Service Design And Management Handbook †Myassignmenthelp.Com

Question: Discuss About The Service Design And Management Handbook? Answer: Introduction In any service industry organization, it is very important to manage the service quality and service delivery effectively. It is a significant aspect in todays competitive business landscape. The quality of service totally depends on how the customers experience the services, offered by service provider. This report includes the service management process with its different aspects. It justifies and analyzes all the information, which is given in the customer service handbook of MedBed Hotels, that is going to start its business in December, 2017. It includes the service concept of MedBed Hotels. It justifies all the strategies, which are used by the organization in managing the service encounter and employee service behaviors. Furthermore, it includes the methods for managing the processes and environments in the service organization. The organization is creating a customer service handbook for its Guest Experience team and well-being team, so that employees can understand the conce pt of service delivery and service management. At the end, it consists of potential services failures and recovery plan to overcome the issues. The report will help in understanding the theoretical concepts behind the aspects of customer service handbook of MedBed Hotels. The service concept For a service organization, it is essential to create a service concept, which meets the needs and expectations of potential customers. Creating a service concept is the first part of developing a service model for a service organization, like; a hotel. For setting a service concept, the organization first focuses on product element, i.e. hospitality for guests. A service concept should be new and innovative, so it can attract the maximum customer base in this competitive business environment. It includes all the tangible and intangible components of services, which creates value for the customers (Akaka Vargo, 2015). A service concept consists of both core and customer services as well. Core services are the services, which an organization offers to the customers, i.e. reasons for being of hotel, i.e. hospitality services in case of MedBed Hotels. Moreover, customer service includes all the interactions, which the team has with the customers and guests in conducting the business. In the given scenario, the service concept of MedBed includes both the core and supplementary services. With its new and innovative concept, MedBed Hotels is offering five-star hotel services and nursing services to the patients, who are taking short-stay accommodation at hotel rooms. It is providing very comfortable, creative and customer-centric environment, where the guest can have ongoing care, without depending on the hospital. For Guest Experience and Well-Being team, it is important to understand the service concept at hotels. It is very important for offering the services effectively. In order to understand the service concept, there are so many things, which the employees need to know for providing a successful service encounter. First, the employees need to understand the core and supplementary services of the hotel. After knowing about the services, the employees need to understand the type of customers at their service organization (Alghamdi, 2016). There may be two types of customers, i.e. internal customers and external customers. External customers are the people, who are served by the employees within the organization by its core services, whereas external customers come to the organization for some products and services. In the given scenario, the internal customers are the guests and visitors, who are coming at MedBed for hospitality services and external customers, are the patients, who are admitting here after taking discharged from Royal Sydney Private Hospital (Amin Zahora Nasharuddin, 2013). The organization makes several efforts to give make the employees understand about its service concept. The organization can conduct the training and development process for the outside and fresher employees. At luxury hotels, through training, the staff will be able to learn about the service concept and standards. These training methods should be created, which offer the staff with the great opportunity to learn and understand. It can assist the employees in understand the service concept effectively (Bisk, 2017). Strategies for managing service quality and satisfaction Quality of service is the heart of a service organization, especially, for a hotel organization. Service quality is the core of service management in hospitality industry (Vijayadurai, 2008). This quality is concerned with the customer satisfaction and customer satisfaction is related with the revisit intention of customers. If a positive image of service is created to the guests and customers, it will assist the organization in creating competitive advantage for hospitality organization (Bitner, Wang, 2014). There are some dimensions, which the customers use to evaluate the quality of services. SERVQUAL Model is a significant theory of service management that can be implemented for evaluating the service quality at hotels (Tsai, 2014). Generally, the customers focus on these five dimensions for analyzing the quality of hospitality services, which are given stated below; Reliability Reliability dimension of service quality refers to how an organization is performing and fulfilling the committed and promised service. It includes the accuracy and quality within set quality standards and requirements between customers and organization (Bowen, 2016). It is an important aspect as the first impression as the customers want to know whether their services are reliable and fulfill all the standards and requirements with complete satisfaction MedBed Hotels can focus on offering services in promised way and time, as the guests may use this aspect to evaluate the service quality at MedBed (You, 2014). Responsiveness Responsiveness of service quality includes the desire and willingness of an organization to assist the customers in offering them with the fast, better and quality service (Chaston, 2014). At MedBed, Guest Experience and Well-Being Team should understand that they have to offer the services in a way so that guests and patients may feel valued in their stay at hotel. Assurance The assurance is also an important dimension of service quality. It refers to the employees of the organization. It includes different aspects, like; whether the employees are enough skilled and or they are able to gain the confidence and trust of customers. At MedBed, the employees should try to deliver the services effectively, so that they can gain the trust and confidence of guests (Chang, Chen Lan, 2013). If the guests and patients will not be comfortable with the staff and their services, then it will affect their revisiting intention towards MedBed. Tangibles Tangibility service quality dimension includes the appearance of physical facilities and surroundings, equipment and other personnel and their way of effective communication. It also creates a first impression on the customers (Dhar, 2015). MedBed is already focusing on this aspect of service quality. The rooms at hotel are luxurious and spacious, which may attract the people to visit the hotels again and again. The rooms in hospital will give a natural and elegant feeling to the patients. Other tangibles are; like; cold ambience at hospital, fresh and health centric food for patients (Wirtz Lovelock, 2016). Empathy Empathy dimension of service quality refers to the care and individual attention, which is given to the customers. Through this dimension, the customers evaluate how a service organization care the customers and gives them personal attention (Dabholkar, 2015). It is very essential to make them feel more special and valued. If the guests feel more valued, it increases the revisiting intention of guests to hotel. At MedBed, the employees should understand that there guests are patients, who need extra care and attention, so they should make efforts to pay attention on each and every patient. Strategies for managing service encounters Human resources and their behavior play an important role for managing the service encounter in any service organization. In a service organization, it is very important to examine the attitudes and behaviors of the employees, who offer the front stage and back stage services to the customers (Fitzsimmons, Fitzsimmons Bordoloi, 2006). In the hospitality industry, it is important to have some specific behaviors to serve the customers. according to a theory of customer service management, there are some specific employee behaviors, like; being cheerful and polite to customers and making the customers feel more valued and special. Potential Customer Behaviors There are some potential service behaviors, which can be possessed by the Guest Experience and Well-Being team at MedBed. Friendliness and Courteous When it is about to serve the customers directly, the employees need to be more friendly and courteous with the customers (Gunarathne, 2014). The employees, who perform their duties effectively to become friendly and courteous to their managers, colleagues and customers, assist in developing a good working environment in the organization. This type of behavior is very essential for the employees in hospitality industry. The Well-being and Guest Experience team at MedBed should enhance this behavior in serving the guests and patients at their hotel. Commitment To get success in the hospitality industry, the Guest-Experience and Well-Being team need to be committed to ensure the satisfaction of customers (Gummesson, 2014). The staff should do everything to satisfy the need and expectations of customers. At MedBed, the employees and nurses need to perform the tasks and activities to make the patients happy and enhance their revisiting intention. Effective Communication In delivering the services effectively, the employees should have effective communication and interaction with the customers. In hospitality business, excellent communication skills are required to fulfill the expectations and demands of customers, so that they can communicate with customers in oral and writing (Ho Voon, Abdullah, Lee Kueh, 2014). Customer-Centric In order to satisfy the customers, it is very necessary to become customer-focused, so that employees can understand the needs and expectations of their potential customers. The employees should reflect the service behavior that focuses on the needs of customers. For example, at MedBed, the staff will focus on the needs of each and every patient (Hollensen, 2015). If the employees do so, then guests may feel more valued and special. Three Strategies to manage service behaviors There are some strategies, which can be used by a service organization to manage the employee service behaviors and service encounters in this competitive business environment (Iden and Eikebrokk, 2013). These strategies can be used to influence the behavior of staff and team in the organization. These strategies are analyzed and justified below; Discipline Discipline is a major component that can be used for enhancing the service behavior of employees. In an organization, taking disciplinary actions can discourage the unethical and unwanted behavior of employees. For example, if the employee is regularly late at office, then the organization should take some disciplinary action to avoid being late again. At MedBed, the top management can also use this strategy to improve the service behavior of employees. They should be disciplined with their guests also. Positive Reinforcement Positive-reinforcement is a popular strategy or approach that works under a theory that giving reward to the workers for showing desired attitudes will inspire the employees to regularly doing that. In turn, it will enhance the long term growth and success of the organization. These rewards may be in the form of bonuses and appreciation for their tasks and responsibilities (Jaakkola, Helkkula Aarikka-Stenroos, 2015). At MedBed, the top management should adopt this strategy to motivate the hotel staff to perform the services in an effective manner. Rewarding the employees will be beneficial for providing quality services to the guests in the hotel (Trusson, Doherty Hislop, 2014). Development of other methods There are some other active methods, which can be developed by the service industry organizations. These methods can work as an effective strategy to monitor the customer satisfaction. It can assist the employees in dealing with the unexpected conditions in the guest experience and in driving the loyalty among customers. MedBed hotel is also including some methods in its customer service handbook, which will be implemented to enhance the service behavior and service encounter (Jos Tar, Heras-Saizarbitoria Pereira, 2013). Managing service processes and environments Blueprint of service is a technique that is generally used for designing the innovation and service. A service organization can show its service process by using a blue print diagram that reflects the service delivery process from the perspective of customers (Kim, Vogt Knutson, 2015). Each and every organization uses a blue print and service scape diagram for the service organization. The customer service handbook includes the blueprint and service scape diagram for the MedBed organization. The service organization should implement effective strategies to measure the service quality and customer satisfaction. For measuring the customer satisfaction and service quality, the companies can use different strategies, like; benchmarking, customer complaint policy, customer research etc. MedBed can adopt customers complaint policy to analyze the service quality (Kindstrm Kowalkowski, 2014). Managing service failure and recovery In a service organization, failures are very common in order to deal with the customers. Even with the best service industry organizations, these types of failures can occur. These failures can occur, when the services are not provided in the way as they promised or committed. The outcome of these situations may be incorrect or it may influence the revisiting intention of customers and customer base of the service organization. In the hospitality industry, these service failures may bring negative experiences to the guests. There may be different types of services failures, which a hotel organization may face in offering the services to guests. The hotels develop a service recovery process to eliminate the situation of service failure (Khodakarami Chan, 2014). The customers, who have negative experiences, but finally they are satisfied with the service recovery efforts, they become more loyal to the organization. According to Bitner, there may be three types of service failures, whi ch a service organization may confront, i.e. Service System Failure In a hospitality organization, the service failure may be related to the failure in the service system. This type of failure is connected to the core services of the organization, like; hotel and nursing services to guests and patients. Deficiency in services causes the failure in service systems and processes (Lusch Vargo, 2014). The examples of these failures are like; issue of room cleanliness, employees unfriendliness with the guests, out of stock conditions, slow services etc. The management at MedBed may face this kind of service failure. Failure in Explicit and Implicit Customer Requests This type of service failure happens when the hotel staff is not able to fulfill the services according to needs and expectations of guests, for instance; lost reservations, dirty rooms, wrong delivery of foods and services (Malthouse, et al, 2013). Unsolicited and Unprompted employee actions There may be the service failure, which is caused by the unsolicited and unprompted actions of employees. It includes the service behaviors of employees, which is not acceptable by the guests and organization. These behaviors may be like; wrong and poor attitude, rudeness, incorrect billing of services, additional charges etc. In order to provide nursing and hospitality services, MedBed may face this type of service failure in the workplace environment (Lovelock Patterson, 2015s). From all the service failures, first failure is very important because the customers confronting this type of service failure can switch to other competitors. So, the managers should focus on creating recovery processes and strategies to avoid the service failure; Anticipating the needs of guests The meaning of anticipating the needs refers to understanding the needs and demands of customers. In the first step, the organization needs to understand, what their potential customers want and expect from them (Mok, Sparks Kadampully, 2013). By following this step, the manager and employees will have the clear idea about the needs of guests at hotels. It is the key point for successful service encounter. In the first step, MedBed will focus on anticipating the needs of potential guests and patients (Wong, 2014). Acknowledging their feelings There is a need of service recovery when the customers did not receive expected and needed services from organization. It is significant that staff at hotel acknowledges the issues and feelings of guests (Mattsson Sderlund, 2017). They should understand what they actually want. They need to understand the problems behind this failure. Owning and apologizing the responsibility After acknowledging the feelings of customers, the team should accept their mistakes and responsibilities behind the service failure (Osborne, Radnor Nasi, 2013). Apologizing to the team can decrease the anger among guests. At MedBed, Guest Experience Team and Well-Being should apologize to the patients and guests, so that they can recover the deficiency in the services (Tynan, McKechnie Hartley, 2014). Providing them alternatives In the deficit of any particular thing, the organization can provide alternatives to their guests. Providing other alternatives is an effective method to recover the service failure. It can help to satisfy the dis-satisfied customers. At MedBed, the management should use these methods. They should not show that they did not have the things, but they should look for other options (Peppers s Rogers, 2016). Creating amends To do things right is an important step in successful service delivery. It can be possible through a sincere apology. The staff can send a follow-up letter and any small gift. For recovering the service, the organizations can use service recovery logs and service recovery kits to deal with conditions of service failure (Raghubalan Raghubalan, 2015). Managing external and internal customer relationships Customer Relationship Management (CRM) is a significant approach for managing the relationship between organization and customers. It includes processes and tools, which are being marketed to the service organizations as an effective way of providing effective customer services to customers (Rust Huang, 2014). Organizations implement different strategies to manage its internal and external customers. Successful customer relationship requires effective management of its internal and external communication with customers and employees. Strategy to Manage Internal Relationships Managing internal relationships includes all the processes and system management of internal environment of workplace. The quality of services can be managed by managing the relationships with the customers, when they are receiving your services. For managing the internal relationships, the organization should transform its corporate culture that can assist in maintaining the relations with guests and visitors. The services organizations should place some effective and advanced technology and cultural collaboration (Sengupta, Balaji Krishnan, 2015). It can enhance the employees relationships with the guests. Strategy to Manage External Relationships In hospitality industry, management of external relationships is needed to increase the revisiting intention of customers. The organization can develop a strategy that can assist in retaining the customers. For a hotel organization, it will be good to use the technology and internet innovation to manage the regular customers. Using these innovations, the organizations can approach the customers worldwide (Srensen, Sundbo Mattsson, 2013). The hotels can retain their regular customers, so that they use their service repetitively. In todays world, most of the population in the country is actively engaged in using internet and social networking sites, so it may maintain the relationships with the external customers. Other methods may be like; loyalty and rewards programs and sending them birthday and anniversary wishes; these methods can help the organization in attracting maximum customer base (Tronvoll, 2008). Conclusions Thus, from the analysis, it can be concluded that for managing the services at service organization, it is vital to implement effective strategies. It will assist the organization in satisfying the customers by their services. MedBed will be opening its hotel in December 2017 with the new and innovative ideas. If, it will use these effective strategies, then definitely it will have a successful service encounter. 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