COLEGIO DE STA. ANA DE VICTORIAS, INC.

Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

MODULE 6 - 7
LEARNING MODULE
BLENDED FLEXIBLE LEARNING
Operations Management in Tourism and Hospitality (OPEM 311)

AN OVERVIEW

INTRODUCTION

The hospitality and tourism industry are the largest and fastest growing industry
in the world today. An exciting aspect of this industry is that it is made up of so many
different professions.  As diverse as the hospitality industry is, there are some
powerful and common dynamics, which include the designing and delivering quality
products and services with distinctive excellence which enables the hotel to exceed
guest’s expectation. The purpose of hospitality is to enhance the lives of guests
through quality service. This module will further discuss the concept of guest service,
the guest’s perspective, steps to deliver quality guest service and service & moment
of truth.

LEARNING OUTCOMES
At the end of this module, you should be able to:

1. To identify the concept and importance of guest service.

2. To discuss how service standard are interacted with the guests visually and
verbally.
3. To identify the moments of truth in the provision of the hospitality service.
4. To relate the different concepts, theories and processes of providing
excellent guest service in the real world.

LEARNING RESOURCES

Hayes, David K., Miller, Allisha A., Nimemeier, Jack D. (2017). Hotel Operations
Management. Third ed. Singapore: Pearson.

LEARNING INPUTS

MEANING OF GUEST SERVICE

LESSON 1

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 COLEGIO DE STA. ANA DE VICTORIAS, INC.
Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

Taking care of the customer is the heart of the hospitality business. One of the
major goal of businesses is to provide excellent experience to guests.
How can a hotel provide guest services? During the stay of the guests, the front desk
is responsible for providing and coordinating different kinds of guest services. From
giving information to guests, attending requests, handles complaints, and more. But
it does not stop on providing the needs and wants of the guests. It is how courteous,
quick, empathetic, understanding and willing the employees are to the guests.
If these are all achieved, the business can provide quality and excellent guest service.
Quality Guest Service is the consistent delivery of products and services which not
only meets the expectations but also exceeds the expectations of guests. It focuses
on providing delightful hotel experiences that may last a lifetime.

Legendary Hotelier Cesar Ritz’s view on Guest Service:

 “No detail is too small and no request is too big if it is meant to satisfying a
customer”

His philosophy on guest service formed the foundation for service in hotel
industry.

Quality pertains to skill or the ability to anticipate, assure and satisfy the needs of
the customers every time. An organization that has consistency in meeting the needs
of guest is considered to be of high quality.  Successful hotels today differentiate
themselves from their less successful counterparts with an ongoing and significant
emphasis on guest service. Creative advertising, the property's brand name, or a
discount incentive may be sufficient to encourage guests' first visits. However, what
occurs between the time guests reach the hotel's parking lot or front door and the
time they depart influences:

 their perception of the hotel

 their interest in returning to it (or even to another hotel of the same brand),
and
 what they say about their hotel experience to friends, family, and others.

LESSON 2 SERVICE STANDARD

Meaning of Service Standard

Customer service standards are a set of policies and expectations that have been
created and adopted by a company. The standards cover all the points of contact the
business may have with the customer. Thus, employees in any industry need to have
expectations made clear to them. A hotel that clearly defines its guest service

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 COLEGIO DE STA. ANA DE VICTORIAS, INC.
Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

guidelines will be able to hold employees accountable. Since expectations and rules
of conduct in every customer interaction or processes are being implemented, the
management could hold the employee accountable for not following such practice or
process. That accountability helps management guide and evaluate employees.

A service standard helps define what a customer can expect from a service and
how it should be delivered by the service provider, e.g. in terms of timeliness,
accuracy and suitability. It is dictated by employee interaction with guests. They
interact verbally and visually.

Verbal Means of Interaction

Verbal communication allows for gaining insight into a guest. These

conversations may not be lengthy, but the aware employees can glean much about a
guest’s personality in the course of a conversation. The most important verbal tools
in ensuring guest satisfaction are perhaps the simplest and can often be overlooked
by rooms division employees who are deeply involved in other tasks.

The basic rules for verbal communication are:

a. Use an appropriate greeting
b. Personalize the conversation (use the customer’s name)
c. Thank the guest
d. Listen
e. Avoid jargon

A. Use an appropriate greeting: employees should greet every guest

appropriately whether in person or over the phone. They should identify the
time of day: “Good morning/afternoon/evening”. When greeting a guest over
the phone, an employee should also include their name and department:
“Good morning, front desk, this is John, how may I help you?” This reassures
the guest that they have reached the appropriate department.
B. Personalize the conversation: this helps to set a relaxed tone in the
conversation, however using an appropriate title (i.e., Mr. or Ms.) is
important. Guests greeted by name are subtly reminded that the hotel values
their business.
C. Thank the guest: thanking the guest in a sincere manner is also very
important. Employees may conduct a variety of guest services in a day, and
each of these transactions should be completed with a “thank you”. Thanking
a guest for staying at a hotel also implies that the hotel appreciates their
business.

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 COLEGIO DE STA. ANA DE VICTORIAS, INC.
Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

D. Listening: this is the only way a receiver can hear the message that the
transmitter is sending, so employees can listen for subtle hints and signals a
guest gives out during communication. The employee creates a comfort level
when they listen, and letting the guest initiate the tone of the conversation
also puts him/her at ease.
E. Avoid jargon: employees should avoid using industry jargon when the
communicate with guests. Using hotel terms in conversation may not convey
the intended message. Example: “Don’t worry, Mr. Smith, I blocked you a
double/double”. Instead, say “Don’t worry, Mr. Smith, I reserved your
preferred room type, a room with two double beds.”

Visual Means of Interaction

Communicating visually is as important as communicating verbally, as visual

communication can reinforce what is being said verbally. The complete delivery of
guest service can be accomplished by incorporating both means. The rules for
effective visual communication are:
a. Communicate with a smile
b. Be aware of body language
c. Observe the grooming standards

A. Communicate with a smile: a genuine smile that accompanies a greeting or

thank you reinforces the message. Smiling at guests helps create a
comfortable atmosphere. A smile incorporated with a 10 X 10 rule will greatly
increase guest satisfaction.
B. Be aware of body language: observing guest body language is like listening
with eyes, it can give the employee clues on how to communicate with the
guest. Common body language signals include the following:
 Crossed arms may indicate a defensive posture
 A guest who leans across the front desk during conversation may be
aggressive
 Strong and consistent eye contact may indicate confidence
 Strong firm handshakes may also indicate confidence
 Red eyes may indicate fatigue
C. Grooming: Hotel employees are viewed as an extension of hotel itself. How
the guest perceives a hotel employee contributes to overall perception of a
hotel. For this reason, employee’s appearance is given due importance and
hotels have instilled employee grooming standards.
 Take pride in your appearance
 Ensure uniforms are cleaned and pressed with no buttons/trims missing.

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 COLEGIO DE STA. ANA DE VICTORIAS, INC.
Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

 Footwear to match with uniform and be appropriate to your work.

 Back of the house employees – comfortable and presentable clothing
 Your attire is complete with your name tag – beyond identification, it
helps the guest know who you are and your area of expertise.

LESSON 3 GUEST CONFLICT RESOLUTION

The hotel industry is a service industry that relies on people to deliver a product;
thus, breakdowns can occur. It could be an irate customer screaming and turning
purple in front of the counter. Whether it’s the management or employee’s fault or
not, knowing how to reach customer conflict resolution is imperative to the
business’s reputation.

Reacting poorly to a customer complaint could end in permanently lost

business. On the other hand, knowing how to resolve conflict can result in
increased customer trust. Resolving a conflict to a guest’s satisfaction can “turn
around” an unhappy guest and make them a satisfied guest. This resolution is best
accomplished by adhering to the visual and verbal rules of guest service.

It is assumed that if the employee is fully trained, the following rules should be
followed to meet or exceed a guest’s expectations:
 Listen first
 Summarize
 Make no excuses
 Resolve the problem
 Document the conflict

LESSON 4 MOMENTS OF TRUTH

In the Hospitality industry, there are a minimum of twenty or thirty moments of

truth in its provision of service. A moment of truth is when an interaction occurs
between a customer and the service provider that can leave a lasting positive or
negative impression on a customer. It represents the points in a customer’s journey
with a brand when a key event occurs and an opinion about that brand is formed.
Moments of truth in a hotel, for example, will undoubtedly include (but not be
limited to) booking the room, check-in, check-out, dinner reservations, dinner
ordering, dinner presentation, eating (quality and quantity of food) and laundry
receipt.

The term was popularized by leading customer experience author, Brian Solis,
who developed the theory that four types of ‘moment of truth’ exist.

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 COLEGIO DE STA. ANA DE VICTORIAS, INC.
Osmeña Avenue, Victorias City, Negros Occidental, 6119

 Zero Moment of Truth: The term coined by Google to explain the event in

which people now search for information online and make decisions about
brands in that instance.
 First Moment of Truth: The point when a consumer sees a product/ service
for the first time and formulates an opinion about it.
 Second Moment of Truth: The subsequent “collection of moments” that
incorporate your customers’ senses.
 Ultimate Moment of Truth: When an experience with your brand leads
customers to publish some form of content expressing their use and
enjoyment of your product or service, which becomes a form of advocacy for
other people to find and share.

Every time the hotel guest comes in contact with some aspect of the hotel, he or
she judges its hospitality. Guests who are told by a reservationist that they must
“take this room at this rate or stay elsewhere” will not feel that hospitality is a
primary consideration at this hotel. When a potential guest calls and asks to speak
with General Manager and the switchboard operator answers, “Who is that?” the
guest will expect the same kind of careless, impersonal treatment when (or if) he or
she decides to stay at the hotel. The guest who is crammed into an elevator with
half the housekeeping crew, their vacuum cleaners, and bins of soiled laundry will
not feel welcomed. All these impressions make the guest feel that service at this
hotel is mismanaged. These examples are only some of the moments of truth that
can be identified from an analysis of the guest service cycle.

Whether a guest considers an event a moment of truth or barely notices, it is a

cumulative review of the delivery of hospitality. Each guest has a “report card” in his
or her head, which is the basis of a grading system that leads the customer to decide
whether to partake of the service again or to go elsewhere. If a guest is to award an
A to the hotel’s hospitality report card, it is essential that these moments of truth be
well managed. This challenge is not to be viewed as mission impossible but rather as
an organized and concerted effort by owners, management, and employees.

Understanding the moments of truth that are important to an organization’s

customers – by segment – is the key to understanding what is good customer
service.