4 Common Customer Grievances in the HospitalityIndustry & the Tips to Handle Them | Amigo Academy 4-Common-Customer-Grievances-in-the-Hospitality-Industry-and-the-Tips-to-Handle-Them

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4 Common Customer Grievances in the HospitalityIndustry & the Tips to Handle Them

If you work in the hospitality sector, you know how critical customer satisfaction is to the entire mode of service.

Even the smallest mistake can ruin a process that has been largely agreeable until that moment. Customers tend to latch onto your mistakes faster than they can compliment your helpfulness.

So, how do you address their complaints in a way that maintains a good brand image?

Treating every customer with your time, respect, and an open ear always does the job. You have to take their complaints without self-consciousness, and solve the issue right at its heart to increase the likelihood of them returning to your establishment.

In this blog post below, we have discussed the most common customer complaints and how you should be able to tackle them responsibly:

Failing to Provide a Customized Experience

Customers love being treated as if their experience has to be paved with gold from entry to exit. From getting suites they prefer, favorable meal options, and complimentary items, they grow accustomed to the establishment taking care of every possible need. Hospitality professionals have to be trained in the process of befriending, inquiring, and overseeing many special needs of each guest. Untrained, they could trigger customers into a spiral of dissatisfaction. This is not what any establishment aims for. It may be that a customer prefers a certain menu (for e.g.: vegan), or a certain mode of arranged transportation when in the city, or a late checkout on every weekend business trip; you only can meet these requirements if you ask the right questions in the right manner. As a responsible hospitality professional, you should always ask the consumer for their preferences in order to provide that customized experience.

Staff’s Rude Behaviour

This is the most common complaint from the customers during their stay. Some hospitality professionals can lose patience with a customer’s criticism and snap back. This is a major taboo in the industry. Patience is truly a virtue in this industry, and if you cross the line, consequences can be hard. Managers will then have to assure the customer that the issue will be examined closely—and will not recur. 

To prevent this from even happening, professionals need to be trained in hospitality management course where they are made to deal with high-pressure situations that simulate guests complaining in aggressive or passive manners. One of the hardest things to do, as a hospitality provider, is to listen to antagonistic comments from the guest, while also figuring out a way to solve their problem.

 They are supposed to break down their process with tactful inquiry, empathy, acknowledgement of the problem, and then present the customer with solutions and extra options in the form of complimentary discounts, late checkouts, and other goodies.

 “The customer is always right,” is a common refrain in the industry, but you don’t have to take it literally. The customer may be wrong, so it is your job not to tell them they’re wrong, but to communicate the host of options they can choose from, and to recompense them in case a certain service has failed. Communication is key—keep an even, friendly tone and present options.

 

 Electronics Appliance Failure

Make sure all the electronic appliances you are offering are functioning as advertised. After a long day sightseeing outside, guests often come back to their rooms, shower down, kick up their feet and turn on the television. If the television isn’t working, it would break the chain of satisfaction. Naturally, tempers could flare; they would feel like they are being shortchanged with faulty equipment.

 Furthermore, if your guests require Wi-Fi for business purposes, a faulty connection can be a much bigger problem than anticipated. Establish protocols for checking that all servers and router equipment is working on a regular basis and have troubleshooters and technicians on standby to solve any problems that arise.

Noisy Guest Management

 It doesn't matter what kind of hotel you run, where you run it, or how big it is. You will have to deal with guests who complain about noisy neighbors at some point. Your guests paid a high price to stay at your hotel, so a little peace and quiet shouldn't be too much to expect. In fact, it's the absolute bare minimum of what your hotel should provide.

 To make sure you handle it properly, respectfully ask their neighbor to turn down the music because it is bothering the other guests. Remember that your noisy neighbors are still hotel guests, and they should be treated with respect

 Prevention is better than cure. However, most hotels have their front desk personnel trained to allocate rooms based on guest profiles in such a way that it lowers the risk of these issues emerging.

For example, if a couple checks in on the weekend, discussing their need to be alone, and if a large group of college students check in with music equipment and speakers, front desk agents.will try their best to allocate the students in a secluded area of the hotel where their noisiness doesn’t affect the guests who are therefor a quiet time.

 As such, good training is worth its value in the form of fewer complaints, as professionals understand how to manage guests in the most hassle-free possible way.

Paying Additional Charges Customers frequently raise this issue at the time of checkout since they are unaware of the hotel policy. As a professional, handle the situation by clarifying the relevant norms and regulations. At no time should the situation become out of hand. Keep the talk light-hearted and hotel-related.

Managers should be able to explain to customers the numerous benefits that come with additional fees. Mini-bar charges are one of the most common additional charges, and this can be an effect of children not understanding the cost of the items inside. You could prevent this by locking the items in place through RFID tags or other communication modes that require digital payment.

 We atAmigo Academy provide the needful in terms of training, preparing our students so that they are ready to deal with client complaints and resolve them without disrupting the business.

 Come join Amigo Academy today for our  hospitality, Travel Management and Customer Service Course, which covers roles infront office, food & beverage services, kitchen services and food production, as well as various aspects of travel and tourism, such as types of tourism guidance, planning itineraries, and travel documents.