Introduction

In the 1990s, the number of jobs in service organizations in industrialized countries such as the United States, France, Canada, Japan, and Great Britain increased from 60 to 80 percent. Several publications show how there has been a service-oriented shift in the economy, revealing that in 1984, for example, the service sector accounted for 66% of the US economy and 58% of that of the European Economic Community countries. In 1987, in Spain, the service sector accounted for 61.5% of the Gross Domestic Product (GDP); in 1993, in developed countries, services accounted for more than 60% of the GDP, with the sector generating the largest volume of employment (^{Grönroos, 1994}).

Already in the 21^st century, services account for 80% of the GDP in some countries. Paragraphs 1 and 2 describe in detail the composition of the economy in the 1990s, but do not make the same analysis of the current economy, which would highlight the general behavior or trend. It is important to support the growing behavior of the service-oriented economy with recent references.

This same behavior is manifested in less developed countries such as Cuba, Ecuador, Venezuela, Brazil, among others. This is why it is important to study the service systems and look for new ways to manage their servuction processes.

In a service company there are as many servuction models as there are services. In some service companies there are “traditional” servuction models with the intervention of the personnel and “automated” servuction models performed by the customer without having contact with the personnel. All of these have a common and, in general, unique element: the customer.

When we talk about production, we think of a factory and the manufacture of tangible goods. But is a service manufactured in the same way as any other good? The concept of service provides a particular vision of the management of companies, which is seen as the system of production of the service, that is, the visible part of the organization in which the services are produced, distributed, and consumed. This research aims to have this servuction approach.

The term “servuction” defines the process of service creation (^{Eigler and Langeard, 1989}). These French teachers conceptualize servuction as “the production of service”. It is the systematic and coherent organization of all the physical and human elements of the customer-company relationship necessary for the performance of a service whose commercial characteristics and quality levels have been determined.

Servuction is all the tools behind providing good service. It is, therefore, important to study service systems and look for new ways to manage their servicing processes.

What does it take to manufacture a service? In short, one could say that you need labor, a physical support, and a beneficiary, i.e., a customer (^{Eigler and Langeard, 1989}). For a simplified representation of a servuction system, the following elements are presented:

The great difference between the manufacture of a service and the manufacture of a product is that the customer is a fundamental component of the service system: they are both producers and consumers. Therefore, it is key to understand the sequence of the acts of participation in the service that the customer carries out to benefit from the service offered.

Under the paradigm of this approach, evaluation from the perspective of the customer plays a preponderant role, for which ^{Duque (2005)} states that perceived quality and its evaluation depend on the specific characteristics of the service, of the customers, and of the context in which they develop, then the concept of service to be evaluated and its characterization must be considered. This implies that, as the representatives of the European and American schools of quality Grönroos and Parasuramant affirm, the perceived quality of services is the best way to conceptualize quality in the field of services (^{Parra Ferié, 2009}). ^{Stefano, Casarotto, Filho, and Godoy (2010)} add that it is up to service providers to know the expectations of their customers in order to seek performance improvements that favor an always good perception, seeking to do research together with their customers in order to know and obtain continuous improvement, thus increasing the quality perceived by these customers.

In this sense ^{Briceño and García (2008)} argue that in the 21^st century the customer is increasingly demanding in terms of compliance with minimum criteria of quality of service and the rights as a user, because they receive more information and because the components of competitiveness of companies (adequate standards of quality, quantity, costs, and time in the provision of services) increase the supply in the market for services, which makes it necessary to take maximum care to achieve customer satisfaction as a strength in the management of service quality.

Another important aspect to take into account in the management of services is the identification and measurement of tangible and intangible elements, through the use of different models for measuring service quality. ^{Morillo Moreno et al. (2011)} address issues that are still valid and were defined by authors such as ^{Denton (1991)} and ^{Pride and Ferrel (1997)}, which raise the need to perform service quality measurement so that service providers know how their customers evaluate them.

The conceptual elements dealt with so far have a particular connotation in the foodservice processes, and it is necessary to look at them.

Foodservice activity can be summarized as the conversion of production factors (food, capital, work) through production and service, into products requested by a customer seeking consumption, satisfaction, and well-being (Cañizal, 1996 cited by ^{Cisneros Mustelier and Hechavarría Viera, 2011}). Consequently, Gómez (2006) proposes that it should be seen as a system that is comprised of three basic elements:

It should also be noted that foodservice is complex, even more so if you want to provide an efficient service and at the same time generate profits, thus it is necessary to have a management with clearly defined objectives and the importance of having qualified personnel, committed to the work that they perform (^{Cisneros Mustelier and Hechavarría Veira, 2011}).

It should be considered that two important elements converge in foodservice: the transformation of products for the preparation of the offer and the provision of the service, which are key processes because they are perceived by the customer and are the fundamental purpose of the organization (^{Espinosa, 2010}).

Authors such as ^{Betancourt Ramírez, Aldana de Vega, and Gómez Betancourt (2014)} address three important elements for the comparative study of the performance of family and non-family restaurants, which have similarities with the research conducted, such as:

Quality: It includes the presentation, handling, and state of the food. It takes into account the presentation of the dish and beverages, temperature, taste, food and-for some dishes-the term or point of cooking, and originality in the presentation.

The revised theoretical foundations allow the pertinence of the design of a procedure where it is possible to deploy the different stages that lead to the implementation of the concept of the new service, which will be discussed below.

Materials and methods

A cross-sectional or transversal correlational approach was applied for the development of the research, using scientific methods such as Analog, Induction-Deduction, and Analysis-Synthesis, through which the necessary information was gathered to arrive at the proposal of a methodological procedure for the design of servuction processes, taking into account the concept of the new service and its application in the field of foodservice.

Among the main techniques applied are the Delphi method for obtaining the attributes that characterize the restoration service process, Füller’s Triangle in pairwise comparison, and the Importance-Perceived Presence Matrix.

In the conception of the procedure it was taken into account that all the resources and energies of the company are dedicated to the realization of a service concept which is generally not formalized, as it evolves with time. It is, therefore, necessary to develop the formula of the new service.

Results

In order to arrive at the methodological procedure presented below, the formula of the new service was taken into consideration. It comprises five key decisions that are interested in the concept, segment, servuction, offer, and image (^{Hernández González, 2008}).

Determination of the variables or attributes of foodservice

For the study of the foodservice process it is necessary to define the variables or parameters that characterize it and that are valued by customers during its consumption.

Among the various methods for making unstructured decisions about a system of variables to characterize an attribute that is as intangible as the benefits sought by customers in the food and beverage process, the Delphi method is considered useful and relevant based on the following:

In the first round of the Delphi method analysis, the experts were presented with an initial list of variables in order to decide whether they were sufficient to define the benefits sought by consumers, or whether any needed to be added or modified

In the second round, the variables resulting from the previous round were listed and presented to the experts, who were asked to vote according to the established procedures, that is, mark with “1” those elements with which they agree and with “0” those with which they do not agree.

In this step, the concordance coefficient is calculated for each of the variables under study, using the following expression:

Where:

Cc: Concordance coefficient expressed as a percentage

Vn: Number of negative votes

Vt: Total number of votes

The variables that meet the condition of having a concordance coefficient greater than 0.7 are selected.

The analysis carried out by the experts is shown below:

The selected variables or attributes that characterize foodservice are:

Once the attributes were defined, the survey was applied to the customers. In it they had to weigh the level of importance they give to each attribute and the level of perceived presence, that is, the extent to which they perceive the presence of this attribute in the foodservice they consume.

The survey was designed based on a 5 point Likert scale that will be used to evaluate both Importance (1=Not Important, 2=Of Little Importance, 3=Moderately Important, 4=Important, and 5=Very Important) and the Degree of perceived presence (1=Not at all adequate, 2=Poorly adequate, 3=Moderately adequate, 4=Adequate, and 5=Very adequate), given that Diéguez Matellán (2009), Pérez Gosende (2009), and Carreras Iler (2011) refer to it as one of the most used scales in commercial investigations and it is considered to cover all the existing criteria.

The table below shows the applied instrument, which was checked for reliability and validity by measuring the Cronbach’s Alpha coefficients (α) and the Multiple Regression Coefficient (R²), respectively.

The values obtained with the use of the statistical package SPSS version 20.0 were: Cronbach’s Alpha equal to 0.941 and R² equal to 0.919, both values being higher than 0.70, demonstrating that the instrument is reliable and valid.

This survey is complemented with the Importance-Perceived Presence Matrix of the attributes of foodservice studied.

The proposal by ^{Mantilla and James (1977)} was the precursor to this matrix for the study of the image of tourist destinations. Shetna (1982) determined that the greater the difference between the importance given to an attribute and adequacy in a given product, the greater the dissatisfaction of the consumer towards the product and, therefore, the need to take corrective action.

It is a procedure that shows the relative importance of several attributes and their degree of perceived presence. In this way, the use of an analysis of this type can be of great help to those responsible for tourism management, since it facilitates the identification of aspects or attributes to which greater attention should be devoted, assigning them more resources and programs to improve.

The graphical representation is made on a coordinate axis, the origin of which is the mean value obtained for all attributes in terms of their importance and degree of perceived presence of the attribute, although the degree of perceived presence of the attribute can also be assigned a desired level. The data are presented in maps in which each attribute is located according to the value given to its importance and degree of perceived presence. The graphical representation of the data requires each attribute to be located in one of the four cells, facilitating a quick and visual evaluation of the attractive attributes of the object of study.

The results of the survey applied to a sample of customers of the Hotel under study are located in the Importance-Perceived Presence Matrix, thus being able to establish the priorities for the improvement in those attributes that are more important for the customers and that are less suitable, as shown in Figure 4.

Improvement actions to increase the perceived presence of these benefits in the process should focus on the benefits found in the quadrants: High Importance - High Degree of Perceived Presence (strengths of the process) and High Importance - Low Degree of Perceived Presence (critical points), as well as on the existing gap in each of them.

Key:

Similarly, it was possible to determine the existing gaps between what customers perceive (current state) and what they would like (desired state), which is shown in Figure 5.

For the surveyed customers of Hotel Playa Caleta, the previous graph shows that the total benefits sought considered in the study receive scores of the degree of perceived presence below their importance, that is, for this group of consumers the service offered by Food and Beverages business did not satisfy any of the benefits sought by them.

The benefits that have a negative gap between what the customer wants and what the customer currently perceives are shown in Table 3. In all cases there is a negative gap between the two states, which indicates that the customers are dissatisfied with each of the benefits sought.

Once the measurement of the perceived importance and degree of presence has been obtained, as well as the existing gap between the current state and the desired state of each benefit sought, will it be possible to define the opportunities for their improvement depending on the current position occupied. This could constitute an important point of support for decision-making related to the planning and execution of improvement actions to maintain or improve the current state at the desired level.

It can be observed in the matrix that the benefits located in the High Importance - High Degree of Perceived Presence quadrant are: quality of service, skills shown by personnel, ambiance/atmosphere of the place, and air conditioning. Even though the main strengths of the service are in this quadrant, it is necessary to highlight that all of these attributes or benefits have a score below “4” points and, in all cases, they are also perceived below the importance given to them. Therefore, they constitute the highest priority to improve the Food and Beverage service.

In the High Importance - Low Perceived Presence quadrant, the benefits are: quality-price ratio and variety, type of cuisine/specialty. The weaknesses of the service are identified here, which require special attention. Considering the results obtained from the analysis of the first quadrant, these attributes constitute the second priority.

In the Low Importance - Low Degree of Perceived Presence quadrant, the attributes are: physical characteristics of the facilities, communication and publicity of the product, and complementarity of wine services. Here are the attributes evaluated with a low degree of perceived presence and which have low priority for the customer.

In the Low-Importance - High Degree of Perceived Presence quadrant, the attributes are: type of service and service schedule. In these benefits the service has an irrelevant superiority, since the customer gives them little importance.

As a result of the analysis using the Importance-Degree of Perceived Presence Matrix used in the procedure, it was possible to visualize the strong points of the service from the perspective of the customers who consume it, as well as the critical points, as shown in Table 4.

The gap or opportunity for improvement for each benefit sought is also considered, which is a significant point of support for Hotel Playa Caleta in Varadero in making decisions related to the provision of its services in the Food and Beverage process.

The benefits that represent strong points for the services of the process, according to the aforementioned analysis, show a negative gap that demonstrate that despite the strong points in the service they constitute improvement opportunities for the same, with the objective of being able to fulfill the expectations of the customers, strengthening those benefits that have a better perception in relation to the rest of them.

In the case of the benefits that constitute weaknesses in the process, special attention must be paid to them since they represent the worst rated attributes by the customer and are those that most negatively influence the service provided by the hotel. According to the analysis carried out, the improvement actions to increase the perceived presence of these benefits in the process must focus on the benefits that are located in the quadrants of high importance - high degree of perceived presence (process strengths) and high importance - low degree of perceived presence (critical points), as well as on the gap existing in each of them.

The improvement program must be based on those benefits that are most important for the customers, and that obtain an adequate degree of perceived presence in order to maintain their main competitive strengths. Among these, the main ones to focus on are: benefits such as quality of service, skills shown by the personnel, ambience/atmosphere of the place, and air conditioning.

It is worth pointing out that although these benefits constitute the strengths of the process, the highest priority for improvement should be given to them, since, overall, they present a negative gap between the two states. The critical or weak points of the process (high importance - low degree of perceived presence quadrant) must be managed in the same way, since they represent the dissatisfaction level of the customers with a low degree of perceived presence in the benefits sought by them, which in order of priority are focused on: quality-price ratio and variety, type of cuisine/specialty.

The second stage of the procedure is to determine the Level of Service offered with the application of the method proposed by Conejero et.al. (2008) from the multiplication of the weight or degree of importance of the attributes and their evaluation by the customer. To determine the weight or degree of importance of the attributes, paired comparison methods such as Füller’s Triangle, Expert Choice, among others, can be applied. In order to do this, it was first necessary to determine the weight of each criterion according to the experts, applying the Modified Füller’s Triangle.

To carry out this pairwise comparison, a criterion-criterion matrix is elaborated, where the preferences are obtained in each pair of criteria (1 means that criterion i is more important than criterion j).

The following table shows the respective values and the subjective weight resulting from each criterion:

After finding the weight of each criterion it was concluded that the order of importance is as follows:

Once the weight has been determined, the frequency of each of the criteria is calculated using SPSS software version 20.0 to determine the score or evaluation of the attribute, as shown below:

Once the necessary values are known, the Service Level is calculated, obtaining a level of service offered of 70% which, when compared with the standards established by the chain (92.25%) for a 4-star Hotel, is 22.25% below.

The attributes that most affect the obtained result and that must be considered to decrease their impact are:

According to the analysis carried out, and in order to achieve an improvement in the Food and Beverage processes, the improvement actions to increase the perceived presence of the attributes in the process must focus on the benefits located in the High importance - High degree of perceived presence (Process strengths) and High importance - Low degree of perceived presence (Critical points) quadrants of the matrix analyzed above, as well as on the gap existing in each of them, which reflect how far it is from fulfilling the desires of the customer.

The improvement program must be in function of those benefits that are most important for the customers, and that obtain an adequate degree of perceived presence with the objective of maintaining their main competitive strengths; among them are benefits such as: service quality, skills shown by the personnel, ambience/atmosphere of the place, and air conditioning.

It is worth noting that although these benefits constitute the strengths of the process, the highest priority for improvement should be given to them, since they present a negative gap between the two states overall. The critical or weak points of the process must be managed in the same way, since they represent the level of dissatisfaction of the customers with a low degree of perceived presence in the benefits sought by them. These are, in order of priority: quality-price ratio and variety, type of cuisine/specialty, containing a gap of -1.9 and -1.98, respectively. Based on the diagnosis and analysis of the situation, the entity must propose an improvement plan that addresses the problems encountered.

Discussion

Service systems in their complexity comprise several types of services (base, base derivatives, and peripheral) in which decisions are made around the costumer. Decisions concerning the services of each of the elementary services lead to the quality of the overall service, where servuction is defined as the creative process of elaborating a service.

For the correct design of a servuction process it is necessary to have carried out a study of the attributes that must be present in the service provided, which are evaluated by the customers; this analysis makes it possible to obtain the gaps or deviations in relation to the presence perceived by them and which must be incorporated into the improvement plan of said process.

It is pertinent to apply the new service formula in foodservice, which comprises five key decisions that focus on concept, segment, servuction, offer, and image, all of which have a direct impact on the level of service offered.

Conclusions

There is a growing theoretical-conceptual basis on the management of foodservice, however there are still spaces for theoretical and practical research in relation to the application of the servuction approach as a way to achieve a better performance of the entities that provide it.

The previous studies consulted supported the relevance of the research carried out and the need to design a methodological procedure for the study of foodservice processes, which integrates different approaches to service management such as quality, servuction, marketing, and processes, with the implementation of the new concept of service being possible.

Based on the work with experts and the application of the Delphi method, it was possible to determine the 11 attributes that characterize the process of foodservice, through which it was possible to determine the level of presence of these and their incidence in the quality perceived by customers.

It was possible to determine the level of service offered with a value of 70% from the multiplication of the weight or degree of importance of the attributes and their evaluation by the customer. To this end, it was necessary to determine the weight of each criterion according to the experts, applying the Modified Füller Triangle. This Service Level value is 22.25% below the chain standard for a 4-star hotel, highlighting the shortcomings detected.

The analysis of the results of the assessment by the customers regarding the level of importance and the degree of perceived presence of the attributes of the foodservice that they have consumed was complemented with the application of the Importance-Degree of Perceived Presence Matrix, which made it possible to establish priorities for improvement in those attributes that are most important for the customers and that are less adapted.