Customer Service in Hospitality Industry

CUSTOMER SERVICE
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Table of Content
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Overview of Bishop’s Gate Hotel....................................................................................................3
Task A: Customer service policies..................................................................................................4
1.1) Reason for using customer service policies.............................................................................4
1.2) Reason of evaluating customer service policy how it affects future recruitments;..................6
Task B: Communication as well as information research...............................................................7
2.1) Evaluation of the various communication methods (ref. 2.1)..................................................7
2.2) Analysis on the influence of customer service on the customer perception (ref 2.2)............10
1.3) Assessment of the information sources on the requirements and satisfaction level of the
customers (ref 3.1).........................................................................................................................11
Task C: Group presentation...........................................................................................................13
3.1) Presentation of a research on the requirements and satisfaction level of customers for
hospitality organisation and suggesting various potential improvements (ref 3.2).......................13
3.2) Organising and executing delivery of the customer service for a hospitality organisation (ref
4.1).................................................................................................................................................18
3.3) Reviewing own performance and recommending strategies for improvements (ref 4.2)......19
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................20
Reference list.................................................................................................................................21
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Introduction
Effective customer service has a great importance on the enhancement in the perception of the
customers. Customer service refers to providing service to the customers before or after the
purchase. Perception of the customers depends upon the performance of the employees
according to the ability to adjust themselves to the personality of the guests. Customer service is
concerned with the priority set by the organisation to customer service related to the components
such as innovation, products and their pricing. The organisation that values effective customer
service try to invest more in providing training to the employees and consider the feedback of the
customers.
In this study, the researcher would try to explore the effective ways of customer service that
would help in improving the customer's perception. The researcher would discuss the various
results of using policies in the customer service. A discussion on the evaluation of customer
service policies along with their relationship with the training as well as development programs
to be provided in the future. The researcher would provide an evaluation of the various
communication methods that are necessary for communicating with the customers. An analysis
would also be done on the influence of the performance of the customer service on the
customer's perception. The researcher would perform an assessment of the information sources
on requirements and satisfaction levels of the customers. At the end of the research, the
researcher would provide a presentation describing the requirements and satisfaction level of the
customers along with a role play as a customer service assistant of a hotel. Moreover, some
recommendations would also be provided for improving the customer service operations. In this
study, the researcher has chosen Bishop’s Gate hotel for conducting the research in a better
manner.
Overview of Bishop’s Gate Hotel
The Bishop’s Gate Hotel is considered as an exquisite grade B1 listed hotel that is positioned
perfectly within historic walls of the city. The hotel is located in the heart of the Cathedral
quarter of Derry city, which was built in 1899. The hotel has been blended with wonderful
stylish appointments, Edwardian architecture as well as various luxurious facilities that have
been restored sensitivity for paying homage towards the building's rich heritage by providing the
contemporary as well as desires of the customers or guests. In the hotel is situated in an iconic
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landmark and is considered as an intimate urban oasis that features 30 luxurious guestrooms, one
resident's lounge, 2 suites, restaurant, cocktail and champagne bar and a ballroom with a capacity
of 90 persons (Bishopsgatehotelderry.com, 2017). The hotel offers high-quality dining facility
whole day and perfect places to relax along with a glass of champagne or cocktail, which is
completed with live entertainments on special evenings.
Task A: Customer service policies
1.1) Reason for using customer service policies
The main goal in the hospitality industry is to maintain healthy relation with their customers and
satisfying their needs through quality service and being loyal to them. This is the foundation of
their industry. In the hospitality industry the management gives importance to encourage their
employees to increase service strategy which helps to improve the relation between the
organisation and their customers (Heskett,and J.L, 2013, p.22) this cherishes the very foundation
of the principle of this industry. The customers tend to do more business with that organisation
which emphasizes in taking care of them and meeting their expectation rather than just thinking
of hardcore profit only. The satisfied customers are keen to tell about the good or bad experience
they had faced while doing business with the company to other people. This can either bring
more customers to the company or can spread a negative thought as well. So the spirit of this
industry is based on how these organisations belonging to this industry match up and builds a
bond with their customers. In this industry when the management will provide better training
tools and support to their employees, they will find a way to improve the standard of service
given to their customers (Sharma et al. 2013, p.32). To provide a better service to their
customers, many organisations follow certain policies known as customer service policies. This
helped them to improve their quality of service to a great extent. This policy includes following
points;
I. Responsibility in hospitality industry the word reputation defines and difference between
success and failure, the employees must take responsibility for their actions, rather than just
denying or worse ignoring them. This sense of responsibility of owning their mistakes of
employees are often easily forgiven by the customers. This allows the industry to provide very
good service to their customer and thus enhance the reputation.
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II. The judgment of the customers in the quality of the service cans either a very good exception
or poor. The quality of the service helps to shape up the judgment of the customer (Anitha, 2014,
p.12). The quality of the service also determines how long the relation between them and the
industry will last. In the world of hospitality industry if the company is unable to provide right
experience then it would earn them a bad reputation about their organisation.
III. In the hospitality industry it is not advisable to put down even a single customer with poor
service quality. As stated before the customers share their experience with each other and when
other potential customer will hear the negative comment their perception will also change and
they like to avoid doing business with them. Not only has this willed the customers turn to other
companies who are willing to snatch any given opportunity to beat their rival companies.
IV. The first step to building a lasting relation with the customer which happens to be the basic
foundation of this industry is to provide them with quality service. The better relation and
bonding is developed the greater the chance of a customer preaching about the company.
V. it is very important for the organisations in the hospitality industry to improve their quality of
service on a regular basis which can be done on the basis of the feedback of the customers. In
reality, many hotels and other company in this industry use the satisfaction of the customers as a
measuring tool to check their service quality. In fact Bishop's Gate hotel uses this parameter to
judge their performance regularly. They wanted to know why the customers were choosing their
hotel and who customers were there actually. The Bishop's Gate hotel used two surveys one was
model and the other was a custom survey to observe the views of customers about their business
(Lee et al. 2015, p.660).
VI. The service provided to a customer by Bishop’s Gate hotel was a tool to create a lifetime
value. They observed that if were able to provide the quality and an experience to the customers
worth remembering they were able to create a lasting bond with their customers. The part about
creating a strong bond with a customer was the satisfied customers brought more business for
them by preaching about their hotel to other potential customers.
VII. Like other business, the customers are the biggest asset to the hospitality industry as well.
The customers serve as a lifeline for any industry. The organisation under the hospitality industry
faces perhaps the biggest challenge. So the hotels like Bishop's Gate hotel clearly understood
besides providing the best product to their customers if they provided the best service to them
also it would enhance their chance to outshine their competitors.
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1.2) Reason of evaluating customer service policy how it affects future
recruitments;
In order to create a brand value for themselves the organisation under the hospitality industry
should provide excellent service to their customers. This can do when the employees of the
organisation is highly trained to deal with their customers (Lau et al. 2017, p.22). Not only this
should the customer service policy also be judged as this is extremely important. As discussed
earlier how important is to satisfy the needs of the customers judging the customer service holds
great importance. The organisation must be able to find the pros and cons of the policy and take
the initiative to improve the standard of their service. Employees play an important role here
because they must be able to fulfil all the promises regarding the service they made to the
customers. They need to detect any flaws in the service and take the necessary step to make it as
good as possible. So the rating is a must having tool given to the employees to develop and
enhance their skill to satisfy their customers with their service. The policy can be moulded
according to for the purpose of betterment of the organisations.
In this industry, training is essential provided to the management and the employees. The
employees are the set of people who help to build the bridge between the customers and the
organisation. The importance of the customer service training is given below;
I. The employees can target specific areas they need to develop when correct training is given.
This will be rewarded when the complaints of the clients turn into praising and the business can
thrive.
II. When proper training is given immediately to the new recruits, they are placed on the right
track and does the tendency to develop a bad habit is prevented (Bolumole et al. 2016, p.130).
After the initial orientation, the employees must be taught about the policy of the company. An
adequate amount of proper training can shape potential employees into future leaders. Well
trained employees can give a helping hand to the new recruits to optimise their skill to provide
quality service to the customers.
III. Developing a solid concept and the mentality to serve customers can be taught by proper
training only. The mentality to serve other people is big and must have an attribute in the
employees. The top performers or the employees of the organisation can enrol themselves for
higher training (SHARMA et al. 2017, p.18). The Idea of investing in new supervisors show how
confident the organisation has on its workers. When the organisation under the hospitality
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