Customer Services: Analysis and Recommendations

This report analyzes the customer service quality and service recovery of London Mariott Hotel Marble Arch. It provides an overview of the SERVQUAL model for assessing service quality and identifies gaps in service quality. The report also discusses the four acid tests of service recovery and provides recommendations for improving customer satisfaction. Additionally, a survey feasibility report is included, which evaluates customer perceptions and provides recommendations for improving hotel services.

Customer Services
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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Main Body.......................................................................................................................................3
1. Service quality (SERVQUAL) analysis..................................................................................3
2. Four acid tests of service recovery..........................................................................................5
3. Survey feasibility report..........................................................................................................6
Conclusion.......................................................................................................................................8
References........................................................................................................................................9
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Introduction
Customer service defines the interaction between service provider and customers. It is
the service that makes or breaks a hospitality business for customer interaction is the core
component of their operations (Ali, Hussain and Ryu, 2017). Providing quality services to
customers becomes all the more important in today's time because customers are twice as likely
to share a negative experience as they do with positive experience. And, for a hotel, negative
reviews affect their business. This is the issue taken up in this report in the context of London
Mariott Hotel Marble Arch. A feasibility survey report is prepared with recommendations for
better services according to customer requirements.
Main Body
1. Service quality (SERVQUAL) analysis
Customer service is defined as the action of providing a service to the customers. Quality
service is the key for customer retention in this competitive industry (Baker and Kim, 2018). The
Service Quality Model or SERVQUAL Model was developed and implemented as a model to
assess and measure the quality of service experienced by customers. Quality is measured from
five perspectives – content, process, structure, outcome and impact. Certain dimensions that are
used to determine the quality of service are below mentioned: Reliability – Dimensions such as timely and credible services. Consistency in services
provided by Mariott helps keeps up promises to customers. Responsiveness – This criterion measures the ability and willingness of the hotel staff to
resolve customers' queries and complaints. Assurance – Dimensions such as how easily the services and process of Mariott is able to
win heart, trust and confidence of customers. Empathy – Empathy is the art of understanding feeling of others. It is the dimension that
makes customers believe Mariott's ability to understand their needs.
 Tangibles – These are the physical facilities, equipments, staff attitude, information
system, etc. provided by the hotel. They influence customers both physiologically and
emotionally.
Services are provided by a hotel with the best of their interests, for this is their business
model and quality services serve as unique selling proposition for them. Expectations and
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perceptions of customers inspired from the reviews read and heard by them, their past
experiences of hotel services and personal needs.
Customer expectation - This assess the difference between customers' expectation of the
service and the perceived service (Guchait and et.al., 2018). Mariott should try to provide service
to customers according to their expectations so that they can leave their hotel with a happy
feeling and spread positive reviews about them in the market. Customer expectations refers to
that customised set of services that is expected by the customer from the hotel. Expectations of
customers derives their sources from their personal needs, their attitude, their expectation from
may be previous visit or some other hotel service standard, situational factors, etc.
Customer perception - Customer perception is the process of interpretation of the services
and experiences received by the customer. Expectations result in encounters and those
encounters result in experience. How a customer feel and understand that experience is
perception. It could be positive and negative both. Positive perception creates satisfaction in the
mind of customers while negative perception creates dissatisfaction. Staff of Mariott shall try to
remove quality gaps in their services to build positive perception among its customers.
Customer satisfaction - It is the psychological state in which a customers feels pleasure or
disappointment resulting from the their perceived performance of service in relation to their
expectation. It can be any feeling such as happiness, relief, excitement, delight, etc. If only the
customer will feel satisfied by the services of the Mariott, they would visit the hotel again and
also spread positive word of mouth. There are many factors that influence customer satisfaction
and shall be high on the priority list of Mariott to evaluate in their process such as friendly,
courteous and responsive employees, billing timeliness and accuracy, competitive pricing,
prompt services, etc.
Gaps in service quality
Difference between customer expectation and management perception of that expectation
results in many gaps in service quality which results in dissatisfaction among customers (Kim
and Park, 2017). Management of Mariott shall identify below mentioned gaps and improve the
process to improve customer satisfaction index:
Market research gap – When there is a gap in management understanding of how
customers decide on the decision to visit which hotel. Mariott shall make its front line employees
and digital media marketing team vigilant to reduce this gap.
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Design gap – When management is not able to create services that meet customers'
expectations. Mariott shall create standardized service delivery at par with industry standards and
shall make flexible goals to reduce and close the gap.
Conformance gap – When staff is not able to achieve services standard as decided by
management. Mariott shall carefully select employees and provide them proper training to
eliminate this gap.
Communication gap – When services delivered are not as shown in advertisements
(Liang, Schuckert and Law, 2017). Mariott shall try to create realistic advertisements or shall
deliver services as promised in marketing campaigns.
2. Four acid tests of service recovery
Whenever any unfortunate incident happens in service performance, certain actions are
performed by the hotel to rectify the failure, those actions are called service recovery. These
failures could be because of any reason such as unavailability of service at the moment or poor
staff performance. This might create a negative impression about hotel among guests. Such
negative impressions are not right for the business of the hotel and thus, efforts to resolve such
issues shall be taken in systematic, strategic yet prompt manner.
Anticipating guests demands
This process starts much before the actual arrival of the customer as guests (Lu, Capezio
and et.al., 2016). It is the part of strategic thinking on the part of management of Mariott hotel. It
involves anticipation of demands of their guests based on their past guests' experiences and
market research. If the hotel is able to identify the correct path of customer expectation and
perception, it becomes easier to map out their journey to customer satisfaction. It also helps in
creating a roadmap of what issues their customer can have and how they can resolve the case of
service failure.
Acknowledge guests feelings
Mariott staff and management shall initiate recovery process as soon as failure is
discovered. They shall acknowledge feelings and emotions of the guests about the issue and
condone the issue to alleviate guest's dissatisfaction. They shall not consider any incident as
trivial and worth ignoring as any issue can leave a customer unhappy and dissatisfied with the
hotel services.
Apologise and accept responsibility
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Staff shall offer unconditional apologies at first instance even before explaining
company's position, for this might turn out irrelevant or would add fuel to the fire. Most of the
times, unconditional apology on the part of hotel is treated as sincere effort by guests and they
might drop the matter then and there forever. Taking responsibility and fixing it by apologising
does not make hotel look unprofessional and lagging in providing services, rather it might save
hotel from facing a lawsuit.
Reward the guest
Mariott can offer alternative services to the guest as complimentary to control the
damage. They can also offer any compensation or reward to delight the guest. To err is human
and service failure is normal on the part of staff, no matter how efficient the service and recovery
processes are. Offering an apology and follow up from the hotel staff and management is best
way to diffuse the difficult situation (Secchi, Roth and Verma, 2019). Offering gifts baskets, free
amenities, discounts, vouchers, etc. are few service recovery option used by the hotel.
3. Survey feasibility report
Following evaluations are made on the responses of the survey conducted by the
marketing team of the Mariott hotel to assess the customer's perception towards the services
provided to them. Also, included are the references from the TripAdvisor reviews where hotel
recently saw a dip in the ranking. Main purposes of this report is to investigate about customer
requirement, expectations and the areas where the hotel can improve its services to increase
occupancy and bring back the regular guests. This way hotel will be able to improve their
TripAdvisor ranking as well. Following are the questions of the questionnaire and the
recommendations based upon the answers received:
Q. Experience about hotel front office operations
Many customers have praised the front office operations and the staff responsiveness but
few customers complained that services were dissatisfying and they had to wait a lot for check-in
as their rooms were not ready. Also, they don't value for elite members and would help company
lose their loyal members. Guest Relation Officer (GRO) was not responsive at all and some
complained that he was too busy to attend the guest's issues.
After reading about responses of customers, it is clear that Mariott front office staff needs
to make few changes in their attitude towards customers. They shall be trained to listen and
respond to each customer's query and try to help them with smooth check-in and check-out. Staff
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shall treat every member as elite but elite member shall be made felt that they are privileged and
are receiving value for their loyalty. It will help hotel two way – one existing loyal member
would remain loyal to Mariott and will help earn new loyal members by positive words of mouth
publicity.
Q. Experience about hotel's housekeeping performance
Many customers praised the Few customers were unhappy with the staff service and were
complaining that services provided were absolutely not of Mariott standard. There were no basic
things like slipper in bathroom, carpets were rugged, etc.
With few not-so-happy responses, it is evident that services provided by housekeeping
are good but still there is room for improvement. Staff shall ensure maintenance of hygiene,
providing good and timely facilities to guests and shall always be attentive to customer queries.
Q. Overall dining experience
Many customers praised the in-site The Pickled Hen restaurant and were happy that food
was delicious and staff service was also good but few customers were disappointed with the
services and dishes offered by the in-site Pickled hen restaurant (London Marriott Hotel Marble
Arch, 2020). They believed that images provided of the food were misleading and the food that
actually arrived was no where looking same which was a let down. Many people complained
about the services at bar.
With equal happy-unhappy responses, it is good that customers are liking food and
services but unhappy customers show the way and need to improve. The Pickled Hen restaurant
shall work on their food looks in a way that it looks as picturesque in reality as it looks in images
or the images shall be taken which looks more realistic. Bar services need a good lot
improvement for most of the negative reviews in the section were unhappy customer of bar
service. Either the staff needs training or the staff shall be changed. Room mini-bars shall be
stocked as well as the main bar shall introduce and offer new varieties of drinks regularly.
Q. Experience about maintenance department
Few customers were of the opinion that hotel was a little run down and for the price they
are charged, they expect better upkeeps and would suggest renovation or a complete overhaul.
Bathroom has been a major issue for many customers that bathrooms are small, bathwater tepid,
too complex shower system, etc.
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Maintenance department had maximum share of the negative reviews. This clearly shows
that management of Mariott needs to take decision on the renovation of the hotel. Overall
upkeeps is expected to improve with special attention to bathrooms overhauling which is most in
demand.
Conclusion
It can be concluded from this report that providing good quality services to customers is
of paramount importance to hospitality companies. Hotels lays a good stress over various
dimensions that forms customers' expectation and perception since, customer satisfaction
depends on it. Yet, having service failures are normal in operational nature. Just so that service
failure does not affect business of the hotel, management and executives always undertake
measures to service recovery such as acknowledgement, apologising, offering rewards, etc.
Management is always on lookout for reviews that can help it improve hotel service which helps
it in maintaining business in long term.
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References
Books and Journals
Ali, F., Hussain, K. and Ryu, K., 2017. Resort hotel service performance (RESERVE)–an
instrument to measure tourists’ perceived service performance of resort hotels. Journal
of Travel & Tourism Marketing. 34(4). pp.556-569.
Baker, M.A. and Kim, K., 2018. Other customer service failures: emotions, impacts, and
attributions. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research. 42(7). pp.1067-1085.
Guchait, P. and et.al., 2018. Can error management culture increase work engagement in hotels?
The moderating role of gender. Service Business. 12(4). pp.757-778.
Kim, W.G. and Park, S.A., 2017. Social media review rating versus traditional customer
satisfaction. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Liang, S., Schuckert, M. and Law, R., 2017. Multilevel analysis of the relationship between type
of travel, online ratings, and management response: empirical evidence from
international upscale hotels. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing. 34(2). pp.239-
256.
Lu, V.N., Capezio and et.al., 2016. In pursuit of service excellence: Investigating the role of
psychological contracts and organizational identification of frontline hotel employees.
Tourism Management. 56. pp.8-19.
Secchi, E., Roth, A. and Verma, R., 2019. The impact of service improvisation competence on
customer satisfaction: evidence from the hospitality industry. Production and
Operations Management. 28(6). pp.1329-1346.
Online
London Marriott Hotel Marble Arch. 2020. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.tripadvisor.in/Hotel_Review-g186338-d193086-Reviews-
London_Marriott_Hotel_Marble_Arch-London_England.html>
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