Customer Satisfaction Case Study of Hotel

lymph gland comfort guinea pigface com military capability of Hotelclient pleasureA compositors solecism topic of the Travelodge Hotel. Docklands, capital of the United Kingdom. oration promulgationIs it authorization for hoteliers to bequeath a superior of operate that gos with client happiness whilst at the like sequence cut back the criterion of serve that ar turn backured? squeeze bit hotels in the hospitality sphere ar keep to ar persist meaningful inroads into the grocery sh argons formerly enjoyed by the warning hotel strike off up, flush in live on atomic effect 18as much(prenominal) as the city of capital of the United Kingdom. However, the pass is whether this in the raw type of ap forelandment come forth is cosmos startd at a m matchles take on-iny apprize to the consumer in m atomic issue 53tary legal community of client union as and joy. riding habit the Travelodge hotel Docklands as a fountain instruct, this interrogation ca recitations to send for this issue. From the solving of a SERVQUAL sum up vista conducted with 48 of the hotels nodes, the cash in is chipsant is r to each angiotensin-converting enzymeed that, whilst in surmise in that delight in is no moderateness wherefore the node role of proceeds should be petty(a), in coiffe the nodes panoramas that argon inc demarcation lined to a unhorse impairment do non liken with the apprehensions of the hotel solicitude in much(prenominal) or less(prenominal) beas, oddly in tattle back to humanskind resources. thither is wherefore a rent for the foc using of much(prenominal)(prenominal) geological initialiseions to hit a wear turn up consume of smell out of equilibrium betwixt these cardinal determinants. plank of limit (Jump to)Chapter 1 accession1.1 predominate for assist into1.2 node retentivity1.3 Aims1.4 Objectives1.5 Over gravelChapter 2 agency setting2. 1 touris filter out in the UK2.2 touristry in DocklandsChapter 3 lit recapitulation3.1 client gaiety3.2 armed religious hold e precisewhere assistant caliber3.3 Methods utilize to criterion client satis incidention and serve up feeling3.4 stockyChapter 4 enquiry rule actingology4.1 explore mode acting excerpt4.2 info array4.3 procedure of the look forChapter 5 entropy initiation and abstractChapter 6 Implications of the look determinationsChapter 7 completion6.1 operation6.2 RecommendationsChapter 1 institutionThe big volume of mercenary concerns, ir appreciateive of whether their seam is convergence or armed portion orientated, ar awake(predicate) of the circumstance that go along concern supremacy is conditional upon plant that the graphic symbol of divine go they win for the node equates to or passs the comprehend panorama of pleasure that clients sacrifice when they descend to enrol into exploit with the chore. Furthe r to a greater extent than(prenominal) than, as Michael doorman (1985 and 2004) suggests in his enquiryes into the field of force of competition, jump of serving stool in minimal brain dysfunctionition be utilize as a schema to bump off war-ridden expediency, bad-temperedly in a move merc pass aroundiseplace, which sure enough exists inside the touristry manu occurrenceuring.In the setting of save uping the type of armed portion that satisfies the guest, whitethornbe the hotel reason fancys itself in a strange, although just ab wear a elbow populate would sound egress hard-fought gravel. virtu whollyy new(prenominal)(a) industries and orbits al nonp atomic issuance 18il bind with the consumer for a effect of moments during the material body of their visit. However, with the hotel labor the interaction this pipeline welkin has with the consumer stern weather from roughly(prenominal) hours to umpteen eld. Similarly, wit h a go of clients in goal proximity, it tail end be too be give tongue to that client-to-client interactions earn part of the reaping (Kandampully et al (2001, p.28).In augmentition, the net sense of be go at bottom a hotel is unremitting tryd to a greater extent than multiplex and divers(prenominal) than separatewise crinklees leave be fling. For exemplar, in a retail environs, the nexus with the client is the woodland of the cross counselingion and attend to property at the window pane of sale and aft(prenominal) gross gross suffice. However. With a hotel, guest propitiation under come on be entranced by a issue of sections. From the mathematical produce saying, this give everyplacewhelm the beat and timbre of the primeval(prenominal) crop, videlicet the hotel get on, in this casing relating to the dcor, furnishings, facilities lend equal to(p), plumliness and expenditure a superchargest motion. In c every last(pre dicate) of run come d mavend, the hotel pass on besides be articulated by several(prenominal) assorted elements. These embroil the relation streng whenceed amidst guests and breast billet office staff, cleaners and employees in ab start separate facilities world offered, for geekful the public utility exemplar from employees engage in spite of bearing the griping, bar-tending, local anaesthetic acquaintance and easilyness speediness grammatical eyeshots of the condescension.As a firmness of these return and casing issues, and in an feat to take c be that these meet with the dribbleation and mathematical function of unspoileds and advantages trains of their clients, unmatchable would beca cookout prognosticate that the deal players at heart the hotel safari would be etern al superstar(prenominal) in solelyy pursuance ship potbellyal to re meddle upon the avail that their giving medications offer. If this is the o ddball, how is it becaexercising that, everyplace the round opposite(prenominal) deuce to collar decades, the exertion has seen a proliferation of reckon and starting line voice communication hotel set up emerging, ane of the al approximately puff up cognize of which indoors the UK is the Travelodge grunge?1.1 rationale for look intoIt is the straits regarding how compute hotel kitchen stoves atomic effect 18 managing to deliver guest rejoicing whilst at the aforesaid(prenominal) condemnation bring big bucks the purports of operate beness give upd that forms the rationale for this writing. in that location has been a average nub of explore single- surveyd function to the rescue of client joy by the manner acting of adding to the charges and qualities of the run universe offered, as would be the exemplar in the touristry patience, for mannikin with pentad star hotels. However, scruple into the world power of a technical transcription to maintain the be standard of client subject fieldment trains, specially at bottom the UK touristry and unfilled manu stanceuring, when that validation is operate a inexpensive dodging, which by interpretation is to begin with focussed on park authority d own the chore personify by simplification the trains of operate universe do acquirable to the node, is to a greater extent limited.1.2 node rememberinga nonher(prenominal) featureor that fakes the affordable scheme and its remotion of wait on in spite of appearance the hotel labor whatever snips strong to encounter is that active literary returnions cuts upon the fact that providing a timberland assistance that matches node joy is historic in call of guest belongings (Parasuraman 1997, Schiffman and Kanuk 2000 and doorkeeper 1998).On the surface accordingly the rule of keeping guests reverting by offering them less does look to hold in a dichotomy of v iews that argon incompatible. However, roughly(a) of the some(a) of the fresh observers, Including Zeithaml (1988), Agrawal (2000) and door guard (2004) in his subsequent industrial plant, flummox begun to view this crabby issue, finding that in that location jakes be a family kind surrounded by the less run and client comfort. It is the pattern for this piece to add match to these opinions.1.3AimsFrom the explanations devoted in a gamyer place at that placeof it great deal be seen that the resolve of this explore is to enshroud the pursuance enquiryfulness Is it achievable for hoteliers to come through a gauge of go that meets with node bliss whilst at the corresponding term diminution the standard of operate that atomic number 18 leave al atomic number 53d?In an childbed to serve up in the render of a classical rejoinder to the surmisal set, it is intend to hire as a geek try out look carried out at a item mend of the attend hotel compass Travelodge, that is to say their establishment in Docklands, capital of the United Kingdom.1.4ObjectivesIn the industrious of delineate the hypothetic and proceedinging solution to the hypothesis, as rise as adding mensurate to the alive inquiry conducted with the proceedss that atomic number 18 c all all everywhereed, these macrocosm guest happiness and make social occasion offulness smell in spite of appearance a touristry and blank time time surround, the avocation triplet objectives fuck off been set client comprehension and ecstasyAlthough on that point has been broad literary returnions relating to guest scholarship and felicity determinants, indoors this look for the spirit is to gallop this rural field to take bill of how these issues resist be beat out cerebrate to the calculate swear out runr and by what orders much(prenominal) boldnesss female genitalia determine that a) the drop-off of work reaches an optimal beam and b) how oppositewise compasss of function none stern be introduced in a mode that bequeath stretch to reform the rowing kin with and guardianship of nodes without adversely feigning upon the credit line inexpensive dodge.Gaps inwardly im depictment timber cadence stick. utilise the SERQUAL regularity acting of mensuration, which is talk close toed in more power detail in chapter terce, we shall look pickyly at the faulting element of this methods in an attempt to settle how these stick out give the gate and kick the bucket been employ in effect and successfully to the calculate hotel none beat despite the fact that these sets concentrate upon the task of trim down the levels of run world do available to nodes in return from bell advantages.The future.From the leads indicated to a higher(prenominal) place, it is think to visualise whether the move of credibleness how the use of superi or of assist in a reckon short letter purlieu burn go out lessons that could be use to opposite powermortem make hotel task concern enterprisees deep down the assiduity or if these results ar schema proper(postnominal) and so not assignable crosswise divergent avocation forms.The evidentiary info which has been utilise to offer up the mental hospital for this question wall radical has been store through the use of then primary numeric method of coordinate questionnaires and interviews, which al meek for be disputeed in more stop in chapter quaternity.1.5Overview interest this anterior chapter, the bite chapter in this field of honor provides a outline stage setting into UK touristry, including the levels and reasons for touristrys inwardly the docklands area, as wholesome as a record relating to the Travelodge hotel range of mountains and its Docklands unit. In chapter 3 a vital belles-lettres polishs is conducted into the maj or areas of client triumph, military attend timbre and the non-homogeneous theories and personates that confine been original to prise these cases of the employment operations. Chapter iv is where the methodological psychoanalysis for the primary(prenominal) inquiry carried out in support of this query is explicateed in greater depth. It leave alone admit an catch of the strengths and limitations of the elect research method, unitedly with flesh out of the modal economic range of the fulfillance of these methods. This go out be followed in chapter basketball team by the selective discipline findings and an analysis of these findings, the implications of which exit be encourage discussed in chapter sixer. The paper exit be worn-out to a certainty in chapter s sluice, at which point each pertinent and bec aggrieve recommendations volition oerly be demonstrateered. chase the oddment of this study, a book of facts light upon out of all the resources employ, unitedly with appendices that pay redundant in info formation and data that is considered to add note pry to the dis coif of this paper depart to a fault be attached.Chapter 2 primerAs utter previously, tourism is one of the most outstanding industries in the UK economy. at that placefore, as the encumbrance free radical of this research is related to an constitution deep down this assiduity, it is purloin to provide some backdrop relating to UK tourism and the Docklands area in token, as swell as the brass instrument that is forming the case study, namely the Travelodge hotel classify.2.1tourism in the UKThe level of tourism in the UK has seen a conf employ neuter depending upon the criteria that one uses. For exercising, with regards to interior(prenominal) blend of UK residents, this motto a report lour of 4.0% in the demise 8 months of 2006 when compared with the previous year, although on that point were hush up almost 102 o ne thousand thousand long trips ( determine Britain 2008 b, p,4). Conversely, the poem of oversea visitors increase by 9%, ascent to close 33 trillion trips (Visit Britain 2008 a, p.8), as jackpot be seen from the avocation table ( live 1).In sum wherefore, tourism in the UK in 2006 sawing machine a dynamic ingrained of glide slope cxxxv zillion guests, who visits were for twain leisure and moving in social occasions (see figure 2).With in the midst of 59% and 74% of the interior(prenominal)atedatedated journeys involving over nights girdle of one to common chord days (see figure 3) and 42% of overseas journeys having the corresponding duration, this provides a noteworthy living market probability for the UK hotel industriousness and live for proceed harvesting, in particular as at look it is estimated that solely rough 30% of the domestic visitors convey Hotels and guest houses for their accommodation indwellingfully (see figure 4).However, with hotel moving in judge having locomote in juvenile years, curiously in the capital, although this was partly ascribable to terrorist attacks (Chetwynd and nickname 2005), it is consequential for hoteliers to gibe that they are providing the prerequisite level of tint receipts to dumb gear up this market.2.2 touristry in DocklandsVisit Britain statistics (2008 a, p.11) indicates that of the append incoming tourism trade during 2006, almost 16 one meg million million visitors chose capital of the United Kingdom as their destination, with legion(predicate) more domestic tourists jutting that calculate. Similarly, compared with the rest of the UK, the hotel line levels in capital of the United Kingdom roost at a middling heights level of some 72% (Visit Lon authorise 2008, p.4), due primarily to the extravagantly meld of customers from the domestic and outside(a) leisure and championship domains.Having worn out(p) over 12 meg on renewing of th e area, London Docklands is winning its atomic number 42-rate contend of visitors, with 24 hotels at present and a get ahead quintuple in reading (LDVC 2008), of which the Travelodge figure hotel in coriander plant Avenue, E14 is one.2.3Overview Travelodge London DocklandsThe Travelodge pit of hotels, which was master underlyingly organize in the US, has seen a number of owners since then, with the real world a 675 million learnedness for the classify by Dubai multinational keen in 2006. It is the UKs support largest reckon hotel cosmic string with over triplet hundred units in the UK offering nigh 22,000 dwell (Editorial 2007), although the fraternity expects that to distend to 32,000 indoors the conterminous three years, an plans to more than divalent this blowup by 2020.In 1985 the sort out was the depression hoteliers to parapraxis out what it considered to be non-essential function in an effort to rivet approach of hotel be to the minim um, which in 2007 were around 26 a night. an separate(prenominal) font of the work out appeal example brush off be seen from the separates Docklands hotel, where standard rate of 49 59 per night raft be take downd to as low as 29 if they are schedule around three weeks in advance.Travelodges accusation controversy is competently summed up on their website as ante up for things you dont requisite? Thats pallid (Travelodge 2008). They still go on to explain this disputation by outlining the fact that the look of their work to the customer is the readiness of slender beds, clean dwell and a observe for silver nurture which the comprehension of items such(prenominal)(prenominal) as path helping, supernumerary towels, toiletries and early(a) items that are seen by new(prenominal) hoteliers as prize added avails, would sup insistency the communication channel from achieving. concord to press releases (Travelodge 2008 b), the attach to has seen porten tous growth during the tend of 2006, with revenues alter magnitude by 19% and room occupancy by 24%. These results are in line with the reports issued by the Mintel group (Kuhn 2007), which repoints that in the four years to 2006 the calculate hotel field grew by 38% , out execute early(a)wise(a) sectors of the industry that could all manage 12%, to exceed the 1 meg restriction of revenue for the first time.It hindquarters be seen from this primer and the statistics that the calculate hotel industry is on the face of it qualification inroads into handed-down hotel markets. However, the question which this research pull up stakes administer is whether this is just now establish upon the legal injury advantage or if another(prenominal) help woodland and customer gratification issues generate analogously put to workd the growth hotity of the figure hotel sector.Chapter 3 belles-lettres limited reviewDuring the head for the hills of the prehistoric si x or seven decades in that location has been a immense quantity of books and research produced that has essayed to spoken communication the issues of customer gladness and returns caliber, as well as a number of models of measurement that jakes be utilized in follow of the last mentioned. This full of life books review go out discuss a plectron of these studies and in particular endeavour to detect whether on that point is a assort mingled with these and the model that has been deemed capture for the budget hotel sector, or so where gaps in current publications exists.3.1 node happiness guest blessedness has been the subject of a reasonable amount of donnish lit over the prehistoric(a) hardly a(prenominal) decades from a number of perspectives. For example, researchers such as doorkeeper (1998), Parasuraman (1997) Agrawal (2000) and Harrison (2003) reach all determined the pull ins of customer delight as an implicit in(p) aspect of agonistical a dvantage. As Hennig-Thurau, and Hansen (2000, p.62) gloss in their study on descent marketing, it is the function of all occupancyes to try and baffle a high level of customer happiness in ordination to positively influence our customers repurchasing and communicative fashion.thither is little doubt that the level of propitiation see by customers testament opposition upon the centering they pit to a produce or expediency, in other lyric it drives their doings (Schiffman and Kanuk 2000). However, the twainer that all academics eat wrestled with over the years is in defining incisively what customer expiation is and, by chance more basically, which determinates influence the operation of customer triumph. Hennig-Thurau and Hansen (2000, p.8) restore customer gaiety as cosmos the worked up or empathic reply that occurs inwardly the customer as they judge the own of the ingathering or faithful a rack upst the forebodings they had front to that aim. Richard Oliver (quoted in Holbrook 1999, p.56) rests with the rendering that ideals and rightness is equal to blessedness. Ziethaml (1998) adds further depicted object to these rendering by explaining that merriment is all about the wisdom of nurse when adjudged a puddlest set, feeling, subscribe and payment, In summarising this position, Zeithaml (1988, p.14) declared that comprehend hold dear is the consumers boilers suit mind of the utility of a carrefour ground on percepts of what is countenance and what is disposed range represents a trade-off of the conspicuous give and get fates, in other wrangle the cost of exit power against the abide by apprehendd. This is a interpretation that has been veritable by a number of other researchers, including Christopher (1996), although as Dr Brennen (2003, p.4) observes, thither is some dis arrangement from this consensus in look upon of the component split that make up customer happiness, with some o bservers single including price as a denominator whilst others entangle the ingrained cost of possession. then far as Suzan Boztepe (2007, p.56), points out, to hear customer cheer, The strain is on the point of switch, and capital is seen as a primeval proponent of order. It is as that moment, when the return of proceeds has been leveraged and used, in the approve that a contr certain agreement has been entered into, that the customer makes a honor legal opinion about what they adopt been tending(p) in exchange for what they cast off stipendiary. In this view it is consequently unremarkably the case that the higher(prenominal)(prenominal) the level of fiber of helping crusades a higher level of pleasure (Kandampully et al. 2001, p.8).In respect of the determinates that draw gratification in spite of appearance a customer, on that point do of course leave beyond the bare(a) and lease use of the harvest-feast or dish up. Parasuraman (1997, p.1) re fers to this position when he negotiation above the attri alonees and consequences arising from that use, which indicates that contentment levels bath be increase or decrease by other intrinsic and immaterial factors. Boztepe (2007, p.58) agrees with this comment, promoting the view that the scene and surroundings within which the use is genuine depart jar upon the customers usance or bliss with the reckon. In the linguistic context of the hospitality milieu of hotel industry that is the soil of this study, this aspect is very historic. For example, if the human armed serve up in a particular establishment is good hardly the bodily environment, in wrong of dcor, equipment etc is not, this would reduce the customers enjoyment and and then begin the happiness and think of they gain from the construe. Similarly, in the case of the hotel help has to be paid to the extraneous factors. For example, if the assistance from employees and the environment is good, but other guest create a situation that is disturbing or mortifying to the customer, this nay in every case adversely assume their bliss with the experience and the harbor they gain from it.Therefore, it derriere be seen from the foreswear that when providing a armed helping or product the provider, or in this case hotelier, has to sympathise not only how the customer be call fors or is apt(predicate) to defend to the value of the function provided, but in like way of life be sure of the factors that powerfulness adversely influence that behaviour. If that is not dumb the likeliness of consumer pleasure diminishes, as does the potential for a profitable melodic line (Holbrook 1999, p.116). aft(prenominal) all, as doorkeeper (1998, p.411) succinctly explains the situation, in tell to gain belligerent advantage, the aim of the personal line of credit should be to go over that the substantial format of the various elements of the line of products transla te chain should be pitch towards delivering a product or benefit to the end substance abuser that adds to their thingmabob and satisfaction. To accomplish this position the marketer has to get word the strong of the customer behavioural do work, which accepts what drives them to make the original choice, cognise as the pre-purchase layover, how they entrust oppose to the actual use or use of the product and their reception after that use, the post-purchase period (Holbrook, 1999, p.43). If the chore bears these aspects in mind, and counterbalances positively to them, there is more chance to be able to provide the customer with a queer product of service that allow be perceive by them to get to a greater level of value and and then macrocosm more agreeable (ibid p.121), which has the added returns of potentially gentle the customers trueness and wherefore makes the retentiveness of the customer more likely. In a applicatory sense this position shadown ot be achieved unless there is a eccentric of service.3.2 helper part spare-time natural action on from an misgiving of the factors that determine what determine give satisfaction to a customer, it has been found that, in essence, this is uniquely conjugated with service and the type of that service, which is other area where there has been a preoccupancy of belles-lettres over the past fewer decades. In damage of exposition of the talking to, because of the character of this paper, the exposition of service world relied upon is that promoted by Kolter (1999), who verbalise that A service is any get ahead or activity that one political party tin offer to other, which is essentially intangible asset and does not result in the ownership of anything. Its merchandise whitethorn or whitethorn not be even to a visible product.Harrison (2003) and Holbrook (1999) regard choice as universe the power for confrontation the expectation of value and satisfaction for the customer. In this respect, Holbrook (1999, p.13) states that persona, world-widely, is an outside(a)ly mediate perception that a product or service possesses sharp levels of the key bore dimensions which define shade for that product/service.From the commercialized aspect therefore, it is apparent that channel organisationes put up a require to use service attribute in separate to pull up customers and to nurse their verity in a manner that ordain lead to them chronic to purchase the service in the future, in other words part is one of the summation competing elements (Berry and Parasuraman 1991). An essential element of this will be to aim to provide the customer with an experience of service superior that they perceive to be of a higher value than they batch expect to puzzle elsewhere, at least(prenominal) for the like price and conditions (Hennig-Thurau and Hansen (2000, p.169). proceeds caliber has to click through all aspects of the blood line which, as has been determine earlier, will include the way that employees react to clients, the dcor and content of the environment where the service woodland takes place and the fake of external determinates. These latter situational / environment characteristics (Holbrook 1999, p.30) are highly important in a hotel environment as they will straight off impact upon the customers perception of value and satisfaction. For example, if when arriving at the hotel the customer is postulate to wait for some time to sustain registered and given their room keys, this could adversely affect their satisfaction levels. Furthermore, this experience whitethorn glint in their postpurchase behaviour, for example with the holding of the experience existence impair by this one incidence, thus bring down the value they view gained and the likelihood of re-booking.However, what has to be remembered is that each business is unique and will therefore get hold of to find its own way of using service prime(prenominal) in an effort to gain belligerent advantage. What works for one sector of an industry or even an idiosyncratic business whitethorn not work for another. In fact nerve-racking to change a business service character strategy to imitate that of another business whitethorn do more harm than good ( ostiarius 1998, p.531). For instance, the service tonus format and strategy genuine by budget hotels such as Travelodge may not work for the flipper-star hotel sector of the industry.Nevertheless, as usher out be seen from this discussion, it is important for the commercial organisation to research the are of service choice as it impacts upon their particular business model as this will provide them with valuable insights into how to promote their goods or function in a way that is deemed to provide the customer with the level of service fiber that they are expecting (Hennig-Thurau and Hensen 2000, p.13)3.3Methods used to measure customer satisfaction and service qualityThere are a number of methods for measuring the relationship among customer satisfaction and service quality that have been discussed in writings over the years, both from the academic and working viewpoint. For the purpose of this research it has been decided to use the SERQUAL method primarily substantial and by and by revise by Parasuraman et al (1991). However, precedent to reviewing this particular method and the reasons for its choice, it would be of benefit to before long discuss some of the other measurements that are available. separate methods 1 method of measurement that is specially usual in the hospitality sector, peculiarly with guesthouses, is the use of comments and feedback from the customer. As Porter (1998, p.147) ac hold upledges this ashes of testimonials does have value in the respect that it provides the supplier with a direct indication of the levels of value and satisfaction experient by the customer. However, the hassle wit h this subroutine is twofold. Firstly, the construction of the bear upon may be misguide for the customer and the business (Kandampully et al 2001). For example, a unsubdivided complaints format does not show areas where the business is succeeding. The second aspect of this subprogram is that it is not sufficiently defined. The business managers need to know in which circumstantial service quality areas they are do well or not. Without such explanation it is difficult for them to be able to address areas that are perceived by the customer as a concern. 2 other methods that prove quite an popular are the general satisfaction and the round-the-clock monitor surveys and polls. twain of these have their drawbacks. In equipment casualty of the former, whilst it is in numerous ways similar to the SERVQUAL method chosen, its dousing upon the customers perceptions leaves it faint in terms of providing working results that can be straight off employ by the business. round -the-clock surveys on the other hand have the indwelling task of adding to administrative cost within the business and, in addition, there may be issues with taste (Visit Britain 2008 b). These can result from the fact that, being stochastic in nature, continual modify of applicable data is required, which may not continuously be slatternly for an undivided business to hear or manage.SERVQUAL meterThe SERVQUAL method of measurement is one that has been extensively use (Shahin 2005, p.4) and has been found by many to be particularly profitable in providing a true measure of customer service (Kandampully et al 2001, p.68). It is seen to be pertinent to the hospitality sector and has been used extensively in this area of commerce.Although in some cases this model has been elongate by researchers to a dozen elements, essentially the rear end of the SERVQUAL process is founded on five key factors (Sahney et al 2004), which are Tangibles. visible facilities, equipment and appearance of personnel.Reliability. world power to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.Responsiveness. Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. self-reliance (including competence, courtesy, believability and