The Importance of Motivating The Staff to Provide Outstanding Hospitality Service

Good service in hospitality is not simply mean greeting the guests with a smile or a simple “thank you” and “please”, it is far beyond that. In addition, satisfied customers are looking for a memorable experience and dynamic service. Or we can say that, excellent customer service is vitally important in all businesses, especially in hospitality industry. Every business needs to keep customers and clients happy, but in the hospitality industry it’s so vitally important to keep guests engaged in order for the business to grow and prosper. Good customer service is one of the keys to success in any business, but is particularly important in the hotel industry, where guests are looking for staff to help them make their stay as relaxing and comfortable as possible. There are many factors that affect the success of hospitality businesses. However, among the them, I believe that human resources is the key that will determine the success and it is critical to motivate the staffs properly to overcome difficulties and create the real value for the guests.

As Richard Branson who is the founder of Virgin Group controlling over 400 companies has quoted: “Train people well enough so they can leave, treat them well enough so they don't want to” and “If You Look After Your Staff, They'll Look After Your Customers. It's That Simple. ” According to the course objective, students must develop an understanding of the principles when managing a tourism or hospitality enterprise and human resource related to staff motivation is one of the main cores. If employers do not focus on treating and motivate their employees well, this will create major problems for the business since their staffs are unwilling to deliver the services for guests as companies promise. If the management cannot find the solution, it means that they have failed in term of managing the business itself.

I believe that learning about motivating staffs to provide outstanding service would help me significantly in my future careers in hospitality industry since I would have my own personal view on how to motivate my employees. I would show my appreciation and encouragement for my employees through different ways of providing financial incentives based on their performance. It is being easier said than done and to answer the question that “who the best employees of the month/year are?” is not an easy task and to determine the incentives rates for the good performance employees is a much harder challenge. Paying financial incentives and rewards for my employees is an act that may boost the morale for the people with talents and outstanding performance. However, I would need to work with the management team to establish a system to track the performance and measure the productivity of each single employee in the company. In term of motivation, it is not only the financial rewards that matters. Stress from work could be removed by a bright smile from the manager, which can create an impact on the employees. It is ideal to create a friendly working environment where all people could corporate together and feel comfortable without discrimination. And for certain, it is ensured that employees would feel motivated when they know that they are appreciated by others for doing their best every day at work.

I also encourage employees to take part in company events with giving employees a chance to give something back to the community, or it could be the festival allows the management to say thank you to our customers and staff by providing the chance to enjoy themselves for free. These types of events remind the employee what the companies are standing for and what unites the hospitality businesses. The article that I looked at also pointed out that the customer service has a critical role, especially in hospitality since the service is the industry product. The service is personal, which means hospitality business provide comforts and the convenience, feelings like home for their guests. Therefore, providing an exceptional experience for the guests is extremely important for the survival and thrives of businesses.

The article asserted that when it comes to the experience of the guests with the hospitality establishments, it is the interaction face to face of the employees with their guests that play the key role; therefore, motivating them to improve the customer service is highly valued. The article has mentioned Caesars Entertainment Corp who has placed a high degree of importance on building culture of employee engagement. For example, the company uses rewards and recognition to reinforce outstanding customer service and improve overall customer satisfaction scores; building a culture of appreciation by balancing tangible rewards with frequent, personalized recognition; and transitioning from a cash-based reward program to a points-based recognition program. In addition, they also switch to non-cash rewards so that employees can select something with personal meaning by getting employees family and coworkers involved in celebrating their success. With the company policy, Caesars has enjoyed year-over-year increases in customer satisfaction ratings and has achieved the highest overall CSAT scores in the company’s history. At the end of the article, the author concluded that: “A hospitality organization is able to continually put its guests first by continually putting its employees first”.

Being a hospitality manager is not an easy job. Hospitality managers have to acquire necessary skills to operate their establishments smoothly. When customers staying at your hotel, they expected the hotel they stay to deliver an unforgettable experience in a positive way. And that is the mission of a hotel manager, to make sure the guests receive amazing customer service. As a hospitality manager, when operating the hospitality facility, keep in mind that the employees also play an important part in the guest experience. Listening and motivating employees can strengthen the teamwork of an establishment. As hospitality students, we feel that those three topics will help us a lot in our future careers in the hospitality industry.