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Effect of Perceived Service Quality on

Customer Satisfaction in Hospitality
Industry: Gronroos’ Service Quality
Model Development
a a a
Mehdi Zaibaf , Fariz Taherikia & Meysam Fakharian
a
Department of Management , Islamic Azad University of Iran,
Firoozkuh Branch , Tehran , Iran
Accepted author version posted online: 24 Jul 2012.Published
online: 03 May 2013.

To cite this article: Mehdi Zaibaf , Fariz Taherikia & Meysam Fakharian (2013) Effect of Perceived
Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction in Hospitality Industry: Gronroos’ Service Quality
Model Development, Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 22:5, 490-504, DOI:
10.1080/19368623.2012.670893

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 Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 22:490–504, 2013
Copyright © Taylor & Francis Group, LLC
ISSN: 1936-8623 print/1936-8631 online
DOI: 10.1080/19368623.2012.670893

Effect of Perceived Service Quality on Customer

Satisfaction in Hospitality Industry: Gronroos’
Service Quality Model Development

MEHDI ZAIBAF, FARIZ TAHERIKIA, and MEYSAM FAKHARIAN

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Department of Management, Islamic Azad University of Iran, Firoozkuh Branch,

Tehran, Iran

Customer satisfaction was a strategic issue in the past two

decades. This study aims to examine the effect of perceived qual-
ity on customer satisfaction using Gronroos’ service quality model.
A self-administrated questionnaire was used to collect data from
267 respondents. A two-stage cluster-sampling plan was used to
collect samples. Structural equation modeling (SEM) and one
sample t tests were employed to analyze data. Results indicate
that functional quality has a positive and significant impact on
image and perceived quality. Further, image has a positive and sig-
nificant impact on perceived quality and consequently, perceived
quality has a positive and significant impact on customer satisfac-
tion. However, the relationships among technical quality, image,
and perceived quality are not significant. Additionally, functional
and technical qualities have not significant impact on customer
satisfaction. The article is an empirical test of Gronroos’ model
development, suitable for explaining customer satisfaction, and
provides conceptual clarity, theoretical parsimony and practical
implications of perceived quality impact on satisfaction.

KEYWORDS customer satisfaction, perceived quality, structural

equation modeling, hospitality industry

Address correspondence to Mehdi Zaibaf, Islamic Azad University of Iran, Firoozkuh

Branch, Management Department, No. 30, Bldg. 3, Vorodi 2, Tehran 16897, Iran. E-mail:
mzaribaf31@gmail.com

490
 Effect of Perceived Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction 491

INTRODUCTION

In today’s competitive age, organizations should attempt to focus on cus-

tomers’ wants and needs to meet their expectations and satisfy them.
Research indicated that service quality has a significant impact on cus-
tomer satisfaction and loyalty compared to product/service characteristics
(Donnelly, Neil, Rimmer, & Shiu, 2006). Service quality also leads to
decreased costs, increased profitability, improved organizational perfor-
mance, and consequently, positive word-of-mouth (Seth, Deshmukh, & Vrat,
2005; Buttle, 1995). Marketers have recently begun to consider and devise
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strategies to manage and measure service quality to their own advantage.

Hospitality and tourism marketers find the issue of critical importance for
the following reasons: hospitality and tourism product offerings, as intangible
goods, cannot be evaluated before their consumption (Lewis & Chambers,
2000); many hospitality and tourism products are seen as high-risk pur-
chases (Lewis & Chambers, 2000); hospitality and tourism products are
both seasonal and perishable, raising marketing stress levels for providers
(Rao & Singhapakdi, 1997); the hospitality and tourism industry is intensely
competitive, suggesting that the high quality services may provide impor-
tant competitive advantages for early adopters; and finally, considering the
dearth of hospitality and tourism industry-specific literature related to the
issue, it would appear that the industry lags behind others in development
and discussion of strategies for measuring and managing service quality.
Hence, the current study tries to examine the effect of perceived service
quality on customer satisfaction in Iran’s hospitality industry. To do this,
we employed Gronroos’ (1984) service quality model to achieve research
objectives. This article first reviews related studies on customer satisfaction
and service quality. It then provides a conceptual model including research
variables and hypothesized relationships among these variables. The article
also presents methodology and results of data analysis. Finally, the article
outlines managerial implications, suggests relevant marketing strategies to
manage and enhance perceptions of service quality for hotel managers and
tourism marketers, and touches upon directions for future research.

LITERATURE REVIEW

Satisfaction has been analyzed in-depth in the marketing literature (e.g.,

Oliver, 1981; Johnson & Fornell, 1991; Edvardsson, Johnson, Gustafsson, &
Strandvik, 2000; Gustafsson, Johnson, & Roos, 2005). Oliver (1981, p. 29)
firstly defined it in the consumption context as “the summary psychological
state resulting when the emotion surrounding disconfirmed expectations is
coupled with the customer’s prior feelings about the consumption experi-
ence.” In other words, we may say that satisfaction reflects a postpurchase
evaluation of product quality given prepurchase expectations (Kotler, 1991).
 492 M. Zaibaf et al.

Focusing on services, satisfaction may be defined as an affective cus-

tomer condition that results from a global evaluation of all the aspects that
make up the customer relationship with the service provider (Severt, 2002).
More specifically, the concept can be divided into two distinct perspectives
(Geyskens, Steenkamp, & Kumar, 1999). The first perspective considers sat-
isfaction as an affective predisposition sustained by economic conditions,
such as the volume of sales or profit margins obtained. The second vision,
known as noneconomic satisfaction, considers the concept using more psy-
chological factors, such as a partner fulfilling promises or the ease of
relationships with the aforementioned partner. Indeed, this project will con-
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centrate more on this psychological perspective due to the fact that most
definitions on the concept of satisfaction highlight a psychological or affec-
tive state (Bhattacherjee, 2001). In this line, satisfaction is understood as a
global evaluation or attitude that evolves over time (Eshghi, Haughton, &
Topi, 2007) resulting from the interactions produced by the customer and
the organization in the relationship.
A review of the emerging literature suggests that it appears to be con-
sensus among marketing researchers that customer satisfaction and service
quality are separate (i.e., unique) constructs that share a close relationship
(Bitner & Hubbert, 1994; Patterson & Johnson, 1993). In fact, satisfac-
tion and perceived quality are highly intercorrelated (Bitner & Hubbert,
1994). Both theoretical and empirical arguments for the order of occur-
rence between quality and satisfaction have been put forwarded (Cronin,
Brady, & Hult, 2000), and most marketing researchers accept a theoretical
framework in which quality performance leads to satisfaction (Dabholkar,
Sheperd, & Thrope, 2000; Butcher, 2005; Butcher, Sparks, & O’Callaghan,
2003). Wong and Fong (2010) explored the roles of three casino service
quality drivers—game service, service environment, and service delivery—
on customer satisfaction and loyalty intention in Macau, the world gaming
capital. Based on two empirical studies on Chinese casino players, the results
reveal that both the service environment and the service delivery are signif-
icant predictors of customer satisfaction. However, despite the importance
of game service in the casino operation, its relationship with customer sat-
isfaction is insignificant. The results suggest that not every service value
proposition is necessarily important to customer delight. Wilkins (2010)
reported on two analyses of customer perspectives on hotels. Firstly, the
results of an importance-performance analysis are provided. The research
identifies a number of areas where hotels overperform and underperform.
Secondly, this article provides an evaluation of the effect of gender, age, and
purpose of trip on the factors customers consider important for hotel selec-
tion According to Oliver (1981), customer satisfaction is a summary cognitive
and affective reaction to a service incident (or sometimes to a long-term ser-
vice relationship). Satisfaction (or dissatisfaction results from experiencing
a service quality encounter and comparing that encounter with what was
expected (Oliver, 1981). Perceived service quality is defined as the customer’s
 Effect of Perceived Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction 493

assessment of the overall excellence or service superiority (Zeithaml, 1988).

Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1988) proposed that higher levels of per-
ceived service quality result in increased consumer satisfaction. They also
consider that a customer’s assessment of overall service quality depends on
the gap between expectations and perceptions of actual performance levels.
They proposed that overall service quality is evaluated on five underlying
dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy.
An important element of service quality is tangible elements, which represent
physical features and facilities, personnel, and buildings. Theory suggests
that customers use any tangible evidence of the service outcome as a proxy
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for judging performance (Hurley & Estelami, 1998). The research relating
physical evidence to customer evaluations is largely based on economic sig-
naling theory (Murray, 1991), but Parasuraman et al. (1988) showed that
tangible evidence is a factor that service customers consider when form-
ing quality perceptions. Furthermore, tangibles are one of the SERVQUAL
dimensions that are generally retained in factor analyses (Mels, Boshoff, &
Nel 1997). Reliability (or trouble-free service) refers to providing services
based on promises. In a variety of different service businesses and industries,
respondents consistently rated the dimension of reliability as most important
(Zeithaml, Berry, & Parasuraman, 1991).
Consistent with previous findings, we believe that although quality is
multidimensional, reliability is the key dimension in determining overall
perceptions of service quality. It is well known that customer–firm relation-
ships involve the exchange of social resources (such as responsiveness and
assurance), as well as economic resources (Bolton & Saxena-Iyer, 2009).
Responsiveness refers to willingness to help customers. Assurance can be
defined as, “creating trust and certainty, personnel knowledge, and the firm
ability to reduce purchase risks and uncertainties” (Zeithaml & Bitner, 2003).
Empathy involves feeling compassion for others in a social or interpersonal
context. Empathy satisfies the need for unity and harmony by fostering feel-
ings of affiliation and connectedness (J. L. Aaker & Williams, 1998). Empathy
has been related to altruism in that it is an emotional response, driven by
personalized norms and internalized values, motivating one person to help
another (Thompson, 1997). Research indicated that perceptions of the tan-
gible evidence, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy directly
influence service quality (Brady & Cronin, 2001). In particular, Bitner (1990)
demonstrated empirically a significant causal path between satisfaction and
service quality in a structural equation analysis. Gronroos’ (2006) technical
and functional quality model indicates that a firm must have an understand-
ing of consumer perception of the quality to compete successfully and the
way service quality is influenced.
Managing perceived service quality means that the firm has to match
the expected service and perceived service to each other to attain consumer
satisfaction. Gronroos (1984) identified three components of service quality:
technical quality, functional quality, and image (see Figure 1).
 494 M. Zaibaf et al.

Perceived
Expected Service Perceived
Service Quality Service

Traditional marketing
activities (advertising, field
selling, PR, pricing) and
external influence by
traditions, ideology, and Image
word-of-mouth
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Technical Functional
Quality Quality
What? How?

FIGURE 1 Gronroos’ (1984) service quality model.

1. Technical quality is the quality of what a consumer actually receives

as a result of their interaction and is important for them to evaluate
the quality of service.
2. Functional quality is how a customer gets the technical outcome. This
is important to views of service they have received.
3. Image is very important to service firms and can be expected to
build up mainly by technical and functional quality of service along
with other factors like tradition, ideology, word-of-mouth, pricing, and
public relations.

Recently, Kang and James (2004) in their study of service quality dimen-
sions, examined the service quality model proposed by Gronroos. They
found that the model was a satisfactory instrument to measure service qual-
ity. Despite the popularity of Gronroos’ (1984) model in marketing literature,
he has not considered direct effect of functional and technical quality on
customer satisfaction. As the relationship between perceived quality and cus-
tomer satisfaction is supported in previous research, the following working
hypotheses are presented (see Figure 2):

H1: Perceived quality has a positive and significant impact on customer

satisfaction.
H2: Functional quality has a positive and significant impact on image.
H3: Functional quality has a positive and significant impact on perceived
quality.
H4: Functional quality has a positive and significant impact on customer
satisfaction.
H5: Technical quality has a positive and significant impact on image.
H6: Technical quality has a positive and significant impact on perceived
quality.
 Effect of Perceived Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction 495

Tangibles

Reliability

Functional
Empathy Quality
H4
H2 H3
Assurance
H1
H8 Perceived Customer
Image
Quality Satisfaction
Responsiveness
H5 H6
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H7
Technical
Quality

FIGURE 2 Conceptual model.

H7: Technical quality has a positive and significant impact on customer

satisfaction.
H8: Image has a positive and significant impact on perceived quality.

METHODOLOGY
Participants
Participants were customers/tourists in Mashhad, the biggest religious city
in Iran, and their responses were based on stays at three-, four-, and five-
star hotels in Mashhad during the research period. We used a two-stage,
cluster-sampling plan. In the first stage, we provided a list of three-, four-,
and five-star hotels in Mashhad and selected randomly. In the second stage,
customers/tourists who referred to these branches were selected randomly
to complete questionnaires. Of 267 respondents, 50.6% were male, 34.9%
were between the ages of 20 and 29, 60.5% were married, and 51.4% had
a college degree. In terms of hotel type, 31.4% stayed in a three-star hotel,
34.4% stayed in a four-star hotel, and 34.1% stayed in a five-star hotel. About
37.9% had stayed at the hotel for the first time (Table 1). Data were collected
during October and November 2010 in Mashhad for 10 consecutive days.

Instrument
The primary goal of this study was to examine the influence of the tourists’
quality perceptions on their satisfaction. To do so, the researchers modified
existing scales, which were translated into Persian. Sociodemographic
information of research participants was obtained by items including sex,
 496 M. Zaibaf et al.

TABLE 1 Demographical characteristics of respondents

Characteristic %

Age
20 or under 13.4
20−29 34.9
30−39 25.3
40−49 18.0
Above 50 7.7
Missing 0.8
Gender
Male 50.6
Female 46.4
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Missing 3.1
Hotel type
Three stars 31.4
Four stars 34.4
Five stars 33.0
Missing 1.1
Education
Below high school graduate 22.2
High school 26.4
2-year college or associate’s degree 14.9
Bachelor’s degree 26.4
Postgraduate 9.2
Missing 0.4
Frequency of using hotels
Never 37.9
One time 36.0
Two times 13.8
Three times 6.1
Four times 2.3
Five times or more 2.3
Missing 1.5
Marital status
Single 34.9
Married 60.5
Missing 4.6

age, marriage, hotel type, and frequency of using hotel. Following Gronroos
(2006), we measured service quality by using a two-dimensional structure
of functional quality (23 items) and technical quality (four items; Table 2).
More specifically, functional quality factors were measured by Parasuraman
et al.’s (1988) scale of quality factors. Functional factors include items on
Tangible (3 items), Reliability (5 items), Responsiveness (5 items), Empathy
(4 items), and Assurance (4 items). Perceived quality, with six items, and
image, with six items, were measured by Gronroos’s (2006) scale. Customer
satisfaction was measured with a total of four items proposed by Gustafsson
et al. (2005). Customers were asked to rate their agreement to questions on
a 5-point Likert scale.
 Effect of Perceived Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction 497

TABLE 2 Kolmogorov-Smirnov Test

Technical Perceived Customer Functional

quality Image quality satisfaction quality

Mean 3.7091 3.5026 3.4578 3.6274 3.6676

S.D .67733 .61369 .70036 .77677 .52918
Absolute .182 .106 .141 .198 .101
Positive .135 .082 .113 .192 .065
Negative −.182 −.106 −.141 −.198 −.101
Kolmogorov-Smirnov 2.912 1.676 2.236 3.183 1.600
p-value .078 .065 .402 .059 .207
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Data Analyses
Before analyzing predictor variables, we analyzed descriptive statistics and
psychometric properties of the measurement scale. We conducted a confir-
matory factor analysis (CFA) using LISREL 8.85. Several goodness of fit indices
were evaluated including chi-square statistic (χ 2 ), normed chi-square statistic
(χ 2 /df ), the root mean square error of approximation (RMSEA), goodness-of-
fit index (GFI), and comparative fit index (CFI). The cut-off value of normed
chi-square (χ 2 /df) is less than 3.0 (Hu & Bentler, 1999). The RMSEA value
below 0.05 indicates an excellent fit and values below 0.06 indicate a good
fit (Hu & Bentler, 1999). The GFI is an absolute index and measures the rel-
ative amount of variance and covariance in the sample data (Byrne, 1998).
The CFI value takes sample size into account and should be the index of
choice (Bentler, 1990), and values equal to or greater than 0.95 are indica-
tive or good-fitting model (Hu & Bentler, 1999). For scale reliability, internal
consistency measure (Cronbach’s alpha) was tested. Alpha reliability coeffi-
cients were calculated for the identified factors. Cronbach’s alpha values to
be greater than 0.07 are acceptable and deemed to be adequate (Nunnally
& Bernstein, 1994). This coefficient for all items was 0.982, which is sat-
isfactory in social sciences research. The Cronbach’s alpha for reliability,
responsiveness, assurance, empathy, tangibles, technical quality, image, and
satisfaction were 0.854, 0.834, 0.772, 0.785, 0.794, 0.722, 0.73, and 0.783,
respectively.

RESULTS

Histogram graph of samples showed all variables are normal, therefore, for
data analysis, we assumed the normality distribution of and continuous scale
of data in the questionnaire.
To examine the importance and status of research variables, we con-
ducted one sample t test. A 5-point Likert scale was used in questionnaire,
the average was considered three (μ = 3). As shown in Table 3, all the
variables have a suitable status (μ > 3).
 498 M. Zaibaf et al.

TABLE 3 One-sample t test

Status Upper Lower SD M Variable

Suitable 0.7962 0.6469 0.611 3.72 Reliability

Suitable 0.8318 0.6829 0.609 3.76 Responsiveness
Suitable 0.8439 0.7003 0.558 3.77 Assurance
Suitable 0.5945 0.4328 0.662 3.51 Empathy
Suitable 0.6791 0.5040 0.716 3.59 Tangible
Suitable 0.7954 0.6300 0.676 3.71 Technical quality
Suitable 0.5830 0.4326 0.614 3.50 Image
Suitable 0.5293 0.3555 0.711 3.44 Perceived quality
Suitable 0.7225 0.5324 0.776 3.63 Customer satisfaction
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Results of Exploratory Factor Analysis

This analysis is used to reduce numerous variables to a more manageable
set of factors (D. A. Aaker & Day, 1986), while no constraints are made
on the variable loadings. Therefore, each variable will indicate loadings
on the set of factors. Consequently, exploratory factor analysis is used to
summarize and reduce the data. Using SPSS, the results of exploratory factor
analysis, with the assumption of extracting via principal components method
and rotating via varimax, are given in Table 4. There were 23 questions in
relation to functional quality. After exploratory factor analysis of functional

TABLE 4 Results of exploratory factor analysis

Functional quality factors

Questions Reliability Tangibles Assurance Responsiveness Empathy

1 .766 .045 .204 .065 .270

2 .462 .344 −.083 .109 .427
3 .673 .268 .029 .392 −.159
4 .763 .133 .117 .011 .182
5 .641 .227 .314 .158 .257
6 .425 .108 .653 .142 .050
7 .177 .357 .612 .101 .399
8 .190 .319 .576 .135 .468
9 .108 .121 .728 .191 −.078
11 .304 .538 .384 .177 .126
12 .472 .542 .308 .145 .045
13 .507 .509 .225 .283 .044
15 .257 .058 .207 .330 .635
16 .256 .042 .269 .287 .674
17 .017 .201 .098 .029 .793
18 .204 .335 .371 .205 .569
19 .214 .101 .251 .757 .153
20 .343 .144 .265 .449 .513
21 −.001 .286 .037 .815 .110
22 .229 .104 .141 .499 .579
23 .122 .176 .301 .746 .143
Note. KMO = 0.924, p value = .000.
 Effect of Perceived Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction 499
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FIGURE 3 Standardized path coefficient (color figure available online).

quality, two questions drop out from our analysis (10 and 14). Additionally,
after exploratory factor analysis of technical quality, image, perceived qual-
ity, and customer satisfaction, three questions drop out from our analysis
(28, 29, and 32).

Results of the Structural Equation Model Test

Figure 3 shows that all relation between questions and latent variables are
above 0.3 (or some cases below 0.5), we conclude that the relation of all
questions and latent variables are valid, and we can conclude that the whole
model has suitable validity for luxury hotels industry in Mashhad.
Figure 3 and 4 show the specified relationship between service quality
and customer satisfaction. The overall model fitness was good, χ 2 = 670.17,
normed χ 2 = 2.56, which is less than 3; RMSEA = 0.078, which should be
below 0.08; NNFI = 0.98, CFI = 0.980, and NFI = 0.97, which all should
be above 0.90; in our study GFI = 0.83, AGFI = 0.79, which show suitable
fitness (see Table 5). The model shows the influence of perceived service
quality on customer satisfaction is significant (p = .000 < .001).

Hypotheses Testing
All tests are directional t tests of the critical ratios of the regression weight
estimates. As predicted, H1 was largely supported by the data of this study,
 500 M. Zaibaf et al.
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FIGURE 4 Significant coefficients (color figure available online).

TABLE 5 Results of structural equation model test

Value Fit indices

2.56 Chi-square/df
0.078 Root mean square error of approximation
0.97 Normed Fit Index
0.98 Nonnormed Fit Index
0.98 Comparative Fit Index
0.83 Goodness of Fit Index
0.79 Adjusted Goodness of Fit Index

in that perceived quality had a positive and significant effect on customer

satisfaction (β = 1.01, t = 9.14). As predicted by H2, functional quality was
supported by the data, in that functional quality had a positive and significant
effect on image (β = 0.65, t = 4.2). As predicted, functional quality had a
strong positive and significant effect on perceived service quality (β = 0.51,
t = 3.08), supporting H3. The structural equations results did not support
H4 for customer satisfaction. The results are shown in Table 6. As predicted
by H4, functional quality was not directly related to customer satisfaction
(β = 0.16, t = 1.14); not supporting H4. Contrary to our prediction, technical
quality had not a positive and insignificant effect on image (β = 0.23, t =
1.48). Therefore, the results not supported H5.
Further, technical quality was not related to perceived quality (β = 0.16,
t = 1.06), not supporting H6. Technical quality was also not directly related
 Effect of Perceived Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction 501

TABLE 6 Hypotheses testing

Hypothesis Independent variable Dependant variable β t-value p Result

H1 Perceived quality Customer satisfaction 1.01 9.14 5% Supported

H1-1 Functional quality Image 0.65 4.20 5% Supported
H1-2 Functional quality Perceived quality 0.51 3.08 5% Supported
H1-3 Functional quality Customer satisfaction 0.16 1.14 5% Not supported
H1-4 Technical quality Image 0.23 1.48 5% Not supported
H1-5 Technical quality Perceived quality 0.16 1.06 5% Not supported
H1-6 Technical quality Customer satisfaction −0.22 −1.71 5% Not supported
H1-7 Image Perceived quality 0.25 2.63 5% Supported
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to customer satisfaction (β = −0.22, t = −1.71); not supporting H7. As pre-

dicted by H8, image had a positive and significant impact on perceived
quality (β = 0.25, t = 2.26); supporting H8. Table 6 shows the summary of
hypotheses tests completely, β coefficients under 0.3 and t values between
1.96 and −1.96 show that related hypotheses are not confirmed. Therefore
the relation of functional quality with satisfaction and technical quality with
image, perceived quality, and customer satisfaction were not supported.

DISCUSSION AND MANAGERIAL IMPLICATIONS

The purpose of the current study was to examine the effect of perceived
quality on customer satisfaction based on Gronroos’ service quality model,
adding two modified hypotheses. Results indicated that perceived quality has
a positive and significant impact on customer satisfaction. Functional quality
had a positive and significant impact on image and perceived quality. This is
because functional quality refers to the quality of procedures and processes
in production and delivery of services to customers; therefore it has signif-
icant relation on perceived quality and image because they are subjectively
assessed by customers. However, functional quality was not related to cus-
tomer satisfaction. There are two kinds of customer satisfaction: transactional
and overall satisfaction. Our research concerns overall satisfaction, which
includes many factors in hotel industry, so we cannot rely solely on func-
tional quality to satisfy the customer; this means that customers’ judgment is
affected by many factors and cannot be allocated to only functional quality,
which seems to be one indirect factor for satisfaction via image.
In addition, technical quality had no significant impact on image, per-
ceived quality, and customer satisfaction. We can conclude that technical
quality is essential and fundamental in luxury hotels. Customers expect these
services to be present, but they will not be delighted by something that
is the basis of such hotels services; technical skills, knowledge, and tech-
niques related to equipment and facilities are essential in the customer’s
 502 M. Zaibaf et al.

mind, but not delighting. Finally, image had a positive and significant impact
on perceived quality; Gronroos also believed that image acts as a moderator
between technical and functional in perceiving the service quality. We can
also conclude that functional and technical qualities are essential but not
enough to satisfy customer because they are indirect factors to satisfaction.
Our research findings have several implications for hotel managers. First,
managers should focus on perceived service quality because of its high influ-
ence on service quality, according to H1. It requires personnel’s awareness of
the service quality process; they should consider service quality as a dynamic
process, not a static one. Managers can plan the improvement of service qual-
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ity programs to enhance revenues. Training and cultural activities are suitable
approaches for improvement. Second, managers should try to empower and
enforce customer-facing personnel in response to functional quality impor-
tance in the hospitality industry, as related to H2 and H3. Third, despite the
unconformity of H5 and H6, managers should provide technical training for
personnel and should motivate them in order to improve service quality, as
it is a fundamental part of customers’ expectations. Fourth, despite H4 not
being confirmed, managers should nonetheless emphasize relationship mar-
keting and create a long-term relationship with customers/tourists as a basic
strategy.
This study also provides directions for future research. Additional
research can focus on other influential factors on image and perceived qual-
ity that were not included in this study. This study can also be performed
in other service industries such insurance institutes, or in other countries.
In addition, future research could examine the effect of perceived quality on
satisfaction from the personnel perspective.

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