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1. TOPIC I: THE BASICS OF WOW
INTRODUCTION
In the tourism and hospitality industry, establishment of quality is one of the
prime reasons that an entity will be patronized. It should always be
remembered that customers (guests as we call them) have a lot of choices. With
over decades of existence in operations, the determination of quality has
changed through the years. Add it up to the impatience and sophistication our
guests, this concept should always be inculcated in all service providers in this
industry.
LEARNING OBJECTIVES:
At the end of this chapter, the students should be able to:
1. To differentiate making products and serving guests.
2. To understand the importance of meeting guest expectations.
3. To identify the components of the guest experience.
4. To define service quality and service value in the hospitality field.
CONTENT:
Knutson (1990) reflected in his research that the intense competition in the
hospitality industry has led many businesses to look for ways on how they can
profitably differentiate themselves from their competition and capture the
highest quality. Similarly, Weiermair (2000) noted that in the tourism sector,
even though the production and distribution of services involve different
experiences on both parts of the tourists and the suppliers, the ultimate goal is
still to achieve the highest quality possible.
To determine the highest quality" one must first understand the concept of
"quality." For our guests in the tourism and hospitality industry, one will be
using specifications, standards, and other measures to evaluate quality. This is
now a piece of evidence that quality can be understood, defined, and measured.
Especially for our guests, sometimes if asked on quality, they could not define
it but would immediately know one when they see one. It will now be critical for
quality to be seen. To illustrate, as what the quote says, "Beauty is in the eye of
the beholder," so is quality, and more importantly, our guests define it.
Joseph Juran, one of the pioneers in "quality" research, defined quality as
"fitness for use." This means that the concept of quality is variable to the one
defining it. We cannot say that the service of a casual dining restaurant has
high quality if we have no intention of dining in the said restaurant. It is
because we are not intended for the said restaurant, so we have no means in
determining quality. A dining staff member that has no experience in the

2. kitchen cannot decipher the difference whether a kitchen knife is of good
quality or not. It is because it is not fit for him/her to use it. The International
Organization for Standardization (ISO), the world body for standard
formulation, also defined quality as "the totality of features and characteristics
of a good or service that bear on its ability to satisfy a given or implied need." In
the definition, it is clear that a "given or implied need" should be addressed and
this is usually defined by the user, in our case, our guest or restaurant staff
from which he/she will address the criteria for quality,
SERVICE PRODUCT: GOODS AND SERVICES
Many have been mentioned already with the concepts of products and services.
But let us add another term: goods. These three terms are often confused with
each other. For the purposes of this book, we will be taking the marketing
perspective of the terms. A product can be defined as anything that we can
offer to a market for attention, acquisition, use, or consumption that could
satisfy a need or want. However, the definition of product does not only involve
tangible goods such as those that are purchased in restaurants like burgers,
fries, or drinks. The definition of product must be extended to include
intangible objects as well because they can also be offered to a market.
Burgers, fries, and drinks are what embody the next term, which is goods.
Goods, according to Hill (1999), refer to physical objects for which a demand
exists; their physical attributes are preserved over time; and their ownership
can be established, can exist independently of the owner, and can be traded on
markets, Services, meanwhile, have four features. Lovelock (1983) connoted
this as the IHIP characteristics: intangible, heterogeneous, inseparable, and
perishable.
Services are intangible in nature. It means that they cannot be touched as they
are not physical and can only exist in connection to other things. For example,
the warm smile and grateful service of a food attendant in a restaurant cannot
be touched but can be felt and can only exist because you have ordered a food
item in a restaurant. Similarly, services are heterogeneous due to their
dependence on the workforce which does the act. In hospitality, this concept is
sometimes referred to as "inconsistency." The service that a hair therapist
renders to his/her client at 10 am would be of different quality and dimension
as to when he/she does the service at 8 pm. This is why the industry has the
concept of "service recovery" in place. Just like when a famous pizza house
delivers its pizza on time, if it fails to do so, the pizza would be free. The
concept of heterogeneity is also brought about by the differing likes and
dislikes of the guest. Even though a standard is set, the satisfaction of each
guest varies greatly and course, as previously stated, the guest defines the

3. concept of high quality that is why, commonly, the service staff adheres to the
request of the guest. Inseparability, meanwhile, means that the production (act
of delivery of service staff) and the consumption (guest experience) cannot be
separated from each other. In a spa, for example, the service rendered by a spa
therapist cannot be done while the guest is still at the office. The guest should
be present for the massage service to be done. Using technical criteria to define
services, Smith (1776) states that a service will perish in the very instant of its
performance, and seldom leave any trace or value behind them for which an
equal quantity of services could afterwards be procured." This is especially true
for hotels where the main product is the sale of its guest rooms. For example, if
the sales team of a particular hotel does not perform its job properly, usually
the chance where a room can be sold is lost forever. The sale cannot be
brought back again for that specific day and time. Because of these
characteristics, implications exist.
Now that we have distinguished the differences between goods and services, it
is now time for us to develop the service product concept. Ford (2011)
mentioned that goods and services could not be separated from each other. In
the delivery of services, one cannot be performed properly without the use of
tangible items.
For example, for a spa therapist to be able to conduct a full-body massage,
he/she needs a cozy bed that would ensure comfort to his/her guest, essential
oils to apply to the body for the massage, or glasses when conducting ventosa
service. A tour guide needs maps, flags, or other collaterals for him/her to
deliver his/her commentary. Thus, it is essential that these components be
purchased as a package. With this, the concept of service product was
conceptualized.
DIMENSIONS OF QUALITY FOR SERVICE PRODUCTS
Garvin (1987), in an article in Harvard Business Review, mentioned that
because of the competition for high quality goods and services and with the
internationalization of said concepts, the following dimensions for quality
should be observed and considered:
1. Performance - It refers to a service product's primary operating
characteristics. Usually in the hospitality and tourism industry, as we are
catering to intangible dominant concepts, performance often means prompt
service. This dimension of quality has very measurable attributes that is why
brands can usually be ranked objectively on their respective aspects. Although
measurable, it is quite hard to measure overall performance rankings as they
involve benefits that not every consumer needs.

4. 2. Features - Features are dime ions of quality, which are usually cited as a
secondary aspect of performance. They are secondary in such a way that they
supplement the basic functioning of a service product. Examples would include
free drinks on a plane, free Wi-Fi service in guest rooms, and a complimentary
hot tea after a full-body massage. Sometimes, identifying features from the
primary performance characteristics is difficult as they accentuate the actual
performance indicators. But what is important to know is that features involve
objective and measurable attributes that can be clearly observed which
sometimes affect their translation in quality differences.
3. Reliability - It refers to the ability to perform the promised service product
dependably and accurately. This means that being able to provide service as
promised is one of the main considerations in assessing this dimension. The
guest assesses quality by gauging that when he/she is promised to for his/her
pizza to be delivered in 30 minutes, it should be delivered in less than or
exactly 30 minutes. When the guest is promised for a mouth-watering dining
experience, then the ambiance, service, and food should all be complimentary
to deliver the said experience. Reliability can also mean dependability in
handling guests' service problems, in that every challenge or difficulty that may
arise be treated right the first time.
4. Conformance - This quality dimension means that a service product's
design and characteristics should meet the standard set. Juran became one of
the pioneers who specialized on this area. Service products to be accomplished
and performed properly need to have specifications. When new product
offerings or service provisions are developed, dimensions are actually set to
become standards for evaluation. These specifications are treated as the
"targets" to be met in a specific service product.
5. Durability - This dimension is more detectable in goods rather than in
services and it has both technical and economic dimensions. Technically,
durability can refer to the amount of use before a specific product deteriorates.
For example, a commercial oven can be measured by the number of years it
may service a specific kitchen inside a restaurant, or an espresso machine in
the case of coffee shops. In the case of service aspect, in both personal and
company reputation, costs in training and hiring of qualified and
complementary staff may be considered within this dimension.
6. Serviceability - The sixth dimension of quality, again more inclined toward
goods rather than services, is serviceability or the speed, courtesy, competence,
and ease of repair. Guests are concerned with the breakdown of the products
that are actually offered to them. But most importantly, they are concerned
with how fast the standard they paid for can be restored. Connecting to service
concepts, this dimension can also cover how fast a hotel can transfer a guest to

5. another hotel after he/she was declined because the initial hotel was fully
booked, or how the restaurant management can deal with accidents and give
service recovery at the soonest possible time.
7. Aesthetics - This dimension, along with the last dimension, are highly
subjective. Aesthetics—how a service product is perceived—is clearly a matter
of personal judgment. It reflects how a guest is as an individual. Even with this
fact, there appears to be some patterns in guests' likes and dislikes when it
comes to basis of tastes. Their tastes of course are affected by a variety of
factors, including their demographic and psychographic characteristics.
Because of this, hotels, resorts and other hospitality and tourism
establishments need to conduct market segmentation to develop their target
segments; as what the quote says, "You can't have it all." In the case of some
famous hotel chains, they have segmented their properties or brands to cater to
differing needs of the guests.
8. Perceived Quality - Guests usually do not have a complete guide on a
service product's dimensions; unknowingly, they are indirectly measuring and
this measurement is the only basis for them to compare brands. A tour
experience for example cannot be observed directly; it usually must be gauged
by a number of tangible and intangible aspects of the tour package. Because of
this, images, advertising, and brand names can be critical. Some brands even
ship from outside the country to maintain service quality and to deliver value
as they promised it to their guests. Corporate reputation is its most prized
possession and is the focus of perceived quality
NOTABLE PEOPLE IN SERVICE QUALITY
With the emerging demand for studies in total quality management and
services marketing leading to the study of service quality, the following people
were involved in the evolution:
1. Walter A. Shewhart was an American physicist, engineer, and statistician.
He is also known as the Father of Statistical Quality Control and also related to
the Shewhart cycle.
2. William Edwards Deming was an American engineer, statistician, professor,
author, lecturer, and management consultant. He championed the work of
Walter Shewhart, including statistical process control, operational definitions,
and what Deming called the "Shewhart cycle" which had evolved into Plan-Do-
Study-Act (PDSA).
3. Joseph M. Juran made many contributions to the field of quality
management in his more than 70 active working years. His book, Quality

6. Control Handbook, is a classic reference for quality engineers. He
revolutionized the Japanese philosophy on quality management and in no
small way worked to help shape Japan's economy into the industrial leader it is
today. Dr. Juran was the first to incorporate the human aspect of quality
management which is referred to as Total Quality Management (TQM).
4. Philip B. Crosby was a businessman and author who contributed to
management theory and quality management practices. He initiated the Zero
Defects program at the Martin Company. As the quality control manager of the
Pershing missile program, Crosby was credited with a twenty-five percent (25%)
reduction in the overall rejection rate and a thirty percent (30%) reduction in
scrap costs.
5. Armand V. Feigenbaum was an American quality control expert and
businessman. He devised the concept of Total Quality Control (TOC) which
inspired Total Quality Management (TOM).
6. Kaoru Ishikawa is notable for rejuvenating the norm in the workplace. He
always believed that quality should not stop in reinventing a product alone. He
was one of the few people who believed that delivering quality does not stop in
purchasing the product; it goes beyond the transaction itself. Thus, he
highlighted and reinvented the concept of customer service, giving us the
concept of after-sale service and warranty. He was also the one who coined the
"Ishikawa" or "fishbone" diagram that highlights the cause and effect of the
activities and processes while in constant search of quality in operations.
7. Genichi Taguchi was an engineer and statistician. From the 1950s onward,
he developed a methodology for applying statistics to improve the quality of
manufactured goods. Taguchi methods have been controversial among some
conventional Western statisticians, but others have accepted many of the
concepts introduced by him as valid extensions to the body of knowledge.
In services marketing and management, the following have made significant
contributions noteworthy to be recognized:
1. James H. Donnelly, in his works, highlighted the differences between the
marketing "channels" used for services and those used for physical goods and
implications for marketing strategy
2. A. "Parsu” Parasuraman, Valarie A. Zeithaml, and Leonard L. Berry
developed their pioneering "gaps model" of service quality which highlighted the
importance of efforts made to assess quality in services.
3. Mary Jo Bitner and Bernard H. Booms developed their expanded
"marketing mix" for services which took into account the distinctive
characteristics of service identified in the "crawling out" stage intangibility,

7. inseparability, heterogeneity, and perishability. They added three more Ps to
this original marketing mix to make it more appropriate to services: people,
process, and physical evidence,
4. Christopher Lovelock was best known as a pioneer in the field of Services
Marketing among other titles, such as author professor, and consultant. He
was also known for his excellent case studies.
5. Theodore Levitt was an economist and professor at Harvard Business
School. He was also an editor of the Harvard Business Review who was
especially noted for increasing the Review's circulation and for popularizing the
term globalization. In 1983, he proposed a definition for corporate purpose:
Rather than merely making money, it is to create and keep a customer
6. Walt Disney and the Disney Company while crafting their concept for theme
parks also pioneered the thought of the service providers not only as team
players but also as "cast members" just like in a movie or theater.
7. Bruce Laval, an industrial engineer of the Disney Company, conceptualized
the term "guestology and the guest point of view (GPOV) when viewing service
quality in the tourism and hospitality industry.
GUESTOLOGY
Dickson (2010) defined guestology as the scientific study of the behaviors,
needs, and expectations of people in a service environment, and how to use
that knowledge to optimally manage a service organization. The concept that
Bruce Laval, the father of guestology, introduced has now become a science
that deals with understanding the guest.
Guestology entails studying the totality of the guest experience, from their
expectations down to the results and feedback. Klein (2014) mentioned in her
study that guestology involves knowing the guests or clients and their needs
and wants, perceptions, and expectations. Her approach toward guestology
entails involving every person with whom the service provider has in the
workplace. As tricky as it is, identifying the actual needs and wants,
perceptions, and expectations will really seal the deal. Long ago, it seemed that
establishments operated under assumptions that they already had an idea of
what these needs and wants were, but these assumptions might have fallen
anywhere from pairing the guests' beliefs or being completely different. Any
establishment would want to realize that what it actually needs is to find a way
to quantify the answer of answering the question, rather than to assume.

8. CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS
For customer satisfaction and customer service to be achieved, a complete and
proper understanding of customer expectations is very important. Unless the
establishment already knows what the customers want, what they expect, and
who they are, it will be very difficult to match up to the expectations. A guest
who will dine in a restaurant for the first time will have a different expectation
than a guest who has been in the restaurant for a couple of times. The
expectation of a frequent flier for business purposes may also have a different
expectation with that of a family on a trip to another country. Companies
should make it a practice to always inquire from their customers whether they
have met their expectations and put all of this data into their internal research.
It is important that we note of their likes, dislikes, needs, wants, and profile as
these would be the baseline of our entire operations. The reality right now is
that customer expectations are continuously changing, and unless companies
are attuned to them, they will fall short of these expectations, leading to
customer dissatisfaction and attrition.
Planning for customer satisfaction is really important in this case as this will
be the platform for the design of the experience. This is the role of the
guestologist. It is very important that everything is in place when the guest's
senses first come in contact with anything about your establishment, so the
role of the guestologist is very critical. Much more in the Philippine culture,
where there are different sets of beliefs and ideals, there are also different sets
of expectations. A conference set in Hong Kong would have all its meals in
cocktail style; however, if you have Filipino guests, this cannot be acceptable
because a typical acceptable meal for them would entail a proper table setup
with plush seating and ambiance. So, different expectations would determine
what kind of planning and design you would want to have for your guests.
Establishments geared toward delivery of services in tourism and hospitality
should always be careful not to over-deliver the said services. As our guest
becomes more exposed to what we offer, he/she becomes more complex and, as
such, is accustomed to rely on our decision-making skills to look what best to
give to them. If a guest were to enter a fast-food restaurant with tables lined
with expensive linen, he/she would be expecting the levels of a casual or fine
dining restaurant. Some would say that this is delighting the guest, but it is
also important to think that a guest may also think that this restaurant is too
expensive to dine in. Guests would want that their expectations to be met, no
more, no less.
Food attendants or waiters should literally "wait" for their guest when dining in
a restaurant. Anticipating guest needs is one of the primary responsibilities of
a waiter and that he/she should be good at it. It requires full attention so that

9. whenever a guest needs something, he/she could immediately handle the
concern and attend to the guest's request. But it does not mean that the waiter
should be in close vicinity of the guest that the guest could actually see and
notice that the waiter is on "tiger look" at him/her. A guest needs ample space
so that he/she could get the privacy that he/she wants. He/she needs a cozy
environment that he/she could enjoy and spend it with people he/she would
want to be with. So, imagine if the waiter exaggeratingly anticipated the needs
to the highest level, the guest would be disappointed and it would ruin the
experience. The effort was too much. Thus, the management team needs to
constantly strategize and take into full account the expectations needed to run
this ever-changing and demanding industry.
Depending on the service desired, most of our guests have general similarities
when it comes to their expectations. Their usual expectations would be that the
establishment be clean and the staff be courteous, responsive, reliable, and
friendly. These expectations usually go up if the establishment's level of service
also goes up. Unfortunately, not all high-end or luxury establishments have
maintained this kind of service. Ekiz et al. (2012) noted in their article that
even in luxury hotels, there are still basic problems that are actually
unresolved, and with social media around, guests have easy access to flaunt
these problems which sets a springboard for other problems. They enumerated
a number of problems in their article which are the following:
1. Rooms - with concerns extending from small sized rooms to rooms with no
modern technology
2. Arrogant and/or clueless staff - with comments ranging from staff being
rude and no answers to questions posed
3. Failure to respond - mainly covering staff's failure to respond to guest
complaints
4. Poor delivery - covering complaints such as late service or wrong room
service and long process for check-ins/outs
5. Cleanliness - with criticisms on soiled linen, carpet stains, and hair trapped
in bathtubs
6. Amenities and utilities - with problems associated to the lack or
inadequacy of toiletries and items in minibar
7. Billing - with guests grumbling about having them charged extra for
parking, Internet, gym, and the like
Issues like these are typically simple to resolve but management should allot
time and enforce policies in monitoring these problems and ensure that guest
service is really a top priority.

10. CUSTOMERS/GUESTS/CLIENTS
Customers, otherwise known as guests and clients, in the hospitality and
tourism business play a significant role in the operations. To understand their
behavior and to strategize the efforts of the company, it is important to identify
and match each need to each type of customer.
The Corporate Finance Institute (2015) has identified five basic types of
customers that a hospitality and tourism enterprise should be aware of. They
are our loyal customers, impulse customers, discount customers, need-based
customers, and wandering customers.
The loyal customers are actually the most important segment to please and
should be one of the priorities in mind of a specific company. Usually, this type
of customers represents no more than twenty percent (20%) of the customer
base but actually drives majority of the sales revenues. Because of this, it is
important to note that a loyal customer values a product heavily. Furthermore,
they are more likely to be the bearers of positive word of mouth (WOM) and
likely to recommend the company's service products. Therefore, during the
planning phase, even in the decision-making process, these customers must be
given heavy emphasis.
Impulse customers, meanwhile, are the best type to do suggestive selling. They
are also second to loyal customers when it comes to attractiveness in the
market. As the name implies, these customers do not have a shopping list in
mind and do shopping instinctively. Moreover, this kind of customers are
receptive to recommendations on products. Similar to loyal customers, it is also
important to involve these customers because what they say also matters in
generating more revenue.
Another type of customer which affects a company's inventory turnover is the
discount customer. They are contributory to a company's cash flow because
the products which are seldom purchased at full price are actually availed by
these customers as best markdowns.
The fourth type of customer is driven by a specific need. These customers are
called the need-based customers. They buy for a specific reason and occasion,
and because of this, it may be difficult to convince them to upsell. It is also
important to note that these customers are adept in avoiding any attempt for
upselling and that they will immediately leave after they are done getting what
they need. These customers are also easily drawn to other businesses, much
more if the price is cheaper and the alternative product can also serve its
purpose. It is therefore important to carefully initiate personal interaction with
this segment in order to develop a lasting relationship with them. It has also
been observed that there is a possibility to convert this segment to loyal
customers. If a company can prove that the service that it delivers could pose

11. as a “need” for this segment, along with proper positive personal interactions, it
is expected that this segment will be loyal in the long run.
The last type of customer is the wandering customers. These customers
generate the largest amount of traffic as they have no specific need or desire in
mind but yield the smallest percentage in sales revenue. This type of customers
enjoys social interaction while shopping. Thus, spending a lot of time trying to
please this segment can draw away the other segments. Although, generating a
small percentage to revenue, it is important to note that this segment still
provides insightful information about the products and can therefore
contribute to the feedback mechanism of the company.
Identifying these segments is significant as they generate revenue for the
enterprise. Alongside these segments drag another type of customer that is
usually forgotten or left out. It is called the internal customers. As a hospitality
entity, it is important to note that aside from external customers, it also serves
its internal customers (people which depend and “serve” each other). As they
are the ones who are actually doing the service process, they understand the
feeling of being served together with the toil of hard work that goes with it.
Thus, the service given to an external customer should also be the same with
an internal customer. The expectations, which are to be satisfied, for an
external customer should be the same with that of an internal customer.
QUALITY AND VALUE
In the previous chapter, quality was defined individually. Here, we will view
quality as tied together to the concept of value and how it affects the guest-
service staff relationship. The measure of quality for the guests is actually
based on the difference between their expectation and their experience (or as
netizens quote it in present memes, “reality”). By reality, it means what the
guests have experienced in actual sense. For example, the quality that the
guest experienced matches what he/ she expected, then we can say that
he/she has experienced typical or normal quality positive as he/she was
satisfied with the service provided. This is experienced when a person is
craving for a chicken meal, for example, in a fast-food outlet, and he/she feels
that what he/she paid is fit for the service that he/she received. But if a person
is not satisfied with either the service provided or the product given, then we
can say that he/she experienced a negative quality. When evaluating quality,
one need’s to realize that quality can be high or low regardless of how it costs
the company. A porridge house in Manila that serves unlimited porridge to its
customers, which are students, delivers high quality service as perceived by the
students who do not pay more than 50pesos. While there are also first class
restaurants that buy fresh and expensive ingredients just to ensure high
quality of service they consistently give.

12. Value, in relation to quality, would entail the study of costs. To measure the
value derived from a guest experience, we need to match if the costs incurred
total or equal to the quality of the experience. For example, a guest would be
reserving for a spa session and would be allotting time and paying for the
service. This reservation of time, effort, and money should equal the quality of
the service provided so as to say that the transaction has high value. Therefore,
the time, effort, and money should be studied very closely by the planners of
the service experience so as to have a meaningful guest experience.
THE CUSTOMER AND THE DEFINITION OF VALUE
Since the tourism and hospitality industry is a guest-centered or customer
centered industry, ultimately, it is the customer who defines value. For
example, a sanitation inspector can say if a resort establishment violates or
adheres to certain laws, but this will only be an add-on toward achieving value.
Why? It is because the guest does not see it. For the guest, the quote, “To see is
to believe,” works so much, the output will be the ultimate measure whether a
service design has been crafted excellently. If the guests are dissatisfied or not
happy with the outcome, it does not matter if they have followed correctly the
process. This is evident if, for example, a guest would want to have a manicure
or pedicure, and if a smudge occurred while applying nail polish, the ultimate
measure of the guest is your final output, and he/ she would be dissatisfied; or
in a flight, for example, the airline company promised a seamless transaction,
but there existed long queues, expect a lot of complaints from the guests.
END OF TOPIC I