Reference no: EM132608995 , Length: word count:4000

SDM404 Service and Design Management - Laureate International Universities

Team Project Report

Learning outcome 1: Develop an understanding of the role and nature of service in the service economy and the hotel industry

Learning outcome 2: Examine key issues concerning the management and measurement of service quality and customer satisfaction

Learning outcome 3: Critically explore the role of frontline service providers' service behaviour with respect to service delivery, service failure and service recovery

Learning outcome 4: Critically reflect upon key strategies used by hotels for managing service behaviour, including empowerment, training, branding and labour commodification

Learning outcome 5: Assessment strategies to address service organisation processes such as managing supply and demand and relationship management

Learning outcome 6: Plan and execute a project as part of a team, employing effective teamwork strategies for the design and analysis of an innovative service organisation

Instructions for the Task:

Working in groups of three, this project provides you with the opportunity to step into the position of a specialised consultancy team to review and propose a service design management plan for an upper scale hotel.

Based on a hypothetical case study, your team will interpret the hotel's context and then use this interpretation to construct a Customer Service Handbook (Part A) for current and new employees. Your team will analyse and justify your decisions against service management theory in an analysis- based business report (Part B).

Part A: Construction of Customer Service Handbook (2000 words)
Your team, representing a professional services management consultancy, is engaged to produce a service design proposal that comprehensively addresses the whole service spectrum ranging from concept to relationship management with guests and employees.

Good hospitality in the hotel sector is all about keeping customers satisfied with prompt, responsive and reliable service. The Board of Directors of the Devs Airport Hotel is concerned that the service level has been reportedly slipping from excellence and is losing market share. The hotel has positioned itself as the only luxury hotel in an incredibly special and lucrative position - close to the airport, within minutes from the satellite town of Huersts and in the vicinity of a business park. All its 150 rooms are luxuriously appointed in the configuration of deluxe, standard rooms and junior suites. The only competition faced by the hotel are from a couple of medium-size hotels in the area, which still cannot match Devs' geographical sweet spot. Its target customer markets are predominantly business transient and transit travellers. Its other serviced attributes are an executive floor for its business clientele, restaurant with bar, fitness club as well as a gift shop for souvenir hunters.

With your expertise in service design and management, you are required to design a Customer Service Handbook for Devs Airport Hotel to assist its frontline employees in delivering seamless quality service to its in-house guests and patrons of its retail outlets.

The Customer Service Handbook must guide the Guest Experience Team (employees in front office, concierge desk, housekeeping, restaurant with bar, fitness club and retail) in providing exceptional customer service aligned with the hotel's market positioning and service concept. The Handbook will require an accompanying report justifying the items planned as its content.

Six key service design and management components must be included and applied to Samudra Grand Hotel:

1. The Hotel's Service Concept Critically reflect how Guest Experience employees could understand the service concept of Devs Airport Hotel.

Articulate and communicate its business idea by developing a service concept statement and justifying the key elements that uphold the intention of the service.

2. Strategies for managing service encounters Reflect on desirable service behaviours for the hotel.

Apply three specific strategies to manage service behaviour encounters.

3. Strategies for managing service quality and satisfaction Firstly, apply one theory to conceptualise service quality and/or customer satisfaction determinants at Devs Airport Hotel.

Then apply one strategy to measure and monitor service quality and/or customer satisfaction. If it utilises any tools, consider its relevance in the Handbook.

4. Managing service processes and environments Explain the importance and significance of mapping service processes.

Create a detailed blueprint for the service process of your choice.

Create a theoretical framework for servicescape of your choice and justify the environmental stimuli that you will propose to enhance both guest and employee behaviour.

5. Managing service failure and recovery Create a full synopsis of potential service failures for the hotel.

Apply one theory to your detailed service recovery process proposed for the hotel and explain how it can be incorporated in operational steps for the employee.

6. Managing external and internal customer relationships Develop an effective service guarantee (statement) for the hotel and outline the process of how employees should implement the service guarantee.

Explain the importance in managing internal and external customer relationships, and then apply one strategy to manage internal customer relationship.

Part B - Justification Report

The report analyses and justifies all decisions and strategies in your team's Customer Service Handbook against relevant service management theory and concepts.

The following structure is to be used for your Part B (2,000 words plus 2,000 words for Part A Customer Service Handbook):

Executive Summary* Table of Contents*
1.0 Introduction to Report
Analyses and Justifications
Devs Airport Hotel's service concept
Strategies for managing service encounters
Strategies for managing service quality and satisfaction
Managing service processes and environments
Managing service failure and recovery
Managing external and internal customer relationships
3.0 Conclusion
4.0 Reference List*
Appendix or Appendices*
Part A Customer Service Handbook
Team Contract and Meeting Log

Attachment:- Service and Design Management.rar