service delivery. This study identified the factors that affect the magnitude and directions of what they called as the â€Å"four gaps† on the marketer’s side of their service quality model. (p. 35) In the investigation, the role of service recovery was highlighted. It was found that this component is one of the service-related factors crucial in correcting service-related failures connected with: 1) the difference between consumer expectations and management perceptions; 2) difference between management perceptions of consumer expectations and service quality specifications; and, 4) difference between service quality specifications and the service quality delivered. (p. 35-36) For instance, consumers develop a set of perspectives and expecta tions based on word of mouth communications, personal needs and past experiences. They collectively underscore the importance of service recovery, especially in instances when service quality or service initiatives fail. Humphrey (2010) cited some actual examples to service recovery at work, which offered invaluable insights for this study. For instance, there is the case study of the Ritz-Carlton’