The application of Servqual as an initial tool for the implementation of QFD for small scale tourist attractions in New Zealand

Liu, C., Smith, R & Barnes, D.

International Tourism Student Conference

2002

International Tourism Student Conference

The conference website: http://student-conference.com

This paper reports on the preliminary findings of a phase in an overall project to develop a structured approach to quality improvement in services provided by operators in the New Zealand tourist industry. The first phase of the overall project was to use SERVQUAL to provide a measure of customer satisfaction. The satisfaction measures were used to indicate areas for improvement and their order of priority. Although SERVQUAL provides such areas for improvement it does not indicate how to go about making those improvements. Quality Function Deployment (QFD) was considered to be a suitable methodology to be investigated for this. The study was conducted in one of New Zealand’s nature-based tourist attractions. Field surveys of clients and staff were carried out in August and October 2002 using the SERVQUAL methodology. To obtain the technical requirements for the QFD House of Quality (HOQ) a focus group was conducted with the staff. Comparison of staff understanding of customer expectation and visitor expectation was carried out in order to map any changes in staff views of customer expectation and what visitors expected at different periods of time. A QFD team consisted of staff members representing different operational areas implemented a modified House of Quality from which the five quality improvement priorities were identified.

Keywords:

SERVQUAL, QFD, TQM, Small tour operators, tourism quality, quality measurement tools

Published in Proceedings of the International Tourism Student Conference 2002 - Waiariki Institute

Exploratory

Bay of Plenty

Outdoor Recreation

Outdoors

Barriers, Benefits, Management, Planning

1505

July 11, 2012