abstract:

The front office is an important department in hotel management, and it is a comprehensive department for hotels to carry out business activities and provide a series of services for customers. In hotels, guest rooms are the main products, and selling guest rooms is one of the main business projects of hotels. It is precisely because the lobby is directly related to the hotel's income, and because of its location, it can contact all kinds of guests to the greatest extent and deal with all kinds of problems. Therefore, the front office is an important department of the hotel, and its service quality is particularly important. Its operating conditions not only directly affect the room occupancy rate and economic benefits, but also reflect the overall appearance of a hotel's work efficiency, service quality and management level.

Keywords: service quality; Quality analysis; Quality control; Staff quality

In modern hotel management, quality management has become the most basic and important management method. In fact, not only the hotel industry, but also all modern enterprises, whether it is the traditional manufacturing industry, service industry, or the emerging information industry and communication industry, the core content of management is quality management, which ensures the quality of products, services and information provided to consumer target groups, and ensures the vitality and development prospects of enterprises. For the tourist hotel industry, a labor-intensive service industry, the focus of quality management is the management of service quality. As the central department of hotel customer service, the front office has higher and stricter standards and requirements for service quality, and also has unique methods and means in the process of implementing service quality. In order to ensure the hotel to obtain ideal economic and social benefits, the front office department must ensure that the service quality of the front office always meets or exceeds the expectations of the guests through various management means, fully meet the various needs that the guests may have, establish the loyalty of the guests to the hotel, and attract the guests to continuously buy hotel products, thus forming a benign market circulation system.

I. Overview of Front Desk Service Quality

The front office service quality is the most critical factor to determine the hotel image, the soul of hotel management and the lifeline of the hotel. Quality is the "standard" or "scale" to measure products or services. This "standard" or "yardstick" should meet customers' expectations and values of the product or service and bring them a high degree of satisfaction. The main body of the products sold in the hotel lobby is "service", so the "quality" here refers more to "service quality", which is the "standard" or "scale" to measure the service provided by the hotel lobby for hotel guests. The gap between the actual feelings of the services provided according to these standards or scales and their expectations of such services determines the level of service quality: if the actual feelings exceed expectations, the service quality will be good; If the two are consistent, it belongs to general quality; If the actual feeling is lower than the expected value, the quality is poor.

(A) the content of the front office service quality

As far as the front office is concerned, the service quality mainly includes the quality of facilities and equipment, service level and environmental atmosphere.

1, quality of facilities and equipment

The hotel uses facilities and equipment to provide services for its guests. It is the hardware part of the hotel, the material basis of service quality and the primary content for guests to evaluate the service quality of the hotel.

As far as the lobby is concerned, different hotels and lobbies are very different, with different facilities and equipment, different services that can be provided, and different levels of meeting guests' needs; The lobby decorated with different materials and equipment will have great differences in function and comfort, so the guests' feelings will be mixed. Therefore, we say that excellent service quality is inseparable from high-end luxury, well-maintained and normal operation facilities and equipment.

2. Service level

Hotel attendants provide hotel services for guests. The service level of waiters is the main body of service quality and an important content to measure the service quality of hotels. It includes the following aspects:

(1) service attitude

Good service attitude is the key to good service, making guests feel at home. An excellent waiter must be active, enthusiastic, patient, meticulous and thoughtful when serving customers.

(2) Politeness

Politeness is the most basic element of service level. Good manners and etiquette can leave a good impression on guests, and it is also a symbol of the civilization of hotel waiters.

Politeness includes the waiter's gfd and his words and deeds. Decent and generous gfd, natural and decent words and deeds are the basic requirements for good service.

(3) Service skills

Service skills are the basis of service quality. It includes service technology and service skills. /

Service technology, such as check-in and check-out procedures and answering telephone calls, can usually be measured by speed standards, quality standards and quantity standards.

Service skill refers to the ability to flexibly do a good job in service reception and achieve good results in different occasions and at different times for different customers. If a guest complains about a problem, it should be handled flexibly according to different objects.

3. Ambient atmosphere

Ambient atmosphere is an important part of front office service quality. The atmosphere of the lobby is composed of architecture, decoration, furnishings, facilities, lighting, sound, color and even the appearance of employees. This visual and auditory impression has a great influence on the feelings of guests, who often use this feeling as the basis for evaluating the quality of hotels. Therefore, the lobby must pay great attention to the design and layout of the environment and atmosphere, so that guests can feel quiet, comfortable and happy.

(B) the characteristics of the front office service quality

The quality of front office service is very different from that of general commodities, mainly in the following aspects:

1, comprehensive

The quality of front desk service is mainly composed of facilities and equipment, service level and environmental atmosphere, which is much more complicated than the quality of other commodities. It not only has tangible objects such as magnificent lobby, but also non-physical service attitude and service skills measured by guests' feelings. From the guest's point of view, the service quality includes not only the service quality of the front desk doorman, receptionist and cashier. It also includes the quality of all services received by guests during their stay in the store. The service quality is a whole.

Recognizing the comprehensiveness of service quality, it is necessary for the front office attendants to establish an overall concept and cooperate with each other in their work. The front desk clerk must provide the best service to make the guests leave a good first impression and lay a solid foundation for the service in the store. With the best service, leave good memories for the guests who leave the store, so as to make up for various deficiencies in the service.

2. Disposable

There is only one process and feeling of customer service in the front office. Unlike other physical goods, quality problems can be replaced. Once each service is over, its impact has already occurred, that is to say, our "production" service has been "consumed" by the guests and cannot be "reworked". This requires our waiters to pay attention to every service to the guests and produce "high-quality" service "products" every time, so that every guest is satisfied with this "product".

Step 3 rely on

The front desk service is produced by employees, and the service quality depends on the service level of employees. Good service awareness, rich professional knowledge and skilled service skills are the fundamental guarantee for employees to do a good job in service. Building a high-quality staff is the primary task for hotel and front office managers to improve service quality.

4. Emotion

The quality of front office service, like the quality of preventive service, is evaluated by the guests, depending on their personal hobbies and strong personal feelings. If guests receive service in a very harmonious atmosphere, they will feel cordial, relaxed and comfortable, and they will often give a good evaluation of the service quality. On the other hand, I think the service quality is too poor. On the basis of standardized and standardized services, waiters should carefully study the individual differences of guests and provide personalized services to meet their psychological needs.

Second, the front office service quality analysis and control

(A) front office service quality analysis

To improve the service quality, the first task is to find out the problems that affect the quality and the reasons for these problems, which is quality analysis.

For the front desk, there are many aspects that produce service quality, and it is unrealistic for managers to solve all the problems in a short time. But among these problems, there is always one or several problems that occur the most. If one or several problems are solved, the service quality will be improved.

For example, a hotel has extensively collected the opinions of its guests, including 349 opinions on the front office. The analysis table is as follows:

Table 1

Quality analysis table

Primitive cause

Foreign language level

Foreground knowledge

service attitude

Polite manners

manipulative skill

Paiming

1

2

three

four

five

Uniqueness of viewpoint

123

90

Seventy-eight

40

18

Proportion (%)

35

26

22

12

five

Cumulative (%)

35

6 1

83

95

100

As can be seen from the table, 6 1% of the opinions on the foreign language level and front office knowledge of front office staff mainly solve these two problems, and the service quality will definitely go up a step.

Therefore, to find out the cause of the problem, the key is to find out the main problems from the aspects of guest opinion collection table, guest complaint statistics table and employee evaluation table, and take necessary rectification measures for these problems.

(2) Front Office Service Quality Management System

Hotel service quality is the first lifeline of the hotel, and ensuring the service quality of the hotel is the primary problem that every hotel manager should consider. Because of the special position of the front office in the hotel, its quality plays a very important role in the service quality of the whole hotel, and it is the first problem that managers should solve.

Western management scientists put forward the "service quality gap model" (see the figure below) to explain the process of customer perception of service quality. The purpose of service quality management is to eliminate and narrow the following distance differences through various management means when expectations are greater than perceptions:

1, the gap between service quality standards and guests' service expectations. The service quality standards set by the hotel or lobby are lower than the expectations of the guests, which leads to the decline of the evaluation of the service quality of the hotel or lobby by the guests.

2. The gap between managers' cognition of guests' expectations and service quality standards. The front office manager's perception of the guest's expectation is wrong, which is lower than the existing service quality standard of the hotel or front office, resulting in the actual service effect being lower than the guest's expectation.

3. The gap between the service quality standard and the actual service effect. In the process of implementing customer service, employees fail to fully implement the service quality standards, which makes the service actually received by the guests lower than the service quality standards set by the hotel or front office, and makes the guests make negative judgments on the customer service quality.

Customer's service expectation

Customer's service perception

Actual service effect

Communication with guests

Service quality standard

Manager's understanding of guests' expectations

Figure 1

Service quality gap model

4. The gap between actual service effect and guest communication. Due to the poor communication between employees and guests, the service that the guests feel is different from the service provided to them, which causes the guests' dissatisfaction with the service quality.

5. The gap between customer's service perception and customer's service expectation. The actual perceived service quality of the guest is lower than his expectation in advance, and the guest will make a negative judgment on the service quality.

The purpose of front office service quality management is to ensure that the front office provides services to guests in accordance with the procedures and standards stipulated by the hotel, and to ensure that the service level of the front office is at a high level. Through the inspection and management of the front office service quality, find out the ways and means to improve the service, so as to improve the service quality.

The front office service quality management is mainly to check and manage the main factors that affect the front office service quality, such as facilities and equipment, environmental atmosphere and service attitude, courtesy and service skills of service personnel.

In service quality management, we should implement the policy of "prevention first", which is determined by the "one-off" feature of service quality. We should try our best to nip all quality problems in the bud. Quality is also a problem that every employee and every working procedure must ensure. Therefore, quality management should be oriented to all employees in the front office and every process of service, that is, quality management should be carried out to all employees and the whole process to ensure the service quality of the front office at a high level.

The work of quality management system generally follows the steps of "finding problems-finding reasons-making rectification measures-checking implementation".

(C) Front Desk Service Quality Control

In order to ensure the front office service quality, we should do the following work.

1, strengthen awareness and clarify standards.

(1) Establish quality space-time awareness. The front desk is the information distribution center for guests and reception services. The time consciousness of service personnel reflects the consistency of coordination among various departments, posts and shifts in the front desk reception system. In terms of time consistency, disharmony is not allowed in the front office service, otherwise the related services expected by the guests cannot be realized. For example, the concierge misremembered the time when arranging the porter to carry the luggage of the team that had left the store, and delayed the delivery of the luggage, and the consequences would be very serious and irreparable.

The characteristics of space are three-dimensional, and the concept of space embodied in front desk reception service is highlighted as "service chain effect", that is, the association and coordination among various departments, posts and specific work links. For example, the receptionist missed the arrangement of leaving the group breakfast in advance the next day, and the seriousness of the consequences can be imagined.

(2) Adhere to the awareness of total quality control. In order to effectively control the front office service quality, ensure and improve the service quality, it is necessary to organize all front office staff to participate, comprehensively apply modern management science, and establish a system that can control the whole process and various factors that affect the service quality and fully meet the needs of customers.

Starting from the concept of this system, the effective control of the front desk service quality mainly includes four aspects: controlling all the front desk service quality, that is, all-round control, rather than only paying attention to local control; Fully control the service processes such as organizational preparation before service, customer service during service and after-care treatment; All staff participate in quality management and control, and organically combine the work of each employee. Managers can flexibly use various modern management and control methods according to specific conditions.

(3) Clear service quality standards Establish clear quality awareness, and employees need to understand and master clear quality standards. On the basis of soliciting opinions from customers and front-line employees, the following steps are carried out: result information collection → demand prediction → standard formulation → standard trial → information feedback → standard determination, and a targeted and practical service quality standard is gradually formulated. Through the combination of education, training and encouragement of employees' professional ethics and business skills, all employees can fully master this standard, and use the specified facilities and equipment in strict accordance with the labor deployment, service procedures, facilities and equipment maintenance, details and service attitude stipulated in the standard, so as to achieve high-quality customer service.

2. Standardize the operation and improve the system.

In the reception service at the front desk, standardization and institutionalization mainly include every specific operation step, requirement, original record of operation quality, feedback, analysis and summary, revision and implementation in the reception service of post types such as inquiry, reception and cashier. It is the key to control the front desk service quality process to standardize and further institutionalize the repetitive operation behavior of service personnel. Raising the standardized service standard to institutionalization can largely eliminate the arbitrariness of service personnel due to personal subjective assumptions, thus ensuring the quality of service, and is also conducive to the continuous self-improvement and improvement of service personnel in future work practice, which also gives managers the basis to check and monitor the quality of front office service, thus promoting the standardization, proceduralization, standardization and institutionalization of hotel front office service.

3. Subdivide the process and strictly control it.

Due to the influence of time, environment, objects, psychology, standards and other factors, the quality and results of each "guest activity" in front office service are different. Therefore, service personnel should be liberated from the fixed mode of "standard → start → proceed → end" of each service, constantly create new and better services, reduce intermediate links, shorten the process time, and provide customers with extraordinary services such as repeated inquiries, solving difficult problems, entrusting agents, contacting and coordinating more patiently and meticulously, so as to meet customers' reasonable consumption needs, reach established service standards and achieve established service quality objectives.

4. Analyze information and make a scientific evaluation.

Service quality information is the basis and premise for hotels to make service quality decisions, the basis for planning and organizing service quality activities, and an effective tool for quality control. The evaluation of front office service quality is an overall evaluation of standardization, proceduralization, standardization and institutionalization of front office service on the basis of collecting feedback information from guests. The main method of evaluating service quality is inspection, which mainly includes the following three aspects:

(1) guest evaluation. Smile, initiative, carefulness, quickness and coordination are the main contents of front office service products, which should not only meet the clear needs of guests during their stay in the store, but also meet the potential needs of guests in various situations. The front desk attendant uses facilities, equipment, environment and his own behavior to provide customers with products that satisfy them, so that guests can get psychological satisfaction after enjoying every service. The quality control of front office service is a series of effective activities closely around the center of customer satisfaction. Therefore, the quality evaluation of the front office must take the satisfaction of the guests as the main criterion.

(2) Evaluation of external quality inspection institutions. For the important professional evaluations made by the hotel industry management departments and quality certification bodies, especially the evaluation contents of hotel star rating and star review, managers should find out the existing quality problems in time by comparing the inspection results, analyze the reasons, and then put forward targeted improvement measures to continuously improve the front office service quality.

(3) Evaluation of internal quality inspection institutions. In order to test guests' satisfaction with service efficiency and effect, and realize the service work of the main desk, several indicators should be achieved: ① room occupancy rate; ② Double occupancy rate; (3) the guest's return rate; (4) With regard to the annual growth rate of room income, the front office manager should formulate a strict service quality and service effect assessment checklist to ensure the overall satisfaction of the guests and achieve the work goal of front desk service; Hotel service quality management institutions can also make an important evaluation of the service quality of the front office in quality management activities such as organizing random sampling surveys at any time, directly soliciting guests' opinions, and analyzing statistics regularly.

Third, improve the quality of front desk staff and ensure the quality of service.

The front desk staff plays many roles, such as "diplomatic angel", "hotel commodity salesman", "information provider" and "hotel agent". Therefore, competent front desk staff need to have high quality. A qualified front desk employee should have the following qualities:

(a) good character, correct, decent style.

The work of the front office is very policy-oriented, often involving cash, price concessions and the secrets of hotel management strategy. Front desk service personnel must have high moral cultivation, integrity, law-abiding, principled, and never use their work to seek personal gain.

(2) Good appearance and appearance

The lobby is a place where guests gather or pass by, and the service staff in the lobby department receives every guest on behalf of the whole hotel. Therefore, the appearance, appearance and courtesy of the front desk service personnel directly affect the image of the hotel and the service quality of the whole hotel. Front office service personnel should develop good behavior habits and dress neatly. In speech and behavior, the language should be standardized, the tone should be soft, the tone should be friendly and the expression should be appropriate; Stand upright, impartial, natural and beautiful, in line with the norms. In terms of work style, we should be dignified and simple, modest and prudent, diligent and studious. In terms of service attitude, we should be equal, neither humble nor supercilious, with moderate enthusiasm, natural and sincere expression and full of energy. The front office staff with dignified appearance, neat clothes and generous manners give people the impression that they are hospitable, well-trained and trustworthy. Good appearance represents the front office staff's love for the hotel and work, respect for the guests, and reflects the hotel's high-quality service level and the enterprise spirit of pursuing Excellence.

(three) resourceful and resourceful.

The lobby is the business center of the hotel, and all the work is very complicated. Every day, you will come into contact with all kinds of people and things, and even encounter many unexpected things, so you must handle them properly. Therefore, the front office service personnel are required to be resourceful, flexible and adaptable, provide targeted services and handle special events well.

(d) Strong interpersonal skills.

Hotels belong to the service industry, and it is inseparable from dealing with people, especially as front desk attendants, who have to deal with all kinds of guests from different countries or regions, different cultural backgrounds and different living habits almost every day. Therefore, the front office service staff must like and be good at getting along with people. At the same time, the front office staff should also handle the relationship with colleagues, superiors and subordinates, understand each other, cooperate with each other, and complete the work smoothly.

(five) a higher level of language expression.

Front office service personnel should have strong language expression ability, which is manifested in two aspects: on the one hand, they can communicate with guests in the language they use. Should have good Chinese expression and understanding ability; Mandarin is accurate in pronunciation and sweet in voice. As the hotel guests come from all over the world, the front desk staff must be proficient in more than one foreign language, especially spoken English. In some hotels in coastal areas, because of the large number of Hong Kong and Macao compatriots and overseas Chinese, the front desk service staff must also speak Cantonese, Minnan dialect and other dialects. Whether the front office staff can receive the guests in the language used by the guests will not only affect the service quality, but also affect the hotel's customers. On the other hand, it pays attention to the artistry of language. Language is the lubricant of interpersonal relationships. In the process of receiving guests, the front office staff have many opportunities to communicate with guests. If you don't master the language art, you will unconsciously offend the guests and even "stab" them, let alone satisfy them. Therefore, the front office service personnel should master language skills, have a sense of humor, and have the language ability to convince others and break the deadlock.

(6) Smart and good at selling.

The service staff working in the front office, selling hotel products is the primary task. Therefore, we must have the quality of a salesman, work actively and master sales skills.

(seven) studious and knowledgeable.

The guests received in the front hall come from different countries and regions, different social classes, different occupations, identities, cultural backgrounds and customs. Therefore, in order to provide quality services to our guests, we must know about psychology, sociology, folklore, sales, management and tourism.

(eight) considerate, have a strong ability to understand the guests.

The guests received in the front hall are varied and have different personalities. Front office service personnel should be able to quickly and accurately understand the needs of guests and deal with problems quickly and accurately. The front office staff must deeply understand the difficulties and inconveniences of the guests during the journey, understand their professional responsibilities and honors, have a heartfelt and willing sense of service, and always maintain abundant energy and warm smile in their work.

(9) Meticulous and earnest working attitude.

Front office service personnel must have a high sense of responsibility, strong dedication and meticulous work attitude. The task of the front desk is heavy, the business is complex, and the mental labor intensity is high. You must have a serious work attitude to do a good job.

(ten) elegant speech, good at controlling their emotions.

The guests contacted by the front office staff come from different social classes and have different occupations, identities, status and personalities. So it leads to the complexity of the service. In order to do a good job, the front office staff must be self-disciplined, patient, good at controlling their emotions, neither supercilious nor supercilious, not affected by the guests' emotions, and never argue with the guests at any time.

Three. Concluding remarks

The competition in the hotel market is, in the final analysis, the competition of service quality. Service quality is the basis of hotel market competition. To survive and develop, any hotel must win in the market competition. To win the market competition, we must provide high-quality hotel products, and to provide high-quality hotel products, we must complete a lot of quality-related work. Therefore, the front office service personnel should do a good job in service, improve their quality, try to solve their problems from the perspective of the guests, meet their needs, and enable them to enjoy quality service. For the managers and employees in the front office, only by treating the guests as their relatives and treating them sincerely can they find their needs in time and accurately, solve their problems reasonably and effectively, and let them regard the hotel as another "home".