Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty of

¶ … Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty of the High Street Travel Agencies and Online Travel Agencies in China Today Customer satisfaction and loyalty have become the focus of an increasing amount of attention from researchers in recent years. Complicating the matter for business managers is the fact that traditional brick-and-mortar establishments are being placed at a disadvantage over their online competitors, and attracting and retaining valuable customers in this environment is a challenging endeavor.

When it comes to the travel and tourism industry, these considerations are even more salient because of the dynamic nature of the demands and needs of the travelling consumer as well as the exigencies faced by the industry in terms of unforeseeable downturns as a result of terrorist attacks around the world. The online travel and tourism industry has gone through an initial period of focusing on new customers to its present stage of seeking to both retain and attract new customers.

In order to provide superior services, though, it is necessary for Internet-based travel companies to identify what existing and potential customers expect for service quality.

To this end, this study Chapter 1: Introduction Statement of the Problem Research Questions Research Objective Information Needs Research Paradigm Research Methodology Data Collection Procedure Sampling Procedure Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature Chapter 3: Data Analysis Chapter 4: Summary, Conclusions and Recommendations An Analysis of Customer Satisfaction and Loyalty of the High Street Travel Agencies and Online Travel Agencies in China Today Chapter 1: Introduction Statement of the Problem As business activities in China grow especially with the internationalization of Chinese economy, there is an increasing need for Chinese managers to travel abroad for business.

Similarly, as incomes in China grow, many Chinese people are looking abroad for leisure travel as well. Ideally you will need to find statistics to support these contentions and reference them. As a result, the need for the air tickets booking and hotel reservation service is showing considerable growth. Numerous online traveling agencies have been established in China. They are quickly gaining share of this increasingly fragmented market. For example, Ctrip, the largest online traveling agencies in China which was established in 1999, has over 15,000,000 members.

As the online business provide more opportunities to personalize marketing (Wind and Rangaswamy, 2001), it implies that the ability to improve the consumer satisfaction and consumer loyalty between online travel agencies and traditional travel agencies is different.

Research Questions Are the consumer's satisfaction levels different between online travel agencies and traditional high street travel agencies? Are the consumer's loyalty levels different between online travel agencies and traditional high street travel agencies? Are satisfaction levels affected by differences in demographic factors? Are high street and online travel agencies competing or offering complementary services? Research Objective to determine whether Customers who choose online travel agencies are more likely to have a higher level of service encounter satisfaction than those who choose traditional travel agencies to determine if Customers who choose online travel agencies are more likely to reply? I do not know what you mean here a higher level of customer value than those who choose traditional travel agencies to determine if Customers who choose online travel agencies are more likely to value a higher level of service quality than those who choose traditional travel agencies to determine whether or not information on overall satisfaction is higher for customers who choose online travel agencies than it is for those who choose traditional travel agencies.

This one makes no sense, I have tried fiddling with it, but do not know what you want to do. Customers who choose traditional travel agencies are more likely to worry about the transaction risk than those who choose online travel agencies. Customers who choose online travel agencies are more likely to have a higher level of overall satisfaction than those who choose traditional travel agencies. Customers who choose online travel agencies are more likely to have a higher level of affective loyalty than who choose traditional travel agencies.

Information Needs The following items were deemed essential elements in developing the background and overview needed to answer the above-stated guiding research questions and research objective. Behaviors. Attitudes. Demographics. Interests. Research Paradigm The research will follow a positive paradigm as shown in Figure ____ below. A quantitative method is applied and the research will be statistically proven. It will test several hypotheses and then generalizing from the specific. It is aim at explaining customer's behavior and seeking the cause. Figure ____. Research paradigm.

The research is aimed at finding out the relationship between the overall satisfaction and loyalty in the online and traditional travel agency industry. Research Methodology China residents who can use computer to access internet and have ever used the traditional travel agencies or online travel agencies to book air ticket or make hotel reservation will be asked to do this research. It is a quantitative research and the target sample size is 200.

Data Collection Procedure An online questionnaire was developed and posted online at www.data100.com.cn.Prior to the survey, the questionnaire was pre-tested, using a small convenience sample of about 10 respondents, to ensure readability and to detect any logical errors of questions. Sampling Procedure Sampling frame: Forward by email. Sampling Unit: Individual. Sample element: Convenience Sampling. Extent of Sample: 100 for online travel agency, 100 for traditional high street travel agency. Time frame: About one month from June to July 2007.

Instrument Design Key: Questionnaire for surveys (QT), Interviewer's guide for in-depth interviews and Moderator's guide and screening-questionnaire for focus groups (QL). RQ/SO Variable Questions SRVUSE Which service did you use when you plan to go for traveling? (1. Traditional travel agency, 2. Online Travel Agency, 3. Both) RCTUSE Which service do you recently used? (1. Traditional travel agency [jump to question 3], 2. Online travel agency [jump to question 4]) TDA Which traditional travel agency you preferred most? (1. CMIT, 2. Jintai, 3. Yongan 4. other) [jump to question 5] OTA Which online travel agency you preferred most? (1. ctrip.com, 2.

elong.com, 3.mango.com, 4.

other) Service Quality FCEQ The company I chosen has good physical facilities and equipment Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) SVRDEP This company performs the promised service dependably Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) SVRACC This company performs the promised service accurately Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) STFHEP This company's staff are willing to help customers Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) PRPTHEP This company provides prompt service Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) KNWLEG The employees of the company are knowledgeable to help their customers Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) POLITE The employees of the company are polite Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) CARE The company cares about my need Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) INDVATT The company provides me an individualized attention.

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) Customer Value PRICE The price of its service is reasonable comparing to other companies Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) QUALRE The price of their service quality is reasonable Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) Service encounter satisfaction HAPPY Last service encounter with the company was a happy experience Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) Overall Satisfaction OVRSAT Generally, I am satisfy with the company Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) Information accessibility EASINFO It is easy to obtain the information of the service (e.g.

price) Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) DEPTH Other related information can be obtained (e.g.

The destination's weather, the attractions) Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) Cognitive Loyalty RATREP The company has a good reputation Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) WELKNW The company is better than the other service provider Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) The company image is good Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) Affective Loyalty WISEPURC My choice to purchase this service was a wise one.

Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) RECOM would recommend this company's service to a friend Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) SEARCH will try to search whether there is better service provider Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) NEWPROD would like to try if there is a new product/service introduced by the company Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) FIRCHO The company will be my first choice when I plan for a trip Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) Behavioral Loyalty AGAIN will use the company's service again Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) PRIINCR will still purchase the service even if its price increase slightly Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) Risk OPRINFO worry about the divulging of personal information in the online transaction process Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) OFINRSK worry about the financial risk during the online transaction Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) TPRINFO worry about the divulging of personal information in the traditional transaction process Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) TFINRSK worry about the financial risk during the traditional transaction Scale from strongly disagree to strongly agree on a 7 point scale) Data Analysis Data analysis was accomplished using both SPSS and Excel spreadsheets according to the types of data gleaned from the online survey service.

The results of the data analysis are presented below in both tabular, graphic and narrative analyses formats. Validity Validity refers to the establishment of evidence that the measurement is actually measuring the intended construct. Measures can be reliable without being valid, but cannot be valid without being reliable.

To develop a model by which validity issues could be assessed we used the validation model developed by Chandler and Lyon (2001) in which there are several approaches for establishing construct validity, including (a) content validity, (b) the substantive component of construct validity, - the structural component of construct validity, and (d) external validity. Reliability Reliability refers to the consistency and stability of a score from a measurement scale (Chandler and Lyon, 2001).

For the purposes of this study, reliability was gauged using the responses from the like categories of the online survey. Chapter 2: Review of Related Literature Background and Overview.

In order to successfully compete in the unending race for a customer's business, in an economic manner, an organization and its management must develop a competitive edge; such a competitive edge may come in the form of understanding how a company's customers value a given quality dimension (relative to the other quality dimensions) and when and if that quality dimension can increase (or decrease) in importance over time (Crosby, De Vito and Pearson, 2004).

Moreover, as Shankara, Smith and Rangaswamy (2002) emphasize, "The rapid growth of online transactions in service industries raises important research questions about the levels of satisfaction and loyalty in the online environment, and the relationship between satisfaction and loyalty online relative to offline. Compared to the offline environment, the online environment offers more opportunities for interactive and personalized marketing" (p. 153). To this end, both Web-based and traditional travel companies have started establishing their own online virtual community sites to attract potential customers to their homepages (Kim, Lee and Hiemstra, 2004).

Today, consumers are able to link to virtual communities within company homepages to interact with other people who have similar interests. Establishing a place to make online virtual community members interact with each other in this new Internet world through the online virtual community has long been expected to be a potentially powerful way to increase customer loyalty (Kim, Lee and Hiemstra, 2004).

For travel companies, virtual communities have broadened their marketing capabilities, and are having a great impact on sales, product and service development, supplier network, information quality, and distribution channels (Kim et al., 2004). In order to increase the customer loyalty, the online virtual community site within the company homepage should stimulate level of member's participation such as chat rooms and bulletin boards where members can share their previous experience, increase member's interest, and provide more opportunities to suggest individual ideas (Kim et al., 2004).

According to Jun and Yang (2002), the superior approach for Internet companies is to improve and maintain all service quality attributes that satisfy both existing and potential customers' needs and wants; however, because resources are by definition limited for both large and small online companies, priorities must be established among alternative service attributes in making investment decisions based on a company's business strategies.

These authors suggest that, "If online companies can understand the similarities and differences of key service quality dimensions perceived by Internet purchasers and Internet non-purchasers, different service offering strategies can be applied to retain existing Internet customers and attract potential customers. Therefore, it is necessary to understand both Internet purchasers' and non-purchasers' perceptions of service quality attributes related to Internet purchasing" (Jun & Yang, 2002, p. 19).

In their analysis of the perceived service quality dimensions of online services compared with traditional outlets, these researchers identified six underlying service quality attributes that were perceived by Internet purchasers: (a) reliability, (b) access, - ease of use, (d) personalization, (e) credibility, and (f) security; likewise, seven dimensions were identified for the Internet non-purchasers: (a) security, (b) responsiveness, - ease of use, (d) availability, (e) reliability, (f) personalization, and (g) access. These quality dimensions are described further in Table ____ below. Table ____. Six underlying service quality attributes perceived by Internet Purchasers.

Service Quality Dimension Description Reliability Both Internet purchasers and Internet non-purchasers require online companies having the ability to perform the promised service accurately and in a timely manner. They expect to be billed and charged correctly. Of equal importance is order delivery. The quality of delivery should include promptness and ensure that both correct and intact products and services are delivered, in ordered quantities, at times convenient to customers. Consumers will not tolerate goods arriving late or damaged, being misplaced, or having the wrong product shipped to them in error.

Consumers also prefer to have increasing access to information about the progress of their order. Responsiveness. Consumers expect Internet retailers to respond to their inquiries promptly. Prompt responses help consumers resolve their problems and make decisions in a timely fashion. However, compared with physical stores, Internet retailers often lack real-time interaction with customers.

For instance, e-mail is a very common means for online consumers to communicate with retailers; but a recent study shows that 42% of the top-ranked Web sites took longer than five days to respond to a customer's e-mail inquiry, never responded, or were not accessible by e-mail. Other unique aspects concerning the responsiveness dimension include information retrieval speed and Internet speed. Internet consumers want to find desired information quickly and accurately.

Studies have revealed that there is a significant positive correlation between information download speed and Web user satisfaction; the negative effects of slow information download can be minimized by providing the consumer with notice of download duration time wherever download waiting occurs and by reducing unexpected waiting occasions and times to a minimum. Access Both Internet purchasers and Internet non-purchasers have a desire to access various sources provided by Internet companies for help.

Consumers expect that a site will have a street and an e-mail address, plus a toll free phone and fax numbers available for them to contact customer representatives easily. In addition, online consumers favor multiple order channels, such as phone and mail order. Finally, accessing help from other consumers is very important in the sense that consumers tend to acquire knowledge from each other. Therefore, providing both traditional and online communication channels such as chat rooms and bulletin boards is a necessity.

Ease of Use Ease of use is a prominent factor in determining customers' decision to adopt a new information technology; therefore, Web-based stores should make it easy for customers to proceed through the whole purchasing process by minimizing technical difficulties. Personalization. Consumers long for personalized or individualized attention and expect to receive a personal "thank you" note as confirmation after they place an order. A message area in which consumers may ask questions and post comments is also a necessity.

The lack of real-time interaction tends to prevent potential customers from purchasing through the Internet. Only by managing all forms of interaction -- Web hits, e-mails, phone -- and fax-based contacts -- in a single framework, can Internet companies shift their staffing and service priorities as customer preferences change. In other words, it is critical for businesses to engage customers in personalized dialogue and to learn more about their needs to better anticipate their future preferences.

Certain techniques such as a "rules engine" that can drive personalization based on information from the database, are critical to satisfy individual customers. In addition, to show a human face to customers, Internet companies may add personal support to staff telephones, answer e-mail, and train customers in the use of the Internet medium. Credibility. Consumers are well aware of the history of online retailers and whether they receive special rewards and discounts offered is an important index for evaluating the credibility of online retailers.

Given the intensive competitive business environment, the history of an online business is a good indicator of its prospects. Providing special rewards and discounts for consumers as promised often demonstrates that the firm possesses basic integrity and credibility in relation to its customers. Security. Both Internet purchasers and Internet non-purchasers appear to be worried about the risk associated with online purchase, especially with respect to secure credit card transactions and privacy of sensitive information. For Internet non-purchasers, trustfulness of Internet retailers is also a concern. Source: Jun & Yang, 2002, p. 19.

Constraints and Opportunities in Online Travel Sales. A major constraint to the use of e-commerce is the fact that travellers are still unable to find all the data they need on one website in order to make a travel decision. They have to access several sites before they can feel certain that they have identified the best product and price combination that meets their requirements. This is particularly true of many airline websites.

For airlines that have a strong brand and/or a very clear market niche or positioning, lack of data on their own site regarding competitors' services and prices may not inhibit users (Doganis, 2001). They will, for instance, access Southwest's or easyJet's website in the clear expectation this where they will find the cheapest fares for the short-haul sectors they are interested in. This is one of the reasons why these airlines' Internet sales have been so high.

It is also the case that many airline website visitors, especially business travellers, have already decided on whom they want to travel with. But the greater the choice of airlines one might use for a particular journey and the more additional services one needs, such as car hire or hotels, the less likely it becomes that a single airline website can provide all the necessary information. Yet 'one-stop shopping' is one of the key features driving the long-term development of e-commerce.

Conventional airlines must work out their strategic response to this glaring shortcoming in their current electronic distribution systems. (Doganis, 2001, p. 179). One strategy might be to continue very much as at present. In other words to use all distribution channels available including travel agents, the GDS, direct telephone sales and their own Internet site, but with the latter selling primarily their own services. Customers wishing to book more complex itineraries or travel packages would do so through traditional travel agents or the virtual online agents such as Travelocity or Expedia.

The latter would also enable airlines to reduce distribution costs but not by as much as when selling on their own websites because they would still need to pay commissions. However, those are generally U.S.$10 per booking, which is much less than would be paid to high street travel agents. Airlines adopting such a strategy would be effectively opting out of trying to capture for themselves most of their e-commerce sales, arguing that other specialist distributors of travel products could do this more effectively and cheaply.

On the other hand they may, like American Airlines, decide to use e-distribution to reinforce the loyalty of customers in their frequent flyer or executive clubs. This airline's website is geared for top-tier customers who are members of their frequent flyer AAvantage club. You cannot book a flight unless you are a member, though you can join online. But potential customers can also book via the Internet using virtual travel agents. Such a low-key e-commerce strategy appears difficult to sustain in the longer term for two reasons.

First, because it means losing control over much of one's distribution to other agencies at a time when cost pressures and potential marketing benefits are pushing towards disintermediation. Second, because most of the larger conventional airlines will be members of global alliances and will need to adopt the same strategy on e-commerce as the key members of their own alliance. It is very likely that in most cases the key alliance members will opt for a more active involvement in e-commerce and e-distribution than at present.

Other member airlines will inevitably be pulled in the same direction. (Doganis, 2001). The second strategic response is for airlines to become major players in electronic distribution providing a full range of services. This entails developing their websites so as to provide users with more information on, and booking opportunities with, other airlines, possibly competitors. They should also provide seamless access to hotel reservations, car hire, entertainment bookings and so on. They will after all generate some commission revenue by cross-selling while providing an enhanced service to their own customers.

In addition they would need to provide corporate customers with the ability to track expenses, monitor travel policies as well as any other services currently offered by travel agents. In other words, they should move towards providing a real 'one-stop shop' for travel. To succeed, they would probably need to team up with a specialist provider of Internet services and develop a strong electronic distribution brand.

While it was United States airlines which led the way in adopting e-commerce, in Europe Lufthansa was one of the first to develop a strategy of developing its own powerful website, offering a multitude of services. Unlike the websites of most of its European competitors, it provides an online booking service which embraces most of the world's airlines. (Doganis, 2001). In 1999 some 5 per cent of Lufthansa's online ticket sales were for other airlines.

Not surprisingly, business travellers are the most frequent users of the Lufthansa website and 40 per cent or so of tickets sold are in Business or First Class (Financial Times, 17 February 1999). The site has been developed to provide hotel bookings, tourist information, travel guides, baggage tracing and other travel features. but, like many other airline websites at the start of the new millennium, it was not a truly customer-oriented site. It required a great deal of information from callers before it would allow them to make or even consider making bookings.

This was in marked contrast to the easyJet website on which bookings were extremely easy and straightforward. As they entered the new millennium it was not clear how many other European airlines would follow Lufthansa and U.S. airlines such as United down the path of offering a full comprehensive travel service through their own websites. (Doganis, 2001).

A real difficulty to overcome is to ensure that an airline website of this kind can be exhaustive enough in its coverage, and whether, if owned by one airline or airline group, customers can be assured that there is no bias in the presentation of information. This was, after all, the problem that beset the computerised global distribution systems in the early days before they became more independent of individual airlines and were forced to adopt codes of practice.

One solution is for airlines to combine resources so as to offer a pooled website as they did a decade earlier with the computerised reservation systems. Continental, Delta, Northwest and United decided to set up in 2000 the first joint multi-airline travel portal, even though they belong to different global alliances. It would be independently owned. In Europe, the same thinking pushed ten major airlines to announce in February 2000 that they were joining forces to create their own website though they too were partners in different alliances.

This is not an ideal solution. Airlines would clearly prefer to sell direct on their own individual websites both to minimise costs and to maximise the marketing opportunities offered by the Internet. Joint sites are essentially an attempt to undermine, or at least counteract, the growing success of independent online travel sites such as Expedia, Travelocity or ebookers. (Doganis, 2001). A third alternative strategy would be to team up with one of the existing online-only travel distribution companies that have grown rapidly in recent years, especially in the United States.

One can combine this strategy with either of the earlier two. At the end of 1998 there were three significant players, Travelocity owned by Sabre and Microsoft's Expedia which each had online sales of about $250 million in that year and Preview, whose sales were lower at $200 million. In 1999 their online sales more or less doubled. A clear indication of the potential for growth.

There were in addition several smaller online booking services such as tiss.com or TRIP.com or those of American Express and Rosenbluth International in the United States and Trailfinders and ebookers in the UK, many of them linked to traditional high street travel agencies. Taken together these specialist online agencies were booking almost half the Internet airline business. Inevitably airlines began to show an interest in these online providers. In early 1999 United Airlines acquired BuyTravel.com which it uses to distribute its deeply discounted fares.

But it continued to develop its own website as a major online service, cross-selling other products and other airlines' services. Customers using BuyTravel can book with other airlines as well; in addition, they can also make hotel reservations and obtain travel information (Doganis, 2001). In September 1999, British Airways acquired a 5 per cent stake in Rosenbluth Interactive which had earlier acquired a majority holding in Biztravel.com, which specialises in online sales to smaller businesses.

Biztravel was planning to expand into the leisure market since it was already providing hotel and car hire bookings as well as airline tickets. Continental Airlines and Marriott International Hotel group were also shareholders in Biztravel.com. British Airways, like United, was buying into an Internet booking company based on state-of-the-art technology with an established brand name among Internet travel customers. Clearly, the strategy of both these airlines was to widen their e-distribution by buying into a branded online agency while continuing also to sell through their own websites.

American Airlines, through its parent company AMR, was already the 83 per cent majority shareholder in Sabre, owner of Travelocity, one of the big three online-only booking services. In September 1999, Travelocity merged with Preview, the smaller of the big three. During this period, Sabre was responsible for maintaining a 70 per cent shareholding of the merged company; moreover, Travelocity's and Preview's joint sales in 1999 were estimated to reach at least $1 billion (Doganis, 2001).

Several distributors or agencies were reaping the benefits of this trend by the end of 1999; in addition, this author notes that these enterprises' set-up costs were high both because of the need to invest in the latest state-of-the-art technology and because they had to spend heavily on advertising and branding their services and making portal deals (Doganis, 2001). According to Doganis, "Unlike airlines that already had established brands and direct access to millions of clients through their frequent flyer programmes, these virtual agents had to build up a new client base.

This was costly. Yet commissions were being capped by most airlines at U.S.$10 per booking" (2001 p. 180). The losses experienced by the virtual travel agents, Doganis cautions, should represent a warning for the airline industry; however, he also makes the point that these events, trends and considerations should not prevent air carriers from establishing a strong presence in the emerging virtual marketplace. "After all" he advises, "the advantages of such a strategy are numerous and the potential economic benefits through both cost saving and revenue generation are substantial.

Those airlines which can aggressively build up a lead in e-commerce will enjoy additional competitive advantages for some time. The difficulties that traditional booksellers have had to catch up with Amazon.com is evidence of the need to be a leader in e-commerce. Airlines cannot afford to wait to see how this new marketplace will develop" (Doganis, 2001, 180). Traditional service outlets are also being confronted with a myriad of online enterprises that transcend far beyond what many providers have considered as legitimate business environments in the past.

For example, "High-street travel agency STA (www.sta.com) operates a number of university branches and specialises in student travel" (Crockett, 2004 p. 12). Their Web site at proclaims that they are the "world's largest student, youth and budget travel organization. STA Travel specializes in cheap flights, hotels and hostels, student travel insurance and the International Student ID Card (ISIC)" (STA Travel, 2007 p. 3). This company even features promotional material in online environments such as Second Life at http://www.virtualstatravel.com/.

This online presence provides virtual customers with the opportunity to visit some of the featured locales offered by the company that are narrated by the company's management personnel in a highly personable fashion. All in all, this company has developed an innovative approach to marketing their services to their target market by taking advantage of what is already available (and popular) online, as well as keeping an eye on trends as they emerge in the virtual environment. The dynamic nature of the environment demands this level of attention today.

According to Crosby, DeVito and Pearson (2003), "Most dimensions of quality and the customer's pursuant sense of satisfaction are not permanently established at the time of exchange (transaction point). As the provider maintains post-transactional control over certain dimensions, it is possible to manage the customer's perceptions of quality and value received and therefore, of satisfaction" (p. 18). SERVQUAL: Dimensions of Quality.

Seeking to identify what features distinguish quality from inferior efforts is certainly not new, and it is reasonable to assume that even prehistoric cavemen were critical of each other's artistic efforts, weapons-manufacturing prowess or hunting abilities and rewarded and celebrated those who could produce the right combination of talent and imagination at the right time.

Over the years, this process has become more refined of course, and the introduction of computer-assisted technologies to assist in the process has created some interesting approaches to measuring the specific dimensions of quality as there are perceived by the customer today. For example, in 1988, Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry identified five individual quality dimensions for service industries: (a) tangibles, (b) reliability, - responsiveness, (d) assurance, and (e) empathy; these individual dimensions as well as the SERVQUAL instrument from which they were derived itself, have received significant support (Crosby et al., 2003).

According to Parasuraman and his colleagues, "Quality of service is becoming an increasingly important differentiator between competing businesses in the retailing sector. In today's fiercely competitive marketplace, characterized by similarly priced, look-alike product offerings from a variety of retailing firms, clear winners will be the ones that provide excellent service quality" (p. 5). The SERVQUAL instrument was developed for use in a wide range of service businesses and provides a basic framework through its expectations/perceptions format, as well as its definitive statements for each of the five dimensions of quality.

When required, this framework can be modified and amplified to suits the specific needs of a particular organization (Parasuraman et al., 1988). Over the years, a number of applications have been identified for the SERVQUAL framework and more continue to be identified. For example, as Parasuraman and his colleagues point out, the applications can be used to track customer perceptions of service quality of a retailing firm relative to that of its competitors for trending purposes.

Moreover, the five-dimensional format of SERVQUAL provide a useful mechanism whereby a company can gauge its level of service quality along each dimension, as well as overall (Parasuraman et al., 1988).

The SERVQUAL framework can be used to categorize a firm's customers into several perceived quality segments (e.g., high, medium, low) on the basis of their individual SERVQUAL scores as well; these discrete segments can then be compared and contrasted on characteristics such as demographic and psychographic variables so as to provide additional timely insights into the business environment for a company's management (Parasuraman et al., 1988).

Another application of SERVQUAL is its use by multi-unit retail companies to track the level of service provided by individual stores and to group the stores into several clusters with varying quality images (Parasuraman et al., 1988). According to Crosby et al., though, "Some of the dimensions of quality are still under the control of the seller and therefore can still be augmented after the point of sale or delivery.

If some of these embedded dimensions do not live up to their billing, then other dimensions can be modified or enhanced to preserve the perception of overall quality of the product and the provider" (2003 p. 18). Chapter 3: Data Analysis All told, there were 200 responses provided by the online respondents in sufficient time for inclusion in the data analysis. The questions are reiterated and their responses recapitulated in the tables and figures below. 1. Did you consider a high street travel agency when you planed your last holiday? Yes % No % 2.

Did book your last holiday through a high street agency? Yes % No % No answers go to question 25) 3. What is the name of this high street agency you considered when making travel arrangements? CMIT Jintai Yongan 4. Please rate the service quality of this agency. Now considering the high street travel agency that you considered when booking you last holiday, please indicate your level of agreement with each of the following statements.

There is no right or wrong answer, just indicate how you feel regarding the facilities and services offered by the high street travel agency you made your booking through? 5. The company I chosen has good facilities and equipment. 6. This company performs the promised service dependably. 7. This company performs the promised service accurately. This company's staff are willing to help customers. This company provides prompt service. 10 the employees of the company are knowledgeable to help their customers. 11. The employees of the company are polite. 12. The company cares about my needs. 13.

The company provided me with individualized attention. 14. The price of its service is reasonable comparing to other holiday providers (high street and online) 15. Last service encounter with the company was a happy.