Service Quality Hospitality

MANAGING SERVICE QUALITY IN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY THROUGH MANAGING THE ‘MOMENT OF TRUTH’: A THEORETICAL APPROACH
Deborah Christine Widjaja
Lecturer, Hotel Management Program, Faculty of Economics, Petra Christian University Email: [e-mail] Abstract: Hospitality industry is one of the service businesses that pays so much attention to service quality as it is the main intangible product that it produces. This short article examines how to manage service quality in hospitality industry through managing the ‘moment of truth’ or service encounter. The analysis is done by referring to some problems and challenges in managing service encounters. The results of the analysis show some important points to consider when managing service encounters. Keywords: Service quality, service encounter, moment of truth, non-verbal cues, service blueprint.

Delivering good service to customers is the main goal that every service business strives to accomplish from time to time. The ability for a service provider to deliver quality service is considered an essential strategy for success and survival in today’s competition. In this case, service encounter is a critical part of the service delivery process because it gives impact to customer’s evaluations of service consumption experiences (Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry, 1990). Therefore, there have been several studies and researches focusing on service encounter as it is believed that there is a causal relationship between the customer perception of service quality and the service encounter. Service encounter is one of the factors influencing customer perceptions of service quality, satisfaction and value as shown in the figure 1. service encounters evidence of service image value value/price

service quality customer satisfaction

Hospitality industry is one of the service sector, with relatively high level of customer contact. The higher the level of customer contact the more numerous and longer service encounters

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