Strategies for Enhancing Customer Service in the Hospitality Industry

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Enhance customer service experiences
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Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
Assessment A1..............................................................................................................................4
Question Answers......................................................................................................................4
1.................................................................................................................................................4
2.................................................................................................................................................4
4.................................................................................................................................................5
5.................................................................................................................................................5
6.................................................................................................................................................5
8.................................................................................................................................................6
9.................................................................................................................................................6
10...............................................................................................................................................6
11...............................................................................................................................................6
12...............................................................................................................................................7
13...............................................................................................................................................8
14...............................................................................................................................................9
15...............................................................................................................................................9
Assessment A2............................................................................................................................10
Profile Customer and Anticipate Needs...................................................................................10
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................13
References..................................................................................................................................14
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Introduction
The main purpose of this report is to show the importance and advantages of enhancing
customer service in the success of any organization in the sector of hospitality. This report
shows several techniques and methods in order to provide the best services to the customers
and fulfill their needs. There are several techniques which are discussed in this report which can
be implemented in order to overcome all the challenges faced by the customers in the
hospitality sector and also various methods to enhance the customer's retention rate in the
organization.
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Assessment A1
Question Answers
1.
In the field of Hospitality Management one encounter with different types of customers who
have different demands. Their basic needs may depend upon their rational behavior. However,
customers of the hotel are mainly interested in clean rooms available at budget-friendly prices.
The basic needs of food, proper water supply, all-time electricity, television access, Wi-Fi
facility, etc. have become essential for the people who visit the hotels for their comfortable stay.
Apart from this many customers ask for special services such as the arrangement of business
meetings, specialized decorations, personal food facility, birthday celebrations, and many more
(Kandampully, et. al., 2015). The services are customer focused and proper communication is
made with the customers in order to increase the number of customers and positive feedback
from their end.
2.
The hospitality sector is a field where services are provided to the customers of the business. A
number of services are offered to the customer in the hotel industry among which some are
described below:
 Room stay facility: The basic facility provided by the hotel industry is room stays. The
hotel provides a clean and organized room in order to attract a large number of
customers to their hotel.
 Food facility: Another aspect of the basic facility includes food services. Hotels
provide restaurant services, lounge services, and also the room services which fulfills
the need of customers and motivate them to select the particular hotel (Radojevic, et.
al., 2015).
 Wi-Fi network facility: In the present scenario, every work is done with the help of the
internet and the number of customers staying in the hotel needs to access the
internet. That is why a Wi-Fi network has been set up in the hotel to make
customer's stay comfortable and enjoyable.
 Party arrangements facility: Depending on the customer hotel also make
arrangements for party and celebrations.
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 Transportation facility: There is a need for transportation services for all the
customers who may be traveling from different part of the country or the globe.
Extension of transportation facility increase the customer responses to the business.
3.
Different types of ad on services are available in the area of business which is provided to the
customers according to the need and demand of the customers. Some of the advanced services
are as follows:
 Entrance to events, festivals and entertainment schedule during customer stay at the
destination,
 Upgraded accommodation and flights,
 Storage for luggage after checkout, etc.
The customers need to pay for the additional services demanded by them. However, if the
customer takes more than 2 or 3 services as a packaged deal then the customer is benefited
with different types of services in a single inclusive cost (Zaibaf, et. al., 2013).
4.
The selected add- on advance service is the entrance to events, festivals and entertainment
schedule during customer stay at the destination. This is one of the services in which most of
the customers are interested in. Customers generally use the hotels day when they exploring a
particular city or destination.
By educating the customer about the major celebrations or events happening in the city and
assisting them in becoming part of that event.
By highlighting the attractive areas of the event or entertainment schedule to the customer
depending upon their interest and offering the packaged deal with the particular service (Kim, et.
al., 2015).
5.
The hospitality industry is customer-focused and every business wants to satisfy the needs of its
customers. To provide better services to the customer one needs to know the types of services
needed or required by the particular customer. For anticipating the need of customers there are
different methods and tools with the management. Some of them are provided below:
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 Communicating with the customers about their purpose for stay and preferences of
choices.
 By going through the forms by the customer at the time of booking the hotel helps to
know better about the requirements of the customer.
 Observation of customer behavior is helpful in anticipating the needs of the customer as
the experience in the industry helps the employees to do so.
6.
The packaged deals are offered to the customers because they are beneficial for both the
customers and the management. The customer gets a number of services at a limited price
where is management gets customers for their running services. Management plans packaged
deals for different category of customers (Marković and Raspor Janković, 2013). These categories
and the services of a package deal are based on the management's past experience and future
anticipations. When the customer selects a package deal he or she does get additional services
at the minimum prices which enhance the standard level of customer service.
7.
 Entrance to events, festivals and entertainment schedule during customer stay at
destination: The customer may have visited the place because of that special event or
festival. In such a case, customers are already aware and prepared of the entrance to
the events and don't need any add on services for the same. A lot of customers stays in
the hotel for business purposes and are not interested in any such events because such
events cost huge expenses to the customers.
 Storage for luggage after check out: A number of customers are not interested in storing
their luggage with the hotel after checkout. Generally, people check out from their hotel
with their luggage as the luggage contains the things of the basic needs. Also, a limited
number of customers actually uses this type of add-on services (Liat, et. al., 2014).
8.
The hospitality sector always aims at solving the customer's problems and issues. Some of the
assumed customer’s problems which require immediate solution are further discussed.
Therefore, the problems and their solutions are discussed below:
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 Incorrect pricing or quotes: The management should provide bifurcation for the cost
charged by them and should try to bring a balance between the demand price and
customer's expectation.
 Unmet expectations or problems or faults with a service: When the customer is
dissatisfied with the services provided to him then management should make efforts to
compensate it by providing free or discounted services, discount vouchers to attend a
future time or small gifts or special customer services (Gin Choi, et. al., 2013).
 Misunderstanding or communication barriers: In such case management should special
attention to the customer during the service period and should not repeat any service
mistake because of miscommunication.
 Delays or errors in providing services: It is completely an error on management's part
and in order to remove the dissatisfaction created in the mind of customer Management
should provide more services to the customers at a reduced or some of the services at
cost-free prices.
9.
Sometimes in the industry, the same types of problems occur again and again which disturbs
the management because of the same complaints. When such behavior is noticed in the system
management takes corrective action to rectify the problem as it reduces the efficiency of the
entity. For that, the management identifies the reason for recurring issue or problem and fix the
actual reason behind the problem (Bruns-Smith, et. al., 2015)
. The management also needs to convey his team about the importance of customer
satisfaction and hospitality management to ensure proper services in the future.
10.
Conflict may arise among the team of the employees or between a customer and an employee.
As a manager, one needs to solve any dispute or conflict occurring in their entity. To solve the
problem manager must communicate with the parties involved in the conflict. He should find out
the actual reason for conflict through verbal and non-verbal communication methods. In verbal
communication method, the manager personally asks the parties to communicate the reasons
and issues of conflict. Whereas in nonverbal communication, the manager gets to know the
issues by observing the situation and analyzing the conditions in the organization and casual
discussion with the other team persons (Cheng, 2013).
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11.
To promote the business and attract a large number of customer management brings different
initiatives and promotional items which help them in their service area. Some of the promotional
items or initiatives are as follows:
 Loyalty program: In loyalty program, the management provides its regular customer
different kinds of benefits over the new customers. These benefits include; reduction in
cost, additional services, special attention, etc.
 Handsomely packaged deals: The management provides an attractively packaged deal
to its customers in which they provide a number of services at a minimum price in order
to bring in new customers to try their services (Cheng, 2013).
 Discount earning schemes: Management launches different schemes to maintain the
interest of the customers in their services. In discount earning schemes, the hotel
provides a discount to its customers on the basis of points on by them by their stay in the
hotel.
12.
Feedback Form
Name: …………………………………………………………………………………
Address: ………………………………………………………………………………
Contact No.: ………………………………...………………………………………..
Rating 1 to 5 (5 for best services):
Comfortable Stay: ………………………………………………………………….
Food: ……………………………………………………………………………………..
Cleanliness: ……………………………………………………………………………
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Room service: ………………………………………………………………………..
Comment/ Feedback: ………………..
………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……..
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
……..
Special Preference: ……………….
………………………………………………………………………………………………
Suggestions:
………………………………………………………………………………………………
…………………………………………………………………………………………………………
…….
Thanks for your visit.
13.
The feedback form helps the management in developing a database of their customer. A
successful customer relationship is necessary for the hospitality sector because the customers
are of repetitive in nature in the hospitality sector more than any other industry sector (Sun and
Kim, 2013). By the help of feedback form, the management can maintain a good customer
relationship by sending greetings on special occasions and providing discounted special offers
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for them. This will increase the customer base of the hotel and will generate positive feedback of
the entity in the market.
14.
While working in the hospitality industry one encounters with different customers with special
needs or disabilities in their work area. These customer special requirements to be fulfilled in
order to complete the motive of best customer services. Some examples from the experience of
the work area are as follows:
 A person who has an injury in his leg will require some special item like, wheelchair to
easily and comfortably move and roam in the hotel lobby (Jones, et. al., 2014).
 Some old aged people requires a facility for 24/7 ability of a caretaker with them in order
to manage their general daily activities and purpose of stay.
 People often visit the place with their children and when the children are too young they
need child care facility from the hotel so that they can leave their children with them
while completing their purpose of stay in the city.
15.
There are some factors which should be considered while one is making compensation to the
customer as to ensure both, the interest of the business and customer satisfaction. These
factors are:
 Financial constraints of the organization: The organization should pay attention to the
financial constraints while compensating a customer. It should try to make a balance
between the expected customer's prices and business quotes.
 The profitability of the services: In order to compensate a customer, a company should
not let go of its profit element in the services as it is the main objective of any business.
It should, however, reduce its profit for the purpose of compensation.
 Healthy customer relationship: The compensation should be such that it brings
satisfaction to the customer so that a good customer relationship can be managed by
the business (Jones, et. al., 2014).
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Assessment A2
Profile Customer and Anticipate Needs
Anticipating the needs of the customers is to provide them with excellent support and services
so that the customers get satisfied and the trust of the customers is gained. The anticipation of
the customer’s needs is done in order to analyze the demand of the customer before the
customer expresses about it and this makes the customers feel great and the organizations gain
the trust of the customers (Ariyibi, 2013).
The whole management of the DoubleTree Club Houston apologizes for the type of behavior
shown by the members of the hotel and also apologizes for the problems and the issues faced.
The whole management department is very sorry for the shameful act conducted by the
members of the organization. The issues of such types are not ought to happen anymore and
also the organization has refunded the whole amount of money that you paid during the booking
process. The organization as greeting gesture has planned to provide a one day and night stay
at the hotel for free for both the customers and also the hotel would provide the food and an
outdoor pool party has been arranged for the following (Verma, et. al., 2013).
Mr. Tom Farmer and Shane Atchison from Seattle, Washington booked rooms in the
DoubleTree Club Houston with the help of their credit cards and the hotel accepted their
bookings because the rooms were subjected to get cleared on the same day during the early
mornings and the organization wasn't able to provide the rooms to both the tourists because of
the unavailability of the rooms in the hotel as the customers who were subjected to leave the
rooms, didn’t left the room and instead of that they increased the trip period and since they were
existing customers of the organization it was very difficult for the organization to ask them for
leaving the room and that is why the organization wasn’t able to provide rooms to both the
customers and due to lack of knowledge and unavailability of the managers at the position the
receptionist didn’t allow them to have the room as well as since the unavailability of managers at
that time became a great issue due to which the organization was unable to return the booking
charges to the customers (Ferreira, et. al., 2015).
The behavior that the members of the organization have shown was not acceptable and they
have been charged with the required penalties and the organization as a good and friendly
gesture providing a great deal for the customers. The organization asks the customers to stay
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back with the organization and accept the offer as a friendly gesture and provide the chance for
their hospitality to the DoubleTree Club Houston (Wilder, et. al., 2014).
Mr. Tom Farmer and Shane Atchison being very angry at the hotel management because of the
behavior shown by them and this has resulted in the hampering of the reputation of the
organization. The complaint raised by both the customers was morally valid and that is why the
organization is needed to resolve the issue and solve the moral problems that the customers
are facing.
The organization apologizes for the behavior of the night clerk because his behavior was really
the worst and the customers faced a lot of problems due to the night clerk. The attitude and the
carelessness of the night clerk Mike towards the customers were really very bad and because of
that the customers got angry and complained about the behavior of the clerk as well as the
whole organization and the organization thinks it was morally correct and that is why the
organization has also decided to develop backup plans for the customers who would not be
getting the rooms due to unavailability and provide them with small zip-pods so that the
customers also feel safe and doesn't face many problems. The implementation of this plan has
made it very easy for the customers because if they face problems then at a very minimal price
the organization would provide the customers with accommodation even at late night (Rahimi,
et. al., 2017).
The issue is very critical and is needed to be resolved because this can hamper the image of
the organization and also decrease the customer’s amount which could enforce negative effects
on the organization's profit scale (Ferreira, et. al., 2015).
The organization and the whole management is willing to invite the guests for a very beautiful
stay with the hotel and also the hotel is providing the customers with various facilities that the
customers deserve on behalf of the organization and also the organization is very happily
agreeing to welcome the guests to the hotel for better experience of the trip they have planned
for and also the hotel management has decided to provide both the customers with vehicle and
driver for the trip and the whole trip package is to be dealt with the organization (Verma, et. al.,
2013).
The hotel is trying to provide all the best facilities for the customers at the old booking price only
for making the customers feel at home and should not feel again like what they felt earlier and
also the hotel management ensures that the incident which happened to the duo would not
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