Comparing Customer Service Practices and Policies in the Hospitality Industry

This report compares the customer service practices and policies of Premier Inn London Putney Bridge hotel with its competitor in the hospitality industry. It also discusses the service quality vision, service guarantees, and complaint handling procedures. Recommendations are provided for developing improved customer-focused services.

Customer service 1

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION......................................................................................................................3
Comparing the customer service practices and policies and the service quality vision with
its competitor..........................................................................................................................3
Comparing the hotel’s service guarantees and the complaint handling procedures..............5
Recommendation for developing improved customer focused services................................6
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION...........................................................................................7
REFERENCES...........................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
There has been an increase in the competition in the entire economy and mainly in the
hospitality and hotel industry. Hotels in order to remain and survive in the marketplace has
put more emphasis on the meeting up with the exceeding customers requirements and
expectation. Hotels are required to provides superior quality of services in order to
differentiate themselves from their competitors and improving the brand image of the hotel.
In this report, Premier Inn London Putney Bridge hotel is taken as an organization. This
report provides an insight on the customer service practices and the policies which are being
followed by the hotel in comparison to its competitor and is service quality vision. Along
with that, it also provides information about how the organization’s handles the services
guarantees and the complaints of its customers and the ways through which the organization
can improved guest satisfaction level..
Comparing the customer service practices and policies and the service quality vision with its
competitor
There are various types of customers service practices which are being provided by
the organization’s in order to attract ore customers towards it. Below is the comparison
between the Premier Inn London Putney Bridge hotel and the Hotel Marriott in respect to the
various customer related practices and policies implemented by them.
Customer service practices and policies
Premier Inn is a chain of British hotel having over 800 hotels and is the largest hotel
brand. This company has focused on continuously monitoring the changing needs and wants
of eth customers and along with that it has analysed and prepared themselves in such a way
that they can easily meet up with the expected requirements as well (Hole, Pawar and
Bhaskar, 2018). The organization has collaborated with various types of hotel of different
level from small to premium in order to meet with all the expectations and desire of its
customer. In contrast to it, the hotel Marriott has been working continuously in ensuring that
it meets up with all the needs of its customers. It provides rooms to its customers based on
their desire along with the attractive benefits which distinguish it from other hotels.
In terms of practices, the staff of the Premier Inn has provided with all the required
skills and knowledge which helps them in effectively handling their guest, the customer
service of the company reflect the complete corporate culture of the organization which is not

an easy task. It accommodates all the business function in a synchronized manner. On the
other hand, Hotel Marriott has also separated its various function, so that each department or
division can easily understand their role and responsibilities. Also, the customers can also
know to whom to contact in case of need with a specific task or need.
Service quality vision
For quality services, it is important to understand certain characteristics of service
which are described underneath.
Intangibility: Services are intangible in nature which makes it complicated for decision
makers. It becomes difficult to draw opinion on the service before the process is completed.
Inseparability: Under this, services are produced and sold at the same time and services and
the service providers are inseparable (Ali and Garg, 2017).
Variability: This characteristic state that the service quality varies with who provides them
and how as service is labour intensive in nature.
Perishability: Services are perishable in nature which cannot be stored for later use. For
example, if a room remain unbooked in a hotel, it will be a lost forever for the hotel.
The vision of Premier Inn London Putney Bridge hotel is to provide great food, room
or the greater value to its people. It wants people to be surrounded by its services or at least a
bit of everything. On the flip side, Hotel Marriott, has visioned about enhancing the lives of
its customers in such a way that it will result into creating and enabling the supreme trips and
leisure experience through the way of its high quality customer services which will always
add value to the overall experience of its customers and will force them to return back.
Analysing the service process
The difference between the organization’s in respect to customers service can be
explained by analysing service process. This process involves 3 parts which are stated below.
1. It involves the list of activities and the tasks which the organization required to
implement in order to provide quality services. London Putney Bridge hotel has
designated each department in such away that each and every department is well
aware of their duties and responsibilities which results in to carrying out the activities
in an effective way (Presenza, Messeni Petruzzelli and Natalicchio, 2019). Each of
these department is headed by a manager who monitors the activities of the

subordinates in order to ensure timely activities and meeting requirement in a
structured way. In case, of Hotel Marriott, the staff of the hotel are provided with an
effective training which makes them efficient in handling the things which are not
into their department. Everything is structured in a flexible manner, thus, resulting
into appropriate service in the hotel.
2. This step states that there are some combination of people and goods through which
the tasks and activities are undertaken properly. This is simply known as the service
deliver process (Węglarz and Morawski, 2016). In case of Premier Inn London Putney
Bridge hotel, the organization have managed the resource very efficiently by the way
of specializing each employee in the field they are good at. It is considered as the best
possible way through which the different requirement can be met. While, Hotel
Marriott has specialized its employees in a little different way. It has provided basic
training to all its employees of each domain so that so that in case of need even they
can assist the guest under the situation of urgency and process is very smooth creating
no problem for the customers in dealing with the same. During this time of Covid-19,
special attention is put on the health and safety of the customer s everything has been
contactless like check in, check out, all linens were sanitized at the high temperature.
3. This stage is the last but the most important in order to get the accurate result about
the service quality of the organization. Under this, the role of consumers comes in
where they share their views, feedback and experience in respect to the services
provided. The overall customer related feedback of Premier Inn London Putney
Bridge hotel has been very good which brings it to the top while in case of hotel
Marriott they have also received positive feedback from its guest which makes top the
companies a tough competitor to each other on account of quality customer services.
Comparing the hotel’s service guarantees and the complaint handling procedures
The guarantee of the service can be viewed at the hotel’s official website while
making a booking. Premier Inn London Putney Bridge hotel has provided all the information
in eth Premier Inn, UK site for gathering all the information about the service guarantees
along with the customers grievance handling system as well (Nugroho, 2018). In this, the
contact number or the email address is provided for filing any problem or the issue faced by
the guest. In contrast to it, the hotel Marriott has a customer acre point where the customers
can easily into the topic in respect to their issue or can also specifically mail to the
organization stating the problems faced by it (Customer Care. 2020). For example, if a

customer wants to update the credit card information, he or she can easily do this by getting
on the customer care page ands electing eth relevant heading and can make changes as per the
steps given. Along with that in case, the customer lost something can easily get help from the
organization on account how they can help or what steps can be taken or to whom to contact
in case of emergency. Also, the customer can directly mail the complaint on the customer
care mail id which is provided on the hotel’s official website or call on the customer care
number. In terms of comparing the customer care services of Premier Inn London Putney
Bridge hotel with that of Hotel Marriott, it can be stated that Hotel Marriott is far better in
respect to effectively handling the customers grievances. Thus, the customer grievance
handling procedure and system of Hotel Marriott is more effective leading to improved and
greater customer satisfaction.
Recommendation for developing improved customer focused services
During the pandemic which has hit the hospitality industry very hard and now it’s
time for the hotel’s for implementing the strategies which will help in effectively coping up
with the loss. This can only be possible if the organization implements certain new strategies
which are focused entirely on the customers and customer services. Following are the certain
remedies which can be used in implementing the change or the strategies in order to attract
and retain its customers along with increasing the TripAdvisor’s ratings and ranking.
 Personalization is the key way through which customers can eb grabbed. The hotel is
required to further personalize itself which grabs the customers attention towards it.
For example, the central reservation system which handles the hotel reservation across
of the chains of the hotels which can provide with the information in regard to the
value of the customers and the services they ae availing.
 Implementation of customer relationship management tool which will provide support
to the organization in regard to how the guests are selecting their product and services
which is mainly based upon the travel that is in group or two or individual (Wu and
et.al., 2018). Through this, the organization can provide relevant promotions and
offers toits customers.
 As of now, by providing additional benefits and services to the customers will result
into endearing guests to the hotel and its brand. Providing complimentary services can
turn out to be the most effective strategy in terms of offering valuable and quality
services to the customers.

 Instead of waiting for the customer to file a complaint it is better to take a proactive
service model which is provide support to the organization in making the customers
satisfied and retaining them. For example, if the guest was interested in travelling to
some place, the quick response for the same is that the staff provides them with all the
details about the place along with the mode of transportation which can be taken as
the service by the hotel. This is the great way of meeting up with the customers
expectation or being it, which will result into creating value in the eyes and mind of
customers.
 The hotel should create a customer loyalty program in which the customer who are
visiting again are rewards in terms of additional discounts, attractive offers and many
more. It is an important strategy in this competitive industry and it should be designed
in an appropriate manner. It should be a combination of many things like some
rewards which can be redeemed immediately while some can be redeemed on next
visit or after sometime.
SUMMARY AND CONCLUSION
It can be inferred from the above that on customer service is the indispensable part in
the hotel industry and is considered as the centre of the organization based upon which the
customer service policies and practices are created. On making a comparison of the Premier
Inn London Putney Bridge hotel with another hotel, it helped in identifying the key areas
where it needs to work so that relevant changes can be put in place in terms of policies,
practices along with the service quality vision it has. This will help in meeting the end goals
of the organization. Also, the customer grievance handling system and the procedures
followed is compared in order to manage the complaints or issues faced by the guests in an
effective manner. At last, certain, strategies or the ways are recommended which can help the
organization in attracting more customers which will consequently help in overcoming with
the losses it has faced due to the pandemic.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Ali, I. and Garg, R. K., 2017. Marketing of Services: Challenges & Opportunities in Context
of the Globalization of Business. International Journal of Engineering and
Management Research (IJEMR). 7(3). pp.522-526.
Hole, Y., Pawar, S. and Bhaskar, M. P., 2018. Service marketing and quality
strategies. Periodicals of Engineering and Natural Sciences. 6(1). pp.182-196.
Nugroho, A., 2018. The Hospitality Marketing Communication Attribute. A Case Study
(ahrhbali (Hard Rock Hotel Bali). Journal of Marketing and Consumer Research,
50. Blagoev, V., Nikolskaya, E. Y. and Popov, L. A., 2019. THE HOSPITALITY
INDUSTRY: Understanding Hotel Business. Varna University of Management.
Presenza, A., Messeni Petruzzelli, A. and Natalicchio, A., 2019. Business model innovation
for sustainability. Highlights from the tourism and hospitality industry.
Węglarz, R. and Morawski, M., 2016. " Mystery Shopper” in Analysing Service Quality
Level and Service Provision Processes in the Hotel Industry in Poland.
Wu, W. Y., and et.al., 2018. The integration between service value and service recovery in
the hospitality industry: An application of QFD and ANP. International Journal of
Hospitality Management. 75. pp.48-57.
Online
Customer Care. 2020. [Online]. Available Through:<
https://help.marriott.com/s/topic/0TO1S000000PGzwWAG/customer-care?tabset-
98d7e=2>.