CASE STUDY: ‘Room for Improvement’

INTRODUCTION:
The case starts with the customer named “Monique Kazer”. She is a busy
woman since she works as a salesperson for a company specializing in audiovisual
equipment for convention hotels and centers. Moreover, the customer has an asthma
and is sensitive to cigarette smoke. With this, Ms. Kazer always requests for a non-
smoking room whenever she would check in to a hotel or motel. One time, she reserved
a room at the Hospitality Inn to stay there after a tiring visit to three (3) convention
hotels. The customer arrived few minutes after midnight. Tired and looking forward to a
hot shower and a good sleep, Ms. Kazer checked in and headed to room 315. And
when the customer entered, the room smelled a combination of cigarettes and air-
freshener spray. Though the room was sprayed with an air-freshener, she still smelled
the cigarettes probably because she was sensitive to that smell. Ms. Kazer quickly
backed out, and went to the desk agent to report the problem. The desk agent named
“Hyun Cho” was talking to her babysitter over the phone. Hyun Cho glanced at Ms.
Kazer, however the desk agent continued to talk to his friend as a cue that Ms. Kazer
has to wait for her turn. Unfortunately, the customer was disappointed and was not in
the mood to wait, causing for her to do something that would gain the attention of the
desk agent in no time. She took the phone out of Cho’s hand and hung it up. “I made a
reservation for a nonsmoking room, and you people put me in a room full of smoking
fumes. Just change my room and we’ll let it go at that.” Said Ms. Kazer in a
straightforward manner. Startled and offended, the desk agent immediately check the
hotel records with a glance and told Ms. Kazer that it is a non-smoking room. The
customer denied and requested to check again the room to see it for herself. But Cho
refused, and said “I don’t need to check again, Ms. Kazer. I can read and I know my
rooms and I can tell you that Room 315 is for non-smokers.” Tired as she may seem,
Ms. Kazer again requested to move her to another non-smoking room. But the desk
agent said that their rooms are all filled up. With this, the customer requested to have
her reservation fee cancelled, but the desk agent refused and said no cancellations or
refunds are entertained after midnight. “You ought to do something about that cough”,
the desk agent added. Defeated, Ms. Kazer went out and finds another hotel to stay at.

PROBLEM/S IDENTIFIED:
There are five (5) problems identified in the said case.
1. Bad approach of the customer
The customer had approached the desk aged in an inappropriate manner. If Ms.
Kazer had approached Ms. Cho in a nice and calm manner, things may had been fixed
in a nice way.
2. The response of the desk agent
 The desk agent’s response to Ms. Kazer was inappropriate as well. She refused
and did not tried to entertain the customer’s needs, when Ms. Cho should have done
the other way around no matter what.
3. Inconsiderate behaviour of the desk agent towards the customer’s health
“You ought to do something about that cough”, said Ms. Cho. This is something
that Ms. Cho should have not mentioned since the customer can’t do something about
her health condition as well.
4. Talking to a friend or an individual not related to the job during work hours
Ms. Kazer enraged because of her room that smelled cigarettes considering her
health condition. But what made her feel more enraged is that Ms. Cho was talking to
someone who’s not related to her job during work hours. Any employee must always
focus on their jobs at all times during their work periods.
5. Not taking the time to double-check the customer’s room
Ms. Cho checked the hotel records, but did not exerted the effort to check the
actual room. There must be a problem with how the housecleaners have cleaned the
problem, so it is better to check the room to understand the customer’s concern.
Out of all problems identified, the major problem here is the desk agent’s
response to the customer. It is included in her job to exert an effort to assist the
customer (or atleast call another staff to assist the customer). However, she did not
insisted and she let her emotions took over the situation.

ALTERNATIVE COURSES OF ACTION:

There are three (3) alternative courses of action for the case.
1. Entertain the customers nicely
In this kind of industry, it is important to always treat the customers nicely
from the moment they have entered the store/hotel. With this, it would make your
customers go back again and even recommend your service to other people.
Pros: Customers would be persuaded to go back again for their service.
Cons: None

2. Be sure to double-check the reserved rooms

When a customer reserves a room, it is recommendable to double-check their
reserved room/s to avoid problems and inconveniences.
Pros: This would lessen such problems between the customer and the staff,
and would give a nice experience of service to the customer/s.
Cons: None

3. Consider refunding in these kind of cases.

 It is understandable as to why ‘no cancellation and no refund’ rules are
existing in this industry. However, if the customer did not get to use or enjoy any
of the business’ services, it is better to consider refunding to give empathy to the
customers.
Pros: The action mentioned would make the customers think that the
business staffs really cares for their customers/clients.
Cons: This may or may not result to clients who would cancel out their
reservations minutes before their reserved time (also called as ‘joy
reservers’).

RECOMMENDED SOLUTION:
The recommended solution for this is for the staff/s to build a good
communication with its customers. Since they are the ones who are giving service to
them, they must know how to treat their customers in a nice manner. Moreover, this
would not be possible with the customers’ participation. They must also know how to
treat their staffs in an appropriate well so that conflicts and misunderstandings such as
the given case would be avoided. At all times, kindness is a must in this industry.