Service Encounter Factors And Service Recovery In International Business

1.In recent years, Managers have become increasingly aware of the need to create value for their customers in the form of satisfaction. Based on your own management experience, critically discuss the factors of the service encounter that failed to meet Mr. Kumar’s expectations and satisfaction with the Town Hotel Nepal.

2.Service recovery efforts are important in the service industry although it is practically impossible to ensure perfect and error-free service. Discuss the service recovery effort that you have undertaken. How was the failed service restored? You may refer to any departments that you have been assigned to support your answer. Will your recovery solution work when applied in the company’s branches in another country?

3.Relating to Mr. Kumar’s experience with Town Hotel, what would Mr. Ashok, as the new person handling Customer Service, would have done if faced with such situation, drawing attention to any difficulties that he may encounter with his General Manager.

The aim of the paper is to talk about the service that is provided to the customers by the service industry in the international business management. The report is based on the case study in which the question has been asked at the end. In the case, there is description related to the Town Hotel who is currently dealing with the customer service failure issues that can affect the image of the company in the market of Nepal. Ashok Kumar is appointed with the motive to improve the level of customer satisfaction. Thus, this paper includes the service recovery done by the manager and the ways he acted to the situation.

1.Service encounters are considered as the transactional interactions in which one person offers the services to another person. These interactions take place when the town hotel offer services to their guest with the motive to attain the satisfaction and to improve the experience of the customers. In the past few years, the managers of the service companies are getting aware of the needs of the customers which help them to create value for their customers by offering them high satisfaction. This section includes the explanation related to the factors of the service encounter that failed to achieve the expectations and satisfaction of Mr Kumar’s with the Town Hotel, Nepal.

One of the factors that affected the experience of Mr Kumar was a physical environment of the Hotel which gets influenced by both the customers and their personal behaviour. The below-given diagram shows the physical complexity of the servicescape: -

This has been found that the staff was working to provide the delight services to customers but the unavailability of the enough is one of the issues which arise due to which the complexity and gaps in the service take place. Mr Kumar arrived in the hotel at 11.00 pm and found that one of the front desk staff is going off duty and closed her drawer at that moment. Due to which the 11 guests left in the line to be checked in by only one of the staff of the hotel. This consumed approx. 30 minutes due to which the services were not appreciated by the customers.

This shows the lack of personnel in the Town Hotel at the night which is the general time when most of the international tourists visit the place. Once the room where assigned Mr Kumar asked for the assistance with luggage and was told that the staff is not available. This means that hotel is lacking in managing the human resource effectively. The customer satisfaction and experience depends on the interaction with the employees majorly in the service companies and the lack of personnel will affect the services that are offered to the customers. The availability of the staff at the hotel could have improved the experience of Mr Kumar.

Physical Environment

The control of the management is one of the factors that can influence the service encounter. Mr Kumar reached the hotel two building away from lobby area with wife, a son who was fast asleep. The guest attempted to enter the room which and key unlocked the door and after the couples of attempts there was woman voice in the room. Later, it was identified that the room was double-booked and the woman was awakened from her sleep which occurred because of the lack of management by the staff of the hotel. Mr Kumar informed about the situation due to which the front desk manager offered a quick apology and the send the correct keys of the nearby room. This made the customers amazed that the front office manager was available but there was no assistant offered to the women at that moment. This shows that the manager of the Town Hotel is not supportive and corporative towards the customers and employees which affect the services offered by the hotel.

The management should control the system efficiently which is the way through which they can meet the expectations of the customers. The service encounter is also characterised by the three-cornered struggle for the control. Thus, the customer, the frontline service staff member and the firm’s management are all vying to control the encounter effectively. For instance, the process of guest checking into a hotel is one of the areas where the customer's experience and satisfaction might get affected. this was witnessed by the manager in the job when he witnessed that about 20 local guests were waiting to check in when two tour coaches with the additional 80 guests arrived into the lobby with the motive to check in. With the availability of the only two front desk staff, it was difficult to manage the guest and conduct their check-in process. Though, it was found that Front Desk staff had a look of terror in their eyes as they worked diligently to process the registration of the guest waiting for the check-in. The guest generally requires the quick assigning of rooms in the hotel with the minimum waiting time which leads to the improved experience and satisfaction of the customers in the hotel. In the case of Town Hotel, the guest was supposed to wait for the longer period of time due to which customers experience and satisfaction get affected.

The incorrect information is one of the major factors that influence the company service encounter. The guest Mr Kumar didn’t have a good experience because of the false representation at the airline. This was evident when Mr Kumar found that their connecting flight was delayed and they found the advertisement of town hotel for the check-in facility at the airport. Thus, Mr Kumar assumed that he can easily secure the room for the family while waiting for the luggage at the airport. He approached the employee at the hotel’s airport facility but over there he was told that the check-in services were not available at the time of the day.  

Management Control

This shows that there was incorrect information related to the hotel at the airport which affects the experience and satisfaction of customers. The lack of the correct information exploits the image of the company with the experience of the customers with the hotel. In this case, it has been found that the advertisement of the hotel was done appropriately and the hotel should have the tie-ups with the airport so that they both get the benefit of same.

2.In the service industry, the efforts for the service recovery are important as this has been found that it is impossible to ensure perfect and error-free service. This section of the report includes the service recovery efforts that have been undertaken by the manager. Moreover, the efforts have been undertaken by the manager to restore the services that are failed. The solutions which are suggested for the improving the customer service can easily be applied to the company with their operations in other branches. These solutions are given below: -

Several studies found that the ability of manager is to recover from a service failure favourably that affect the evaluation of the customers of service and organisation. The recovery of the service failure can be in the form of apology, compensation, refund or additional measures that can offer the delight to the customers and can contribute in improving the experience.

The selection and recruitment of the appropriate employees is not an easy task for the Town Hotel currently. This has been found by the manager need to recruit more employees for their organisation because inefficient staff can affect the service quality. The department that is supposedly related to this recovery is the Human resource department. The HR department of the Town Hall Nepal is required to hire more frontline and other employees for the effective services. The increase in the number of employees at the front line and for other services helps the company in managing the customers. Moreover, efficient use of the employees can be done in Nepal hotel for the effective control of the management. There is a need for a dedicated employee who can control the work. Service quality is managed by the employees who are hired with the motive to recovery the services.

The researcher has found that empowerment of employees will offer an appropriate level of decision-making abilities which is used by them in enhancing the decision making. The empowerment of employees in Town Hall in Nepal will offer the frontline staffs has the latitude in forming the decision making to provide the services that can meet the needs of the customers. This helps the employees in showing the ability of the frontline personnel to think of the feasibility options that can help in determining the satisfaction of the customers in the organisation. The manager of the Town Hotel Nepal can work with the motive to empower the frontline staff with the motive to use their own initiative to deal with the problems which are majorly faced by the customers. This empowerment contributes to dealing with the problems faced by the customers and leads to the improvement in the satisfaction and experience. This will help the hotel in creating the customer-focused work environment.

Incorrect Information

This has been found that the system for optimizing the service encounter is must so that managers need to ensure that there are good systems in the place to facilitate the offering of service to customers. Town Hotel Nepal is dealing with the issues of incorrect information and lack of effective management for which it has been found that the Mr Ashok manager should conduct the different analyses related to the service that they are offering. A blueprint offers a visual representation of the activities and the events that are essential to offer customers with the service. The blueprint of the company includes all the activities front and back of town hotel which helps the managers in managing the services in the area of every floor. The training should be provided to the customers so that they can consider the touch points in satisfying the needs of the customers. All these help in providing the correct details to the customers and also in dealing with the situation which arises due to any of the reasons.

3.According to Mr Kumar customer experience with the Town Hotel Nepal, Mr Ashok as the new person would handle the customer services effectively. This section includes a way to encounter the issues encountered by the general manager.  

Mr Ashok, a new person who ensures the customer's services in the hotel would have taken the required actions which might help in offering the delight customer experience with the satisfaction. The below given are few ways or action that might be taken by the customer service manager.

In the situation of long waiting lines for the customers check in service then Mr Ashok would have analysed number of visitors or guest that generally arrive in the hotel which will help them in finding the average guest at the hotel. This will help them in analysing the need of the frontline staff not only in the daytime but also in the night time when most of the foreign tourist check in the Town hotel. This will help them in placing the employees at the frontline desk so that they can manage the guest effectively by reducing their waiting time. Moreover, the employees in the Town Hall Nepal not only required at frontline but also required at the back office.

The effective customer service is possible with the effective use of the technology. The use of the upgraded technology by the manager would be a way through which they can check the vacant rooms and can manage their rooms accordingly. Thus, the issues related to the management control would be managed by Mr Ashok with the help of the effective use of technology.

Service Recovery

This has been faced by Mr Ashok that the presence of the manager at 11 pm was not effective for the employees to deal with the delight customer experience. This clearly shows the situation that reflects the lack of participation of manager. If in case, Mr Ashok would be there as manager then he would have involved in providing the delight services to their customers. The involvement of the managers in conducting the check-in services and in guiding the guest for the hotel which will make them personalised and would have enhanced their customer delight.

In the situation, this is evidence that the staff started feeling demotivated which exploit the atmosphere and spread the negativity. Thus, it is essential to form a positive culture which would be done by MR. Ashok if he would be present over there. The positive culture helps in generating the positive experience of the customers as the employees will be able to deliver the services in an effective manner.

The marketing of the service is one of the ways through which they service companies grab the attention of the customers. This is the fact that the incorrect information on the advertisement can affect the experience of the customers with the Hotel. Thus, the manager needs to form a dedicated team of marketing so that they can reflect the relative information which will provide accurate details to their guest. This will prevent in happening of any tough or difficult situation.

The issues which might be faced by Mr Ashok is related to the cross culture different. This was found that Ashok Kumar was transferred from India to Nepal with the motive to bring the improvement in customer’s service. Thus, the major issues can be related to the communication style, the way of making the decisions and many others. The major issues which might take place are that Nepal is considered a strong collectivistic society. Though, on the other hand, India is composed of a mixed society with the collectivistic and individual society. Thus, the general manager in Nepal will take the decision collectively which will take the time. Moreover, Mr Ashok generally takes the quick decisions that are the way to achieve customer satisfaction. Therefore, the differences in society according to the theory of hofstede’s can bring the change in views and in the management styles and ultimately leads to the effect on customer satisfaction and expectations.

Conclusion 

In the end, it can be concluded that the Town Hotel is dealing in the international market where they work with the motive to provide effective customer satisfaction and experience. The finding of the report reflects that different factors influence the services that are offered by the town hotel Nepal which is discussed. Along with this, the solution through which they can recover the services is also analysed that can be applied to bring the improvement. Moreover, the steps would be taken by Mr Ashok in a similar situation with the issues that might be faced with his general manager.

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