Essay Sample on Staff Competency in Complaint Handling

Introduction

In the service industry, customer satisfaction is highly sought after as it replaces the need for advertising on an already existing customer base. Therefore, any industry should ensure that there is less conflict between the client and its staff to provide seamless business operation. Staff satisfaction, on the other hand, is essential in ensuring that the work environment is conducive to bring out the best in each employee. It is necessary to integrate the two point of views by reducing the level of conflict through better conflict management techniques.

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I am an attache in the Victoria Hotel, and these conflicts are a significant issue in the workplace. So far, of the two hundred employees in the hotel, twenty-three of them have quit their jobs, citing customer related issues being the cause, since I joined the program. On the other hand, these complaints by the customers on the employee's inability to act professionally has affected the booking, and consequently, the hotel's earnings. Resolving an internal conflict within a business will only consolidate the hotel's customer base, but also aid in fostering a good working relationship with the workers, avoiding an escalation in labor migration cost. An examination into other case studies through literature review will occur, and the solutions to the problems plaguing Victoria hotel found.

Literature Review

Staff in the hospitality industry need to enhance the guests' experiences as a way of advertising the viability of the hotel to the existing customer base. It is essential for the clients to feel welcome whenever they receive service. According to a study done by Bharwani and Jauhari (2013), the concept of "Hospitality Intelligence," which encompasses the intrapersonal and interpersonal intelligence need to be incorporated in the recruitment and training of the service employees. Arguably, this is one of the most crucial areas, according to the researchers, which enhances the staff's ability to handle the client's complaints effectively (Zijlmans et al., 2014; Berezina et al., 2016). It can, therefore, be surmised that emotional intelligence in both training and recruitment of staff plays a significant role in enhancing the staff-customer experience while reducing the friction attributed to complaints.

According to a study by Maxham III and Netemeyer (2002), the unsatisfied client needs offering fair procedures, outcomes, and personal interactions, but also distributive justice in the form of discounts and refunds in case there is service failure. The results of their research concluded that fair procedures and policies coupled with god employee interactions, played a significant role in the customer's perception of the business' services satisfaction; additionally, in the service industry, it was more beneficial to focus mostly on interactive and procedural justice (Maxham III & Netemeyer, 2002). The findings are supported by Orsingher, Valentini, and Angelis (2009), where good outcomes, fairness, and courtesy contributed greatly towards cementing increasing customer base, retaining existing customers, and gaining risk-averse customers. Therefore, staff ability to handle emotional dissonance and exhaustion, while serving customers in a way that the latter's perception of the brand increases even under disappointment. Arguably, this is the greatest challenge that a service industry faces, and the staff must be competent in a professional and emotional mature manner.

Solution to the Staff Complaint-Handling Problem

There Human resources department need to take steps to avoid these problems in the future. It is up to the department to find ways to manage workers in a way that they maximize their gain towards the hotel. One of the best ways is understanding the problems presented, and formulate a viable method to address them. Since the problem is two-fold, the Human resource department needs to find employees that are self-management and self- understanding, as these individuals are shown to have higher Emotional Intelligence (Testa & Sipe, 2012). The department need also to incorporate implementation and development of continuous training of employees, while also looking for specific behavioral patterns attributed to learning and developmental skills rather than competency areas, as these attributes point to emotional intelligence (Chung, 2000; Mayburry & Swanger, 2010). Therefore, it is a strategic move for the Human Resource manager to recommend the most suitable staff members through their ability to achieve Emotional Maturity, while engaging in training the current employees in better handling of the client.

Human resource management should focus on establishing a friendly working environment. HRM practices an intervention result in lower employee leaving rate (Guchait, 2010). Therefore, the HRM manager should ensure that they should handle the workers in an empathetically-driven manner, understanding the various challenges that they are facing while standing firm on their responsibilities as service providers. On the other hand, the Human Resource manager should adopt a client-centered service provision to ensure that the hotel achieves sustainable operations. The staff needs to be deployed and prepared in a way that it leads to pursuing the hotel's strategic growth agenda (Longoni, & Cagliano, 2016). Conclusively, the Human Resource Manager needs to access the staff competency in emotional intelligence in both hiring and on-the-job handling of situations, perform training, address other concerns leading to the problem, and finally align the workers to maximize their efforts in a client-based satisfaction.

Conclusion

Failure to adequately allocate the resources of the service industry as a commercial undertaking by human resources is one of the crippling factors in the industry. Among the resources that need care is the staff's role in attributing emotional maturity towards the job, and the customers, leading to dangerous handling of complaints. The host-guest relationship needs to be enhanced through the staff, as a representative of the owner's hospitality, and so they should be able to handle the stress that accompanies the responsibility. A feeling of generosity, empathy, and professionalism should dominate the guest's experience. Human resources managers are responsible for choosing members of the staff who will create this feeling amongst the customers. Therefore, it is the responsibility of the Human Resources Manager to ensure that all the resources under their care to align with a customer-satisfaction approach. The staff should undergo emotional intelligence training to help them in coping with the emotional turmoil in their career life. In these ways, the customer-staff relationship will improve leading to better service delivery and ultimately aiding in achieving the Victoria hotel goals.

References

Berezina, K., Bilgihan, A., Cobanoglu, C., & Okumus, F. (2016). Understanding satisfied and dissatisfied hotel customers: text mining of online hotel reviews. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 25(1), 1-24.

Chung,Y.C.(2000). Hotel management curriculum reform based on required competencies of hotel employees and career success in the hotel industry. Tourism Management, 21(5), 25-32.

Guchait, P., & Cho, S. (2010). The impact of human resource management practices on intention to leave of employees in the service industry in India: the mediating role of organizational commitment. The International Journal of Human Resource Management, 21(8), 1228-1247.

Jauhari, V., & Bharwani, S. (2017). An exploratory study of competencies required to concrete memorable customer experiences in the hospitality industry. In Hospitality Marketing and Consumer Behavior (pp. 159-185). Apple Academic Press.

Longoni, A., & Cagliano, R. (2016). Human resource and customer benefits through sustainable operations. International Journal of Operations & Production Management, 36(12), 1719-1740.

Maxham III, J. G., & Netemeyer, R. G. (2002). Modeling customer perceptions of complaint handling over time: the effects of perceived justice on satisfaction and intent. Journal of retailing, 78(4), 239-252.

Mayburry, T., & Swanger, N.A. (2010). Identification of industry needs for baccalaureate hospitality graduates; a Delphi study. International CHRIE conference, 23(4), 33-35.

Orsingher, C., Valentini, S., & de Angelis, M. (2010). A meta-analysis of satisfaction with complaint handling in services. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 38(2), 169-186.

Testa, M. R., & Sipe, L. (2012). Service-leadership competencies for hospitality and tourism management. International journal of hospitality management, 31(3), 648-658.

Zijlmans, L. J. M., Embregts, P. J. C. M., Gerits, L., Bosman, A. M. T., & Derksen, J. J. L. (2015). The effectiveness of staff training focused on increasing emotional intelligence and improving interaction between support staff and clients. Journal of Intellectual Disability Research, 59(7), 599-612.