Challenging in Delivering Quality Services: Balancing Customer Expectations and Perceptions in Airline Industry

Bachelor Thesis from the year 2012 in the subject Business economics - Operations Research, grade: A, King`s College London, language: English, abstract: Norwegian airline operator has been offering airline services for quite a long time, frequently among the Scandinavian countries. However, the condition for service quality has been deteriorating for the last couple of decade. Despite the many researches done to dig out the factors that could be adjusted to favour service quality, not much has been seen to change. This study was aimed at conducting an exploratory survey in the grounds of the Norwegian company to find out the recommendations for the company's quality service. We issued self-governed questionnaires to the customers at the waiting room, who were rather waiting for flight take off. A focus group discussion was also conducted by the group to engage the passengers in a dialogue that involved customer service quality expectations and perceptions. During the survey period which took six days, we interacted with the customers and show them the need for their genuine response towards the questions asked. A well elaborated questionnaire was distributed to the customers who answered them as they awaited the operator services. The customers answered the questions at their own pace, giving their opinions independently. The sampled population was made-up of 120 customers taking on flights among the Scandinavian countries at Oslo Airport. The answers were analysed and deductions made from the analysis. The services expected offered by the company were rated along with the customers' expectations and that was what could only measure customer satisfaction for services offered by Norwegian airline service. SERVQUAL system was used to calculate the relationship between customer expectations and perceptions. Some mathematical implications of mean and standard deviations also added some weight on the relationship between the company's present status and customer perception.