Research Paper on Management and Customer Service at Marriott Hotel
Sample Marriott Hotel Research Paper
Table of Contents
Title Page……………………………………………………………………………….……….. 1
Table of Contents………………………………………………………………..……………….. 2
Introduction …………………………………………………………………………………….. 3
Customer Service Policies at Marriott Hotel ………………………………………………..….. 4
- Reasons for Customer Service Policy at Marriott Hotel……………………………..….. 6
- Purpose of Evaluating a Customer Service Policy…………………………..…….…….. 9
- Provision of quality service to the customer…………………………………………….. 9
- Motivation of staffs………………………..………………………………….……..….. 11
- Improving image of the organization…………………………………………….……… 12
How evaluation of customer service policies can help in training………………………….….. 13
Conclusion………………………..………………………….……………………………………14
References ………………………..………………………..……………………………….….. 15
Introduction
Customers in any part of the world have right to have access to quality care. Lack of good customer service, customer service enhances good review by both existing and prospective customers. It has the capability to affect vital sections of a company’s operation, and all the people who are involved have to have a good and similar mindset that sees the customer as the most important public of the company. In coming up with a customer service policy, the first ingredient a company should establish is to make sure that the aspect of ‘the people’ is instilled. This aspect gives room for a good interaction between the customers and the employees.
In establishing customer service policies for a company, there are basic vital points that have to be considered. Hicks (2013, p. 59) highlights these points as courtesy, professionalism in handling customers, good dressing for the employees, ready resources and good training for the employees among other. The key ingredient is to consider the customer as the king. Critical in this is ensuring that problems involving the customers are solved promptly and with utmost efficiency. A company has to establish stages in responding to problems. Among others, the problem has to be first recorded and verified, have a specific manager assigned for the problem, consult widely on ways to solve the problems, come up with good recommendations in solving the problem and communicating the problem to the customer effectively.
This essay evaluates reasons why reasons for hotels formulate customer service policies and effectiveness of customer service policy. The essay focuses on Marriott Hotel and how the company’s management deemed it fit to have customer service policies. The policies in this hotel are evaluated on how useful they are especially in assisting in development and training of the company’s employees.
Customer Service Policies at Marriott Hotel
The Marriott Hotel is one of the ultimate leaders in the world in customer service. Continually, the company seeks new innovation in good service, hence increasingly improving its service to the customers. With a focus on giving ultimate comfort to customers, the company has strived to attract and retain its customers. The strategies towards customer service have bore fruits as the hotel has become an ultimate consideration by customers and potential shareholders across the whole world
The services that are provided at Marriott Hotel coincide with best practices in provision of consumer services, and especially in understanding their psychological needs. The dimensions of psychology for a consumer may vary from one field to another. However, as noted by Crouch et al (2004, p. 2), the interconnected fields of psychology to be considered in any management include the cognitive psychology, the social psychology, the environmental psychology and the economic psychology. In a field of hospitality, it is critical to have an understanding that the customers’ satisfaction is the key in retention. Poor service would mean that the customer would never come to the hotel or restaurant again.
Marriott hotel leads the way in provision of customer service and giving maximum satisfaction to its consumers. The company business policy is to rely on good judgment and integrity. One of the company’s publications, the Chief Executive Officer. JW. Marriott Junior communicates to his colleagues in the company and notes that the company’s reputation as well as continued success is anchored in the commitment to giving maximum customer service. The company is highly responsible in everything that management seeks to do in the competitive market. The strategy is to be as close as possible to the most important public of the company; the consumers. This discussion evaluates how Marriott Hotel has managed to provide good customer service, and the nature of policy in the company.
The Marriott Hotel has adopted several customer service policies that have helped steer the company to great heights. These polices are; a highly trained workforce, commitment to customers, integrity and good business ethics, market researches, accessibility to customers and exceeding customer expectations. Each of this customer service policy for Marriott hotels is anchored on the principle that the customer is the king. Critically, the customer is in this company is viewed as the only important aspect of the company. Good customer management means that the customer will continually help in the growth of the company. The following diagram shows some of the values that are upheld by Marriott Hotel in regard to customer service:
Customer Satisfaction
The customer can give referrals
Higher profits and rewards for the company.
Employee Satisfaction
- Reasons for Customer Service Policy at Marriott Hotel
The first of the customer service policy for Marriott hotel is that training of employees of the company. The implementers of any policy are the employee, who mostly comes into contact with the customer. In this therefore, it is deemed critical that the customer is handled by people who are most skilled, and who understands the importance of a satisfied customer. Kamin (2006, p. 86) qualifies this assertion and writes that the key to making sure that the customer is highly satisfied is by using the right system approach. A skilled labor in any management ensures that the company’s progress is in the right track. This is very true of Marriott hotels, where, the customers are viewed as most important due to the nature of handling they get at the company.
Each and every other company has its system approaches to the customer, and therefore, it is critical that the employee is trained in the relevant fields. This value is highly anchored at Marriott hotels, and has helped put the company in a good position amongst well managed companies in the country and across the world. Across the world, it is viewed as one of the best managed companies in the hospitality industry, and this is down to the fact that the employees of the company are highly skilled in customer service.
The second of the customer service policy at Marriott hotels is commitment to the customers. The company has a good understanding that the customer is the king, and therefore, ultimate concentration should be on satisfying the customers fully. The first thing that a person sees on the website of the company is the contact details of the company. The number for customer service is put as +1800-721-7033 for the US customers and 0800221222 for the United Kingdom customers. This is critical since the customers across nations where the company is based can access the services of the company easily. This level of commitment is good and serves the company in the right way. It makes it easy to attract and retain its customers.
The third of the policies regarding customer services at the Marriott hotel is on integrity and business ethics. Writing on corporate governance and business ethics, Mandal (2010, p. 32) notes that the four most questioned issues by the public in regard to management of company are the marketing policy, the customer service and the public interests in the company. The customer service policy of a company has to be deeply related with business ethics and integrity. In one of the corporate guide of Marriott hotel, J. W. Marriott junior notes that the business and management at the company are anchored on integrity as well as good judgment. Good judgment of situations help the company to give ultimate service to the customers and the results of such a move are always good. Policies of the company give it good reviews not only amongst the stakeholders, but the customers.
The fourth of the customer service policy at Marriott hotel is carrying out market researches to determine customer views. Continually, a company has to carry out comprehensive market researches not only to determine the level of competition, but also to gauge customer issues about the company. This is true especially in the hospitality industry. According to Bowie & Buttle (2013, p. 44), it is very critical for management of companies to ensure that they are up to date with information in the market about their customers. If the customers have their satisfaction dwindling, it is good to come up with issues that will improve their good ratings of the company. The changes in any company should always be based on customer expectations and customer responses as gathered from the market researches. Failure to conduct customer researches would mean that the company will always maintain the status quo in terms of management. As a result, company’s rating will go down especially when the customers want change in style of management.
The fifth of customer service policy at Marriott Hotel is good accessibility by the customer. This policy is anchored on understanding that the customer has variety of options, and therefore, it is upon the company to be close to the customer. The company has developed various mechanism of ensuring that there is good accessibility of the company’s service by the customer. The first of this is that the company has customer friendly website that has vital information that customer is likely to need. These needs are known through market research, one of the policies in customer service policy. The website of the company is customized, where; virtually all customer issues are answered. The website even has a ‘FAQ’ section for the customer to view answers to some of the most pressing issues. In addition, the company has diversified itself to various regions in the world, and mostly in strategic countries such as the United Kingdom, United States, Canada, China, and Japan among others.
The sixth of the customer service policy at Marriott hotel is always striving to exceed the expectations of the customers. This is a very important policy for Marriott and it is a very strong basis for the growth of the company. Continually, the company reviews its standing in the competitive market and improves on customer dynamics as gathered from the market research. Qualifying on this customer service virtue, Barlow (2010, p. 80) notes that it is good for any company to view customer service as a very competitive component in management. Therefore, it is very critical to maximize on this so as to get a good competitive advantage in the market. It is a good strategic value for measuring development of a business. In anchoring this in its customer service policy, the management at Marriott hotel put across that a delighted customer means good business for the company. Essentially, this has highly enhanced give the company a good reputation in proving good customer service.
- Purpose of Evaluating a Customer Service Policy
Customer service has to be monitored and evaluated. The best form of monitoring customer service is by using market researches, and using tools such as comment cards, questionnaires, one-on-one interviews and customer forums. Also, companies can encourage customers to give their comments about particular services of a company in complaint/comment box. The customer can even write a compliment letter and post it in the company’s address. Evaluation of any customer service is mostly by the level of retention and attraction of customers, the performance in sales, the number of compliments or complaints by customers, review by the media, and awards the company has received among others. These reviews are very important, and no company can claim progress without first reviewing how they are failing in the competitive market.
There exist purposes of evaluating a customer service policy of any company. These are; to enhance the image of the organization, to motivate staffs especially those who maintain a high level of quality in the service and to help in proving quality care and service to the company’s customers in a most consistent manner.
Provision of quality service to the customer
This is one of the most important purposes of having an evaluation of customer service policy. With increased competition in the market, it is very essential that the company keeps tabs with the market by continually understanding the dynamics of customers. Hayes & Dredge (1998, p. x) writes that it is most crucial for a company to invest heavily in customer service, and coming up with an appropriate customer service policy. Critical in this is that customer service policy defines the organization, and the success of an organization is mostly based on the good reviews customers give about a company. Hayes & Dredge (1998, p. 155) is of the view that the kind of treatment a customer gets is always equal to the success of a company. For example, if the company’s employees do not understand the various dynamics of customers, it is always very hard for the company to progress. Customer service policy therefore provides a good basis for a company to have a good entry into a competitive market, or retain the level of success.
Evaluation means constantly reviewing the success of a customer service policy. For example, one of the customer service policies for Marriott hotel is accessibility of the customer. This policy requires the company to be close to the customer. Failure of being close to a customer means the customers will try to find alternatives. Evaluation of this policy requires the company to have a situational research of where the customers are based. For example, with international business and globalization, it is crucial if the company could invest heavily on diversifying the business to regions previously ignored. The company has focused on regions where there is high population and high income levels. However, other areas such as in Africa are also improving in terms of their growth, and therefore, their customers would also want the services of Marriott hotel close to them.
Quality of service is mostly on satisfying the customers. Any company strives to provide high quality of service to both existing and prospective customers. The level of service and nature of quality is determined by evaluation of customer service by the management of a company. According to Hernon (2015, p. 4), the best measure of quality of service of a company is on the success in the market. If a company comes up with a policy and then the customers fail to buy the idea, it means that the customer service policy is not good. It therefore calls for a review of such a policy by changing it to have a customer oriented focus. Hernon (2015, p. 4) adds that perspectives of a customer are always critical in determining the success of a company. Constantly, the company has to investigate what the customers want, and always strive to even exceed the expectations of the customers. Many companies have opted for a status quo. This failure to have a review of their policies makes their success stagnant, and any entry of a rival company would mean that the business for the particular company goes down.
Motivation of staffs
A motivated workforce has the capability of improving the standards and quality of service in a company. At Marriott hotel, it was discovered that training of employees is an important policy for the company as it ensures that the customers are served adequately. Motivation of staffs therefore forms an important basis for a company to go out and do an evaluation of their service. The findings in any evaluation of a customer service policy would make the management focus on improving the skills of its employees, which as a result motivates the employees to serve the customers better. The staffs of any company are always the first and crucial contact of the company with both existing and prospective customers. These staffs have to own the company as a way of motivating them and passing the good attitude to the customers.
Eckerson (2010, p. 194) writes about how performance dashboards are used to motivate employees of a company. He notes that one way of motivating them as a way of ensuring that they strive to improve performance is not to penalize them, but to help them improve in their service. Managers have to go to all lengths to inform their employees that poor performance does not necessarily mean that they employees are worthless. It is a step to improving their service to the company, and essentially in handling customers in the right manner. A staff of a company may not understand various values upheld by the company at the start of his or her work. However, with assistance from the managers, this employee will understand the values from his failures, and eventually improve on delivery.
Motivation of staffs can be enhanced by evaluation of the company’s customer service policy. A customer service policy has a direct focus on the customer, and especially on how to attract and retain them. However, in this focus, a deeper focus must be on how the employees will ensure this is achieved. A workforce that is not motivated is not likely to redirect the values of a customer service policy to serving the customer. It is important therefore to carry out constant internal reviews to understand how the customers of the company are served to the maximum by the employees. The review will unearth deep rooted issues of the employees that will motivate them and help serve the customer better.
Improving image of the organization
All companies strive to have a positive image in the eyes of the public. The most important part of the public for any company is the employees. Therefore, the employees are carriers of images of organization. Good review by the customers mean that the organization has a good image in the public arena. All customer service policies must be directed not only on improving performance of sales, but also on getting a good image of the company. In planning and developing an appropriate customer service policy, a real focus ought to be on how such plans would help in improving the image of the organization (Wagen, 2007, p. 172). It is part and parcel of support elements in coming up with customer service policies for a company. The best form of review in doing so is on how the customers would improve relationships with the company, and especially on best ways of communicating to them. This can be done by evaluating the services and the policies anchored in the company for the purposes of altering them to suit existing and prospective customers.
Importantly, any management of a company must consider a customer to be a very intelligent person. Any mishandling of a customer would have direct and negative impact on the company. The company’s image in the public arena would not have a good image, and therefore, this would translate to poor performance of the company in the competitive market. It is clear that any kind of management is directed to the customer, and therefore, a company’s management has to understand how best the customers can be pleased. It is important that the company changes the customer service policies if market evaluation indicates that the customers are not fully satisfied with the services. The company has to have the best interest for the customers for them to give positive reviews and improve the image of the company.
How evaluation of customer service policies can help in training
The most important purpose of any customer service policy is to establish practices in customer service that can result in high yields of the company and enhance good reputation of a company. One of the most important internal publics of any company is the employees. Therefore, any customer service policy of a company has to have the best interest of the employees and the customers. As noted, evaluation of customer service policies of a company can give a good review of what the company can do to improve its standing in the competitive market, and especially improve in performance of its sales.
The best way is to make sure that the employees are constantly trained to improve skills of handling customers. It is paramount therefore evaluation of customer service policy provides needs of training of employees to handle customers in a most effective manner. There is a direct relation between motivated and well trained employees and the success of business. A well trained workforce makes sure that all good ingredients of management of companies are adhered to, and therefore, ensures there is success of a company.
Conclusion
Customer service is a virtue that each and every other company has to uphold. All companies have to have good customer service policies which form the basis of serving the customers in the best way possible. This essay discusses the reasons why a company invests in good customer service policies, with a focus on Marriott hotel. The essay also discusses the purposes of evaluating company’s customer service policies and how this evaluation is of essence to training of employees and future success of business.
References
Barlow, J., 2010. Branded Customer Service: The New Competitive Edge. Berrett-Koehler Publishers, Inc., California.
Bowie, D., & Buttle, F., 2013. Hospitality Marketing. Francis & Taylor, New York.
Crouch, G. I., 2004. Consumer Psychology of Tourism, Hospitality, and Leisure (vol. 3). CABI Publishers, Wallingford.
Eckerson, W.W., 2010. Performance Dashboards: Measuring, Monitoring, and Managing your Business. John Wiley & Sons, Hoboken.
Hayes, J., & Dredge, F., 1998. Managing Customer Service. Gower Publishing, Ltd, Aldershot.
Hernon, P., 2015. Assessing Service Quality: Satisfying the Expectations of Library Customers. American Library Association, Chicago.
Hicks, M. J., 2013. Problem Solving in Business and Management: Hard, Soft and Creative Approaches. Springer Shop, Boston.
Kamin, M., 2006. Customer Service Training. Routledge Publishing, New York.
Mandal, S.K., 2010. Ethics in Business and Corporate Governance. Tata McGraw-Hill Education, New Delhi.
Wagen, M., 2007. Customer Service Intelligence. Routledge Publishers, New York.