--- RESEAARCH PROJECT BMBR5103 “WHAT IS THE IMPACT OF SERVICE QUALITY ON CUSTOMER SATISFACTION IN SHERATON SAIGON HOTEL?” STUDENT FULL NAME: DOAN ANH TU STUDENT ID: CGS 00019887 INTAKE: SEPTEMBER, 2015 ADVISOR’S NAME & TITLE: Dr. BUI PHI PHUNG (DBA) FEBRUARY 2017 1 --- Advisor’s assessment. Advisor’s signature 2 --- ABSTRACT The research’s aim is to analyze the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction in Sheraton Saigon Hotel. To gain the main aim of this research, there are three main objectives for this research: (1) to analyze how customer satisfaction is impacted by factors of service quality (tangibles, assurance, reliability, empathy, and responsiveness) in Sheraton Saigon Hotel, (2) to analyze the level of customers’ satisfaction on the hotel service quality of Sheraton Saigon Hotel and (3) to suggest solutions regarding hotel service quality for Sheraton Saigon Hotel to increase its customers’ satisfaction on its hotel service quality in the future.
This research seeks positivism research philosophy, survey strategy, method of data collection (questionnaire, sampling size of 150 customers of Sheraton Saigon Hotel and simple random sampling), deduction research approach, quantitative research method, method of data analysis (descriptive analysis, test of reliability and linear regression analysis). This research explores that assurance, reliability, and responsiveness of hotel service in Sheraton Saigon Hotel have strong and positive impacts on customer’s satisfaction while this research explores that tangibles and empathy of hotel services in Sheraton Saigon Hotel do not have any impacts on customer’s satisfaction. This research explores that the level of customer’s satisfaction on the hotel services’ quality in the case of Sheraton Saigon hotel is high because the majority of customers’ expectations about the service quality of this hotel are met by this hotel. In addition, this research suggests solutions regarding hotel service quality for Sheraton Saigon Hotel to increase its customers’ satisfaction on its hotel service quality in the future.
3 CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION .3 Research aim and objectives .4 Justification of the research .5 Limitations of the research .6 Structure of the research. 10 CHAPTER TWO – LITERATURE REVIEW.4 How customer satisfaction is impacted by service quality .1 Customer satisfaction and tangibles .2 Customer satisfaction and assurance .3 Customer satisfaction and reliability .4 Customer satisfaction and empathy .5 Customer satisfaction and responsiveness .5 The gaps in the literature. 22 CHAPTER THREE – METHODOLOGY .6 Method of data collection.1 Data collection instrument .2 Sampling method and size .7 Method of data analysis .9 Research methodology limitations. 30 CHAPTER FOUR – ANALYSIS OF RESEARCH FINDINGS .2 Surveyed customers’ demographic information .4 The relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in Sheraton Saigon Hotel .5 The customer’s satisfaction level towards service quality in Sheraton Saigon Hotel.
38 CHAPTER FIVE – DISCUSSIONS OF RESEARCH FINDINGS .2 Discussions of research findings. 45 CHAPTER SIX – CONCLUSIONS AND RECOMMEDATIONS. 57 6 --- CHAPTER ONE – INTRODUCTION 1.1 Introduction The world’s market trend has substantially changed from agricultural aspect to service aspect (Rao and Sahu, 2013). All service companies have a great emphasis on the improvement of their service quality to satisfy basic expectations of their customers.
When requirements of customers are clearly known, hotel operators have the high ability to forecast and fulfill demands and wants of their customers (Bucak, 2014). The higher the customer satisfaction is, the higher the customer loyalty is (Yilmaz, 2009a). Currently, hotel visitors seem to have high needs for high-quality hotel services. Hotels with the high-quality services will be able to compete with their rivals and will gain high positions in minds of customers (Akbaba, 2006).
In the context in Vietnam, hotel visitors will prefer hotels with the high-quality services and have positive word-of- mouth comments about such hotels (Nguyen et al. The importance of service quality in increasing customers’ satisfaction in the hotel industry in Vietnam has been recognized (Nguyen et al. Hence, this research aims to analyze what the impact of service quality on customers’ satisfaction in Sheraton Saigon Hotel – A famous hotel in Vietnam is. Consequently, a study question is created to have further investigation about this research issue.2 Research question Previous literature has recognized that service quality is crucial factor deciding customers’ satisfaction (Gil et al.
However, in the hotel context in Vietnam, there have been a small number of researches investigating the relationship between customers’ satisfaction and service quality (Nguyen et al. 7 --- Hence, this research aims to analyze the impact of service quality on customers’ satisfaction in the hotel context in Vietnam. Overall, the question of this research is as follows: “What is the impact of service quality on customers’ satisfaction in Sheraton Saigon Hotel?” and the research question will be answered after this research is completed. The goal of the research question is to have a great insight of both service quality and customer satisfaction.
For this rationale, this research aims at analyzing the relationship of customer satisfaction and service quality in a famous hotel in Vietnam. In addition, this research is conducted with a case study strategy that analyzes the relationship between customer satisfaction and service quality in Sheraton Saigon Hotel. Consequently, the aim and objectives have been suggested to clarify the question of this research.3 Research aim and objectives Overall, the research’s aim is to analyze the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction in Sheraton Saigon Hotel. Hence, to gain the main aim of this research, there are three main objectives for this research.
The first research objective is to analyze how customer satisfaction is impacted by factors of service quality (tangibles, assurance, reliability, empathy, and responsiveness) in Sheraton Saigon Hotel. The second research objective is to analyze the level of customers’ satisfaction on the hotel service quality of Sheraton Saigon Hotel. The final research objective is to suggest solutions regarding hotel service quality for Sheraton Saigon Hotel to increase its customers’ satisfaction on its hotel service quality in the future. However, a justification for this research is required to explain this research’s significance.4 Justification of the research Over the past decades, service quality and customer satisfaction have been important issues for organizations in today’s business environment to help them to gain competitive advantages (Saleem and Raja, 2014).
In the hotel context in Vietnam, there are few researchers focusing on investigating service quality and customer satisfaction. Hence, there are many concerns about these issues in the hotel context in Vietnam. For this rationale, a quantitative method is used to gather data to answer the question of this research in detail. The quantitative method is used because Saunders et al.
(2012) emphasize that this research method is reliable and valid to examine the relationship between factors. As a result, the quantitative research method consisting of questionnaire is used to evaluate what the impact of service quality on customers’ satisfaction in Sheraton Saigon Hotel. In addition to the increase of literature in the hotel context in Vietnam, this research will help the management of Sheraton Saigon Hotel to know the way to increase customers’ satisfaction on this hotel’s service quality in the future. Although this research has advantages, it has some limitations that are required to evaluate.5 Limitations of the research Although it is crucial to consider advantages and strengths of a research, it is also crucial to evaluate research limitations to evaluate the reliability and validity of the research (Cameron and Price, 2009).
In addition, Saunders et al. (2012) indicate that an academic research can have research limitations in terms of data collection and data analysis. As a result, this research only concentrates on a particular hotel – Sheraton Saigon Hotel and thus, this indicates that data collection may be insufficient. In addition, Yin (2003) indicates that sampling size must be large enough to ensure the 9 --- data generalization.
For this research, it collects an average number of customers of Sheraton Saigon Hotel because of the study time limitation. The average number of customers cannot ensure the average level of collected data generalization. The limitations of this research are indicated in the chapter 6 in detail.6 Structure of the research This research consists of six chapters. In addition to the chapter one, five additional chapters are presented to answer the main question of this research.
In particular, the chapter two – literature review is presented to gain deep knowledge about the study issues like service quality, customers’ satisfaction, the relationship between customers’ satisfaction and service quality. The third chapter will indicate the research methodology in terms of research philosophy, research strategy, method of data collection, research approach, research method, method of data analysis, sampling method, sampling size, consideration of research ethics, and limitations of the research methodology. The fourth chapter offers research results to answer research question. The chapter five discusses the research results by comparing and contrasting them with previous studies.
The chapter six indicates summary of research findings, presents research contributions and limitations, and recommends solutions for regarding hotel service quality for Sheraton Saigon Hotel to increase its customers’ satisfaction on its hotel service quality in the future.7 Conclusion In short, the chapter one is a basic chapter of this research that indicates the research question and aim. In addition, the chapter one has offered limitations and justifications for this research and has presented the main structure of this research. To have better 10 --- understandings about the research question and to evaluate gaps in the literature, a critical analysis of literature is required in the chapter two CHAPTER TWO – LITERATURE REVIEW 2.1 Introduction In today’s world economy, service quality and customers’ satisfaction have become growing concerns in the literature. In addition, they have become crucial concerns for organizations all over the world over many years.
As a result, they are crucial factors affecting organizational effectiveness, innovation and competitiveness (Boon-Liat and Zabid, 2013; Jasinskas et al. The overall aim of this research is to critically review available literature regarding the study question: “What is the impact of service quality on customers’ satisfaction in Sheraton Saigon Hotel?” The purpose of this chapter is to evaluate the literature regarding service quality, customers’ satisfaction and the relationship between customers’ satisfaction and service quality. In particular, this chapter reviews concept of service quality, concept of customers’ satisfaction, and the impact of factors of service quality (tangibles, assurance, reliability, empathy, and responsiveness) and customers’ satisfaction. This chapter indicates the gaps in the literature and builds a conceptual model for this research.2 Service quality Because of the importance of service quality, it has been defined by many researchers.
In particular, Hernon (2002) defines service quality as the relation amongst customers’ expectation for the superiority of the service and their perception about the delivered service. Customers feel satisfied with a service when the customers recognize that it exceeds or meets their expectation (Parikh, 2006). Service quality is the general 11 --- assessment of a customer about superiority/ remarkableness of the service and it is the capability to get desired service from the service provider at the suitable price. Hence, consumers ultimately expect good values for their money, improved service and acceptable service quality (Soita, 2012).
Service quality focuses more on the service delivery processes than the outcomes of the service (Levy and Weitz, 2007). Service quality is a crucial strategic factor in the hotel environment because it is regarded as one of the most important factor deciding customers’ satisfaction towards the hotels (Kuo et al. Parasuraman et al. (1988) develop a valid tool for measuring service quality in different environments such as banking environment, hotel environment, restaurant environment, etc.
and the valid tool is SERVQUAL tool. The strategic tool consists of five factors of service quality are tangibles, assurance, reliability, empathy, and responsiveness (see figure 1). Figure 1: SERVQUAL model Source: Parasuraman et al. (1988) The SERVQUAL model has been trustworthy and valid for evaluating and measuring the hotel service quality in many nations.