Discuss about the Hospitality and Tourism Service Management.
The changes in the world are taking place in every sector at a very rapid pace. The hospitality and tourism industry needs to have good and competitive policies regarding rendering good customer service in order to survive in the competition. Customer service can be described as the overall activity of identification and satisfaction of the needs of the customers. As per Altinay, Paraskevas & Jang, providing high-quality customer service is very much required in order to obtain customer satisfaction.
The hospitality and tourism industry needs to identify the commitment to fulfil and satisfy the needs of the customers to make them feel important and respected (Altinay, Paraskevas & Jang, 2015). It can be described that the service industry is the face of any industry or organization. Delivering a good quality service is vital for solving the issues and concerns of the customers. The level of customer satisfaction will be determined by the quality of service rendered to them. The most important aspect of the hospitality and tourism industry is the customer service and quality control.
In order to ensure and maintained the quality that is expected by the present day customers there are generally tow aspects with specific design quality, attention, quality of conformity. It is a fact that the service rendered to the customers varies with various types of business. According to Bunakov, et al, the design quality is a concept that implies the presentation of the services that are directed towards the needs of the customers and the hotels and other tourism and hospitality sector can satisfy the demands of the customers (Bunakov, et al., 2015).
The hospitality and tourism industry is a very wide industry. This industry includes the sectors such as logging, restaurants, theme parks, transportations, event management and other additional fields. As per Dredge, Airey & Gross, the industry of tourism and hospitality accounts for huge part of the revenue across the globe that depends on the customer’s disposal income in order to facilitate them in their leisure (Dredge, Airey & Gross, 2014). As a whole, the hospitality and tourism industry can be categorized into segments such as Accommodation, adventure tourism, and recreation, conferences and events, food and beverage, attractions, travel and trade, tourism services, etc.
The business of hospitality has outstretched the global scale that is operated by a different structure that would range from the multinational networks right from small hotelier businesses. According to Hall & Gössling, the hospitality industry is very loosely associated with sectors such as human resource management, marketing, financial and operational management.
Considering the diversified characteristics of the hospitality and tourism industry, the complete understanding of the global and intercultural management is the initial point where the entire customer service would begin (Hall & Gössling, 2013). Customer service in the tourism and hospitality industry can be described as the series of activities that are designated to enhance the level of satisfaction of business which relates to the feeling that a service in the sector has fulfilled the expectations of the customers.
The nature of the customer services in various hospitality and tourism industry can be summarized in the following dimensions:
Tourists travel as they want to gain pleasure and enjoyment regarding new experiences and the feelings that are associated that are not basically present in their daily life. The industries related to the hospitality and tourism sectors provide the tourists with services that are integrated with the customer service such as pre-trip services like booking and inquiry, services rendered during the trip, i.e. food and beverage, entertainment, transport, sightseeing, accommodation, etc. Hence, the customer service in the hospitality and tourism is integrated.
All the customers’ services are rendered to the customers in a very timely, immediate and direct manner. For an instance, the tourist information centres or travel agencies provide the booking and inquiry services, hospitality staff provide beverage and food, accommodation services and the tour services are being provided by the tour guides. Hence, servicing the customers in a direct way is among the characteristics of the customer service.
As per J. Harrington, et al, customers have the emotional needs in addition to the practical requirements like food and beverage or shopping. These emotional needs include the needs for respect and recognition during their trips (J. Harrington, et al., 2014). Hence, the attitude and quality of the service provided by the staff in various departments of hospitality and tourism are crucial for the customers. The staffs dealing with the customer service has to pay extra care and attention to the satisfaction of the emotional requirements of the customers.
The crucial aspect of analysing the satisfaction of the employees is effects of the employee and customer interaction when there is a business opportunity to upset or impress the customer.
The different customers have different needs in different sectors of hospitality and tourism sectors and look forward to the services that would provide them satisfaction. However, the perception of service satisfaction has variations with varying types of customers. It is important that the staff in the customer service department should be stay prepared all the time to satisfy the various needs of the various customers.
Customer service is considered as a competitive advantage in various sectors in the hospital and tourism industry as it is in many of the industries. The quality of the standardized service is originally analysed through the judgment of the performance of the staff. As per Law, Buhalis & Cobanoglu, the main reason for the various organizations in the hospital and tourism industry to form the policies regarding the customer satisfaction is to reveal the value of the customers and provide satisfaction to the customers (Law, Buhalis & Cobanoglu, 2014).
The policies regarding the customer service are relatively similar to the Bundling process concept stated by Grimier and Kini. This concept deals with the provision of value added advantage around the service and satisfaction of the hotel renders. It is very natural for the customers to return back to the hotels where they have received a high quality and extra services at affordable prices. Some of the explanations reveal that the policies regarding customer service have significant roles in providing solutions and suggestions for different questions that are asked by the customers.
According to this model, customer expectations are the anticipations of the customers regarding the level of the quality they should be receiving from an organization. This model emphasizes that the expectations in the market represent both the prior consumption experience of the server market with the offering of the firm that includes the non-experimental information that is available through the various sources like word of mouth and advertising including a forecast of the ability of the supplier to deliver the quality in the future (Law, et al., 2015).
The model postulated that the expectations of the customers have positive and direct implications on the overall satisfaction of the customer in an organization due to the prevailing relationship with the customer. It also has implications on the both the perceived value and perceived quality (Page, 2014). According to Lu & Stepchenkova, perceived quality refers to the measure of the recent interaction regarding service provided to the customer by the company.
The model further states that the quality of the service can be measured in terms of how the needs of the individuals are met by the service along with the error free reliability and delivery (Lu & Stepchenkova, 2015). This is also said to have a positive and direct implication on the overall customer satisfaction. Perceived value is the measurement of quality of the service relative to the paid price, i.e. value for money. The model further denotes that price has more effect on the satisfaction of the customers from the first experience of purchase but comparatively a lesser impact on the satisfaction for the repeated purchases (Riley, 2014).
Most of the organizations in the hospitality and tourism industry are adopting a strategy that is market oriented. However, there is a strong relationship between the customer satisfaction and profitability. As per Mok, Sparks & Kadampully, a satisfied customer is who has experience of good quality service and would normally recommend the service of the hotels or other organizations to others, would repeat the purchase. He would even go for trying line extensions (Mok, Sparks & Kadampully, 2013).
This will result in a circular flow which would enhance the economic performance of the organization. However, various organizations from different sectors of the hospitality and tourism industry may perform poorly in spite of having good customer satisfaction as there are many other factors such as production, hidden cost, labour costs, the economic health of a country, etc., which are to be taken care of by the organizations (Nickson, 2013).
Conclusions:
The customer service is affected by various elements and varies for different sectors of hospitality and tourism industry. In the global hospitality and tourism industry, the most important input is regarded to the customers who seek satisfaction of specific requirements. The desired output for the organizations is satisfied customers. If the customers are satisfied, the organization receives repeated and frequent business.
It is vital for any organization from the hospitality and tourism industry to ensure that their employees provide best and high-quality service to the customers. The grievances of the customers must be taken care by the organizations in a reasonable, positive and timely manner. The organizations from various sectors in the tourism and hospitality industry must meet the obligations which are subjected to various policies and procedure.
References
Altinay, L., Paraskevas, A., & Jang, S. S. (2015). Planning research in hospitality and tourism. Routledge.
Bunakov, O. A., Zaitseva, N. A., Larionova, A. A., Chudnovskiy, A. D., Zhukova, M. A., & Zhukov, V. A. (2015). Research on the evolution of management concepts of sustainable tourism and hospitality development in the regions. Journal of Sustainable Development, 8(6), 39.
Dredge, D., Airey, D., & Gross, M. J. (2014). The routledge handbook of tourism and hospitality education. Routledge.
Hall, C. M., & Gössling, S. (2013). Sustainable culinary systems: Local foods, innovation, and tourism & hospitality. Routledge.
Harrington, R., K. Chathoth, P., Ottenbacher, M., & Altinay, L. (2014). Strategic management research in hospitality and tourism: past, present and future.International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management,26(5), 778-808.
Law, R., Buhalis, D., & Cobanoglu, C. (2014). Progress on information and communication technologies in hospitality and tourism. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 26(5), 727-750.
Law, R., Leung, R., Lo, A., Leung, D., & Fong, L. H. N. (2015). Distribution channel in hospitality and tourism: Revisiting disintermediation from the perspectives of hotels and travel agencies. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(3), 431-452.
Lu, W., & Stepchenkova, S. (2015). User-generated content as a research mode in tourism and hospitality applications: Topics, methods, and software. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 24(2), 119-154.
Mok, C., Sparks, B., & Kadampully, J. (2013). Service quality management in hospitality, tourism, and leisure. Routledge.
Nickson, D. (2013). Human resource management for hospitality, tourism and events. Routledge.
Page, S. J. (2014). Tourism management. Routledge.
Riley, M. (2014). Human resource management in the hospitality and tourism industry. Routledge.
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