Handling Guest Complaints In Hospitality Industry Training Ppt

Slide 3

This slide provides information on guests’ complaints due to gaps between the promises that hotels make in terms of services to be provided and what the guests actually receives.

Slide 4

This slide provides information about types of guest complaints in hospitality industry. These are: Service-related complaints, attitudinal complaints, mechanical complaints, unusual complaints, room related complaints, and food & beverage related complaints.

Instructor’s Notes:

Types of guest complaints are:

Room Related Complaints:

• Complaints related to a room include poor view, old mattresses, noisy room, dirty linen, etc.
• When guests look for online reservations, the pictures uploaded by the hotel should match with the room they have been assigned

Food and Beverage Related Complaints:

Mechanical Complaints:

• These complaints include an issue with the equipment within the hotel
• The mechanical issues include air conditioning, lighting, room furnishing, electricity, door keys, plumbing, etc.
• It is important to maintain records of all the mechanical issues by the front office to have a clear check of things that require maintenance

Service-Related Complaints:

• It includes complaints related to long waiting times, lack of assistance with luggage, etc.
• When the hotel is working at full occupancy, the front office receives more frequent complaints

Attitudinal Complaints:

• These problems are related to the attitude of the hotel staff such as impoliteness, aggressiveness and unprofessional behavior
• Generally, when the hotel staff member disagrees with the guest's demands, there is tension leading to guests' complaints

Unusual Complaints:

• Problems that hotels cannot control such as traffic, weather, and transportation
• Guests expect the hotel staff to understand and try to resolve such issues. Ultimately, these issues are uncontrollable

Slide 5

This slide provides information about the room related complaints of guests in hotels such as poor view, old mattresses, noisy room, dirty linen, etc.

Slide 6

This slide provides information about the food and beverage related complaints of guests in hotels. It explains that if the hotel's accommodation facilities are good, but the preparation or presentation of food and beverages is not good, then the guests have a reason to complain.

Slide 7

This slide provides information about the mechanical complaints of guests in hotels such as non-functional AC, lighting, room furnishing, electricity, door keys, plumbing, etc.

Slide 8

This slide contains information on service-related complaints by guests in hotels. It also explains that when the hotel is working at full occupancy, then service-related complaints are received more often by the front office.

Slide 9

This slide provides information about the attitudinal complaints of guests in hotels. It explains that these problems are related to the attitude of the hotel staff such as impoliteness, aggressiveness and unprofessional behavior.

Slide 10

This slide provides information about the unusual complaints of guests in hotels. It explains that the guests expect the hotel staff to understand and try to resolve such issues, but these issues are out of their control.

Slide 11

This slide provides information about the importance of hotel guests complaints such as customer satisfaction enhancement, product/service upgrade, improvement of policies and procedures, minimize damage to brand reputation, increase customer loyalty.

Instructor’s Notes:

Benefits of guests’ complaints are:

Increase in Customer Satisfaction:

• When guests share their experiences with the hotel staff, it helps the hotel to make changes and improve their services
• After receiving feedback, hotels should try to resolve the complaints immediately
• This will create a good impression on the guests and will satisfy them

Product/Service Upgrade:

• When a guest complains regarding service issues, it helps the hotel to upgrade its services
• It also helps to get insight on what areas of the hotel should be worked upon and upgraded
• By reading bad reviews, the hotel customer care team can find new good ideas for providing new services and in a manner that guests want

Improvement of Policies and Procedures:

• Hotels have policies and procedures designed for smooth running of business
• Negative feedback highlights flaws, and the hotel gets the idea about what needs to be improved
• Hotel management should analyze the feedback and make policy changes, if needed

Brand reputation Enhances:

Cultivates Customer Loyalty:

• When customer complaints and feedback are taken seriously and resolved, then the guests become loyal and spend more time and money with their increased stays and use of hotel services
• When a guest is loyal, they market the hotel to their friends and colleagues, acting as a brand advocate

Slide 12

This slide provides information about guests’ complaints handling process. The steps are: Listen, confirm the complaint, analyze the complaint, solve the complaint, and follow up.

Instructor’s Notes:

Steps to handle guests’ complaints are:

Listen:

• Listening involves letting the customer speak, without interruption
• It also involves writing down notes
• These notes can be used to track customer complaints

Confirm The Complaint:

• This step involves the understanding of complaints by the customer service representative
• It involves the rephrasing and rewording of customer complaint

Analyze The Complaint:

• This step involves asking drill-down questions to understand the specific problem
• Based on guests' answers, the issue is analyzed and solutions sought

Solve The Complaint: 

• This step involves attempting to find a viable solution for the customer’s complaints
• The solution may involve compensating guests with service coupons or discounts on their final bill

Follow Up:

• After providing the guests with best solution, ask for their feedback about the complaint resolution
• Enquire guest if they have any other issue that they want to be addressed

Slide 13

This slide covers information regarding how a customer can attain a positive perception of a brand even after encountering a bad experiences in a hotel.

Slide 14

This slide provides information about dealing with angry guests and their complaints. The ways are: Listen with care, avoid arguments, take notes, don’t use aggressive body language, isolate the situation, offer immediate solution and arrive up with a conclusion.

Instructor’s Notes:

Recommendations to deal with upset guest in hotels are:

Listen with Care:

• Dealing with an upset guest is difficult but not impossible
• During the conversation with the upset guest in the hotel, don’t interrupt and listen calmly to their issue with empathy
• Always communicate with them in polite and friendly tone and try to understand their issues

Avoid Arguments:

• It is important not to argue with guests at the time of resolving any complaint as it will make situation worse
• Always give guests space and time to express their concerns
• Being rude to guests will only spoil hotels' reputation

Take Notes:

• Write down details when a guest approaches with a complaint
• Ensure that the guest feels heard, and if required, seek support of seniors to better understand the issue

Don’t Use Aggressive Body Language:

• Don’t use aggressive body language while dealing with infuriated guests; ensure you always maintain a calm and composed posture
• Rigid body language of hotel staff, such as crossed arms and scorn on the face, can infuriate the guest

Isolate the Situation:

Offer Immediate Solution:

Come up with a Conclusion:

• After controlling the situation, share alternatives with guest and ask them to choose the best solution from their perspective
• Double check that offer/solution provided conforms with hotel policies

Slide 15

This slide provides information regarding the recommendation to deal with upset guests’ complaints by listening to them with care.

Slide 16

This slide provides information regarding a recommendation to deal with upset guests’ complaints by avoiding arguments. It also explains that it is important not to argue with guests at the time of resolving any complaint.

Slide 17

This slide provides information regarding the recommendation to deal with upset guests’ complaints by taking notes. It also explains that the guest must feel that he has been heard, and the hotel staff should seek support of a senior to handle the situation, if needed.

Slide 18

This slide provides recommendation on how to deal with upset guests’ complaints by avoiding aggressive body language as it is counterproductive. 

Slide 19

This slide provides recommendation to deal with upset guests’ complaints by isolating the situation; this ensures other guests in the hotel do not get disturbed or overhear the issue.

Slide 20

This slide provides recommendation to deal with upset guests’ complaints by comforting guests with the best offers. 

Slide 21

This slide provides information that post controlling a conflict situation, share alternatives with guests and ask them to choose the best solution as per their wishes.

Slide 22

This slide provides information on types of complaining guests such as aggressive guests, high paying guests, rip-off guests, and chronic complainers. It also provides solutions on to resolve their issues.

Instructor’s Notes:

Types of complaining guests are:

Aggressive Guests:

• These types of guests are often loud and detailed. Remain calm and listen to them with complete attention
• Try not to give any excuses; and follow hotel policies and offer them a solution 

High Paying Guests:

• These guests are willing to pay more in return for the best services
• Their way of complaining is reasonable and mannerly
• They listen patiently and respectfully
• If required, the hotel staff can ask more questions from these guests to resolve their issues

Rip-Off Guests:

• These guests are motivated towards getting discounts and complimentary offers from the hotel
• They do not have much interest in resolving the issue
• It is important for the hotel staff to respond with evidence and facts to complaints from such guests

Chronic Complainers:

• These guests are never satisfied and find fault in everything they see 
• The hotel staff must be extremely patient with such guests
• Always listen to their issues and try not to get angry at any point
• Apologize and make them believe that their issue will be resolved

Slide 23

This slide provides information regarding the dos and don'ts while handling guests’ complaints in a hotel.

Slide 24

This slide showcases the complaint form for customers to escalate an issue. The major sections of the grievance form are customer information and complaint information. It also includes customer name and department along with incident details such as date, time and location.

Slide 25

This slide lists the key takeaways of guests’ complaints in hospitality industry training session. A trainer can use this slide to highlight important concepts such as types of guests’ complaints, benefits of hotel guest complaints, handling process for guests’ complaints and ways to deal with angry customers.

Slide 42 to 57

These slides contain energizer activities to engage the audience of the training session.

Slide 58 to 85

These slides contain a training proposal covering what the company providing corporate training can accomplish for the client.

Slide 86 to 88

These slides include a training evaluation form for instructor, content and course assessment.