guestology.pdf

TH2303 WHAT IS GUESTOLOGY? Guestology is the scientific study of people's needs, expectations, and behaviors in the service industry and uses that informa...

TH2303 WHAT IS GUESTOLOGY? Guestology is the scientific study of people's needs, expectations, and behaviors in the service industry and uses that information to manage a service organization efficiently. It also involves studying the totality of the guest experience, from their expectations to the results and feedback and then managing the organization from their point of view to meet their demands. Guestology aims to create and sustain an organization that effectively meets customer expectations and makes profits (Cornell & Manzano, 2022). The Guest Cycle (Kumar, 2021) The guest cycle is the stage of interaction between the hotel and guests. It is divided into four (4) main stages, which show a systematic approach to operations and the activities that transpire in each stage (see Figure 1). Tourism and hospitality employees can effectively serve guests if they understand the guest's business flow. 1. Pre-Arrival is when the guest interacts with a tourism and hospitality establishment before Figure 2. The Guest Cycle Source: https://hmhub.in/introduction-to-guest-cycle/ arrival, like inquiring about services and making a room reservation at a hotel or booking a travel package with a travel agency. 2. Arrival includes hotel registration and room assignment process or travel agents meeting their guests before a tour. The guests usually start their first face-to-face interaction with the employee during this stage. It is a critical stage where guests learn about tourism and hospitality establishments' standards and services. 3. Occupancy is when a guest stays in a hotel, or the tourist is already on a vehicle on the way to the different attractions and experiences Figure 1. The Guest Cycle included in a tour package. It is when their Source: https://hmhub.in/introduction-to-guest-cycle/ requests and special needs must be met. 4. Departure is when a guest checks out and leaves a hotel or when the tourist parts ways with the tour guide at the end of a tour. How this stage is handled will determine what experience the guest/tourist will carry with them. The hotel or tour guide also has a standard set of basic procedures for the departure of guests/tourists. At any stage, there must be coordination between the different departments of an establishment for a smooth and delightful guest experience. When a guest's experience is positive, it will benefit the whole business. The Guest Experience (Ford et al., 2019) The guest experience is the totality of the guest's experiences with the service provider on a given occasion. The first step in understanding the management of guest experience is understanding the guest of a tourism organization. To fully understand the guest experience, below are the different components of the guest experience: The service product is why the customer, client, or guest comes to the organization. It can be tangible products such as the hotel room, airline ticket, or restaurant dishes, or intangible products such as the experience in festivals or concerts held in different venues. Sometimes service products are embodied in the business's name so that guests are already aware of the services and products of an organization. 02 Handout 1 *Property of STI 🖂 [email protected] Page 1 of 5  TH2303 The Philippine International Convention Center, Red Rock Casino Resort and Spa, and Midas International Travel and Tours are examples of businesses that incorporate their products and services in their business name. The place where service takes place is called the service setting. The setting contributes to the guest's overall physical feel of the experience. An example is a fantasyland-themed restaurant with its design, ambiance, and menu based on popular animated adventures and stories. In a simple service situation point-of-view, the entire guest experience is done by a single person in a single moment (employee accommodating the guests/customers), but to complete the guest experience, the third component, called the service delivery system is the direct support or backbone of every establishment to meet their needs and wants. This system consists of an inanimate technology part, such as the kitchen facilities of a restaurant and computer systems used in the reservation process, and the people, such as the staff and employees of a hotel, restaurant, airline, and travel agencies, who deliver and present the services or products to guests. These components of the guest experience are carefully analyzed and woven together to give the guests what they want and expect. When employees give a little more extra in terms of the quality of service they provide, the service encounter will become memorable and worthwhile. Service Encounter (Ford et al., 2019) The person-to-person series of interactions between a tourism employee who delivers the service and the guests is called a service encounter. Although both parties involve a set of people, some situations or interactions between an organization and a guest are now automated or self-serviced; these are also considered service encounters. Some examples of these are check-in kiosks in hotels and airports and online transactions for the reservations of rooms. The heart of a service is the encounter between the server and the customer, where emotions meet economics in real time and where most customers judge the quality of service. The length of a typical service encounter varies from the products or services offered. For example, the interaction between a guest and an agent at a hotel front desk will be longer depending on their concerns, while the purchase of a ticket on railway transportation will be brief. Moreover, the series of interactions between the server and a guest in a restaurant will be longer, especially if they will be ordering different courses or have a lot of requests. Moments of Truth (Grigoreva, 2022) Moments of truth represent the points in a guest experience where a critical event occurs, resulting in the customer forming an opinion about the service provider. These are the critical service encounters where the guests either turn away and leave or appreciate the organization's services and products and continue patronizing them. The opinions formed from these moments of truth will depend on the kind of quality, service, value for money, consistency, and personalization provided. For example, a guest calling to book a hotel room that has not been attended to after several tries will lead to a lost business for the property. The reservation process is the moment of truth in this case. Moments of truth are any interaction that can change the customer's mind, for better or worse. Below are the two (2) major categories of moments of truth: Positive Moments – Moments of Glory. These happen when guest expectations during an interaction are exceeded. These are events where they have experienced difficulties, need help or encouragement, or are welcomed in something extra that the organization has offered. An example could be a drink or compliment from a chef while the guests wait for their orders. 02 Handout 1 *Property of STI 🖂 [email protected] Page 2 of 5  TH2303 Negative Moments – Moments of Pain. These are the miserable moments of a guest wherein the organization's products or services disappoint them. They don't feel heard and are left alone with the problem. For example, a customer e-mailed a travel agency inquiring about a specific tour package and got no response, or a waiter instructed to serve a birthday cake at a particular time but came too late or too early. All moments of glory match the customer's needs and motivation. Discovering moments of pain is a way to smooth out the guest's negative experience and prevent customer churn. The following are the discrete moments of truth from the guest's perspective: Zero moment of truth is the event where a person looks for information online and forms the first impression of a brand. For instance, an individual wanting to book accommodation at a particular destination will look into different social media and review sites to compare properties. The actual moment of truth refers to the time between when a customer makes a purchase and when they get the product (Masud, n.d.). The first moment of truth is when the guest sees the product or gets to use the service for the first time and decides about it. An example is when a guest first arrives at an accommodation property, interacts with the front office staff and sees firsthand the ambiance and environment of the resort. The second moment of truth refers to the following collection of moments that incorporates the customers' senses: what they see, feel, touch, hear, and smell about the organization's products and brand throughout the experience. The various services and products provided to guests during their stay in an accommodation property exemplify this moment of truth. The ultimate/last moment of truth is when the guest is ready to share their opinion about the brand, usually by publishing content, like a public review on the website or a social media post. It is when the guest has managed to give comments or feedback regarding a property's products and services through a comment feedback form, the social media page of the property, or through review websites. Every business has unique moments of truth; some encounters will have a higher impact on the guest's impressions of the brand than others. Depending on the type of service offered, these can occur at varying points along the guest's journey. An organization needs to identify the guests' expectations to plan effectively. Guest Expectations (Cornell & Manzano, 2022) Guests arrive with a set of expectations as to what a chosen hotel, restaurant, or travel agency can and should do, how they should do it, how the people who will provide the service should behave, how the physical setting should appear, and what capabilities they should have to perform their roles or responsibilities in coproducing the experience. First-time guests build their expectations based on familiarity with brand names, advertisements, previous experiences with other tourism organizations, their imaginations, and the stories and experiences of people they know who have already been guests. A guest's past experiences with an organization provide the primary basis for their expectations regarding their future experiences. In many instances, this sets a high standard to meet. What may create a "wow" experience for the first time may be "as expected" on their next visit. Depending on what business a tourism organization offers, it is not advisable to under-promise, but the key to delighting them is to consistently over-deliver. Tourism organizations try to provide guests with accurate information ahead of time, so these will become the basis of expectations that the organization will meet or exceed. If they do not provide the information, the guest will obtain them accurately or inaccurately from other sources such as the organization's general reputation, advertisements, experiences that other friends had, or the Internet. A complete and proper understanding of guest expectations is critical to achieving guest satisfaction. 02 Handout 1 *Property of STI 🖂 [email protected] Page 3 of 5  TH2303 Types of Customers An organization needs to identify and understand the types of customers it will encounter throughout its business operations. By understanding their behavior, one can strategize the efforts of the company to identify and match the need for each type of customer. Below are the types of customers: External customers do not have any direct relationship with the company but buy and consume the produced products and services (MBA Skool Team, 2021). They are commonly referred to as a "customer" in general. The following are the types of external customers: Loyal customers are the essential type to please and should be one of the priorities a specific company should keep in mind. This type of customer represents at least 20% of the customer base but is the driving force of most sales revenue. They value the organization's products and services and continue supporting them. They are most likely the bearers of positive word of mouth and would recommend the organization to others because of their great experience. Impulse customers are the best type for suggestive selling. These customers are willing to accept recommendations on products and services. Discount customers wait for promos and markdowns offered by an organization. These types of customers contribute to a company's cash flow because products and services that are seldom purchased at full prices are availed by them. Need-based customers are driven by a specific need. They only buy for a specific reason and occasion and immediately leave after getting what they need. These customers are quickly drawn out to other businesses if the price is lower and an alternative product will serve its purpose. Wandering customers generate the most significant traffic as they have no specific need or desire but yield the smallest percentage of sales revenue. Although they generate a small percentage of the revenue, it is essential to understand that they still provide insightful information about the products and services and can still contribute to the feedback mechanism of the business. Internal customers are individuals from an organization who receive specific services from staff members within the same organization. They are the employees who perform a specific task that directly affects the job performance of another staff member. For example, the IT department of a big travel agency should ensure the computers and technology are running smoothly to allow the travel agents to book the reservations of their clients efficiently. Identifying these types is significant as they generate revenue for the enterprise. An organization must meet or exceed its employees' expectations (internal customers) on how they will be treated. If they feel they are considered and cared for, these will be extended to the service they provide to guests (external customers). How an organization treats its employees will carry over to how their employees treat guests and each other, so they must work hard to satisfy them. Quality, Value, and Cost (Ford et al., 2019) In the tourism and hospitality industry, the terms quality, value, and cost have specialized meanings to fit the guest-focused orientation of the industry. Quality is the difference between the quality that the guest expects and the quality that the guest gets. If the two (2) are the same, then the quality is average or considered as expected since one got what was expected and is satisfied (Cornell & Manzano, 2022). For example, a guest booked a reservation at Philippine Airlines and Cebu Pacific on two (2) different occasions. If Philippine Airlines did not live up to the guest's high-quality service expectations, while 02 Handout 1 *Property of STI 🖂 [email protected] Page 4 of 5  TH2303 Cebu Pacific somewhat exceeded their lower-quality service expectations, then Cebu Pacific's service was of higher quality to the guest. The measure of quality for the guests is based on the difference between their expectation and their experience (or what they have experienced in reality). If the quality that a guest receives matches what they expected, they experienced typical quality service since they were satisfied with it. However, if guests' expectations do not match the experience, they encounter a negative quality of service. Quality is independent of cost or value since it can be high while the cost is also high, low because the cost is also low, high but the cost is low, or low but the cost is high. Value is defined as how much a product or service is worth to a guest. It measures all the costs and benefits associated with a product or service. It includes the price, quality, what the product or service can do for that specific guest and the monetary, time, energy, and emotional costs they consider when evaluating the value of a purchase (Zen Desk Blog, 2023). For example, a guest reserving a spa session would allot time and will pay for the service. The reservation of time, money, and effort should equal the quality of the service provided to say that the transaction has high value. Therefore, the time, effort, and money should be studied closely by the planners of the service experience so that the guest will have a memorable and meaningful experience. If the quality and cost of the experience are about the same, the value of the experience to the guest would be normal or as expected; the guest would be satisfied by this fair value but not wowed. Low quality and low cost, and high quality and high cost will satisfy the guest because they match their expectations. Organizations add value to their guest' experiences by providing additional features and amenities without increasing the cost to guests. Cost refers to the tangible and intangible financial and nonfinancial costs that the guest has incurred during the experience of the products and services. It makes up the total burden on the guest who chooses a service from a tourism organization. An example is the cost difference to a guest having lunch today at a nearby affordable café compared to a farther restaurant with overlooking but expensive meals. The cost of the guest's travel time and risks associated (limited lunchtime) with entering a service transaction must also be considered. In this example, the guest's time (time spent going to the restaurant, waiting for a table, and waiting for service) will be costly. Finally, the guests also run risks, like the restaurant might not meet their expectations. It is essential to know that any organization must consider all these factors to meet the needs and wants of the guests to provide quality service and satisfy them. References: Arenas, C. (2022). Quality service management in tourism and hospitality. Edric Publishing House. Cornell, D. & Manzano, R. (2022). Quality service management in tourism and hospitality. Rex Bookstore. Ford, R., Sturman, M. & Heaton, C. (2019). Managing hospitality organizations: Achieving excellence in the guest experience. Sage Publications. Goldstein, S. & Schroeder, R. (2021). Operations management in the supply chain (8th Ed.). New York: McGraw-Hill Education. Grigoreva, S. (2022, December 3). Moments of truth in customer journey mapping. In Uxpressia. Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://uxpressia.com/blog/moments-of-truth-customer-journey Kumar, P. (2021). Introduction to guest cycle. In HMHUB. Retrieved June 2, 2023, from https://hmhub.in/introduction-to-guest-cycle/ Indeed. (2022, June 24). What is an internal customer? In Indeed. Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://www.indeed.com/career-advice/career- development/what-is-internal-customer Masud, A. (n.d.). Moments of truth: what they are + free examples. In QuestionPro. Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://www.questionpro.com/blog/moments-of-truth/ MBA Skool Team. (2021, September 8). External customer – meaning importance & example. Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://www.mbaskool.com/business-concepts/marketing-and-strategy-terms/14130-external-customer.html Zendesk Blog. (2023, April 17). What is customer value? Retrieved May 2, 2023, from https://www.zendesk.com/blog/customer-value/ 02 Handout 1 *Property of STI 🖂 [email protected] Page 5 of 5