Task 1/P1.1) Discuss the definition of quality in terms of business and service provision.
Introduction
The quality in service industry is very difficult to explained compared to the manufactured
product quality. Most services are intangible (Bateson 1977). Because they are performances
rather than objects, precise manufacturing, specifications concerning uniform quality can
rarely be set. Most services cannot be counted, measured, inventoried, tested, and verified in
advance of sale to assure quality. Because of intangibility, the firm may find it difficult to
understand how consumers perceive their services and evaluate service quality (Zeithaml
1981). “Service Quality is measure of how well the service is delivered matches customer
expectations. Delivering quality service means conforming to customer expectations on a
consistent basis.” (Lewis and Booms 1993). Smith and Houston (1982) claimed that
satisfaction with services is related to confirmation or disconfirmation of expectations. They
based their research on the disconfirmation paradigm, which maintains that satisfaction is
related to the size and direction of the disconfirmation experience where disconfirmation is
related to the person's initial expectations (Churchill and Suprenaut 1982). In short, service
quality involves the comparison of the expectations of customers with the performance of the
service provider.
Identifying Customer needs and providing systems to meet/exceed expectations: British Standards Institution (1991) defines quality as, “The totality of features and
characteristics that bear on the ability of a product or service to satisfy a given need.” In
hospitality industry, each customer has certain expectations before they even visit the
hospitality outlet (Bowie & Buttle, 2004). When they use the services in that hospitality outlet
then they compare their expectation and compare their experience with the expectations. If the
customer expectations are met or exceeded then service is considered of good quality, if not
met then the customer satisfaction is not met. Thus, the service of also fails to meet the quality
in this condition. Service especially with high labor content, are heterogenous; their
performance often varies from their producer, from customer to customer, form day to day,
consistency of behavior from the service personnel i.e. uniform quality is difficult to assure
Bass and Bitner, 1981) because the firm intends to deliver may be entirely different from what
the consumer receives.
Hospitality Contract and Event Management 2018
Feigenbaum (1961) definition of quality is, “The total composite product and service
characteristics of marketing, engineering, manufacture, and maintenance through which the
product and service will meet the expectations of the customer.” brings into consideration
departments other than manufacturing which contribute to the quality of product and service
provided by the company to meet the expectations of the customer. It is perhaps worth
contemplating whether meeting the expectations of the customer is a higher level of
achievement than providing a product or service that is fit for purpose. Customers’
expectations would reasonably include a product or service meeting any declared ‘purpose’;
however, there may be things that the customer does not explicitly state, but that nevertheless
form a legitimate part of their expectations of the styling of the product or level of reliability.
“Conformance to requirements.”- Crosby (1979). Crosby’s definition can be contrasted to the
often-held belief that a product/service that meets specification can be regarded as a quality
item. Conformance to specification implies that the specification, if achieved, will meet the
requirements of the customer. It is clear that if market research is flawed or out of date,
products/services derived from such information are unlikely to meet customers’ requirements
no matter how closely they have been produced to specification.
“Quality is a dynamic state associated with products, services, people, processes, and
environments that meets or exceeds expectations and helps produce superior value.” Goetsch
and Davis (2010). The Goetsch and Davis definition is a reasonable attempt to draw together
the themes of a number of definitions of quality and create a unifying definition. In summary:

Quality is defined by the customer, and as such will change over time, often in
unpredictable ways.

Quality is associated with creating customer value.

A quality good or service meets or exceeds the whole range of customer expectations,
some of which may be unspoken.

As a complex concept, quality can only be addressed by the whole organization working
together.
Notion of self-assessment to establish the current position of an organization
Customer satisfaction and company profitability are linked closely to product and service
quality delivered (Bowie & Buttle, 2004). Higher levels of quality result in greater customer
satisfaction, while at the same time supporting higher prices and often lower costs. Therefore,
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Hospitality Contract and Event Management 2018
quality improvement programs normally increase profitability. The task of improving product
and service quality should be a company’s top priority. Most customers will no longer tolerate
poor or average quality. Companies today have no choice but to adopt total quality
management if they want to stay in the race, let alone be profitable. Quality has been variously
defined as ‘fitness for use’, ‘conformance to requirements’ and ‘freedom from variation’. The
American Society for Quality Control defines quality as the totality of features and
characteristics of a product or service that bear on its ability to satisfy stated or implied needs.
This is a customer-centered definition of quality. It suggests that a company has ‘delivered
quality’ whenever its product and service meet or exceeds customers’ needs, requirements and
expectations. TQM has played an important role in educating businesses that quality is more
than products and services being well produced, but is about what marketing has been saying
all the time: customer satisfaction.
Conclusion
The concept of quality in service and business provision is centered around meeting the
customer expectations or exceeding those expectations through the product or services as per
offered by the hospitality firm. If customers get the quality service then it is very easy to create
the customer retentions and thus ultimately benefits in the future business. the intangibility,
heterogeneity, and inseparability of the service nature makes it difficult to ensure that the
quality of service provided is of good quality or not. And also, the service quality perception
differs from person to person as they have different expectations and the level of satisfaction
which determine the quality of service.
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