Cabin crew strategic quality management

ẹAẽI HOẽC Mễ TP. HO CH MINH UNIVERSITE LIBRE DE BRUXELLES UNIVERSITE OUVERTE DE HCMV ECOLLE DE COMMERCE SOLVAY MMVCFB PROGRAMME DE MAITRIES EN MANAGEMENT BELGIQUE _____________________________________________________________________ PHAM XUAN THANG CABIN CREW STRATEGIC QUALITY MANAGEMENT THESIS MASTER OF BUSINESS ADMINISTRATION Advisor : Vice Professor Doctor Phan Dang Tuat Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam (2006) This is my original work. Any data, result or quote in the project Is clearly identified. Pham Xuan Thang TABLE OF CONTENTS Chapter 1. INTRODUCTION 1 1.1. Rationale 1 1.2. Problem statement 1 1.3. Research objectives 4 1.4. Scope and limitation 4 1.5. Research framework 5 Chapter 2. LITERATURE REVIEW 6 2.1. Literature review 6 2.1.1. The ABC of service 1 6 2.1.2. The cascade of quality 2 7 2.1.3. Quality service 3 9 2.1.4. Service quality 11 2.1.5. A six point-plan to provide total customer service 15 2.2. The framework for internal analysis : Setting the stage 23 2.2.1. The service strategy 23 2.2.2. Leaders’ commitment 24 2.2.3. Front-line customer service staff 24 2.2.4. Service design and Standards 26 2.2.5. Measurement service performance 27 Chapter 3. ANALYSIS TO IDENTIFY THE CRITICAL SERVICE FACTORS 28 3.1. Identify market segment 28 3.1.1. Viet nam Airlines’ Competitiveness without alliances 28 3.1.2. Return on Investment 29 3.1.3. Ability to compete on price 30 3.1.4. Entry barriers to the market 30 3.1.5. Which customer segment are the best for Vietnam Airlines 31 3.2. List of service attributes which customers expect 35 3.3. Grouping and Labeling service factors 38 3.4. Ranking the relative importance of these service factors identified 41 3.5. The Findings 43 3.6. VNA critical service factors in in-flight service applying for the customer survey period from 2003 to 2006 48 Chapter 4. ASSESS THE CURRENT IN-FLIGHT SERVICE PERFOMANCE OF VIETNAM AIRLINES 50 4.1. Vietnam Airlines and Cabin Crew – organization structures 50 4.2. Evaluation of Vietnam airlines in-flight service 52 4.3. Regarding to the VN customer survey results nearly three thousand passengers at the East of Asia and Vietnam sectors in 2006, the findings are as follows 59 4.4. Vietnam Airlines performance with other competitors performance 60 Chapter 5. ANALYSIS OF THE CURRENT VIETNAM AIRLINES – INTERNAL SYSTEM THAT ARE RESPONSIBLE FOR THE DELIVERY OF ITS IN- FLIGHT SERVICE 68 5.1. The service strategy 68 5.1.1. Strategic segments 68 5.1.2. Products, Value added services and marketing 70 5.2. The Leaders’ commitment 72 5.2.1. Does management often refer to “service heroes or legends” 73 5.2.2. Does management praise on time and publicly individuals/ teams with special 73 5.2.3. Are Leaders more on energetic, participatory, caring, listening, coaching style or more on stately, conservative, removed, elitist, supervising style ? 74 5.3. Front-line customer service staff 74 5.3.1. Recruitment policy 74 5.3.2. Training 77 5.3.3. Motivating 81 5.4. Service design and Standards 84 5.4.1. Do staff know where are potential service failures and how to recover them ?. 85 5.4.2. Systems to assure that materials, foods, cleaning, mechanical and electrical services, etc furnished by suppliers or support functions meet the company’s performance requirement 85 5.5. Measurement service performance 86 5.5.1. There are methods/system for the company to regularly measure customer satisfaction, staff satisfaction 86 5.5.2. Information about customer satisfaction & complaints are communicated well to all levels (staff to manager and vice versa, and between staff from different teams) 88 Chapter 6. CONCLUSION 89 Chapter 7. HOW TO IMPROVE VIETNAM AIRLINES IN-FLIGHT SERVICE 94 7.1. How To Improve Vietnam Airlines Inflight Service 94 7.1.1. Review on the service strategy and policies 94 7.1.2. Review at Leader’s Commitment 95 7.1.3. Front-line customer service staff 95 7.1.4. Service design and Standards 97 7.1.5. Measurement service performance 97 7.2. Concluding remarks 98 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 3-1: VNA International routes 32 Figure 3-2: Average regional revenue by nationality of the three-year period 2002-2005 34 Figure 3-3: Average revenue by travelling purpose of the three-year period 2002 - 2005 34 Figure 3-4: Average revenue by nationality & travelling purpose of 2003-2005 35 Figure 4-1: VNA Organization Chart 50 Figure 4-2: Cabin Crew Organizational Chart 51 Figure 4-3: Safety; On-time departure 54 Figure 4-4: Cabin Crew Service 54 Figure 4-5: Reading materials 55 Figure 4-6: Food and Drinks 56 Figure 4-7: Entertainment services 56 Figure 4-8: Business facilities 56 Figure 4-9: Cabin conditions 57 Figure 4-10: Business - Cabin Crew Service 61 Figure 4-11: Business - Problem solving 61 Figure 4-12: Business - Food and drinks 62 Figure 4-13: Business - Reading materials 62 Figure 4-14: Business- Entertainment services 62 Figure 4-15: Business facilities 63 Figure 4-16: Business - Cabin conditions 63 Figure 4-17: Tourist view-cabin crew service 64 Figure 4-18: Tourist view-problems solving 64 Figure 4-19: Tourist - Food and Drink 64 Figure 4-20: Tourist- reading materials 65 Figure 4-21: Tourist-entertainment service 65 Figure 4-22: Tourist-business facilities 65 Figure 4-23: Tourist-cabin condidtions 66 LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS DAD : Danang airport-Danang city Vietnam DXB : Dubai, U.A. Emirates CDG : Charles De Gaulle Airport, PARIS, FRANCE KHH : Kaoshiung, Taiwan KIX : New KanSai Airport, OSAKA province, JAPAN SIN : Singapore HAN : Noibai airport -Hanoi Vietnam HCMC : Hochiminh City, Viet nam SGN : Tansonnhat Airport-Hochiminh City Viet nam Nha : Nha Trang Airport- Nha Trang city, Vietnam HPH : Hai Phong Airport, Hai phong city, Vietnam VN : Vietnam Airlines CCD : Cabin crew Division Cabin Attendent : The Airline staff working on the Aircraft to serve Passengers ICAO : International civil aviation organization CAAV : Civil Aviation Authority of Vietnam In-flight service/ On board service : Cabin Attendants serve passengers on the aircraft Pre-flight briefing : short meeting of Cabin crew teem before each flight to assign clearly tasks for each member. Ground handling : Ground staffs serve Passengers before and after the flight at the airport Indicate what major sources of data you expect to look for TOEIC : Test Of English for International Communication ABSTRACT The ultimate goal of the strategic quality management is not only to gain quality products or services, but it is also to create a “culture of excellence” and to improve the quality of work for serving customer better. The strategic quality management of airline industry is one of the service sector, it is more difficult than in the manufacturing sector because of three unique characteristics: Intangibility, which causes difficulties in outcome measurements; Heterogeneity, by which the quality depends on a vast different kind of services; and Inseparability of production and consumption, by which the service provider have no time to test their product before delivering it to customers. Vietnam Airlines has developed itself quality strategies during the last 10 years, especially Its quality in in-flight service. It is nowadays recognized by partners and customers as a quality company with warmly and professional teams. In this research, we studied operations of Vietnam Airlines in terms of quality management in in-inflight service basing mainly on the total customer service concept. By analyzing the service delivery process in comparison with six-steps guidelines, we suggested a recommendation plan for the company to implement continuous improvement to enhance its competitive advantages in such a dynamic industry. The Vietnam Airlines-Cabin Crew, as a service organization in itself, should plan Its actions towards the excellence of service quality performance through better management practices and effective organization. The ultimate goal is to get highest level of customer satisfaction. [...]... internal environment of Vietnam Airlines -Cabin Crew and identify Its strong and weak points To recommend a plan to strategically improve the service performance of Vietnam Airlines -Cabin Crew 1.4 Scope and limitation The research will be conducted using in-deep interviews method for major data collections The research will focus the service performance within the Cabin Crew division not including aircraft... 188 12 WORD OF MOUTH PERSONAL NEEDS PAST EXPERIENCE EXPECTED SERVICE PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY DIMENSIONS OF SERVICE QUALITY RELIABILITY RESPONSIVENESS ASSURANCE EMPATHY TANGIBLES 1.Expectations exceeded ESPS (Unacceptable quality) PERCEIVED SERVICE Five dimensions 1 Reliability Description Ability to perform... Doctor Ngo Kim Thanh, Director of Business Management Economy in Industry and Building subject at Hanoi National University of Economy’s Business Management Department; and to the dedicated staffs who have greatly helped me during my MBA study as well as during this research Secondly, I am very grateful to the Board of Directors of Vietnam Airlines Corporation, Cabin Crew Department for providing me time... cascade of quality 2 In both production and services, one effective route to quality of service and total customer satisfaction is the CASCADE formula : C Commitment A Abilities S Standards C Communication A Attention D to Detail E Excellence Quality of products and service Total customer satisfaction 8 It is in these encounters that customers receive a snapshot of the organization’s service quality, ... value in the quality of their work environment and feel adequately compensated for the work they perform The staff’s perception of work value and internal service Staff members perceive value and quality in much the same way as customers A customer’s perception of value is based on price and the quality of service received; Staff members perceive value in relation to their paychecks and the quality of... their work environment 2.1.4 Service quality 3 Defining : Service quality is a critical component of customer perceptions Customer satisfaction can be defined by comparing perceptions of service received with expectations of service desired Dimensions of service quality : Five principal dimensions listed in order of declining relative importance to customers 3 “SERVICE MANAGEMENT FOR COMPETITIVE ADVANTAGE”... actions aimed at gaining a sustainable advantage over competition, improving Its position in customers’ image The Vietnam Airlines -Cabin Crew, as a service organization in itself, should plan Its actions towards the excellence of service quality performance through better management 3 practices and effective organization The ultimate goal is to get highest level of customer satisfaction 4 1.3 Research... achieving the world class standard of service quality Vietnam Airlines currently provided a satisfactory level equal to that practiced by average airline operators but lower far from the top service level The Vietnam Airlines Management has clearly stated their mission to 2010 to become one of the twenty most favored carriers in Asian region, regarding to service quality; be one of five leading Asian carriers... organization again From the organization’s point of view, each encounter thus presents an opportunity to prove its potential as a quality service provider and to increase customer loyalty This really comes down to quality supervision : It is supervisor’s task to achieve a CASCADE of quality towards customer satisfaction Commitment to customer satisfaction from the teamwork can only come if managers and supervisors... to misunderstandings, errors and dissatisfaction No one can produce a quality product in these conditions Attention to detail marks the difference between those who only talk about customer satisfaction, and those who are really committed to succeed Excellence is the result, if the formula is followed 9 2.1.3 Quality service 3 Quality service is service that consistently m2eets or exceeds customer . PROGRAMME DE MAITRIES EN MANAGEMENT BELGIQUE _____________________________________________________________________ PHAM XUAN THANG CABIN CREW STRATEGIC QUALITY MANAGEMENT . ultimate goal of the strategic quality management is not only to gain quality products or services, but it is also to create a “culture of excellence” and to improve the quality of work for. of Vietnam Airlines -Cabin Crew and identify Its strong and weak points. • To recommend a plan to strategically improve the service performance of Vietnam Airlines -Cabin Crew. 1.4. Scope and