The Case of the Missing Reservation Mark, Donna, and their children, along with
ID: 391189 • Letter: T
Question
The Case of the Missing Reservation Mark, Donna, and their children, along with another family, traditionally attended Easter brunch at a large downlown hotel. This year, as in the past, Donna called and made a reservation about three wecks prior to Easter. Because half the party consisted of small children, they arrived 20 minutes prior to the 11:30 reservation to ensure being seated early. When they arrived, however, the hostess said that they did not have a reservation She explained that guests sometimes failed to show and that she would probably have a table available for them before long. Mark and Donna were quite upset and insisted that they had made a reservation and expectod to be seated promptly. The hostess told them, "I believe that you made a reservation, but I can't seat you until all the people on the reservation list are seated. You are welcome to go to the lounge for complimentary coffee and punch while you wait." When Mark asked to see the manager, the hostess replied,1 am the manager," and turned to other duties, The party was eventually seated at 11:45 but was not at all happy with the experience The next day, Mark wrote a letter to the hotel manager explaining the entire incident. Mark was in the MBA program at the local university and taking a course on quality management. In the class, they had just studied issues of custommer focus and some of the approaches used at The Ritz-Carlton Hotel, a 1992 and 1999 Baldrige Awaad winner. Mark concludod his letler with the statement,I doubt that we would have experienced this situation at a hotel that truly believes in quality." About a week later received the following letter: We enjey hearing from our valued gaests, but wish you had experienced the level of scrvice and accommodations that we strive to achieve here at our hotel. Our restaurant manager received your leter and asked me to respond as Total Quality Lead Looking back at our records, we did not show a reservation on the books for your famaly. I have addressed your comments with the appropriate department head so that others will not have to experience the same inconveniences that you did Thank you once again for sharing your thoughts with us. We believe in a philosophy of"continuous impeovement," and it is through feedback such as yours that we can continue to improve the scrvice to our guests Discussion Questions 1. Were the hostess's actions consistent with a customer-focused quality philosophy? What might she have doee differently? 2. How would you have reacted to the letter that Mark received? Could the Total Quality Lead have responded differently? What does the fact that the hotel manager did mot personally respond to the customer tell you?Explanation / Answer
Quality in service industry implies gaps in what is expected by the customer and actual performance of service. If performance exceeds than expectation than the customer feels satisfied and think, act and speak positively about the service provider. However in an inverse situation when service performance falls below expectation then customer gets unsatisfied. An unsatisfied customer is not only an immediate loss of the revenue but also has potential to harm the service provider by spreading negative word of mouth amounting to deflection other prospects and customers. Service providers continuously try to improve the service that they render in a quest to offer completely satisfying service experience to the customers.
The case shows that the Mark was a routine visitor to the hotel and followed similar reservation method. Since he had probably not experienced any problems during his earlier visits, he was confident to have a nice experience while family outing as past.
Question 1: The hostess’s actions were not at all consistent with Total quality philosophy. Total quality asks for ensuring every possible option explored and deployed to ensure customer remains delightful. Lending an extra hand to solve any of the problem faced by the customer is hallmark of high quality service. The employees are passionate about providing exceptional service to clients. The mark and his family were victim of sloppy and broken business process at Hotel. The arrogant and unprofessional attitude of hostess is clearly visible in the case. A family that visits a hotel for a dinner after due reservation deserves better treatment even if reservation information is misplaced. The hostess’s denial to arrange meeting with Managers is another ruthless behavior to a customer already in deep shock due to service failure. It is clear that hostess has failed to fulfill most of the SERVQUAL service quality dimension such as Tangibility (No effort to verify the reservation request with back office); Empathy (totally insensitive to situation of mark and his family, Assurance (Assurance given by hostess was more painful for the family, they have to live horrifying time full of uncertainty waiting for some vacancy to occur on non arrival of a guest; Responsiveness (hostess bluntly turned down the request of Mark to meet the manager).
Few things that were expected from the hostess are:
Q2. I would have developed negative perception about the hotel and might have shared the horrifying experience with others, even in social and public domain. Even a suit is no exaggeration.
The Total quality lead would have expressed some sincere apologies for inconvenience instead of explaining what they learned that has no concern with Mark. In fact some complimentary service would have been extended to the Mark and his family.
The letter clearly show that hotel is totally insensitive to customer service forget quality. The manager would have shown courage to respond the Marks letter. It is evident that the problem is not with hostess or manager, rather the culture of hotel itself is not customer centric.