Instructions for the Task:

This project provides you with the opportunity to step into the position of a specialised consultancy team to review and propose a service design management plan for an upper scale hotel.

Based on a hypothetical case study, your team will interpret the hotel’s context and then use this interpretation to construct a Customer Service Handbook (Part A) for current and new employees. Your team will analyse and justify your decisions against service management theory in an analysisbased business report (Part B). 

Part A: Construction of Customer Service Handbook

Your team, representing a professional services management consultancy, is engaged to produce a service design proposal that comprehensively addresses the whole service spectrum ranging from concept to relationship management with guests and employees.

Good hospitality in the hotel sector is all about keeping customers satisfied with prompt, responsive and reliable service. The Board of Directors of the Devs Airport Hotel is concerned that the service level has been reportedly slipping from excellence and is losing market share. The hotel has positioned itself as the only luxury hotel in an incredibly special and lucrative position – close to the airport, within minutes from the satellite town of Huersts and in the vicinity of a business park. All its 150 rooms are luxuriously appointed in the configuration of deluxe, standard rooms and junior suites. The only competition faced by the hotel are from a couple of medium-size hotels in the area, which still cannot match Devs’ geographical sweet spot. Its target customer markets are predominantly business transient and transit travellers. Its other serviced attributes are an executive floor for its business clientele, restaurant with bar, fitness club as well as a gift shop for souvenir hunters. 

With your expertise in service design and management, you are required to design a Customer Service Handbook for Devs Airport Hotel to assist its frontline employees in delivering seamless quality service to its in-house guests and patrons of its retail outlets.

The Customer Service Handbook must guide the Guest Experience Team (employees in front office, concierge desk, housekeeping, restaurant with bar, fitness club and retail) in providing exceptional customer service aligned with the hotel’s market positioning and service concept. The Handbook will require an accompanying report justifying the items planned as its content. 

Six key service design and management components must be included and applied to Samudra Grand Hotel:

1. The Hotel’s Service Concept

Critically reflect how Guest Experience employees could understand the service concept of Devs Airport Hotel.

Articulate and communicate its business idea by developing a service concept statement and justifying the key elements that uphold the intention of the service.

2. Strategies for managing service encounters

Reflect on desirable service behaviours for the hotel.

Apply three specific strategies to manage service behaviour encounters.

3. Strategies for managing service quality and satisfaction

Firstly, apply one theory to conceptualise service quality and/or customer satisfaction determinants at Devs Airport Hotel.

Then apply one strategy to measure and monitor service quality and/or customer satisfaction. If it utilises any tools, consider its relevance in the Handbook.

4. Managing service processes and environments

Explain the importance and significance of mapping service processes.

Create a detailed blueprint for the service process of your choice.

Create a theoretical framework for servicescape of your choice and justify the environmental stimuli that you will propose to enhance both guest and employee behaviour.

5. Managing service failure and recovery

Create a full synopsis of potential service failures for the hotel.

Apply one theory to your detailed service recovery process proposed for the hotel and explain how it can be incorporated in operational steps for the employee. 

6. Managing external and internal customer relationships

Develop an effective service guarantee (statement) for the hotel and outline the process of how employees should implement the service guarantee.

Explain the importance in managing internal and external customer relationships, and then apply one strategy to manage internal customer relationship.

Tips on Part A – Designing your Customer Service Handbook

In constructing the Customer Service Handbook, first research the key theory relevant to each component. Use this theory to help your team decide on strategies for managing and designing service. As well as communicating and explaining strategies to employees (in layman’s language), you will be analysing and justifying your decisions and strategies in Part B of this assignment, with contents of BOTH parts corresponding where necessary. However, only Part B must be supported by academic literature.

Be creative in the design of the Handbook. This is a document to be used by the hotel’s Guest Experience employees, so make it relatable and easy to understand. The use of drawings, images, figures and tables are highly recommended to visually display information in a compelling way, but all must be originally constructed. Copying from another source including the Internet is not permitted. Diagrams are required in component 4 (see table of key components above). If you have adapted information from an academic source, please acknowledge this below the figure or table, e.g. Source: adapted from Smith, (2015).

Important reminder: when creating and applying strategies, you must establish clear communication of the reasons underlying the prescribed service behaviour and/or line of action (as the implementation of the strategy).

Tips on Part B – Justification Report (justifying your decisions in Handbook)

The report analyses and justifies all decisions and strategies in your team’s Customer Service Handbook against relevant service management theory and concepts.

The following structure is to be used for your Part B

Executive Summary*

Table of Contents*

1.0 Introduction to Report

2.0 Analyses and Justifications

2.1 Devs Airport Hotel’s service concept

2.2 Strategies for managing service encounters

2.3 Strategies for managing service quality and satisfaction

2.4 Managing service processes and environments

2.5 Managing service failure and recovery

2.6 Managing external and internal customer relationships

3.0 Conclusion

4.0 Reference List*

5.0 Appendix or Appendices*

5.1 Part A Customer Service Handbook