Competencies Of Customer Service Manager

Discuss about the Competencies of Customer Service Manager.

 

 

The role of a Customer Service manager of an International hotel is to support the hotel’s strategic policies and to ensure that the customers of the hotel are content with their experience. Another role of a customer service manager is to introduce innovative improvisation regarding the development of the organization. Apart from that a customer service manager has to maintain a gradual development of the relation between internal and external stakeholders and quality assurance in order to develop a positive reputation of the organization. Currently, for this particular hotel, the customer service manager has to supervise 11 employees and has to report to the Director of the Property and Services for any issues (Zervas, Proserpio and Byers, 2014).

For a hotel to climb up the ladder of success the manager has to make sure that the six key indicators of performance is maintained and he or she has to supervise the employees accordingly. In this part of this article, the 6 key indicators of performance are shared.

1. The manager has to ensure that the online rating of their organization is good to maintain the productivity of the organization.
2. The manager has to make sure that the hotel at the peak season is at least 80 % occupied and at the lean seasons, the customers occupy minimum 60%.
3. The daily average price paid has to be fixed in an considerate level and the customer service manager has to ensure that the minimum daily average rate is price is achieved by the employees.
4. The customer service manager has also to ensure that the minimum revenue per available room is generated at the end of the month. This is a very important tool to measure the performance of the organization. If the daily revenue per room that is fixed is not achieved then it might be a serious matter of concern.
5. The most important task of the customer service manager is to ensure that the customers are satisfied with their stay and the service they received from the employees of the hotel. It can be said that if the customers are discontent with the services they got from the staffs of the hotel, they would give a bad review and that can potentially harm the profitability of the organization. It is a matter of fact that word of mouth is a very strong medium of publicity, and if a wrong impression of the hotel is generated once, it can potentially destroy the future prospects of that particular organization.
6. Another important key performance indicator of a hotel is the return on investment regarding the expenses related to the advertising. Calculating the return on the investments made for the advertising purposes can surely be measured to assess the profitability of the organization. The manager has to ensure that the amount the organization is paying

In this part of this article, it is shown that the manager’s goals have to be aligned with the targets of the organization in order to attain the best results. In this particular case, it is seen that the main targets of the management of the hotel is to ensure the number of the properties by at least 15 % within 5 economic years, along with that to maintain high quality services for the customers. The management of this particular hotel also aims to maintain a high retention level within the organization and make sure that all the facilities are of world class stature (Krasnoperova et al., 2016).

To achieve the targets made by the core management of the organization, the customer service manager has to take certain initiatives and to ensure that all the targets are met; he has to supervise the activities of the employees under him by paying more attention. In order to achieve the targets made by t organization, the customer service manager has to stress on the training and developmental issues more and has to proactively enhance the communication within the workforce in order to maintain the best quality services for the customers. Apart from that, the manager has to make sure that they have to generate the revenue in an amount so that the organization can expand its properties by 15% within coming five economic years (Molina-Azorín et al., 2015).

Key goals	Key activities	Ways to measure progress	Link with organizational targets
To extend the properties by 15%	Stressing on the quality of the services	Customer review	Customer reviews can attract more customer and ensure more profitability
World class facilities	Focus on training and development	Customer satisfaction	Customer reviews
Getting fair customer reviews	Stressing on training and development	Satisfaction of the visitors	Good reputation of the organization

To maintain the development of the organization, the customer service manager has to stress more on the training and development issues so that the employees have no issues regarding understanding their roles in the organization. There should be a healthy level of communication within the organization to ensure the productivity. The management of the organizations must ensure the fact that the general workforce is motivated. If the workforce is motivated enough, then the management would be able to expect much more production from the employees. The management has o ensure the proper work safety management in order to keep the workforce content about their experience in the organization. By these initiatives, the workers would know that the management does care for them and that could potentially enhance their motivation to work. Apart from that the management has to ensure that there are some fun activities for the workers so that they can enjoy their stay at the organization.  For this matter, the customer service manager has to have a strong hold on the intrapersonal skills so that he can motivate the workforce to take up more tasks and complete theme with same zeal and accuracy (Leung, Bai, and Stahura, 2015).

The knowledge required to function as a customer care manager of International Hotel Group, Australia, are legal knowledge, ethical knowledge, knowledge about the goals of the company and environmental knowledge(Saleem and Raja, 2014). I can point out that I have rich knowledge in all these areas due to my professional experience of working in Australia for several years. I have rich knowledge about the laws, environmental conditions like political conditions and ethical situation in the country’s work places (N. Torres and Kline, 2013). I am well versed with OHS and laws like Safe Work Act. The required skills for the post of customer service manager are good communication skills and negotiability with stakeholders. The manager should be knowledgeable about interpretation and using legal documents. He should be able to plan and manage multiple projects simultaneously within a fixed schedule. He should be an expert in diversity management and culturally intelligent.  I can point out upon reflecting on my skills that I posses all of them. I have excellent communications skills and can communicate with a wide array of stakeholders like customers, government, employees and shareholders (Li, Ye and Law, 2013). I have years of experience of dealing with customers both business customers and individual customers. My work often required me to represent my employer before the customers to sell products. I often had to enter into contracts with the third party firms to sell and market the products of the company. That has given me understanding of a wide range of legal documents. I am able to plan and manage multiple projects of diverse natures simultaneously for different customers and deliver them within time. Upon reflecting on my diversity management skills, I can point out that I can manage a team consisting of subordinates from different cultural background.

I undertook several methods to assess  my professional competency. I, first over achieved the target performance which proved my competency. Second, I asked my senior managers to judge me on my performance and areas like leadership qualities, managerial competencies, capability of managing multiple projects simultaneously and customer query handling capability. Third, I asked my subordinates to rate me on my leadership qualities and their opinions about me as their manager. Fourth, I also seek feedbacks from my peers. I accept criticisms and try to work on them. I undertook these processes to judge professional competencies of mine.

I sought feedback about the professional competencies of mine from my assessor and classmate. The process of seeking feedback about my professional competencies from my professor consisted of a formal interview. I adopted the process of seeking feedback about my professional expertise from my friend through informal conversations.

I received feedback about my professional expertise from my professor by giving an interview. My friend gave a lot of response about my professional strengths and weaknesses through the informal conversations.

The professor and the friend told me about the professional expertise of mine in their opinion. They told me about my strengths and weaknesses which I them analysed. The professor told me that I have a strong communication skill and can communicate well with a diverse range of stakeholders. He told me that I have good knowledge about their needs and am efficient in gaining their support in projects. Among the weaknesses he told, that I should encourage more participation in the team while forming strategies. My friend analysed that though I am good in communicating, I must improve my diversity management skills. He also pointed out that I am a good leader but require to gain participation of the junior team members as well.

I applied the feedback of the professor and the classmate in my professional development plan. I am communicating with the junior employees of my team to gain their participation in the team meetings. I am gaining knowledge about different cultures to improve my diversity management skills.

Professional Development Plan:

Timeframe	Description of opportunity/training	Skills/competency to develop
1 week	Communication training	Better communication skills
1 month	Technological training	Technological skills
6 months	Leadership opportunity	Leadership skills
3 months	Cultural courses	Diversity management
Networking activities
Timeframe	Description of networking activities	Opportunity/professional advantage
1 month	Conferences with peer hotel groups	Opportunity to gain indepth knowledge about hotel industry in Australia
1 week	Workshop with foreign hotel groups	Knowledge about emerging market and opportunity to enter new markets
1 month	Suppliers and distributor meet	Knowledge about various types of raw materials, their rates and emerging market trends.

I spoke to my peers, superiors and juniors to evaluate and select development opportunities. I attended conferences and meetings with customer care managers of other Australian hotel groups. I also maintain continuous communication with the overseas international hotel groups. These networking activities help me to gain knowledge about the hotel industry, its future trends and profitability. I also gained knowledge about changing customer preferences. I can evaluate that these  networking opportunities have helped me to bring about improvement in my professional competences. The learning styles I used to evaluate my professional development plan were of two types, direct and indirect. The direct methods of gaining knowledge consisted of interviews and conferences. The indirect methods consisted of readings of books and articles of leadership and technology.

I apply the newly acquired communication skills to communicate with my seniors and juniors. I also use it to communicate it with stakeholders like governments, customers, shareholders, employees and directors and gain approvals for new projects.  I use my leadership and diversity management skills to lead my team. I encourage the newly hired team members to participate actively in the strategy making activities.

The new skills would allow me to gain competitive advantage both within and outside International Hotel Group. I have strengthened my technological skills which would allow me to manage bigger mass of data compared to other managers. I have better leadership skills and taken training on it. Thus, I would be able to motivate my juniors more actively compared to peer and senior managers. As a results, juniors working under me would perform better which would contribute towards high performances of the team. This high performance of my team members would ultimately enable me to get positive appraisals and promotions.

The examples of networking activities undertaken by me to enhance my knowledge and skills are conferences, trainings and workshops. These conferences have enriched my knowledge about the hotel industry in Australia. It also enhanced my knowledge about the emerging markets of Asia and South America. These conversations also generated new business ideas of expanding into these emerging market and cater to the needs of a diverse groups of customers.

References:

Benavides-Velasco, C.A., Quintana-García, C. and Marchante-Lara, M., 2014. Total quality management, corporate social responsibility and performance in the hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 41, pp.77-87.

Cheng, B.L. and Rashid, M.Z.A., 2013. Service Quality and the Mediating Effect of Corporate Image on the Relationship between Customer Satisfaction and Customer Loyalty in the Malaysian Hotel Industry. Gadjah Mada International Journal of Business, 15(2).

Giovanis, A.N., Zondiros, D. and Tomaras, P., 2014. The antecedents of customer loyalty for broadband services: The role of service quality, emotional satisfaction and corporate image. Procedia-Social and Behavioral Sciences, 148, pp.236-244.

Kim, M., Vogt, C.A. and Knutson, B.J., 2015. Relationships among customer satisfaction, delight, and loyalty in the hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 39(2), pp.170-197.

Krasnoperova, V., Shchetkina, A., Martyn, D., Gizbrekht, E. and Mlynar, E., 2016. THE role of the hotel industry in the world economy. ????????? ? ??????, (12-1), pp.16-19.

Leung, X.Y., Bai, B. and Stahura, K.A., 2015. The marketing effectiveness of social media in the hotel industry: A comparison of Facebook and Twitter. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 39(2), pp.147-169.

Li, H., Ye, Q. and Law, R., 2013. Determinants of customer satisfaction in the hotel industry: an application of online review analysis. Asia Pacific Journal of Tourism Research, 18(7), pp.784-802.

Liat, C.B., Mansori, S. and Huei, C.T., 2014. The associations between service quality, corporate image, customer satisfaction, and loyalty: Evidence from the Malaysian hotel industry. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 23(3), pp.314-326.

Molina-Azorín, J.F., Tarí, J.J., Pereira-Moliner, J., López-Gamero, M.D. and Pertusa-Ortega, E.M., 2015. The effects of quality and environmental management on competitive advantage: A mixed methods study in the hotel industry. Tourism Management, 50, pp.41-54.

Torres, E. and Kline, S., 2013. From customer satisfaction to customer delight: Creating a new standard of service for the hotel industry. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 25(5), pp.642-659.

Saleem, H. and Raja, N.S., 2014. The impact of service quality on customer satisfaction, customer loyalty and brand image: Evidence from hotel industry of Pakistan. Middle-East Journal of Scientific Research, 19(5), pp.706-711.

Wu, H.C., 2014. The effects of customer satisfaction, perceived value, corporate image and service quality on behavioral intentions in gaming establishments. Asia Pacific Journal of Marketing and Logistics, 26(4), pp.540-565.

Zervas, G., Proserpio, D. and Byers, J.W., 2014. The rise of the sharing economy: Estimating the impact of Airbnb on the hotel industry. Journal of Marketing Research.