A study of implications of ISO9001 on service quality of shopping malls

Abstract

This research is studying implications of ISO 9001 on shopping mall service quality. ISO 9001 has long been valued as one of the most popular certifications for quality management system in the world. It is a certification which is applicable to multiple industries, from government body to private company, to manage, control and improve organizational performance on quality. In Hong Kong, ISO 9001 is also widespread in different industries. Property management industry is one of the industries with many companies certified with ISO 9001 certifications. However, there are much news reported poor service quality provided by Hong Kong property management companies. Hence, it is interesting to know what does ISO 9001 help in service operation and service quality. In this research, questionnaire and semi-structured interview were used to collect data in order to explore three objectives: (1) To study effect of ISO 9001 on customer satisfaction, (2) To understand any aspect of service quality ISO 9001 quality management system helps to improve and (3) To investigate any common problem present in applying ISO 9001 quality management system on shopping mall service. Findings of this research suggested ISO 9001 does not significantly improve any attribute of shopping mall service quality. However, it is agreed ISO 9001 helps to set guideline and standardization of service operation. Furthermore, it was revealed in this research it is necessary to accompany any quality management system with other supports, such as reward system, training and adaptation of technology in order to make management system effective. To conclude, this research shows weakness of ISO 9001 on improving service quality of shopping mall in viewpoints of tenant and building attendant. Especially for views of building attendants, this research shows different comments of frontline employees from suggestions to ISO 9001 to common problem during implementations. Last but not least, property management industry should consider whether ISO 9001 should be only choice for quality management system in view of its induced workload and cost. Also, management of property management company should also consider opinions of frontline employees as they are highly involved in service delivery to tenant. Cocreation of service between frontline employee and tenant makes viewpoints of frontline employee vital to service management and quality.