Customer Service Management for Tourism and Hospitality

This report discusses customer service management in the tourism and hospitality industry, focusing on Dukes London hotel. It examines the service journey for arrival and breakfast, describes the physical evidence, identifies on-stage and back-stage interactions, and applies the knowledge to a service blueprint. The report also discusses customer expectations and global trends. The importance of following social distancing measures during the COVID-19 pandemic is highlighted.

Customer Service
Management for
Tourism and
Hospitality

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
Examine a DUKES LONDON customer’s service journey for arrival at the hotel and
breakfast the next morning.....................................................................................................4
Describe the physical evidence of the service journey...........................................................5
Identify the “On Stage” interactions (touchpoints) with team members................................5
Identify the “Back Stage” interactions...................................................................................6
Apply the knowledge to a service blueprint diagram and include customer emotions, the line
of interaction, the line of visibility and the line of internal interaction..................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
Recommendation...........................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Customer service management refers to the process of managing a relationship between
organisation and the customers it has over the time. In order to succeed, the hospitality industry
must make such customers strategies which can help the company in achieving its goals and
objectives. This report is about the customer service management of Dukes London.
Dukes London is a luxury hotel which is situated at the heart of St James Mayfair in
London. It offers luxury and sophisticated services like accommodation, food and beverages, bar,
events, health clubs and many more. This London based hotel has a hospitable atmosphere which
gives comfort to the guest. Dukes London is operated and owned by Seven Tides International, a
holding company and luxury property developer. It offers classic and modern style bedrooms and
luxurious suites to its customers. Apart from this it offers legendary Duke bars and a restaurant
to give exceptional service to its guest.
Demographic is the information of population based on the factors which includes race,
age, sex, etc. Demographic profiling of customers refers to the analysis which is used by the
managers to increase their efficiency in attracting the customers and identifying the gaps in the
strategies. It includes identification of customers in order to build their trust by providing the
services which are expected by them. Duke London is a luxury hotel which attracts customers
like females for business or leisure, families, dog friendly guest and other male guests for leisure
or business purpose.
Customer trends refers to what they want, how they behave and how they see the world.
Changes are constant, everything changes like behaviour, expectation or an attitude. The global
customer trends refers to the changing trends of the customers across the globe. Duke London
has customer loyalty from across the globe where different kind of customer persists, so in order
to keep up with the trends, the hotel has following global customer trends which includes
expectation of quality. Hotel seeks to provide quality service to its customers because it believes
that a customer expects quality when it pays for luxury hotel. Another global trend which it
follows is food. Duke London focuses on providing the simple dishes which are cooked
brilliantly in an extraordinary space. It offers breakfast, lunch dinner and afternoon tea with a
contemporary twist according to the need of the customer.
The customers of Duke London expect a high quality service from this luxury hotel. The
hotel is dog friendly but the customers expect that hotel must become pet friendly by including

other pets also in their care service. The loyal customers expect the same level of warmth
treatment while taking the services from the hotel. It has been named as the best hotel in England
as it has created its own benchmark which every customers expect in order to avail the standard
quality in their services like food, housekeeping, etc.
TASK 1
Examine a DUKES LONDON customer’s service journey for arrival at the hotel and breakfast
the next morning.
The customer service refers to those services which a customer avails after paying for it.
It is usually the support which an organisation offers to its customers. Duke London offers
luxury service to its customers. There must be contactless check ins and check out service by the
hotel which makes their beginning of the journey easy and ensures that hotel has taken care of
Covid 19 protocols. The front level officers must welcome the guest with warmth and
enthusiasm to make them feel comfortable. The hotel can provide a pre arrival health and safety
questionnaire together with their temperatures check so that their health condition is known to
the hotel. There must be contactless payments available at the reception for following the social
distancing rules.
When the customer check in to its room, the staff must familiarise the guest with the
hotel and its 110 year old heritage. The Duke London has assured its customers with providing
technology based services like WiFi, Bluetooth speakers, Flat screen TV and many more which
must be regularly sanitised. The non essential items must be removed and the essential items
must be sanitised regularly after every use. The hotel provides room to its customer according to
their preference, subject to availability where they can walk in to rooms and balconies in order to
select the room of their choice. The hand sanitisation station must be installed at all common
areas, rooms and lobbies in order to ensure the cleanliness and hygiene.
The breakfast service is offered from 7am to 11am on regular basis. During this
pandemic. proper hygiene and food safety standards must be maintained and and the staff
included in food and beverage outlet should be limited to adhere guidelines of social distancing.
The buffet option in breakfast should be totally avoided and room service breakfast shall be
encouraged.

Describe the physical evidence of the service journey
Physical evidence refers to the front area of the hotel which the guest sees. It must be
attractive enough to attract the potential customers. It includes the space, décor, interior,
furniture, etc. which the customers sees.
The Duke London has a luxury décor with high quality elegant interiors which attract the
customers. The refined furnishing of the hotel is the key for attracting guests. The luxury in the
furniture and décor is visible to make the hotel different from others. During this pandemic, the
hotel must encourage maximum sanitisation in its lobby where customers visit the most while
going in and out the hotel. The use of lift must be avoided and stairs must be encouraged in order
to adhere the social distancing norms.
The front level staff must be limited to ensure social distancing and for managing the
health club of the hotel, it must be for private members so that possibility of spreading the
infection is minimised. Training in private areas must also be encouraged.
The high touch areas like sitting space in lobby, lifts, reception area, public wash rooms
must be sanitised regularly whenever needed. While vacating the rooms, immediate sanitisation
in the rooms by the housekeeping teams must be promoted and an ozone machine must be placed
at each room before the arrival of guest to ensure them of the cleanliness.
The housekeeping staff should wear PPE kits and must not come in direct contact with
guests. Whatever item is to be provided to the customer must be kept outside the room and guest
must take it to avoid direct contact.
Identify the “On Stage” interactions (touchpoints) with team members
On stage interactions appears when front line staff directly communicate with the
customers face to face. Duke London has the front line staff in areas like reception, room service,
housekeeping, mangers and waiters in restaurant and bars, etc.
Every department of the hotel works in team which consists of team members. The front
line staff interact with their team members using formal communication in order to maintain the
decorum of the hotel. The workforce interact with the customers politely and formally. During
this pandemic the staff must ensure sufficient social distancing with the guest and follow all
protocols of government.
Nowadays the major concern for all hotels is health and safety so that staff at front desk
must follow protocols like regular sanitisation, change of surgical gloves, wearing masks and

even social distancing between all the employees. The multi skilled staff must be positioned in
front so that there is less need of regular staff. The Duke London must encourage use of
digitalisation where all details of customers are taken electronically to save the time and the hotel
is able to adhere the social distancing.
The staff must be encouraged to divide themselves in teams to assure touch free
interactions among each other and with the customers.
Identify the “Back Stage” interactions
Back stage interactions appears when those staff which does not come in contact with
customers communicate with their team members. These staff include kitchen personnel,
engineering department, accounts team, linen staff and many more. While interacting with their
team members, they use formal as well as informal communication. And when a situation
persists and they have to communicate with customers, they use formal communication.
In Duke Hotel, the kitchen staff must be in limited number to follow the social distancing
norms. They must wear masks, surgical gloves and other safety things in ensure hygiene in food.
The kitchen appliance must be cleaned regularly in order to maintain cleanliness. The staff must
be trained to use less communication and contact in order to ensure hygiene. Proper cleaned
bedsheets and covers must be provided in the rooms which must be changed everyday. The Duke
Hotel must ask their back stage staff to come in shifts so that there is no overcrowding.
The finance and engineering department must involve important staff in their daily
working so that social distancing is followed and work must be divided into teams so that
minimum communication is required between them.
Apply the knowledge to a service blueprint diagram and include customer emotions, the line of
interaction, the line of visibility and the line of internal interaction

Service blueprint is defined as the tool which is used by the hospitality companies for managing
the rate of customer satisfaction. They are very time consuming and expensive methods for
planning out any kind of customer related problem. There is need to increase the customer
relationship so that people can be more engaged towards the company. There is need to manage
and develop effective services for creating awareness of the service provided by the company.
There is need to provide a proper service blueprint that will allow help in managing the whole
process effectively. Service blueprint is a process which is used for managing and drinking
people as well as teams across the entire organization for working upon specific goals and
objectives this is known as a strategic tool which is used for collectively using a empathy tool.
This is involved in mapping out organization technology for creating alignment and
understanding. It is reminded that employees have to manage the customer focused point of view
in order to manage the larger process. Sorry there's establishment of opportunities for continuous
improvement. There are several map based diagrams which are becoming weakness or failure
used in basis of process which has to be refined. There is need to inform the service design
decisions establishment of creating points of shared interactions between customer and
employees. There are also showcasing of customer experience value and encouraging the
rational approach for service design. The visibility best mapping has to be involved in making

common sense decisions for customers and seeing them how employees can interact with
customer and enhance the service decisions. service blueprint is helpful inmanaging the
assessment of how a business can invest in different processes are touchpoint. It is seen that what
are the processes used for creating duplicate services, teams and how they can map out the
suggestions are done for efficiency and cost saving measures for stop there's need for offering a
rational to internal and external marketing teams which have to be hired in order to maintain the
customer service. The managers and frontline workers are enabled for managing better
communication in order to the customer Experience. There is need to improve quality of service
which can be shared responsibility of employees to communicate with the customers in
appropriate manner by improving the communication across different channels.
service blueprintAre involved in sorting various shapes and sizes and this will include quick
sketches which provide heavy illustrated visual representations. these are These are dependent
upon Dependent upon managing internal tools for shared understanding and external tools for
leadership management. There are several service blueprint for Manager customer action which
are used for making customer journey map. These are used for take care extracting choices, steps
activities and interactions which are involved in reaching customers reaching customers In
appropriate goals and objectives. There are different actions involved in managing customers and
usually managing human to human interaction. There's need to manage behind the scenes
activities for supporting frontstage activities. There is need to manage the customer relation so
that organisational goals and objectives are achieved in proper manner.
Delivery plans will help take a stroll-through some situations to avoid the least desirable result
for a restaurant manager audience, such as limiting capacity in limited space or handling
customer traffic during operating hours.
For either an audience of frontline employees, strategic plans may help ...
Establish consistency across consumer preferences and employee requirements, such as
calculating how long it'd take around each service encounter to wash away and sanitise a decent
food. There is need to manage the customer service in effective manner for developing the
strategic plans and process.

CONCLUSION
From the above report, it is concluded that customer service management is an essential
practice for he hospitality industry so that customer loyalty is maintained. In order to know what
customer wants or expect, it must make an effective strategy for managing the customer service.
Duke London ensures that it follow its global customer trend like maintenance of quality in order
to attract its demographic customer targets. The blueprint for improving the customer service in
the times of Covid will help Dukes London to grow and succeed in the market and to attract the
potential customer.
During this pandemic, the social distancing measures are essential to follow so that the
hotel Duke London does not violate the government protocols.
Consequences of social distancing measures in relation to timings is that now Duke
London is serving less people in more time due to following the social distancing measures
which has affected the profitability of the hotel. The cost for per day in serving the customers
have increased due to engagement of sanitisation stations, temperature check machines and many
other things and on the other hand less customer are served while the money is spend in the same
ratio.
In relation to metrics, the consequence of social distancing measures is that the collection
of data of each guest with filling complete details of it has become a difficult task. Moreover,
analysis of that data has become tough due to decrease in the number of customers.
In relation to regulations, the consequence of social distancing measures is that strict
regulations are framed in hotel which are on trial basis. Duke London is changing its regulation
with changing of situation in order to maintain strict social distancing.
Following are the recommendations for Duke Hotel to implement the social distancing
measure which includes, Duke Hotel must decrease its number of staff on front desk to ensure
social distancing and avoid over crowding. The hotel must encourage digital payments and
bookings so that there is less direct contact between the staff and customers. The hotel can open
the elevators for maximum 2 people at one time who know each other so that social distancing is
maintained or may encourage use of staircase. Apart from this, the hotel can decrease the sitting
space by opening alternative space for people to ensure social distancing. In Duke London, the
staff must be divided into teams so that there is minimum communication between them and
workforce must be arranged to come in different shifts to prevent overcrowding.

Recommendation
There are several recommendations made for London hotel in order to manage the different
processes involved in managing customer service. Some of the points are mentioned below -
 Support processes: these are used in managing series of steps and interactions which are
used for supporting employees file delivering or service to the customer. It is
recommended that several processes involved in increasing customer engagement and
involvement must be done in right manner.
 Physical evidence: it is panelised that interactions are actually happening in effective
manner and product as well as receipt are managed in proper manner for physical store
front, websites, etc.
 It is recommended for the Duke Hotel London that there are proper suggestions taken
from customers and they are provided effective services. There is need to manage an
effective service for controlling and monitoring the activities.
 In case of COVID -19, it is seen that social distancing is provided in effective manner in
the hotel area. This will help to maintain and develop effective services for planning and
managing the customers effectively. There is need to manage the services in proper
manner for completing the work and activities in proper manner.
 It is necessary for completely working in effective manner for controlling and monitoring
the services provided to the customers.
 It is recommended for this hotel that services are managed effectively for knowing what
are the effective services and tasks provided to the customers in order to provide effective
customer satisfaction.

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