9780130930187

A must-read for all hospitality managers in every sector of the industry, this text serves as a step-by-step guide to providing quality customer service.This book provides 32 Application Interaction Exercises that takes the reader through every aspect of customer servicefrom assessing customer expectations, to creating a quality service environment, to maintaining quality service. The entire spectrum of the hospitality industry is discussed, including restaurants, hotels, clubs, theme parks, travel, and tourism.For hospitality managers, restaurant managers, club managers, theme park managers, and travel and tourism managers that want a step-by-step guide to providing quality customer service.

Application Interaction Exercises

xi

Figures

xiii

Preface

xv

Acknowledgments

xvii

Quality Service Is and What You Can Do About It

1

(18)

What Is Customer Service Anyway?

3

(1)

Tangibles vs. Intangibles

4

(1)

Who Are Your Customers?

5

(1)

What Is Quality Service?

6

(1)

The Four Customer Service Arenas

7

(2)

A Customer Service Perspective within a Hospitality Organization

9

(2)

The Path to Quality Customer Service: A Six-Step Process

11

(8)

Customer Expectations: The Procedural Side

19

(30)

Timeliness

20

(2)

Incremental Flow

22

(3)

Anticipation

25

(2)

Communication

27

(3)

Customer Feedback

30

(3)

Accommodation

33

(1)

Organization and Supervision

34

(1)

Quality Service Is Unobtrusive

35

(14)

Customer Expectations: The Personal Side

49

(28)

Attitudes

51

(3)

Tact: Saving the Right Thing

54

(2)

Naming Names

56

(1)

Attentiveness

57

(3)

Guidance

60

(2)

Selling Skills

62

(2)

Gracious Problem Solving

64

(3)

The Power of the Personal Side

67

(10)

Creating a Quality Service Culture and Supportive Leadership Climate

77

(28)

The Nature of Organizational Culture

78

(1)

Defining Culture

78

(1)

Leaders' Influence on Culture

79

(1)

A Supportive Quality Service Climate

80

(1)

Maintaining the Dignity of Service Work

81

(6)

The Four Leadership Imperatives

87

(5)

The Whole Is Greater than the Sum of the Individual Parts

92

(1)

Culture Plus

93

(12)

Defining What Quality Service Is for You

105

(20)

Three Reasons Why This Step Cannot Be Skipped

106

(2)

The Procedural Dimension

108

(1)

The Personal Dimension

109

(1)

Setting Your Own Service Priorities--Not All Components Are Created Equal

110

(1)

Identifying Your Quality Service Indicators

111

(2)

Writing Quality Service Standards

113

(3)

Putting It All Together

116

(9)

Weaving Quality Service into Your Operation

125

(20)

Defining Quality Service Jobs

126

(4)

Hiring Quality Service People

130

(4)

Training for Quality Service

134

(6)

Summing It Up

140

(5)

Assessing Progress and Rewarding Successes

145

(28)

The Importance of Feedback

146

(1)

Feedback from Customers

147

(6)

The Service Audit

153

(5)

The Vital Role of Positive Reinforcement

158

(1)

Feedback to Service Providers

159

(6)

Recognition and Rewards

165

(2)

After Assessment and Reward, What?

167

(6)

Maintaining Quality Service with Continuous Quality Improvement

173

(24)

CQI Is Pro-Active

174

(1)

CQI Requires Teamwork

174

(1)

CQI Helps Reduce Resistance to Change

174

(1)

The Roots of Resistance

175

(3)

Responding to Resistance: Ten CQI Foundations

178

(2)

Using CQI Teams to Identify Service Problem Areas

180

(2)

Developing a List of Team Strengths and Weaknesses

182

(1)

Using CQI Teams to Generate Solution Alternatives

183

(2)

Making the Choice

185

(1)

Frequency

186

(1)

Following Through

186

(1)

Outcomes

187

(10)

Additional Readings

197

(2)

Index

199

What is included with this book?

The New copy of this book will include any supplemental materials advertised. Please check the title of the book to determine if it should include any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

The Used, Rental and eBook copies of this book are not guaranteed to include any supplemental materials. Typically, only the book itself is included. This is true even if the title states it includes any access cards, study guides, lab manuals, CDs, etc.

This is the third iteration of what was previously entitledQuality Service, The Restaurant Managers' Bible.When the book first came out in 1986, a surprising thing happened. Most of the feedback and calls I received expressing interest in the book did not come from the restaurant sector. They came from hotel and travel companies. Even then, it was evident to readers that what I had to say about quality service and how to manage it was applicable to a wide audience in the hospitality industry.Well, finally in this new millennium, I have written a more comprehensive and broader application to managing quality customer service. This is a different book from earlier editions. It is not only bigger and better, but it also applies to the entire spectrum of hospitality, including, but certainly not limited to, restaurants, hotels, clubs, theme parks, and the entire travel and tourism industry. I have attempted to include as many examples from the various sectors of the industry as possible.Delivery of quality customer service remains as important to the success of the hospitality industry as ever. However, that doesn't mean we have been doing a very good job at it. Over the last fifteen years, I have seen some customer service progress in our industry, but it has been slow in coming and spotty in impact. Unfortunately, the fact remains, as an industry, we are doing a very good job delivering a very mediocre customer service product. When it comes to customer service, mediocrity does indeed abound. Of course, there are horror stories that come to light from time to time, and sometimes, albeit far too rarely, hospitality. customers receive a level of service that they can actually rave about. But overall, much customer service progress needs to occur before we can claim, as an industry, that we do in fact deliver a quality customer service product.Clearly, more people need to read and implement the contents of this book.Improvement in the day-to-day delivery of hospitality customer service will not come without first committing to the concepts presented in this book and then putting them to actual use. With this in mind, I have constructed a complete set ofapplication interaction exercisesthat accompany each chapter. The thirty-two exercises are designed to facilitate not only a more thorough knowledge and understanding of the concepts presented irk the chapters, but they also serve as a guide for direct hands-on application in any hospitality setting.The lasting legacy of customer service in our industry lies in the hands of current and future leaders. For this reason, I have written this book with two audiences in mind: present industry leaders and prospective ones. That is why the book is adaptable forindustry use and implementation,as well as for acollege-level course in service management.The first three chapters review the fifteen components of customer expectations for hospitality quality service. The framework of these components provides a useful tool for observing, analyzing, and critiquing actual customer service encounters in an ongoing hospitality organization. Chapters 4 through 8 provide a framework by which the management of an entire hospitality organization or a targeted service unit can also be studied and analyzed. Thus, the entire book has been designed to facilitate a comprehensive customer service review of any hospitality operation from a workplace point of view or an academic perspective. William B. Martin Pomona, California March 2001

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Quality Service What Every Hospitality Manager Needs to Know

Quality Service What Every Hospitality Manager Needs to Know

0130930180

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