Service Quality and Customer Preferences : A study of interactional service quality in the airline industry

Abstract: In recent years, large efforts have been put on enhancing effectiveness in organizations. No resources are dispensable, and a dollar saved is a dollar earned. This is probably something that is rather easy to compute and control within the production sector. However, the service sector is another thing, how do we squeeze everything out of the resources in service organizations? This question caught our interest, and made us want to investigate the subject in the context of the airline business, and especially in its interaction with passengers.   We have asked 100 respondents of their opinions of interaction with the airline when traveling by air – from the booking step to disembarking of the aircraft. The respondents were asked about what different attributes they thought were important in every step, and in relation how their real experience really was. By comparing these two factors, we can present the differences between desired and perceived levels of service quality, regarding the interaction with airlines.   Six hypotheses were stated prior to our work. The results were rather expected, with a few exceptions. Our regression analysis told us that we could statistically verify almost everything we had assumed, but falsify parts of some hypotheses. For instance, friendliness in interaction is extremely appreciated throughout the entire process. How is that observed in reality and to who is that necessary? Read the study to find out.