Quality improvement initiatives based on customer and service provider perspectives in shopping malls

Purpose: The purpose of this study is to optimize and improve service delivery configurations by integrating both customers’ and service providers’ perspectives into service delivery design processes using quality function deployment (QFD) methodology at shopping malls. Design/methodology/approach: QFD is used to determine and close the gap between the most important customer needs and expectations and the opinions of service providers using a unique platform. Findings: On customer side, the highest relative weight was given to “prompt response to customer concerns”, “not being crowded and loud”, “providing services for disabled customers” and “security of mall” customer expectations. On engineering side, “employees’ attributes, the size of parking area, reliable service, the time to find a product, the size of mall, disabled friendly infrastructure and the number of elevators and escalators” were determined to be the most important technical requirements. Originality/value: Integrating the voice of customer into the voice of engineering, this study is the first attempt to describe how QFD methodology could be used to holistically optimize service delivery configurations in the mall industry. Unlike conventional QFD that ignores the cost perspective, this study has implications for operations managers with regard to solving resource allocation problems.