This contribution conducts a mini review of the topic Providing 4P's in Extraordinary Management Services in Whatever Weather Condition on the paper written by Kwan et al. (2019).

Using the services management in Park Island, Hong Kong, as a case study, the purpose is to focus on illustrating the significance of providing 4P’s “Proactive, Protective, Professional and Passionate” in extraordinary management services in whatever weather condition and on whenever situation.

Design/methodology/approach: This paper used the Super Typhoon Mangkhut in September 2018 in Park Island, Hong Kong, as a case study to illustrate the professionalism exhibited in Park Island Management Services Limited. The deep thoughts and feelings from residents were quoted and analyzed. Authors conducted twenty-five in-depth semi-structured interviews.

Findings: The inspiring real-life experiences from respondents who have been living in Park Island were quoted. It has been reflecting the “PARK ISLAND" spirit and demonstrating the significance of professionalism and extraordinary service performance for crisis management after super typhoon Mangkhut signal No. 10 were hoisted. Providing 4P’s “Proactive, Protective, Professional and Passionate” in extraordinary management services in whatever weather condition and on whenever situation can gain the trust, respect, appreciation and gratitude from residents to professional property management practitioners.

Practical implications: Based on the insights gained from interviewees, providing 4P’s – “Proactive, Protective, Professional and Passionate” in extraordinary management  services in whatever weather condition and on whenever occasion can exceed residents’ expectations and enhance the reputation of the property management company.

Originality/value: This paper urges for the fundamental service philosophy and attitude exhibited from the property management practitioners to deal with crisis management during the adverse weather condition.

Keywords: Services Management, Service Performance, Service Attitude.

SIGNIFICANCE/IMPLICATIONS FOR THEORY AND PRACTICE

               The requirement for high standard of service quality in management has grown through the years because customers have become more demanding in an increasingly competitive business environment. In addition, due to the multidimensional characteristic of customers that in turn will be influenced by culture, subculture, social class, family, friends, educational backgrounds, religion, experiences, mass media, social media and advertising. In this regard, it is very challenging to manage the diversified customers with different needs and expectations.

               Despite all the challenges for both the management and frontline staff of management are facing, the staff had demonstrated the motto of “WE SERVE YOU BEST!” While the most impressive thing was that they provided services from their hearts which is the golden rule and fundamental philosophy to win the trust, appreciation and respect from residents’ bottom of their hearts. They have been providing 4P’s – “Proactive, Protective, Professional and Passionate” in extraordinary management services in whatever weather condition and on whenever occasion!

               This study intends to examine and analyze how to strengthen extraordinary management services for practitioners as they are under the challenges of managing customers’ expectations in whatever weather conditions and on whenever occasions that will supplement existing research and expand the findings into untapped areas. The value of this study is that it helps to answer questions concerning how to strengthen extraordinary management services performances in whatever critical weather conditions for management practitioners.

LITERATURE REVIEW

According to Mahatma Gandhi (Nair, 2009), the father of India, “A customer is the most important visitor on our premises; he is not dependent on us. We are dependent on him. He is not an interruption in our work. He is the purpose of it. He is not an outsider in our business. He is part of it. We are not doing him a favor by serving him. He is doing us a favor by giving us an opportunity to do so”. Although Mahatma Gandhi was not the father of marketing, he was the father of India and his wisdom and insight from this statement can still be applied in services management.

In the service industry like property management, quality and perception of quality is essential. Service quality is an abstract and elusive concept because of the well-known distinctive natures and characteristics of services which is intangibility, perishability, heterogeneity and inseparability of production and consumption (Zeithaml et al., 1985; Rust et al., 1996; Kotler & Armstrong, 2001). Thus, quality can vary from person to person and from situation to situation (Kandampully, 2002).

Perceived service quality was defined as the difference between customer expectations and perceptions or also known as gap analysis (Parasuraman et al., 1985 & 1988). The gap analysis model is based on the expectancy disconfirmation theory. Expectancy disconfirmation theory predicts that customers will judge that quality is low if performance does not meet their expectations and quality increases as performance exceeds expectations (Oliver, 1993). Hence, customers’ expectations serve as the foundation on which service quality will be evaluated by customers. In addition, as service quality increases, satisfaction with the service and intentions to reuse the service increase.

METHODOLOGY AND RESEARCH METHODS

Research on service quality contributions has traditionally employed a variety of deductive processes, testing a plethora of hypotheses and pre-determined theories. Service quality researchers have typically approached the problem from a positivist perspective, utilizing quantitative research techniques such as surveys and questionnaires and processing data with the help of statistical data analysis tools. While mostly deductive in nature, such research tools tend to measure a set of predetermined hypotheses, searching for answers to the “what” questions and not allowing for any additional factors to enter the researcher’s process of reasoning (Yin, 1994). Participants in the events context have been shown to demonstrate a multitude of contributions and it is very likely that their attitudes, behaviors, perceptions and experiences of service quality differ. In order to gain a degree of emotional depth, which is not possible to achieve simply by analyzing quantitative data, a qualitative research approach has been chosen as a more appropriate research strategy. Qualitative research is considered to be “concerned with understanding things rather than with measuring them” (Gordon & Langmaid, 1988, p. 2), whereby the “subjectivity and the authenticity of human experience” (Silverman, 2010, p. 138) allows the researcher to gain an insight into the different meanings, perceptions, feelings and attitudes of research subjects (Holloway et al., 2010; Veal, 2006).

The setting for the present study was the management performance in Park Island, Hong Kong. The sample group comprised 10 female and 15 male respondents, all aged 31-50. Their education levels were all postgraduate.

Data collection took place in Park Island. The researcher undertook one-to-one in-depth semi-structured interviews lasting approximately 40-60 min, at a nearby café. Participants were given information about the purpose of the study and written consent was obtained. Topics and questions were designed to elicit responses regarding each participant’s attitude, feelings, perceptions and views towards management services. Further questions and prompts were included to enquire their feelings, perceptions and attitudes for the services they have experienced. The interviews were digitally recorded and summaries were written up. Responses were analyzed using manual coding, scanning the recordings and flagging emergent themes and common views (Veal, 2006). Finally, the results were grouped into similar conceptual areas according to prevalent themes.

FINDINGS AND DISCUSSION

Super Typhoon Mangkhut has been the highest typhoon warning issued and the most intense storm in Hong Kong’s history caused a record storm surge, uprooted some 1,500 trees and left hundreds of windows smashed all over the city (SCMP, 2018). Typhoon Mangkhut has strong winds smashed through and destroyed many of Park Island’s facilities and a vast number of trees. Regardless the extreme adverse weather condition, I am very grateful that the frontline staff of the Park Island Management Service Office had stayed in their posts professionally despite the typhoon signal Number 10’s hoisting. No transport was available in and out and over 100 staffs had worked for 36 h continuously. The inspiring real-life experiences from respondents who are living in Park Island are quoted. It has been demonstrating the significance of service quality for crisis management after super typhoon Mangkhut signal No. 10 was hoisted. The management and frontline staffs were fearless to the storm and put their great endeavor to keep performing all their duties no matter big or small to ensure the safety and security of residents in critical moments.

Customers expect efficient and professional attitudes to handle tasks and humanistic and hearty attitudes to handle customers’ safety and feelings. The real case below illustrates the importance of performing 4Ps.

“Proactive, Protective, Professional and Passionate” property management services in whatever weather condition and on whenever Occasion. Such services were especially important in the recovery process just when super typhoon Mangkhut signal No. 10 was cancelled.

“Mr. Matthew Chan, Assistant Manager of Park Island, had shown his "PARK-I” services which means “Passionate, Attentive, Responsive, Kind" and "I can do my best" attitude and assistance to my sister Amy and her baby to be born in Park Island. After hoisting Super Typhoon Mangkhut Signal No. 10 in mid-September 2018, Amy found broken windows and water seepage from defective external walls outside four rooms. She felt angry to see those defects after spending huge amount of money moving from one flat to another flat just for waiting to welcome her baby to be born to move in. She has renovated the new apartment in order to provide the best living condition for her baby. At that moment, she was pregnant for 29 weeks. She was very worried as time for her pregnancy’s due day was approaching. Luckily, we are grateful to Mr. Matthew Chan to handle this incident closely. He checked this incident carefully in person with a technician. We felt amazing that Mr. Matthew Chan had handled the quotation procedures for appointing and monitoring the contractor in an extremely efficient and effective manner. We are very grateful to his professional, prompt and passionate attitude. He has shown concern not only for the safe building conditions of the external walls, but also for the safety and health of Amy and her baby to be born. As Ma Wan is a restricted zone and traffic control has been applied 24 hours every day, taxi is not permitted to access to Block 5 area even in emergency conditions that were strictly regulated by the Transport Department. We reserved a medical service at Union Hospital, a private hospital in Tai Wai for Amy's baby delivery. We did not prefer calling ambulance as it would send Amy to public hospital. Thus, we sent an email to raise our concern to Mr. Matthew Chan again. Whereas, we were very delighted to receive Mr. Matthew Chan's prompt email reply with a detail table to list out various ways to depart from Park Island to Union Hospital. He analyzed the pros and cons of every transportation options in a restricted time period clearly. He is so attentive and dedicated to follow our inquiries no matter big or small issues in a thoughtful manner.

“We appreciate not only for his efficient and professional attitude to handle task, but also for his humanistic and hearty attitude to handle customers' safety and feelings in such sincere manners. Matthew Chan is so caring to follow up the external walls and my health condition; he always speaks in a very caring tone. He came to resident’s apartment to check the repairing progress in a very attentive and responsible way. He explained to my father in law patiently. He did final checking to ensure the standard of the repaired external walls”.

“I am so grateful for Mr. Matthew Chan 's caring manner extended to me as well as his highly efficient post- crisis management after Super Typhoon Mangkhut Signal No. 10 was hoisted that damaged many facilities in apartments and public areas. On behalf of my baby to be born and my husband, we would like to let Mr. Matthew Chan know how much we appreciate and are grateful for his passionate and professional assistance”.

Customers appreciate not only for the handling of this single case after Super Typhoon Mangkhut Signal No. 10 was hoisted, but also for all his great efforts paid in managing facilities under whatever weather conditions and on whenever situations. Most importantly, he strives the best to meet customers' need and exceed customers' expectations in such a heart-warming way. His action demonstrated that property management is not just focusing on functional, technical and image issues, but also for taking care of residents’ psychological conditions such as feelings and emotions.

CONCLUSION AND RECOMMENDATIONS

To conclude, providing 4P’s ~ “Proactive, Protective, Professional and Passionate” in extraordinary management services and demonstrating the spirit of "PARK ISLAND” in whatever condition and on whenever occasion has been demonstrated in Park Island’s case.

Based on the above case study, we learnt that the extraordinary service performance is not just performed in a single case under specific occasions. It is all about providing continuous services from the hearts of management staff throughout the years in whatever fine or adverse weather conditions, on whenever calm or challenging moments, in ordinary or special days. The dedicated efforts to provide extraordinary services in 24 h, 7 days in a week, 365/366 days in a year are appreciated.

RECOMMENDATIONS TO SERVICES MANAGEMENT COMPANIES

·         To provide regular training to enhance crisis management.

·         To strengthen and nurture a caring organizational culture to all services representative from their hearts.

·         To conduct monthly sharing sessions to strengthen the mutual support among team members.

·         To continue providing 4P’s – “Proactive, Protective, Professional and Passionate” in extraordinary management services in whatever weather condition and on whenever occasion.

LIMITATIONS

Like all research, this study has several limitations which the authors attribute to the relative weakness of interviews to present valid, reliable and trustworthy empirical evidence. Consequently, it is recognized that the results of this study present a snapshot of thoughts and feelings amongst the residents in Park Island. Although the authors make no claims regarding the generalization of the results, this study has indicated a concentration of the service quality of management in Park Island. This finding should be of interest to management companies which strive to provide quality management services to exceed customers’ expectations.

FUTURE RESEARCH

This study provides several directions for future research. Work can focus on identifying the barriers to implementing programs of service quality as well as customers’ satisfaction and ways to overcome those barriers. In addition, efforts should be made to narrow down the gap of perceptions between customers and property managers. Also, future research should also go beyond the dimensions investigated in this research to include other dimensions of quality, particularly culture which may be challenging in a multiracial country. Lastly, future research can also explore new techniques that provide meaningful insights into service quality and customers’ satisfaction in crisis management.

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