Hotel & Hospitality: Understanding the Path to Exceptional Service Experience - Essay Sample

Introduction

In the hotel and hospitality sector, the "service experience is the product" and the ability to provide exceptional service experience is the ultimate path of achieving business success. As an employee in the hotel industry, I intuitively understood what's at stake in achieving business success. What's not evident is how guests together with other hospitality consumers are continually changing their perception of what involves excellent experience. Equally important was to know what the organization could do in ensuring that there are changes to keep up with the dynamic needs of the customers in the hotel and hospitality sector. The services that we provided in the organization included lodging, event planning and management, transport services and other tourism services. Of all the services, the strategy was to understand the clients and provide services as per their needs. It involved treating the clients in the physical world as well as the digital world. Successful businesses in the hotel and hospitality sector understand how to handle their clients, and deliver exceptional services. But every year, the digital world has become more important in achieving the business and client needs. The experience was that technology played a critical part in connecting the business and the clients while at the same time understanding the dynamic needs of the clients through customer surveys facilitated by the digital world.

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It is evident that what guests and other hotel customers require has changed significantly and is continuously changing at a fast pace. Every year, clients want personalized services that meet quality standards and can be produced more easily. Nevertheless, meeting the increasing demands calls for continuous research to understand how the needs are changing in the entire business sector, not specifically the hotel sector. This is because the consumer's perception of the exceptional service depends on their previous experience with other brands outside the hotel and hospitality sector. The experience design formulates a robust and engaging experience where the main focus was on the needs of the clients, putting into consideration all components of the experience. As a result, the value was added to the hotel sector by offering a way to differentiate, create loyalty among the consumers and also increase the satisfaction levels. The potential consumer segments involved hotel brands and owners.

Increase in guest occupancy rates, positive reviews, and total revenue was the yardstick for evaluating the improved customer experience. To achieve this, the top organizational management had to acquire a lot of knowledge of the customer needs, preferences and understand ways in which the services delivered offered value for the customers and then stimulate their retentions and loyalty levels. A methodological structure for the analysis of the guest-hotel relationship was used. With this, the guests were profiled with a specific focus on the process of designing an information system and particularly guest information matrix on which the entire hotel system database was built. Since service design plays a significant role in improving service values in the hotel sector, the hotel establishment played a critical role in ensuring that each guest received exceptional service as per their needs. The receiver of the services were hotel guest, and other customers and their value perception was the primary consideration factor when providing services to them. The management ensured that the guest receives rapid, effective and the most valuable service primarily within the available resources at the establishment. For better service, we focused on the entire service needs as a whole through which the value was formulated. We took advantage of the fact that there was exceptional history in quality and innovation to improve service design development. Service design is a development field, and for that reason, the hotel management invested in research design to ensure continuous improvement in service delivery.

Personal or Professional Reason for Choosing This Particular Service

The hospitality sector is on the largest service industry that allows everyone to develop professionally and as an individual. The reason for choosing this particular service was specifically to enhance the professional skills that already existed and at the same time learn other skills due to the variety of colleagues, clients, and conditions that came up in the course of the service delivery process. It is evident that various skills and expertise are needed to work in the hotel and hospitality sector. These skills range from those needed for the soft skills such as the organization of different activities, communicating with teams; to more complex activities that include serving guests, revenue collection and management and other facility management processes. The most important activity is that as an employee or service deliverer, you take care of different people. This can be debated, but through experience, empathy and commitment play a critical role in achieving other people's needs and aspirations ahead on your own.

The hospitality sector also requires one to operate in a multi-cultural environment, engaging with different people almost all the time. It does not mean that internationalism within the organization ends at the client's one has engaged with; there are employees at the front office, the back office, and the kitchen departments who come from all corners of the world and with diverse cultural and social backgrounds. For the guests, they visit the hotels for various reasons, but the most fundamental of all is that they want to experience. Their objective is to be accorded time, care and courtesy during their stay at an establishment. Just as clients differ in their cultural and social backgrounds, so is the care and commitment they expect to be given. Whereas other hoteliers settle for basic service provision elements, other organizations that provide top-notch customer service to exceed their expectation remain to be the most preferred. This translates to improved customer experience and high-profit ratios. In other words, the diversity of the hotel sector makes it more fascinating compared to other service sectors. Through the engagement with clients and other clients, there are prospects of improving service and service provision skills.

Experts' Advice on Service Delivery to Ensure its Greater Success

The hospitality industry is indeed complex to survive in because it is evaluated by those who take their time off their day to day activities to engage in something they seek pleasure from. Focusing on the guest provides a channel towards being the best (Rauch et al., 2015). This is because customers are at the heart of the business and are the determining factor towards the success or failure of the business. Regardless of the service provided, there is a need to have a focused group of individuals who will help ensure there is a continuous value addition to the service or product offered. This means that the quality of service provision and its reliability should be based on the money offered by the client.

Based on experience, the critical factor that separates good service from an exceptional service in the hotel and hospitality sector is the consistency in the provision of the service in context. A successful management team continuously research on the needs of the clients to be confident that in different scenarios, the service providers can respond and give a fulfilling solution (AbuKhalifeh & Som, 2012). In a sector where service quality dictates everything, the value in delivering exceptional experience is familiar across the board.

Not every guest will pay for the premium services, but there is a need to treat all of them equally important. This helps create a memorable experience that will further trigger a repeat visit. To achieve this, employees should be trained to be attentive, responsive and professional to every client, regardless of their cultural or social status. As a token of appreciation, guests provide loyalty and patronage. Training at the establishment should also be a continuous process. Technologies that offer provide high-quality training with little commitment time can be used to improve service provision skills (Manhas & Tukamushaba, 2015). Furthermore, the traditional training methods can be incorporated with just-in-time approaches such as Performance Support Systems (PSS). With the PSS, the customer support agent can access tips on how to attend to a guest; what questions to ask and how to respond to different questions during the service provision process.

Research shows that true customer service needs personalization and creating a fulfilling environment for every client while making them feel there is no one else at that moment (Mok, Sparks, & Kadampully 2013). Calling the clients by name, for instance, is a considerable asset for making a difference in the organization. Still, with the help of technology, customers can receive personalized service (Tang & Tang 2012). The technology undertakes an analysis of the guest profile which then provides fundamental information for engaging with the client at a personal level.

Application of Service Profit Chain Theory to the Service

The service profit chain theory has been applied in the hospitality sector to improve on customer service and the overall profitability of an establishment. This theory highlights a relationship-based business concept whereby the interrelation between different players in the sector relies on an understanding of the consumer needs and wants. Within this into context, the consumer is seen as a long term asset that provides progressive income so long as their personal needs are met, as a guest. The theory starts with the operation strategy used at the hotel which begins with the internal service quality elements in the organization. Subsequently, the employees also play a critical role in the theory (Yee, Yeung & Cheng 2011). This means that when they are satisfied in their working environment, there will be high retention and increased productivity levels. As a result, they will provide high-quality services and serve their clients diligently.

The marketing concept applied in the hotel and hospitality sector highlights consumer satisfaction as the primary pillar for realizing the organization's profit projections. A satisfied consumer is a vital asset for the growth and development of sustainable business in the hotel and hospitality sector. This means that the service quality needs to be managed effectively to achieve the set customer needs. When there is high service quality, customer satisfaction and high-profit revenues will be guaranteed. Consumers in this service sector have the ability to assess whether the service elements provided can satisfy their needs. The application of the theory is that the level of employee motivation has a ripple effect on service quality. Quality service on the other hand will influence guest satisfaction levels and ultimately their loyalty levels.

Customer Experience Created

While at the hotel, I created a personalized customer experience where service provision was tailored as per the needs of the guests. Customers in the contemporary world are defining any brand based on their experience across different major points. The kind of service experience created incorporated the elements of technology and brand to drive demand. With technology, the aspects of personalization and authenticity were easily achieved, making our brand much saleable compared to others. On a scale of 1-10, I wou...