Pearson New International Edition International pcl tp indd 1

Ensure that Guest-Friendly Processes Are Used
The initial section of this chapter discussed the importance of quality and described
how quality might best be ensured as work processes are developed. A later section
of the chapter emphasized the need to address guests’ wants, needs, and desires as
processes are developed and implemented. This need may seem obvious, however, other
factors such as the following too often supersede concerns about the guests as work
processes are designed and implemented: “How have we always done it?” “What is the
easiest, cheapest, or fastest?” “What will meet with the least employee resistance?”
Today’s FOMs do not wait until problems become significant before they are
addressed. “Yesterday,” one tactic to prioritize problems was to consider that the
squeaky wheel should get the grease. Today, processes should be evaluated continually,
and guests and the employees who serve them should be queried on an ongoing basis
about how to do things better. Each step taken on the quality journey allows the hotel
to more consistently meet guest needs and, as a result, to better attain its own finan-
cial and other goals.