chapter 3 guest service in the lodging industry foundations of lodging management, 2e david hayes ©...

Chapter 3Guest Service in the Lodging

Industry

Foundations of Lodging Management, 2eDavid Hayes

Learning Objectives

1. To define quality and review its impact upon the level of service provided by a lodging property.

1. To describe the concept of “moments of truth” in guest service.

2. To explain the important role of employees in consistently delivering guest service.

Learning Objectives

4. To explain the tactics managers use to help ensure guests receive quality service.

5. To present the basic guest service philosophy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company.

Quality: The consistent delivery of products and services according to expected standards.

Service: The process of helping guests by addressing their wants and needs with respect and dignity and in a timely manner.

The Importance of Quality Service in Lodging

Service Concerns

Points of service: Service is not the same as servility (to assist

someone who is of a better social class).

Properly addressing a guest's "wants" first requires defining what they value.

Service ConcernsValue: The relationship between price paid and the quality of the products and services received.

Employee-to-guest ratio: The number of employees relative to the number of guests. In the lodging industry, this is typically expressed in terms of employees per room.

Service ExpectationsImportant parts of a first impression include:

Minimal waiting time to check-in

A friendly welcome, including eye contact, a smile, and acknowledgment of your name

Accurate information about your reservation

Service Expectations

The proper type of room immediately available for you

Answers to your questions about the hotel and its services

Directions to your room

Commodity: A commonly available and most often unspecialized product.

Avoiding the Commoditization of Lodging Products and

Services

When buyers consider an item to be a commodity, the item’s price becomes its most important characteristic.

To avoid product commoditization and its downward pressure, hoteliers recognize the significant impact of service inconsistency and inseparability.

Avoiding the Commoditization of Lodging Products and

Services

Recipe ingredients for developing and implementing a quality service team:

1. Consider the guests being served.

2. Determine what the guests desire.

3. Develop procedures to deliver what guests want.

Ingredients in a Quality Service System

4. Train and empower staff.

4. Implement revised systems.

5. Evaluate and modify service delivery systems.

Consider the Guests Being Served

It is important for managers to know as much as possible about all of the guests being served.

Determine What the Guests DesireMethods for gathering guest preferences and desires include:

Managing by walking around

Comment cards (questionnaire)

Talking with guests as they check-out

Determine What the Guests Desire

Electronic surveys on the hotel's channel(s) in the guest room television

Asking line-level employees as they tend to have more guest interaction than their supervisors or managers

Supervisor: A staff member who directs the work of line-level (non-supervisory) employees.

Manager: A staff member who directs the work of supervisors.

To learn more, please visit:

www.satisfactionseryicesinc.com

Develop Procedures to Deliver What Guests Want

Benchmark: The search for best practices and an understanding about how they are achieved in efforts to determine how well a hospitality organization is doing.

Develop Procedures to Deliver What Guests Want

Cross-functional teams: A group of employees from each department within the hospitality operation who work together to resolve operating problems.

Train and Empower Staff

Empowerment: The act of granting authority to employees to make key decisions within the employees' areas of responsibility.

Train and Empower Staff

Before empowerment, staff must: Be trained

Be provided with the correct tools and resources

Above all, serve the guests

Implement Revised Systems

This involves:

Testing new strategies

Implementing the changes in an controlled environment

Roll out the revisions to all areas

Evaluate and Modify Service Delivery Systems

Easier to retain existing guests than to find new ones.

Comment cards address current guest concerns

Repeat Business: Guests who return to the property for additional times after their first visit.

The process of quality guest service is cyclical.

To see examples of the type of reviews posted, go to:

www.tripadvisor.com

Moments of Truth: Any (and every) time that a guest has an opportunity to form an impression about the hospitality organization. Moments of truth can be positive or negative.

Wow factor: The feeling guests have when they receive or experience an unanticipated extra as they interact with the hospitality operation.

Service and "Moments of Truth“

The Evolution of Service

Moments of Truth can occur either: Through planning

Or are spontaneous

Managing Moments of Truth

Word of Mouth Advertising: The favorable or unfavorable comments made when previous guests of a hospitality operation tell others about their experiences

Managing Moments of Truth

Zero Defects: A goal of no guest-related complaints established when guest service processes are implemented.

Accountability: An obligation created when a person is delegated duties/responsibilities by higher levels of management.

Service Delivery by Employees

The need for green practices and products are increasing in demand.

Lodging Goes Green!

Checklist to Maintain a Service Priority:

Recruit and select service-minded staff

Provide effective orientation and training

Supervise with a service emphasis

Empower staff with service authority

Emphasize continuous quality improvement

Management Tactics for Superior Guest Service

Recruit and Select Service-Minded Staff

Employer of choice: The concept that the hospitality operation is a preferred place of employment in the community for applicants who have alternative employment opportunities.

Turnover rate: A measure of the proportion of a work force that is replaced during a designated time period (month, quarter, or year). It can be calculated as:

Number of Employees Separated

Number of Employees in the Workforce

= Turnover Rate

Mission Statement: A planning tool that broadly identifies what a hospitality operation would like to accomplish and how it will accomplish it.

Provide Effective Orientation and TrainingCommon mistakes while planning for and presenting training programs:

Emphasize only skills-"how to" training, rather than emphasis on a service attitude

Short-change the length of training-misconception that "everything that must be learned can be taught on the job"

Supervise with a Service Emphasis

Managers should discuss service-related problems and mutually agree upon corrective action during times of performance appraisal.

Managers must role-model service.

Supervise with a Service Emphasis

www.businesstrainingworks.com

Empower Staff with Service AuthorityLodging managers empower their staff as they:

Share their service mission

Provide the training and other resources required to meet the needs of the majority of guests

Encourage staff members to help guests with out-of-the-ordinary service requests

Emphasize Continuous Quality Imporvement

Continuous Quality Improvement (CQI): Ongoing efforts within a hospitality operation to better meet (or exceed) guest expectations and to define ways to perform work with better, less costly, and faster methods.

Emphasize Continuous Quality Imporvement

www.hospitalityexcellence.com

Professional: People working in an occupation that requires extensive knowledge and skills in a specialized body of knowledge.

Licensing: Formal authorization to practice a profession that is granted by a governmental agency.

Lodging Property Staff Are Service Professionals

Registration: Acceptance for one to work within a profession that is (typically) granted by a nongovernmental agency such as an association.

Lodging employees provide superior service to their guests when they:

acknowledge guests and thank them for visiting

smile maintain eye contact reflect a genuine interest in providing

quality service consider every guest to be unique

create a warm environment of hospitality strive for excellence in guest service skills are courteous, polite, and attentive determine what guests really want and

need, and then provide products and services that address these wants and needs

pay more attention to guests than to machines and co-workers

invite guests to return

Certification processes typically identify the competencies required for job success, make available training resources that provide the knowledge and skills required for competency, and test to measure competencies.

www.ei-ahla.org

Malcolm-Baldridge National Quality Award: Award granted to U.S. businesses that demonstrate successful quality-related strategies relating to leadership, information/analysis, strategic planning, human resource development/management, process management, business results, and customer focus/satisfaction.

The corporate motto of Ritz-Carlton is: “We are Ladies and Gentlemen serving Ladies and Gentlemen”

www.corporate.ritzcarlton.com

chapter 3 guest service in the lodging industry foundations of lodging management, 2e david hayes ©...

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