Service Please

There are two types of service in the world: reactive and proactive.

Reactive service comes from 95% of the world’s service providers. When something goes wrong and someone puts up their hand with a problem, the response is reactive service. 

In this instance, only if you deal with the situation correctly can it buy loyalty.

Only 5% of service providers deliver proactive service, because it is much harder to do. These providers are experts at anticipating the unanticipated needs of guests and customers.

The hospitality industry is at the forefront of proactive service delivery as they should be.

In the hospitality industry, service refers to the ability of experienced, skilled, and passionate employees to deliver products and services to their internal and external customers in a way that fulfils defined and unknown needs, and eventually leads to positive word of mouth and customer retention.

Service in the hospitality industry is based on key characteristics: 

• Intangible
• Inseparable
• Heterogeneity
• Perishability
• Rental access

Service is considered intangible – because unlike a manufactured product, it cannot be seen, felt, or touched before the purchasing process.

The inseparable nature of service – means that staff service quality and guest satisfaction are reliant upon each other – so service cannot be separated from the provider (staff) – it is part of who they are.

Heterogeneity – is where service delivery relies on who delivers the service. Quality of service from each staff member can differ from one individual to another, which makes maintaining good quality throughout across the board in all departments – is a challenge.

Perishability means – service cannot be stored and sold later. 

Rental access means – that service is providing temporary possession or access instead of ownership.

Which means, considering the last two, investing in service excellence training is ongoing and expensive.

In the hospitality industry, there are two vital components necessary to ensure guests speak highly of their experience, and share with others, so the establishment gets the benefit of word-of-mouth business:

• Customer (guest) service
• Guest centricity

In guest service, identify a set of standards for the customer interaction, and then train against those standards, with ongoing reinforcement by the on-site managers. 

In guest centricity – it means that all staff are thinking about how the decisions they make affect the customer, from the kitchen to the parking lot.

This is much harder to have in place.

Because, for example, if the service provided to the guest is great, but the food is stale, (the bread), or unavailable (out of stock), then no amount of great customer service can offset the disappointment, or annoyance, the customer feels. 

Ensuring a proper supply chain of fresh product has little to do with the activities of the frontline serving staff and everything to do with the back room team that is supposed to make sure the operation has what it needs and when it needs it. 

An establishment that is guest centric trains every employee to ask whether the decisions they make will have an impact on the guest, and if so, what that impact would be. 

Guest centricity needs to be implemented within the larger context of all priorities and policies. Because some decisions made to delight the guest could have such a severe negative financial impact on the establishment that it would be irresponsible to make them, or vice versa, could have such great impact on the bottom line that it will be worth implementing.

Consequently, guest centricity training also needs to include what is appropriate, and what is not, within the larger context of both meeting the needs of the guest and the needs of the shareholders. 

Service quality is a theoretical concept that is difficult to define and measure – there are different ways of defining service quality.

Service quality is basically the difference between the customers’ expectation of service

and the actual experience of what was delivered, and how.

The two factors that influence perceptions about service quality are customer expectations and

service performance (as already discussed previously).

Service quality is conceptualised and measured in several models. 

The commonly used model is the SERVQUAL model developed by Parasuraman et al. (1988)

Parasuraman et al. (1985) also contributed to the conceptual model of service quality called the Gaps model.

SERVQUAL model uses five dimensions: tangibles, reliability, assurance, responsiveness, and empathy. 

• Tangibles refers to the presence of the physical facilities and the overall quality of the resources used by the service staff
• Reliability is the dependability and consistency of the staff performance
• Assurance refers to the level of trust and confidence delivered from staff to guest

• Responsiveness is the willingness of staff to assist guests and provide excellent service 
• Empathy is the attention provided to guests in response

The Gaps Model

Service quality can be investigated according to five gaps that can be used to improve

service quality performance.

The five gaps are: knowledge gap, standard gap, delivery gap, communication gap, service gap.

The knowledge gap – refers to the inconsistency between guest expectations and management’s perceptions of those expectations This gap appears through mistakes in the process of extracting information about guests’ requirements. It is caused by poor management skills, if the guests’ expectations are not understood effectively.

The standard gap – refers to the inconsistency between management’s understanding of guest expectations and specifications of service quality. This gap can occur due to a lack of resources or poor engagement from management, with the guest oriented Approach.

Having a delivery gap – means there is inconsistency between service quality specifications and the delivery of the service This can happen due to a failure in staff, or in service equipment, in the process of service delivery.

The communication gap  – refers to the inconsistency between the service delivered and the service staff external communication given to guests. This occurs when the facility promises impossible services through external marketing advertisements and poor communication. 

A service gap –  is the inconsistency between guest expectations and their perceptions of service performance. This gap consists of the other four gaps, resulting in customer dissatisfaction.