Module 3 the guest experience hard copy

Chapter 3: The Guest Experience

•CH 3: The guest experienceThe service environmentService modelGaps in serviceSupplier-customer relationships and total quality

Why manage experiences?

The Cost of Poor Hospitality

Copyright © 2007 by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. All rights reserved

Service America! by Albrecht and Zemke).

96% of unhappy customers are never heard from.

For every complaint received, the average company in fact has 26 customers with

problems, 6 of which are serious problems.

Complainers are more likely than non-complainers to do business again with the

company that upset them, even if the problem isn’t satisfactorily resolved.

The average customer who has had a problem with an organization recounts the

incident to more than 20 people.

Customers who have complained to an organization and had their complaints

satisfactorily resolved tell an average five people about the treatment they received.

04/11/2023 4

Possible Levels of Customer Expectations (1/2)

Ideal expectations or desires

“Everyone says this restaurant is as good as

one in France and I want to go somewhere very special

for my anniversary.”

Normative “should” expectations

“As expensive as this restaurant is, it ought to have excellent food and

service.”

Experience-based norms “Most times this restaurant is very good,

but when it gets busy the service is slow.”

HIGH

LOW

THE CUSTOMER….. Discuss Johnson and Layton’s quote

“It is only through the eyes of a customer that definition of service quality can be obtained.”

Customer Defined

A customer is the receiver of goods or services. This involves an economic transaction in

which something of value has changed hands.

Internal customers Employees receiving goods or services from

within the same firm. External customers

Bill-paying receivers of work. The ultimate people we are trying to satisfy.

End user Another term that describes customers.

Customer experience?

We are the music makers, and we are the dreamers of dreams

Customer Expectations of Service Customer Expectations

Beliefs about ________________ Serve as reference points against which

performance is judged In evaluating service quality, customers compare

____________of performance with ____________

The Service Environment

“Customers do not buy service delivery, they buy experiences; they do not buy service quality, they buy memories; they do not

buy food and drink, they buy meal experiences; they do not buy events or

functions, they buy occasions”

Today's’ consumers are looking for experience; experience that are personal, memorable and add value to their lives

Flow Experiences

• Happiness• process of total involvement in life”

• optimal experience”

• the best moments of our lives”

• the state in which people are so involved in an activity that nothing else seems to

matter: the experience itself is so enjoyable that people will do it even at great cost for the sheer sake of doing it”

• Involves stretch/difficult/worthwhile

• Autotelic experiences – intrinsic pleasures

The service model

Hotel Guest SatisfactionThere

Were No Guest

Towels In The

Room !!

Don’t Call Me Late At Night

Restaurant Service

Was Slow !!

Listening To Your Guests

Happier & MoreSatisfied Guests=

Guest Will Complain SometimesWhy ??

Guest Perceptions

Guest Expectations

Occurs when guest perceptions does not equal their expectations. Reasons:

• Hotels Are Not Listening To Their Guests.

• Hotels Negligence Towards Guests.

Frequently Asked Questions About Customer Expectations

What does a service marketer do if customer expectations are “unrealistic”?

Should a company try to delight the customer?

How does a company exceed customer service expectations?

Do customer service expectations continually escalate?

How does a service company stay ahead of competition in meeting customer expectations?

Customer Experience

Management

vs

Customer RelationshipManagement

Customer-Driven QualitySlide 1 of 2

Customer-Driven Approach

Customer driven quality represents a proactive approach to satisfying customer needs that is based on gathering data about our customers to learn their

needs and preferences and then providing products and services that satisfy the customer.

Customer Experience Management…

Customer Centric

Give customers what they want

Business StrategyMake money and

beat the competition

…is the execution of a customer centric business strategy

Dissatisfiers vs. Satisifiers


Discuss Cadotte and Turgeon’s survey results.

1. Dissatisfiers – complaints for low performance, e.g. parking

2. Satisfiers – unusual performance elicits compliments, but average performance or even the absence of the feature will probably not cause dissatisfaction or complaints, e.g. atrium type lobbies

Dissatisfiers v. Satisfiers cont’d.


3. Critical variables – capable of eliciting both positive and negative feelings, depending on the situation, e.g. cleanliness, quality of service, employee knowledge and service, and quietness of surroundings

4. Neutrals – factors that received neither a great number of compliments nor many complaints are probably either not salient to guests or easily brought up to guest standards.

What is the Voice of the Customer?

The Voice of the Customer The voice of the customer represents the

wants, opinions, perceptions, and desires of the customer.

Quality Function Deployment (QFD) “House of quality,” Translates customer wants into a finished

product design.

Customer-Relationship ManagementSlide 1 of 8

Customer-Relationship Management This view of the customer asserts that he or

she is a valued asset to be managed. The tangibles meet the intangibles to provide

a satisfying experience for the customer. Four important design aspects

Complaint resolution Feedback Guarantees Corrective action or recovery

What Should Hotel Management Do ???

• Start Listening More To Their Guests

• Allow Guests To Leave Feedbacks Whenever & Wherever

• Feedback On Site, So We Can React Fast

• Example: The ECO Application (From Personal Experience)


Figure 3.1

Complaintresolution

Complaintresolution

FeedbackFeedback

GuaranteesGuarantees

Correctiveaction

Correctiveaction

CustomerRelationshipManagement

CustomerRelationshipManagement

Components of a Customer-Relationship Management Process


Complaint Resolution Complaint resolution is an important part of the

quality management system. Three common types of complaints

regulatory complaints employee complaints customer complaints.

The complaint-resolution process involves the transformation of a negative situation in one in which the complainant is restored to the state existing prior to the occurrence of the problem.

Complaint-recovery process


Complaint Resolution (or recovery) Process

Apologize to the customer(contrition)

Compensate people for

losses

Make it easy for the

complainant to resolve his

or her problem


Feedback There are two main types of feedback

feedback to the customer feedback to the firm as a basis for process

improvements Feedback to the firm should occur on a

consistent basis with a process to monitor changes resulting from the process improvement.

Some customer data is solicited and other data is provided without solicitation.


Guarantees A guarantee outlines the customer’s rights. The guarantee is both a design and an

economic issue that must be addressed by all companies before the first sale occurs.

To be effective, a guarantee should be: Unconditional Meaningful Understandable Communicable Painless to invoke


To be effective, guarantees should be:

UnconditionalUnconditional

Painless to invokePainless to invoke

MeaningfulMeaningful

UnderstandableUnderstandable

CommunicableCommunicable


Corrective Action When a service or product failure occurs, the

failure is documented and the problem is resolved in a way that it never happens again.

Corporate teams or committees should be in place to regularly review complaints and to improve processes so the problems don’t recur.

Serv.qual models

Service Quality Theories

• Parasuraman, Zeithaml, and Berry in 1985 discovered 10 widely cited service quality determinants, i.e., the basic criteria that customers use to analyse quality irrespective of the type of service: reliability, responsiveness, competence, access, courtesy, communication, credibility, security, understanding/knowing the customer, and tangibles.

• This model identifies the different sources of gaps or differences between the service quality that a customer expects to receive from a service provider and the customer perception of the service actually received.

• The model identifies 5 different types of gaps. The first four gaps are called company gaps, and the last or fifth gap is called customer gap - that is, the gap as perceived by customer. The customer gap is the resultant effect of the four company gaps.

Measuring service quality: SERVQUAL Model

(Parasuraman, Zeithaml & Berry 1985, 1988)

ServiceQuality

ServiceQuality

ReliabilityReliability

ResponsivenessResponsiveness

AssuranceAssurance

EmpathyEmpathy

TangiblesTangibles

Class Discussion

The Five-Gap Model of Service Quality

Question: Describe ways in which you as a Manager could use the five-gap model

of service quality

©2006 Pearson Education, Inc. Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism, 4th editionUpper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Kotler, Bowen, and Makens

The Gap Approach to Service Design

The Gap The gap refers to the differences between

desired levels of performance and actual levels of performance.

The formal means for identifying and correcting these gaps is called gap analysis.

The Gaps Model of Service Quality

ConsumerPast

experiencePast

experience

Expected serviceExpected service

Perceived servicePerceived service

Service delivery (including pre- and post-

contacts)

Service delivery (including pre- and post-

contacts)

External communications

to consumers

External communications

to consumers

Translations of perceptions into service

quality specifications

Translations of perceptions into service

quality specifications

Management perceptions of consumer expectations

Management perceptions of consumer expectations

GAP 5

GAP 3

GAP 2

GAP 1

GAP 4

Personal needsPersonal needsWord-of-mouth

communicationsWord-of-mouth

communications

Marketer

• Not knowing what customers expect

• Not selecting the right service standards and designs

• Not delivering to service standards

• Not matching performance to promised

Customer expectations

Customer expectations

Customer perceptions Customer perceptions

Reasons for

Customer Gap 5

Customer’s expectations

Customer’s expectations

Company’s perceptions of customer expectations

Company’s perceptions of customer expectations

Inadequate marketing research orientation

Lack of upward communication

Insufficient relationship focus

Inadequate service recovery

Reasons for

providergap

I

Reasons for

providergap

I

Translation of perceptions into service quality specifications

Translation of perceptions into service quality specifications

Management perceptions of customer expectations

Management perceptions of customer expectations

Poor service design

Absence of customer-defined service standards

Inappropriate physical evidence and servicescape

Reasons for

provider gap

2

Reasons for

provider gap

2

Poor human resource policies Failure to match supply and demand Customer not fulfilling their roles Problems with service

intermediaries

Service deliveryService delivery

Customer-driven service designs and standards

Customer-driven service designs and standards

Reasons for

provider gap

3

Reasons for

provider gap

3

External communications to consumers

External communications to consumers

Service deliveryService delivery

Lack of integration of marketing communications

Inadequate management of customer expectations

Overpromising

Inadequate horizontal communications

Reasons for

provider gap 4

Reasons for

provider gap 4

Closing the gaps

Refer to table 4.2, p. 104 Gap 1: Learn what customers

expect Gap 2: Establish the right service

quality standards Gap 3: Ensure that service

performance meets standards Gap 4: Ensure that delivery

matches promises

Closing gap 1: Learn what customers expect

Use research, complaint analysis, customer panels

Increase direct interactions between managers and customers

Improve upward communications

Act on information and insights

listen to customer

s

Closing gap 2: Establish the right service quality standards

Top management commitment to providing service quality

Set, communicate, and reinforce customer-oriented service standards

Establish challenging and realistic service quality goals

Train managers to be service quality leaders

Be receptive to new ways to deliver service quality

Standardise repetitive tasks

Prioritise tasks Gain employee acceptance

of goals and priorities Measure performance of

service standards and provide regular feedback

Reward managers and employees for achievement of quality goals

Service Quality Awards

Closing gap 3: Ensure that service performance meets standards

Attract the best employees

Select the right employees Develop and support

employees train employees provide appropriate

technology & equipment encourage and build

teamwork empower employees internal marketing

Can I take your

order?

Retain good employees measure and reward

service quality achievements

develop equitable and simple reward systems

You are a

Star Service

Provider

Closing gap 4: Ensure that service delivery matches promises

Seek input from operations personnel on what can be done

‘Reality’ advertising real employees, real customers, real situations

Seek input from employees on advertising Gain communications between sales,

operations and customers Internal marketing programs Ensure consistent standards in multi-site

operations

In advertising, focus on service characteristics that are important to customers

Manage customer’s expectations What are realistic expectations? Explain industry realities

Tiered service options Offer different levels of service -

user pays

Why do we always have

to wait?

Service Satisfaction Information System

Customer Complaints Surveys Employee Surveys Focus Groups ‘Mystery shopping’ research Competitive market surveys - benchmark

Measuring Satisfaction Qualitative Research Understand key drivers / determinants Questionnaire design Data analysis Service performance index (SPI) Importance - performance analysis

Best Practices

Service Guarantees by Hampton Inns

Unconditional guarantees

Specific guarantees

Implicit guarantees

©2006 Pearson Education, Inc. Marketing for Hospitality and Tourism, 4th editionUpper Saddle River, NJ 07458 Kotler, Bowen, and Makens