Continuous Improvement at Hotel Escargo - Essay Example

Continuous Improvement at Hotel Escargo Copyright Excellence in service is the essence of excellence in hospitality because it is the warmth, the caring and the welcome extended to guests that often blur other failings. Extending the finest in service to guests and offering them all that is possible is important for all hotels that are serious about competing. However, constant improvement is natural for humans and this means that new ideas related to bringing about improvements evolve continuously at all hotels. Thus, it is important that efforts are made to try to bring about continuous improvement at hotels as new ideas develop about doing things better. The Hotel Escargo chain has tried to present winning guidelines and policies for presenting excellence to their guests. However, a need exists for being constantly on the alert to bringing about improvements and continuous improvement in all areas is an important goal for Hotel Escargo. This brief discussion presents an examination of ideas related to bringing about continuous improvement at Hotel Escargo. Declaration I certify that, except where cited in the text, this work is the result of research carried out by the author of this study. _____________________________________________ Name and Signature of Author August 2009 This write - up is for a discussion about Continuous Improvement at Hotel Escargo. Biographical Sketch Acknowledgements (This page intentionally left blank) Introduction This write-up presents a discussion about ways for bringing about contentious improvement at Hotel Escargo. The mission statement of Hotel Escargo clearly presents values related to serving business and leisure travelers by making customer satisfaction highest priority and providing quality service, amenities, comfortable surroundings and friendly employees. However, it is always important to be vigilant about what can be done to bring about improvements in hotel offerings and how other hotels have acted to improve their offerings. By improving procedures and interactions with guests, improved perceptions of service quality emerge and this results in improved customer satisfaction (Salvendy, 2001, Pp. 621 – 623) and (Bardi, 2007, Pp. 185 – 187). Thus, it is important to consider how to bring about continuous improvement at Hotel Escargo and the presented herein focus on the continuous improvement issues for the Hotel Escargo chain. Appendix A presents the observations for Hotel Escargo. A Summary of Observations about the Hotel Escargo Chain The Hotel Escargo chain has tried to impress on its staff that which is important in various areas of customer service, including the reception and registration, the concierge, the cribs and room service by presenting model procedures for staff. The model procedure presented in Appendix A about the check-in and check-out procedures that are to be adapted by the reception staff at the hotels is an example of that which is expected to be ideally followed. However, although the procedures do offer a guideline to the staff about what is required from them in regard to performance of their job, these guidelines do not prepare the staff for understanding what the guests expect in terms of service (Garcia, 2009, Pp. 1 – 10). Thus, the service extended by the front desk registration staff is rather mechanical and lacks warmth, creativity, naturally warm interaction and efforts to consider problems that guests have faced with active efforts to make them feel comfortable and satisfied. The mechanical procedure presented in Appendix A for check-in and check-out is copied in the crib, room service, concierge and the tour desk of the hotel chain. In the crib area, employees accept a child within 4 minutes and prepare a registration record for the child by including the name of the guest and the child, their expected time of return to collect their child and a number on which they can be contacted in an emergency. The room service is only expected to deliver the order placed by a guest to the room within ten minutes and the concierge is to accept a guest’s request and to have it auctioned within about twenty minutes. The tour desk is to present informative brochures from tour partners for the hotel and make a booking for the guest within ten minutes. Thus, efforts are not being made to try to uncover and to discover the real needs of guests and to suggest how best they can be satisfied. As an example, the staff at the crib should try to uncover a bit more about the child, their nickname, their likes, any special habits and any special likes or dislikes. The room service staff should try to find out what the guest will want to fulfill their needs and suggest a list of alternatives. Similarly, the concierge should present a knowledgeable discussion that is designed to uncover what the guest wants when placing a request for fulfillment and suggest alternative options that best suit the guest. In hotels, a concierge assists guests with various requests, including a restaurant reservation, procurement of tickets to shows, arranging for transportation that may include a taxi or any other shopping need for a guest. Thus, the local knowledge possessed by concierge is invaluable and is to be used for the optimal satisfaction of guest needs. The tour desk should try to discover a bit more about what a guest likes or dislikes and their special preferences before recommending a tour on which they should be booked. The hotel staff should be empowered after a period initial training and assisted by senior and more experienced persons (Michelli, 2008, Chapter 2). A hotel or a hospitality firm should create products and offerings that have a value for their guests or clients (Yang, 2005, Chapter 3). Pleasing the customer is the name of the game and customers want constant improvement and new experiences (Hollins, 2006, Pp. 153 – 155). Identification of Hotel Escargo Needs related to Continuous Improvement It is important for the Hotel Escargo chain to ensure that it has established a feedback system that presents managers with perceptions about how various departments in the hotel are doing (Hollins, 2006, Pp. 236 – 237). Performance assessment is not just about providing a system for handling complaints and it is often important that managers should try carry out customer surveys and in-house assessments of various departments to find out what improvements can benefit the hotel. Training, mentoring and discussing failures to improve are important for bringing about continuous improvement (Rutherford, 2007, Chapter 9). All hotel staff members should not just be doing their job, but they should be trying to create an experience and customer loyalty (Aspatore Books Staff, 2004, Chapter 5). Efforts to present an experience are likely to be well regarded by guests who are likely to return for more. Department heads and staff members alerted to the need for presenting suggestions for continuous improvement, with suitable rewards being offered for worthy inputs are likely to set themselves on a path towards achieving and implementing continuous improvement. A monthly meeting chaired by the hotel manager for discussing continuous improvement suggestions with a view to implementing these suggestions is likely to present a process by which improvements are constantly introduced in the hotel at all levels and in all departments. With senior managers taking an interest in continuous improvement, employees will be positively motivated and any impediments to implementation will receive the most empowered attention. Department heads should ask their senior and more experienced staff to take turns presenting periodic reports about what improvements should be made in their department, hotels and the chain. Thus, a constant flow of ideas about continuous improvement are important and these should receive periodic attention from senior managers and executives. The mentoring role of more experienced staff is likely to be of a definite benefit for bringing about continuous improvement in service quality of the junior employees. However, having in place a system for presenting departmental reports about continuous improvement on a rotating basis by senior departmental members is of a higher priority. Improvements that should be Made at Hotel Escargo within the Next 3 – 6 Months A broad change is needed in the way employees think about service at Hotel Escargo and this change is likely to affect all departments in the hotel. A reward scheme for suggestions related to bringing about continuous improvement from all staff members should be implemented and communicated to all employees. Furthermore, the hotel manager should direct all departmental heads to present a report for discussion at a monthly meeting for continuous improvement efforts. Departmental heads should be asked to empower a senior member of their staff to author the report on a rotating basis so that the maximum number of perspectives, ideas and views are available. Decisions should be taken at the monthly continuous improvement meetings about what worthy ideas for continuous improvement can be implemented within existing constraints and how these worthy ideas can be approached for maximum practical benefit to the hotel. (This page intentionally left blank) Appendix A Bibliography/ References 1. Aspatore Books Staff. (2004). Inside the Minds: The Hotel Business: Leading Hoteliers Offer a Behind the Scenes Glimpse Into the Hospitality Industry. Aspatore Books. 2. Bardi, James A. (2007). Hotel Front Office Management, Fourth Edition. John Wiley & Sons. 3. Brown, Stephan W et al (Editors). (1991). Service Quality: Multidisciplinary and Multinational Perspectives. Lexington Books. 4. Garcia, Daniel. (2009). Quality Management. Global Media. 5. Hollins, Bill and Shinkins, Sadie. (2006). Managing Service Operations: Design and Operations. Sage Publications. 6. Ismail, Ahmed. (2002). Front Office Operations and Management. Delmar, Thomson Learning. 7. Martin, William B. (1989). Managing Quality Customer Service: [A Practical Guide for Establishing a Service Operation] Fifty-Minute Series. Course PTR. 8. Michelli, Joseph A. (2008). The New Gold Standard: 5 Leadership Principles for Creating a Legendry Customer Experience, Courtesy of the Ritz-Carlton Hotel Company. McGraw Hill. 9. Rutherford, Denney G and O’Fallon, Michael J (Editors). (2007). Hotel Management and Operations, 4th Edition. John Wiley & Sons. 10. Salvendy, Gavriel. (2001). Handbook of Industrial Engineering: Technology and Operations Management, Third Edition. John Wiley & Sons. 11. Yang, Kai. (2005). Design for Six Sigma for Service. McGraw Hill. Read More