Managing Guest Service Quality in hotels.

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Managing Quality and measuring guest satisfaction

Managing Quality

Hotel industry has a fixed room inventory; hence the industry cannot focus on the products production. The industry can only work on improving their service quality.

Quality is the ability of a product or service to meet a customer's expectations for that product or service.

Before purchasing or using a product or service, customers always have their personal expectation about its performance. After buying or using a product or service, if the result is equal to or better than expectation, it means the expectation has positive confirmation. Whereas, with the increase in number of competitors, the organization need to improve their services from time to time.

Service quality in the hospitality industry becomes one of the most important factors for gaining a sustainable competitive advantage and customers? confidence in the highly competitive marketplace, and therefore service quality can give the hospitality industry a great chance to create competitive differentiation for organizations.

Dimensions of Service Quality

Performance indicates the performance in relation to the prime objectives of the product. The hotels primary characteristics are to have good rooms and nice food.

Reliability means how much you can rely on a product. It is the ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately.

Sahara Airlines, an upcoming domestic air carrier within India, has been striving to protect itself as a reliable airline. It hopes to differentiate itself from other airlines Indian Airlines. To protect this reliability, Sahara Airways has a scheme of full refund plus a coupon of Rs.3,000 to every passenger on delay of flights by more than 59 minutes.

Responsiveness:

It is the willingness of the Hotel staff to help customers and to provide them with prompt service. The customers may have queries, special requests, complaints, etc.

Example ? A customer calls room service to find out if they would pack a Jain lunch. It is not the hotel?s normal policy to cook such specialty and customised meals. However, the customer being very religious minded would be very pleased if the hotel could pack it for him to carry and eat. This may impose some strain on the kitchen. However, the hotel may be rewarded in two different ways if it agreed to provide the meal. The customer would be very pleased with the service and is very likely to recommend the hotel to his friends and acquaintances.

Assurance:

It defined as the ability of the company to inspire trust and confidence in the service delivery. This dimension is considered vital for services that involve high risk as customers may not be able to evaluate all the uncertainties involved in the process by them.

Example- Provision of Medical services to the guests, financial securities for credit card authenticity, legal affairs in relation to BTC Guests and Travel Agencies, etc., demand this service quality dimension.

Empathy

It refers to the caring, personalized attention to each customer. When service provider puts himself in the shoes of the customers, he may see the customer?s viewpoint better. When customers feel that the provider is making his best effort to see their viewpoint, it may be good enough for most.

Example, a lady customer with a young child arrives slightly late at the check-in counter and requests the agent for a seat along the aisle and near the toilet.

Even if all such seats have already been taken up, the agent and the airline may make even effort to request another passenger to exchange seats and meet the customer demand. The lady passenger would be delighted if her request could be honoured despite the last minute checking in, and even if she does not get such a seat, she would be grateful for their effort.

Tangibles:

It refers to physical facilities, equipment, and appearance of a service firm?s employees.

For Example:

Usage of best company machines, Highly qualified staff in an Hotel, etc

When a patient in the waiting room of a clinic sees the doctor?s certificate, he becomes aware of the quality of service he is about to receive.

Measuring Guest Satisfaction

In a hotel persistent quality standards results in loyal guests who use the services consistently and share this experience with acquaintances. Toda the hotels have realized the importance of regular guests and retaining these guests is one of the prime focuses of every hotel.

For the same purpose it becomes necessary for the hotel to understand the needs of expectations of the guest and utilize their valuable feedback for the continual development of their services and products. For a hotel to maintain their commitment to the quality of their products, the opinion of the guest is necessary. A few yardsticks of measurement taken up by the hotels to ensure guest satisfaction are:

Guest history card: A record of the guests who have stayed in the hotel is maintained by the front office department. This includes the guest name, address, contact number, room history, guest preferences. A complete record of guests likes & dislikes, any particular preferences or allergies etc are maintained. This process is helpful with respect to regular guests. The guest history card is a measuring tool for guest satisfaction and adhering to quality standards.

E.g. ? Mr. A is a regular guest of hotel XYZ. He prefers # 110and is allergic to feather pillows. The hotel FO and Hk staff checks the guest profile in the arrival list and takes care of his preferences during pre-arrival.

Guest satisfaction tracking system: A quarterly or half yearly tracking is done. A detailed questionnaire examining every service area of the hotel ranging from checkin, room hygiene, food and beverage quality, staff behaviour and attitude, timely delivery of services and products are covered. A percentage rating is achieved which is then used as a benchmark for future performance goals.

Lately, questions are asked from guests to rate the hotel against their competitors in the market. This allows the management to derive both internal and external rating of where the hotel stands in the market.

Internal Audit: Internal auditors, especially in chain hotels are sent from one property to another. The true identity of these auditors is withheld by the management. The auditors check in as guests, avail all the services of the hotel. An audit report is made by the auditors giving a percentage rating along with feedback of every operational department of the hotel. The departmental heads are responsible for presenting the audit report to their team members. A plan of action is made and put into immediate practice to overcome the stated discrepancies resulted from audit.

Mystery Guest: Similar to the internal auditor, an incognito auditor is hired by the corporate management to check the services and products of the hotel. Generally after every six months each hotel receives a mystery visitor to inspect the property and assess the personnel in relation to the predetermined service delivery standards. The hotels then receive percentage performance rating which is then used as a benchmark for future performance targets. For some hotels these ratings are the main criterion in the employee bonus and increment scheme. The auditor?s report is presented to each employee from entry level to managers. A plan of action is devised to overcome the shortcomings mentioned in the report.

Room Sales Department: The room sales department of the hotel plays an important role in collecting feedback from travel agents, corporate and forwarding it to the management for corrective actions.