New Zealand Applied Business Journal
Volume 1, Number 1, 2002
“PERFORMANCE IS THE ONLY THING THAT MATTERS”
A COMPARISON STUDY OF FRONT-LINE STAFF’S ATTITUDES TOWARD CUSTOMER SERVICE AND
ACTUAL SERVICE DELIVERY IN THE HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY
Herb de Vries
School of Business
Christchurch College of Education
Christchurch, New Zealand
herb.devries@cce.ac.nz
Kelly de Lambert
School of Business
Christchurch College of Education
Christchurch, New Zealand
kelly.delambert@cce.ac.nz
Abstract: Tourism is a key service industry for the New Zealand economy,
generating an estimated NZB$11.5 in overseas exchange annually, equating to 9.3%
of GDP and 16% of export earnings. New Zealand offers the global traveller
breathtaking scenery, unique heritage and culture, and an abundance of outdoor
activities. That said however, an important component of the New Zealand
experience is delivered not through cultural experiences and landscapes but through
the hospitality industry. Excellence in frontline customer service in hotels is a key
component of competitive advantage, reinforcing the need for staff training
programmes directed at achieving higher standards of customer satisfaction.
Literature suggests that developing the ‘right’ attitude in staff is an important
component of creating excellent customer service. This paper reports the findings of
a study into the relationship between the quality of customer service within an
organisation and the attitudes of that organisation’s staff towards factors relating to
customer service as described by a specified marketing concept. The analysis is
intended to engender discussion as to the relevance of such research with respect to
the delivery of training programmes for frontline hotel staff.
Key Words: Tourism, Customer service, Hospitality.
TOURISM’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE NEW ZEALAND ECONOMY
Over the past two decades, tourism has steadily transformed New Zealand’s regional and
national economies. The transformation is evident in all sectors of these economiesfrom
the traditional tourist-related ones like food and beverage, accommodation, visitor attractions,
transport, souvenirs and conference facilities through to those not so commonly associated
with tourism, such as agriculture and financial services.
Statistics New Zealand (2000) estimates international and domestic tourism expenditure to be
$NZB11.5, or 9.3% of gross domestic product (GDP). Information from Statistics New
Zealand’s Provisional Tourism Satellite Account 1998–2000 report (2001a), which measures
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New Zealand Applied Business Journal
tourism’s contribution to the New Zealand economy, including GDP, export earnings, total
tourism expenditure, GST, employment, and so on, confirms that tourism is one of New
Zealand’s largest export earners. The report also suggests that tourism is responsible for
generating 16% of our export-related earnings, a figure greater than that for any other single
export category in New Zealand. Moreover, the indirect tourism value added to supplier
industries for the year ending March 2000 was $NZM4,739 (Statistics New Zealand, 2001b).
The tourism industry is also significant in terms of our employment statistics. For the year
ending March 2000, for example, the industry employed 94,000 full-time equivalent persons
(Statistics New Zealand, 2001b). According to Ministry of Tourism (2000) figures, tourism
accounts for one in every 10 jobs in New Zealand.
Other tourist-related information compiled by Statistics New Zealand (2001b) reveals the
changing profile of tourism in New Zealand. For example total international visitor numbers
to this country grew by 85% during the previous decade. For the year ending August 2001,
international visitors numbered 1.97 million, an increase of 11.3 % over the previous year’s
figure. Although domestic tourist numbers are difficult to measure, Ministry of Tourism
figures for 2000 show that domestic tourism grew by 40% during the 1990’s. The
accommodation survey, conducted by Statistics New Zealand (2002), indicates that domestic
visitors spent at least 1.3 million nights in short-term commercial accommodation in April
2002. Domestic overnight trips for 1999, for example, were estimated to number 17.2
million. Although domestic tourism accounts for 90% of all visitor numbers, it contributes
only 44% of all visitor expenditure (excluding day trip expenditure) (Ministry of Tourism,
2000).
The money spent by both international and domestic tourists is a major impetus for regional
development throughout New Zealand, with every region benefiting. The report published by
Tourism New Zealand late in 2000 estimated that international visitor spending would be
$NZB4.7 for that year, with the government receiving GST revenue of $NZM478 ( Tourism
and education services are the only New Zealand export industries liable for GST).
While figures such as these provide solid evidence of the importance of tourism to New
Zealand’s national and regional economies, other, often lesser known, indices can also be
used to measure the industry’s contribution. One of these is “total guest nights”, an index that
indicates how long tourists stay in particular areas, and in what numbers. Travellers who stay
longer and in larger numbers presumably spend more, thereby enlarging the economic
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contribution that tourism makes to the broader New Zealand economy. It follows that New
Zealand’s reputation and performance in the hospitality industry has a direct impact on
tourism success. A key to competitive advantage (and consequently organisational
effectiveness) in this industry is the delivery of excellence in customer service, which Schoell
and Guiltinan (1995) define as the totality of what an organisation does to add customerperceived value to its basic products. In the hospitality industry, we can assume that frontline
staff and the attitudes they hold about customer service play a key role in this regard.
It was on the basis of this premise that we conducted a study to determine whether the
attitudes of frontline staff are linked to the quality of customer service delivery in a sector of
New Zealand’s hospitality industry. Before reporting that study, we provide some further
information concerning the contribution that accommodation makes to tourism in New
Zealand and offer brief discussion on the notions of customer service and staff attitudes,
particularly in terms of methodological considerations associated with determining the latter.
We also document the development of the hypotheses tested in this study.
THE ACCOMMODATION INDUSTRY’S CONTRIBUTION TO THE SUCCESS OF TOURISM
Accommodation options for travellers within New Zealand are wide and varied in terms of
the type of accommodation provided, the services available and the standard of service
provided. Not surprisingly, the substantial increase in tourist numbers over recent years has
seen a commensurate increase in demand for accommodation. Demand for top-of-the-range
accommodation, providing first-class service and a wide range of facilities, in particular, has
increased with the rising number of international visitors. The latest Statistics New Zealand
accommodation survey (2002) reports that guests spent 2.3 million nights in short-term
commercial accommodation in April 2002, 1% more than in April 2001. Total guest nights
for the year ended April 2002 were up 7% on the year ended April 2001, and up 13% on the
year ended April 2000. Figure 1 also shows the generally steady increase in total guest nights
over recent years, especially during December and January (two of the peak months for both
national and international tourism in New Zealand).
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New Zealand Applied Business Journal
Source: Statistics New Zealand (2002), Accommodation survey, Wellington, Author.
Figure 1 Total guest nights (ooo) for the years 1999–2002.
THE IMPORTANCE OF CUSTOMER SATISFACTION
As Brooks (1995) observes, customer satisfaction is critical to every business’s long-term
success. The concept describes a customer’s positive response to a service or product; their
“delight” as Kotler, Armstrong, Meggs, Bradbury & Grech. (1999) put it. Brooks furthermore
contends that in this world of over-supply, customer service has become the great
differentiator among competing companies. Customer satisfaction, he says, is not just
important to one’s business; it is the business. Customers are saying, “Your performance is
the only thing that matters to us. Words are simply words, promises are empty and excuses
are irritating. Your performance is our only reality” (p. 5).
The hospitality industry is no exception in this regard, and, in fact, is probably more reliant
on customer satisfaction than many other businesses. Yet, despite the strategic shift to a
service culture within this industry over recent years, many hotel executives and employees
do not have a commitment to customer service (Bullivant, 2001; Healy, 1993). Healey, in
making this point in 1993, stressed the need to develop a “customer-first” attitude in frontline
hospitality industry staff. In a similar vein, Bullivant (2001) points to the need for the right
training in order to instil the right attitudes and a professional approach to the job in hand.
MEASURING ATTITUDES AND THE DEVELOPMENT OF HYPOTHESES
So what attitudes on the part of frontline staff are relevant to effective customer service and
how can these be measured? Liska (1975) contends that attitude has attracted more attention
from behavioural scientists than has any other behavioural characteristic. He goes on to say
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Volume 1, Number 1, 2002
that the measurement of attitude has generally proceeded as a kind of quasi-psychophysical
problem. That is, it is assumed that attitudes are latent hypothetical variables that cannot be
measured directly but can only be inferred from observations of a subject’s responses to a
selected set of graded behavioural opportunities. Dawes (1972), however, in arguing that
attitudes are more easily measured than defined, has described attitudes as a “state of mind of
the individual toward a value” (p.15). It is this notion of value that we consider particularly
relevant to this study. In an attempt to make understanding of this notion more explicit, we
turn to a model that McCarthy, Perreault and Quester (1995) developed to demonstrate how
an organisation’s “marketing concept” is fundamental to its organisational success.
Customer
satisfaction
Total company
effort
The Marketing
Concept
Profit (or alternative
measure of longterm
success) as an
objective
Figure 2 Marketing concept model.
Source: McCarthy, E.J., Perreault, W.D. & Questor, P.G. (1997), Basic marketing: A managerial approach
(2nd ed.), Roseville, NSW: McGraw-Hill, p. 24.
In constructing this model, McCarthy et al. (1995) held to a philosophy of management
wherein a business:



exists to satisfy targeted customers’ wants
involves a company-wide marketing effort (an integrated or systems approach)
seeks to earn a satisfactory return on investment or achieve some other performance
objective.
In essence, the model suggests that an organisation which makes its marketing concept
integral to all facets of its business increases the likelihood of organisational success by
focusing the company’s full and combined effects on customer satisfaction and achievement
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New Zealand Applied Business Journal
of organisational performance objectives. One limitation of McCarthy et al.’s model that
became apparent within the context of our study is that the model applies to the organisation
as a whole, whereas our aim was to measure the collective excellence in customer service
delivered by individuals within organisations. However, if we return to Brooks’ (1995) earlier
assertion that excellence in customer service (which in this study focuses on the collective
individual efforts of frontline staff within the hotel industry) leads to greater organisational
success, we can develop the following formula:
If
Marketing Concept
=
organisational success
and
Excellence in customer service
=
organisational success
then
Marketing Concept
=
excellence in customer service
This equation easily lends itself to the adaptation of McCarthy et al.’s marketing concept
model outlined in Figure 3, and in so doing allows us to see that frontline staff must possess
the following if they are to be effective in delivering excellent customer service;



an attitudinal desire to satisfy customer needs
an acceptance that their role within the organisation is relevant and important to
organisational success
an understanding that their attitudes to personal achievement reflect their achievements in
their job.
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New Zealand Applied Business Journal
Volume 1, Number 1, 2002
Effort at an
organisational level
through the
understanding of their
role, its importance and
relevance
Belief in the need
to satisfy
customers
Marketing Concept
Excellence in
Customer
service
applied by individual staff
Personal achievements
reflected in organisational
achievements
Figure 3 Adaptation of McCarthy et al (1997) marketing concept model.
An implicit assumption in this model is that staff will be more effective in delivering
excellent customer service when their attitudinal behaviour is in line with the marketing
concept variables of:



the creation of customer satisfaction
organisational effort and relevance
personal and organisational goal attainment.
This premise led, in turn, to developing the following hypotheses that informed our study.

Hypothesis 1: Frontline staff in the hospitality industry are more effective in delivering
excellent customer service when their attitudes reflect a greater acceptance that their own
personal achievement goals need to be in line with organisational goals.

Hypothesis 2: Frontline staff in the hospitality industry are more effective in delivering
excellent customer service when their attitudes reflect a greater acceptance that each staff
member has an important and relevant part to play within the organisation.

Hypothesis 3: Frontline staff in the hospitality industry are more effective in delivering
excellent in customer service when their attitudes reflect a greater acceptance that there is
a need to create customer satisfaction.
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We should also note at this point that we were concerned, when designing our study, as to
whether the types of attitudinal values described here could be measured quantitatively in
order to allow us to conduct tests of significance in relation to our hypotheses. Eiser and van
der Pligt (1993) suggest that while converting people’s qualitative responses to a numerical
score is a challenge, especially because of its potential to reduce something that may be rich
and complex to a single index that then assumes an importance out of all proportion to its
meaning, it does have the advantage of allowing comparisons of attitudes held by different
peoples (or groups of people), or of the attitudes of a single person in different contexts or at
different times. This attribute was an important one for our study. Furthermore, polls, surveys
and other instruments designed by the likes of Likert, Thurstone and Guttman continue to be
widely used and widely accepted means of capturing attitudinal information in numerical
form (for discussions on the validity of these tools, see Lincoln & Kalleberg, 1990; Liska,
1975; Oppenheim, 1966; Schuman & Presser, 1981).
THE STUDY
The study was conducted within a major New Zealand hotel chain. The following qualitative
and quantitative information was gathered to test the three hypotheses:
1. Management perceptions of customer service in two hotels, each from a different New
Zealand region, followed by observation of the customer service in those hotels.
2. The attitudes toward customer service held by frontline staff in three hotels, each from a
different New Zealand region. Two of these regions were the same as those in (1).
We had ascertained before conducting this research that the Region one hotel and the Region
two hotel were distinctly different in their customer service quality. The first was identified
as less than satisfactory and the other as excellent (criteria for these determinations are listed
below). The aim was to determine whether there was any significant difference between the
attitudes held by staff from the two hotels in relation to the marketing concept variables. We
collected information from a Region three hotel for simple comparative purposes.
Participants
Each of the three study groups comprised a variety of hotel staff, ranging from room
attendants, restaurant and bar staff, porters, receptionists and supervisors.
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Volume 1, Number 1, 2002
Study Group One (Region one) comprised staff working in a hotel located in one of New
Zealand’s foremost tourist destinations. This location was selected for the following reasons:




The hotel chain’s Human Resource Manager had suggested that customer service in this
particular hotel could be significantly improved.
The hotel manager held serious concerns about customer service in the hotel.
Staff in the region tend to be a transient, seasonal and of a young age. (accommodation
tends to be expensive and short-term, which is not helpful to attracting long-term staff)
A 24-hour observation of hotel operations, especially in relation to the restaurant, bar,
rooms, cleaning and other services, highlighted some issues with respect to standards of
customer service. Table 1 provides a summary of the observation findings.
Overall
Uniform
attitude
to
customers
Acceptable
Not worn by
level
of all staff
friendliness
Partly worn by
Generally
some staff
helpful when
approached
Satisfactorily
maintained
Restaurant
service
Staff-to-staff
interaction
Food of high Friendly but
standard
rather critical
of one another
Slow service
Somewhat
Inconsistent
impersonal in
service (e.g. their
soup arriving interactions
during main)
Incomplete
orders:
not
supplied
as
requested.
Hotel
appearance
Reception
Issues
of Friendly
untidiness
(e.g.
mess Helpful
behind
partitions,
door
at
reception left
open to reveal
a
half-eaten
staff meal, and
messy office
floor visible to
guests)
Friendliness
variable
Table 1 Qualitative survey of level of customer service of study group one (Region 1)
Study Group Two (Region 2) was selected from a major provincial urban centre. This
destination was chosen for the following reasons:



The hotel chain’s Human Resource Manager suggested that the particular hotel provided
the benchmark in customer service for the chain.
Management at the hotel were proud of the level of customer service provided and
pleased with staff attitudes to delivery of customer service.
The region had a stable workforce, with many of the hotel staff having strong provincial
ties and a sense of pride in their district. Most were living locally in ‘affordable’
accommodation.
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New Zealand Applied Business Journal
A 24-hour observation of hotel operations, especially in relation to the restaurant, bar,
rooms, cleaning and other services, which confirmed the excellent customer service
status of this hotel. Table 2 provides a summary of the observation findings.
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New Zealand Applied Business Journal
Overall
Uniform
attitude
to
customers
Very friendly
Worn by all
staff
Very helpful
Immaculately
Approach
maintained
guests to offer
help
Consistent
standard
of
Personal touch dress
noticeable
Volume 1, Number 1, 2002
Restaurant
service
Staff-to-staff
interaction
Food of a Friendly,
good standard helpful,
supportive of
Extremely
one another
friendly
service
Sense
of
enjoyment in
Professional
their
and helpful
interaction
Flexibility
delivery
customer
requests
Hotel
appearance
Reception
Clean and tidy
Extremely
friendly
staff
Well
maintained
conversational,
Everything in helpful
and
place
cheerful
in
of
Water
supplied
without asking
Table 2 Qualitative survey of customer service of study group two (Region 2)
Study Group Three (Region 3) was selected from a main city centre. The hotel in this region
was chosen for comparative purposes only and was not subject to observation or an interview
with hotel management. This region has a workforce consisting of stable and transient
workers, with staff tending to have weaker provincial ties than those in Region 2. Most staff
lived locally in reasonably affordable accommodation. The Human Resource Manager of the
hotel chain considered that this hotel delivered a generally good level of customer service.
Research Instruments
Staff of the three hotels were asked to respond to a questionnaire designed to measure their
attitudes to the three hypotheses variables discussed above. Participants were asked to rate a
series of statements on a five-point Likert scale, ranging from “strongly agree” to “strongly
disagree”. The questionnaires were administered to staff before they attended a staff
professional development seminar during July and August 2001. Participation was voluntary
and anonymous. A total of 89 questionnaires were returned 23 of a possible 25 from Study
Group 1, 44 of a possible 45 from Study Group 2 and 22 of a possible 23 from Study Group
3.
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New Zealand Applied Business Journal
The questionnaire statements were written according to the three variables given in Figure 2
and the hypotheses. The assumption that only three variables would be needed to account for
the variances in customer service is a decided limitation of this instrument. Another is the
assumption that each statement would have equal weighting in terms of assessing staff
attitudes to customer services. A third limitation has already been discussed, that of trying to
capture attitudinal data numerically. A fourth limitation is that we did not subject the
questionnaire to tests of reliability and construct validity. However, the questions were drawn
from similar instruments and a close reading of relevant literature. A final limitation related
not so much to the questionnaire itself but to the conditions under which it was administered.
The fact that staff were asked to complete it just before attending the seminar may have
influenced the way they answered it.
Data Analysis
Mean scores across all statements pertaining to each of the three variables were calculated for
each of the three groups in order to ascertain trends (as denoted by the means). The overall
means for each of the three attitudinal variables for Study Groups One and Two were then
subjected to a test of statistical significance (t test) in order to prove or disprove each
hypothesis. Significance was set at a level of p = 0.05.
RESULTS
Our findings failed to show distinct differences in the attitudes held by staff across the three
regions regarding their contribution to achieving their organisation’s goals, their personal
importance and relevance to the organisation, and the need to create customer satisfaction. In
fact, the attitudes of staff across the three regions in respect to these three attitudes were very
similar, as the mean scores for each questionnaire statement in Tables 3 to 5 show.
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Volume 1, Number 1, 2002
Group 1
Group 2
Group 3
Mean
(SD)
1. I have personal interests such as sports, hobbies or 3.09
clubs that are much more important than my work.*
(1.08)
Mean
(SD)
3.33
(1.05)
Mean
(SD)
3.23
(1.19)
Total
Survey
Mean
(SD)
3.24
(1.09)
2. I am a person that puts my vocation (job) as my
first priority.
3.61
(1.08)
3.37
(1.16)
3.05
(1.13)
3.35
(1.14)
3. My job is only a very small part of who I am.*
2.48
(0.98)
4.26
(0.45)
2.81
(1.37)
4.02
(1.03)
2.50
(1.10)
3.91
(1.06)
2.65
(1.22)
4.06
(0.93)
5. My personal and family needs come before 2.18
anything else.*
(0.73)
2.14
(1.13)
1.91
(1.11)
2.09
(1.04)
6. I get great satisfaction out of working hard at my
job.
4.09
(0.60)
4.37
(0.79)
4.55
(0.60)
4.34
(0.71)
7. My job helps me to search for what I am good at 3.74
and what I can accomplish with my life.
(1.01)
3.81
(1.03)
3.77
(1.02)
3.78
(1.01)
8. A job with a steady income and good benefits is far 3.45
more important than one of personal growth and (0.91)
achievement.*
3.44
(0.91)
3.45
(0.86)
3.45
(0.89)
3.39
(0.46)
3.41
(0.60)
3.30
(0.61)
3.37
(0.57)
4. Through doing my job I am also achieving some of
my personal goals.
Goal attainmentaverage
Table 3 Frontline hotel staff’s attitudes regarding goal attainment
Note: Each positive statement (in line with the attitudinal variable) required a response on the Likert scale in
which 1= strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree, while each contrary to the attitudinal variable
(denoted by *) required a response in which 1 = strongly agree and 5 = strongly disagree.
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New Zealand Applied Business Journal
Region 1
Region 2
Region 3
Mean
(SD)
1. I should be expected to complete my job 3.71
description – nothing more.*
(1.14)
Mean
(SD)
3.93
(1.24)
Mean
(SD)
4.27
(0.55)
Total
Survey
Mean
(SD)
3.97
(1.09)
2. I prefer to put more effort into my job than is 3.95
expected of me
(0.49)
4.23
(0.52)
4.32
(0.57)
4.18
(0.54)
3. I see my job as important to the success of this 3.95
organisation.
(0.74)
4.09
(0.78)
3.90
(1.04)
4.01
(0.84)
4. Working as part of the ‘company team’ is the most
important aspect of my job.
3.96
(0.82)
4.09
(0.97)
4.14
(0.71)
4.07
(0.87)
5. I am not concerned with the success, growth or 3.65
expansion of this organisation.*
(1.07)
4.02
(1.06)
4.36
(0.73)
4.01
(1.01)
6. I would like to see this organisation succeed and 4.48
achieve its goals.
(0.51)
4.58
(0.54)
4.55
(0.96)
4.55
(0.66)
7. I am proud to work for this company.
3.95
(0.58)
3.30
(0.93)
4.18
(0.79)
3.71
(1.01)
4.18
(0.73)
4.23
(0.97)
4.13
(0.72)
3.73
(1.02)
3.86
(0.37)
4.10
(0.50)
4.26
(0.47)
4.08
(0.49)
8. It is not my job to broaden or promote the
organisations ideals.*
Importance/relevance to organisation average
Table 4 Frontline hotel staff’s attitudes regarding their personal importance and relevance to the
organisation
Note: Each positive statement (in line with the attitudinal variable) required a response on the Likert scale in
which 1= strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree, and each contrary to the attitudinal variable (denoted by
*) required a response in which 1 = strongly agree and 5 = strongly disagree.
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Volume 1, Number 1, 2002
Region 1
Region 2
Region 3
Mean
(SD)
1. ‘First and foremost’ my responsibility is to satisfy 4.83
customer’s needs
(0.39)
Mean
(SD)
4.73
(0.45)
Mean
(SD)
4.68
(0.48)
Total
Survey
Mean
(SD)
4.74
(0.44)
2. It is the responsibility of management to deal with 3.65
customer dissatisfaction.*
(0.93)
3.37
(1.35)
3.86
(0.83)
3.57
(1.14)
3. I so not see my job as primarily being of service to 3.86
others.*
(0.99)
3.91
(0.98)
4.27
(1.03)
3.95
(1.05)
4. It makes me angry having to deal with customer
problems when I have other work to do.*
3.83
(1.03)
4.00
(0.90)
4.50
(0.51)
4.06
(0.91)
5. It is not my responsibility to ensure that this 4.17
organisation presents an image of excellence in (0.94)
customer service.*
4.17
(1.08)
4.73
(0.70)
4.31
(0.98)
6. Helping co-workers to provide excellent service, is 4.55
very important to me.
(0.60)
4.72
(0.50)
4.68
(0.48)
4.67
(0.52)
7. I get satisfaction in finding new ways to improve
customer service
4.17
(0.49)
4.33
(0.64)
4.41
(0.59)
4.31
(0.59)
8. I do not believe it is my job to look for
improvements in customer service.*
3.96
(1.07)
4.16
(1.09)
4.55
(0.51)
4.20
(0.98)
Customer service - average
4.12
(0.47)
4.17
(0.47)
4.46
(0.31)
4.22
(0.46)
Table 5 Frontline hotel staff’s attitude’s regarding the creation of customer satisfaction
Note: Each positive statement (in line with the attitudinal variable) required a response on the Likert scale in
which 1= strongly disagree and 5 = strongly agree, and each contrary to the attitudinal variable (denoted
by *) required a response in which 1 = strongly agree and 5 = strongly disagree.
Similarly, the t-tests for the two independent samples, Groups One and Two, did not support
the three hypotheses. For Hypothesis One, the computed t-value of –0.14 had a p-value of
0.444, indicating very little evidence of a difference in the average attitudes to personal
achievement estimates for the two groups. For hypothesis two, the computed t-value of –1.89
had a p-value of 0.036, indicating little evidence of a difference in the average attitudes to
importance and relevance for the two groups. And for hypothesis three, the computed t-value
of –0.15 had a p-value of 0.442, again indicating very little evidence of a difference for the
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New Zealand Applied Business Journal
two groups in the average attitudes to customer satisfaction estimates. In short, the present
study cannot claim any relationship between staff attitudes and the quality of customer
service as observed in the subject hotels.
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSIONS
Although differences in actual service delivery were identified across the three hotels that
participated in our study these were not echoed in the attitudes that frontline staff held in
relation to the marketing concept variables (as found in this study). The mean attitudinal
scores relating to those variables however did point to trends that could form the basis of
further investigation.
First, the results for attitudes towards personal and organisational goal attainment (refer Table
3) suggest that the participants in Study Group One (the hotel rated as ‘less than satisfactory’)
placed marginally greater emphasis on personal interests than did those in Study Group Two
(the hotel rated as ‘excellent’). This difference may be related to the transient nature of the
Study Group One workforce and the attractions afforded them by the outdoor nature of the
region. Furthermore, Study Group One appeared to be more inclined than Study Group Two
to see their job as only a very small part of who they were and to gain less satisfaction from
their work.
Second, the survey results for the attitudes towards an individuals’ personal importance and
relevance to the organisation (Table 4) suggest that participants in Study Group One were
more inclined than those in Study Group Two to complete only work that was expected of
them and were less likely to put any more effort into their job than was expected of them.
Generally, the former group seemed less inclined to be concerned with the organisation’s
success or promoting its goals. The average for this section was lower, overall, for Study
Group One, which suggests attitudes less supportive of the organisation. Yet the difference
was far from conclusive in setting a trend.
Third, the survey results for attitudes towards customer service (Table 5) suggest that all
three study groups had a good understanding of the importance of customer service. The
overall mean scores were higher here than the corresponding scores for the previous two
sections of the survey. However, Study Group One did appear slightly more inclined than the
other two to consider management as responsible for customer dissatisfactions and hence
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Volume 1, Number 1, 2002
were more inclined to become angry at having to deal with customer problems. They also
seemed to gain slightly less satisfaction out of helping customers and to be less likely to look
for ways of improving customer service.
The inconclusive nature of these findings should not detract from the importance of further
efforts to establish a link between the attitudes of hospitality industry staff to their work and
the quality of customer service actually delivered. The findings may have been as much an
outcome of methodological limitations as anything else. Refinement of the survey instrument
in particular, the way in which qualitative aspects (especially in terms of its validity and
reliability) of the survey were conducted and sample size may produce quite different results.
In this regard any future replication of this study should ensure the rating approach used to
measure hotel customer service quality is robust in terms of reliability and validity, a larger
sample size and clear defining of respondent variables e.g. age, vocation, etc may also assist.
What is certain is that identification of all factors that impact on the quality of customer
service delivered by staff in the New Zealand hospitality industry is vital given the important
contribution that accommodation makes to the quality of New Zealand’s tourism industry. In
this regard, further research could be done in the area of employees’ attitudes toward their
own importance and relevance to the organisations in which they work, given that this was
the variable that seemed to offer the most differentiation between the scores of the groups in
this present study. Other variables could also be considered. Such as the perceptions and selfesteem of frontline staff. Only by identifying those factors that are critical for ensuring sound
delivery of customer service within the hospitality industry can we ensure that customer
service training for frontline staff is appropriately targeted.
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New Zealand Applied Business Journal
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