Service Quality

Service quality is directly linked to front line employee morale, knowledge, skills and motivation.

Introduction.

The purpose of this study will look into the relationship between service quality and frontline employee morale, motivation, knowledge and skill in Mauritian resorts hotel. This case study will be made on resorts hotel, as in Mauritius, most of the hotels are classified as resorts.

Service quality management is now identified in tourism as the cutting edge practice and one of the factors contributing to this rising prominence is that " ... superior quality is proving to be a winning competitive strategy" (Zeithaml et al., 1990). As Seaton and Bennett (1996) pointed out: "Everyone appreciates good customer service when they see it or experience it. Similarly a poor service is equally instantly recognisable. The quality of service provided in any given situation is thus appraised very quickly indeed. Nowhere is this more pertinent than in tourism by its very nature the tourism product is service driven making the quality of the product intrinsically linked to the level of service provided. "

According to Kandampully (1999), "... service quality refers to the customer perceived quality. It is the customer who determines and is the final judge of quality; hence it is the customer's definition (interpretation) of quality which counts." Bitner (1990) is of view that service quality is the customer's overall judgement about a firm's excellence or superiority. Another definition of 'service quality' is that of Horowitz (1990) who claims that service quality is ", ...the minimum level of service that a firm chooses to provide in order to satisfy its target clientele. At the same time it' is the degree of consistency the firm can maintain in providing this predetermined level of service.

The main characteristics of service quality are closely related to front liners. The attributes of service quality are Assurance, Tangibles,...