Enhancing Hospitality Customer Service Quality in the Hospitality Industry
Question
Task: How can hospitality businesses develop, manage, and adjust Hospitality Customer Service practices to meet market demands and ensure sustainable growth?
Answer
As more people travel on leisure and business across Australia, the demand for Hospitality Customer Service businesses is also on the rise (Mok, Sparks & Kadampully 2013). This results in a large number of entrepreneurs investing heavily on developing hospitality service businesses to cater to the rising demand of travels across Australia. But simply investing on the infrastructure does not guarantee success and hospitality businesses must consider delivering high-quality services at competitive rates so as to attract customers and generate the highest revenue. To achieve this hospitality business will need to focus on three main areas namely customer expectations, service management and delivery and monitoring and adjustment of existing services (Horner & Swarbrook 2016). These will assist the business to identify customer expectations which can be used to manage and deliver on customer exception as well as monitor and adapt to new trends which will ensure the business retains its competitive edge in the industry.
Develop Quality Hospitality Customer Service Practices
To deliver high-quality Hospitality Customer Services it is essential that the hospitality business first undertakes a customer expectation audit to determine consumer expectations. The audit will help the business understand customer expectation as well as evaluate the services being delivered by competitors (Allen 2006). This information can then be used to assist the business to develop an effective service delivery plan which addresses all aspects linked to the business. Data collected from the audit will help the business develop a competitive advantage among its competitors by identifying the services they deliver allowing the business deliver better services than their competitors.
Data collection can be done using the internet, field surveys and practical visits of the chosen location as well as competitors and customers with the objective of collecting data which can be used to develop the service delivery plan (Edosomwan 1995). It’s critical to collect data related to customer expectation, staffing requirements, and needs as well as legal policies and procedures linked to the specific hospitality industry which will also influence the services delivered by the business to its customers.
Manage and Delivery of Quality Hospitality Customer Services
On competition of the quality service delivery audit, the hospitality business will need to evaluate the customer expectation and consider their budget to determine services which can be delivered (Wagen & Goonetilleke 2015). It’s important to understand that it may not be possible to deliver on every customer expectations thus it's essential to break down the customer quality expectation into primary and secondary expectation and focus on delivering the primary quality expectations before turning to secondary needs. The quality service delivery plan should be approached in the same way be the deal without daily household needs whereby basic needs such as cleanliness, hygiene, good food, accessibility room service and security are delivered at affordable rates.
Only after basic requirements have been delivered a hospitality business consider offering secondary requirement which can also be classified as luxury services which may be demanded by a smaller proportion of customers. It’s important to focus on basic Hospitality Service Quality expectation delivery since the majority of travelers are middle-income earners who prefer budget hospitality services. This makes it essential that the business delivers on high-quality basic needs for to tap into this market before considering targeting the higher income groups who also have luxury service expectations (Lamb, Hair & McDaniel 2008).
Monitor and Adjust Hospitality Customer Services to Meet Market Demand
Like most other businesses today the hospitality industry is also constantly evolving and customers’ expectations are constantly increasing. This makes it important that the hospitality business also constantly monitor customer expectation and services being delivered by competitors so as to make adjustments that meet consumer and market demands (Aubrey 2014). This is also known as innovation in most other industries whereby a dedicated team is associated to researching on the latest development in the field which can be used to improve service delivery.
This also ensures the businesses sustainability and allows the business to retain its competitive edge and its customers who will build a trust with the businesses ability to deliver the best quality services in the industry. Failing to monitor competitors and major adjustment as per the customer and market trends will result in losing customer confidence resulting in major reductions in revenue generation and profits. This makes constant monitoring and adjustments to Hospitality Service Quality delivery an important requirement that each hospitality business must maintain so as to ensure sustainable growth and development in the industry.
Industry monitoring is best achieved by utilizing a wide array of tools which both digital as well as the manual which can help deliver the business analysis from the different aspect and also help identify important requirements the business may need to consider so as to remain competitive (Dwyer & HopWood 2011). Digital communication is also an effective tool used in monitoring and industry as it can help gather consumer expectations from global perspective thus allowing the business make adjustments targeting the global consumer expectation as opposed to only focusing on the Australian consumer. This will allow for the business to deliver international hospitality standard which is vital towards delivering an advanced competitive edge among consumers.
Conclusion
The hospitality and travel industry caters to people who are looking for high-quality Hospitality Service Quality delivery due to them expecting a change and above normal daily life needs. This makes it critical for business in the industry to deliver high-quality services to as to develop and retain consumer confidence. For that business offering hotel and boarding services, the challenges are even higher due to there being multiple hygiene related aspects which need to be considered as opposed to businesses catering to food and cuisine. Either way Hospitality Customer Service performed constant research in the industry which will help gather consumer and competitor quality expectations and delivery thus allow the business deliver better quality as opposed to its competitors which are likely to help attract more customer and boost revenue generation.
References:
Allen, M 2006, How To Develop & Maintain Quality, Lotus Press, New Delhi.
Aubrey, K 2014, Manage Quality Hospitality Customer Service Workbook, Software Publications Pty, Limited.
Dwyer, J & HopWood, N 2011, Management Strategies & Skills, Tata McGraw-Hill Education.
Edosomwan, J 1995, Integrating Productivity and Quality Management, Second Edition, 2nd edn, CRC Press, New York.
Horner, S & Swarbrook, J 2016, Consumer Behaviour in Tourism, 3rd edn, Routledge, New York.
Lamb, C, Hair, J & McDaniel, C 2008, Essentials of Marketing, Cengage Learning, Mason.
Mok, C, Sparks, B & Kadampully, J 2013, Hospitality Service Quality Management in Hospitality, Tourism, and Leisure, Routledge, Oxon.
Wagen, L & Goonetilleke, A 2015, Hospitality Management, Strategy and Operations, Pearson Higher Education AU, Frenchs Forest. Hospitality Customer Service
