He customer is always right: How to handle hotel customer complaints?

Question

·HE CUSTOMER IS ALWAYS RIGHT: HOW TO HANDLE HOTEL CUSTOMER COMPLAINTS

·Food Delay.
·Food is spoiled
·Beverages (dirty glass/ bad smell) dirty soda/ Beer / flys in
the glass
·Order is written wrong
· Misunderstanding with guest
·Guest is wrong /saying lies
· lying about reservation
· Restaurant bussy / more walk in customers waiting for seatings/ some half them regular customers
·guest is taken 6 drinks but saying no I am taken only 2(if regular guest )
· Supose waiter made mistake
· Waiter add more money in the guest bill/ over charged /
· Less chadged bills
·Bills is delay/ power cut or printer problem/ wrong entry
· pending bills
· The particular food or drinks is not available
· beacuse morning banquet fucnctions evening functions
setups delay
·Restaurant closing hours if new guest / regular guest comes ,
·Restaurant time is over but till guest is sitting in the resturant
·After Heavy sale guest

Answer 1

Hi Anandbabu
Effectively handling complaints in Hotel industry is important, but it seems to be particularly critical in the hotel industry. Research from as early as 1985 suggests that when people have had a bad experience in a hotel and their complaint is not handled effectively, seventy-five percent will tell someone else. In fact, they'll tell twelve other people.

Here's what the research specifically reveals about hotel complaints:

Men will complain more about service failures than women. And this is the case even when gender differences are factored into who stays in the hotel.
By and large people complain more about equipment failures (room too noisy, bed not comfortable, toilet doesn't work) than they do about personal service failures (bell man took too much time coming to the room, front desk clerk was rude). This doesn't necessarily mean that the majority of the problems that guests face are about equipment failures. It just means they are more likely to complain about equipment failures.
Hotel guests tend to be less satisfied with the way that personal service failures are handled than the way that equipment failures are fixed.

"When" a customer complains makes a big difference in terms of satisfaction. If a customer complains during the check-in process, the way the event is handled by the hotel generally doesn't result in greater satisfaction. The way hotels frequently fix complaints during the check-in process is to upgrade the customer to a nicer room. This may suggest that they are trying to "buy the customer" off, and this may not be the best way to satisfy customers. This means that hoteliers need to focus on solving the kinds of complaints guests have before and when checking in. These probably include long lines at the check-in counters, poorly handled luggage issues, hotel transportation systems, reservations issues, etc.

Research about complaints in hotels also suggests that when hotels track complaints, they tend to indicate the nature of the complaint, and what was done to satisfy the customer. But rarely do hotels attempt to quantify the level of customer happiness or satisfaction with the complaint resolution. This strikes us as crucial, because this will undoubtedly determine whether the guest will return again. And if staff aren't tracking guest reactions, they probably aren't paying much attention to them. They are more likely focusing on the issue, rather than the guest.

We recommend that hotels look carefully at the personal side of their service. We have long maintained that hotels, in particular, will find it difficult to create perfect experiences for all their guests. As a result, hotels need to work very hard at creating socially pleasant situations for their guests as the "equipment" side of a hotel isn't so noticeable when people are having a good time. This is not to say that a certain standard don't need to be in place.
It does suggest, however, that loyalty with hotel guests is created by the personal feelings that they share with hotel staff. We know a top notch hotelier who has served as a general manager for some of the best hotels in the world. He's very clear when he says, "Ninety-five percent of our service failures are human related. Could our beds be better? Perhaps, though they are darn good," he says. "The loyalty with our guests and also the failure with our guests, however, is almost always people related."

Maintaining Superior Customer Service During Periods of Peak Demand
(byJanelle M. Barlow and Dianna Maul)

Every industry faces peak-volume periods—times when employees tend to get overworked and stressed out, when customers may become upset and turn elsewhere. How well do you handle your periods of peak demand? How would your customers and employees answer that question? This article offers 13 strategies to help you better manage to make the most of your peak challenges.
The flashing signal board indicates your customers are waiting in a telephone queue over 15 minutes long. And every single member of your team has a call-back list that rides like a monkey on their already burdened shoulders. By the time your customer service team is able to pick up a waiting call, many of the customers are already frustrated by the long wait they've endured. Welcome to your peak-demand period!

Dealing With Demand
Every industry has its peak-volume times—in some cases on the telephone, in others in person. For some companies, this period stretches over several months. For others, it ebbs and flows depending on marketing campaigns, public relations events, and the vagaries of the marketplace.

Airlines face peak volumes during the summer months, over the big year-end holiday season, in lesser holiday periods, and during spring break. Call centers incur high volumes during billing cycles, promotions for new products, or crisis situations. Hotels also experience peak traffic: their reservations staff can be tested preceding conventions, vacation periods, and special events, such as the Olympics or a national political convention.

One thing is for certain. Practically every business faces the impact of high volume at one time or another. Many companies hire additional staff for these times, with little opportunity to train this temporary staff, particularly in the "soft skills" side of customer service. You can give your new hires a script to read when they answer the phone and teach them how to place an order, answer simple customer queries, or make a reservation, but there's little time to train them in how best to relate to a customer. Likewise, your permanent staff may be inadequately trained to cope with the pressures of this peak-volume period. And, no matter what their training and experience may be, many of their relationship skills are sorely tested under the demands of intense and extra work.

Most jobs in the American market today are service-related—76% of them to be exact. Yet fewer than 10% of these service staff have received formal training in how to deliver quality service. Workers in the retail industry, for example, who spend an enormous amount of time with customers, receive an average of seven hours of training, the lowest of 14 industries. Many companies feel forced to hire just about anybody to get a "warm body" in place. Most front-line staff do their best, but often that's not good enough, particularly if they're young and inexperienced.
Strategies for Surviving the Peaks
We suggest a baker's dozen (13) strategies you can use to better manage these periods. You may already be using some of these approaches; others may be new for you. We encourage you to continue with the approaches you're already using and experiment with two or three of the ones you haven't yet tried. Our experience shows us that each strategy can have a dramatic impact on staff attitudes and performance. When combined, they're even more powerful.

1. Visible Management. At a time when companies are asking staff to go the extra mile, managers and supervisors have to be willing to do this as well. This is the time for managers to get out of their offices and appear on the front line. If managers "carry water" for their customer service staff, this supports those workers and underscores the value of the work they do.

In many organizations, managers become invisible during high-volume periods. Remember: managers are coaches, mentors, and cheerleaders, so staff under pressure need them to be visible. Even if managers merely listen to staff vent, give them a pat on the back for a job well done, or are available for answering questions, staff will not forget these validating efforts.

One airline blocked out all vacations for managers over the year-end holiday period—as they had also done for front-line employees. This same airline required all managers, at both senior and mid levels, to work at specific airport locations or to get on the phones and help with reservations—in short, to get down in the trenches with their staff. The managers were trained to assist in any way they could. Rather than sitting in their offices, the managers handled excess baggage, helped travelers board the aircraft, and greeted travelers as they arrived at their destinations.

These behaviors created a win/win feeling inside this airline. Employees felt supported. Managers felt the value of what they were doing from the feedback of their employees. Customers raved about the quality service they received during a period that most travelers describe as the toughest time to be flying.

At the reservations center, where the volume of calls doubled over the holiday season, managers helped on the phones or wandered among their staff, helping in whatever way they could. Three times a day the management team went through the reservations center with gourmet coffee carts, cookies, and ice cream sundaes. Try it: it really works—especially those ice cream sundaes.

2. Prepare People for What They Are About to Face. Let your staff know they're approaching a high-volume period. Staff will have an easier time coping with extraordinary demands if they know what's coming. Help your staff take on the work ahead of them as a challenge, rather than as a burden. In your meetings, talk about the high-demand period before it starts. Your staff shouldn't have to face any surprises. Our experience is that if staff know they're facing greater pressures, they later report that it wasn't as bad as they thought it would be—once they make it through the period.

Here are some suggestions you can use in your meetings to prepare your staff:

► Alert them to the heightened emotional state of their customers. Get them to look at this increased energy from the customers' point of view. Remember: your customers are also pressured for time, especially during the holiday season.

► Ask them about experiences they've had as customers when dealing with other companies during peak-volume periods. How were they treated? What did they like? What didn't they like?

► Be available to answer all their questions. Even if they don't have any at the moment, knowing you're available to them will make a big difference.

► Teach them simple stress management techniques. For example, encourage them to take a deep breath of air after every telephone call. Remind them to stretch their shoulders and hands. Encourage them to drink lots of water. It's very easy to get dehydrated while talking a lot.

► Encourage them to be friendly and use humor when appropriate with stressed customers. You might develop lines for them to use, such as "Congratulations—you got through at our highest-demand time. The customer service angels must really like you."

► Talk about how to handle customers when they are upset. This topic is another book in itself, but the most important thing is to show genuine concern.

► Let your staff know how important this period is for the economic success of your company. This is the time when your organization can prove itself to its highest volume of customers and keep them coming back.

3. Set Realistic Goals. Many organizations set measurable standards for determining whether they are delivering quality service. For example, they may set the demanding standard that all calls must be answered within 20 seconds. During peak periods, this goal may need to be adjusted to reflect the reality of higher volumes.

There's nothing worse than to feel defeated before you even start. And if in the early days of your peak volume, they fail to meet any of your performance standards, your staff may feel like a football team that's down by two touchdowns just five minutes into the game. Unfortunately, this feeling is not uncommon among employees who are trying to achieve unattainable goals. This feeling, in turn, gets communicated to the customer in subtle ways through, for example, a depressed tone of voice. When we're honest with both our customers and employees, we set up realistic expectations and maintain a winning edge.

4. Practice Ongoing Coaching. Above all, don't stop your coaching efforts, even in your busy periods. You may need to reduce the amount of time you spend on coaching, but don't eliminate coaching altogether. That sends the wrong signal about continuous quality improvement. And besides, what better time to coach your staff than while they're in the midst of the action? You can be sure that football coaches don't stop coaching while the team is playing—even in the Super Bowl.

You may need to work with small groups of people at a time, so the remaining phone personnel aren't overwhelmed. And keep your coaching sessions short, but regular. One effective way to do this, especially with staff who are on the phones, is to have them listen to tape-recorded telephone calls of staff talking with customers. (It may be better not to use calls involving current staff, to avoid embarrassing anybody.)

Give your staff the opportunity to listen to good examples of customer service. Let them also hear some bad examples, especially calls where the staff person sounded short, arrogant, or irritated with customers. Many call center staff have no idea how they sound on the phone. Encourage your staff to evaluate the calls along the standards that are important to you. For example:

• Were we helpful?
• Did we sound rushed?
• Did we suggest additional products for sale to the customer?
• How was the upset customer handled?

Choose the standards of behavior you wish to promote, underscore them, and point out how an interaction could have been handled better.

5. Employee Rewards and Recognition. Show your staff you care and that you value their extra efforts during these critical periods. When the peak period has subsided, have a celebration party and sincerely thank them for their support. Let them know you're planning a celebration, so they can look forward to it. If it's not possible to host this kind of party, give each employee a sincere thank-you letter with a small gift or token of your appreciation. You can bet they'll deliver for you again in the next crunch period.

A celebration party at the end of the peak period is exciting, but that shouldn't stop you from holding "mini" celebrations during the heavy time. Here are some types of things you can celebrate:

► Volume of response. Bring attention to record-setting events. In the TMI office when we're sending out huge volumes of Time Manager materials over our busy season, we play a special celebration song on a tape recorder when the package volume reaches a certain level or when new records have been set.

► "Quarter way," "halfway," and "almost there" marks. If you know how long your peak period runs, celebrate milestones when you reach them. You can do this with small giveaways, such as candy kisses or specially engraved pencils ("We're halfway there!").

► Numbers of days with no absenteeism, no mistakes, or whatever quality you would like to emphasize.

6. Allow Small Breaks After Dealing With Upset Customers. Some customers are truly demanding, even vicious in their attacks on your staff. Allow your staff to take a two- or three-minute "walking" break after such an encounter. Encourage them to get up and move around, get a drink of water, make some noise, and let go of that conversation. Develop a ritual for them to perform after a tough call. Teach them to not let the residue of a negative conversation affect their next telephone call or other interaction.

It's unrealistic to expect young people (as are many call center staff) to deal with high degrees of negativity and then behave as if nothing has happened. These small breaks will reduce staff turnover by keeping your staff happier—and will also help them treat your customers better.

7. Encourage Appropriate Customer Descriptions. In short, don't call your customers names—and we don't mean just to their faces. Most staff are sophisticated enough to know they should never call customers names—directly. However, almost every organization we've worked with allows name- calling to go on behind the customers' backs. These names include "turkey," "idiot," "dimwit," and many others that we don't feel comfortable repeating here. But everybody reading this article knows what they are. Some companies even have special code names for their difficult customers.

Let your staff know this name-calling will not be tolerated. Remind them that your organization doesn't exist without these customers. They are the reason you're in business, and they may be behaving the way they are for some pretty legitimate reasons. Who knows? In their situation, you might be behaving even worse. Perhaps your customers were disconnected three times in a row. Perhaps they've waited 20 minutes when they thought it would be 10, so it's affected their entire day's schedule. We really have no idea why certain people are in the mental state they're displaying to us.

In the TMI office we make it a practice to never call our customers names. The worst thing we will ever say—even after a vicious attack by a customer—is "That was a challenging telephone call." It helps to create a spirit in our office that values our customers—which we do!

If you allow your staff to describe your customers in negative terms, you encourage a mood suggesting we are in a battle with our customers. And the more people call their customers negative names, the worse this battle gets. Furthermore, we believe that customers—at some level—know they're being treated disrespectfully.

8. Pep Talks From Experienced Staff. Your experienced workers can become cheerleaders for your front-line customer response staff. They've "been there, done that." They can relate to specific situations or the stress new hires are dealing with and can share their observations in ways that will be more meaningful, precisely because of their previous hands-on experience.

As a bonus, your experienced staff will have a greater feeling of being needed and valued, a feeling that their tenure means something. Your new staff will be motivated and feel they are part of a larger effort.

9. Allow for "Steam Blowers." Let's face it. Everyone needs to vent from time to time, to blow off some steam. Allow your staff the opportunity to talk about their frustrations, their stress, and the reasons for it.

The key to managing steam blowers is to keep the negativity enclosed, within limits. If everyone is constantly venting, no work will ever get done and staff can easily talk themselves into a negative mood. But periodic interludes for discussions about stress and the pressure of work are a real gift for your staff.

Hold an open forum to discuss customer interactions. Ask each member of your staff to describe situations that were particularly difficult for him or her to handle, particular customer behaviors that were annoying. Ask how others would have managed these kinds of situations or customers. Let your staff share with each other communication strategies that helped them manage difficult interactions. If you manage the negativity, it will be less likely to spread during work hours into the hallways and the lunch room.

10. Share Staff Successes. There isn't a better feeling in the world than when you know you've turned a situation around with a customer or handled a frustration so well it never escalated. Staff need to talk about their wins as well as their frustrations.

This type of sharing can create a strong sense of commitment toward the delivery of quality, as well as allow people the chance to toot their own horns. This feeling can become contagious, especially when staff realize that it's a lot more fun to have these positive experiences rather than negative ones. So, staff become inspired to create more and more of these successes.

If a customer sends a warm thank-you letter, enlarge it and post it in a prominent place. Broadcast it in as many ways as possible. If you get a lot of these letters, start your morning off by reading one of them. If you receive such a letter by fax in the middle of the day, take a moment and read it during the lunch period, if your staff eat together in a lunch room. All too often we only give people bad news, when a little good news goes a long way toward recommitting attitudes.

11. Career Path Planning. Managers need to describe to new hires the genuine parameters of the work they will be doing. Too often, after they've been on the job for only a short time, new employees at call centers will say, "This isn't at all what I expected. No one told me I was going to have to do this." During the hiring interview, let potential staff know the challenges of the position—especially those that will come during the peak-volume periods. Let them also know that your managerial staff will support them in their work.

Recent studies show that many new hires arrive at work with low or at least shaky self-confidence. You can help your new employees by being honest and direct about what they may face, so the challenges don't further undermine their confidence. We're asking mostly young, inexperienced people to do difficult jobs, and we owe it to them to make sure they grow from this test, rather than being demeaned or shaken by it.

Sell the job as a critical business skill that will create great value to them in their career path. If you speak openly and honestly when hiring, your new hires are more likely to stick it out during the tough times and build a long-term career with your organization. Many people take jobs in call centers primarily because they see this job as a way into your company, perhaps the best way to get into another position. Over the years, such a person may be a genuine asset to your organization, and you do not want to lose him or her because you did not describe realistically what that first position would involve.

12. Keep Your Staff as Well Informed as Your Customers. Nothing is more frustrating to customers than to reach someone on the phone who hasn't been informed of a special sale the company is advertising in newspapers or on television. Staff are equally embarrassed to be asked about something that is known to everybody in the world but them.

Teach your staff how to handle situations when the customer asks about something that they don't know about. Provide them with responses they can use, such as "Gosh. That sounds wonderful. Thank you for bringing that to my attention. I'm afraid I don't know too much about that. But I can get the information I need to assist you."

Encourage your staff to never pretend they know about something when they don't. Also, coach your staff to not treat customers with suspicion if they're better informed than the service provider. That sometimes happens—and everyone needs to be gracious in those uncomfortable situations.

13. Manage Your Feedback. Use what you learn in your peak-volume period to ensure that your next high-volume time runs even more smoothly. Gather your staff together and ask them what they learned. You'll learn from them, you'll make them feel more valued, and they'll learn from the process as well. Too many times, we have a wealth of experience we never fully use.

After you've done your analysis, summarize the main learning points into a plan for the next busy season. You can post these on the wall, or bring them out for the next high-demand period, so you continue your improvement.

So, there's your baker's dozen!

Any one of these strategies can help you greatly improve customer service during peak-volume periods. Combining several can create an exponential effect that is truly staggering. The key is to deliberately prepare for what you want to achieve. Maintaining superior customer service during periods of high volume demands advance preparation and continuous nurturing. The results are well worth it in terms of happier staff, satisfied customers, and regenerated managers!

Training: Customer Service for Hotel Staff (3 days)

Training Objectives

• understand and apply key concepts in customer service
• learn how to motivate colleagues/staff to new performance heights
• manage customer complaints more effectively
• improve communications with employees/colleagues/guests
• understand that internal customer service is just as critical as external customer service
• prioritize and focus on the top expectations of customers
• gain customer trust and rapport
• create customer loyalty

Who can benefit

• customer service representatives, inside sales reps, receptionists, etc.
• junior management/senior management who want to focus, upgrade or expand their skill
base
• managers, prospective managers, and any other employees seeking advanced
competency in the area of customer care

Prerequisites

• intermediate/upper intermediate English skills

Course Outline: Customer Service for Hotel Staff (3 days)

• the three "P"s: positive, personal and perceptive
• under promise, over deliver
• customer retention / customer loyalty
• dealing with complaints
• customer satisfaction/dissatisfaction measurement
• improving customer relationships
• delivering satisfaction and profit
• the nature of customer satisfaction
• selling services
• effective business communication
• proactive customer service
• staff retention and motivation
• customer service is an attitude
• listening skills
• conflict resolution
• customer relation management
• case studies
gs

Answer 2

Just be polite and direct with the customers, and about 50% honest. (You don't need to be honest about things that would embarass your company-make up something inocuous and plausible.) Do not let a customer take advantage of you, or rip you off. If someone lies about how many drinks they've had, they're either a jerk or they're too drunk to remember. Don't let it go, though-you could lose your job! If you need to, explain to them-"hey, I'd like to give you your drinks for free, but I would lose my job! Unless you have a better job offer for me, I'm going to have to charge you!" Make a bit of a joke about it, so the customer feels guilty about ripping you off, but isn't embarassed.

If the waiter (or you) make a mistake, blame someone else. It's always better to blame someone who the customer can't see, than the person with whom the customer is dealing. Unless it is something small. Then, just say, "I'm sorry, I messed up your order. I will fix it right away-can I offer you a free drink/appetizer?" Sometimes, honesty can be a good thing. You need to judge each situation, though.

If there is something wrong that is beyond your control, like being out of stock, or the banquet staff is causing a delay, explain the situation, act sympathetic, and assure the customer that your supervisor will hear about the problem-and it won't happen again!

Answer 3

Thanks Dear!

Your Blog Will Help a lot. But i dont think that every customer is always right and just for the sake of good feedback for our Hotel we should give them something complimentory. What i think that is slightly differ. For those kind of guest we have to follow the othre way so that they can understand that by complaining they can get discount or something. If you are providing them to make them feel good for no reason then i think you have no how to deal with these kind of guest. In some cases guest just try to complaint to get some free things. In that situation Instead of giving something comp. we have to realize the guest that we are not the fools here and just try make them feel like they are wrong when they are !! Else After your hotel there intention will be more likely to get more discount or complimentory things for nothing.

Answer 4

well 99% of those problems are in house and deal with management not doing their jobs. Most of those issues are in training and employee evaluations. If something is not available then it is the managers job to ensure that inventory is correctly accounted for and orders are placed. The only thing I saw in that list that was beyond your control was food delay, other than that its an in house issue. Customers don't care about your problems and issues. they don't care how busy it is or that you didn't train your servers properly or that you are under staffed, or this or that took longer than you planned for. THEY DON'T CARE. That is not their concern its yours. If you have these problems consistently then you need to retrain not only yourself but your entire staff as well.

Answer 5

Hey you are in a hotel, the guest change overnight, the heck with the customer, kick their butts out of your place for complaining, if they don't like it go somewhere else, if they are drunk call the cops, make a scene, if they complain about the bill call them cheapskates, if they don't like the food or it is not cooked to their liking, send them to the kitchen and give them an apron and a spatula, no reservation (wait your turn buddy), have to wait 10 minutes for a table, tough sh-t, the food is worth it. It is time for waiters/waitresses/cooks etc., to stand up for their rights, I love the small independent places that have the sign that says "management has the right to refuse service to anyone". that is my kind of joint.

Answer 6

you handle it this way,

What can I do for you to make your stay here at this hotel better?
I would like to send a bottle of our best champagne to your suite.
"Have you seen our awesome pool and jacuzzi?"
"There are so many cool bars and clubs downtown just waiting for you!"
"Or, are you just a bitcher, lol?"

Answer 7

if the guest is the guest is still sitting then u have to wait till he leaves or ask him politely to leave as the restaurant is closed for the day

if particular dish not available ask him to change his dish as quickly as possible since delay may irritate the guest