Quality assessment of a service product.

Abstract

This study brings together two bodies of literature, one concerned with the character of services and the other concerned with the nature of quality, in order to explore the nature and possible forms of measurement of service quality. It uses the conference hotel service product as a vehicle for examining judgements about overall service quality. A systematic approach, through a multi-staged methodology, is evolved by first identifying what the product consists of; secondly by establishing what the evaluative attributes are; thirdly by assessing levels of perceived performance on the evaluative attributes and, crucially, the assessment of the overall performance of the product. By using statistical techniques, the evaluative attributes of perceived net quality are examined. This is achieved by analysing which attributes fulfil minimum requirements and which attributes can increase a positive perception of net quality. In addition, the impact of the attributes on net quality is established. The study shows that the specific product consists of a multi-dimensional combination of attributes in varying degrees. The crucial attribute is shown to be dependability of management and staff. In addition, the study reveals that net quality is not only a reflection of incidents of satistaction with the physical - commodities and performed activities. It also needs to take into consideration human interaction as a component in itself. In a wider context the study gives an indication of how the perceived net quality of a product , with a high degree of an activity component, can be examined.