Assessing determinants of consumer perceptions of service quality, its improvement and image in Malawian lodges: focussing on employees’ expectations and perceptions

Abstract

Service quality in the hospitality industry continues to gain considerable debate and research attention on many fronts. The debate has emphasised the customers‟ view of defining service quality as they perceive it to be more than the provider. Yet many scholars agree that in service provision, there is also the presence of the provider and the customer. Do employees‟ expectations and perceptions validate the determinants of customer‟s perceptions of service quality? The present study assesses the determinants of consumer service quality in Malawian lodges but focussing on employee‟s expectations and perceptions. The study explores employees‟ feelings about the image of the lodges and any service quality improvements used by the lodges. The study has utilised a questionnaire based on SERVQUAL to gather information for analysis using SPSS 18.0 and was administered in nine different lodges in Mzuzu City in the Northern Region of Malawi, involving employees working in different sections of the lodges. A total of 40 employees were interviewed and showed a large proportion of male respondents. The study cannot claim to be conclusive for it is limited to a small sample from one city. The findings show that employees felt that their lodges are friendly, supported by employees‟ ranking of professionalism and skills as one important factor why customers choose to stay at the lodges. Secondly, the findings show that employees‟ expectations and perceptions were high in the assurance dimension which deals with employees‟ knowledge, courtesy and their ability to convey trust and customer confidence. The findings show that employees‟ perceptions in all five features (reliability, assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness) of the service quality were clearly lower than their expectations. This is an important study of service quality in lodges in Malawi; it contributes to the literature and therefore, provides a comparative study of service quality with similar studies done in different parts of the world.