Quality Customer Service Strategies for Ritz-Carlton Hotel Report

This report provides an in-depth analysis of quality customer service within the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company, focusing on its expansion into Hong Kong. It examines the importance of measuring and managing service quality, emphasizing customer satisfaction and its impact on the hotel's performance. The report explores the adaptation of appropriate service quality management methods, including SERVQUAL, mystery shopping, and customer feedback systems. It also discusses the influence of leadership and social culture on front-line employees and their engagement. The customer feedback system framework is analyzed, highlighting its role in monitoring service quality and improving organizational performance. The report offers strategic recommendations for the Ritz-Carlton Hotel to enhance its presence in the competitive Hong Kong market, improve customer satisfaction, and achieve its expansion goals, utilizing various techniques to assess and improve service delivery.

Running Head: Quality Customer Service
Ritz-carlton hotel
Quality Customer Service

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Table of Contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Importance of measuring and managing service quality.................................................................3
Adaptation of appropriate service quality management methods....................................................6
Impact of leadership, social culture on front line employees, their engagement and managerial
implications......................................................................................................................................9
Customer feedback system (CFS) framework...............................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................15
References......................................................................................................................................16

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Introduction
In current period, customer satisfaction in the hotel industries has been a contemporary challenge
for the management of the hotels. Both the concepts have unique and significant impact over the
hotel’s performances and its survival in the competitive business environment. These two
concepts also impact the consumer behaviour which is a major factor responsible for hotel
industries’ growth and expansion. In this report, the significance of service quality will be
discussed in relevance to Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. It is an American luxurious hotel chain
which operates more than 98 luxury hotels and resorts in approximately 30 countries and
territories across the globe. The company was founded in 1983 and its headquarters is situated in
Maryland, United States of America. Currently it is owned by Marriott International. The
company is now planning to expand its hotel business in Hong Kong and management has
appointed a quality management consultant in order to adopt some innovative and effective
strategies through which organization could be able to develop its unique image in the target
market. Apart from this, it is the duty of the quality manager to analyse the market conditions of
the Hong Kong, customer behaviour and the basic requirements of the consumers through
various ways in terms of attaining the growth and expansion objectives of the organization.
Under this report, various segments will be discussed in terms of the organization through which
it can easily set up its effective presence in the Hong Kong’s hotel industry. In relevance with the
above objectives, newly appointed quality manager evaluate market conditions of Hong Kong in
terms of selecting the most appropriate strategy for improving the organizational performance.
The first activity of this report will be the analysis of managing and measuring service quality in
the hotel industry. As hotel industry is majorly based on service quality and customer

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satisfaction, hence, appropriate measures will be adopted in terms of increasing the
organizational performance in the international hotel industry. Further, the report will include
appropriate methods for improving the service quality management for the organization as this
factor will help the organization to attain its objectives and goals. Along with these aspects,
importance of the leadership, service-culture and employees and the managerial implications will
also be discussed under this report. The last part of the report will include the customer feedback
system which will be used by the management of the hotel for monitoring the service quality.

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Importance of measuring and managing service quality
Service quality acts as the dissimilarity between the customers’ expectations and the consumers’
perceptions. Customers’ expectations are the desires, want and needs from consuming a certain
product or service. Classification and the satisfaction are the two basic terms which defines the
customers’ requirements and needs and service quality rotates around these terms only. As
fulfilment of the customers’ needs and the requirements plays crucial role in terms of enhancing
the service rendering organizations. Perceptions can be defined as the customers' evaluation of
the service supplier (Alonso-Almeida, Rodríguez-Antón & Rubio-Andrada, 2012).
Ritz-Carlton Hotel is known for delivering best qualitative services to its consumers and they
have made their unique image as the excellent service provider with improved elegance through
which they have been counted in the contemporary luxurious hotels. The company has made the
customer satisfaction as their primary motive and they had achieved Malcolm Baldridge National
Quality Award for delivering the high class services to its customers twice in their career (Chen
& Hu, 2010). This shows the dedication of the hotel towards the customers and their needs. Ritz-
Carlton hotel is now counted in the five-star rating category hotels and it also provides various
opportunities to talented candidates for achieving the growth objectives through working with
the hotel. The Ritz-Carlton is famous for its consistency in terms of rendering the quality
services and their services remain constant and similar at all its locations. The company has
always struggled for improving the quality of service for improving its image in the competitive
business and to gain competitive advantage (Gazzoli, Hancer & Park, 2010).

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The Ritz-Carlton hotel has utilised its own resources along with its golden standards for
improving the quality of the service. As now, they are planning to expand their business in the
Hong Kong’s market which is also famous as the tourist destination. Thus, the chances for
attaining the desired goals and the objectives for the organization are quite high in Hong Kong.
Along with this, organization is known for their customer-centric objective; hence, tourists could
gain the qualitative and improvised services through Ritz-Carlton group of hotels in Hong Kong
(Goel, Tenon & Groove, 2012). Company’s standards for setting up the policies and regulations
for rendering quality services to its customers are credo, motto, employee promise, twelve
service values and three steps of service. These principles are the primary reasons through which
the organization has gained the brand image and without these principles, organization would not
be who it is. The company has also adopted the strategy of fair treatment to its employees in
terms of developing the relationship with them. This is another crucial factor through which
organization could develop its positive image in the customers’ as well as in employees’ mind-
sets. Fulfilment of employees’ needs and the demands help the organization to motivate them
towards the work (Ha & Jang, 2010).
Customers’ expectations are based on various sources such as mouth wording, past experience
and the personal requirements. Ritz-Carlton Hotel is known for delivering high-rated services
and this is the major reason customers’ expectations increases in relation with the Ritz-Carlton
hotel. Five-star rating category hotels are generally known for their customer satisfaction
methods and the quality of the services and products delivered by them. Thus, customers’
expectations are generally high with these hotels in comparison with the lower rating’s hotels
and resorts. Another factor responsible for customers’ expectations is the payments charged by

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the hotels (He, Li & Keung Lai, 2011). The more will be the charge; the high will be the
customers’ expectations with the hotel. Hence, it can be evaluated that the service quality is the
major factor through which hotels and resorts could attain the desired goals and the objectives.
The same factors will also be applied in the Hong Kong’s market by the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in
terms of increasing the opportunity for the hotel for gaining the competitive advantage along
with attainment of the organizational goals and the objectives. With the quality of the service,
customers’ will be able to match up with their standards of needs and the major need with
regards to an hotel are qualitative accommodation facility, best quality food, hygiene and
cleanliness in the hotel premises, appropriate parking facility for guests, instant room service,
instant response over the consumers’ queries and issues, etc. If all these factors will be included
in the organizational policies and standards, attainment of the goals and the objectives becomes
an easy and effective task. Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company would easily be able to set up an
effective position in the target market (Hyun, 2010).
For improving the quality of the service, Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company uses various strategies.
The most common strategy used by them is customer feedback system as this is the most
appropriate method through which the demands and the needs of a consumer could be analysed.
This also provides an idea to the organization in relevance with the effectiveness and the
efficiency of the services rendered by the organization to its consumers. Scope to enhance the
effectiveness and the efficiency of the organization’s services could also be measured with
customer feedback system (Kara, et. al., 2013).
Apart from managing the quality of the service of Ritz-Carlton Group of Hotels, significance of
measuring the same is also very crucial in terms of increasing the productivity of the

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organization. This also helps them to analyse the current goodwill of the organization in the
competitive business market. Hotel industry needs to follow certain rules and the regulations in
terms of maintaining the same quality of the service while it is also essential for improving the
organizational performance. Service quality could be measured through the customers’ reviews
and their feedbacks in relation with the quality of the service rendered by the organization.
Measuring the service quality is equally as important as the customer satisfaction. Importance of
service measuring methods is big as it helps them to identify the most possible ways to improve
the quality of the services (Karatepe, 2010). This also helps the organization to uplift the
organizational performance as this is the most crucial factor through which the customer
satisfaction could be attained. Hotel Ritz-Carlton has adopted certain techniques which could
help them to fulfil the customers’ needs and the expectations in relevance with attainment of the
organizational objectives. They are known for delivering high class and unique services to its
consumers in relevance with the organizational standards of services. Setting up the standards
helps the organization to conduct the functionalities of the in an effective manner and on the
basis of those standards. This will help them to enhance the organizational performance as well
as it is also essential to attain the desired goals and the objectives (Kassim & Asiah Abdullah,
2010).

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Adaptation of appropriate service quality management methods
Below are certain techniques and the metrics which are recommended to the Ritz-Carlton Hotel
Group for evaluating and managing the service quality:
 SERVQUAL: With the help of this method, organization could measure the subjective
elements of the service quality and with the help of outcomes obtained; organization
could adopt certain measures for improving the quality of the service. Survey method
could be used under which customers will be asked to rate the quality of the service
rendered by the organization (Keller, Parameswaran & Jacob, 2011). Following elements
could be used in terms of measuring the quality of the service:
 Reliability
 Assurance
 Tangibles
 Empathy
 Responsiveness
 Mystery Shopping: This technique is majorly used for hotels, retail shops and
restaurants. Apart from these outlets, it could also be utilised for any other concern as
well. Under this technique, undercover agent will avail the services of the hotel and on
the basis of the standards mentioned by the hotel; satisfaction level will be evaluated by
the undercover agent on the basis of SERVQUAL elements (Kim, O’Neill & Cho, 2010).
 Post service rating: Consumers are asked to provide certain ratings in relevance with
their experiences regarding the consumption of the rendered services by organization.
Under this technique, customers are also asked to provide comments and feedbacks for

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improving the quality of the service in the case where they felt disappointment. This
technique is used by the hotels, restaurants, etc. immediately after attainment of the
service and it also provides instant results (Kwok, et. al., 2017).
 Follow up Surveys: This method is used to ask the customers to rate the quality of the
services on emails, messages etc. This method is also known as the email survey method.
This is the best method from the customers’ perception because it provides space and
time to think about the service and its quality and along with this; it also provides them
the idea for detailed response which needs to be given to the organization (Law, Qi &
Buhalis, 2010).
 In-App Surveys: In-App survey is the method through which organization could attain
attains the responses of the through application without consumption of any service and
without any email (Li, Sanders & Frenkel, 2012). This may include a set of questions or
it may include only one question in relevance to rate the service quality of the
organization.
 Customer effort score: In this method, customers are rewarded for bad services and for
bad experience with the organization. Organization offers token for apologies and assures
its users for the best experience in the future. This method also develops a unique image
of the organization in the customers’ mind-sets (Liang, 2012). This realises the customers
that company is accepting its mistake and will take certain actions in order to improve the
particular service. This is majorly used by the online shopping websites, hotels,
restaurants, etc. in terms of increasing the trust level of the consumers as well as it leads
to building of customer relationship. It also acts the essential element in retaining the
customers for a long run (Lo, Stalcup & Lee, 2010).

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 Social media monitoring: Social media monitoring has been the potential method for
performing various tasks. This method has also helped the organization to attain its
objectives and the goals in an effective manner. With the rise in the demand and the users
of the social media platforms, this method has gained the momentum to be included as
the method for measuring the quality of the service. Social media tools are generally used
by the people to unleash their whole day’s frustration and the major element of social
media is Facebook, WhatsApp and Twitter. All these techniques plays crucial role in
terms of increasing the organization’s quality of service (Mantey & Naidoo, 2016).
 Documentation analysis: With the help of this approach, organization would identify all
the low rated responses by the consumers in terms of evaluating the issues faced by the
consumers. Amongst the responses, issues will be identified on the basis of majority,
service related concerns, organizational process related concerns, etc. With the help of
this analysis, appropriate measures will be adopted by the newly appointed manager to
resolve those issues in terms of improving the customers’ experience with the hotel
(Markovic & Raspor, 2010).
 Objective service metrics: This approach will help the organization to identify the areas
which could be improved through appropriate measures. Under this approach,
consumers’ will be asked to share their reviews, opinions and feedbacks on the price
charged by the organization, quality of the service in relevance with the price, satisfaction
level obtained from the service consumption, food quality, etc. Amongst these areas,
organization will analyse the factors through which the customers’ satisfaction level is
decreasing. This will help them to adopt the most appropriate technique in relevance with

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improving the services and its quality in order to match up with the expectation of the
organization (Mok, Sparks & Kadampully, 2013).
Above mentioned techniques are capable enough to extract the most appropriate results for
resolving the crucial aspect which could also enhance the performance of the organization
through uplifting the quality of the service. This is the crucial factor in the hotel industry as with
these techniques, organization could identify the suspected areas and the measures through
which those areas could be improved with the view to attain the sustainable growth in the
competitive business environment (Nadiri & Tanova, 2010). Apart from these measures,
organization could also adopt the total quality management techniques through which the quality
of the services and the products could easily be managed. This helps the organization to establish
a vital place in the competitive hotel industry at the global level. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Group is
present at the international level and along with their presence in more than 30 countries; they
have planned to introduce a new venture in the Hong Kong’s market with the view to attain the
growth and expansion objectives. The hotel is counted under the five star rating category and the
customers’ expectations with these category of hotels are bit high (P. Crick & Spencer, 2011).
Thus, to accomplish the customer’s expectations, organization needs to adopt above mentioned
techniques in terms of increase the quality of the service as well as to uplift the organizational
efficiency. Ritz-Carlton Hotel could also identify the appropriate measures available such as total
quality management system in the business environment in order to increase the effectiveness of
their services’ effectiveness (Pereira-Moliner, et. al., 2012).