GUEST RELATIONS IN THE TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

PREPARED BY: MS. RANGIE OMEGA

GUEST RELATIONS IN THE TOURISM AND HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY

LEARNING OBJECTIVES Understand guest service in the tourism and hospitality industry; define what guest relation is; know the nature of guest relation; and discuss guest relation skills.

Definition of Guest Relations

Guest relations in the perspective of the hospitality industry, can be defined as a series of activities designed to enhance the level of customer or guest satisfaction
-an act that result n the realization or solicitation of a positive experience derived from the acquisition of a product or services, the ultimate goal is to meet if not to exceed guests' expectations.

Customer relations is a field of specialization. Many may claim that they are experts in this field but then again, no one may claim that one knows

 everythings about customer relations.in an ever changing of customer,based on taste,wants and needs,one can only be assured of the fact that there is always something new around the corner. the trick is to know how to keep up.

NATURE OF GUEST RELATIONS

From the guests point of view, this is what owed to them, degrees and variations may exist specially in each individuals guests perspective on what is of value to them. From the hospitality professionals' point of view, we simply want to turn a profit without losing an arm or a leg. Their movements are limited by the size of what they value most. In layman's terms, the grid below simplifies what each side wants and solution each may or may not be willing to take.

YOU WIN LOSE LOSE WIN

= = = =

GUEST LOSE WIN LOSE WIN

 In a YOU WIN and GUEST LOSE situation, should you end up winning an argument with a guest, you may have delightedly shown your point to the guest, who scurries back to a corner defeated. Oh, sure the guest deserves it, after all, the guest lied and wasn't truthful to you, so you should really stick it to them, where it hurts.

 Let's make it simple, guests lose, guest get bad experience from their stay ( bad being relatively only to the guests point of view) which in turn the guests tell other people what you made them experience. these people tell other people and before you know it, it becomes a full blown pandemic, with your property on the receiving bad end, of course this may not always be the outcome but it could be.

 There are guests and there are GUESTS, most are fair but some may be quite unfair, literally. A guest for instance gets a check for items missing from the mini-bar and guest disputes and refuse to pay for its entirety. This is dilemma. How can you collect from a person who does not want to pay? Some options come to mind such as, let's insist that the items were in the mini-bar when guest checked in and now they are not there anymore when the guest checked out.

 This is rather very naive but in case you might have forgotten the guest just disputed the amount stating in fact that "NO, I DID NOT TAKE ANYTHING FROM THE MINI-BAR?"
What do you do? -Blacklist the guy or better yet, call the police to seal with him. Questions come to mind such as, is the lodging property willing to write off the charge? If the amount is negligible, then perhaps it is possible, but what if you are dealing with a very large sum?

 If you, the hospitality professional should lose, the question is how much value did you win? If you appear to have lost, how much value Did you really part with in favor of the guest? Despite the benefits, many companies are still not fully exercising the use of these tools and services to align marketing, sales and service to best serve the BIGGER PICTURE.

 If YOU like to win, you may get the upper hand on the situation by convincing the guest, on the perception of having a deal, but in most realities this may not be the case. Reality check on this example; Ever notice why mini-bar items are so darn right expensive, some properties have what they call a 300% policy, the goal of which is to overcharge a can of soft drink which costs around PHP 25.00 to PHP 100.00 each. Why?

 Let's do the math, guest check's out, mini-bar charge is PHP 400.00 for FOUR (04) cans of soft drink, guest disputes the charge stating that they only took two (02) cans and not FOUR (04). Receptionist agrees immediately without batting an eyelash to write off PHP 200.00 or TWO ( 02) cans of soft-drink from the guest's bill.

 Now how did that work for property? Well, basically a can of your favourite soft drink here only cost PHP 25.00, with the PHP 200.00 payment received from the guest basically covered the overall cost of FOUR (04) cans of soft drink.In effect still you make a profit of PHP 100.00. The company did not lose anything and as a plus gained the undying gratitude of a guest getting what they perceived to be a fifty(50%) percent discount, at the very least everyone walked away happy, even if it is only skin deep.

GUEST RELATION SKILLS

In the lodging industry, it safe to say that our guests pay for our salary; therefore we must also anticipate their needs and provide for them. Guest expect one or either of the ff: 1. TEAMWORK is the strength and backbone of any organization, the seamless interaction, and singular focus of its team member will be the pathway to success, believe in your people and make your people believe in themselves.

2. Job Knowledge and Consistency

This runs on the assumption that more often than people care to admit, some areas or departments in lodging properties often on more than one does not know what the other is doing. Simply placed in a perspective, the right hand does not know what left hand is doing. by improving methods in communication ad policies which govern process and movements of service.

A person cannot claim to know everything! When posed with a situation that solicit a response which you have no knowledge of, the answer is just secondary, but the more important question factor is how does one answer. DID YOU GIVE YOUR GUEST A BRICK WALL OR A CHOICE? Simply saying ' Idon't know" or giving a blank stare will not do immaculate things for your property's image. This might come as a surprise for you but guests will appreciate honest straight to the point answer, more so, even if you didn't know the answer to their query, simply reply " I do not have that information with me right now but I can get it for you."

 Remember, a positive aspect of your personality is that it is always interactive, proactive and reciprocative. Customer look to Front line personnel for inquiries that require answers, only to get none. The Objective here is not to ensure that as Front Line Personnel one must know everything, well, if not-everything at the very least one must know how to acquire information for its implementation.

The greatest sin in customer service is not focused on the knowledge of your product only but also the shortsightedness in saying ' no" or I don't know" to your customers. In the hospitality industry a wide array of knowledge is needed to keep up with the needs of customers. This knowledge will be a repository of formation on everything that may concern customer service and their needs easily accessible to both.

 A singular mind-set and knowledge base will empower staff members in doing their jobs without losing sight of an organizations common goal. This may not only be limited to but include the ff:

1. Operational policy and product knowledge,

these are guidelines and mechanics on how the company works, usually established through a comprehensive training program. How CAN FRONT LINE PERSONNEL SELL PRODUCTS AND SERVICES WHEN THEY DO NOT EVEN KNOW WHAT IT IS THEY ARE SELLING? 2. Market Segments, in as much operational policy and product knowledge go to the top of the list, knowing which product to sell and who to sell to is equally important. One cannot sell something to a person who does not need it or cannot afford it.

3. Guest expect to have their inquiries answered

promptly & expeditiously. In fairness, it does not mean that you have to be a know-it- all. Plainly speaking, you simply do not know everything, however, your behavior between your interaction and your guest can be a factor when it comes to addressing your guest needs. 4. Customer like to be in control of things or at least have the perception of control. A company may establish empowerment to its customers by creating interactive measure that allow the company to hear our listen to what the customer needs through feedback.

5.Courtesy and empathy are feather on your

personality cap, an example to the testament of a positive, proactive, interactive and reciprocal personality. The goal here is to capture the customer's perceptive, concerning their needs, how does one sell something? Find out what that customer needs and fill in that need. There is no way to deliver exceptional customer experience if we do not know what our customers are thinking.

 7.What happens if there is no positive ending to this interaction? An escalation workflow mechanism must be in place to escalate the problem to a person in authority which can address the problem, rather than disappoint that customer because of that first contact of your inability to address their problem. To clarify, a second interaction with a higher authority regulates the capabilities of the font line as escalation also translates to failure on their part to address the issue effectively.

 8.Empowering employees is geared in improving the customer's service. These are just by products of what really is the hospitality industry's main products. We are in the business of selling experiences.

9.Everyone wants respect; and believe it or not most of you may demand it, but only a few of you ever compromise in giving it away or free. Courtesy translates to respect. Walk for a few steps in your guest shoes, to get that feel of things on what they may really need. 10. the approachability of your organization, the ease in which your guest are able to reach you and reap the benefits which you can provide them is what sets the tone of a positive guest encounter.

 LISTEN TO YOUR CUSTOMERS - consider this scenario; a customer/guest calls your customer hot-line and he gets a packaged voice prompt that runs him through a gauntlet of questions with a lot of selections, i.e press one for english,press to for taglish,and eventually, after all that pressing and listening, provided that he did not make a mistake in which button to push. Service is a product; you cannot sell a product if you can't get it to your customer.

Know How to Handle Complaints

We would like to think that hospitality professional are like plumbers fixing leaks, and the first rule in fixing a leak is to find out first where the source of the leak is coming. According to Michael L. Kasavana,Ph.D. and Richard M. Brooks,CHA, in their book, Managing front office operations, they stated that guest complaints can be categorically separated into four points of origin or categories.

 Knowing where each(leak) comes from will boost your effectiveness in dealing with such issues. 1.Mechanical 2.Attitude 3.Service 4.Unusual

Mechanical
Complaints that fall under this category relate to hardware equipment that either breaks down or malfunctions translating to complaints. these may range from electrical appliances,machinery, plumbing, environmental controls and so on. For Example; if the air-condition in a room is failing, you would think of changing the air-conditioning unit if it is movable(not the case in centralized airconditioning); However,you must first consider the convenience and inconvenience.

 Such an endeavor will bring to your guest, elements of time, Considerations on, how long will it take to replace, when did the breakdown occur (in the middle of the night while the guest is sleeping?) or will you just simply change the room for the guests? ATTITUDE - among all complaints, attitude is one of the hardest to diffuse as this mainly deals with the person or staff interacting with your Customer or

 Guest, nevertheless, this does not diminish your organizations liability in the process. guest usually take attitudinal complaints personally, especially if they feel slighted or insulted by the behavior that was shown or directed at them. Even if the case may be an indirect form of contact such as a guest overhearing staff conversations, depending on the topic the staff members are discussing, may constitute attitudinal complaints.

 As the case may be, it is a complaint which cannot be replaced but only compensated SERVICE Service is a product but unlike for example a beverage which does not agree with a guests' taste, it cannot be returned. FOR EXAMPLE: A guest goes to your lodging property, uses the main door, but unfortunately the doorman

 forgets to open the door for him,needles to say he doesn't even greet the guest. you simply cannot tell the guest to please go out again,so that the doorman can open the door and greet him properly.that would certainly be ridiculous. in this scenario, a failure in service can only be addressed by making up with it by either not repeating the incident again or making it up to the guest by giving a form of pacifier or compensation. Ironically lodging property more often generates more service related complaints

 as its occupancy goes up and the limits of its current standing manpower is tested to its limitations. THE UNUSUAL COMPLAINT Guest may complain about a lot of things and some of them may include awkward if not unusual situations that may completely surprise or at the very least may sound new. unusual complaints are usually nothing fancy but are mostly characterized by the simple fact that the lodging property simply cannot do anything

about it let alone control such a situation. You would often receive a complaint concerning the weather for instance, a guest is upset about the rain. It is not that you have a direct line to God, that one could ask him to hold off the downpour until the guest finishes having breakfast al fresco. as a Front Office Manager, you have had your fair share of complaints concerning of how a room has been laid out or constructed, one particular guest even complained about the direction of the bed.

 and television set, that it was bad Fung sui that they were placed facing each other,nonetheless,your guest still expects you to react and solve these problems(needs) expeditiously if not prudently but the very least that you can do in resolving it is to just LISTEN. believe it or not, some guest with unusual complaints only need to be heard, their concerns taken seriously and not fall on deaf ears.

 This is most effective by practicing feedback management at the point of interaction. What customer hate is having to wait for results especially id it is concerning a complaint about a lodging property's product service. 6. Implementation of real-time feedback mechanism will allow your company to deliver much needed action to your customers concern. Realization in the completion or addressing of guest concerns must be focused at the conclusion of every significant interaction, and to hostellers. This is a defining moment of truth.