Module 3 the guest experience

Chapter 3 The Guest Experience

Are Hotels Doing The Right Thing?

Chapter 3 The Guest Experience

Are Hotels Doing The Right Thing?

Chapter content:•CH 3: The guest experience

The service environmentService modelGaps in serviceSupplier-customer relationships and total quality

Why manage experiences?

The Cost of Poor Hospitality

• Service America! by Albrecht and Zemke).

• 96% of unhappy customers are never heard from.

• For every complaint received, the average company in fact

has 26 customers with problems, 6 of which are serious

problems.

• Complainers are more likely than non-complainers to do

business again with the company that upset them, even if

the problem isn’t satisfactorily resolved.

• The average customer who has had a problem with an

organization recounts the incident to more than 20 people.

• Customers who have complained to an organization and

had their complaints satisfactorily resolved tell an average

five people about the treatment they received. Copyright © 2007 by John Wiley &

Sons, Inc. All rights reserved

04/11/2023 5

Possible Levels of Customer Expectations (1/2)

Ideal expectations or desires

“Everyone says this restaurant is as good as one in France and I

want to go somewhere very special for my anniversary.”

Normative “should” expectations

“As expensive as this restaurant is, it ought to have excellent food and service.”

Experience-based norms “Most times this restaurant is very good, but when it gets busy the service is slow.”

HIGH

LOW

THE CUSTOMER…..

• Discuss Johnson and Layton’s quote “It is only through the eyes of a customer that definition of service quality can be obtained.”

Customer Defined

• A customer is the receiver of goods or services.– This involves an economic transaction in

which something of value has changed hands.

• Internal customers– Employees receiving goods or services from

within the same firm.• External customers

– Bill-paying receivers of work.– The ultimate people we are trying to satisfy.

• End user– Another term that describes customers.

CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE?

• Customer Expectations– Beliefs about ________________– Serve as reference points against

which performance is judged– In evaluating service quality,

customers compare ____________of performance with ____________

Customer Expectations of Service

We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of

dreams

The Service Environment

“Customers do not buy service delivery, they buy experiences; they do not buy service quality, they buy memories; they do not

buy food and drink, they buy meal experiences; they do not buy events or

functions, they buy occasions”

Flow Experiences

• Happiness• process of total involvement in life”• optimal experience”• the best moments of our lives”• the state in which people are so

involved in an activity that nothing else seems to

matter: the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost for the sheer sake of doing it”• Involves

stretch/difficult/worthwhile• Autotelic experiences –

intrinsic pleasures

THE SERVICE MODEL

Hotel Guest SatisfactionThere Were

No Guest Towels In

The Room !!

Don’t Call Me Late At

NightRestaurant

Service Was Slow !!

Listening To Your Guests

Happier & MoreSatisfied Guests=

Guest Will Complain SometimesWhy ??

Guest Perceptions

Guest Expectations

Occurs when guest perceptions does not equal their expectations. Reasons:

• Hotels Are Not Listening To Their Guests.

• Hotels Negligence Towards Guests.

Frequently Asked Questions About Customer Expectations

• What does a service marketer do if customer expectations are “unrealistic”?

• Should a company try to delight the customer?

• How does a company exceed customer service expectations?

• Do customer service expectations continually escalate?

• How does a service company stay ahead of competition in meeting customer expectations?

Customer Experience

Management

vs

Customer RelationshipManagement

Customer-Driven QualitySlide 1 of 2

Customer-Driven Approach

– Customer driven quality represents a

proactive approach to satisfying customer

needs that is based on gathering data about

our customers to learn their needs and

preferences and then providing products

and services that satisfy the customer.

Customer Experience Management…

Customer Centric

Give customers what they want

Business StrategyMake money and

beat the competition

…is the execution of a customer centric business strategy

Copyright © 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved

Dissatisfiers vs. Satisifiers

• Discuss Cadotte and Turgeon’s survey results.

1. Dissatisfiers – complaints for low performance, e.g. parking

2. Satisfiers – unusual performance elicits compliments, but average performance

or even the absence of the feature will

probably not cause dissatisfaction or complaints,

e.g. atrium type lobbies

Copyright © 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved

Dissatisfiers v. Satisfiers cont’d.• 3. Critical variables – capable of

eliciting both positive and negative feelings, depending on the situation, e.g. cleanliness, quality of service, employee knowledge and service, and quietness of surroundings

4. Neutrals – factors that received neither a great number of compliments nor many complaints are probably either not salient to guests or easily brought up to guest standards.

What is the Voice of the Customer?

• The Voice of the Customer– The voice of the customer represents the

wants, opinions, perceptions, and desires of the customer.

• Quality Function Deployment (QFD) – “House of quality,”– Translates customer wants into a finished

product design.

Customer-Relationship ManagementSlide 1 of 8

• Customer-Relationship Management– This view of the customer asserts that he or

she is a valued asset to be managed. – The tangibles meet the intangibles to

provide a satisfying experience for the customer.

• Four important design aspects – Complaint resolution– Feedback– Guarantees– Corrective action or recovery

What Should Hotel Management Do ???

• Start Listening More To Their Guests

• Allow Guests To Leave Feedbacks Whenever & Wherever

• Feedback On Site, So We Can React Fast

• Example: The ECO Application (From Personal Experience)


Figure 3.1

Complaintresolution

Complaintresolution

FeedbackFeedback

GuaranteesGuarantees

Correctiveaction

Correctiveaction

CustomerRelationshipManagement

CustomerRelationshipManagement

Components of a Customer-Relationship Management Process

Customer-Relationship Management

Slide 3 of 8

• Complaint Resolution– Complaint resolution is an important part

of the quality management system. – Three common types of complaints

• regulatory complaints• employee complaints• customer complaints.

– The complaint-resolution process involves the transformation of a negative situation in one in which the complainant is restored to the state existing prior to the occurrence of the problem.

– Complaint-recovery process


Complaint Resolution (or recovery) Process

Apologize to the customer(contrition)

Compensate people for

losses

Make it easy for the

complainant to resolve his

or her problem


• Feedback– There are two main types of feedback

• feedback to the customer• feedback to the firm as a basis for process

improvements– Feedback to the firm should occur on a

consistent basis with a process to monitor changes resulting from the process improvement.

– Some customer data is solicited and other data is provided without solicitation.


• Guarantees– A guarantee outlines the customer’s rights.– The guarantee is both a design and an

economic issue that must be addressed by all companies before the first sale occurs.

• To be effective, a guarantee should be:– Unconditional– Meaningful– Understandable– Communicable– Painless to invoke


To be effective, guarantees should be:

UnconditionalUnconditional

Painless to invokePainless to invoke

MeaningfulMeaningful

UnderstandableUnderstandable

CommunicableCommunicable


• Corrective Action– When a service or product failure occurs,

the failure is documented and the problem is resolved in a way that it never happens again.

– Corporate teams or committees should be in place to regularly review complaints and to improve processes so the problems don’t recur.

SERV.QUAL MODELS

Service Quality Theories• Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry in 1985 discovered 10 widely

cited service quality determinants, i.e., the basic criteria that customers use to analyse quality irrespective of the type of service: reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding/knowing the customer, and tangibles.

• This model identifies the different sources of gaps or differences between the service quality that a customer expects to receive from a service provider and the customer perception of the service actually received.

• The model identifies 5 different types of gaps. The first four gaps are called company gaps, and the last or fifth gap is called customer gap - that is, the gap as perceived by customer. The customer gap is the resultant effect of the four company gaps.

Measuring service quality: SERVQUAL Model

(Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1985, 1988)

ServiceQuality

ServiceQuality

ReliabilityReliability

ResponsivenessResponsiveness

AssuranceAssurance

EmpathyEmpathy

TangiblesTangibles

Class Discussion

The Five-Gap Model of Service Quality

Question: Describe ways in which you as a Manager could use the five-gap model

of service quality

©2006 Pearson Education, Inc. Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism, 4th editionUpper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Kotler, Bowen, and Makens

The Gap Approach to Service Design

• The Gap– The gap refers to the differences

between desired levels of performance and actual levels of performance.

– The formal means for identifying and correcting these gaps is called gap analysis.

The Gaps Model of Service Quality

ConsumerPast

experiencePast

experience

Expected serviceExpected service

Perceived servicePerceived service

Service delivery (including pre- and post-

contacts)

Service delivery (including pre- and post-

contacts)

External communications

to consumers

External communications

to consumers

Translations of perceptions into service

quality specifications

Translations of perceptions into service

quality specifications

Management perceptions of consumer expectations

Management perceptions of consumer expectations

GAP 5

GAP 3

GAP 2

GAP 1

GAP 4

Personal needsPersonal needsWord-of-mouth

communicationsWord-of-mouth

communications

Marketer

• Not knowing what customers expect

• Not selecting the right service standards and designs

• Not delivering to service standards

• Not matching performance to promised

Customer expectations

Customer expectations

Customer perceptions Customer perceptions

Reasons for

Customer Gap 5

Customer’s expectations

Customer’s expectations

Company’s perceptions of customer expectations

Company’s perceptions of customer expectations

• Inadequate marketing research orientation

• Lack of upward communication

• Insufficient relationship focus

• Inadequate service recovery

Reasons for

providergap

I

Reasons for

providergap

I

Translation of perceptions into service quality specifications

Translation of perceptions into service quality specifications

Management perceptions of customer expectations

Management perceptions of customer expectations

• Poor service design

• Absence of customer-defined service standards

• Inappropriate physical evidence and servicescape

Reasons for

provider gap

2

Reasons for

provider gap

2

• Poor human resource policies• Failure to match supply and demand• Customer not fulfilling their roles• Problems with service

intermediaries

Service deliveryService delivery

Customer-driven service designs and standards

Customer-driven service designs and standards

Reasons for

provider gap

3

Reasons for

provider gap

3

External communications to consumers

External communications to consumers

Service deliveryService delivery

• Lack of integration of marketing communications

• Inadequate management of customer expectations

• Overpromising

• Inadequate horizontal communications

Reasons for

provider gap 4

Reasons for

provider gap 4

Closing the gaps• Refer to table 4.2, p. 104• Gap 1: Learn what customers

expect• Gap 2: Establish the right service

quality standards• Gap 3: Ensure that service

performance meets standards• Gap 4: Ensure that delivery

matches promises

Closing gap 1: Learn what customers expect

• Use research, complaint analysis, customer panels

• Increase direct interactions between managers and customers

• Improve upward communications

• Act on information and insights

listen to customer

s

Closing gap 2: Establish the right service quality standards• Top management commitment to providing service quality

• Set, communicate, and reinforce customer-oriented service standards

• Establish challenging and realistic service quality goals

• Train managers to be service quality leaders

• Be receptive to new ways to deliver service quality

• Standardise repetitive tasks

• Prioritise tasks• Gain employee acceptance

of goals and priorities• Measure performance of

service standards and provide regular feedback

• Reward managers and employees for achievement of quality goals

Service Quality Awards

Closing gap 3: Ensure that service performance meets standards• Attract the best

employees• Select the right

employees• Develop and support

employees– train employees – provide appropriate

technology & equipment– encourage and build

teamwork– empower employees – internal marketing

Can I take your

order?

• Retain good employees– measure and reward

service quality achievements

– develop equitable and simple reward systems

You are a

Star Service

Provider

Closing gap 4: Ensure that service delivery matches promises

• Seek input from operations personnel on what can be done

• ‘Reality’ advertising– real employees, real customers, real

situations• Seek input from employees on

advertising• Gain communications between sales,

operations and customers• Internal marketing programs• Ensure consistent standards in multi-

site operations

• In advertising, focus on service characteristics that are important to customers

• Manage customer’s expectations– What are realistic expectations?– Explain industry realities

• Tiered service options– Offer different levels of service -

user pays

Why do we always have

to wait?

Service Satisfaction Information System

• Customer Complaints • Surveys • Employee Surveys • Focus Groups • ‘Mystery shopping’ research • Competitive market surveys -

benchmark

Measuring Satisfaction

• Qualitative Research • Understand key drivers /

determinants • Questionnaire design • Data analysis • Service performance index (SPI) • Importance - performance

analysis

Best Practices• Service Guarantees by Hampton

Inns

– Unconditional guarantees

– Specific guarantees

– Implicit guarantees©2006 Pearson Education, Inc. Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism, 4th edition

Upper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Kotler, Bowen, and Makens

The State University Experience• Wow! That State University video was really cool. It has

lots of majors; it’s close to home so I can keep my job; and Mom and Dad loved it when they visited. I wish I could know what it’s really like to be a student at State. Hmmm, I think I’ll ask mom and dad to take a campus tour with me…..

• • I’m sure that we took our tour on the hottest day of the

summer. The campus is huge – it took us about two hours to complete the tour and we didn’t even see everything! I wasn’t sure that the tour guide knew what he was doing. We went into a gigantic lecture hall and the lights weren’t even on. Our tour guide couldn’t find them so we had to hold the doors open so the sunlight could come in. About three – fourths of the way through our tour, our guide said, “State University isn’t really a bad place to go to school; you have to learn the system.” I wonder what he meant by that?

The State University Experience• This application is really confusing. How do I let the admissions

office know that I am interested in physics, mechanical engineering, and industrial design? Even my parents can’t figure it out. I guess I’ll call the admissions office for some help…

• I’m so excited! Mom just handed me a letter from State! Maybe they’ve already accepted me. What? What’s this? They say I need to send my transcript. I did that when I mailed in my application two weeks ago. What’s going on? I hope it won’t affect my application. I’d better check with Admissions………..

• You can’t find my file? I thought you were missing only my transcript. I asked my counselor if she had sent it in yet. She told me that she sent it last week. Oh, you’ll call me back when you locate my file? OK..

The State University Experience

• Finally, I’ve been accepted! Wait a minute. I didn’t apply to University College; that’s a two – year program. I wanted physics, M.E., or industrial design. Well, since my only choice is U. College and I really want to go to State, I guess I’ll send in the confirmation form. It really looks a lot like the application. In fact, I know I gave them a lot of the same information. I wonder why they need it again. Seems like a waste of time…………..

• Orientation was a lot of fun. I’m glad they straightened out my acceptance at U. College. I think I will enjoy State after all. I met lots of other students. I saw my advisor and I signed up for classes. All I have left to do is pay my tuition bill. Whoops. None of my financial aid is on this bill. I know I filled out all of the forms because I got an award letter from the state. There is no way my parent and I can pay for this without financial aid. It says at the bottom, I’ll lose all my classes if I don’t pay the bill on time….

• I’m not confirmed on the computer? I sent in my form and the fee a long time ago. What am I going to do? I don’t want to lose all of my classes. I have to go to the admissions office or my college office and get a letter that says I am a confirmed student. OK. If I do that tomorrow, will I still have all of my classes?......

• I can’t sleep; I’m so nervous about my first day……..

• DISCUSSION QUESTIONS• 1. What breakdowns in service processes has this student

experienced? How might these be a function of organizational design?• 2. What types of process management activities should State

University administrators undertake?

Module 3 the guest experience

Education

Transcript of Module 3 the guest experience