Bishop's Gate Hotel: Enhancing Customer Service and Satisfaction

This report explores customer service strategies at Bishop’s Gate Hotel, focusing on policies, communication methods, and customer perception. It evaluates the reasons for using customer service policies, their impact on future recruitments, and the effectiveness of various communication approaches. The report also analyzes how customer service influences customer perception and assesses information sources for understanding customer requirements and satisfaction levels. A presentation is included, detailing research on customer needs and potential improvements for hospitality organizations, along with a role-play scenario demonstrating customer service delivery. The report concludes with a review of personal performance and recommendations for enhancing customer service operations at Bishop’s Gate Hotel.

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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industry grooms its top employees with their high turnover improves the consistency and also
enhances and develops its workforce.
IV. The employees working in this industry faces a very high amount stress. This is because
during their working hour they face numerous customers. Every customer has a different attitude
and needs and to satisfy that need the employees faces a very high amount stress. The employees
will be better in dealing with these kind situations that have undergone the course of stress
management provided by their company. So again the importance of proper training is justified
at this point.
V. The employees can remain competitive when they are exposed to ongoing training and
development process. The hospitality industry is evolving constantly at a very fast rate. A
company in this industry can beat its competitor by developing the skill of the most expert
employees. When the employees give a frequent visit to their training of customer service and
learn how to handle both positive and negative situations they go through while satisfying a
customer the organisations will have steady growth in their profit margin.
Unless and until the employees working in hospitality industries are not given proper training
they cannot provide the best service to their customers. Apart from training, it would be better
for the organisation to hire new staffs that has a natural tendency to serve others (Jha et al. 2017,
p.32). Then by proper training those attributes be sharpened greatly. If the company hires
apathetic staffs and also unable to provide them with good training the customers won't be
satisfied and the company will earn a bad reputation in the market. The unhappy customers will
discuss their bad experience and the company will have to deal with a lesser number of
customers, which is a very bad news for them.
To measure the success of the training the organisation can be analysing the experience of the
customers through surveys. Another way can be creating opportunities for reviews through social
media.
Task B: Communication as well as information research
2.1) Evaluation of the various communication methods (ref. 2.1)
Mobile communication: This type of communication has brought a great change in a
communication field. The hotel managers could use various mobile apps like MMS and SMS for
communicating to the customers (Vaishnavi and Kuechler, 2015, p.44). The customers would be
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informed about any type of offers available within the organisation through a message. The
managers would also be able to receive their feedback through messages, which would be
helpful for the hospitality organisation to improve their customer service by reducing the
prevailing flaws.
Social media: Albers and Mazur (2014, p.44) opined that social media has become the best way
of communication among all the other communication methods. This is due to the increasing
popularity of this media and increased engagement of people within this media. With the help of
this media, people are able to communicate with family and friends effectively. Therefore, social
media is used by hospitality organisations for communicating with the customers (Phillips and
Phillips, 2016, p.44). The management of Bishop’s Gate hotel would communicate with the
customers as well as other people effectively through this media. Feedback of the customers
would also be received effectively and assure them to provide better service. The management of
the hospitality organisation would use attractive catchphrase in the social media pages along with
attractive images providing information about the products and services. This strategy would
help in improving brand image and increase customer satisfaction level.
Websites: This is another method of communication through which the management of the
hospitality organisation would be able to communicate with the customers by developing their
own official website, which would provide details on the various types of services offered by the
organisation (Tillack and Borgstede, 2013, p.368). The management would also the websites for
conducting live chats with the customers. The website would contain a pop-up chat box through
which the customers online would be able to talk to the customer service representatives online.
Through this communication, the customers would be able to receive accurate information about
the type and price of the services provided by the Bishop’s Gate hotel. Preskill and Russ (2015,
p.44) opined that The customers would also be able to share their grievances regarding the
quality of services and provide their valuable suggestions.
Video call: Live video chat is considered as a great opportunity for the various hospitality
organisations to communicate with the customers (Moorhead et al. 2013, p.85). This
communication is able to build a good relationship between the Bishop's Gate hotel and
customers, as it provides a sense of immediacy. Talking through video call is almost equal to
talking face-to-face. Lundgren and McMakin (2013, p.44) observed that This communication
method helps in building trust among the customers sometimes, facial expressions might be
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misunderstood while talking through telephones and create misunderstanding and hence reduce
the customer satisfaction level. Through this communication method, this problem would be
solved giving no room for misunderstanding.
Automatic call back option: Customers despise of waiting for longer time on holding the phone
to talk to a customer service. With this facility, the organisation would make sure the customers
do not have to wait a longer time to hold the phone (Vanclay 2015, p.1236). A new feature
would be installed called automated callback feature, which would enable the customers in
hanging up the phone. The system would allow generating an automated call to the customer one
a customer service representative is free to receive the call. Installing this feature within the
system is very easy.
24-hour customer support: The customers should be provided with 24 hours customer support
number that would be available all day and allows them to talk to a customer service
representative at any time of day (Grönroos and Voima, 2013, p.133). This service affects the
business largely in improving the customer satisfaction level. Providing the customers with this
service would show the dedication of the Bishop's Gate hotel in providing best service to the
customers.
Post-sale emails: Grönroos and Gummerus (2014, p.229) opined that after the customers
purchase products or services from the organisation, the organisation would also send emails to
the customers asking their experience about their purchase and rating their service regarding
their service. Advanced technologies have made these facilities cost-effective and do not require
sending money (Jaakkola and Alexander, 2014, p.247). Sending these messages show the
customers that the organisation value their presence and care for them. Through these messages,
the Bishop's Gate hotel would assure the customers to provide them best service quality and
invite them to communicate with the organisation. This communication method helps in
sustaining the relationship among the customers and the brand.
Effective communication would enhance better understanding within the employees and the
work processes are understandable to everyone. This would actually make better business
activities and team effort.
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2.2) Analysis on the influence of customer service on the customer perception
(ref 2.2)
The hospitality industry, especially the hotels are highly dependent on service quality offered to
the customers. If a hospitality organisation offers better and superior quality of service to the
customers in comparison to the other organisations within the hospitality industry, customers
tend to choose the organisation offering the best service quality. Therefore, it is very important
for the hospitality organisations to provide best service quality to the customers within the
organisation (Saeidi et al. 2015, p.341). On the contrary, in case the Bishop’s Gate hotel is not
able to provide better service quality to the customers, the perception of the customers would
also be reduced. Therefore, it could be said that the real strength of a hospitality organisation lies
on the perception of the customers after receiving the service. If the perception of the customers
is negative towards the Bishop’s Gate hotel, the customers would choose another hotel offering
better customer service. This would reduce the perception of the customers towards the
organisation. Customer service has a great importance in an organisation for improving the
perception of the customers (Beneke et al. 2013, p.218). Through customer service, the
organisations are able to communicate with the customers. Customers are having various cultural
aspects which doesc depend to the buying behaviour. The customer service of Bishop’s Gate
Hotel should provide best service quality to the customers, which would improve the customer
perception towards the hotel and hence attract the customers.
The way a business has been perceived by the customers would determine the success level of
the organisation. Especially the hospitality organisations should spend most of their profit in
improving the customer service quality (Gu and Ye, 2014, p.570). The hotel should provide
effective training to its employees to provide them additional knowledge and skills, which would
help them to improve their performance towards the customers. Effective customer service has a
great influence on the improvement of customer perception. Customers are the main stakeholders
who are depended upon by the business organization. Providing good service to the customers
possess severe challenge to most organisations, as there are numerous competitors in the market.
Tucker (2013, p.44) opined that different customers have various types of demand, which should
be understood by the organisation and perform service accordingly. Considering the preferences,
expectations and requirements of the customers bring positive perception towards the
organisation and build a sense of trust. These factors are able to change as well as the perception
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of the customers in favour of the organisation. Customers generally have access to much
information, through which they are aware of the variety of products available in the market and
choose the best among them. The organisation that is able to provide products according to their
requirements would be chosen by the customers. With the increase of the market for the
hospitality industry, the urge to attract the customers have also increased, resulting in increased
difficulty in retaining the customers within the organisation (Claycomb and Martin, 2013, p.44).
Another challenge for the organisations is that very few customers stick to a particular brand for
a longer time and tends to change the brand after some time. Therefore, it has become really very
difficult for the organisation to retain the customers.
Influencing customer perception has become a crucial part of business as well as market
reputation. It is very important for the organisation to differentiate themselves from the other
organisation in the same industry through the quality of services as well as products. Only if
Bishop's Gate hotel is able to offer the best service to the customers, the perception of the
customer would increase and they would choose their services and products over the other
organisations.
The quality of the services could be measures based on the following parameters:
 Reliability
 Tangibility
 Empathy
 Assurance
 Responsiveness
Therefore, if the service quality of Bishop’s Gate Hotel is able to meet the parameters, the hotel
would be able to build positive customer perception. On the contrary, if the hotel fails to deliver
or provide the expected quality of service to the customers, it would be difficult for the
organisation to meet the parameters and as a result, the perception of the customers would grow
negative.
1.3) Assessment of the information sources on the requirements and
satisfaction level of the customers (ref 3.1)
For achieving success within the service industry, it is very important for the organisation to
fulfil the requirements as well as expectations of the customers. Various hotels also come under
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the service industry, which increases the importance for Bishop's gate Hotel to fulfil the
customer's expectations. If the hotel is able to fulfil the expectations and requirements of the
customers, the organisation could attract more and more customers and increase their customer
base. Hence the hotel would also be able to gain huge sales profit enabling the organisation to
grow. On the contrary, in case the Bishop’s Gate Hotel would not be able to satisfy the
requirements as well as expectations of the customers, the organisation would lose the potential
customers along with the new customers.
Sources of information:
There exist several information sources for an organisation to access relevant information related
to the requirements as well as expectations of the customers:
Customers: Customers are considered as the main source of information for gathering
information about the productivity of the organisation (Martínez and Bosque 2013, p.89). The
customers are the people who experience the products and services of the organisation and know
about the quality of the products. The manager of Bishop's gate hotel would ask the customers
personally about their experience after using the products as well as services. The customers
would provide information about their level of satisfaction with the services and if their
requirements, as well as expectation, have been fulfilled.
Staff members: The staff members would also provide information about the customer’s
requirements as well as satisfaction level to the management of the hotel; they are the ones who
interact directly with the customers. They would provide accurate information about the
requirements and satisfaction level of the customers.
Management: The management of the organisation would provide information about what
would be the strategies for improving the customer service.
Customer records: The record of the customers provides information about the number of
regular customers as well as the type of customers that prefer the products or services offered by
the hotel.
Feedback of customers: The valuable feedback of the customers allows the organisation to
know about the perception of the customers about the products or services offered by the
organisation (Wu et al. 2014, p.1647). The existing flaws in the products, as well as services,
could be known through this source along with the requirements and satisfaction level of the
customers.
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