How to remedy the service failure?

service is a commonplace topic in hotels, and service recovery caused by service mistakes is even more common in hotels. How can we make service recovery after service mistakes?

1. service affairs and customers' expectation of remedy

"service remedy" is an important measure for the continuous improvement of hotel service quality. Although this concept was put forward earlier, due to the complexity of service quality problems and the heterogeneity of customers, the principle of service remedy and its application measures are the focus of theoretical and practical attention.

a study abroad shows that only 4% of customers who are dissatisfied with products and services will tell the company directly, and 25% of customers who don't complain have serious problems: 4% of customers who complain are more likely to continue buying than 96% of customers who don't complain. If the problem is solved, 6% of those who complain will continue to buy; If it is resolved as soon as possible, this proportion will rise to 95%; Dissatisfied customers will tell 1-2 people about their experiences; A customer whose complaint is solved will tell his experience to five people. Of course, this research result was obtained before the Internet and other information technologies were fully applied to customer applications and customer reviews. If this factor is considered, the corresponding value will be higher.

1. Types of service mistakes

There are three types of hotel service mistakes: mistakes in service delivery system, mistakes in responding to customers' needs and requests, and spontaneous and unnecessary mistakes by employees. The failure of service delivery system refers to the failure of hotel to provide services. Taking the hotel as an example, the mistakes of the service delivery system include canceling the rooms reserved by customers at will, providing stale food, and untidy room environment. The mistakes in responding to customers' needs and requests refer to the mistakes made by hotel employees who improperly respond to individual customers' needs and special requests. Employee's spontaneous and redundant mistakes refer to events and employee's behaviors that customers don't expect. They are neither put forward by customers through requests nor part of the service delivery system.

2. Actions taken against customers with service errors

The actions that customers may take against hotel service errors include the following:

(1) Take public actions, including complaining to hotels (such as receptionists, managers, etc.) or third parties (such as consumer associations, trade associations and even civil/criminal courts), or taking legal measures to seek help or compensation.

(2) Take private actions, including "betrayal" (turning to other service providers, resulting in loss), posting in the media (such as newspapers and networks, such as third-party comment websites), self-media (such as personal Weibo, WeChat, etc.), and communicating with relatives and friends.

3. Evaluation process of service failure

In case of service failure, customers expect fair compensation. The demand for fairness is the problem that customers want to solve most after service failure. Customers want to get fair compensation. When they don't get adequate compensation, their reaction will be the most direct, emotional and lasting. Service compensation is the action taken by service organizations against service failures. The three dimensions of perceived fairness in the process of service compensation include procedural fairness, interactive fairness and result fairness.

(1) procedural fairness

procedural fairness is related to the policies and regulations that customers must follow when seeking fairness. Customers expect the company to take responsibility, which is the key to the beginning of the fair procedure, followed by a convenient and rapid response remedial process.

(2) Interactive fairness

It is related to the employees of the company who provide service remedies to customers and are directly responsible for their behavior. It is important to explain the mistakes and try to solve the problems, and the efforts to remedy them are considered to be true, sincere and polite.

(3) The fairness of the result

is related to the loss and inconvenience caused by the customer's service failure. This includes not only the compensation for service failure, but also the time, effort and energy spent in the process of service recovery.

ii. service recovery framework

service recovery includes three stages: pre-recovery stage, recovery stage and follow-up stage, which constitute the framework of service compensation

1. pre-recovery stage: this stage pays attention to customers' expectations of service recovery, including service commitment.

2. Remediation stage: This stage focuses on training and guiding front-line employees in compensation methods, so that they can respond appropriately to service failures.

3. Follow-up stage: This stage can be remedied through follow-up service, so as to retain customer loyalty and encourage customers to come again.

iii. service recovery strategies

service recovery strategies need to be combined to play a comprehensive role.

1. Avoid service mistakes

Avoid service mistakes and try to do things right the first time. The core of doing it right for the first time is to ensure the reliability of service, which is the basic principle of service quality management and the basis of comprehensive service compensation strategy. There are two ways to improve service reliability: First, fail-safe procedures. This method was originally used as a means of quality control in the assembly line. In the service industry, it can not only be used in tangible things such as service facilities and equipment, but also prevent service errors and ensure that enterprises follow the necessary procedures and provide services in an appropriate way. The second is to strengthen staff training and form a "zero defect" culture to ensure that things are done right the first time. Under the cultural concept of zero defect, every employee will understand the importance of reliability and make every customer satisfied through various measures.

2. Welcome and encourage complaints

The key of service compensation strategy is to welcome and encourage customers to complain, and enterprises should expect, track and encourage complaints. There are many ways to encourage and track complaints, such as satisfaction survey, major event research and lost customer research. Front-line employees are the main personnel who find customer dissatisfaction and service mistakes. Enterprises should encourage employees to find service failures and seek service remedies through adequate authorization mechanisms. An internationally renowned hotel has designed a "quick action table" to record service failures and remedies, and employees will keep track of complaints until service compensation actions occur.

encouraging complaints also includes teaching customers how to complain, that is, who to complain to, the process of complaining, the content of complaining, etc. The process of complaining should also be as simple as possible. At present, telephone, e-mail, Weibo, WeChat and Dianping.com can all be used to help, encourage and monitor customers' complaints. Hotels can obtain data through technical means, analyze, classify, reply and track them, or use a third-party technical platform. In some cases, enterprises can use technical means to predict the occurrence of problems and complaints, and even diagnose problems before employees find them. For example, the management information system of a smart hotel can predict equipment failure and send electronic alarm signals to the technical department of the management company, including the nature of the problem, parts to be repaired, etc.

3. act quickly

customers who complain want a quick response from the enterprise, which requires the hotel to have systems, procedures and authorized employees suitable for quick action, including front-line employees to pay attention to and handle complaints, authorize employees and allow customers to help themselves.

4. treat customers fairly

hotels need to treat every customer fairly when they make customer service remedies, which is an essential part of effective service remedies. Customers hope to be remedied in the aspects of interaction fairness, process fairness and result fairness.

5. Learn from the compensation experience

Service recovery is not only helpful to remedy the defective service, but also an important source for hotels to obtain service improvement information. By tracking the service recovery process, hotel managers can find systemic problems that need to be improved in the service delivery system. The way to learn from the remedy experience is to accumulate the service remedy data, study the singularity of the first kind of problems through classification and sorting, and finally put forward the solution.

6. Learn from lost customers

Another important aspect of effective service recovery is learning from lost customers. Formal market research, in-depth interviews by professionals, online reviews, etc. can find out the reasons why customers leave.