Pearson New International Edition International pcl tp indd 1

FRONT OFFICE AND THE GUESTS: PLANNING FOR QUALITY SERVICE
Determine Guests' Needs
Step 1
Step 2
Step 3
Step 4
Incorporate into Service Processes
Measure Defects (Guest Feedback)
Identify Service Improvements
FIGURE 5
Review of revision procedures for work processes.
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FRONT OFFICE SEMANTICS
Moment of truth:
Any (and every) time a guest has an opportunity to form an impression about the hos-
pitality organization. Moments of truth can be positive or negative and may, but do not have to, involve
the property’s staff members.
Wow factor:
Feeling guests have as they experience an unanticipated extra during their visit to a hos-
pitality operation.
Hoteliers want their guests to experience positive moments of truth. Some of
these occur through planning (e.g., an efficient guest registration process), but they
can also be spontaneous (e.g., an empowered front desk agent pleases a guest who has
just made an out-of-the-ordinary request). Unfortunately, negative moments of truth
occur frequently in many properties. Many of these can be anticipated or, at least,
should not be a surprise to an FOM. For example, complaints about long waits for
registration at the front desk should be expected if an inadequate number of employees
were scheduled for a work shift. Others are unanticipated, such as a guest’s reaction to
a front desk agent about a wake-up call received an hour later than requested.
Professional FOMs and their teams plan work processes designed to yield positive
guest experiences. Through an organized planning system, processes are in place for
guest reservations and registration, for luggage transport to rooms, for guest security
and safety, for guest check-out, and for other guest-property interactions. Nevertheless,
guests in such hotels will encounter (sometimes by chance), other moments of truth
that can be favorable or unfavorable. These moments will have a significant influence
on the guest’s total perception of the visit. Many of these moments involve employees
of departments other than the front office. What these staff members do (or do not do)
will influence guests’ perceptions as will the words and actions of front office employees.
All employees in all departments must work together to ensure that guests’ perceptions
about their visit to the property will be positive and will be repeated.
This chapter’s simple definition of quality (i.e, consistent delivery of products
and services according to expected standards) is difficult to attain. To be effective,
FOMs must ensure that service-focused procedures have been developed and are in
use to minimize the number of service failures. When failures do occur, FOMs try to
correct the problem while the guests are still at the hotel, and they learn from the
experiences to reduce future service failures.