1

STUDENT NAME: KAHOZI SIFA MIRIAM

ADMISSION NUMBER: BHM/2007/19

LECTURER NAME: MR.ANGORE

SUBJECT: HOSPITALITY SERVICE MANAGEMENT

SCHOOL: MOI UNIVERSITY NAIROBI CAMPUS

DATE: 14TH .MAY 2021

 2

ASSIGNMENT ONE

With the aid of the diagram illustrating and explaining the customer service gap model

identifying the gaps and how they can be closed in order to improve service quality and customer

service.

A diagram illustrating the Gaps Model of Service Quality

Personal needs
Word of mouth
Past experiences
communication

Expected service

Gap 5

Gap 1 Perceived service

CONSUMER

MARKETER Service delivery (including Gap 3 External

pre and post contacts) communication to
customer

Gap 4

Translation of perception
into service quality
specifications
Gap 2

Management perceptions
of customer expectations
 3

The GAP Model was first proposed by A. Parasuraman, Valarie Zeithaml and Leonard L.

Berry in 1985. The GAP Model of Service Quality helps the company to understand the

Customer Satisfaction. In-Service Industry, the GAP Model is widely used to understand the

various deviations that are occurring in the process of service delivery to potential customers.

GAP Model creates a roadmap for the overall service delivery process and identifies the gap

between the processes so that the complete model works efficiently and effectively. This helps

the service providers to map the inefficiency that is occurring in the service delivery process.

The GAP Model of Service quality helps to identify the gaps between the perceived

service and the expected service. Five Gaps occur in the Service Delivery Process. They are:

1. Gap one, Knowledge Gap. The Gap between Consumer Expectation and Management

Perception

2. Gap two, Policy Gap. The Gap between Management Perception and Service Quality

Specification

3. Gape three, Communication Gap. The Gap between Service Delivery and External

Communications

4. Gap four, Delivery Gap. The Gap between Service Quality Specification and Service

Delivery

5. Gap five, Customer Gap. The Gap between Customer Expectations and Customer

Perceptions
 4

The Knowledge Gap:

The Gap between Consumer Expectation and Management Perception. The knowledge

gap is the difference between the customer‟s expectations of the service provided and the

company‟s provision of the service. In this case, managers are not aware or have not correctly

interpreted the customer‟s expectation in relation to the company‟s services or products.

If a knowledge gap exists, it may mean companies are trying to meet wrong or non-

existing consumer needs. In a customer-orientated business, it is important to have a clear

understanding of the consumer‟s need for service. To close the gap between the consumer‟s

expectations for service and management‟s perception of service delivery will require

comprehensive market research. There are ways of closing the knowledge gap, they include;

 Focusing on what customers expect.

 Practicing upward communication.

 Carrying out market analysis.

 Focus on relationships.

 Understanding customer complaints.

 Improve on interactions between management and customer

The Policy Gap:

The Gap between Management Perception and Service Quality Specification.

This gap reflects management‟s incorrect translation of the service policy into rules and

guidelines for employees. Some companies experience difficulties translating consumer

 5

expectation into specific service quality delivery. This can include poor service design,

failure to maintain and continually update their provision of good customer service or

simply a lack of standardization. This gap may see consumers seek a similar product with

better service elsewhere. There are ways in which we can close the policy gap

 Ensuring there is enough commitment to service quality

 Focusing on task standardization

 Setting goals

 Ensuring there is adequate described service levels.

The Communication Gap:

The Gap between Service Delivery and External Communications. In some cases,

promises made by companies through advertising media and communication raise customer

expectations. When over-promising in advertising does not match the actual service delivery, it

creates a communication gap. Consumers are disappointed because the promised service does

not match the expected service and consequently may seek alternative product sources. This

communication gap occurs because of many reasons in the industry and the ways of closing it

include;

 Ensure integration between communication and production department.

 Ensure adequate communications between the advertising teams and the

operations department.

The Delivery Gap:

 6

The Gap between Service Quality Specification and Service Delivery. This gap

exposes the weakness in employee performance. Organizations with a Delivery Gap may

specify the service required to support consumers but have subsequently failed to train

their employees, put good processes and guidelines in action. As a result, employees are

ill equipped to manage consumer‟s needs. Some of the problems experienced if there is a

delivery gap are: This gap occurs because of many reasons in the industry, the ways of

closing it include;

 Firstly, establish teamwork to deliver service or product

 Secondly, the employees should have knowledge about the product or

service

 Thirdly, there should be sufficient human resources.

 In addition, there should be no Service performance gap

 Be sure of what your remit is and how it fits with others.

 Also, there should be appropriate supervisory control or perceived control

– not too much or too little control.

The Customer Gap:

The Gap between Customer Expectations and Customer Perceptions. The customer gap is

the difference between customer expectations and customer perceptions. Customer expectation is

what the customer expects according to available resources and is influenced by cultural

background, family lifestyle, personality, demographics, advertising, experience with similar

products and information available online.

 7

Customer perception is totally subjective and is based on the customer‟s interaction with

the product or service. Perception is derived from the customer‟s satisfaction of the specific

product or service and the quality of service delivery.

The customer gap is the most important gap and in an ideal world the customer‟s

expectation would be almost identical to the customer‟s perception. In a customer orientated

strategy, delivering a quality service for a specific product should be based on a clear

understanding of the target market. Understanding customer needs and knowing customer

expectations could be the best way to close the gap.

ASSIGNMENT TWO

Explain the following quality by control methods giving relevant examples from the

hospitality industry

a) Taguchi methods

The Taguchi method represents a remarkable improvement of the classic experiment plan

method. The Japanese specialist elaborated some standard instruments which simplify the

experimenting process and which can be applied in a wide range of domains, that is to say „a

collection‟ of orthogonally fractioned experiment matrices and a set of accessories triangular

tables and linear graphics which enables standard matrices to adapt to specific situations.
 8

Taguchi method is applied in the hospitality industry to improve the customer‟s

satisfaction where they collect and analyze information of the customer‟s perceptions of the

product and service quality in the market survey and help the management to take action to win

the customers. Example; in the front office For example, a telephone is designed to be far more

durable than necessary because more than once it will be pulled off a desk and drop.

b) Poka yoke

Poka-yoke is a system that is used to evade some of errors that might occur within the

organization. The system is mostly known as the mistakes proofing, goof proving and is mainly

used to inadvertent the errors made by the workforces. It is a common process analysis tool.

Examples of application of poka-yoke method in hospitality industry include,

In the kitchen the use of different chopping boards with different color codes to chop

food ingredients to avoid food contamination that can affect the customer. The method is applied

in the service industry within the hospitality industry where restaurants have adopted digital

systems for their waiters. By simply ticking off everything on automation, reading the list from a

similar device at the kitchen, the likelihood of getting an order wrong is eliminated.

c) Benchmarking

Benchmarking is a disciplined process that begins with a thorough search to identify best

practice-organizations, continues with the careful study of one‟s own practices and performance,

progresses through systematic site visits and interviews, and concludes with an analysis of

results, development of recommendations and implementation. Benchmarking is a continuous

 9

quality improvement process by which an organization assesses its internal strengths and

weaknesses; evaluates comparative advantages of leading competitors; identifies best practices

of industry functional leaders; and incorporates these findings into a strategic action plan geared

to gaining a position of superiority. It is a process of identifying, sharing and using knowledge

and best practices by measuring against defined standards or benchmarks. In other words, it

involves continuously monitoring the value customers put on the company‟s product and

comparing it with the best.

Examples of application of benchmarking method in hospitality industry include

Benchmarking is applied in hotel management. It is often used in order to achieve

business strategies, and less as a method of quality evaluation. International consulting

companies use benchmarking methods in their research, to analyze the situation and to project

the future development of hotel industry in a certain area. The work of these companies can be

considered a sector destination benchmarking. Destination benchmarking can have a very great

deal of space. It can be seen in the tabular overview that follows.

Benchmarking in hospitality is a way of comparing best hotels practices against your

hotel organizations. This process identifies performance gap and achieve a competitive

advantage. Benchmarking can be applied against any process, approach, function, or product in

business. The process primarily focuses on measures like quality, time, cost, effectiveness, and

the satisfaction of customers to distinguish where there are problems. Benchmarking can be a

valuable process for businesses in all industries.

 10

d) Blueprinting

Blueprinting is a technique that helps to understand the totality of a service as a process,

so that “fail points,” those stages of the service that have a high statistical probability of

generating problems, can be identified, understood, and possibly redesigned. The blueprint is an

objective, graphical depiction of the service. Blueprint is a technique used for service innovation.

The blueprint is special kind of flow-charting which also includes the line of visibility,

between customers and service provider. In other words, in blueprinting, the line of visibility

separates activities of the front office, where customers obtain tangible evidence of the service,

from those of the back office, which is out of the customers‟ view. The high and low contact

parts of the service delivery process are kept physically separate, but they remain linked by

communications. This separation highlights the need to give special attention to operations above

the line of visibility, where customer perceptions of the service‟s effectiveness are formed.

Designing an efficient process is the goal of the back office, but the back office operations have

an indirect effect on the customer because of delays and errors. The blueprinting exercise also

gives managers the opportunity to identify potential fail points and to design foolproof

procedures to avoid their occurrence, thus ensuring the delivery of high quality service.

Benefits of blue printing;

Blueprints are treasure maps that help businesses discover weaknesses.by analyzing the

services offered one can discover weakness and rectify before it affects the business.

Blueprints help identify opportunities for optimization. The visualization of relationships

in blueprints uncovers potential improvements and ways to eliminate redundancy. An example in

 11

hospitality industry is identification of opportunity when you invent a dish that is rare in that

location. This makes you stand out and better your service