Hospitality customer service case study sample

Part I: Questions

Question 1: The four core tools for service excellence delivery include taking care of the employee needs simultaneously. This could include provision of good and right training for employees, providing employees with a good compensation that is proportionate with the work done, retention of employees through provision of job security and lastly hiring the right employees to do the right job based on their skills. All these components must be implemented simultaneously. These could be illustrated as below:

Question 2: A service philosophy is the

According to Hoffman and Bateson (2001), a service philosophy is the definition of the services that the customer is purchasing from a restaurant or a hotel and it is captured by the mission statement and vision statements of different firms in the hospitality industry. The service philosophy answers the question on what the firm does and how it does it. Development of the service philosophy for an organization requires inclusion of employees whole are involved in the delivery of the services to the customers. While developing a service philosophy, it is necessary to ensure consistency in the service standards.

Question 3: Service Standards and their Significance

These are the behaviors that are designed to accompany the service philosophy. They are developed at the same time of service philosophy development and they form the rules of employees as they engage with the customers.

Question 4: Service Mapping

This is the layout of how the service has to be delivered to the customers of the restaurant. Mapping outlines the steps to be undertaken in implementation of the services. This could be through excellence of the steps undertaken and ensuring that employees, who are responsible for implementing them are accountable for effective implementation.

Question 5: “ Everything Speaks”

On a daily basis, employees utilize this checklist to review and check everything for the organization. It evaluates the physical environment of the property and what the customers see in the property. The review of what is seen is through the lens of the customer.

Question 6: Monitoring speaking equipment

A survey can be used to monitor every speaking person in the firm beginning with employees to consumers. Conducting a survey will provide the employer with employee needs and customer needs that are to be met for effective productivity of the restaurant.

Question 7: Service Profit Chain

This is a chart that indicates how profit is generates in the service industry. The profit chain shows that effectiveness can be attained when there are supporting processes for internal service quality and employee satisfaction. Through employee satisfaction and retention, external service value is achieved and it results to profit to the restaurant as illustrated below.

Question 8: Internal and external customers

Internal customers comprises of employees working for the restaurant and are in direct contact with the customers. On the contrary, external customers are clients of the firm that consume the services of the firm as well as the food. While internal customers (employees) provide the services, external customers consume the services (Hoffman & Bateson, 2001).
Question 9: Employees are considered a form of customer to the firm because they also have needs just like the external customers and the needs have to be met by the firm. Their needs could include a good compensation as well as retention that is significant for their satisfaction and effectiveness, which is necessary for generating revenue for the organization.

Question 10: Feedback

Obtaining feedback from both types of customers could be through observation. Employees can observe and question the customers when they come in direct contact with them. Given that customers are likely to react poorly to less than genuine questions, it is possible to collect feedback through holding a conversation with the customer. The management and employees should have cues on when the customers need a conversation and when they do not. Feedback from internal customers (employees) could be collected through observations made by the management as well as holding conversation with the employees. The collected feedback from external customer is significant in understanding customer needs. Feedback from employees helps the management to understand employees’ needs and what can satisfy employees so that they can improve their performance.

Part II: Communication

Question 1: Components of effective communication
Communication is a significant aspect in the interactions that take place between different people including employees and customers. The significant components of communication include active listening, approach and timing of communication, clarity and development of evidence to support the conversation.

Question 2: Stages of understanding are;

– Awareness
– Awkwardness
– Assimilation
Awareness: is a significant stage that involves the individual to communicate the idea by focusing on why the initiative has to be undertaken, what the initiative is supposed to accomplish and the people that the initiative would benefit. An employees’ training can only begin after employees are aware of the initiative.
Awkwardness: this phase occurs immediately after awareness since employees become awkward and it calls for effectiveness in the training. The training could be done well using stories of service excellence, coaching of employees, recognition of excellent employees and obtaining consistent feedback on the service initiative.
Assimilation: it is the last phase and it involves inculturation of employees with the way the service is offered being embedded in the culture of the firm. Therefore, employees employee this way in delivery of services to the customers.
Question 3: when the group reaches the assimilation phase the service improvement team changes hands with the changes being communicated to the employees. A simple ceremony recognizes the work of outgoing members and the incoming members of the team. The ceremony marks the how the transition should be handled (Lovelock & Wright, 2002).

Question 4: significance of communication

Even after everyone is on stage and assimilation stage is also done, communication is still vital since it highlights the unity of the restaurant and how employees should work as a team for the success of the restaurant. Through communication, employees will understand what to be done next. In addition, employees with questions could also ask.

Question 5: Role of training

Training serves as a way of increasing employees knowledge on how services should be delivered. Employees learn new skills on delivery of services. Training also helps in choosing members of a new service improvement team with the outgoing ones being rewarded for good work done.
Question 6: commitment to the training calls for all stakeholders of the restaurant beginning from the management, employees and the CEO. This involves attending all training sessions without missing any. It also implies that every member needs to play his or her role so that they all can work as a team.

Question 7: Types or levels of training

Executive: Executives training involves training of the top management of the restaurant on how to strategize and effectively manage the firm regarding service delivery.
Managerial: this level of training involves training of the management staff of the firm on best management skills for service delivery.
Front line: This involves segmentation of the employees into groups such as employees that are in direct contact with customers and those that are not.
Question 8: Separation of guest contact employees from non guest contact employees is vital since it helps in determining the objectives of the training. For instance, guest contact employees would be taught skills of handling customers when they encounter them. On the contrary, non-guest contact employees’ training would focus on specific issues affecting the specific areas of specialization in service delivery. Therefore, grouping the employees into these groups would maximize the effectiveness of the training (Bhattacharjee, 2009).
Question 9: The CEO enhances the significance of the training and thereby calls for all employees involved to take the training seriously. The CEO continuously communicates the support of the management for the training and service delivery.

Question 10: New hire orientation

This is significant in service initiative because it highlights the objectives of hiring. The hiring orientation fits into service initiative since it enhances hiring employees with qualities that meet specific job description of the firm. For instance, a job specification that involves contact with employees would call for hiring employees with such qualification. Hiring an employee without such qualities would result in underperformance.

References

Bhattacharjee, C. (2009). Services Marketing. New Delhi: Excel Books India.
Hoffman, D. & Bateson, J. (2001). Essentials of services marketing: concepts, strategies & cases. (2 ed.). Stamford: South-Western.
Lovelock, C. & Wright, L. (2002). Principles of service marketing and management. (2 ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.