Customer satisfaction and loyalty in Malaysian resort hotels: The role of empathy, reliability and tangible dimensions of service quality

Yeong, Si Ni; Knox, Dan; Prabhakar, Guru

Abstract

This paper applies the SERVQUAL model for the purpose of examining the impacts of the five dimensions of service quality on customer satisfaction and customer loyalty in the hotel industry in Malaysia, and to investigate which factors among said dimensions (tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy) have a major role in affecting customer satisfaction and loyalty in relation to resort hotels. Questionnaires were used to collect quantitative data for this research by deploying a random sampling strategy to invite 136 hotel guests to complete the survey. The key findings indicate that empathy, tangibles and reliability have significant roles in affecting overall customer satisfaction in the Malaysian resort hotel sector but that responsiveness and assurance were not significantly influential. Empathy was the most significant predictor of customer satisfaction among all of the dimensions, and customer satisfaction has a positive relationship with customer loyalty in this context.

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 1, 2019
• Online Publication Date: Aug 11, 2020
• Publication Date: 2022
• Deposit Date: Nov 18, 2019
• Publicly Available Date: Aug 12, 2021
• Journal: International Journal of Services and Operations Management
• Print ISSN: 1744-2370
• Publisher: Inderscience
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 41
• Issue: 4
• Pages: 444 - 462
• DOI: https://doi.org/10.1504/IJSOM.2020.10028391
• Keywords: Service Quality; Customer Satisfaction; Customer Loyalty; Hotel Industry; Malaysia
• Public URL: https://uwe-repository.worktribe.com/output/4676122
• Publisher URL: https://www.inderscience.com/jhome.php?jcode=ijsom#v34