MBA Dissertation The Impact of TQM on the Service Industry

In the past decade the service industry has changed dramatically. It has moved towards a focus on Total Quality Management (TQM) and a 'do it right the first time' approach. The principal organisational objectives are to ensure customer satisfaction, retention and subsequently the generation of profit. The main reason for this change is that services are intangible. It is therefore, more challenging for marketers of this industry (than in the consumer goods industry) to ensure 100% quality. Evidently, customers are more than likely to experience dissatisfaction with a service at one point. As a consequence, customer complaints are common, with the number of recorded complaints increasing (Office of fair trading report, 2006). The aim of this study is to investigate the effects of service recovery on customer satisfaction and loyalty levels. In order to meet this aim, the following research objectives have been proposed:

* To define service recovery and the paradox
* To assess how customers feel when organisations react to complaints, in terms of fairness and justice
* To investigate customer attitude and satisfaction levels after the recovery actions have been undertaken
* To discover how specific aspects of the service recovery method affect customer satisfaction levels
* To evaluate the effect of service recovery on loyalty levels of customers