Diverse teaching methods help IFTM Chinese-medium undergraduates learn about service quality
Service quality management is an essential element across a variety of consumer-facing industries, from retailing, to hospitality, tourism, and event planning. The Chinese-language stream of IFTM’s Tourism Event Management Bachelor’s Degree Programme dedicates an entire course to the subject, aiming to help students understand the importance of service provision being consistent throughout an organisation, and being able to meet customer requirements.
The course on Service Quality Management is led by IFTM adjunct faculty member Mr. Geraldo Tou, and is offered to Year 4 students. Mr. Tou makes use of a broad range of teaching techniques, that combine in-class teaching of academic theories with hands-on assignments, in order to stimulate teamwork and promote critical thinking among students. He employs activities such as debates, role-play assignments, field trips and on-site observation, to give undergraduates opportunities to apply in practice what they have learnt in the classroom.
The Chinese-language stream of IFTM’s Tourism Event Management Bachelor’s Degree Programme is presented via evening classes, which attracts many working adults to enrol. The work experience these students bring with them enriches in-class discussions, adding, in particular, value to the Service Quality Management course.
In the second semester of academic year 2021/2022, students enrolled on the course were requested to take on a debate project, followed by a stint as ‘mystery shoppers’ via what is known as a ‘retail walk-through audit’.
Part way through the course, Mr. Tou also invited the students to complete a questionnaire. This was in order for him to better grasp their expectations for the remainder of the course, and to gather suggestions to improve course content in future. Their opinions helped him design a role-play activity, covering several dimensions of service quality.
Love for lifelong learning
Mak Kin I (Mark) was one of the undergraudates attending the Service Quality Management course in the second semester of academic year 2021/2022. He graduated from IFTM’s Tourism Event Management Bachelor’s Degree Programme shortly after completing the course.
Mark is a seasoned casino industry professional. He expected the Service Quality Management course would help him to improve his approach to casino-related services.
Besides his professional experience, Mark brought to the class a wealth of academic knowledge. He had previously completed a bachelor’s degree in business administration, as well as several diploma programmes and some professional courses.
“I like learning,” he says. “It is more about company policy regarding employees’ qualifications when we link our studies to work. But my aim for doing this programme at IFTM was not for job-related promotion, but for refreshing my knowledge base, and for learning new things.”
Mark says the Service Quality Management course was very interesting. “There were theories that we had heard about or come across, but didn’t have much practice with. In class, we had opportunities to better understand them.”
He highlights the debate project as “very valuable”. One half of the class argued in favour, and the other half against, a question on service quality management proposed by Mr. Tou.
Liu Feng (Marston) was a classmate of Mark on the course. Marston, an experienced professional working in maintenance for the aviation sector, also recently graduated from IFTM’s Tourism Event Management Bachelor’s Degree Programme.
“I previously had studied in a science- and engineering-related programme, but I am also interested in arts and tourism,” he says. Prior to enrolling on the bachelor’s degree programme at IFTM, Marston completed a few short-term courses at the Institute, related respectively to tourist guide services and wine studies. The experiences led him to conclude that course content and lecturer qualifications at IFTM were of high quality. So, he decided to opt for a bachelor’s degree programme at the Institute.
Marston realised a lot had changed since his previous stint as an undergraduate, namely in the fields of management and human resources, with new theories now mainstream, and others having significantly been reviewed.
The Service Quality Management course proved to be “useful in every aspect” of his current work. While day-to-day workplace activity regarding service quality management varies from sector to sector, “when we manage the basics, the principles can be applied to different industries to enhance service quality,” he says.
Marston states he appreciated Mr. Tou’s approach of using hands-on assignments to allow students to master abstract concepts. “Group discussions, role-play assignments, debates and other kinds of project easily arouse interest in students,” he says, helping them to understand what could otherwise be seen as “unappealing” topics.
Innovative ideas
One assignment was a retail walk-through audit with mystery shopper element. Undergraduates had to visit a selected business and complete a service quality survey on it. They also had to offer comment on the overall service experience at the outlet, and propose suggestions about how to improve it in future.
One all-male group of students decided to research the service quality in a women’s clothing shop. The idea was supported by course leader Mr. Tou, who appreciated the students’ creativity and their innovative approach.
According to one of the students in the group, Lei Ka Hou (Beebu), many stereotypes regarding retailing no longer hold true. For instance, it is now common for toy shops to have adult customers buying items for themselves. “So, a man going into a women’s clothes boutique to buy a piece of clothing for a female friend is something very normal too.”
“It was only an assignment, but we wanted to do something interesting,” Beebu adds. “We wanted to know Macao’s retail situation, namely whether men would be treated in an odd or unnatural way when shopping in stores selling clothing products for women.”
The group members drafted a list of things on which to quiz the salesperson. They included the cut and material used in clothing items, whether they were suitable for work or casual wear, and the return and exchange policies of the shop. Beebu and fellow group member Chang Io Tong (Tai Hei) were tasked with going into the shop and evaluating the quality of the services provided.
According to Tai Hei, the questions the group prepared were focused on product quality and service, not really about fashion. “However, we thought that the salesperson should actively provide information on this area as well, as a retail interaction is a 2-way communication.”
Tai Hei points out that service as a concept has grown in scope, as online shopping is becoming more prevalent within the retailing sector as a whole. “There may not be instant service, in traditional terms, in online retailing, but when we consider every procedure of it – from customers submitting their orders, to the products arriving in their hands – there is service involved in every step, and in every communication” between retailer and customer”, he says.
