ASSESSMENT 1 BRIEF

Subject Code and Name SDM404: Service and Design Management

Assessment 1 Service Quality Evaluation and Analysis of Service

Management Strategies

Individual/Group Individual

Length Maximum word count is 2000 words which excludes the

Executive Summary, Table of Contents and Reference
List.

Learning Outcomes This assessment addresses the following subject learning

outcomes:
a) Develop an understanding of the role and nature of service
in the service economy and the hotel industry
b) Examine key issues concerning the management and
measurement of service quality and customer satisfaction
c) Critically explore the role of frontline service providers’
service behaviour with respect to service delivery, service
failure and service recovery

Submission By 11.55pm AEST/AEDT Wednesday of Week 6

Weighting 40%

Total Marks 100 marks

Context:
The assessment task is to develop the critical thinking and application skills to a given case
scenario using a prescribed business model or analytical framework to resolve service
encounter issues. The task requires you to critically evaluate service quality and analyse the
service management strategies of the Brougton Lodge in the form of an academic report.
To complete the task, you will be required to apply your theoretical knowledge to the
hypothetical hotel.
Instructions for The Task:
You are the newly appointed service design consultant who is given the first task of
producing a report that reviews its current service quality standards and the effectiveness
of management strategies implemented to achieve those standards. To do this, you need
to be methodic and meticulous in your approach to produce the results of the hotel’s
current performance. You are also expected provide recommendations on what strategies
to keep and which strategies that require modification. You are to base your report on

SDM 404_Assessment Brief 1 _Individual Report Due Week 6 Page 1 of 8

findings from the appended feedback collated from the annual customer and employee
surveys (File Attachments 1 and 2).
In your report, your task is to undertake the following:
1. Evaluate the key service quality dimensions demonstrated at the hotel;
2. Identify and then analyse existing service management strategies;
3. Recommend modification or replacement of current strategies for improvement of
customer service and experience.
You are to ensure that each of the above task component is well linked to the case study
and strongly backed by evidential support (theory, model or cases from journal sources).
The structure of the report should be as follows:
• Executive Summary
• Table of Contents
• Introduction
• Evaluation of Key Service Quality Dimensions
• Identification and Analysis of Existing Service Management Strategies
• Conclusion
• Recommendations
• Reference List
Students will be assessed according to:
• Criteria set in the learning rubric
• Demonstration of critical thinking and application of theories, conceptual models
and academic literature with relevance and accuracy
• Referencing skills and meeting the minimum requirement for academic references

Case Scenario for Assessment 1:

Broughton Lodge has approached your service design firm to critically assess the areas that
need improvement of quality service so that it can better satisfy hotel guests. The Lodge is
going through its third year of operation but with increasing competition, is losing market
share of business and leisure customers. The Lodge’s Executive Team has implemented a
number of strategies to enhance quality in its service delivery but experienced limited
success to achieve desired outcomes. Customers are evolving and becoming more
demanding in the types and quality of services on offer.
Located in the outer fringe of the city’s CBD, the 100-room Lodge is well served by the
public transport network. It also offers courtesy cars for transfers between the hotel and the
the airport. The Lodge is a favourite of transient business and groups on weekdays with
strong bookings by leisure groups, especially the family market on the weekends. It has a
capacity for 300 in its main function room which is divisible into two meeting rooms; a 50-

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seater restaurant with adjoining café, a poolside bar and a fitness club. Unfortunately it
does not have a dedicated business centre and is currently using part of its executive office
to meet the guest’s requests. Its Executive Team comprises of the General Manager,
Director of Marketing, Revenue Manager, Director of Retail/Other Operations, Director of
Food & Beverage and Director of Rooms.

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 File Attachment One – Service Levels (Guest/Customer feedback)
“The shop assistant in the hotel’s gift shop is really friendly and has good product knowledge. However, we were
unable to patronise owing to the limited range of products and souvenir items. The hotel’s retail operation should
look into provide a wide range of choices to international visitors like us.” - Sam & Harriet

“We were disappointed with the poor service at the front desk. Although a 3.00pm check-in had been guaranteed
at time of booking, there apparently was a system error that delayed the process. The staff were unapologetic and
did not offer any explanation to us. We waited 45 minutes. When we got to our room, it was not the type we
specified. Most disappointing” - Elise & Jericho

“The exterior of the hotel looks pretty plain and in fact, its frontage requires a new coat of paint. It does not reflect
the star category it claims to be.” - Oliver

“ There should be a dedicated Business Centre for business travellers staying in this hotel. The people at the
Executive Office are slow in responding to requests and self-service to office machines were not easily accessible.
Only the free coffee for early morning check-out was a bonus ” - Cornelius

“As a long stay guest, the Concierge Team was extremely helpful. They offered great places to dine, did basic
grocery for us and met our kitchenette needs” - Dr. Phelps

“We were given a premium room on the top floor, which was perfect for our anniversary. This was the second time
we chose to stay here and the hotel had been most gracious with their final touches to the room to honour the
occasion. In-room dining was superb and housekeeping was prompt in meeting our request for extra pillows” – Mr.
& Mrs Sawyer

“The restaurant has a homely ambience with capable and attentive staff at the reception desk and in the service
area. Although the maitre’d was professional in dealing with walk-ins with no reservations, the waiter who was
looking after our table was not knowledgeable about the ingredients nor the mode of preparation for some of the
items on the menu. This made it quite difficult to complete our order when two in our party were vegetarian and
lactose intolerant” - Linda

“Housekeeping is not at all efficient nor spontaneous. There were delays in the picking-up of our laundry and in
returning it on a same day service. They did not return to tidy up our room even when we hang the ‘Please Tidy
Room’ sign outside our door. We had to call them from our room to get these done. And I thought they trained in
their jobs as expected of a hotel of this type.” - Maddy

“I find my morning work-outs in the fitness club very enjoyable. The club manager who is also personal trainer has
been helpful in showing me how to use the equipments. The downside is that there is a high demand for treadmill
machines at that time of the day and there’s not enough of them. There should be some set controls on long one
could use the treadmill. The same goes for the sauna room which I consider too small to practise social
distancing.” - Jack

“The hotel had been courteous by introducing us to a guest relations manager who could communicate with us in
our dialect as English was not our mother tongue. Very pleasant stay and would recommend this hotel to our
friends” - Svetlana

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 File Attachment Two – Service Strategies Applied (Employees feedback)

“We should have consulted when the hotel renovated the restaurant. When the job was completed, some
service spots had been overlooked which could be ‘bottlenecks’ in the service flow. We are the staff who’s going
to work in the area and are afraid these oversights may impact on our performance” – Szu Chin, Sax and Richo

“Checking-in guests at peak times can be emotionally trying, especially when there are excessive delays in
getting room clean and ready for arriving guests. Oblivious to the pressure we are facing at Front Office,
Housekeeping often throw the blame at us for relaying bad information to them. Communication between the
two departments is not at all improving. Someone ought to step in and demand they should bring back the daily
departmental meetings.” - Carole, Elisha and Mendez

“We work well with our departmental manager as he demonstrates leadership qualities and consistently
provides valuable, constructive feedback on our performance. We can be inspired to do the same if opportunity
to participate in specific training programs like “Training the Trainer” are made available to lower tiered
management” - Sacha and mates

“We need to be kept informed what other departments are doing. Many times we have groups checking in
without being notified of their special requirements. Weekly and daily updates are necessary to integrate our
efforts for a more holistic outcome. There has to be more commitment and actionable outcomes to these
meetings in order to see positive outcomes” - Fabricio

“Has anyone heard from management on the results of the recent Guest Stay Survey? We know that this is
undertaken on a regular basis but there is no communicating back to us so that on how satisfying our service
delivery were to our guests. Hope someone looks into this quickly! ” - Carrie

“The true dynamics of teamwork is sadly missing. At the grassroot level, I see little in-team communication and
collaboration and this is evident at the restaurant where I work. There are always queues building up at peak
hours and especially on Friday and Saturday nights and no one has look into a way of dealing with it. Some of
the customers waiting in line had reservations, leaving them frustrated and angry” - Sancho

“Having an empowerment policy that doesn’t give us much guidance nor discretion nor guidance on how to
implement is much of a dud to us. Our managers are quite protective of their turf and hence not comfortable
with disempowering themselves. We find it frustrating when we are questioned of our decisions and
embarrassing to go back on our word with the customer! This is demotivating for it makes us feel
untrustworthy.” - Jonathan

“The recruitment system is a joke – they are simply not getting the right people to fit into the role they are
employed for. Lacking in ‘hard’ and ‘soft’ talents, my colleagues are showing ‘cracks’ in their competence to
perform. The SOPs do not offer much guidance for they are lacking in content and most do not follow the rules
of the book. We are not given proper job specifications and our duties tend to overlap causing confusion and
wastage of resources. Orientation was not well designed and training had been ad hoc.” - Alexander

“Contrary to what Management thinks, scripting conversations are supposedly to facilitate our communicateion
with hotel guests. Scripts handed down to us leave little room for us to inject our touches to them. Scripting
does not consider the more difficult situations wherewe are stuck in what we’re going to say. More training
should be provided to make us look less contrived and artificial” - Sacharine and Sugar

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Submission Instructions:

1. Submit your individual report in Word document to Turnitin by 11.59 pm AEST/AEDT

Wednesday of Week 6.
2. Students must refer, in text and in an associated reference list, to a minimum of 12
academic sources, plus others as required in order to show competency in the assessment.
Up to four of these can be academic textbooks, with a minimum of eight academic journal
articles. Blogs and other unverifiable sources will not count as references.
3. Use font Time Roman, Arial or Calibri, size of 11-12, at one and half line spacing.
4. All referencing must be in accordance with APA 6th Edition Referencing and Academic
Writing Guide on SharePoint.
5. A Torrens University cover sheet is to be attached with the submission to Turnitin.
6. Essential that you view the marking rubric for this assessment and remember you do not
need to attach this rubric to your submission.

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Learning Rubric: Assessment 1 (Individual Report)
Fail Pass Credit Distinction High Distinction
Assessment Criteria (Unacceptable) (Functional) (Proficient) (Advanced) (Exceptional)
0-49% 50-64% 65-74% 75 -84% 85-100%
Research and use of Either no evidence of Literature is presented Clear evidence and Able to critically appraise Has developed and justified
literature/evidence of literature being uncritically, in a purely application of readings the literature and theory using own ideas based on a
reading consulted or irrelevant descriptive way and relevant to the subject; gained from a variety of wide range of sources which
20% to the assignment set. indicates limitations of uses indicative texts sources, developing own have been thoroughly
understanding. identified. ideas in the process. analysed, applied and
discussed.

Knowledge of theory Inaccurate or Selection of theory is Most key theories are Insightful and appropriate Assignment demonstrates
20% inappropriate choice of appropriate but some included in the work in selection of theory in key integration and innovation in
theory. aspects have been an appropriate straight- areas. the selection and handling of
missed or misconstrued. forward manner. theory.

Analysis and critical Fails to analyse case Attempts to analyse Can satisfactorily analyse Can effectively analyse case Can critically analyse novel
interpretation information. case information using case study using a range information; can apply major and/or abstract data and case
20% given theoretical of theoretical theories and compare situations using a wide range
classification / principles. classification / principles. alternative of techniques appropriate to
methods/techniques for the topic and theoretical
analysis. principles.
Conclusions and Unsubstantiated/invalid Limited evidence of Evidence of Good development of Analytical and clear
recommendations conclusions and conclusions and conclusions and conclusion and conclusions and
20% recommendations based recommendations recommendations recommendations shown recommendations well-
on anecdote and grounded in in summary of arguments grounded in theory and

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 generalisation only, or no supported by theory/literature. based in theory/literature. literature showing
conclusions at all. theory/literature. development of new
concepts.
Presentation, logical Poor report formatting, Report formatting, logical Report formatting, logical Very effective report Extremely well formatted
flow and Referencing lack of flow and flow and presentation flow and presentation formatting and presentation report with high presentation
20% presentation quality. quality to a minimal level. quality to a quality. quality
Incorrect citing. Incorrect citing. competent level. Good citing in-text and logical Excellent citing in-text
None and/or very poor Poor reference list in report Appropriate citing’ flow. Excellent formatting of
reference list in report and/or academic reference Reference list in report Minimal mistakes for reference list in report and/or
and/or academic material. and/or academic reference list in report and/or academic reference material.
reference material. reference material academic reference material
moderately good but meeting requirement
with some errors

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