Service Quality Assessment of Beauty Salons in

Batong Malake, Los Baos Using Importance

Performance Analysis
Patricia Bianca R. Asis
Christian B. Balanquit
Aldous Kim C. Bartolome
Phebe Marie A. Mercado
*
Department of Industrial Engineering, College of Engineering and Agro-Industrial Technology,
University of the Philippines Los Baos
IE 191 - V

Abstract- A beauty salon is a business that provides
services for both men and women through
beautification of their hair, nails or skin. This study
aims to evaluate the service quality provided by
beauty salons at Batong Malake, Los Baos,
Laguna using Importance Performance Analysis
(IPA). An online survey was conducted with 152
respondents through convenience sampling. The
questionnaire consist of _ service attrbutes rated
based on importance and performance. The mean
ratings of each feature was obtained and plotted
against the four quadrants of IPA matrix.
Concentrate Here is the main focus of the study
where service features with high importance but
low performance rating are located. It was
determined that availability of service information,
promptness of service, availability of internet
connection and parking space must be improved.
I. INTRODUCTION
their age. In another online article by SBDCNet, there
is an increase in the number of male customers in the
past years [2]. Also from the survey conducted, around
44.1 percent of the customers of the salons near UPLB
are males. The result shows that the number of men
that go to salons does not differ greatly on the number
of female customers. With this, beauty salons
expanded their target market to male young adults.
In Los Baos, Laguna, it is observed that
there is a booming economy specifically in the areas
near the University of the Philippines Los Baos
(UPLB). With the presence of the university,
establishments increased in number. Since the
population of the university is mainly students in their
teenage years and also young adults, areas near it is a
good avenue for beauty salons which is evident with
the number of beauty salons in the area. With this, the
study wanted to determine the service quality of the
beauty salons near the area.

A. Background of the Study According to a study conducted in Dhaka by

A beauty salon is an establishment that
provides services for hair, nails, and skin. These
services are offered to both men and women. For hair
services, these include hair cutting, styling, and
dyeing. Manicures and pedicures are offered for the
nails. Often, these salons provide other services such
as facials, makeup, and makeover.
Currently, the demand for these services
increased which in turn has also increased the number
of beauty salons. In 2012, according to Nancy Wagner,
men and women from 35 to 65 years old rarely go to
salons [1]. They contribute the least to the income of
these service firms. Nowadays, salons' target market
are teens and young adults which has the highest
demand for cosmetic services especially the women of
Khan and Tabassum (2011), the service quality of a
service industry can be measured by comparing the
importance of the dimensions of quality that should be
provided by the firm to the actual experience of the
customer [3]. Khan and Tabassum identified 18
attributes and these are:
environment (lighting, ventilation, space)
cleanliness of beauty salon
completeness of equipment/materials
completeness of facilities
accuracy of service
promptness of service
knowledge of executives/employees
behavior of executives/employees, safety
accessibility
 advertisement/promotions
hygiene of beauty salon
availability of support facilities (comfort
room)
service information
consistency of service
quality of service
safety
An initial survey and interview from
beauticians around Batong Malake is conducted and
suggestions from the interview and survey results
showed that attributes like: value for money, variety of
service, availability of wireless connection,
availability of security cameras and availability of
parking space are the determining attributes to be
considered as well. A total of 23 service attributes are
assessed in the study. Most of these changes can be
attributed to the technological advances through the
years that are not accounted for in Khan and
Tabassums study. Moreover, for the beauty salons in
near UPLB, the service attributes for evaluation are
subdivided into categories, as indicated in the study of
Khan and Tabassum, namely: ambiance and
environment, the service itself, general measures such
as accessibility and value for money, support facilities,
and the employees and executives of the beauty salon.
With the use of questionnaires, the
satisfaction of the customers to the current service
quality of these salons are evaluated which is shown in
Table 1.1.1.
Table 1. Service attributes and the corresponding average
satisfaction rating
Average
Attribute
Satisfaction
Ambiance and environment 4.2304
Service 3.8435
General Service Measure 3.7826
Support Facilities 2.8283
Employees and Executives 3.772
Average 3.6913
Currently, the customers of beauty salons
near UPLB has an average of 73.83 percent
satisfaction rating. This shows that the current service
quality of these establishments can still be improved.
Moreover, with the survey results, about 59.9 percent
of the customers are not a regular which supports the
claim that there are still improvements that should be
done for a better service quality.
B. Research Problem
The number of beauty salons within Batong
Malake can satisfy both the customer and their
demands with the services they provide. The
satisfaction that the customers gain from them are
attained through the variety of services they offer,
comfort and cleanliness of the salon, ambience of the
environment, output and behavior of employees
among others. Although these factors are a standard to
most, if not all, salons within Batong Malake, they do
not guarantee the same quality of service. The
performance per salon differ through different
variables that may prove either positively or
negatively significant to the quality of service with
respect to the output of the salon. Thus, this study
addresses the following research questions:
1. How is the performance of each factor
affecting the quality of service the salon provides
within the customers perspective?
2. How important are each of the factors based
on the customers demands?
The answer to these questions play a role in
determining the features that customers look for in a
salon, to assess the service quality of said area, and to
provide improvements and recommendations to the
beauty salons services.
C. Objectives of the Study
The general objective of this study is to evaluate
the service quality of beauty salons in Batong Malake,
Los Baos using importance-performance analysis.
Specifically, it aims to:
1. assess the importance of different service
attributes to customers preference;
2. measure service quality level and the extent
of customer satisfaction;
3. identify the different critical-to-quality
service characteristics; and
4. provide recommendations for the
improvement of services offered by the
existing beauty salons.
D. Significance of the Study
The growing number of beauty-conscious women
and men, and their demand for variety of beauty
services cater to the growth and importance of this
industry. This increase in the demand for beauty
services can be attributed to the high perception of
society towards beauty nowadays. And in order to
grow and remain competitive in businesses like beauty
salon, service quality and customer satisfaction are
two important concepts that must be understood. The
increasing customer sophistication has led to the
higher demand of standards in business.
This study will help beauty salons have an idea on
the factors customers look for in an ideal salon,
provide a customer satisfaction rating in the different
beauty salon service attributes of their salon, and give
them an idea of their strengths and weaknesses. This
will help the management to pay attention on the
critical service attributes/dimensions as a part of their
service management. Moreover, this will give them an
idea on how sensitive customers are to various service
attributes or dimensions. Likewise, the company will
have an idea on where to allocate their resources in a
way that is consistent with customer priorities which
can enhance the effectiveness of their service
operations. This will provide a standard for their
services and equipment availability, environment and
ambience, employee behavior, and security, in order
to make modifications possible. Therefore, satisfying
the customers through higher quality services can
result to sustainable advantages like higher customer
satisfaction, customer loyalty and retention, reduced
cost and profitability.
As the beauty-care sector remained almost
unexplored in Philippines in terms of research, this
study can help researchers in establishing a method of
evaluating beauty salon performance
E. Scope and Limitation
This study focuses on measuring the performance
of various beauty salons situated in Batong Malake,
Los Baos, Laguna based on the importance of its
current standard features to the customers and their
perceived performance of each. Generally, the service
quality of the beauty salons is assessed through
importance-performance analysis. The respondents of
this study are UPLB students and people who reside in
Los Baos who has experienced going to a beauty
salon anywhere in Batong Malake. Additionally,
convenience sampling and a sample size with a margin
of error of 10% was used.
II. CONCEPTUAL BACKGROUND
Known for its simplicity and ease of
application, importance-performance analysis (IPA) is
a widely accepted method for developing marketing
strategies by examining customer satisfaction and
management strategies. It provides criteria for optimal
categorization of IPA framework elements while
testing its validity and reliability. The objective of IPA
is to identify which factors or combination of factors
contribute more on customer satisfaction which leads
to repetitive customer purchase behavior. This
information will help the company evaluate their
competitive position as well as prioritize available
strategies to improve customer satisfaction.
As observed in Fig 1, the four quadrants of
the IPA is divided by the importance attribute in
vertical axis and performance of attribute in horizontal
axis. The keep up the good work quadrant indicates
that such attribute is being valued by the customers
and that they are satisfied with its performance, thus
must be maintained and exploited to achieve
maximum benefits. The concentrate here means that
the company fails to perform the attribute that the
customers think is critical to the service. Immediate
action must be done to address this to increase the
companys level of competitiveness. Low priority
indicates that the attribute has low importance and low
performance. Although it means that the attribute is
underperforming, no action is needed to improve it
since customers do not consider it as important to the
service. Possible overkill, however, are attributes
that has excellence performance but do not actually
essential as seen by customers. This can also be a
source for improvement since the resources used in
this attribute can be reallocated to other attributes
which need more attention.
 Figure 1. Importance Performance Matrix

Another tool used in the study is the Likert attributes to be considered in picking a beauty salon to
Scale. It is a tool used to scale the responses of the go to. Hence, the survey questionnaire was revised
sample population. The answers to the survey ranges according to suggestions and interview of the initial
from 1 to 5 which corresponds to not important and respondents. The final categories considered in the
important or unsatisfactory and satisfactory. From study are (1) Ambiance and Environment of the
this, the users perception on the importance and Beauty Salon, (2) Service itself, (3) General Measures
performance of the identified attributes are evaluated. such as accessibility and value for money, (4) Support
Facilities and (5) The Employees and Executives of
III. METHODOLOGY the Beauty Salon. The final list of the service attributes
are:
The study is conducted in the beauty salons
along Batong Malake, Los Baos. It started from May A. Ambiance and Environment
5 until May 15, 2017. A gantt chart of the study is
shown in Figure 2. Lighting of the beauty salon
Space Adequacy
In the study, Importance-Performance Ventilation of the beauty salon
Analysis was used to assess the service quality of Cleanliness of the beauty salon
Beauty Salons in Batong Malake, Los Baos. The
Overall ambiance and environment of the
categories and features of service quality attributes are
beauty salon
determined based from the previous study of Khan and
Tabassum (2011) which are: environment (lighting, B. Service
ventilation, space), cleanliness of beauty salon,
completeness of equipment/materials, completeness Quality of Service
of facilities, accuracy of service, promptness of Variety of Service
service, knowledge of executives/employees, behavior Availability of service information
of executives/employees, safety, accessibility, Accuracy of Service
advertisement/promotions, hygiene of beauty salon,
Consistency of Service
availability of support facilities (comfort room),
Promptness of Service
service information, consistency of service, quality of
service and safety. An initial survey and interview C. General Measures
from beauticians were conducted. Initially, only 30
beauty salon customers were asked to answer the Value for Money
survey form which only includes the variables and Accessibility of the beauty salon
attributes from Khan and Tabassum. Then, the result
Completeness of the facilities
of the initial survey was gathered and results were
Completeness of the Equipment
analyzed. Respondents answered that: value for
money, variety of service, availability of wireless Promotions and Advertisement of beauty
connection, availability of security cameras and salon
availability of parking space are relevant service Safety
 Hygiene of beauty salon (in general) Performance. Each element was analyzed to come up
with solutions appropriate to the service industry.
D. Support Facilities
III. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION
Availability of Wifi/Internet Connection
Availability of Security Cameras The importance and performance rating of
Parking Adequacy beauty salons in Batong Malake, Los Baos, Laguna
Availability of Comfort Rooms was obtained from customers of beauty salons in the
area. Beauty salon services were classified into five
E. Employees and Executives attributes such as ambiance and environment of the
beauty salon, general service, general measures such
Behavior of Employees/Executives as accessibility and value for money, support facilities
Knowledge of Employees/Executives and the employees and executives of the beauty salon.
Under each attribute are service characteristics that
Online Survey Form through Google Forms can affect the perception of the students to the service
was used in order to determine the assessment of the provided by beauty salons in Batong Malake, Los
customers regarding the importance and the current Baos, Laguna.
performance of the mentioned factors. Convenient
Sampling was used to determine the samples or The first attribute is the ambiance and
respondents for the study. The researchers have environment of beauty salon. The mean of the
determined UPLB students and faculties as the importance and satisfaction rating are summarized in
respondents, because of the limited time and resources Table 2. The quadrant where those service
to conduct the project. From the start (May 5) until the characteristics will fall is also shown in the table.
last day (May 15) of the study, 152 number of
respondents answered the online survey. The required Table 2. Importance-performance rating of the ambiance and
environment of beauty salons in Batong Malake, Los Baos,
number of sample size is determined using the formula Laguna and the corresponding quadrant of each factor.
for large and unknown population as shown in Categories, Attributes, Importa Perform Quadr
Equation 1. Variables nce ance ant
Mean Mean

A. Ambiance and 4.4883 3.8359
=( 2
)2 (Equation 1) Environment

A.1. Lighting of the 4.2759 4.0759 I
The margin of error is 10% and confidence level of beauty salon
90% due to time and resource constraints. The A.2. Space Adequacy 4.3862 3.9931 I
standard deviation is set at 0.5, which is according to
Qualtrics an assumption for unknown and large
A.3. Ventilation of the 4.6276 3.0483 II
populations. [4] The computed required sample size is beauty salon
68.
A.4. Cleanliness of the 4.7379 3.9931 I
beauty salon
In the online survey, 5 point Likert scale was
used. Each category consists of sub questions in the A.5. Overall ambiance 4.4138 4.0690 I
survey. First, the importance of the factors was rated and environment of the
from 1 to 5, 5 being the most important. Then, the beauty salon
performance of the establishments was also rated from
1 to 5, 5 being very satisfied, with the same set of Based from the results of the survey, the
questions. The questions used in the online survey is importance rating of service characteristics under
presented in Appendix A. ambiance and environment is. 4.4883, which is
equivalent to 89.8% importance rating. All of the
The data collected in the survey was plotted service characteristics under the ambiance and
into the Importance-Performance Matrix having four environment attribute obtained an importance rating
Quadrants. These 4 quadrants specifically are: (I) greater than 4; hence, it can be considered important
Concentrate Here High Importance, Low when delivering beauty salon services. The most
Performance, (II) Keep up the Good Work High important service characteristic based from the result
Importance, High Performance, (III) Possible of the survey is the cleanliness of the salon, which
Overkill Low Importance, High Performance and garnered a 4.7 out of 5 importance rating. Meanwhile,
(IV) Low Priority Low Importance, Low the overall satisfaction rating of the ambiance and
environment of the beauty salons at Batong Malake is The third attribute is the general service
3.8359, 76.7%. The ventilation of the beauty salon measures of the beauty salon. The mean of the
obtained the lowest satisfaction rating with 61%. importance and satisfaction rating are summarized in
Lastly, all service attributes are under Quadrant I, Table 4.
keep up the good work which means that the
customers are satisfied with the current ambiance and Table 4. Importance-performance rating of the general
environment of beauty salons in Batong Malake. service measures of beauty salons in Batong Malake, Los
Baos, Laguna and the corresponding quadrant of each
The second attribute is the overall service of beauty factor.
salon. The mean of the importance and satisfaction Categories, Attributes, Importa Perform Quadr
rating are summarized in Table 3. Variables nce ance ant
Mean Mean
Table 3. Importance-performance rating of the service of C. General Measures 4.1803 3.8118
beauty salons in Batong Malake, Los Baos, Laguna and C.1. Value for Money 4.6345 4.2207 I
the corresponding quadrant of each factor.
C.2. Accessibility of the 3.9931 4.1103 IV
Categories, Attributes, Importa Perform Quadr
beauty salon
Variables nce ance ant
Mean Mean C.3. Completeness of the 4.2897 3.6690 I
B. Service 4.4724 3.6093 facilities

B.1. Quality of Service 4.9103 4.0000 I C.4. Completeness of the 4.2069 3.7379 IV
Equipment

B.2. Variety of Service 4.0621 4.1310 IV C.5. Promotions and 3.2621 3.2000 III
Advertisement of beauty
B.3. Availability of service 3.9931 2.9731 III salon
information C.6. Safety 4.2138 3.8414 IV

B.4. Accuracy of Service 4.5310 3.7931 I

B.5. Consistency of 4.7103 3.7724 I
Service
B.6. Promptness of 4.6276 2.9862 II
Service
Based from the results of Table 3, the
importance rating of service characteristics under
overall service of beauty salon is 4.4724, which is
equivalent to 89.4% importance rating. All of the
service characteristics obtained an importance rating
greater than 3.743; hence, it can be considered
important when delivering beauty salon services. The
most important service characteristic based from the
result of the survey is the quality of service, which
garnered a 4.9 out of 5 importance rating. Meanwhile,
the overall satisfaction rating of the overall service of
the beauty salons at Batong Malake is 3.6093, 72.2%
performance rating. Availability of service
information and promptness of service obtained the
lowest satisfaction rating with 59.46% and 59.72%,
respectively. In addition, unlike the attributes in
ambiance and environment, there are three attributes
in the overall service which do not lie on the Quadrant
I specifically: variety of service (Quadrant IV),
availability of service information (Quadrant III), and
promptness of service (Quadrant II).
C.7. Hygiene of beauty 4.6621 3.9034 I
salon (in general)
As shown in Table 4, the importance rating
of service characteristics under general service
measure of beauty salon is 4.1803, which is equivalent
to 83.6% importance rating. All of the service
characteristics obtained an importance rating greater
than 3.743 except promotions and advertisement
which only have 3.2621 rating. The most important
service characteristic based from the result of the
survey is the hygiene of beauty salon, which garnered
a 4.7 out of 5 importance rating. Meanwhile, the
overall satisfaction rating of the general service
measure of the beauty salons at Batong Malake is
3.8118, 76.2% performance rating. Promotions and
Advertisement of beauty of salon obtained the lowest
satisfaction rating with 64% (3.2 out of 5). In addition,
the attributes in this category lie on Quadrant I, III and
IV.
Table 5. Importance-performance rating of the support
facilities of beauty salons in Batong Malake, Los Baos,
Laguna and the corresponding quadrant of each factor.
Categories, Attributes, Importa Perform Quadr
nce ance ant
Variables
Mean Mean
 D. Support Facilities 4.0259 2.7724 E.1. Behavior of 4.7379 3.8897 I
Employees/Executives
D.1. Availability of 3.8069 2.0345 III
Wifi/Internet Connection E.2. Knowledge of 4.6759 3.6690 I
Employees/Executives
D.2. Availability of 4.9034 3.2069 III
Security Cameras
D.3. Parking Adequacy 3.3862 2.7586 III
Based on the results in Table 6, the
D.4. Availability of 4.0069 3.0897 III
importance rating of service characteristics under
Comfort Rooms employees and executives of beauty salon is 4.7069,
which is equivalent to 94.1% importance rating. All of
the service characteristics obtained an importance
rating greater than 3.743. The most important service
As presented in Table 5, the importance characteristic based from the result of the survey is the
rating of service characteristics under support facilities behavior of employees/executives, which garnered a
of beauty salon is 4.0259, which is equivalent to 4.7 out of 5 importance rating. Meanwhile, the overall
80.5% importance rating. All of the service satisfaction rating of the employees and executives of
characteristics obtained an importance rating greater the beauty salons at Batong Malake is 3.7794, 75.6%
than 3.743 except parking adequacy which only have performance rating. Knowledge of
3.3862 rating. The most important service Employees/Executives obtained the lowest
characteristic based from the result of the survey is the satisfaction rating with 73.4% (3.7 out of 5). In
availability of security cameras, which garnered a 4.9 addition, all of the attributes lie on Quadrant I.
out of 5 importance rating. This implies that the
customers want to feel secured while bring served. The data points of the level of importance and
Meanwhile, the overall satisfaction rating of the performance of the attributes are graphed in the
support facilities of the beauty salons at Batong importance-performance matrix as shown in Figure 2.
Malake is 2.7724, 55.4% performance rating. All of The matrix used the mean of the importance scores as
the attributes scores below 3.743 which signifies that the y-axis while the mean of performance scores for
the customer is unsatisfied with the support facilities the x-axis. Most of them are positioned in the first
of the beauty salons. Availability of WIFI/Internet quadrant which means that the beauty salons in Batong
Connection obtained the lowest satisfaction rating Malake are able to provide these necessary features to
with 40.7% (2 out of 5). In addition, all of the attributes their customers. There are also six attributes that fall
lie on Quadrant III. into quadrant three which has low importance and with
a low performance provided by the salons, thus, there
Table 6. Importance-performance rating of the employees is no need to take further actions on these attributes.
and executives of beauty salons in Batong Malake, Los However, two of the factors fell on the second
Baos, Laguna and the corresponding quadrant of each
quadrant, which are the ventilation of the beauty salon
factor.
and the promptness of the service. This means that
Categories, Attributes, Importa Perform Quadr these attributes are deemed significant by the
Variables nce ance ant customers but the beauty salons were not able to meet
Mean Mean
their minimum expectations. This poses possible
E. Employees and 4.7069 3.7794
Executives
improvements for the salons to increase their level of
competitiveness.
 Figure 2. Importance Performance Matrix of Attributes

Since based on the survey, customers are not
satisfied with the promptness of their service, they can
check if the capacity of their salon can really
accommodate their demand. If not, they must add their
employees to be able to provide service to all their
customers and decrease opportunity cost. However, if
this only happens during peak hours, they can transfer
some of that demand at times when they have lesser
demand by offering promos and discounts during these
hours. In addition, the salons could devise ways to
divert the attention of customers such as providing
magazines of entertaining videos. This could eliminate
the boredom of the customers waiting for service
which could lessen the feeling that they are not
entertained promptly.
Another attribute that the beauty salons
should focus with is ventilation. According to
interviews conducted, customers have issues on the
smell of the chemicals in the air which makes them
very uncomfortable. With this, it is recommended that
the salons install exhaust fans so that there would be a
faster exchange of contaminated air and fresh air. This
would help relieve the comfortability of the customers.
means that the attributes are less important for
customers, however, the beauty salons exert great
effort in achieving these attributes. For this, the salons
are recommended to divert their efforts and expenses
on the attributes that fell in the second quadrant.
III. CONCLUSION
In the study, the attributes that may affect the
quality of service of beauty salons in Batong Malake,
Los Banos was determined by interviewing the
owners, employees and customers of the salons. Likert
Scale was used to rate the importance and performance
of these attributes in the salons. Importance-
Performance Analysis then was used to determine the
possible areas where the salons can focus on
concentrating, retain current performance, give less
effort, or do nothing at all.

There are also points that lie in quadrant IV,

namely accessibility of the beauty salon, completeness
of equipment, safety, and variety of service. This
 REFERENCES
1. Wagner, N. (2017). Beauty salon industry analysis. Chron.
Retrieved on May 14, 2017 from
http://smallbusiness.chron.com/beauty-salon-industry-
analysis-70660.html
2. Beauty salon 2014. (2014). Retrieved May 14, 2017 from
http://www.sbdcnet.org/small-business-research-
reports/beauty-salon-2014
3. Khan, P. I., & Tabassum, A. (2011). Service quality and
customer satisfaction of the Beauty-care service industry in
Dhaka: A study on high-end womens parlor. The Journal of
Business in Developing Nations. 12.
4. Smith, S. (2013). Determining sample size. Qualtrics.
Retrieved on May 14, 2017 from
https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/determining-sample-size/
 Appendix A

Sample Survey Form

 Appendix B

Results of Importance Rating on Ambiance and Environment

Results of Importance Rating on Ambiance and Environment (continued)
 Appendix C

Results of Importance Rating on the Service provided.

Results of the importance rating on service provided (continued).
 Appendix D

Results of Importance Rating on the general attributes.

Results of Importance Rating on the general attributes (continued).
 Appendix E

Results of the Importance Rating on the Support Facilities

 Appendix F

Results of the Importance Rating on the Employees and Executives of the salon.
 Appendix G

Results of Performance Rating on Ambiance and Environment.

Results of Performance Rating on Ambiance and Environment (continued).
 Appendix H

Results of Performance Rating on Service provided.

Results of Performance Rating on Service provided (continued).
 Appendix I

Results of Performance Rating on the general attributes of the service.

Results of Performance Rating on the general attributes of the service (continued).
 Appendix J

Results of Performance Rating on the support facilities.

 Appendix K

Result of Performance Rating on Employee and executives of the salon.