HGE401-Hotels and the Guest Experience

Learning outcomes:

a) Understand the concept and development of professionalism within the broader tourism, hospitality andevents industry
c) Explore the correlation between culture, customerexperience and business experience;
d) Analyse the impact of poor customer experiences;
e) Assess a range of strategies that hotels can take to improve their customers’ experience.
f) Develop innovative and creative approaches to engage and meet the needs of the ever-changing customer market

Context:

This assessment task requires you to explore the concept of guest experience in a hospitality service setting, integrating both the perspectives of customers and operators. It aims to enable you to recognise the importance of co-creating positive experiences for an ever-changing customer market, in order to engage and meet the needs of both consumers and providers. The task also aims to develop your capacity to identify opportunities for improvement, and subsequently propose practical recommendations for the enhancement of the firm’s customer experience.

This assessment task gives you the opportunity to work with a group of your peers and investigate a topic that is of significance importance to the hotel sector. The purpose of this assessment is threefold. First, as a group project it is designed to be a practicum for learning leadership skills including group decision making, conflict resolution, interpersonal communication, and critical analysis. Second, communication (oral, written and visual), is an important skill in any profession and this is an opportunity for you to work with a variety of communication skills. Finally, the assessment provides you an opportunity to investigate what service firms in hospitality are doing to provide distinctive customer service

Instructions:

To make sure you are staying on track with your tasks you should follow the below steps.

1. By week 5 (lecture) meet with your group to identify a service firm within the hospitality industry and propose your chosen service firm for approval to your lecturer (this can be done via email or in person). To make sure you are choosing a suitable firm please follow these guidelines:

1.1. The chosen service firm must be a hospitality firm (this may include, but is not limited to: accommodation properties, tour operators, travel agents, airlines, cruises, food and beverage outlets, spa centres, and entertainment establishments).

1.2. Customers of the chosen service firm must be onsite throughout the service deliver
1.3. The chosen service firm must have a high level of interaction between customers and employees.

2. By week 7 visit the service firm with your group and go through your mystery shopper evaluation. It is important here for you to use a tool such as a guest journey map to take notes and investigate the experience (an example is available on sharepoint). Also remember that your experience does not stop at the consumption stage. You are required to investigate the total customer experience, which includes the pre-consumption and post-consumption stages. Allow yourself time to investigate these touch points too.

3. Start working on your group project and infographics. Remember that infographics should be presented in week 9 as part of your group presentation (See separate assessment brief). Do not underestimate how much time it is required to produce a good infographic.4. Based on the feedback given in week 9’s presentation adjust your group project report and submit