Memo and short answer response
You are the director of training for a chain of suite hotels. Each hotel has 100 to 150 rooms, a small
indoor pool, and a full service restaurant. The hotels are strategically located near the exit ramps of major
highways in Southeastern college towns such as Raleigh, NC and Athens, GA. You just received the
memo on the following page from the vice president of operations.
YOUR TASK
Prepare a one to two page memo that you will send back to the vice president of operations, answering
the questions. The vice president values your opinion but also likes to know what other experts have to
say, so support your statements and opinions with appropriate citations from the textbook. You may also
cite other scholarly sources published within the last 10 years. There is no minimum number of references
required but you must cite the textbook. The vice president is not familiar with training and development,
so remember to provide definitions for the key concepts and theories that you believe apply to this
situation.
Re: Service Recovery Training
Memo and short answer response 2
The need of customer is very critical to the success of any hospitality business. The cost of
getting or acquiring a customer is higher than actually maintaining or retaining one. The service
industry makes it a little complicated as its process driven and the customers must always have
an opinion. It’s very rare to a have a zero defect situation in a human based interaction set-up as
in the case in hospitality industry where each customer has different individual needs and the
key solution to most of customer the recovery situations is how they have been addressed and the
reaction of the customer. (Kim, Yoo & Lee, 2012)
To provide clear recommendation on the customer recovery training exercise, it would be
necessary to conduct an assessment on the overall nature of the responsibility and the individual
level of customer interaction between the hotel staff and the customers. These would make it
possible for me to analyze the nature and scope of training required. Some hotel staff may be
well versed with the requirements of customer recovery procedures and may require just a few
refresher lessons while others may need the whole training exercise.
My general recommendations to the exercise however is that, it’s imperative to implement an
effective service recovery procedures that are applicable to particular situations and which can be
implemented easily by the hotel staff.
The stronger emotional and personal characteristics that are attached to services in hospitality
industry by most clients make some responses to their complaints very critical to service
recovery especially the word of mouth. To effectively address the issue of service recovery, the
wider issue of customer retention model that literally integrates service excellence, reliability,
recovery and other service feedback systems that have mechanism to evaluate customer
satisfaction. The primary focus of the hotel should be provide a problem free stay for its clients
Memo and short answer response 3
that will enhance more customer satisfaction, positive customer image and advocacy, re-
patronage and good public relations with other potential customers.
Poor service recovery is more damaging than actually not acting at all. The inability of the
establishment to act to the complaints of its customers results to more losses as other customers
may be negatively influenced by the hotels inability to address its own shortcomings. A strong
strategy for service recovery processes have to be implemented in order to maintain an effective
customer retention model. (Lewis & McCann, 2004)
To reduce the rate of service failures, the Breeze Resort Hotel chain must come up with a
diagnostic blue print that will identify the potential weaknesses in the hotels service delivery and
how the hotel can develop efficient and effective recovery operations. For example, the order
delivery time can make a customer judge the efficiency of a hotel or even the time taken for a
waiter to approach a customer may be the only deciding factor between retaining the customer in
future. These issues can only be resolved by continuous observation to reduce service failures.
The recovery exercise has to be done in the right way. An effective service recovery system has
to have an operating philosophy that may reprimand the hotel staff for poor service recovery
procedures. The hotel has to empower its own employees to own up and resolve the customer
complaints. Recovery rules and procedures must be established that positively reach out to the
customers. These procedures should also be implemented in a way that encourages the customers
to speak out freely about their experiences and expectations about the services offered as well as
their stay at the hotels. (Komunda & Osarenkhoe, 2012)
Finally, the hotel has to be committed to offering good service and excellent recovery exercises.
It should focus on positively reaching out to its customers and eliciting feedback from them.
Memo and short answer response 4
The training for automated T & E expenses would be based differently depending on the basis of
the generational needs. The Baby Boomers generation, mostly born between the years 1946 –
1964) have very different and distinct needs, values, motivations, career goals and even different
working styles. To maintain effective, motivated and productive baby boomers generation
successfully engaged, the management has to come up with clear strategies that will address the
generational initiative and ensure that the project is implemented successfully.
Baby boomers will require a web site that can be easily explained verbally and which requires
simple coaching as these generation prefers or requires relationship based learning systems.
(Cheung, 2007) They can also do well with a mentor who has some training on the web based
systems where the expenses can keyed in and entered electronically by use of an iPad or by use
of any smart phone.
The generation Xers, mostly falls between the years 1965 and 1980) require more autonomy and
they like discovering their own way of working. A menu driven option should be provided on the
website to guide them on how to file their travel returns electronically. Most of this generation
abhor trainer led training environment and they would rather learn from their peers or colleagues.
To succeed, intergenerational teams should be formed to coordinate the training exercise.
References
Cheung, E. (2007). Baby Boomers, Generation X and Social Cycles, Volume 1: North American
Long-waves. Longwave Press. ISBN 9781896330068 .
Komunda, M., & Osarenkhoe, A. (2012). Remedy or cure for service failure? Effects of service
recovery on customer satisfaction and loyalty. Business Process Management Journal, 18(1),
82-103.
Memo and short answer response 5
Kim, T., Yoo, J. J-E., & Lee, G. (2012). Post-recovery customer relationships and customer
partnerships in a restaurant setting. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality
Management (24)3, 381-401.
Lewis, B. R., & McCann, P. (2004). Service failure and recovery: Evidence from the hotel
industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16(1), 6-17.
