Service quality management and an application in travel industry

Xll SERVICE QUALITY MANAGEMENT AND AN APPLICATION IN TRAVEL INDUSTRY ABSTRACT Both in domestic and international arena, service concept for tangible products and service industry itself is taking on increasing importance in line with economic developments and increase in standards of lifestyles. In today's changing and developing global environment, many companies and industries are facing intensifying competition and in order to achieve competitive advantage and efficiency, businesses have to seek profitable ways to differentiate themselves. Especially during times of intensive competition both domestically and internationally, one strategy that has been related to success is the delivery of high service quality. In this aspect, service concept has been the subject of many company strategies, conceptual and empirical studies. However, despite the generally accepted importance of service quality and positive implications in many industries and companies, service quality related issues have received little research attention within the tourism industry especially in travel agencies. In the service quality management framework, the service quality expectations of customers from companies and their perceptions related to the service performance of the specific company are the focal points of this study. In this aspect, dimensions of service quality, service quality measurements and evaluations are discussed in order to highlight and refine upon business strategies of service companies. Moreover the concepts of customer loyalty and delight that have vital roles for service companies are also included. In the same context, the behavioral and financial consequences of service quality and service recovery strategies are discussed. Within the measurement scales of service quality and customer loyalty, the mostly used, valid and generally accepted SERVQUAL scale is applied. The discrepancies between the expectations of German and Russian tourists from the travel agencies and their perceptions of the service quality performance of the agency are measured and it is found that the service quality expectations from both of the agencies are not met and the performances of the agencies are below the tourists' expectations. The dimensions and the degree of the discrepancies of service quality are also detailed within this study.