Improving Customer Service In The Hospitality Industry

I recently read an article by Sara Hickman called “The Importance of Customer Service in Hospitality & Tourism” and in this article she stated 5 main points in which all businesses across the globe should have, to have good customer service, these are Growth, Loyalty, Rating, Reputation and Sales. These should be the same for any hospitality business, so why is everywhere different across countries. It could be because different places are brought up and taught differently, but in any industry everything should be run the same. This is why it’s important that managers are trained correctly and know how to make their business the best it can be. Managers can do this by looking at different places, one of the big aspects that people forget about are other businesses and looking to see what they have done to succeed in that department. However U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, 2006-07 Career Guide to Industries) said that “Employers have difficulty finding workers who possess basic "soft skills," which are often a prerequisite for success in a customer service-oriented field” for example just the language many of their workers have, and finding training for them all. As a managerial issue that managers have to look at in the hospitality industry is providing a service for people from many different countries but this can be hard as with recent circumstances with the recession, they may not be able to afford to train their staff to the highest standard, and this is a big issue for managers as if they let their customer service slip because they can not afford to help their staff, it could be difficult to get their business back to where it was before. A way managers could sort out these managerial issues is by turning to technology to help; many businesses now use a system called IQware Global Property Management System. From looking at a news report by Island Inn Beach Resort on how they have many happy customers returning to their resort I saw how IQware has made their business much simpler. IQware delivers a full list of reports, which can be used to filter day-to-day operations to the hotel, making it easier for managers to manage their guests. This however can only support the hotel sector in the industry, which can be a negative for other sectors, as while this sector is moving up and improving their technology to help with their customer service, they are staying on the same level.

Referencing

http://www.doleta.gov/brg/indprof/Hospitality_profile.cfm

http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article49935Many_Happy_Returns.html

Sara Hickman. (2010). Importance of Customer Service in Hospitality & Tourism . Available: http://www.ehow.com/about_6623332_importance-customer-service-hospitality-tourism.html. Last accessed 1st November.

Customer Service in the Hospitality Industry

Customer service is an important aspect of the hospitality industry which managers have to learn the issues with it. As depending on how the customers are treated would depend on whether they come back, and managers need to look into the issues in how they can look after their customers. This could be a difficult aspect of the industry for managers to learn about and train their staff on because everyone has different expectations. Also a reputation can be broken very easily just by one bad review and this could harm a business, and managers would need to know how to deal with this. Another part of customer service managers need to look at is the people they hire as they are the ones who represent their business, and managers need to do a series of training courses with their staff so they are up to date with the customer service. However many businesses in the hospitality industry have started hiring students as they think it will be easier & cheaper to hire a number of students, but depending on what type of business you have should depend on whether it is ok to hire students. For example many hotels hire students to work in the functions side but when a customer goes to have a wedding or party, they might not want students serving them and students are not long term staff so might not learn about customer service strategies properly and this could also ruin the reputation of the business. One way in which managers could make sure their customers are treated right is by looking at their customers and using their initiative to see who is the main person in the group who would decided on where they eat, for instance if it was a family it would most likely be the mother who decided where they eat but the employees would also have to look after the main male of the group as they would be paying for the meal. They would also need to understand what type of business they are trying to promote, for instant a fine dining restaurant wouldn’t have the same customer service as a McDonalds.