Customer Service and Guest Experience in the Hospitality Industry

Running head: HOTEL GUEST APPEARANCE
HOTEL GUEST APPEARANCE
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Customer service
The operation of delivering services and products to customers both internal and external
through the exertion of employees or through purveying by efficient servicescape is called
customer service (Hudson & Hudson, 2012). Customer service is also defined by the
capability and the enthusiasm of the employees in order to deliver the services and products
to the customers in a way so that the unidentified and identified needs of the customers are
satisfied in order to garner appreciation and sanguine word of mouth for positive publicity
and for business returns (Hudson & Hudson, 2012)..
Customer service in context to the hospitality and tourism industry is to be hospitable to the
customers in order to exceed the expectations of the customers (Lu et al, 2015). According to
scholars, customer service is the positive experience that organizations provide with their
products and services for customer satisfaction and for the growth of the business and
customer loyalty (Kim,Vogt & Knutson, 2015). Customer service in respect to the hospitality
and tourism industry is an important aspect. The assistance provided by staffs or employees
to facilitate purchase by customers is known as customer service (Holmlund, Kowalkowski &
Biggemann, 2016).
Customer service has been defined in many ways however the primary factor that everyone
puts emphasis while describing customer service is customer satisfaction. Hospitality and the
tourism industry falls under the service industry and it is important for customers to be
satisfied in order to generate revenue and customer retention. Customer satisfaction is
directly proportional to the profit of the organization. The hospitality and tourist industry
highly depends on the disposable income of the customers as well as their availability of their
leisure time thus it is important for service industries especially hospitality industry to
provide premium quality services to their clients in order to make them feel special, provide
them with amenities that are usually unavailable to them without their demand and provide
them with an extraordinary experience that will pave way for customer satisfaction. A good
and extraordinary customer services can be highly beneficial for the organization as this leads
to garnering appreciation and a good name in the market that helps them in getting more
customers. Good customer service helps in spreading positive word of mouth; this is essential
and necessary as this paves way for a good reputation and also makes people come and try
the services. According to scholars most people choose services and products when they are
highly praised by their family and close friends (Liu & Lee, 2016). This becomes an
important factor that influences the decision of the customer or the client. Satisfied customers
also pave way for customer loyalty and retention. According to scholars good customer
experience makes the customers come back in order to avail the services which help the
organizations meet their goal of acquiring ultimate customer satisfaction and also helps in
generating profits (Magatef & Tomalieh, 2015). A good quality customer service helps in
gaining loyalty from the customers which helps an organization and a business in the long
run. In context to the hospitality industry many scholars have said that when a customer is
provided with good quality services in a hotel, customers become rigid in their decision of
trying new services and tend to go back to the same services that has successfully satisfied

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them making them coming back and paving way for customer loyalty (Ntayi, Balunywa &
Ahiauzu, 2019). Customer services is mainly described and reflected in positive light
however there are bad customer services as well that impacts organizations negatively
because of the failure satisfying customers. According to scholars many organizations have
failed to establish themselves because of the bad customer service that has resulted in
unsatisfied customers and negative reputation in the market (Litvin, Goldsmith & Pan, 2018).
Satisfaction is the key element of customer service especially in service industries and this
satisfaction contributes to the success of an organization.
Guest experience
Guest experience has been described as the interaction between the guest or the customer and
the organization. It is the combination of evoked emotions, stimulated senses and the physical
performance of an organization that are measured against the expectations of the guests
across all the memorable moments of contact (McColl-Kennedy, 2015). Guest experience is
considered to be the key factor in the service industry especially in the hospitality and
tourism industry. Good services provided by organizations pave way for the good experience
of the customers that make them feel wanted and happy. The hospitality industry needs to
provide premium services to their guests in order to enhance the customer service which
provides an experience worth remembering. Customers and guests remember all the
experiences be it positive or negative that has a deep impact on their mind which paves way
for the customers to make a perception on the basis of the services provided. In the service
industry the guests or the customers have power and the service industry is highly dependent
on them in terms of generating revenue. Guests and customers pay in order to get an
exceptional service that they do not receive in their daily lives thus it is necessary to make
guests feel extraordinary and provide them an experience that is indispensable and one which
they will never forget (Simons & Mahoney, 2016). Service industries need to make sure that
they provide them with good experience so that the customer or the guest does not regret
purchasing their services. Guest experience in today’s time has become the primary and most
important factor of the service industry.
Evolution of guest experience
Customer satisfaction and experience go hand in hand. The primary goal of the service
industry especially the hospitality and tourism industry is to attain customer satisfaction. The
hospitality and tourism industry in recent times has been putting emphasis on customer
experience and has been making extra effort in order to achieve that. The hospitality and
tourism industry has evolved over the years in terms of their infrastructure and also in terms
of their services. They have been putting a lot of effort in order to study the changes in the
society and the customers, assessing their current needs and make effective changes in order
to provide a new and extraordinary experience to the customers. There are three different
phases in the hospitality and tourism industry that are continuously evolving to cater to the
customers and enhancing their experiences.
Self service phase- Self service phase has become an important in the recent years and the
importance is increasing with each passing day. This is a phase where customers or guests