Service experience/Service concept report

Report Submitted By

Student Name

University

Table of Contents Service Log .............................................................................................................................................. 3

Introduction ............................................................................................................................................ 6

Literature Review .................................................................................................................................... 8

Conclusion ............................................................................................................................................. 11

Recommendations ................................................................................................................................ 12

References ............................................................................................................................................ 13

Service Log

Date / Time / Place Description/ Experience Management

concept

01-11-2012

07:00 AM

XYZ Hotel

Services

In the morning time in the hotel I stayed was good as

with the time to time the employees of the hotel were

serving well. Every information regarding the hotel

and nearby areas were also provided so that there will

not be any issue to the new place. The facilities and

the activities in the hotel were up to date as per the

convenience to the customers. The cleaning in the

room and the outdoor facilities were well and taken

care by the hotel staffs time to time. The overall

experience can be described as excellent because of

the excellent service. The customer engagement and

customer loyalty was the best service that I

experienced there in my life time. The satisfaction

from my side for the facilities and the services by the

hotel is also excellent.

Customer

Experience

Management

02-18-2012

05:00 PM

ABC Travels Ltd.

The experience of the travel services and facilities

made me proud to think again about the travel

services to come back again in future and use the

same travel services. Every staff of the travel

company did the great Job. I didn’t even ask for

anything from the staff as already was on the right

place already and everything was so cool and looking

like familiar that I have used the service there earlier.

The communication skills and greetings by the travel

staffs and helping in any difficulty that may occur

during the travel with them were awesome. The

customer friendly environment was really great and

impressed me a lot. As a customer I can say that the

Service

Culture

travel experience with them was good.

03-21-2012

10:00 AM

Shopping Centre

I am very fond of shopping on different places so I

went to one of the best shopping centre of the city to

buy some clothes. As soon I reached there, I found

myself very happy because the decoration and

architecture of the shopping mall was really awesome

than I visited earlier. It was automatic system there for

security checking and entering in the centre. Also

there were separate departments for the each kind of

brand of clothes so that the customer can choose

accordingly based on their choice. I bought some

clothes for me and returned to my place then I found

that there is some defect in the cloths and went there

again for returning or exchanging the cloths. The

thing I observed was really good as they helped me to

choose better cloths and the earlier one they took and

refunded my whole money. I felt very good that they

had returning policy too.

Service

Recovery

04-06-2012

2:00 PM

Telecommunication

system on a Hill

Station

The place where I went to visit was far from my place

and I was in need to connect with my family members

so that I can tell them where I am and what doing

there. For that I went to a telephone centre so that I

could make a call to my family. The thing that I

observed was surprising as there was only one

telephone booth and there were many people who

were standing in the queue for a long time. When my

number came, I found that the phone was also not

working perfectly as I was not able to hear the voice

of my family members clearly. After some time when

I came out they asked me for payment, I found that

they were charging 3 times more than the normal call

even though I could not talk. This was m worst

Self-service

Technologies

experience there.

05-15-2012

6:00 PM

Transportation

System

With the transportation system, my experience was

not good as can say worst ever in my life. I was

planning to go somewhere and booked a cab for that

so that can go timely. At the time I was waiting for the

cab to come so that I can go with time. I waited for a

long time and found that the cab did not reach neither

the owner nor driver called me back to inform that it

is late. When I called to the owner, what the owner

said was unreliable as he is not responsible for

anything as he already sent the can for me. The owner

also didn’t provide me the phone number of the driver

so that I can talk with him. It was getting late to me

and no one was replying nicely. After a long wait I

saw the cab and also when asked with the driver why

he was late, he said what should I will do, he will drop

me before time.

Employee

Attitudes

The best service management concept is Customer Experience Management.

Introduction

The service in the hotel was very good, as based on my experience in the hotel I found that

every staffs of the hotel was communicating with me nicely and also to the other customers

was very good. The best thing I found there was the service culture because on every hour the

staff member was asking from the customers that did they any issue with the service in the

hotel and also every staff was co-operating to the customers. The information about the hotel

and nearby areas, rules and regulations were introduced by them while discussing the services

available there. No employee was making the service request delay and happily serving the

customers at any time when there is a need. The available facilities for the customer purpose

was good and with the best and easy to use. Either it is room service or the outdoor service

available there, each place the staff of the hotel were presence and helping to the customers. I

have seen there that on staff was taking the old customer to the rest room because he was

unable to move easy so it can be said that service culture was very good and helpful towards

the customers.

The service culture in the hotel was very good and this is more important in the hotel for the

customers. The service experience chosen above is very necessary for the best hotel services

and for better customer services. The service culture impressed me there in the hotel because

every staff in the hotel was serving very good and the planning for the service and facilities

for the customers were amazing. The selected management concept that best suits for the

service is Customer Experience Management because in the hotel management tried their

best to serve the customers better and tried to provide the best amazing customer experience

that stay in the hotel when come to visit the place.

Customer experience management is very important aspect in travel and tourism industry

because it measures the customer satisfaction at each level and helps them to increase their

interest in the travel and tourism industry. There are some steps need to follow in the travel

and tourism industry to ensure the customer experience management such as at every

transaction step that includes pre booking, billing, reservations, and services, other stages like

customer life cycle like selling, cross selling, through to actual travel, and all the touch points

including in-person web, phone, Interactive Voice response, Email, and SMS and other

customer related services and the right information, right people and the right timeframe.

These things are needed to ensure the quality of the service in the hotel for the customers so

that the every customer can be benefited with the hotel services. When I was there in the

hotel, I found that all the services as mentioned above were up to the standards. The

transaction process was very fast and easy, and I was informed when my hotel room was

booked and the transaction occurred. The feedback policy in the hotel to inform management

if anything happens unpleasant in the hotel was good and the response was quite better than

the expectation there. Every customer or guest was treated like a member of the hotel and

served very nicely. Thus, it can be described as the best management service concept as

Customer Experience Management in the hotel that I have experienced there. All the theories

of the customer experience management have been applied in the reality to make the better

customer experience in the hotel.

Literature Review

Customer Experience Management is the important part of the travel and tourism industry

because it defines the success of the industry and customer satisfaction. In this industry the

competitiveness of the services and facilities mostly depends on the customer satisfaction, if

the customer satisfaction is not fulfilled then the service is of no use in the hotel or travel &

tourism industry. According to Akbaba, A. (2006) the customer’s expectation from the hotel

or tour industry is to have the full satisfaction in terms of services, security, and facilities.

The actual experience with the products and services in the industry is important to analyse

by the customers so that the customers can understand the value of the service provided by

the hotel and tour management. The delivery of the product to the customers should be

through the best way so that the customer wouldn’t feel any issue with the service. According

to research by Brady, M. & J.J. Cronin (2001) in the tourism and customer experience area

states that in tourism destinations, products are service products that generally consist of

multiple service touch points which customers perceive prior, during and after their holidays.

The customer expectations in the tour and travel industry that matches with the crucial

demand for the services in generating the customer satisfaction which are constantly

measured and designed as per the customer demand based on the recent trend. The customer

insights with the various services in the travel industry mainly in the hotel industry are

important because it maps, the expectation in to the reality.

The development of the new technologies, for the ease of the services for the customers

depends on the several touch points that are needed to ensure the service quality for the

customers. The staff or employees of the tour and hotel industry also play the important role

in defining the success of the industry. The strength of the industry lies with the strength of

the availability of the different kind of services offered to the customers. The orientation and

the introduction of the tour industry and the hotel information for the customers are more

necessary and that need to be explain them in a better way. Martín Ruiz et al (2008)

explained in the research that customer experience management is one of the most vital

factors which play an important role in managing the customer satisfaction. The author

describes in better way that if any hotel doesn’t have the proper service plan and the activities

then it might have the issue for both the customer perspective and to the hotel perspective.

The research in leisure and tourist industry explored about the experimental perspectives

because in this theory experimental is more important than the theoretical perspectives.

The contributions from the customers are also necessary to make the customer experience

better and helpful based on the need of the customers. The satisfaction of the customers is the

only key of success in the travel and tourism industry. The each form such as sociological,

anthropological and psychological is important in deciding the customer satisfaction and to

improve the customer experience in the tour and travel industry. Tourism is not only because

of one service but there are number of services in the industry which make the activities

better and flexible because for a person who goes to the travel needs lot of things such as

transaction, email, mobile, guidance, insurance, ticket and food etc. which means that the

person need to make all arrangement before going to travel. Out of these the hotel stay is one

of the important factors that can’t be neglect at any point. Therefore, it has been discussed by

the number of authors who have written about the tour industry that the tour industry the

main factor that plays an important role is the human satisfaction with the provided services

in the industry while travelling.

Pine and Gilmore, 1999; Schmitt, 2003, Shaw and Evens, 2002; Hemmington, 2007 all

explains that what customers are currently looking for is experiences. The expectations of the

customers are also changing to the experiences as explained by Pine and Gilmore in year

1999. Every customer just only doesn’t want to live all time with the old traditions but also

want to try something new which is very unique and memorable in the history of their life so

that the customers can tell the story to the family and to the friends. According to Ross et al.

(2008, p.3), the customer are demanding unique experiences in the tour industry and want to

experience the things individually. Shaw et al. (2005, p.13) also suggests that the customer

experience is described as what they are looking for. In this age all the customer wants to buy

the experiences so that their dream can be fulfilled. In year 1970, Tofler a tourism industry

analyser mentioned in his own research that the concept of the best possible tourism industry

experience in future after year 1999 will be on its height. During that time the word as

experience economy introduced in the tourism industry to make aware about both the

experience and economy for the customers.

Customers not only want the experience but also want the experience for the lower economy

so that both can be fulfilled easily. This concept in that time made the new economy based

concept that makes the experience unique and memorable for their life. This is the

expectation that every customer wants while go for travel and also expects from the hotel and

tour industry to provide them as per the requirement. If the customer is willing to visit any

place and also if staying in the hotel then customer expects the all necessary services which

will make his life memorable and unique.

According to Orsingher, C. & GL. Marzocchi (2003) for the tourism industry the experience

of the customer matters a lot because if the customer is not satisfied then there is no meaning

of the travel industry to grow more. Therefore, the transformation of the consumer service in

to the managerial action is little bit difficult because every customer has its own demand and

it is not easy to fulfil the requirement of each customer easily. In other words, service quality

measures may be insufficient to assist in our understanding of satisfaction in the tourism

industry but the main aim is to provide the customer satisfaction at any stage in the tourism

industry. The new focus of the tourism industry is must to provide the unique experience to

the customers and making their travel visit memorable for the life time. Therefore the

customer experience management is important in the tour or hotel industry. Therefore, this

differentiation also provokes a competitive advantage in firms against competition, creating

in consequence positive results for companies. Otto, J.E. & J.R. Ritchie (1996) suggests that

travel industry is good but these only happens when the customer is satisfied with the

services and get the new and unique experience from the travel and hotel industry and with

their services.

Conclusion

The experience of the customers towards the tourism industry is important because now the

expectations of the customers are going as the experiences. The service culture and the

customer experience management are the two most important factors which allow the full

satisfaction to the customers in the travel and tourism industry. When I visited the hotel found

that the services and the customer management were excellent and my experience of

travelling as because staying in that hotel became awesome and memorable in the life of

mine. There have been lots of researches in the travel and tourism industry by the number of

authors and writers in this area and explored about the different opportunities in this area and

also in the customer experience management. Finally, it can be said that the customer

experience is the most important thing in the travel and tourism industry which defines the

success and growth of the industry and also defines the quality of the services in the travel

and tourism industry.

Recommendations

In the travel and tourism industry it is important to first understand the requirement of the

customers and then accordingly need to manage the service industry that will cater the need

of the customers. The hotel and travel industry need to give the full security and satisfaction

by providing the safe and required facilities in the hotel. The outcome can be improved by

providing the unique and memorable experience in the travel or journey or by staying in the

hotel. Every hotel should provide the flexibility to the customers to use all the services

available in the hotel and the communication of the employees of the hotel should be best and

the service request should be respond very quickly and fast. The manager of the hotel or the

tour industry need to first analyse the requirement of the customer and also based on the

economic budget of the customer the plans and offer should provide.

References

1. Akbaba, A. (2006): “Measuring service quality in the hotel industry: a study in a

business hotel in Turkey”, International Journal of Hospitality Management, 25, 170-

192.

2. Brady, M. & J.J. Cronin (2001): “Some new thoughts on conceptualizing perceived

services quality: a hierarchical approach”, Journal of Marketing, 65 (3), 34-49.

3. Martín Ruiz, D., Dwayne D. Gremler, Judith H. Washburn, Gabriel Cepeda Carrión

(2008): “Service Value Revisited: Specifying a Higher-Order, Formative Measure”,

Journal of Business Research, Special Issue on Formative Measurement, vol. 61 (12),

1278-1291.

4. Orsingher, C. & GL. Marzocchi (2003): “Hierarchical representation of satisfactory

consumer service experience”, International Journal of Service Industry Management,

vol.14 (2), 200-216.

5. Otto, J.E. & J.R. Ritchie (1996): “The Service Experience in Tourism”, Tourism

Management, vol.17 (3), 165-174.

6. Seiders, K., Glenn B. Voss, Dhruv Grewal, Andrea L. Godfrey (2007): “SERVCON:

Development and Validation of a Multidimensional Service Convenience Scale,”

Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 35 (1), 144-156.

7. Zeithaml, V, Berry, L. y Parasuraman, A. (1996), The behavioral consequences of

service quality”. Journal of Marketing, 60, 31-46.

8. Pine,B.J. and Gilmore, J.H., (1998). Harvard Business Review. July-August, 76 (4),

97-105.

9. Schmitt, B.H., (2003). Customer Experience Management: a revolutionary approach

to connecting with your customers. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.

10. Shaw, C. and Ivens, J., (2002). Building Great Customer Experiences.Basingtoke:

Palgrave Macmillan.

11. Hemmington, N., (2007). The service industries journal. From Service to Experience;

understanding and defining the hospitality business.27 (6), 747-755.

12. Ross, D. F., (2008). The Intimate Supply Chain: Leveraging the Supply Chain to

Manage the Customer Experience. Boca Raton: CRC Press-Taylor & Francis.

13. Toffler, A., (1970). Future Shock. Cologny/Geneva: Orbit Publishing.