Internal and External Customer Service

The chain of Ibis Hotels is a major brand which is under the control of Accor Hotels. The 1000^th hotel of Ibis Group was established in the year 2014. The report will be based on the analysis of Ibis Hotels and the ways by which customer service based activities that are conducted by the organization. The ways that are used by Ibis Hotel to understand the needs and desires of the customers will also be analysed in the report. The discussion will be further based on different techniques that are used by the hotel to analyse the levels of effectiveness of the customer service that is provided by the staff (‘Accorhotels Corporate Commitment’ Accorhotels.group, 2018).

Findings and analysis

Internal and external customer service

The internal customers are considered to be a part of the organization which include the employees and the other stakeholders. The internal communications and the marketing based functions within an organization are related to the stakeholders. The ways by which the marketing activities of the organization are connected with the production department, human resource department and the customer service department is an important part of the internal customer service.

External customers are mainly those who purchase the products and services that are offered by the company. The service that is provided to the customers by the Ibis Hotel is considered to be external customer service. The customer service plays the most important part for the organizations which operate in the hospitality industry. The external customer service based activities are thereby provided in an effective manner by the staff of Ibis Hotel (Jeou Shyan et al 2016).

Explanation of B2B, BB, BC of customer services of Ibis Hotel

B2B – Business to business customer services of Ibis Hotel is based on the services that are provided to the corporate organizations by the organization.

BB – The business-business relationships play an important role in the ways by which organizations can operate in the industry in a profitable manner.

BC – The business-consumer relationships are important in the hospitality industry as the service provided to the customers and their satisfaction levels play can affect the profitability of the hotels. The Ibis Hotel thereby needs to take good care of the levels of services that it provides to the guests (Chauhan and Singh 2017).

Explanation of service, price, quality, action, appreciation

Service – Service is mainly considered to be a transaction which is done without the exchange of physical goods. The benefits of the services are mainly provided with the help of the willingness of the buyers. The Ibis Hotels belongs to the service industry and providing the best experience to guests plays an important role in its operations.

Price – The price is considered to be the amount of money that can be offered to the organization by the customers for the products and services that are provided. The Ibis Hotels provides services to the customers in exchange of the price that is offered by the customers.

Quality – Quality is the levels of services or products that are offered to the customers in exchange of prices that are gained by them. The quality of services is considered to be much more important in case of the Ibis Hotels.

B2B, BB, BC Customer Services of Ibis Hotel

Action – The action can be defined as the steps that are taken by the organization for the purpose of providing appropriate services to the customers. The actions that are undertaken by Ibis Hotels are mainly related to the ways by which the staff of the organization provide their services.

Appreciation – The positive feedback that is provided by the customers based on the services that are offered to the customers of Ibis Hotels is defined as the appreciation (Ahmad 2016).

Types of customers who are attracted by Ibis Hotels

Ibis Hotels were established in the year 1974 and the establishments are mainly located in areas which are close to the airports, city centres and the beaches. The services that are provided by this hotel are of lower costs as compared to the other global groups. The facilities that are provided by the hotel are based on low costs and the customers are also a part of the budget sector. The different types of customers who are attracted by the Ibis hotels are as follows,

• The tourists are an important part of the entire customer base of the Ibis Hotels. The major reason behind the travel of tourists is based on the recreation and non-business activities as well. The tourists are sometimes interested in the local events that occur in the areas which they visit and the recreational facilities that are provided to them by the different communities in the area (Ahmad 2016). The services which are provided to the tourists by the Ibis hotels are an important part of the ways by which the organization aims at developing a customer base.
• The families who travel to different areas on the weekends to take a break from their daily lives are another types of guests who are attracted by the Ibis Hotels. The recreational facilities and the food and beverage services are also important elements of attraction for the customers who are a part of this group. The Ibis Hotels are thereby able to attract the customers from this area. The staff of Ibis Hotels are known for providing best levels of service to the families which visit the organization (Chauhan and Singh 2017).
• The business travellers are also attracted by the services that are provided by the Ibis Hotels. The low cost services are able to attract huge number of travellers in the hotels which are present all over the world. Although the business travellers are not generally quite price sensitive, the low cost services are able to attract them towards the Ibis Hotels. The services that are offered by the organization to the business travellers need to be competent enough to provide them with the best experience and further build a loyal customer service. The quality of food, facilities and other services that are offered to the business travellers have an effect on their loyalty towards Ibis Hotels (Cook, Roy and Marqua 2014).

Identification of the needs of the customers

Customer service plays an important role in the hospitality industry which helps in the development of the organization and to ensure that their needs are satisfied in an effective manner. The personal needs of the customers are keep changing with the changes that take place in the external environment. The organizations thereby need to implement new strategies and plans which are able to meet the new needs of customers.

The employees of the organizations which belong to the hospitality industry need to be empowered so that they are able to take decisions that are related to the services that are to be provided to the customers. The attitude of the employees plays an important role in the service providing capabilities (Jeou Shyan et al 2016). The excellent levels of customer service help in the creation of loyal customer base for hotels and hospitality organizations. The different types customers of the Ibis Hotels who have been identified previously are,

• The tourists are a part of the customer base of the Ibis Hotels. The needs of the customers of this group are mainly related to the recreational facilities that are provided by the organization. The levels of service and the homely feel provided by the hotel and the staff is also a major need of the customers who are a part of this group.
• The second group of customers are the families who visit different places for the purpose of taking a break from their daily routine. The recreational facilities are also important for the purpose of providing satisfaction to the customers. This helps the hotels to create a positive and friendly environment for these customers. The families also require an enjoyable experience which can be helpful for them to get a major break from their daily activities (Jauhari and Bharwani 2017).
• The next group of customers are the business travellers who are attracted by the Ibis Hotels. The major needs of business travellers are based on the quality of services that are provided to them. The food quality and other services also play a major role in the ways by which the hotel is able to retain these customers. The business or corporate travellers are not always concerned about the prices of the services that are offered to them, they are mainly attracted by the quality of services that they receive. The attitude of the employees is also able to affect the ways by which the business travellers are attracted towards the hotel. The technological capabilities of the hotel are able to serve the needs of the business travellers. The needs of business travellers are therefore highly based on the service levels of the employees (Jones, Hillier and Comfort 2016).

Techniques used by Ibis to analyse effectiveness of the customer service

The service that is provided by the staff of Ibis Hotels to the customers play an important role in the successful operations of the organization. The satisfaction of customers is important for providing revenues and profitability to the hotel. The ways by which the effectiveness of customer service is measured in the Ibis Hotels are as follows,

• Call monitoring – This method is mainly used for the purpose of measuring the different subjective elements that are a part of the service quality. The monitoring of calls is helpful for the management to analyse the service that is delivered to customers in comparison to their expectations. For example, this method is implemented by the management of Ibis Hotels for the purpose of measuring the effectiveness of the service (Kandampully, Zhang and Anil Bilgihan 2017). The calls of the customers are monitored by the customer service department on a regular basis.
• Mystery shopping – This is another method that is used by the Ibis Hotels to analyse the quality of services that are provided to the customers. The services provided by the staff of the hotel are rated by the “undercover customers” who are hired by the management. For example, this helps the management of Ibis Hotel to understand the satisfaction levels of the customers in an effective manner with the help of some specific criteria (Weilin and Stepchenkova 2015).
• Survey – The management of the Ibis Hotels has also been conducting a survey which has helped them to analyse the ways by which the services have been provided to the customers. The survey is conducted with the help of email conversations which is done to gain the information from the customers related to the service quality. For example, the emails are sent to the customers of Ibis Hotels for the purpose of collecting their opinion.
• Feedback – The digital technologies and website usage has been able to gain huge momentum in the recent years. The social media has been able to serve as an outlet for many individuals. This place helps the organizations to connect with the customers and try to listen to their grievances as well. The customers are also able to provide their feedback about different parts of the organizational operations. The social media has been able to serve as an outlet for the views that can be directly provided by the customers. For example, the major social media platforms that have been chosen by the Ibis Hotels are Twitter and Facebook (Neirotti, Raguseo and Paolucci 2015).
• Comments card – This process is based on the analysis of the comments that are provided by the customers based on services that have offered to them by the staff of the hotel (Radojevic, Stanisic and Stanic 2015). For example, this card is helpful for the management of Ibis Hotels to understand the grievances that have been raised by the customers against the services which they have availed.
• Focus Group – This process is implemented by the Ibis Hotel by dividing the customers into different groups which consists of people who will be a part of the analysis based on the services that have been provided to them by the hotel staff. For example, the focus groups of Ibis Hotels will consider of the customers who are loyal to the organization.
• Number of complaints – The number of complaints that are raised by the customers are analysed by the management of Ibis Hotel for the purpose of providing the best levels of services to the customers. For example, more number of complaints mainly depict that the services that are provided to the customers by the hotel are not appropriate (Radojevic, Stanisic and Stanic 2015).
• Unsolicited comments – The unsolicited comments are those issues that have been raised by the customers and have not been solved by the management of Ibis Hotels. For example, the comments that are provided by the customers related to the services which are not solved by the management can affect the profitability of the hotel.

The importance and use of a quality system which is required to be implemented by Ibis

Customer service can be defined as the facilities that are provided to the customers or consumers in exchange of the money that they have paid to the organizations. The major factors that affect the services that are provided to customers include, price, service, quality, appreciation and action. These factors are able to decide the levels of services that are provided to the customers in an effective manner. The organizations which operate in the highly competitive hospitality industry are forced to implement various quality management based systems for the purpose of providing the best quality services to the customers. The quality management based activities are able to affect the ways by which services are provided to the customers. The quality management practices thereby place leadership in the position of the main driver which helps in the providing results to the organization.

Understanding Service, Price, Quality, Action, and Appreciation

The increase in demands of the customers and the service quality is an important factor for the survival of the hotel in the industry (Schuckert, Liu and Law 2015). The total quality management based activities in the hospitality based organization is quite specific for the services that are provided to the customers. The total quality management of the hotel sector is an important factor for the maintenance of service quality. The service quality management based activities have become a separate entity after the year 1980. This was mainly based on the competitiveness and the requirements of the market. The guests expect more than they actually pay in the hotels (Solnet, Kralj and Baum 2015). The main area of this service is based on the ways by which the gaps between the expectations and the service quality provided to customers can be fulfilled. The quality systems can be implemented in the Ibis Hotels for the purpose of providing services to the customers.

The seven major elements that need to be considered before the implementation of quality system in the hotel are, protection and safety, sociability, freedom, privacy, aesthetic, honesty, trust, entertainment, variety, reliability, punctuality, availability of the information and ease of communication. The quality management systems that are implemented by the hotel industry are mainly characterised different attributes (Tsai et al 2015). The major characters of these services are, high-level of the working intensity, types of services which are dependent on the choice of the guests and the level of personal contact with the guests. The quality of services that are provided by Ibis Hotels play an important part in the industry. This further increases the importance of the implementation of the quality management system. The quality management system which can be implemented by the hotel is based on the different standards which are as follows,

• Standards of the buildings of hotels.
• Standards of the hotel furnishings and equipment.
• Standards of the work process in the hotels.
• Standards of the quality based on catering in the hotels.
• Standards of the business ethics and communication levels.
• The personnel standards.
• The standards of symbols and hotel terminologies.
• The management standards of the hotel.
• The ecology standards.
• The health care and safety based standards (Tsai et al 2015).

The quality management systems are based on the mentioned standards of the hotels which help in the enhancement of services that are provided to the customers. The different operations of Ibis Hotels are all related to the quality of service which helps in increasing the revenues and profitability of the organization. The enhancement of customer service is also based on the ways by which the quality management system is implemented in Ibis Hotel Wang, (Chung-Jen, Tsai and Tsai 2014).

Recommendation based on guidelines for future customer service

• Handling the customer complaints – The Do’s and Don’ts of this factor are as follows,
• Do’s – Provide full attention to the issues that are mentioned by the customers. Try to solve the issues at the first go and increase the satisfaction levels of the customers. Try to understand the complaints in an effective manner.
• Don’ts – Do not be rude or impatient with the customers. Do not argue with the customers regarding the complaints that are made by the customers.
• Dealing with the difficult customers –
• Do’s – Try to understands the demands that are made by the customers in a patient manner. Try to rationalise with the customers regarding the demands that are made by these customers.
• Don’ts – Do not let the customers understand the unreasonable nature of the demands that are made by them. Do not increase their dissatisfaction levels by providing any wrong comments about the demands that are raised by the customers.
• Effective communication over telephone –
• Do’s – Try to listen to the issues and opinions that are being provided by the customers. Try to be an effective listener by providing full attention to the conversation that is being made by the customers.
• Don’ts – Do not provide your opinions to the customers instead of listening to the issues that are being faced by them. Do not interrupt the flow of conversation that is being made by the customers.
• Principles of the letter-writing when corresponding with queries of customers –
• Do’s – Try to write the letter in such a manner which will easily solve the queries that are made by the customers. The letters that are written to the queries of the customers need to be based precisely on the issues that are raised by them
• Don’ts – The letters that are written based on queries of the customers need to be precise instead of containing extra details.
• Listening skills –
• Do’s – The queries can be solved by the customers with the help of patient and proper listening. The customers need to be provided with high levels of attention.
• Don’ts – The listening levels of the customer service executives should not inadequate in nature. The executives should not be impatient in nature which can cause issues in the organizational operations.

Conclusion

The report is based on the analysis of the different types of customers who are attracted towards the Ibis Hotels. The needs and the demands of the customers who are also identified in the report are also analysed in detail. The techniques that are used by the Ibis hotels to analyse the effectiveness of the customer service that is provided by the staff to the guests have also been discussed in the report. The report has been concluded with the analysis of the importance of quality management systems that can be implemented in the Ibis Hotels.

Reference list

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