Tourism Research Perspectives
E-Book, Englisch, 416 Seiten
ISBN: 978-3-7448-5883-0
Verlag: Books on Demand
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: Wasserzeichen (»Systemvoraussetzungen)
The aim of the International Student Conference in Tourism Research (ISCONTOUR) is thus to offer students a unique platform to present their research and to establish a mutual knowledge transfer forum for attendees from academia, industry, government and other organisations.
The annual conference, which is jointly organized by the IMC University of Applied Sciences Krems and the Salzburg University of Applied Sciences, will take place alternatively at the locations Salzburg and Krems. The conference research chairs are Prof. (FH) Dr. Roman Egger (Salzburg University of Applied Sciences) and Prof. (FH) Mag. Christian Maurer (University of Applied Sciences Krems).
The target audience include international students (also PhDs), graduates, teachers and lecturers from the field of tourism and leisure management as well as companies and anyone interested in the conference topic areas.
Autoren/Hrsg.
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Service with a Smile: Enhancement on Customer Satisfaction
Chan Ka Po Institute for Tourism Studies, Macao s130322@ift.edu.mo Abstract Service with a smile is a service strategy commonly used by the hotel industry as it is believed to be able to enhance the perception of customer satisfaction on hotel service quality. However, there are few clear guidelines for employees to present an authentic smile to the customer. The present research aims to study the definition of the authenticity of a smile and thus indicate its impact on the perception of customer satisfaction. Hence, the purpose is to provide a better insight for hotel service trainers to implement clear instructions for presenting authentic smiles in service encounters. Eight types of smile are set to measure the perception of hotel customers of the authenticity of different types of smile. Furthermore, customer perception of hotel service quality and their intention to return are indicated according to the different types of smile. Lastly, the impact of the demographic information of customers on the perception of smile authenticity is demonstrated to study if the authentic smile can be purposely applied to a specific group of customer purposely. Quantitative data are collected through street intercept survey of the potential customers of Macau’s five-star hotels. Keywords: service with a smile, customer perception, service quality, authenticity of smile INTRODUCTION A genuine smile from hotel service providers may be the first message of welcome provided to their guests. It is welcomed by all consumers, enhances their satisfaction and loyalty to an organization (Andrzejewski and Mooney, 2016; Pugh, 2001; Söderlund and Rosengren, 2010) and is becoming a key success factor for sustainable competitive advantage (Yozgat, Çaliskan and Ürü, 2012). However, compared with other elements that may also influence consumer satisfaction such as food quality, environment, location and price, there are very few studies indicating the individual role of smiling in hotel service encounters. Moreover, it is difficult to find a clear guideline for presenting a genuine smile in the hospitality industry. Therefore, by utilizing a quantitative research method with survey questions to potential customers of Macau’s hotels, the present research aims to extend existing studies of the relationship between “service with a smile” and customer satisfaction. Moreover, it aims to provide service training insights to hotel service trainers by testing the effects of eight types of smile on customer satisfaction and highlighting the effectiveness and the mechanism of presenting a genuine smile. Last but not least, the study is purposely indicating the elements that might mediate the effect of service with a smile. For constructing a model for the present research, we firstly hypothesize that the customer’s perception of the authenticity of a smile is able to be enhanced by H1.1: Smile with appearance changes of the muscles around eyes; H1.2: Smile with showing teeth; and H1.3: Smile with head canting is able to enhance the customer’s perception of smile authenticity. Meanwhile, we believe that H2: The smile with higher authenticity is more preferred by hotel guests. Moreover, according to various studies concerned with the effect of service with a smile, we assume that H3: Authentic smile will positively affect the satisfaction of hotel customers. We tested the result by a modified model of unweighted SERVPERF scales (Cronin and Taylor, 1992) Furthermore, in order to support the importance of smile authenticity in service encounters, we hypothesize that H4.1: Customer intention to return is positively influenced by authenticity of smile. However, some studies showed that the smiling behaviour does not make an impact on consumer satisfaction if a hotel’s physical condition is not acceptable (Grandey, Fisk, Mattila, Jansen and Sideman, 2005; Söderlund and Rosengren, 2010). Hence, we set another assumption: H4.2: If the quality of a hotel’s physical condition is not acceptable for customers, customer intention to return is not significantly influenced by the authenticity of a smile; and H4.3: If the quality of a hotel’s physical condition is acceptable for customers, customer intention to return is positively influenced by the authenticity of a smile. We hope to prove the null hypothesis of H4.2 in order to support that smile authenticity has a significant impact on customer perception of service quality in hotels with an unacceptable physical condition. Last but not least, the present study is concerned about the impact of customer demographic background on their perception of smile authenticity. Studies found that age and education level did have a significant impact on it but gender did not (Ganesan, Russelland and Dagger, 2008; Pooja and Kumar, 2016). Therefore, we hypothesize that H5.1 Age does have a significant impact on the customer’s perception of smile authenticity; H5.2: Gender does not have a significant impact on customer’s perception of smile authenticity; and H5.3: Education level does have a significant impact on customer’s perception of the authenticity of a smile. The finding is valuable for the application of “service with a smile” to customers. THEORETICAL BACKGROUND Affective expression - Smiling Krumhuber et al. (2007) found that humans are sensitive to facial expressions when they are judging other’s trustworthiness. Although some studies showed that smiling behaviour did not make an impact on consumer satisfaction if the required elements, such as technical service quality, were not acceptable (Grandey, Fisk, Mattila, Jansen and Sideman, 2005; Söderlund and Rosengren, 2010), Gountas, Ewing and Gountas (2007) found a strong relationship between sincere smiles and the perception of genuine care for the customers. This relationship can also be interpreted as the influence of sincere smiles on customer perception of service satisfaction. Furthermore, improvement of customer satisfaction can possibly be achieved by a simulated authentic smile from a well-trained service provider (Zhao, Costa and Badler, 2000). However, in some situations, the smile expresser may just follow a display rule or norm rather than smiling with their actual emotion. The inconsistency between an expresser’s actual emotion and their expression may be sensed by careful observers, and result in a negative impact on customer satisfaction (Andrzejewski and Mooney; Ekman, Friesen and O'Sullivan, 1988). Several reasons influence customer satisfaction through the enhancement of smile. Smile with appearance changes of the muscles around eyes There are two types of smile in service management, genuine (Duchenne: A widely-accepted definition of the authenticity of a smile) smile and non-genuine (non-Duchenne) smile (Ekman, Davidson and Friesen, 1990). Ekman, Friesen and O'Sullivan (1988) stated that a Duchenne smile is the smile obtained by the appearance changes of the muscles around the eyes. Different to other smiles, one’s Duchenne smile was found to be more likely caused by experiencing enjoyment. Moreover, when someone tried to express a Duchenne smile with negative emotion, the smile was more often recognized as a feigned smile. Smile with teeth showing The effect of smiling with teeth showing has been studied in past research about “service with a smile” and the smiles with and without teeth have been named as minimal smile: smile with upturned mouth but without showing teeth; maximal smile: smile with upturned mouth and showing teeth (Barger and Grandey, 2006; Tidd and Lockard, 1978). Moreover, according to the result of Barger and Grandey’s research, customers are more likely to recognize desired services from service providers who serve with maximal smile rather than serve with minimal or no smile. Furthermore, smiling with teeth displayed is able to enhance the beauty of the smile, thus, improving the self-satisfaction and self-perception of the smile. (Van der Geld, Oosterveld, Van Heck and Kuijpers-Jagtman, 2007). Smile with head canting Head movement is the most distinct form of body language during an emotional expression process. It is also the easiest action to be recognized for emotion receivers in communication interaction (Allison, Puce and McCarthy, 2000). Head canting is one of the widely studied head movements that has been found to be associated with human perceptions of emotion (Otta et al., 1994), the study also found that female smiles with head canting result in less reliable expressions to the observer. Moreover, Costa and Bitti (2000) found that head canting with a bigger angle affects more attributes than the one with a smaller angle. They also found that an individual with right head-tilt has a significantly higher average mean on the perception of trustworthiness than those with left head-tilt or without head-tilt. However, attractiveness has an opposite result in the research. Emotional labour Hochschild (2003) identified emotional labour: “This labour requires one to induce or suppress feeling in order to sustain the outward countenance that produces the proper state of mind in others.” (p.7). Emotional labour can be identified as surface acting and deep acting. For service with a smile, surface acting means an employee smiles with inconsistent emotion; deep acting means an employee smiles with correlated emotion (Hochschild). Employees are believed to smile more...
