Solutions to Manner Problem - Essay Example

Solutions Introduction Manners of the front office executives play a crucial role in canvassing the image of the Marriott Marquis Hotel. All customers form impression of the hotel when they walk through the front office and are greeted by the front office executives or when their calls are answered hence levels of professionalism portrayed by the front office area and executives reflect the hotel’s brand (Rayport et al, 2005). In order to reflect the image of Marriott Marquis Hotel, the front office executives must represent the hotel through their appearance, behavior, attitude, business manners and communication skills. In this respect, this paper proposes two solutions to the front office manner problems which are: first, improving presentation of the front office and its executives and second, training the front office executives. Two Possible Solutions to Manner Problem The two possible solutions to the service problem of manner are improving presentation of the front office and its executives and secondly training the front office executives. We noted that weaknesses on the blueprint of Marriott Marquis Hotel are on the physical evidence and the onstage employee action areas since they affect customers’ actions. Physical evidence in this case is the environment and people within the front office area. In this regard the hotel should improve the presentation of the people as well as the physical appearance of the front office itself. Making front office more presentable includes ensuring the front office has pleasant atmosphere throughout by making sure it is tidy and well light especially at night (Rayport et al, 2005). Presentable front office should also have magazines, newspapers, pamphlets which are properly arranged and should always have vacant seats to accommodate any new visitor and guests coming. Since the target customers for San Francisco Marriott Marquis Hotel are business people, they would want to get more information about the business opportunities available in San Francisco hence availing business magazines is important. Improving presentation of the front office should also ensure the front office executives or agents are presentable by ensuring that they formally dress up neatly and tie up their hair neatly. This should include having a dress code that is acceptable by the management of the hotel. Last but not least, improving presentation of the front office should also ensure there is always at least one front office executive and one office boy at each and every time to ensure all guests are attended to within the shortest time possible. Making front office highly presentable will ensure customers form a positive impression of the hotel thus play crucial role of canvassing positive manners for Francisco Marriott Marquis Hotel. The second solution is to offer training for the front office executives. Training is a solution to manner because it improves ability of the employee to acquire relevant knowledge cope with pressure and challenges. As the first people making contact with customers, front office executives should be able to handle multiple activities with ease, poise and professionalism (Varnavas & Soteriou, 2002). For instance, they should be able to handle situations when coworkers are asking questions, several telephone lines are ringing coworkers are asking questions and guests are waiting for their attention. Training is therefore crucial in addressing the needs of the front office executives and makes them good ambassadors to Francisco Marriott Marquis Hotel thus solve manner problem. The blueprint of Marriott Marquis Hotel indicate that front office are onstage employees and are actively involved in making reservations, giving suggestions, phone calls receiving, manage registration process, fulfilling guest needs/delivering bags, solve their problems, and process the registrations of their business customers. This was one area of weakness resulting to manner problem and can be solved through training of the affected personnel. How Solutions Would Impact On the Business The first solution which is improving the general presentation of the front office and its executive staff would impact on the business by canvassing a positive impression of the organization. Positive impression for a hotel is very important in attracting and retaining business customers. As stated by Sahoo (2011), it is the front office where actual hotel marketing begins.. As the face of the hotel, presentable front office for Marriott Marquis Hotel will offer guests their first experience and sets the tone for group event. According to Dalci & Kosan (2012), the impression left with a group guests at the front desk directly impacts whether they will be booking hotel group business with repeat customers as well as referrals in the future. This has the impacts of increasing demand and improving the business performance for the Marriott Marquis Hotel. Presentable front office has greater impacts on the work and welfare of employees as well. Improved performance and profitability of this hotel is important not only for the investors but also for the employees’ well remuneration of the staff. Apart from better welfare for employees, presentable front office ensures employees are well organized, tidy and able to plan and manage their work with focus on customers. This will also impacts on employees’ work since it makes their work easy and ensures they enjoy their work which is very important for their performance improvement. For customers, good presentation of the front office would positively impact on their satisfaction. Customer satisfaction is as a result of good customer relations thus customers will not only enjoy the services but their expectations will also be met. Training of front office executives is the second solution to manners and it would impact on business of Marriott Marquis Hotel by improving the nature of interaction between the front office executives and guests. Training will improve communication skills and improve their relations with customers. In this respect Marriott Marquis Hotel would develop professional front office executives thus they will reduce dissatisfaction, lower customer turnover and reduce stress and frustrations on the other team members. Training of front office executives will also go hand in hand in improving their confidence in performing different tasks. Since front office executives are onstage employees and are actively involved with customers hence must manage their actions with high level professionalism. The major impacts of training front office executives on business are increased sales due t reduced customer turnover and increased referrals and demand. Business activities and tasks will also be efficient and effective thus reducing costs and improving performance. In this regard, training of front office executives improves profitability in the long run and ensures business control a number of loyal customers. Developing a pool of professional employees is also important for business because it ensures low employee turnover which reduces costs. On customers, training front office executives ensures effective customers’ experience at the organization due to improved customers’ interrelationship. As stated by Baum & Devine (2007), training front office executives is crucial in improving their communication skills, listening skills, change their personal behaviors and habits and improve their level of professionalism in dealing with demanding, discourteous and dissatisfied guests at the front office. In this regard, training front office executives will go hand in hand in improving satisfaction, experience and meeting the expectation of customers. This will increase the number of Marriott Marquis Hotel’s customers. Why Training of Front Office Executives Should Be Implemented Into the Business Training should be implemented as the most important solution to the problem of manner at San Francisco Marriott Marquis Hotel front office. This is because training can be implemented immediately before considering presentation of the front office. It is important to make sure that front office executives understand the nature of their work and how to execute it before implementing other changes. Marriott Marquis Hotel management should implement training for the front office executives. This is because continuous training is the key to improvement of all aspects of hotel’s front office executives’ activities (Baum & Devine, 2007). In order to manage attitude, improve employees’ job competencies, motivations, confidence and performance. Moreover other aspects of presentations solutions can be covered during training thus will enable its smooth implementation and improvement in manners. Training is also very important in addressing front office’s manner problem since it will result into a number of advantages that affects the performance of employees. Employees will acquire essential skills that are necessary for job excellence. In this regard, training is important since it helps in addressing employee weaknesses that result into negative manners. This will be important in strengthening front office executive skills thus ensure uniformity in service delivery and in addressing the needs of guests thus improve manners. Training should also be implemented because it would help in improving performance because front office executives would be properly informed on the procedures and be aware of his roles and duties and link this to employee goals and objectives. The overall strengths of implementing training is increased productivity, worker satisfaction, improved quality services and reduced costs for the Marriott Marquis Hotel. Training will also result into reduction in supervision and creation of self directed front office executives. Strategic Training Plan for Marriott Marquis Hotel’s Front Office Executives The following is a table showing the proposed training plan for the front office executives. It outlines the areas of training that are required and the number of days that it will take to train the staff. Areas of Training Proposed Time Period Cost per person Presentation, Neatness and Importance of front office image 6 hours $30 Components of Professional image 3 hours $15 Attitudes, Behaviors and Habits that ruin Professionalism 6 hours $30 Body Language and How to be a Gracious host 6 hours $30 Enhancing Verbal and Listening Skills 1 day $30 Enhancing Telephone and Professional email Communication 1 day $40 Handling Difficult People with Diplomacy 6 hours $30 The implementation of training plan listed above will be done in2 phases for all the front office executives. Trainings will be internal and shall be conducted within one of the hotel’s conference halls by their respective supervisors and junior managers who had previously trained or have more advanced knowledge on the management of front office activities hence will be implemented immediately. In this regard, the proposed costs of training will vary depending on the training materials required only but not the cost of trainers. Training will then culminated by the development of training and development policy to improve and maintain performance. References Baum, T., & Devine, F. (2007). Skills and training in the hotel sector: The case of front office employment in Northern Ireland. Tourism & Hospitality Research, 7(3/4), 269-280 Dalci, I., & Kosan, L. (2012). Theory of Constraints Thinking-Process Tools Facilitate Goal Achievement for Hotel Management: A Case Study of Improving Customer Satisfaction. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 21(5), 541-568 Rayport, J. F., Jaworski, B. J., & Kyung, E. J. (2005). Best face forward: Improving companies service interfaces with customers. Journal of Interactive Marketing (John Wiley & Sons), 19(4), 67-80 Sahoo, D. (2011). Integrating Customer Relationship Management in Hotel Operations: -A comparative Study. Vilakshan: The XIMB Journal of Management, 8(2), 57-70. Varnavas, A. P., & Soteriou, A. C. (2002). Towards customer-driven management in hospitality education: A case study of the higher hotel institute, Cyprus. The International Journal of Educational Management, 16(2), 66-74. Read More