QSM MIDTERM

• Service Delivery System


  • Human components
  • Physical production processes
  • Organizational and information systems and techniques that help deliver the service to the customer
• Service delivery is a system or framework that provides products or services to customers in need
• Bill Gates, chairman and co-founder, Microsoft Corporation: 'Like a human being, a company has to have an internal communication mechanism, a "nervous system," to coordinate its actions'
• Sam Walton, founder, Wal-Mart: 'Communicate everything you can to your associates. The more they know, the more they care'
• Jeff Bezos, founder, Amazon.com: 'If you make customers unhappy in the physical world, they might each tell 6 friends. If you make customers unhappy on the Internet, they can each tell 6,000 friends'
• Joseph J. Bannon: 'Design systems that allow you to do the job right the first time. All the smiles in the world are not going to help you if your service is not what the participant wants'
• Information


  Data that informs; facts provided or learned about something or someone
• Information System


  A method to get data that informs those who need to be informed
• A well-designed information system gets the right information to the right person in the right format at the right time
• The right person in hospitality organizations could be an employee, the manager, the guest, a supplier, a combination of all these people, or many others
• Information that does not add value to either the guest's or the organization's decisions is useless
• Informing the guests


  Since service is intangible, the information that the hospitality organization provides to help the guests make the intangible tangible is a critical concern of the information system
• What information should the organization provide, where, in what format, and in what quantity, in order to help create the experience that the customer expects
• Regardless of the hospitality experience being offered, all informational cues in the service setting should be carefully thought out to communicate what the organization wants to communicate to the guest about the quality and value of the experience
• If the experience is themed, all cues should support the theme, and none contradict or detract from it
• The less tangible the service, the more important consistent communication will be
• The challenge for hospitality managers, then, is to gather the data that can inform, organize the data into information, and distribute that information to the people— both customers and employees—who need it just when they need it
• Hospitality organizations that are effective in getting information to where it needs to be recognized that providing information is a service to guests, often as important as the primary service itself, and a necessity for employees
• Just as it is important to develop information systems that get the right information to the right person at the right time, it is equally important to develop systems and procedures to prevent the wrong information from getting to the wrong person at the wrong time
• Adding quality and value through information


  Organizations can use information in many ways to add quality and value to the service experience
• Occasionally, information technology becomes so important that it can even transform the organization itself
• Information can help employees personalize the service to make each customer, client, or guest feel special
• The challenge for hospitality managers is to gather the data that can inform, organize the data into information, and distribute that information to people — both customers and employees—who need it just when they need it
• Hospitality organizations that are effective in getting information recognize that providing information is in itself a service to guests, often as important as the primary service itself, and a necessity for employees
• Every organization needs a plan that not only protects sensitive information from unauthorized access but also details other information rules, such as who can say what to whom when a major disaster strikes, who will talk to the press when a guest complains publicly, or who is the spokesperson for the organization on key decisions and policy
• When information is not managed well, the information that is in the public domain will confuse and not inform
• The whole challenge of information systems is to figure out exactly how to provide only the required information just when and where it is required
• Information and Service Product

  Information about services offered is usually found within the environment rather than as part of the service product itself
• "TANGIBILIZING" leads guests to favorable judgments about the quality and value of the guest experience
• Similarly, sensory information can communicate a message about the guest experience. The smell of bread baking, fresh flowers, or even antiseptic will communicate information to guests that can help make an intangible experience tangible
• Giving Employees the Information They Need

  Employees also need relevant, timely, and accurate information to do their jobs effectively
• When you consider information to be a service product, the employee is an internal customer for that product
• For this internal customer, the service provided is the delivery of the information that the employee needs for making decisions about how to satisfy external customers
• This information-as-product is provided to the internal customer by an employee or information-gathering unit acting as an internal "service organization"
• Providing information is the service product for many internal employees/customers, and all hospitality organizations seek to provide it as effectively and efficiently as possible
• The Environment and the Service

  The service setting can be a source of information related to the service itself, and that information must be efficiently and effectively provided
• If the tangible product in the guest experience is a quick-service meal, the patron needs to know how to get quick service, which quick-service meals are available, and when the meal is ready
• The visuals of the setting help to make the service tangible for potential guest (Signs in the service, menus are posted in easy-to-find, a picture of what the meal looks like, customer order number flashed on screen, attractive graphics on their Web sites
• The Environment as an Infosystem

  In a larger sense, the service environment itself can be thought of as an information system of sorts by the way it is themed and laid out
• Not only does the environment provide information on the location of various points of interest, but the environment itself becomes part of the service and therefore influences the customer's perception of the service