Improving Interactions between Meeting Planners and Hotel Employees - Research Paper Example

Improving Interactions between Meeting Planners and Hotel Employees Introduction Successful delivery of services to the meetings industry involves a close interaction and partnership amongst the meeting planners and hotel employees with the other major key players, e.g. the conference-services director, actively involved in servicing the guests and meeting participants, giving some directions to his employees about their services, addressing their problems and shortcomings, and so on. On a positive note, this possible success can only be attained by the close cooperation of these personnel, but that, on the negative side, meetings can become disastrous if the different factors and situations are not directly addressed properly by those personnel responsible in the event. Many factors have to be considered. Environmental forces can place constraints on an organization and possibly interfere in its over-all goals (Dibb et al, 1997:652). Terri Breining says that meeting planning is in a great period of transition. She says that it is a young industry and only been considered a real profession for a few decades since and now it is taking on a new role in the business role. (Concepts Worldwide, 2006) Objectives of the study Our study will discuss on the problems encountered by meeting planners and hotel employees during the course of an event, meeting, or conference, where the services of a planner and hotel employees are generally required. A major undertaking of this sort always demands a close coordination between people: planners, supervisors, employees and staff of the hotel. What are those incidents that may occur How can they be addressed Who can or who are the competent staff personnel responsible for the incidents Methodology A literature review will be taken from books, magazines, periodicals, the internet. A previous research, Improving Interactions between meeting planners and hotel employees, will be analysed, giving emphasis on the problems encountered during the course of the research. An appropriate primary research in the formal dissertation will be taken from meeting planners and a service provider such as a hotel. The primary research will be in the form of interviews and questionnaires, to get an actual research/survey of the problems encountered by meeting planners, and how to improve their services. The results of the primary research will be compared with that of the secondary research, in this case, the results of the surveys conducted by Rutherford and Umbreit, as embodied in the literature review. Literature Review Meeting planners can provide hotels with substantial revenue. Yet little empirical research has examined how hotel sales personnel might facilitate generating this business from meeting planners. (Lee et al, 2005) However, some have made these studies, and one of them is the study conducted by Zeithaml, Parasuraman, and Berry who developed an instrument for measuring customers' perceptions of service quality. The instrument includes dimensions of assurance, empathy, tangibles, reliability, and responsiveness. The most critical dimension was reliability. There is the performance of promised services. The next most critical was responsiveness, or the willingness to help customers and provide prompt service. The SERVQUAL method from Zeithaml, Parasuman, and Berry is a technique that can be used for performing a gap analysis of an organization's service quality performance against customer service quality needs. SERVQUAL is an empirically derived method that may bed used by a services organization to improve service quality. The method involves the development of an understanding of the perceived service needs of target customers (12 Manage Management Communities, 2007). These measured perceptions of service quality for the organization in question, are then compared against an organization that is "excellent". The resulting gap analysis may then be used as a driver for service quality improvement. SERVQUAL takes into account the perceptions of customers of the relative importance of service attributes. This allows an organization to prioritize. And to use its resources to improve the most critical service attributes. The data are collected via surveys of a sample of customers. In these surveys, these customers respond to a series of questions based around a number of key service dimensions. The methodology was originally based around 5 key dimensions: tangibles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. (12 Manage Management Communities, 2007) Zairi (1996) cites Bain and Co. which conducted a survey/interview of a group of senior managers and found that virtually all agreed that customer satisfaction was important, 75 per cent had instituted programmes to improve the quality of customer satisfaction. (Zairi, P.181) Meeting planners are customers of hotels too, so they have to satisfy their needs and standards. Quality should not be sacrificed for profit. A more useful definition of quality is meeting the requirements of the customer, and a necessary first step is therefore to define those requirements (Bendell et al, 1998:22). Sluyter (1997) links organizational performance with Total Quality Management, explaining further that the leadership of an organization has to create a vision of excellence and a plan for getting there. Leadership is following, and in planning everyone has to work for the organization. Karin Weber says that "an enduring question for operators of convention hotels is, what factors determine an association's or a conference planner's choice of a meeting venue" (Weber 2000) Convention hotels inquire about planner's information on potential venues, and also ask on how planners take into account the service quality of convention hotels. Hotels can improve their service quality by enhancing employees' knowledge about customer's preferences and the corresponding service procedures. Service quality depends strongly on the ability of hotels to acquire, to develop, to accumulate, and to distribute knowledge assets. (Bouncken, 2002) Denny G. Rutherford and W. Terry Umbreit from Washington State University made a study on improving interactions between meeting planners and hotel employees, and the results of the study were reported by the Cornell Quarterly, in 1993. This was entitled Improving Interactions between Meeting Planners and Hotel Employees, whose objectives primarily were to determine the problems in the areas of organization, execution, and professionalism amongst the major players in servicing conferences or meetings. The researchers used a methodology using the "critical-incident technique to collect direct observations of effective and ineffective hotel-staff behaviors in hosting events" (Rutherford & Umbreit). They contacted meeting planners at national meetings and at their home offices in three major cities, and they were able to get the consent of 52 persons to provide narratives of their experiences with hotel-staff personnel. The meeting planners reviewed service quality on six dimensions which are: A. Communication It concerns the modes and techniques of communication among all participants, including internal and external communication among and between hotel staff members, external service providers, and planners. (Rutherford and Umbreit) An analysis of the services literature suggests that word of mouth communications has paramount effects on a customer's evaluation of the service encounter (Parasuman, Zeithaml & Berry, 1994). The planners were very concerned about communication between the hotel employees and the meeting staff. They found out that the employees of the hotel needed to communicate more effectively with each other. The concerns for communication extended to the technology available. Employees have to have internal and external communication such as cell phones. Close coordination and constant communication are one of the keys to a successful event in a hotel or establishment involved in the service industry. The planners went out of their way to point that one of the critical components in a successful event is the pre-event, or "pre-con," meeting. Planners learned to judge a hotel's capacity for successfully hosting events through their pre-con experiences. (Rutherford & Umbreit, 1993) B. Organization This pertains to the philosophy and resulting culture of the hotel that establishes an organizational structure, the policies, procedures and guidelines of which lead to the accomplishment of operational goals. (Rutherford and Umbreit) Meeting planners reported problems brought about by the restrictive policies of certain hotels. Some policies appear to be structured to allow the hotel to be able to get some excuses for policies on release dates for room blocks, booking-date changes, etc. The hotel wants to avoid responsibility. Due to poor service or broken promises, you can say goodbye to the customer. Meeting planners complain of bad experiences with hotels. (Rutherford & Umbreit) But there were others who gave good services to meeting planners. They reported that during the negotiation process hotels were forthcoming about policies that would be enforced during the event and gave planners ample opportunity to tailor their activities accordingly or to negotiate different circumstances. B. Execution The performance of operational plans, strategies and duties that enhance service delivery. It includes fulfilling promises and being responsive to requests and instructions, and performing appropriate follow up. (Rutherford and Umbreit) C. Developing relationships This is creating an atmosphere of professionalism and ethical behavior. The ensuing trust leads to positive relationships between the hotel and the planner. (Rutherford and Umbreit) The planners pointed out that it was difficult to form solid relationships with salespeople when the turnover rate was so high. When a convention is booked two years out, it is almost certain that the salesperson will not be at the property when the event occurs. This is a problem of turn over. The person who negotiated the sale is not anymore connected or has gone to other pursuits, or is promoted. The outcome is a lack of confidence in the sales force, service personnel, etc. Rutherford and Umbreit suggest a restructuring of the compensation and career development policies for the sales and service staff. D. Initiative This involves innovation and creativity in the service-delivery process, often independent of outside influence and control. (Rutherford and Umbreit) Initiative could come from the hotel staff-members themselves. Rutherford and Umbreit said that the meeting planners and researchers reacted joyfully when brought to this topic. Planners cited examples of hotel-staff members who responded to unique challenges before and during an event. They mentioned the ability of a hotel staff to provide suggestions to improve menus and meeting-room arrangements. They were pleased to point out the "above and beyond the call of duty" type of behavior that truly improved an event and could not be considered mere profit-oriented "upselling." E. Crisis management It is the ability to deal with and manage unanticipated events, emergency situations, and changing conditions that are not under the control of the hotel. (Rutherford and Umbreit) Crisis usually occurs, unexpectedly, during events, and meeting planners judge hotels on how well they manage those situations. Hotels have contingency plans during natural disasters, for example an earthquake. Hotel staff are also trained in such a situation. One planner reported what may have been the quintessential contingency plan for natural disasters. When the earthquake struck, the hotel staff hardly missed a beat; they handed out flashlights to all the guests. The kitchen staff also put up complementary cold buffets and the employees gave the impression of being in control of a frightening situation. Rutherford and Umbreit concluded what the researchers found out: that communication, organization, execution, developing relationships, initiative, and crisis management are the key components in the successful delivery of services to the meetings industry. Planners and hotel employees have to take note of these dimensions in order to deliver good service in any event. CONCLUSION/RECOMMENDATION The meeting planners or those in the meetings industry are in services. Service suppliers, including the hotel industry, should be familiar with the general nature of services: how they are perceived by the consumer and planner will affect their sale. Service selling is different than product selling and requires unique strategies and plans. Service requires strategic planning and actions. Failure in planning and execution will lead to a disaster, just like in some of the cases enumerated in the research by Rutherford and Umbreit. Planners have to execute their plans and actions in advance, or what is termed as a pre-event or a pre-con, so that they can identify future loopholes and failures. As has been said, they are dealing with intangibles, and future events are only conceived in their minds, even if they have years of experience in their career. They have to exercise a sort of a dry-run, to make things perfect. The perishable nature of service selling requires demand management which is conducted from the planner's perspective, while yield management is from the suppliers viewpoint. Planners should be provided with incentives. The staff and guest interaction provides opportunities for increased sales and reinforcement of the purchase decision. Therefore, the staff should be trained in situations like dealing with customers and guests. Further research on the subject of improving interactions between meeting planners and hotel employees will improve further the service industry. This could be expanded to other convention places and not just hotels. More meeting planners could be utilized with this research. According to Future Watch 2005, there is no more fertile ground for insights and indicators for the future of the meetings industry than the global membership of Meeting Professional International (MPI) with a nearly 5050-ratio of more than 19,000 planner and supplier members in 60 countries (Meeting Professions International (MPI) 2005). Meeting planners and hotel owners have to be on the watch. References Beckert, Ellen J., Selling intangibles: the nature of service. Available from: http://www.quain.com/SYSTTMM/chapter_05.htm [cited 2 Nov 2007] Bendell, T., Boulter, L. & Kelly, J. Benchmarking for Competitive Advantage, Pitman Publishing, 1993 Bouncken, R. (2002). Knowledge Management for Quality Improvements in Hotels. Journal of Quality Assurance in Hospital & Tourism. 3, Issue 3/4, 25 - 59, Brandenburg University of Technology Cottbus, Germany. DOI: 10.1300/J162v03n03_03. Abstract available online from: http://www.haworthpress.com/store/ArticleAbstract.aspsid=SWAKP9NK5ANF9JLD4QU32LRAGCX30AL7&ID=36638 Concepts Worldwide, 2006. Set your meetings apart with ROI Methodology. Available from: http://www.conceptsworldwide.com/conceptualize/res/image/issue-07/ConceptualizeWeb200603.pdf [cited 5 November 2007] Dyad Lee et al. Relationship selling in the meeting planner/hotel salesperson. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research. 2005; 29:427-447 Dibb, S. & Simkin L. & Pride, W.M. & Ferell, O.C. (1997) Marketing Concepts, 3rd Edition. Houghton Mifflin, New York. Meeting Professions International (MPI) 2005. A comparative outlook on the global business of meetings. Available from: http://www.mpiweb.org/CMS/uploadedFiles/Research_and_Whitepapers/futurewatch2005.pdf. [cited 5 November 2007] Parasuman, Zeithaml, and Berry (1994). Alternative scales for measuring service quality: a comparative assessment based on psychometric and diagnostic criteria. Journal of Marketing. 70 (3) Fall. 201-230. Rutherford, Denney G. & Umbreit, W. Terry. Improving interactions between meting planners and hotel employees, Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Vol. 34, No. 1, 68-80 (1993), 1993 Cornell University. Available from: http://cqx.sagepub.com/cgi/content/abstract/34/1/68 (cited 2 Nov 2007) Rutherford, D. G. (1990). Introduction to Conventions, Expositions, and Meetings Industry. Van Nostrand Reinhold: 1990. Rutherford, D. G. Hotel Management and Operations. John Wiley & Sons, Inc. New York. 2002 Sluyter, G. V. (1997). Improving Organizational Performance: A Practical Guidebook for the Human Services Field (SAGE Human Services Guides). California 1998. Weber, K. (2000). Meeting Planners Perceptions of Hotel-chain practices and benefits an importance - performance analysis. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, Available from: http://www.allbusiness.com/accommodation-food-services/660374-1.html. [cited 4 Nov 2007] Zairi, M. (1996). Benchmarking for Best Practice: Continuous learning through sustainable innovation. Reed Educational and Professional Publishing Ltd.: Oxford 1999. 12 Manage Management Communities (2007). Servqual (Seithaml Parasuraman Berry). Available from: http://www.12manage.com/methods_zeithaml_servqual.html. [cited 5 Nov 2007] Read More