Total Quality Management in the Market Hospitality Sector: Marriott Hotel

Introduction

Hospitality and guest service management are responsibilities for managing and handling customers and other hotel operations. A guest service manager is a professional who is engaged in managing and handling hotel operations. He ensures that all functions are carried out smoothly and effectively. There is a major role of this person to increase customer engagement and satisfaction. The responsibilities of the guest service manager play a vital role in the success of a hotel. The hospitality organization considered in this report is Marriott organization. This is an American multinational diversified company that manages and franchises a broad portfolio of hotels and other related lodging facilities. This was founded by J. Willard Marriott. This is the third-largest hotel chain in the world and there are around 30 brands with approximately they own 7000 properties. This report discusses about guest service management. It shows how hotels can adapt to changing consumer preferences and how changing consumer preference impacts guest service management.

Discussion/Evaluation and critical analysis

The guest service manager is focusing on the needs and requirements of clients and ensures that they are being fulfilled. They have to implement various strategies which will help in improving hotel facilities and eventually leads to increase exceptional services. It is ensured that guests are being escorted properly and that they have to direct to the requested rooms after proper completion of the check-ins procedure. For keeping track of inventory suppliers and making requisitions according to requirements for keeping updated reports on relevant data for presenting on special requests.

Service provision and quality management

When organizations make use of total quality management, there is a high probability of improving the effectiveness and efficiency of the entire organization. This can be explained by an example- Marriott international has applied various techniques of total quality management for ensuring a positive outcome. By the assistance of executive management, employees are trained on the concepts of offering good quality services to customers and clients. Marriott International is using the technique of employing qualified staff who are responsible for providing a positive approach to various sensitive areas such as serving customers within a short time, check-in pints, solving customer problems, and offering a friendly approach.

Cleanliness of rooms and good housekeeping services provides a pleasant experience to customers. This overcomes all other wrongs that they face in the organization. One of the aspects that contributes to the good reputation of the company is cleanliness, especially the attractive housekeeping services which are offered.

Also for making their total quality management systems more effective, Marriott organization provides extensive training to various area managers by hiring a lot of people on regular basis. If this organization is not having effective leadership, it can be very challenging for it to provide the best services to customers and attain organizational goals and objectives.

When managers are hired in Marriott, these are provided a one-week training program where they are equipped with the necessary knowledge and skills for enabling them to serve customers in a well-mannered way. When this training is done, they are responsible for teaching other members of staff on how to provide quality services to clients and customers.

It is analyzed by study of various researchers that outcomes of poor quality services in business are very costly. Poor service experience occurs due to employees who are not empowered for solving quality services to the organization. It is occurred by the employees who are not willing to provide adequate results. Negative experiences of customers and guests within the organization is not thing for the company as it results in the decline of customer satisfaction. The management of the organization is the source of poor service delivery because of the failure to acknowledge that each individual is held responsible for his deeds.

How hotels adapt to changing consumer preference

There are various approaches to improving customer care. Marriott International has managed to launch 18 lodging brands which include limited service and full service which has a variety of services to serve the needs of any guest. This hospitality organization is managing and contracting different hotels and resorts under Marriott. The work coverage of this company has increased after the expansion of services. Due to this expansion, there is an increment in customers at the global level. Marriott is having a good record of expansion for the period and also the financial base of the company is also high.

Marriott is one of the biggest hotels which operates globally. It provides quality services and adheres good reputation. This has adopted a holistic system of formal total quality management. This system is made for ensuring an increase in customer coverage with the best services of a good and high quality. Another deal of responsibility depends upon the guest service manager. For ensuring success, there must be a demonstration of excellent organization and time management skills. There must be good and effective leadership skills in these managers and they have to supervise and train staff and employees effectively.

Marriott international concentrates on making it's customers happy and satisfied by sharing the positive experience of the company with employees. The reputation and image of a brand depend upon the reaction of customers. It is easy to achieve customer satisfaction if by the application of total quality management. Because of the wide experience of management of Marriott International for a long period of time, there are basically two main areas which are criticized by guests. Check-ins and rooms are the most sensitive areas which need high-quality services in the front office. In the context of Marriott International, these areas are well catered for highly qualified staff and employees. The impression and first contact that guests receive in a service industry is very essential as these guests can come back or may never desire such an experience.

Total quality management is useful for Marriott International but on the other hand, it faces various criticism. The TQM is not related with general organizational strategy. Decisions made by the organization that concerns about total quality management are related to finance and other marketing approaches. Quality issues are part of the functional side and should not be treated as a separate entity. Other essential factor that TQM lacks is a clear planning for implementation. This indicates objectives and goals and how these can be achieved. TQM consists of unrealistic goals because of managerial skills because of failure for training employees about TQM philosophy.

How changing preferences impacts guest service management

As technology is becoming more advanced and people have become more modern, the requirements and preferences of people change at a fast pace. Due to this, it became important for an organization to cater these changes as efficiently as possible so that their customer base can be retained for the maximum time period. In the case of the hospitality sector, the requirements and needs of people are constantly changing. Due to this guest service management is also influenced and needs appropriate changes. In an earlier time, the main preference of people while staying at the hotel is to have a decent place to stay and good food to it so that they can complete their journey in a comfortable manner. But, now these aspects have changed considerably. In the present time, people expect the highest level of hospitality where each and every service is required to be highly standardized.

Also, rather than getting a comfortable place to sleep, people nowadays prefer to stay at themed rooms which will provide them a soothing experience for their journey. In the case of Marriott hotels, changing needs and preferences of customers have leads to changes in guest service management. Guest services in context with Marriott hotel are the amenities and services which are offered by the staff of the hotel to their customers. It includes activities like laundry, room service, concierge etc. At present, people have become very sophisticated and they can not handle any single mistake while getting served. Below are mentioned some aspects that will denote the manner in which changing preferences and expectations of the customers lead to change in guest service management:

• In case of laundry, guests prefer to have washed clothes as soon as possible due to which housekeeping manager has to upgrade their machines to wash and press clothes. This will help the hotel management to do laundry of customers in the fastest time possible.
• Earlier, people prefer to visits the reception of the hotel for booking and reservations but due to changing preferences of customers, they now prefer to perform reservations via online medium. In this context, the front desk department at Marriott has improved their social media presence so that appropriate interaction and communication with customers via digital media can be carried out.
• During the stay at the hotel, in earlier time customers do not requires themed rooms and elegant environment. But now, they are very particular about the rooms in which they are staying. Due to this, Marriott hotels provide themed rooms to their customers. Other than this, to provide enormous pleasure, hotel has also decided to offer customized rooms which will be decorated as per the requirements of customers.

Services and facilities as per the changing needs of customers will help the Marriott hotel in earning high revenues and profits due to which they will be able to sustain a strong presence in the market against their rivals. Also, by this, the customer base of the company will be retained for a maximum time period without any complexities.

Conclusion

From the above discussion, it is seen that guest service management is essential and it plays a vital role in providing good services to customers. Marriott international hotel is benefited from the application of total quality management. This is important as there is huge competition in the market of the hospitality sector. There is a drastic increase in a number of hotels within the market. Thus for a hotel to retain it's guests and customers, it is essential to offer quality services. The disadvantages of this system are outweighed by it's advantages. So the application of this is beneficial for every organization. The teamwork of the management team and all levels of employers can work best for this system. If employees want to adhere this system, there is need of big support from top-level management of the organization.

References:

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Online

1. Guest Service Manager Responsibilities, 2019. [Online]. Available through: