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By
: Heng Sopheap (National Institute of Management), Illustration
by : Sao Pagnarith.
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The Spirit
of Hospitality
Service falls outside the limits of the guest's
expectation that it is deemed satisfactory or unsatisfactory.
A Disappointing Experience.
In an article published in The Cornell Hotel and
Restaurant Administration Quarterly. Bonnie J. Knutson,
a faculty member at the School of Hotel, Restaurant,
and Institutional Management at Michigan State University,
stresses how meeting or exceeding guest expectation
is paramount in generating guest satisfaction. Following
is Knutson's personal account of how not to serve
a guest. Having spent the morning giving a seminar
on this very topic of customer satisfaction, I was
tired, hungry, and on a tight time schedule. So
I stopped at a nearby deli-type restaurant that
feature "New York Dogs." When I saw both
chili and hot dogs on the menu, I know |
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exactly what I
wanted-no, what I needed-for lunch: a nice, long juicy
coney dog covered with chili and onions. I love coney
dogs.
Stepping up to the counter, I was greeted by a friendly
order taker. The conversation went something like this:
Order Taker: "Hi, can I help you?"
Me: "Yes. I'd like a coney dog and black coffee."
Order Taker (Looking perplexed): "We don't have coney
dogs."
Me: " I know they're not on the menu. Just put some
chili and onion on your hot dog, and we will call it a
coney dog."
Order Taker: "But, ma'am, we don't have coney dogs."
Me (determined): "You have hot dogs, don't you?"
Order Taker: "Yes."
Me: "You have chili, don't you?"
Order Taker: "Yes."
Me: (beaming): "Then there's no problem, just put
some chili on the hot dog and some onions on the chili,
and I'll have my coney dog."
Order Taker: "But we do not have coney dogs."
You get the picture. The conversation went on in this
vein for another three minutes before I learned that the
reason she couldn't sell me a coney dog was that she didn't
know what to charge me. It wasn't in the manual, and company
policy didn't give anyone at the unit level the authority
to create a menu item or change a price. I didn't care.
All I wanted was a coney dog.
Obviously, this encounter fell outside the guest's expectation.
And not meeting guest expectations about service often
ruins the desired result -- a repeat customer. |
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Suite
B8, Regency Square, InterContinental Hotel, 294 Mao Tse Toung
Boulevard,
Phnom Penh, Kingdom of Cambodia.
Tel: (855) 23 213 133 Fax: (855) 23 213 033
E-mail:
editor@leisurecambodia.com |
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