SERVQUAL Analysis for Airline Industry - Research Proposal Example

Name: Tutor: Title: SERVQUAL Analysis for Airline Industry Course: Date: Report Analysis Background of the Study Quality of products applies to both products and services. This may involve delivery, and communication that meets a customers’ expectation or beyond customer expectation. Passengers respond differently to different experiences and rating quality. They rate quality differently depending on their experience and demographic backgrounds. Aksoy Et.al (2003) notes that understanding the consumers’ different expectations and profile enables firms dealing with both the local and foreign airlines to consider all their customers and include them in their marketing strategies. Firms offering airline services are among the many organizations that are increasingly recognizing the importance of measuring the quality of their services. This is becoming necessary for all service providing firms. According to Driver (1999), marketing in the airline industry is evolving at a high rate. These changes occurring as a form of the marketing strategies all aim at improving the quality of services that the firms offer in order to meet the expectations of their customers. To this effect, there is need to analyze the passages needs, who are customers and their views on the services that these airlines offer. This involves the study of the gap between the passengers’ expectations and the actual quality of the services they obtain. The paper observes SERVQUAL technique of analysis as the appropriate procedure for analyzing the services of domestic and foreign airline firms. Scope and objectives of the paper This study covers the areas of consumer profiles, the extent of consumer expectations and also considers the satisfaction that consumers derive from the services the airline firms’ offer. From the study of both articles, the study revolves around the airline industry alone and customers and service providers within the industry. The study also reviews both local and international airlines such as the Istanbul Ataturk Airport and areas of close relations to the airline industry. Objective one is to determine customers’ preferences of domestic and foreign airlines and to identify their modes of behavior. The study observes their profiles. The study is focusing on what the passengers expect from the services that these airlines offer. Consumers’ genders, age, occupation, purpose of travel and place of origin tend to have a greater influence on their decisions and preference (Aksoy et al., 2003). Objective two is to identify the gap that exists between services that the airline offers through its staff and the flyers’ expectations. Through SERVQUAL, the study compares satisfaction of the customers of both domestic and foreign preference with the dimension of services that the service providers offer. This then is used to forecast on satisfaction levels of different customer groups. Staff serving on the frontline of the airlines seam to influence passengers’’ judgments about the services they receive. Objective three is to determine the efficiency of domestic and foreign airlines basing on consumer opinions and reaction to services that they receive. Another objective is to examine the essential services that consumers of both preference and different personal profiles need. Passengers traveling for business purposes will need different services compared to those travelling for fun or student travelers (Dekimpe 2012). The study limits its scope to the analysis of the gap existing between passenger expectation and actual quality of services that service providers render (SERVQUAL analysis technique). Collection of data takes place in airlines (Driver, 1999). This means that the scope of the study in terms of passengers’ countries of origin is not limited to specific countries but is wide enough to accommodate the possible origins. This is because passengers, especially of foreign airlines come from different countries. Methodology The study by Stewart (2006) employs survey method that involves explanations and expressive models with different data collection models and cross-sectional assessment of idea. Since International terminals serve more than ten million passengers, survey method serves more appropriately in this case. Participants in the study comprise of passengers of different locations of domicile and different groupings on the basis of age, gender, occupations, education and purposes for traveling. Johnson (2012) opts for primary data through self-completion questionnaire for the passengers which aim at acquiring information on the passengers’ attitudes, behavioral and demographic patterns. Since passengers are assumed to process different places of origin and languages, the questionnaires observe diverse languages, ranging from English, French, Germany, and Turkish too. This is to ensure effective communication, convenience on the part of the passenger and increase the rate of response of the participants. The questionnaires covered the three most important areas of the study. It covered information on passenger frequency in air traveling and pattern of travel. Section two consisted of an element of SERVQUAL analysis, which were passengers’ expectations and their levels of satisfaction and finally, the passengers’ personal profiles on gender, occupation and location. Self administration ensures efficiency and the three parts of the questionnaire was appropriate to gather enough information for the study. Passengers were waiting to travel, therefore and questionnaires were issued to them at the waiting bays, boarding gates and business lounges within the airlines. This means that the passengers respond and the questionnaires are collected from the same point at that moment. This contributed to the high response rate of about 76% from the participants. The study does not involve interviews of any form that could rather consume more time. It also uses the closed end questionnaires that saves more time and ensures relevance in answering. Close end questionnaires enable an easier task in analyzing the findings and grouping the results. Aksoy et al., (2003) employs Chi-square test method to analyze relationship between the passengers’ demographic and behavioral patterns. The study also involved a seven point linkert scale ranging from not satisfied at all to very satisfying. This measured the extent of satisfaction for those passengers who have a record of experience with the airlines. Findings From the study of all the articles findings, just like data collection, displayed different aspects of the study. These are the elements of SERVQUAL technique of analysis that the study chooses to analyze the service provider efforts and compare them with the expectations of their customers. This depends on customer preference, attitudes and different profiles. From the study, findings indicate that most foreign airline travelers are older men with high level of education unlike the domestic airline passengers. According to Dekimpe (2012), different occupation groups also display different preferences of airline usage with the highest percentage (24%) of foreign airline passengers being managers and the lowest (11.4%) being students. This only means that, foreign airlines are a bit costly than the local airlines that is why less student passengers afford it. The findings of the study also indicate that the foreign airlines are mostly used for business purposes, rating at more than 50%. On the other hand, most domestic airline users use it for purposes of education and visits and they have a less frequency of traveling passengers than the foreign airlines. This suggests that foreign airlines are more reliable for business in terms of areas of coverage to business people Dekimpe (2012). Most business male passengers travel using the foreign airlines while those who use domestic airlines are a lesser number. The study indicates that 85% of the male travels for business purpose, however, not all of them belong to the business class while about 44% of the business flyers use domestic airlines. Customer satisfaction is the subject matter of consideration. The study by Aksoy et al. (2003) uses seven-point linkert scale ranging from not satisfied at all to very satisfy provides results of the extent of satisfaction by experienced passengers. The mean values and standard deviations for both airlines exhibit similar patterns. These findings indicate that the service providers’ efforts in meeting their customers’ utility is sufficient, however, it does not reach all people equally from the discriminating activities but the majority. From the findings, there is the problem of reducing demand indicated by the lesser number of young people and numbers of older people using airlines. This is a threat to the whole airline industry. There is also growing competition in deregulated markets that pose challenges to the firms. This means that, airline firms’ marketing strategies should deviate focus and base on facilities that favor more students and women travelers in the foreign airline and expand coverage to attract more business people for domestic airlines. Implication for services marketing theories and practices From the study of all the articles, marketing theories for services base only one stakeholder in the service markets, who is the consumer (passenger) and fail to consider the service providers (airline firms) and third parties who also affect the market (Johnson, 2012). They also concentrate on the internal factors that determine the satisfaction of the consumer when other external factors can also affect consumers and their consumption behaviors other than their association with the service providers. This concentrates the management focus on consumers only and they fail to consider other parties that contribute to the success of the firm. Airline services, just like goods are commodities which consumers need. For this reason, marketing is an important element of increasing sales in the service sector. However, there are limitations to the theories that marketers of services attempt to put in place in order to achieve the goals of promoting sales. Most consumers have perception that only goods are commodities and not services. Marketers in the airline industry need to brand their services the same way they do for goods. The marketers need to adopt theories that modify analysis to be more product-like in order to attract consumers, however, should avoid suggesting that services are different and like the physical products but rather balance the theories to also consider aspects of service (Driver, 1999). Inadequate information on the part of consumers of services is also a limitation to the theories of marketing services since they have limited information about the market that they participate in. marketing theories like the SERVQUAL method of analysis bases on a limited section of the service market, it mainly analyses the reliability and responsiveness of organizations which leaves out other aspects that also determine the satisfaction of consumers. Conclusion The study focused on the service qualities and customer satisfaction in the airline industry. Comparison of customer actual satisfaction and expectation gives the basis of measurement of the service quality. SERVQUAL analysis technique in this case bases on customers’ opinions and level of satisfaction of individuals with different personal profiles. This provides a wide analysis of the whole industry, making it a suitable model for the study. The use of survey method saves the time for the study and ensures efficiency when using the questionnaires. The close end questionnaires provide the appropriate answers for easy analysis of the data and personal administration of questionnaires improve the degree of effectiveness in response. Findings finally indicate more of a positive than a negative gap in the airline services, however, not maximum satisfaction. Bibliography Aksoy, S. (2003) “Airline marketing service by domestic and foreign firms: Differences from the customers viewpoints”, Journal of air transport management, vol. 9, pp 343-351. Dekimpe, M. (2012) “Official journal of European marketing research”, International journal of research in marketing. Driver, J. (1999) “Development in airline Marketing practice: applied marketing science”, Journal of marketing practice, vol. 5(5), pp 134- 150. Johnson, L. (2012) “Official journal of Australian and New Zealand marketing academy”, The Australian marketing journal. Stewart, H. (2006) “The leading quarterly journal for Airport management, airlines, ground handling companies, advisers and researchers, Journal of airport management Read More