An Empirical Study of the impact of Service Quality on Customer Satisfaction and Repurchase Intentions in Hotels' of Northern India

Objective: Perceived service quality is the most important predictor of customer satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to investigate the impact the service quality on the overall satisfaction of customers and their repurchase intentions in hotels of northern India. Method: This cross-sectional study was conducted in the year 2016. The study’s sample consisted of 663guests who were staying in hotels of northern India, by using stratified random sampling. A questionnaire was used for data collection contacting 36 items (26 items about service quality and 5 items about overall satisfaction and 5 items about repurchase intentions) and its validity were confirmed. Data analysis was performed using descriptive and statistical analysis. Result: this study found a strong relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction as well as customer satisfaction and repurchase intent Conclusions: Constructs related to tangibility, empathy, assurance had the most positive impact on overall satisfaction of customers. Managers and owners of hotels should give the services as per the requirements of the customers.


INTRODUCTION
The importance of providing quality services in hospitality industry is being recognized as a way to expand and maintain a large and loyal customer base for long-term success. As stated by Kandampully et. al., (2011), consistent quality of service creates and sustains the image of a destination which ultimately results in positive customers' behavioral intentions. So, customers' behavioral intention is depe the destinations ability to consistently deliver service quality. On the contrary, the cost of poor quality relate to lack of responsiveness to the customer, dissatisfied customers, customer complaints, adverse word of mouth communication, and di employees (Crosby, 1979). Postma and Jenkins, (1997) also stated that quality improvement must be seriously concerned as a useful instrument in achieving competitive advantage, as a strategy to reduce uncertainty and improve the results of hospitality organizations. Superior customer service may, therefore, be seen as a mechanism to achieve differentiation and a competitive advantage, and so become integral to the overall direction and strategy of an organization (Brown and Swartz, 1989;. Expectations and perceptions play a significant role in determining quality services. Generally, customers form their expectations from their past experience, friends' advice, and marketers' and competitors' information and promises (Ko hospitality context, customers' have expectations after selecting a hotel to stay and that their The importance of providing quality services in hospitality industry is being recognized as a way to expand and maintain a large and loyal customer base term success. As stated by Kandampully et. al., (2011), consistent quality of service creates and sustains the image of a destination which ultimately results in positive customers' behavioral intentions. So, customers' behavioral intention is dependent on the destinations ability to consistently deliver service quality. On the contrary, the cost of poor quality relate to lack of responsiveness to the customer, dissatisfied customers, customer complaints, adverse word of mouth communication, and dissatisfied employees (Crosby, 1979). Postma and Jenkins, (1997) also stated that quality improvement must be seriously concerned as a useful instrument in achieving competitive advantage, as a strategy to reduce uncertainty and improve the results of tality organizations. Superior customer service may, therefore, be seen as a mechanism to achieve differentiation and a competitive advantage, and so become integral to the overall direction and strategy of an organization (Brown and Swartz, 1989; Expectations and perceptions play a significant role in determining quality services. Generally, customers form their expectations from their past experience, friends' advice, and marketers' and competitors' information and promises (Kotler, 2000). In the hospitality context, customers' have expectations after selecting a hotel to stay and that their  Vazquez (2001), customers' perceptions of service quality result from a comparison of their before-service expectations with their actual service experience. Madhavaiah, et. al., (2008) described that service quality is a function of expectation and performance as performance below expectation (obtaining a negative score) leads to a perception of low service quality, while exceeding expectation (obtaining a positive score) leads to a perception of high service quality. After comparing the expectations with perceived performance of the hotels, hotels' service quality can be considered (Korzay and Alvarez 2005). In this context, service quality offered by a hotel can be better understood by comparing expectations and perceptions of customers regarding a hotel (Kozak et. al., 2004). Ying (1990), tried to determine the level of service quality in the Chinese hospitality industry, which includes hotels, restaurants, transportation and communication services of hotels. The results of survey shows that neither foreign customers nor Chinese customers have positive attitude toward service quality in China. Many inconvenient service factors such as inconvenience for handicapped persons, lack of cleanliness of restrooms, poor quality food inefficiency in plane and train on-time performance, problems in communication services and reservation services etc., are some of the reasons for low service quality Augustyn (1998), discussed the initiatives relating to quality improvement in hospitality at international, national, regional, local and entrepreneurial levels and, used SERVQUAL model and benchmarking techniques for identifying quality improvement areas.
The author revealed that current quality problems in hospitality result from operating improper hotel quality systems rather than from the lack of awareness and identified the inability of closing the hotel quality perception gap and the hotel quality control gap as the chief causes of ineffectiveness of the private sector hotel quality.
Objectives of the Study To study the impact of service quality on customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions of hotel industry in northern India. 2. To suggest ways and means for improving hotel services with a view to make overall accommodation service more effective and efficient.

Review of Literature
Service Quality Many researchers (Madanlal, 2007;Knowles, 1996 and Sunmee, 2005) traditionally agreed and accepted that service quality is a comparison between expectations with perceptions of performance. Perceived quality is the customer's judgment about an entity's overall excellence or superiority (Zeithaml 1987). It clearly differs from objective quality (as define by few researcher, for example, Garvin (1983) and Hjorth-Anderson (1984)). Bitner and Hubbert (1984) defined quality as the customer's overall impression of the relative inferiority/ superiority of a firm by comparing the service user expectations with actual performance (Lewis and Booms, 1983; Groonroos, 1984). Wisniewski and Donnelly (1996) defined service quality as the extent to which a service meets customer's needs or expectations.
Customer expectations are beliefs about service delivery that function as standard or reference points against which performance is judged (Zeithaml and Bitner, 2003).
Berry, et.al., (1985) opines that service quality stems from a comparison of what they feel service firms should offer (i.e. from their expectations) with their perception of the performance of the firm providing the services. Perceived service quality is, therefore, viewed as the degree and direction of discrepancy between customers' perception and expectations. For example in real estate, this would be what the client is expecting from the agent in comparison to which is actually delivered by that agent.
Parasuraman, et al., (1985) defined service quality as: "the degree and direction of discrepancy between customers' perceptions and expectations in terms of different but relatively important dimensions of the service quality which can affect their future behaviour". In line with this thinking, Gronroos (1982) devoloped a model in which he contends that customers compare the service they expect with perceptions of the service they receive in evaluating service quality. Also, Smith and Houston (1982) claimed that satisfaction with service is related to confirmation or disconfirmation of expectations. They based their research on disconfirmation paradigm, which maintains that satisfaction is related to size and direction of the disconfirmation experience where disconfirmation is related to person's initial expectations. Similarly Lewis and Booms (1983) stated that "service quality is a measure of how well the service level delivered matches customer expectations. Delivering quality service means confirming to customer expectations on a consistent basis". Examination of these above writings and other literature on service marketing suggested three underlying themes:  Service quality is more difficult for the customer to evaluate than goods quality.  Service quality perceptions result from a comparison of customer expectations with actual service performance.  Quality evaluations are not made solely on the outcome of the service; they also involve evaluations of the process of service delivery.
Most writers agree that customer's expectations are rarely concerned with single aspect of the service package, but rather many aspects. Gronroos (1985), for example, investigates an attitudinal construct, resulting from the discrepancy between customer's expectations and their perceptions of the quality of service actually delivered (Mangold and Emin, 1990). Furthermore, when decision makers in service organization, such as banks and hospitals are asked what constitutes quality in their service, the answers are less well-defined and tend to vary more from individual to individual. Consequently, the measurement, monitoring and improvement of quality become an elusive task. While the concept of service quality is difficult to define, the fact is, that both customers and service providers evaluate service quality on a daily and revolving basis (Mangoid and Emin, 1990).
Reeves and Bednar (1994) defined service quality as excellence, value, conformance to specifications and meeting or exceeding customers' expectations. Whereas, Lewis (1987) stated about service quality is "providing the customer with what he wants, when he wants it, and at acceptable cost, within the operating constraints of the business", and "providing a better service than the customer expects". Service quality can also be defined as the customers' judgment about an entity's overall excellence or superiority Ueltschy et. al., 2004), or the extent to which a firm successfully serves the purpose of customers (Zeithaml et. al., 1990). According to Parasuraman et. al., and Bitner and Hubbert (1994), service quality is the customers' overall impression of the relative inferiority/superiority of the organization and its services. However, Demoranville and Bienstock (2003) identified service quality as a measure to assess service performance, diagnose service problems, manage service delivery, and as a basis for employee and corporate rewards.
The study of service quality is critical for the success and survival in today's competitive business environment (Fynes and Voss, 2001) as service quality has been recognized as a strategic tool for attaining efficiency in business performance. Backman and Veldkamp (1995) stated that quality of service is an essential factor involved in a service provider's ability to attract more customers. Also, providing high level of quality service has become the selling point to attract customer's attention and is the most important driver that leads to satisfaction (Angelova and Zekiri, 2011). Besides, Ostrowski, et., al., (1993) mentioned that service quality is a way of thinking about how to satisfy customers so that they hold positive attitudes toward the service they have received.
According to Berry et. al., (1988), service quality has become a significant differentiator and the most powerful competitive weapon that organizations want to possess. Its importance to firms and customers is unequivocal because of its benefits that contribute to market share and return on investment (Parasuraman, et al. 1985). The delivery of high quality service to customers offers firms an opportunity to develop unique position in the minds of the target customers which results in; greater customer satisfaction and behavoural intention, greater willingness to recommend to others, reduction in customer complaints, improvement in customer retention rates; and, contributes to long-term profits of a business only then the effective service quality strategies can be developed.

Customer Satisfaction
Many authors Bitner, 1990;Bitner and Hubbert, 1994;. Oliver (1980) have suggested that service quality and satisfaction are distinct constructs) identified satisfaction and dissatisfaction in terms of the disconfirmation of customers' expectation. A positive disconfirmation leads to customer satisfaction and a negative disconfirmation leads to customer dissatisfaction. Oliver (1980) argued that the amount of dissatisfaction is dependent on the extent of disconfirmation and the customer's level of involvement with the service and the problem solving process. The Expectations Disconfirmation Model has been dominant model in satisfaction research. The model uses pre-consumption expectations in a comparison with post-consumption experiences of a product/service to form an attitude of satisfaction or dissatisfaction toward the product/service (Oliver, 1980;Oliver and DeSarbo, 1988;Tse and Wilton, 1988). The expectancy disconfirmation paradigm in process theory provides the grounding for the vast majority of satisfaction studies and encompasses four constructs: (1) Expectations (2) Performance (3) Disconfirmation and (4) Satisfaction. Disconfirmation arises from discrepancies between prior expectations and actual performance. There are three possibilities: zero disconfirmation can result when a product performs as expected; positive disconfirmation can occur when the product performs better than expected; and negative disconfirmation when the product performs below expectations and dissatisfaction sets.
A comparison of the satisfaction model with the Gaps model indicates that the most salient feature is that the latter leaves out the issue of disconfirmation and seeks to represent an entire psychological process by an operationalisation that involves the simple subtraction of expectations from perceptions. A number of other distinctions are often made between satisfaction and quality. First, while the original five dimensions of SERVQUAL are fairly specific, those for satisfaction are broader and can result from a wider set of factors. Second, satisfaction assessments require customer experience, while quality does not (Oliver, 1980; Bolton and Drew, 1991b; Cronin and Taylor, 1992; Boulding, et. al., 1993). Operationally, satisfaction is similar to an attitude, as it can be assessed as the sum of the satisfactions with the various attributes of the product or service . However, while attitude is a pre-decision construct, satisfaction is a post decision experience construct (Latour and Peat, 1979). Furthermore, it highlights the construct of a "global" level of satisfaction (the overall service satisfaction) in contrast to the construct of a component level of satisfaction (the encounter service satisfaction). , mentioned that customer's satisfaction is influenced by two factors which is experiences and expectations with service performance. Two additional issues that need to be clarified when researching customer satisfaction in services is whether satisfaction is conceptualized as facet (attribute specific) or as overall (aggregate); and whether it is viewed as transaction-specific (encounter satisfaction) or as cumulative (satisfaction over time) (Hoest and et. al., 2004). However, according to Levesque and McDougall (1996) satisfaction is conceptualized as an overall customer attitude towards a service provider.

Repurchase Intentions
The concept of repurchase intentions is referred to as people's beliefs about what they intend to do in a certain situation (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980). Repurchase intentions can be defined as, "indicators that signal whether customers will remain with or defect from the company" (Zeithaml et ) found that financial success and future performance of an organizations depend on the extent to which customers' favorable repurchase intentions are fostered.
The repurchase intentions are one of the most important factors that allow managers to increase profits in the services sector. Understanding the repurchase intentions of customers after experiencing services is important because they are seen as a prime determinant of a firm's long term financial performance and is considered a major source of competitive advantage (Lam et. al., 2004). A positive attitude before the brand enhances the probability of repetition and recommendation to other customers (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). Thus, behavioral intentions are important indicators of customers' future behaviors, trigger future behaviors (Ajzen and Fishbein, 1980) and are defined as "a deeply held commitment to repurchase or re-patronize a preferred product or service in the future" (Oliver, 1997). Many studies have examined the antecedents of repeat purchase intentions. Concerning the influences of satisfaction and quality on these intentions, , suggested that satisfaction should be described as a moderator between service quality and purchasing intention. Cronin and Taylor (1992),

Sample Design and Procedure
In order to determine the sample size for the study, a pilot survey was conducted in February, 2016 and the investigator took a random sample of 100 guests who were staying in different hotels of northern India (Jammu & Kashmir, Punjab). Selected guests were asked limited questions related to hotel services with the aim to know whether they had ever used hotel services Based on the pilot survey, the investigator found that almost 75 guests had used the hotel services earlier (i.e. 75% of the 100 guests) and remaining had not used before. On the basis of this information, following formula has been used to work out the appropriate sample size: As a result, a sample of approximately 663 customers must be taken from the sample organization. The sample size consisting 663 (six hundred sixty three) in two selected states of northern India was proportionately distributed after considering availability of hotels rooms. This was further proportionately distributed based on classification of hotels as shown in following Table 1. The data was collected in a period of six months by spending 3-4 hours a day and investigator took every care that the guests staying in different hotels already contacted should not be repeated. The questionnaire were personally distributed and collected. Out of 800 (eight hundred) questionnaires, 665 (six hundred sixty five) were found usable, thus representing a response rate of 83.85%. The questionnaires were distributed and collected personally representing a 100% response rate. The data was then analyzed with the help of SPSS 20 and Amos version 20 data base.  Table 2 to 9 presents demographic profile of the selected respondents.  The data on Table 3 shows that out of the total sample size of 663 respondents, majority were males (57.75%). Majority of the respondents (50.50%) were graduates followed by post graduate (27.75%) and the remaining were under graduates as shown in the Table  4. Respondents who stayed in between 1-6 days were, were heavy participants (47%) followed by respondents staying 7-12 days (27%). Least number of participants (11.5%) has a stay of more than 19 days followed by the respondents (14.5%) stay of 13-18 days (Table 5).  persons (17.37%) and the respondents who came to visit friends /relatives were least in number (7.38%) followed by the pilgrimage (16.00%) and business tourists (16.75%) as shown in (Table 7). A sizeable number of participants belonged to the "B" category of hotels (27.12%) followed by the "C" category of hotels (26.25%) and the least number (9.63%) were from "E" category of hotels followed by "D" and "A" category of hotels (12.25% and 24.75%) respectively (Table 8). Majority of the respondents were from Indian States (60.48%) followed by the foreigners (39.52%) as shown in (Table 9).

Outliers' detection
Outliers' are the extreme responses which may unduly influence the outcome of any multivariate analysis (Blake & Hair, 2012). The AMOS output provide the outlier responses, which later were eliminated for the subsequent analysis.

Data normality
Normality refers to the shape of the data distribution for an individual metric variable and its correspondence to the normal distribution. Since normality is used for F and t test, therefore if the variation from the normal distribution is sufficiently large it may lead to the invalid statistical test. For testing data normality, shape of the distribution is assessed generally by the two measures; (a) Kurtosis and (b) skewness. Kurtosis refers to the peakedness or flatness of the distribution compared to the normal distribution. While as skewness is described as the balance of distribution. In order to examine the normality of data, the value of Kurtosis and skewness must lie between -1 to + 1 or closed to zero (Gao et al., 2008). In the present study the skewness and kurtosis were examined with the help of SPSS as shown in the Table 10 Since all the values of the data normality test were found within acceptance limit, therefore, the normality of data stands confirmed.

Linearity
The linearity of the data was assessed by the application of normal distributed plot namely, Q-Q plots, Q-Q plots are plots of the observed order quantile verses the expected quantile. The straight line in the graphs represents the trend of the expected data, while as, the dotted line along with the straight line represent the observed data. The convergence of these two lines is the sign of data normality, while as, departure or divergence of the dotted line from the straight line are the evidence against the assumption that the data is normal. In other words if the data are normally distributed then the data points fall approximately on a diagonal straight line, and if the data points stray away from the diagonal line then the data is said to be not normally distributed. In fact these plots provide information about the symmetry or asymmetry.

Results
One of the major objectives of the study was to measure the service quality in hotels, under reference. To achieve this objective, the first step was directed at the measurement of service quality construct. According to Gronroos, (1984) and  Service quality is defined as the difference between customer expectations and perceptions of service or as the customers satisfaction or dissatisfaction formed by their experience of purchase and use of the service. Consequently, the main area of questioning consisted customers perceptions regarding quality of services received in hotel industry and its dimensions -tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. Perceptions of customers were measured on a 5 point (strongly disagree/ strongly agree Likert's Type scale. Mean scores of consumers' perceptions were computed for each category of hotel separately, results of which are presented in following Table 11 under study and are presented below:

Over-all Service Quality Scores in Hotels
To measure the over-all service quality in hotels, under study, mean scores of all hotels where computed separately and averaged on all dimensions (Table 11).  Table 12 reveals that service quality is positively correlated with customer satisfaction (r = 0.756**), service quality is positively correlated with repurchase intentions (r = 0.591**) and customer satisfaction is positively correlated with repurchase intentions (r = 0.601**)

Conclusion and suggestion
The main purpose of this study was to determine the differential impact of perceived service quality on customer satisfaction and repurchase intentions. The study results showed that three dimensions of SERVQUAL such as tangibles, responsiveness and