Showing papers on "Service level objective published in 2017"

Dhalion: self-regulating stream processing in heron

Abstract: In recent years, there has been an explosion of large-scale real-time analytics needs and a plethora of streaming systems have been developed to support such applications. These systems are able to continue stream processing even when faced with hardware and software failures. However, these systems do not address some crucial challenges facing their operators: the manual, time-consuming and error-prone tasks of tuning various configuration knobs to achieve service level objectives (SLO) as well as the maintenance of SLOs in the face of sudden, unpredictable load variation and hardware or software performance degradation.In this paper, we introduce the notion of self-regulating streaming systems and the key properties that they must satisfy. We then present the design and evaluation of Dhalion, a system that provides self-regulation capabilities to underlying streaming systems. We describe our implementation of the Dhalion framework on top of Twitter Heron, as well as a number of policies that automatically reconfigure Heron topologies to meet throughput SLOs, scaling resource consumption up and down as needed. We experimentally evaluate our Dhalion policies in a cloud environment and demonstrate their effectiveness. We are in the process of open-sourcing our Dhalion policies as part of the Heron project.

The Service–Profit Chain : a Meta-Analytic Test of a Comprehensive Theoretical Framework

Abstract: The service–profit chain (SPC) has served as a prominent guidepost for service managers and researchers alike. This meta-analysis provides the first comprehensive test of the SPC, showing that all the proposed links are statistically significant and substantial. However, the effect sizes vary considerably, partly according to the type of service provided. Meta-analytic structural equation models show that internal service quality translates into service performance through various mechanisms beyond employee satisfaction, and they highlight the importance of the service encounter and customer relationship characteristics for customer responses. The findings not only indicate the need to integrate complementary paths in the SPC framework but also challenge the implicit SPC rationale that firms should always maximize employee satisfaction and external service quality to optimize firm performance.

Utilizing customer satisfaction in ranking prediction for personalized cloud service selection

Abstract: With the rapid development of cloud computing, cloud service has become an indispensable component of modern information systems where quality of service (QoS) has a direct impact on the system's performance and stability. While scholars have concentrated their efforts on the monitoring and evaluation of QoS in cloud computing, other service selection characteristics have been neglected, such as the scarcity of evaluation data and various customer needs. In this paper, we present a ranking-oriented prediction method that will assist in the process of discovering the cloud service candidates that have the highest customer satisfaction. This approach encompasses two basic functions: ranking similarity estimation and cloud service ranking prediction that takes into account customer's preference and expectation. The comparative experimental results show that the proposed method outperforms other competing methods.

Integrating service quality as a second-order factor in a customer satisfaction and loyalty model

Abstract: Purpose The study conceptualizes service quality as a second-order factor and analyzes its influence on customer satisfaction, perceived value, image, consumption emotions and customer loyalty by testing a structural equation model. Design/methodology/approach The model is tested using data collected from 672 guests staying in accommodation establishments located in South Africa. The study follows a hierarchical approach using confirmatory factor analysis to test the second-order factor model and structural equation modeling to test the overall model. Findings The results indicate that the second-order factor model is acceptable both empirically as well as conceptually and performs better than other competing models of service quality. The findings provide support for all hypotheses and evidence of a structural model with a high explanatory power. Research limitations/implications The second-order factor model is less useful when fine-grained analyses are needed, such as when a detailed assessment of the level of quality of service offered by a hospitality organization is required. Practical implications The second-order factor model allows for an analysis of service quality at different levels of abstraction. Accommodation managers interested in customers’ evaluation of service on a cumulative basis can make use of the global measure to determine service quality evaluations. Practitioners can also use the findings to manage the different dimensions of service quality. Originality/value The study demonstrates that service quality is best represented as a second-order factor, and in doing so, it provides an improved measurement of the construct. More so, by integrating the variable in a nomological network, the research develops a more parsimonious model than the existing ones.

Systems and methods for provisioning of storage for virtualized applications

Abstract: Methods for provisioning storage for virtual machines by meeting a service level agreement (SLA) are disclosed. The SLA pertains to the operation of a virtual machine. An example of the method includes monitoring the workload of the first virtual machine; establishing at least one service level objective (SLO) in response to the observed workload; determining an SLA that meets the at least one SLO, wherein the SLA defines the time the SLO is satisfied; and provisioning at least one resource used by the first virtual machine in response to the SLA not being satisfied, wherein the provisioning causes the SLA to be satisfied.

Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction in Selected Banks in Rwanda

Abstract: This study was set to determine the relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction in Banque Populaire du Rwanda, Kigali branches. It was based on both descriptive and cross-sectional survey designs. A selfadministered questionnaire was used to collect primary data from 498 customers, using convenient sampling technique. Data were analyzed using SPSS’s frequencies and percentages, means, and Pearson’s Linear Correlation Coefficient. The study was based on five research objectives: (a) to determine the profile of respondents in terms of gender, type of account, educational qualification and banking experience, (b) to determine the level of service quality in BPR, (c) to determine the level of customer satisfaction among BPR customers (d) to determine relationship between service quality and customers’ satisfaction in BPR and (e) to recommend strategies enhance customer satisfaction basing on the study findings. The findings revealed that majority of the respondents were female, over three equators with current type of account, over half of the respondents had no professional education qualification and majority of the respondents had been customers for BPR for relatively a long period of time that is from three years and above. It went ahead to revealed that both the level of service quality and customer satisfaction was at mean ≈3 (high level). The findings from PLCC showed a significant and positive relationship between service quality and customer satisfaction while comparing dimension like customer loyalty with reliability, responsiveness and assurance. On the other hand, comparison based on positive word of mouth with service quality sub-variables like Reliability, Assurance, tangibles, empathy and responsiveness, revealed that there was no significant relationship between the variables. The researcher recommended that if BPR is to improve on service it offers to her customers to ensure their satisfaction, BPR staff should: (a) maintains on error-free records service, (b) handle customer problems in constant manner, (c) be willing to solve customer problems promptly and (d) understand specific needs of individual customers.

Evaluating the Effects of Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Service Value on Behavioral Intentions with Life Insurance Customers in India

Abstract: The present study aims to empirically test and evaluate the direct and indirect effects of service encounter constructs of service quality, customer satisfaction and service value on loyalty related behavioral intentions of customers in Indian Life services in India to determine the best fitting model Most studies based on comprehensive models of service constructs relationships have not considered alternative competing models The theoretical background and the empirical support for these issues derive mostly from prior studies in the developed markets of the US, UK and Canada Further, the study aims to contribute to resolution of the variance in structure and dimensionality of service quality (dimensionality) in literature by developing and validating a second order model of service quality which integrates the two dominant perspectives ie the Nordic and the American approach Design/methodology/approach: A second order scale of service quality was developed and validated by integrating the American and Nordic approach to Service Quality using exploratory factor analysis and confirmatory factor analysis The constructs of Customer satisfaction, service value and Behavioural intentions were validated using confirmatory factor analysis Two competing models of effects of the three service encounter constructs on Behavioral Intentions were tested using structural equation modeling The results show that Service quality is a second order construct consisting of the dimensions of Core service, Service Delivery, Sales Agent Quality, Tangibles and Empathy The process dimensions (sales Agent Quality and Service delivery) are most important in overall service quality perceptions The effect of service quality on positive behavioural intentions is both direct and indirect with the moderating effect of service value and customer satisfaction being significant The study contributes to research by developing and validating a hierarchical model of service quality and testing two competing models of direct and indirect effects of service quality on behavioral intentions so that there is better understanding of the simultaneous and composite interactions and effects of the three service encounter constructs The results would provide practitioners with a valid measure of service quality in life insurance services and would enable them to devise marketing strategies which enhance customer loyalty related behavioral intentions The study addresses the gap related to wide divergence in dimensionality and structure of service quality and contributes to the debate on whether the effect of service quality on behavioral intentions is only indirect or both direct and indirect

Exploring mobile government from the service quality perspective

Abstract: Purpose The purpose of this paper is to identify service quality dimensions and their sub-dimensions for mobile government services. Despite studies conducted on mobile services, there is lack of a comprehensive framework of mobile government service quality. Researchers and practitioners must outline a taxonomy of mobile government service quality before they can begin to test their effects empirically. It cannot be assumed that e-government is the same as m-government. Therefore, it is important to understand the dimensions that affect mobile government service quality. Design/methodology/approach Mobile government service quality dimensions were extracted from the literature on m-government from its development and transition from e-government to service models being used. This helps understand what service quality dimensions are necessary when creating more efficient, reliable, and responsible forms of m-government. The dimensions are demonstrated within a holistic framework of m-government service quality, presented for both academic and practitioner appreciation. Findings This paper identifies 20 mobile government service quality sub-dimensions classified within six dimensions. Originality/value The literature on mobile government service quality is scarce. With the expectation of mobile subscriptions worldwide reaching 8 billion by 2016, it is the most lucrative time to be researching how the design of mobile government affects service quality. This paper is the first to provide information on m-government service quality dimensions available for assessment.

Minimum-Cost Cloud Storage Service Across Multiple Cloud Providers

Abstract: Many cloud service providers (CSPs) provide data storage services with datacenters distributed worldwide. These datacenters provide different get/put latencies and unit prices for resource utilization and reservation. Thus, when selecting different CSPs’ datacenters, cloud customers of globally distributed applications (e.g., online social networks) face two challenges: 1) how to allocate data to worldwide datacenters to satisfy application service level objective (SLO) requirements, including both data retrieval latency and availability and2) how to allocate data and reserve resources in datacenters belonging to different CSPs to minimize the payment cost. To handle these challenges, we first model the cost minimization problem under SLO constraints using the integer programming. Due to its NP-hardness, we then introduce our heuristic solution, including a dominant-cost-based data allocation algorithm and an optimal resource reservation algorithm. We further propose three enhancement methods to reduce the payment cost and service latency: 1) coefficient-based data reallocation; 2) multicast-based data transferring; and 3) request redirection-based congestion control. We finally introduce an infrastructure to enable the conduction of the algorithms. Our trace-driven experiments on a supercomputing cluster and on real clouds (i.e., Amazon S3, Windows Azure Storage, and Google Cloud Storage) show the effectiveness of our algorithms for SLO guaranteed services and customer cost minimization.

From an Ontology of Service Contracts to Contract Modeling in Enterprise Architecture

Abstract: Service contracts bind parties legally, regulating their behavior in the scope of a (business) service relationship. Given that there are legal consequences attached to service contracts, understanding the elements of a contract is key to managing services in an enterprise. After all, provisions in a service contract establish obligations and rights for service providers and customers that must be respected in service delivery. The importance of service contracts to service provisioning in an enterprise has motivated us to investigate their representation in enterprise models. We have observed that approaches fall into two extremes of a spectrum. Some approaches, such as ArchiMate, offer an opaque "contract" construct, not revealing the rights and obligations in the scope of the governed service relationship. Other approaches, under the umbrella term "contract languages", are devoted exactly to the formal representation of the contents of contracts. Despite the applications of contract languages, they operate at a level of detail that does not match that of enterprise architecture models. In this paper, we explore the gap between these two extremes. We address the representation of service contract elements with a systematic approach: we first propose a well-founded service contract ontology, and then extend the ArchiMate language to reflect the elements of the service contract ontology. The applicability of the proposed extension is assessed in the representation of a real-world cloud service contract.

WorkloadCompactor: reducing datacenter cost while providing tail latency SLO guarantees

Abstract: Service providers want to reduce datacenter costs by consolidating workloads onto fewer servers. At the same time, customers have performance goals, such as meeting tail latency Service Level Objectives (SLOs). Consolidating workloads while meeting tail latency goals is challenging, especially since workloads in production environments are often bursty. To limit the congestion when consolidating workloads, customers and service providers often agree upon rate limits. Ideally, rate limits are chosen to maximize the number of workloads that can be co-located while meeting each workload's SLO. In reality, neither the service provider nor customer knows how to choose rate limits. Customers end up selecting rate limits on their own in some ad hoc fashion, and service providers are left to optimize given the chosen rate limits. This paper describes WorkloadCompactor, a new system that uses workload traces to automatically choose rate limits simultaneously with selecting onto which server to place workloads. Our system meets customer tail latency SLOs while minimizing datacenter resource costs. Our experiments show that by optimizing the choice of rate limits, WorkloadCompactor reduces the number of required servers by 30--60% as compared to state-of-the-art approaches.

Employing proactive interaction for service failure prevention to improve customer service experiences

Abstract: Services marketing research continues to be largely focused on firms’ reactive interactions for recovering from service failure rather than on proactive customer interactions that may prevent service failure from occurring in the first place. Building on previous studies that assess the efficacy of implementing proactive interaction in service provision contexts, the purpose of this paper is to compare the influences of proactive interaction to prevent service failure and reactive interaction to correct service failure on customer emotion and patronage behavior. Since proactive interaction for service failure prevention is a relatively underexplored and resource-intensive approach, the authors also assess the moderating influences of customer and firm-related characteristics.,The study hypotheses are tested with survey data from two scenario-based experiments conducted in a retail setting.,The findings reveal that customers prefer service providers that take the initiative to get to them before they have to initiate contact for themselves. The findings also identify the moderating influences of relationship quality, situational involvement, and contact person status and motive.,The research contributes to the development of service provision theory and practice by expanding on previous studies which report that proactive efforts to prepare customers for the adverse effects of service failure are favorably received. The results also shed light on moderating factors that may further inform the exploitation of resource-intensive proactive interaction for service failure prevention. An agenda is proposed to stimulate future research on proactive customer interaction to prevent service failure in service provision contexts.

Trusting Cloud Service Providers: Trust Phases and a Taxonomy of Trust Factors

Abstract: A large and rapidly increasing number of services are offered through the Internet, in the cloud. This enables users to utilize services remotely, without even knowing the service provider. However, before putting their trust in a provider, users need to be able to evaluate how trustworthy a service is. This can be a daunting task, as many factors need to be considered and analyzed. The current paper aims at helping the selection of a service provider by presenting a taxonomy of trust factors and outlining its application in practical scenarios. A brief description of a framework built on this taxonomy is also given.

Business customers’ readiness to adopt manufacturer’s new services

Abstract: Purpose For successful servitization, manufacturing firms must understand how their customers adopt new services. The purpose of this paper is to explore customers’ readiness for a manufacturer’s new services to complement its goods. The goal is to increase knowledge of the aspects that manufacturers should consider when bringing new kinds of services to market. Design/methodology/approach A qualitative case study design is used to analyze readiness for services and interest in service adoption in three customer firms of a manufacturer. The interview data were collected from 14 persons at customer sites and were content analyzed. Findings The results show that readiness – a concept that is often used in the field of technology – is relevant also for the service adoption process. In a business-to-business context, readiness for service adoption concerns the individual and organizational levels, and hence a new dimension of organizational culture and habits had to be added to the concept that originally focuses on individuals. People consider different factors when making consecutive decisions during the service adoption process and these factors can vary even within a company. The cornerstone for new service adoption is the customer firm’s actual need for the service. Originality/value The results offer new knowledge about service adoption in a business-to-business context by taking a customer firm’s perspective. They, thus, complement previous studies on the supplier perspective of servitization and service adoption in consumer business. The contributions help manufacturers focus their efforts when bringing new services to market.

Software Defined Network Service Chaining for OTT Service Providers in 5G Networks

Abstract: The fifth generation wireless networks are expected to offer high capacity and accommodate numerous over-the-top applications, relying on users' Internet connectivity, thus involving different stakeholders, that is, network service providers and over-the-top service providers. For the efficient management of over-the-top application flows, the implementation of service functions and their interconnection in service chains, namely network service chaining, should consider the over-the-top service providers' performance goals and user management strategies. However, in current wireless network deployments, the network service providers have full control of network service chaining. Considering that user satisfaction from the offered services is a common interest for both types of stakeholders, the over-the-top service providers need to participate in network service chaining, and apply QoS and user prioritization policies to network service chain resource management, which involves users connected at different network points, in a distributed manner. In this article, we describe 5G network management architectures and propose virtualization components that enable over-the-top service-provider- oriented network service. We also outline the arising issues for over-the-top service providers in network service chaining and introduce a distributed prioritization network service chain management scheme for over-the-top application flows, based on matching theory. The evaluation results indicate the performance gains in overthe- top service providers' service levels that stem from the proposed scheme, demonstrating the benefits of introducing prioritization in network service chain deployment.

Demystifying the Clouds: Harnessing Resource Utilization Models for Cost Effective Infrastructure Alternatives

Abstract: Deployment of service oriented applications (SOAs) to public infrastructure-as-a-service (IaaS) clouds presents challenges to system analysts. Public clouds offer an increasing array of virtual machine types with qualitatively defined CPU, disk, and network I/O capabilities. Determining cost effective application deployments requires selecting both the quantity and type of virtual machine (VM) resources for hosting SOA workloads of interest. Hosting decisions must utilize sufficient infrastructure to meet service level objectives and cope with service demand. To support these decisions, analysts must: (1) understand how their SOA behaves in the cloud; (2) quantify representative workload(s) for execution; and (3) support service level objectives regardless of the performance limits of the hosting infrastructure. In this paper we introduce a workload cost prediction methodology which harnesses operating system time accounting principles to support equivalent SOA workload performance using alternate virtual machine types. We demonstrate how the use of resource utilization checkpointing supports capturing the total resource utilization profile for SOA workloads executed across a pool of VMs. Given these workload profiles, we develop and evaluate our cost prediction methodology using six SOAs. We demonstrate how our methodology can support finding alternate infrastructures that afford lower hosting costs while offering equal or better performance using any VM type on Amazon's public elastic compute cloud.

Tier-Centric Resource Allocation in Multi-Tier Cloud Systems

Abstract: In IT service delivery and support, the cloud paradigm has introduced the problem of resource over-provisioning through rapid automation (or orchestration) of manual IT operations. Due to the elastic nature of cloud computing, this shortcoming ends up significantly reducing the real benefit, viz., the cost-effectiveness of cloud adoption for Cloud Service Consumers (CSC). Similarly, detecting and eliminating such over-provisioning of cloud resources without affecting the quality of service (QoS) is extremely difficult for Cloud Service Providers (CSPs) since they have visibility only into the state of the IT services (cloud resources) but none into the actual performance of business services. In this paper, we propose Tier-centric Business Impact and Cost Analysis (T-BICA), a tier-centric optimal resource allocation algorithm, to address the problem of rapid provisioning of IT resources in modern enterprise cloud environments, through extensive data gathering and performance analyses of business services in a simulated environment emulating a mature cloud service provider. We have derived improved analytics to address the issues and to accelerate real cloud adoption for large enterprises within the context of meeting (or exceeding) business service level objectives (SLOs) and minimizing the cloud subscription cost (OpEx) for the business. While investigating the problem, we consider the time and the cost of delivering business service in medium- to large-size enterprise environments, quantifying the negative impact of IT resource over-provisioning (due to highly mature IT services centric orchestration capabilities) on the business, and indicate how the suggested cloud analytics could assist in reducing total cost of ownership (TCO) of the business service. From our analysis of the test data, we have observed that our suggested approach and analytic reduces the cost of delivering business services by 65.19 percent, and improves the performance (total time to deliver) by 74.18 percent when compared to the existing modern cloud management and resource provisioning approach. Using T-BICA dramatically reduces upfront costs (CapEx) for CSPs (from the capacity procurement and management points of view) through efficient on-demand resource de-provisioning, without affecting business SLOs and IT service level agreements (SLAs). The improved dynamic allocation of resources also makes for better efficiency of utilization, which in turn has desirable consequences for sustainability, and makes this an approach for “Green” IT.

Quality of service in cloud computing in higher education: A critical survey and innovative model

Abstract: Cloud Computing, an emerging trend, in the e-learning sector has attracted number of service providers to the market in very less time, providing users with several applications at their disposal. However, while providing such service, not sufficient importance is given to the quality of the service, especially from the user's point of view. Hence it becomes necessary to monitor, track and quantify the QoS of the cloud computing e-learning applications in order to provide the right information to both the customers and the service providers. This information would help both the parties in terms of the comparison between the expectations and the capacity to meet them, but in this sector there is no standard model which defines the QoS parameters from the user's point of view. Thus, the need arises for developing a metrics model for enhancing the quality of service in cloud computing e-learning applications for higher education sector. In the current work, Quality of Service models are studied and comprehensive review of work done in this field is presented. Additionally an innovative QoS model for resolving this issue has been suggested.

Effects of perceived cost, service quality, and customer satisfaction on health insurance service continuance

Abstract: This paper aims to contribute to the universal discourse on financial services continuance behavior by examining the impact of service cost on customers’ service-quality perception and service continuance intention. It presents the results of an empirical study that has explored the impacts of service cost, service quality, and customer satisfaction on health insurance customers’ behavioral intention toward continuing or discontinuing with their service providers. Very few studies had examined the impact of service cost on service-quality perception. Our study attempts to fill that gap. A sample of 820 customers was surveyed, and 624 usable responses were analyzed with ANOVA, standard multiple regression, and logistic regression. Our findings indicate that, although highly satisfied health insurance customers will most likely retain their current service providers, customer dissatisfaction does not necessarily lead to discontinuance. Our results also provide some operational implications for health insurance managers, with strategies for reducing attrition and improving customer retention.

Modelling web-based library service quality and user loyalty in the context of a developing country

Abstract: Purpose This study aims to empirically validate the LibWebSQ measurement scale. In addition, it investigates the relationship between perceived web-based service quality and three other latent constructs, namely, user satisfaction, service value and user loyalty. Design/methodology/approach A quantitative survey design was used to collect the data. Structural equation modeling was used to determine the influence of web-based service quality on the three latent constructs. The respondents were students, academic staff and non-academic staff from two federal universities in the North-western zone of Nigeria. Findings The findings of the path analysis indicate that perceived web-based service quality and service value exhibit no statistically significant direct influence on user loyalty. However, user satisfaction has a direct positive influence on user loyalty, and it also mediates the relationship between web-based service quality and user loyalty to the library. Research limitations/implications The LibWebSQ is a reliable and valid scale to be used in Nigerian university libraries for web-based service quality measurement. User loyalty in academic libraries can be modelled as a result of service quality and user satisfaction Practical implications This study provides a means of assessing web-based library service quality and further improving the policy and practice in university libraries. Originality value This is the first attempt to assess web-based library service quality using the LibWebSQ measurement scale. A satisfactory model fit is obtained, which allows the measurement model to be integrated with service value, user satisfaction and user loyalty. The study contributes to the conceptualization of web-based library service quality.

AI for SLA Management in Programmable Networks

Abstract: Efficient Service Level Agreements (SLA) management and anticipation of Service Level Objectives (SLO) breaches become mandatory to guarantee the fulfilled services in the context of softwarized networks. In this paper, using Artificial Neural Networks, we design, specify and evaluate a framework for cognitive SLA enforcement of networking services involving Virtualized Network Functions (VNFs) and SDN controllers. A proof of concept, a testbed description and an extensive performance evaluation assess the validation of the proposed framework.

Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction in the Electronic Banking

Abstract: The present study aims to assess the degree of service quality and customer satisfaction in the electronic banking context in Battticaloa district. To achieve these objectives a questionnaire was developed with item measures that capture the service quality and customer satisfaction constructs. In a study of 231 respondents (51 percent of response rate), unidimensionality, reliability and validity assessments were conducted to validate the key constructs and one sample t-test was performed to test the hypotheses. The results indicated that service quality and customer satisfaction were at high degree in the electronic banking in Battticaloa district. The findings of this study assist the bank managers, academics and practitioners to develop and implement service quality and customer satisfaction related strategies in the electronic banking. Further, this study makes a contribution to the existing literature by comprehensively examining the notions of service quality and customer satisfaction in the electronic banking.

Integration of analytic network process with service measurement index framework for cloud service provider selection

Abstract: The growing popularity of cloud services has attracted large number of business organizations to enter into the cloud market. The varied availability of cloud service providers, for various services, leaves the cloud customers into skepticism. Service measurement index (SMI) framework, which is based on the analytic hierarchical process, is developed for the ranking of cloud services. As there are multiple dependencies among the criteria for the selection of cloud service provider, analytic hierarchical process formulation is not efficient. In the proposed work, analytic network process that captures the cloud service‐provider selection problem in a more realistic way is integrated in the ranking component of SMI framework. In this method, interactions among the criteria are used for the ranking of the cloud services. Few new criterions are also added into the existing SMI framework to make the framework more effective. A case study is conducted to analyze the proposed technique for the cloud provider selection.

Combined analysis of service expectations and perceptions in lodging industry through quality function deployment

Abstract: This study is the first empirical attempt of how quality function deployment (QFD) can be employed as a service quality design and improvement tool in the lodging industry. It combines two complementary perspectives of managers and customers regarding improving service quality in the lodging industry. This study empirically depicts a case where QFD was employed to design service delivery processes in the lodging industry, taking both customer demands and service provider expert knowledge and opinions. First, the dimensions concerning customer needs and expectations are tangibles, food, the adequate features of rooms and housekeeping, communication and accessibility, assurance and responsiveness, reliability, well-cared spaces, and equipment. Even though QFD has been used in the manufacturing industry, it has rarely been utilised in service design processes in the lodging industry. In this regard, this study has the potential to fill a perceived gap in the literature concerning methods to improve service q...