An Analysis of a Service Relationship (Hong Kong Disneyland) (Essay Sample)

An Analysis of a Service Relationship (Hong Kong Disneyland) Name Course Title Institution name Course Instructor Date Executive Summary In the service industry, high quality is an imperative and significant aspect of competitiveness that has great impact on an organizations reputation. Thus, in order to provide and cater for high quality service, a deep and pragmatic research into service quality models is requisite for any company that needs to build its reputation and gain more customers as a result. In particular, there exist so many service models that enable practitioners, managers and directors to establish any issues in the their systems and improve/enhance competence and effectiveness of overall performance. One of the most dominant and mostly used service models is the service quality GAPS. This model has been used to identify gaps in the Hong Kong Disneyland service provision as provided for in this paper. In general, it has been used to analyze service provision and relate it to the expectations and perceptions about the same. Hong Kong Disneyland is a theme park developed by the Disney Company that deals with and or combines shows, attractions and cutting-edge technology derived from Disney parks all over the world. It comprises of an inimitable mix of new fangled and conventional Disney leisure experiences. Given that there are a number of hotels that surround the park, the company stands out as a service provider. Studying and analyzing the services provided by the Hong Kong Disneyland is imperative for tourists and any other interested individuals that might one day find themselves seeking for their services. The study also assists researchers in identifying potential gaps that might exist in other service industries of the same caliber. It should however, be noted that the gaps identified, analyzed and perceived in this paper are from a personal point of view and hence, are not subjective in any manner or do they intend to affect the company' reputation in whatsoever instance. The paper is a useful tool for researchers and any other potential customers of the Hong Kong Disneyland services. Introduction Improved service quality is measured as a vital element of competitiveness and reputation building for any company in the service industry. Study shows that providing excellent and outstanding service quality including high customer satisfaction is one of the most significant issues and challenges that face the modern service industry. In particular, service companies have not yet found the best way to treat their customers and correspondingly increase customer loyalty through improved and high quality service provision. Carman, (1991) suggests that service quality is an imperative aspect in both private and public sectors in business and service industries. In service provision, managers and practitioners fail to identify and potential gaps that hinder service provision. Gaps in service provision are responsible for destroying the company's reputation and may also result in low customer turn-out which eventually leas to minuscule profits and eventually losses. Service quality has been defined as the extent to which a service provided by an individual or firm meets and/or exceeds the customer's expectations. It has received so much attention owing to the strong impact it possesses on lower costs for the business, business performance, customer satisfaction, returns of investment, gaining high profit and more importantly, customer loyalty. If the customer's expectations are beyond performance, then the professed quality is less than pleasing and customer dissatisfactions take effect (Ghobadian, 2004). Hong Kong Disneyland is a service provider in terms of entertainment, leisure, tourism and hotel services. It has outstanding performance in the industry and has a strong reputation. However, there cannot miss one potential gap in its service delivery. This paper will therefore, discuss customer relationship by analyzing the service provision and integrating theory into the customers' expectations and perceptions of the same service. Reference will be given to how gaps emerged in the service provision, how they were identified and how they were eventually dealt with. To arrive at the conclusions statistical analysis was carried out in relation to the topic of discussion. In service provision, the concept of quality holds the central place (Ghobadian, 2004). Quality, in terms of the producer or service deliverer refers to the harmonization of procedural rules and guidelines in the production process and service provision. On the other hand, in terms of the consumer, it is the entire attributes of services and any products which have the ability of satisfying the wants of consumers. It is good to understand the meaning of the word quality before analyzing service provision. At a glance, quality in service provision is just a market category which enables practitioners and managers to shape their company's service provision into something that attracts customers and builds the company's reputation (Ghobadian, 2004). The Hong Kong Disneyland Company as a service provider have gone through a lot to come up with what the managers refers to as the best customer treatment when it comes to their provision of entertainment, park and hotel services. With the help of the GAPS model, this essay attempts to give insight into the services provided by The Hong Kong Disneyland Company. This model was chosen owing to the fact that it attempts to depict the salient activities of Hong Kong Disneyland that influence and have impact on the perception of quality (Gupta, 2004). In addition, the model was of much great help in establishing the interaction between the services provided by the company and identifying the connection between the significant services of Hong Kong Disneyland which are applicable to the delivery of pleasing level of service quality (Gupta, 2004). This links have been identified as the gaps which present a significant hurdle in trying to realize a satisfactory level of service quality. In addition, there is an endeavor to establish how this links emerged and was dealt with by the management. As a result of the experience in the kind of service delivered by the Hong Kong Disneyland, these gaps were identified as the prevailing challenges in service delivery. In trying to analyze the gaps, the links were structured as follows; Customer Expectation-Management Gap This was the first set of linkages between service delivery and the management. This gap attempts to address the variation between the consumers ‘expectations and the management's discernment of service quality (Teas, 2003). It was established that customers or potential consumers of the services provided by the Hong Kong Disneyland expected that once they arrived at the park, they be treated as visitors, individuals who needed to be showed where to go, what to do and not do etc. The expectation was that, guiders had to take visitors through the procedures, direct them where they should go and give insight into the dos and don'ts. These expectations are enshrined in the fact that customers at the park should feel secure owing to their visiting nature and should be treated as visitors and who do not know anything about the park and not as locals who have complete knowledge of what is required of them and/or what takes place at the park once one arrives there. It was found out that indeed what visitors expected conformed to the company's' overall service strategy. What the management had as their service strategy was in line with what visitors expected. However, not all customer expectations were catered for in their service strategy. It was established that the managements contact with customers was poor. In essence, there was no connection between the activities of the management and the anticipated expectations of the customers. For instance, a loophole was identified in how the management expected their customers to be treated, but actually took no step in tracking the same. The service strategy was in line with what visitors expected but, indeed the staff did little about the same. At a business point of view, it was established that the same was due to poor internal communications and reduced contact and relationship between customers and the management (Carman, 1991). However, the management has done a great job in trying to counter the same. This has been through increasing their contact with customers and strengthening the relationship by attending to customer issues directly other than the use of intermediaries. Moreover, there has been a step in improving internal communications to help shape the company's service strategies to conform to the expectations of the customers (Ghobadian, 2004). More importantly, this gap has been dealt with by tracking the performance on satisfaction of the customers. In particular, the company tries to get feedback on the satisfactory nature of the service delivery in relation to its performance (Community Report). Consequently, this has helped improved service quality and helped improving it to conform to the customer's needs and expectations. Management Perception-Service Quality Specifications Gap From the experience received in relation to the kind of service at the Hong Kong Disneyland, there was an endeavor to relate the management's perceptions on service quality expectations of the customers. There was an attempt to establish the difference existing between the management's view of consumer's expectations and service quality provisions. This was in regards to any inappropriate service quality standards (Pitt & Jeantriut, 1994). It was established that when visitors arrived at the park, there was little of activity in trying to identify whether they interested...