Customer Service and Care - Literature review Example

Service and Care Executive Summary This essay entails discussion mainly focusing in terms of evaluating the importance of effective management of customer complaints within the hospitality industries and how it adds up to the development of such industrial players. In order to carry out the discussion review of literature followed critical evaluation has been conducted. According, it has been ascertained that there exists an intense competition within the hospitality industry. In his regard, customer complaint handling has become an important aspect for retaining loyal customers, In order to ensure the effectiveness of the customer complaint handling; it has become essential for the players within the industry to carryout investment on staff training programs for achieving the goal of customer retention. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Introduction 4 Main Review 5 Literature Review 5 Critical Evaluation 8 Conclusion 9 References 10 Introduction In the present day market scenario, hospitality industries face multiple challenges in terms of competition and rapidly changing business environment. Since this industry is completely based on service, so it has to make sure that it provides a long lasting positive expression to the customers with the intention of retaining them. Every player within the hospitality industry tries to provide a high class customer service to its customers. Adding to that, players within the hospitality industry practices multiple types of activities in terms of attracting customers. For instance, a hotel provides complementary dinner service with every customer check-in. Similarly, another hotel might provide free airport pickup and drop services to the customers who have made online reservations. Customers mostly prefer hotels depending on the unique facilities which these hotels provide (North West Business Life, 2013). Moreover, the first stage of customer service starts from the reception section of every hotel. However, it is almost impossible to estimate what a customer might actually expect from hotels in terms of services and products offered by them. Contextually, often situations arise when hotels fail to serve the customers to their desired satisfaction levels. At such stages, the customers often start complaining about the services. As a corrective measure, the hospitality industries much indulge in terms of strategizing and framing out effective customer complaint management systems for dealing with such customers. These sorts of complaint management systems often help hotels in terms of identifying and understanding the loopholes within their systems and thus correct them accordingly (North West Business Life, 2013). The main focus of this report will be towards understanding the importance of customer complaint handling in terms of development and sustainability of the hospitality industry. The report will also be focusing towards elaborating the various techniques and strategies undertaken by multiple hospitality industrial players for attaining and retaining customers. Main Review Literature Review In this section the focus will towards evaluating the various innovative techniques and strategies which hotels practice for effective management of customer complaints and how it can be used in terms of developing the performance and service levels of the hospitality industry. Hartigan (2013) describes four basic steps of effectively handling customer complaint which majority of the hospitality and service industries undertake. As per the author, these four steps include hearing, emphasizing, apologizing and action taking. In the light of these four steps, the author has projected a simple meaning. The meaning is about observing and acting accordingly. Moreover from a complex point of view, the author has also provided a detailed explanation regarding each of these four steps. For instance, in the hearing step, Hartigan (2013) has stated that the hotel management must first listen to the problems of the customers without posing any sort of interruption or offence. As per the author, this first step will provide the management with a detailed understanding of the problem which might have been bothering the customer. The problem might be regarding time, food quality, room service quality or just frustration. Through the second stage i.e. empathizing, Hartigan (2013) explains that the management should first place them into the negative situation which the customer is going through. Through this step, the management can get an appropriate idea about how to strategize further. The third step is about apologizing. In this step, the author explained that, in order to bring the customer into a neutral state, it is necessary that the management should apologize to the customer even if there seem to occur no mistake from the management’s side. The fourth step is about acting in accordance to the situation. According to Hartigan (2013), the fourth step is regarding the compensative value which the hotel is willing to pay to the customer for settling out the stressful situation. This may be in the form of quick re-service or additive benefits. Ridler (n.d.) in his article has added to the fact that multiple times customers also switch to another service organizations despite of being satisfied in terms of service offered to them. In the similar context, the author also asserted that apart from the common services, multiple customers even want delightful or added services in order to stay retained to a hospitality organization. This author seemed to have mentioned similar aspects regarding this concept. Ridler (n.d.) has also added up another crucial point i.e. asking the customers about the solution which they find appropriate. According to the author, through this method, the management aims towards including the customer in the problem solving process. This method will also help the management in terms of knowing about the additives which the customer seems to be expecting from them. The author also asserted that attaining customer’s opinion regarding services quality and types will gradually help the management in terms of bringing about developing within their business process. Similarly, Krasovitzky (2012), in his article mentioned that majority of the hospitality business organizations consider the customer complaint management process as an unwanted and time consuming. However, they often forget that effective handling of customer complaints often helps in terms of identification of multiple flaws within the system. As per Krasovitzky (2012), this process also helps in term of improvising service quality along with showing the commitments of the hotel management towards the customers. In this regard, the author also identified three new steps for ensuring effective customer complaint management. The first step being that the management staff should be given the responsibility of effectively handling the customer complaint. In accordance to the author, the staff members will undergo brainstorming activities and come up with new alternatives of handling customer complaints. Secondly, the staff should be given enough liability and enforcement in term of making situation based decisions. Krasovitzky (2012), in the third step mentioned about the following of an appropriate process guideline which needs to be setup by the organizational management. As per the author, the systematic following up of a guideline might help in understanding the issues faced by the customers in a step by step manner. Apart from these three steps, Krasovitzky (2012) also included the concepts of projecting positive attitude in term of handling customer complaints effectively. As per the author, every member of a hospitality business organization should have a positive attitude in terms of serving the customers. They should consider their customers as their prime responsibility. Providing reassurance to the customers in term of correcting up the problematic scenario often helps in terms of retaining customers. The author also mentioned multiple advisory facts such as that the hotel management or the complaint handling individual must not take a customer’s complaints in a personal manner. Krasovitzky (2012), in his article has also mentioned multiple steps regarding customer complaint management which can be described to be having utmost necessity in term of attaining customer loyalty. These steps include notifying of customers once the problem gets solved, finding out of the causes which led to such problematic scenario, keeping track of the customer’s behavior towards the same service and also making sure that the improvisation step gets implemented within the organization’s work structure. Critical Evaluation It has been identified from the critical evaluation of the customer service and care that the effectiveness of customer complaint handling can be understood in the long run. The concept of customer service and care covers up a wide area in terms of development of the hospitality industry. Customers mostly complain when they find themselves incapable of attaining the expected value in exchange for what they have paid. Adding to that, the complaint might be based on multiple dimensions. In relation to this context, all the authors have laid down significant thinkable and practicable criteria which might appear appropriate in term of retaining customer and attaining their loyalty. The vitality of this aspect stands for one crucial point that happy customers form the main sustainability factor for the hospitality industry. Thus, it becomes utmost necessity for the hospitality organizations to pay significant contribution in terms of managing customer complaints effectively. Additionally as a learning factor, all the above steps help in terms of structuring up an effective management system for monitoring customer satisfaction levels. Moreover, the communication between the customers and the management staff is often crucial and should be dealt in an effective manner. The entire process of effectively and systematically handling the customer complaints is of diverse nature and need to be followed up by a chain of training programs with the prime intention of evolving quality customer handling traits within the service organizational work force. In this process, each and every employee is made to pass through multiple staff development programs which significantly help them in term of understanding the needs of the customers and retaining them subsequently. The above mentioned facts also helped in terms of understanding a simple fact that customers are generally fickle minded in terms of service selection. They have a general tendency of expecting a bit more returns then what they have paid for. They also expect quick and innovative services which satisfies their interest levels. As a matter of fact, the hospitality industries must keep this factor in mind and design their services accordingly. The industry must get into significant investment in terms of carrying out staff training oriented towards effective customer complaint handling. Conclusion From the foregoing discussion multiple important factors can be identified. For instance, acceptance of the fact that effective management of customer complaints is crucial for understanding the weak spots within an organization. Framing up of innovative strategies in terms of handling customers often helps hotels in retaining their existing customers along with attracting new ones. Moreover, it can be observed that customers don’t hesitate in term of switching to other competitors within the industry if any dissatisfaction regarding the service quality is experienced. So the hospitality giants must look forwards in terms of establishing long term relationships with the customers through provision of certain quality and value based additives. The above description also helped in projecting out a clear picture regarding how to bring down stressed customers and turn up their complaints into complements. The phenomenon of customer complaint is a common thing in hospitality industry and they should always face it with a positive attitude rather than showing instability towards the situation. A positive attitude often leads to both qualitative and quantitative success attainment for an organization in the long run. References Hartigan, J., 2013. 4 Steps to Handling Customer Complaints. Vital Information for Hotel Decision Makers. [Online] Available at: https://www.hotelnewsnow.com/Article/9633/4-steps-to-handling-customer-complaints [Accessed April 19, 2014]. Krasovitzky, F., 2012. Effective Complaint Management: 12 Steps to Take a Customer from Dissatisfaction to Delight. Leventer Group. [Online] Available at: http://www.leventergroup.com/english/articulos/hist-9.php [Accessed April 19, 2014]. North West Business Life, 2013. The Importance of Customer Service in The Hospitality Industry. Business. [Online] Available at: http://www.northwestbusinesslife.co.uk/news-item/the-importance-of-customer-service-in-the-hospitality-industry/ [Accessed April 19, 2014]. Ridler, B., No Date. Six Steps to Dealing with Customer Complaints. Entrepreneurs Organization. [Online] Available at: http://www.eonetwork.org/KNOWLEDGEBASE/SPECIALFEATURES/Pages/SixStepstoDealingwithCustomerComplaints.aspx [Accessed April 19, 2014]. Read More