Service Excellence during the Service Encounter Process in 3 famous Hotels - Coursework Example

Executive summary This report undertakes to demonstrate service excellence during the service encounter process. To achieve this objective, the report has explored relevant literature regarding service excellence and conducted a study on three organizations (John Lewis, Jocobite experience Loch Ness and Citizen M hotel) to illustrate specific activities in these organizations that portray excellent service management practices. The report outline starts with the introduction. Service encounter is then defined from the context of service package. The service package includes aspects such as explicit services, facilitating goods, implicit services and supporting facilities. The three organizations are then evaluated to outline specific activities that are examples of excellent service management. Introduction Service refers to the interactions that occur between customers and service providers. These service providers are usually employees of organizations that provide services as their main focus of business (Patti, 2008). Services are usually different from products in several aspects. This makes their management different compared to product selling management. One aspect that makes the management of services different is that they are produced and consumed simultaneously, in the presence of customers. The presence of consumers of services during their production requires perfection since unlike products; there is no time for testing their effectiveness. Service encounters refer to the points of interaction when service providers are delivering services to the customers. The effectiveness of service delivery in satisfying customers results from excellent service management. Excellent service refers to the activities that lead to customers having the best experiences beyond their expectation. Successful management of these activities to ensure their continuity is referred to as excellent service management. This report will examine these activities in three organizations (John Lewis, Jocobite experience Loch Ness and Citizen M Hotel) and evaluate how they qualify to be excellent service management. Service encounter For a service encounter to be termed excellent, it must be viewed as a package and not as fragmented components (Smith, 2004). Viewing as a package will enable the service providers to take a holistic approach, ensuring that all aspects of service delivery that makes a good customer experience are enhanced. All the components of a service package must be uniform in the image they portray to the customers. Customers always derive experience from the overall success of all the components. This means that failure of one element of service to deliver the expectations of the customers may ruin the whole operation, rendering it unsuccessful. The service package can be viewed to comprise of the following components: Explicit services This aspect of service package refers to the external observable features that enhance the customer’s experience at the establishment offering the services. In the case of a hotel, this would include the good aroma of food, the speed of service delivery, the range of choices on the menu and its accuracy. These explicit services are also applicable to a cruise line, which offers the hospitality aspects like those of a hotel. In the case of a store selling items such as furniture and clothing, the speed of service delivery and accessibility to the different items being offered would constitute the explicit aspect of a service package. Facilitating goods These refer to the physical material that are purchased by the buyer and those that are used by service providers to facilitate service delivery. For a hotel, these may include food and drinks being sold to customers and cutlery and crockery used in the process of service delivery. These facilitating good are contributors to the overall experience for the customers. Implicit services Implicit services are the psychological benefits derived from the use of a particular service by a customer. These services include the satisfaction that customers get by visiting a prestigious organization such as a hotel or a particular popular service delivery organization. The aesthetic appeal of the physical environment of service delivery such as hotel décor also constitutes implicit services. When a customer is happy about good treatment from the staff of an establishment, then such a customer is experiencing implicit services. Supporting facility The physical facility and environment that must be available before service delivery commences is part of the supporting facility. In a cruise line, this could include the ship for taking people for cruises and the fittings and fixtures in it. The building of a hotel within which service is delivered is as supporting facility. The supporting facilities are the pre-requisites before the service delivery operations begin. By ensuring all these aspects are managed to perfection, to satisfy the needs of consumers, then a holistic experience will emerge, leading to an excellent service management (Woodside and McClam, 2008). However, the concept of service excellence cannot be viewed from the; point of view of service providers, but rather from those who consume the services. Their perception about the quality of service delivery is the parameter that should be used to gauge whether services have been delivered excellently or something more needs to be done. Organizations that have good mechanisms of receiving and acting on grievances from customers have the ability to manage and deliver excellent services. Moreover, follow-ups after service delivery to find out whether customers were satisfied with services shows that an organization is very caring and responsible and thus worth being loyal to. For organizations that sell tangible products, after sale services can, play a very integral part in ensuring that customers are satisfied with the organization’s services and products. Managing information about regular customers such as their contacts, preference and tastes is a useful tactic in achieving excellent services (Patti, 2008). Such information ensures that customer service is customized to fit their specific needs, thus creating a sure way of meeting the needs. John Lewis John Lewis sells many products online such as electrical appliances, furniture, clothes and other items used in at homes and in offices. Most of its transactions are done online. Although this organization sells tangible products, it has several aspects of a service industry. First, it has a customer care service that deals with enquiries and complaints of its customers. Because of the many and diverse products sold by the organization, there are bound to be many points of interaction between the organization and its customers. The company policy stipulates that the organizations happiness lies in the satisfaction of its customers. Following this policy, the organization allows the customers to return products to its stores if they are faulty or cannot solve the intended problems. Moreover, once the customer has returned the products, full refund is made if that’s what the customer wants. However, the customer can get an exchange of the product with another one that functions better than the initial one. Such an action goes well with the customers because they view the organization as very caring. Putting the customers’ happiness first is an example of services excellence. The continuous support of this initiative by the organization shows that it is committed to managing the excellent services for the sake of satisfying the needs of the customer. Secondly, the organization offers extra services at no extra fee. When a customer purchases home appliances, the installation is done free of charge by the organization’s technical team. This is another example where the organization demonstrates excellent service management. For many customers, there are many problems associated with the purchase of new appliances (Mayers, Souflee and Schoech, 2004). Because of limited technical knowledge, customers may not be able to install them successfully making them frustrated. By providing installation services to its customers, John Lewis creates a good image in the eyes of the customer. Moreover, the organization is able to get feedback fast from its installation technical team about any appliances that may be faulty. This way it is able to rectify the mistake to avoid further inconveniences to the customers. In the current business world, consumers are very environmental sensitive. John Lewis is aware of the need to have products that will least impact on the environment. For this reason, the organization delivers appliances, installs them for the customer and carries away the waste products to dispose them responsibly. The organization also carries away the old appliances for recycling. This forms another point of excellent service management since the organization recognizes the needs of its customers and strives to satisfy them. Jocobite experience Loch Ness Loch Ness is one of the famous water bodies in the United Kingdom. Jocobite offers cruise tours within this body of water within a tight schedule which makes it more popular. The cruise line company has tour guides who have experienced and knowledge about the route of the cruise as well as the attractions encountered along the cruise. The historical aspect of these cruises mesmerizes the guests. The skilled tour guides form one of the best service excellence associated with this company. They outline the itinerary for the guests before departure and explain all the aspects of the tour. Feedbacks taken by the company from its regular visitors indicate that they rank the knowledgeable tour guides very highly and their friendliness and caring welcome keeps them coming for the cruises. Every time the customers make cruise tours, they experience a new adventure. This is attributed to the innovative spirit of the company. The continued effort of Jocobite organization to innovate their services and features enable guests to have diverse experiences thus building customer loyalty. According to (Kettner, 2002) consumers of both products and services are ever evolving, and requires services and products with increased features each day they consume them. Therefore, the innovation aspect of the company forms the other part of excellent service management because were it not for it, people would have gotten tired of making cruise tours due to boredom. However, new and old clients flock to the organization with the aim of experiencing the magical sensation of the tour. To capture and retain different types of clients, Jocobite has chartered tours that target corporate clients, weddings and special events. This makes the organization very flexible to the needs of the different clients. Austin, Brody and Packard (2000) argue that organizations that are able to differentiate themselves from competitors and are able to retain the differences have the capability to build lasting customer loyalty and ever flowing business. Managing this flexibility over time is an excellent service management. In addition to the two large ships catering for mass tours, Jocobite has other small vessels that offer some privacy to guests who may not wish to travel in mass cruises. These small vessels are much customized and guests can receive specialized services. The ability of an organization to customize its products and services to suite the specialized needs of its clients lead to excellent service delivery and repeat business from loyal customers (Brody, 2005). Therefore, Jocobite demonstrates excellent service management by tailoring its services to meet the specific needs of its customers. Citizen M Hotel Hotel M is an international hotel that caters for business travelers. The hotel is based on an emerging concept of a mobile citizen. The hotel has realized that as technology grow, businesses expand, warranting more travelling by business people. This hotel differentiates itself from the rest by not wanting to be classified in terms of star rating, but rather according to the luxury it offers to its clients. It is located in different countries, but its services are standard in terms of quality. Excellent service management is first manifested in its state of the art reservation system. The system is very user-friendly and allows the users to book all aspects of his/her stay at the hotel, ranging from accommodation to food preference. Upon arrival at the hotel, a guest can conduct a personal check-in procedure without involving the hotel’s staff. This feature is enhanced by the high level technology used at the hotel. Moreover, reservation is very flexible. The hotel has a policy that cancellations can be done at no charge even during the day of arrival. Such arrangements show competence in serving customers. Unforeseen eventualities can occur, requiring guests to cancel their reservations. Guests prefer organizations that allow reasonable flexibility in terms of cancellation policies (Kettner, 2002). Hotel M’s continuous effort to foster this flexibility has portrayed it in good light in the eyes of its customers. This in turn has increased patronage to its premises with many repeat guests. This continuous flow of business is an indication of excellence in service delivery. Citizen M’s ambassadors-a name given to the hotel’s staff work around the c lock to respond to the guests needs. In house guests are kept within unimaginable le luxury since the employees are always ready to assist the guests whenever necessary. This quick response from the guests emanates from the continuous training conducted by the hotel to ensure that its employees have the best skills to maintain the high luxury standards set. Maintaining highly skilled employees is very beneficial as the skills are always reflected in the organization’s profitability. As such training staff is a point of excellent service management which ensures that the hotel maintains its standards. By maintaining the standards meets the expectations of its guests regarding service quality are met. The furnishing and decor of the room creates a relaxing and homely environment for the guests. The rooms are well spaced out, there is internet connection in the rooms at no extra fees to the guests. Such aspects of the hotel add up the total experience and enhance the perception of the guests towards the service encounter. Conclusion Activities that take place during service encounter that lead to service excellence cannot be isolated if service has to be successful. A holistic approach to these activities, ensuring every aspect satisfies customers beyond expectation will add up to service management excellence. All the three organizations had achieved service management excellence in their own specific ways depending on the type of service provided to the customers. In the three organizations, their success has resulted to managing services excellently. Recommendations From the finding in three different organizations, it is very clear that excellent service management should be ensured through a holistic approach to all activities that make up the guest experience. Organizations working to achieve service excellence needs to ensure flexibility in their service delivery to cater for specialized needs of the customers. In addition, organizations selling products should be guaranteed, and after sale services should be provided to enhance service excellence. For hotels, reservation systems should be very flexible to allow guest comfort. Organizations yearning to achieve service management excellence must have the ability to deal with customers’ complaints and manage their personal information well to provide customized services. Complaints well solved portray an organization in good light to the customers, ensuring their loyalty. References Austin, M.J., Brody, R., & Packard, T.R. 2008. Managing the Challenges in Human Service Organizations: A Casebook. California: Sage Publications. Brody, R. 2005. Effectively Managing Human Service Organizations. California: SAGE Kettner, P.M. 2002. Achieving excellence in the management of human service organizations. Michigan: University of Michigan. Mayers, R., Souflee, F., & Schoech, D.J.2004. Dilemmas in Human Services Management: Illustrative Case Studies. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company. Patti, R.J. 2008. The Handbook of Human Services Management. California: SAGE Smith, M.J. 2004. Program Evaluation in Human Services. New York, NY: Springer Publishing Company. Woodside, M., & McClam, T. 2008. An Introduction to Human Services. Stamford, Connecticut: Cengage Learning. Read More