Data Analysis
The research findings gathered from the investigation showed a number of important implications. One of which is that majority of the participants used in the study were dissatisfied of the tour-related products and services provided by travel agencies in Hong Kong. This tourist behavior is brought about by several factors. Among the satisfiers, respondents noted that poor escort and tour guide quality serve as one of the causes of tourism dissatisfaction in the country. This can be related to how travel agency managements handle their operations, particularly their staff. Specifically,(1990) noted that how the managements train, motivate and recognized their employees results to a significant effect on the quality of customer service they deliver. In addition, the level of commitment the management provides on this matter also has a direct impact on the quality of customer service a company provides.
According to (1997), the empowerment of employees should be a priority. This plays a significant role in speeding up the company’s utilization of personnel for optimal effectiveness. Within an organization, an important behavior is the inclusion of constant improvement, which enables it to apply innovations and strategies that are more appropriate. Training the employees properly and increasing their responsibilities are then the important organizational behaviors that must be observed not only in tourism companies but businesses in general.
The value that the management puts on employee empowerment results to important customer service outcomes. For example, through proper employee training, employees become more efficient in handling customer concerns by providing effective solutions. Based from the gathered results of the study, respondents who are dissatisfied with the tourism services in Hong Kong are those who have good educational background and economic status. This implies that customers are aware of what makes a tourist package or service efficient and satisfactory. From this it can be concluded that customers are more knowledgeable, selective and expectant. Thus, the management must be committed in enhancing their employees to become good providers of customer service ( 2005).
As agencies lack the observation of employee empowerment, resulting to poor tourism quality services, it can also be drawn that the level of communication within the agencies also needs improvement. In order for employees to participate effectively in providing quality customer service, communication is important. In self-managed teams for instance, the quality of customer service provided are significantly enhanced when effective and open communication is practiced (1999). This is primarily because communication allows employees to learn from others, including company standards and information updates. Learning this information can help employees apply appropriate strategies when handling customer concerns. Aside from knowledge enrichment, communication among employees also allows the coordination of different departments handling customer services. Through coordinated efforts, employees are more organized, resulting to higher chances of customer satisfaction. In addition, communication also helps in establishing harmonious relations within the workplace, which makes goal achievement easier and faster.
In the article done by (1992), it has been cited that quality customer service is a multi-faceted concept as it is influenced by a number of different factors. Specifically, reliability, empathy, assurance, responsiveness and tangibles are considered to be the main dimensions of quality customer service. In line with this perspective, the role of the employees in providing quality service to customers must be supported by these dimensions. Hence, values and attitude towards work and service is also important among employees.
Employees should not just resort to vague solutions; it is important that the employees provide reliable information. Otherwise, this will only result to more customer dissatisfaction. They must also have a working principle that is not substandard to the company’s expectations. Most importantly, the employees must have a strong sense of accountability and professionalism in serving the customers. It is significant that the employees realize that quality service is not only for the sake of achieving the goals of the company but because customers are valuable.
In addition to lack of employee empowerment, travel agencies in the country and its poor services can also be attributed to other factors. Specifically, the management sector of these agencies may have neglected some aspects that are essential in building effective customer services. These include leadership and openness to change (2000). In order to train the employees and provide satisfaction to customers, the management must have effective leaders that will orchestrate accomplishments, direct all efforts to set objectives, coordinate resources, address financial needs, give emotional support and promote teamwork. In addition, the leaders must be willing to change conventional methodologies and be open to accept new business practices for enhanced customer services. Generally, the role of the management in order to establish quality customer services should be characterized by commitment, leadership and adaptability. It is then important for the management to be involved in the concept of quality service, instead of just placing all the responsibility on the employees. In delivering better customer services and minimizing complaints, both the management and employees should then be actively involved.
Another important implication that can be drawn from the research findings is the necessity of understanding the customers. The results showed that travel agencies in general provide satisfactory response to the complaints of the clients. Within a reasonable period of time, agencies can reach a form of settlement with the client, usually through verbal negotiation. Other means of settlement can be through apology letters, refunds, compensation or legal action. Despite these efforts, it should be noted that while agencies can resolve the complaint, they have already lost valuable repeat customers. In this case, it is essential that travel agencies in the country learn the value of customer loyalty.
It is a known fact that customer loyalty is beneficial to businesses as it helps in building good company-customer relations as well as achieving high profitability. Customers are said to be loyal when their buying behavior remains consistent to one type of item and completely ignore the pleas of competitors. There are a myriad of ways on how this loyalty can be achieved. Among these methods include customer satisfaction. Previous researches have concluded that satisfied consumers are more loyal to the product as compared to unsatisfied customers (2000). Customer behavior is yet another factor that affects consumer choices and trends. Recognizing consumer behavior’s essentiality to business, marketers attempt to develop means on assessing or measuring how a customer behaves. Examples of these measurement indicators are customer longevity that pertains to the period over which a consumer purchases a certain item, and customer consistency, which refers to the number of times a consumer purchases goods over a particular period ( 2000).
Aside from these factors, individual characteristics inherent of a customer, such as personal interests, lifestyle and economic reasons are among other factors that directly affects consumer preferences. The dominance of these affective factors is also dependent on the culture, population and product item involved. In other words, achieving customer loyalty lies on learning and knowing ones customers. The company should among others, consider the viewpoints of it customers, including their needs, interests and preferences. Rather than concentrating on personal objectives and requirements, the company should exert effort in studying their customers. By doing so, their level of commitment towards service quality significantly increases.
Aside from being more knowledgeable, customers have more options that influence their purchasing behavior. This implication has been emphasized in the response given by the dissatisfiers. In particular, participants can be categorized into two: the non-action and the action tourists. While action tourists are those that openly voice out their complaints on the services given to then, agencies should also consider non-action clients who neither display their dissatisfaction nor employ the services of dissatisfactory agencies again. Tourist companies should take due attention on this type of customers as negative word of mouth can not only affect existing client count but the gain of potentially interested customers as well. In general, the analysis of the study’s findings stress that the dissatisfaction of the tourists for Hong Kong travel services is mainly brought about by poor quality services. Furthermore, efforts to improve current operations must be planned and carried out.
Summary
Hong Kong is one of the most popular tourist destinations in Asia. In particular, the country is visited by tourists worldwide for its shopping districts which offer products at good price deals. However, statistical reports have shown that the rate of tourists visiting the country has been declining over the years. This outcome has been attributed to the increasing prices of the goods as well as the poor services offered to customers. The congestion of the main tourist sites of the country as well as the weather have also been considered as external factors that are affecting the level of tourism in the country. Travel agencies operating in the country are also receiving more and more complaints from clients, resulting to high customer dissatisfaction. This study was then conducted in order to investigate on the current behavior of the customers towards the travel agencies tourism services as well as the effect of this behavior. This study was also done in order to identify the problem areas related to the tourism services provided by the agencies as well as the means on how these can be solved.
In order to gather relevant data that would help achieve the objectives of this study, the research conducted a descriptive research, participated by a total of 100 respondents. The respondents were Hong Kong shoppers and categorized as either satisfiers or dissatisfiers. A survey questionnaire structured in Likert format was used for the data-gathering process. The questions were designed in order to learn more about the current status of the products and services of the shopping centers and tourist spots in the country. The level of satisfaction the respondents have towards these services has also been obtained through the questionnaire. The responses of the participants were then processed through the computation of the weighted mean scores of each questionnaire item. Computed values were then compared to a Likert scale for interpretation. Findings were then summarized and analyzed through relevant literatures.
Conclusion
Based from the gathered findings during the research process, several significant conclusions can be drawn:
Recommendation
As the findings of the investigation revealed that majority of the respondents are dissatisfied with the current status of the tourism sector in Hong Kong, it is then essential that the travel agencies and relevant government departments act on this issue. Below are some possible recommendations for improvement:
1. Inclusion of TQM practices to existing operations
Total quality management (TQM) has long been applied by companies and industries worldwide. The strategy, which is primarily customer-driven, is focused on quality through the emphasis of commitment and involvement of each employee within a working organization so as to produce products and services of quality. (1991) noted that in general, the effective implementation of TQM in an organization leads to a number of significant benefits. These advantages include enhanced competitiveness, improved productivity, increased market share and superior customer satisfaction. In relation to the improvement of the services offered by Hong Kong’s tourist sector, TQM training for the employees should be conducted. Generally, there are two forms of TQM training that will be useful for this purpose. These include statistical training and problem-solving training (1992). In statistical training, team members are trained how to measure overall company performance in relation to the implemented quality system project. Technical problems and other factors related to the project that affects the company’s performance can easily be identified through this training.
On the other hand, the problem-solving training enables members to learn how to apply the qualitative approach and identify non-technical issues. Specific techniques like general participative techniques, brainstorming techniques or nominal grouping techniques are some sample strategies applicable for this type of training (1992). By means of training the employees with the necessary TQM concepts, quality in the agencies’ major activities can be observed and maintained. Moreover, the training will also help boost their confidence and willingness to integrate quality in their daily work duties. In turn, the inclusion of quality in the agencies’ operations will help out in improving the tour guide and escort quality of the tourist sector.
2. Development of better processes for handling customer complaints
The results of the study emphasized that majority of customers who complained with the services in the tourist sector no longer employ the same services, resulting to reduced visitors and high customer dissatisfaction. Travel agencies and tourism company managements in Hong Kong should then develop a system that will foster better complaint management. In particular, the process on how the complaints can be relayed and addressed should be clearly explained to the customers. Contact details or staff members to call on to should be identified. Companies in the tourist sector should also help improve the speed of handling the complaints so as to reduce the likelihood of losing repeat customers. High-skilled and efficient staff should be placed to handle the complaints so as not to heighten the dissatisfaction of the clients as well as to make the process run in a smoother fashion.
3. Apply performance measurement measures
Improving the quality of services of the tourist companies should not stop from the implementation of various company programs and employee trainings. It is also essential that a system that would assess the progress of the agency with these efforts should also be utilized. According to and associates (1996), performance measurement may be defined as the process of measuring the competence and efficacy of a project, plan or organization. In the company setting, the development of performance measures can be useful in assessing whether the strategic objectives of an organization have been achieved or not. This system also allows the company to visualize the overall contribution of the employees in the achievement of its objectives ( 1998; 2000). Through this recommendation, travel agencies and tourist companies can then ensure that their efforts are aligned with their customer-oriented objectives.
The most common examples of performance measurement system include the Balance Scorecard, the Performance Pyramid and the Performance Prism (2000). These systems are applied to the organization depending on its vision and strategies (1996). The company can make use of financial indicators, non-financial indicators or a combination of both so as to measure performance. These indicators are chosen to evaluate success factors from various points of view including those of the employees, customers, financial success and business operations. View of past, present and future performances may also be measured.
In order to apply this recommendation, the tourist company must consider some factors. According to and colleagues (2000), the process of performance measurement undergoes four major phases. First, the company must choose which specific performance measure or system to apply. After which, the selected system will then be applied to the organization. Within this phase, how the system results are collected, reported and used is taken into consideration. After the design and implementation procedures, the system will now be used. Finally, the system will be redesigned in accordance to the changes of the organizations objectives. If the company fails to do this final step, the strategic purpose of applying performance measurement systems will not be achieved ( 1999).
4. Involvement of relevant government agencies should be observed
Tourism-related government agencies should support the efforts of tourism companies in achieving greater tourist satisfaction and improving its services. The support can either come in the forms of funds provision or seminar/training conduction for the employees. In addition, government agencies should also be active in promoting the tourism services and opportunities that are provided in the country so as to address the increasing number of dissatisfied clients and tourists.
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