The Travel And Hospitality Industry - 938 Words

The travel industry has evolved though history. As the travel industry developed and grew, so did the use of Management Information Systems. Today, the travel industry is global, and technology is capable of processing, storing, and facilitating travel with a large amount of flexibility and in a short amount of time. However, the travel industry was not always this way. As the industry has adapted, challenges have been overcome through the advancement of management information systems. In the beginning, travel services were provided by places like inns, but there were no systems for mass travel or mass accommodation. The early stages of the organized travel and hospitality industry began in the 1400s. Legislations began to pass in countries such as France and England that made guest registries mandatory within inns and hotels. This formal documentation was the beginning of management information systems in the travel industry. After these requirements were introduced, over 600 inns and hotels were eventually registered in England, mostly located near major roadways. The first printed guidebooks were developed through this documentation of registration, using the information for connecting hotels and travelers. Development continued with the beginning of the industrial revolution in the 1700s and the creation of the railroad. This ushered in the era of transportation, but changed the nature of travel, as hotels began to develop near city centers instead of near roadways, andShow MoreRelatedNotes On The Hospitality Industry Essay1616 Words   |  7 Pages.101 Principles of hospitality management Lecturer:-Zaina Therasia Student name: - Mohammed Sakil Student ID:-20151471 Student name: - Amanpreet Singh Dhanoa Student ID:-2015475 TOPIC: - NOVOTEL Hotel Contents Introduction†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦1 1.1 outline of the report†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦.. Hospitality Industry†¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦2 2.1 History †¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Ã¢â‚¬ ¦Read MoreEssay on Similarities and Differences Between TH1700 Words   |  7 Pagesranges from 24 hours to 1 year, the travel distance should be more than 100 kilometers and the activity must finish at where it started. (French, C 2000 p4-p6) 1.2. Hospitality: The Oxford English Dictionary (Soanes Stevenson, 2003, p. 839) gives hospitality a definition as ‘the act or practice of being hospitable; the reception and entertainment of guests, visitors or strangers with liberality or goodwill’. Giving a working definition, todays’ hospitality is operated in a commercial way in whichRead MoreEssay on hospitality scope size and diversity941 Words   |  4 Pagesï » ¿Unit 1: The hospitality Industry THE SIZE, SCOPE AND DIVERSITY OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY The scope of the hospitality industry refers to the range of businesses that provide services and facilities. The hospitality economy is one of the country’s key industries with huge growth prospects in jobs. In employment terms, restaurant are easily the largest sector, closely followed by a pubs, bars and club with the hotel sector growing more slowly, and the contract food service sector holding steady . Read MoreHospitality Provision964 Words   |  4 PagesASSIGNMENT Introduction Hospitality provision is one of important services in travel and tourism. The hotel is a basis for short accommodation needs of travellers. Depending on the content and using that object classification stay in hotel, tourism, resort, etc. According to the level of amenities available, they are classified according to the number of stars from 1 to 5 stars. In recent year, the economics and society are developing. People are getting busier with their work and their life. TheyRead MoreFood Import Ban And Economic Disabilities Affected Hospitality Industry889 Words   |  4 PagesThe size of the hospitality and tourism sector in Russia has grown significantly over the last decade. The events such as the Winter Olympics and country’s first Formula 1 Grand Prix helped Russia to improve its positions on the world tourism market. Many changes have been made since 2010 in the enhancement of facilities and services. These changes helped Russia to strengthen the country’s positio n worldwide. Hospitality sector in Russia In 2013 a lot of tourists visitedRead MoreThe Interrelationship Between Core Sectors In The Hospitality1336 Words   |  6 PagesThe interrelationship between core sectors in the hospitality industry The hospitality industry is one of the most important service providers in the international tourism industry. It includes all the tourists and passengers who travel to other destinations. They are part of the overall experience and must meet the standards set by the customer and industry. Modern websites, such as travel consultants, also set standards based on people s assessments of their experiences. â€Å"TheseRead MoreHow Social Media Changed The Hospitality Industry1148 Words   |  5 Pagesimprove living conditions, but also helps business owners to reach out more customers than before. This paper will take into account to talk about how social media changed the hospitality industry. The purpose of this paper is to study how social media change the behavior of customers within hospitality industry and how hospitality businesses is effected by social media. Based on the research conducted by Noone, â€Å"social media is the combination of various internet tools that enable users to generateRead MoreThe Scope Size and Diversity of Hospitality Industry Essay689 Words   |  3 PagesUnit 1: The hospitality Idustry THE SIZE ,SCOPE AND DIVERSITY OF HOSPITALITY INDUSTRY The scope of the hospitality industry refers to the range of businesses that provide services and facilities. The hospitality economy is one of the country’s key industries with huge growth prospects in jobs. In employment terms, restaurant are easily the largest sector, closely followed by a pubs, bars and club with the hotel sector growing more slowly, and the contract food service sector holding steady . ECONOMICRead MoreCurrent Issues For The Tourism And Hospitality Industry935 Words   |  4 PagesII. Current issues for the tourism and hospitality industry 1. Introduction Tourism is known as the largest and fastest growing industry which generate a massive revenue for the economy all over the world (Chon, 2010). It is said that tourism industry is growing 1.5 times faster than other industries and its economic, social effect on a nation is enormous (Trivun et al, 2008). Many countries especially developing countries see travel and tourism as a way to gain foreign currencies and attract internationalRead MoreImpact Of 2012 Olympics On Hospitality Essay1721 Words   |  7 Pages2012 Olympics and its impact on the hospitality industry of London. Research Background / Context On 6th July’ 2005 London was selected as the host city for the 2012 summer Olympic and Paralympics Games. The games is often labelled as the â€Å"greatest show on earth† which involves thousands of sports persons both men and women from around the globe aiming to reach the ultimate in sporting achievement. The Olympic Games will take place entirely in London, but the bid team had stressed throughout

Sci/256 Environmental Pollution Outline Free Essays

Environmental Pollution Outline Jason D Windham SCI/256 November-26-2012 University Of Phoenix Environmental Pollution Outline Water management- developing various plans to maintain the present and future water demands. It also may include importing state water, developing new resources, using reclaimed water, and managing existing supplies more cautiously. Describe water management and use. We will write a custom essay sample on Sci/256 Environmental Pollution Outline or any similar topic only for you Order Now Freshwater sources- Is water from the earth surface using glaciers, bogs, ice caps, ponds, lakes, streams and rivers Water supply problems-The demand for water increases yearly. Water conservation-The carful use and protection of the water supply. Water use-Off stream is water used from its source such as rivers and stream. Then you have Consumptive using which is the use from off stream by plants and animals. Next there is the in-stream usage which is the use of rivers for navigation, hydroelectric power generation, fish and animal habitats and also recreation. Effects of water use and management practices on the environment Short-term effects- Long-term effects- It’s really is a major concern due to climate change of the earth it can be uncertain. Three major types of environmental pollution- Water pollution , Air Pollution, Land Pollution Identify type one. Causes Treatments Effects on ecosystem health Effects on human health Identify type two. Causes Treatments Effects on ecosystem health Effects on human health Identify type three. Causes Treatments Effects on ecosystem health Effects on human health Global warming Background Describe the Earth’s atmosphere. Describe the Earth’s energy budget. Global warming concepts What makes the Earth warm? – Explain the greenhouse effect. What natural greenhouse gases are associated with the greenhouse effect? What anthropogenic greenhouse gases contribute to global warming? The future Predicted climate, weather, and ocean changes of increased global warming Potential environmental, ecological, and societal effects from increased global warming Evidence that supports or refutes increased global warming predictions and effects Prevention How might global warming be mitigated? What can you do to decrease the effects of global warming? What political constraints might influence decisions on global warming? As a global society, how can nations and individuals influence policies and practices to mitigate for increased global warming? How to cite Sci/256 Environmental Pollution Outline, Essay examples

Complaint handling and service recovery free essay sample

Why do customers complain? In general, studies of consumer complaining behavior have identified four main purposes for complaining. 1. Obtain restitution or compensation. Often, consumers complain to recover some economic loss by seeking a refund, compensation, and/or have the service performed again. 2. Vent their anger. Some customers complain to rebuild self-esteem and/or to vent their anger and frustration. When service processes are bureaucratic and unreasonable, or when employees are rude, deliberately intimidating, or apparently uncaring, customers self-esteem, self-worth, or sense of fairness can be negatively affected. They may become angry and emotional. 3. Help to improve the service. When customers are highly involved with a service , they give feedback to try and contribute toward service improvements. 4. For altruistic reasons. Finally, some customers are motivated by altruism. They want to spare other customers from experiencing the same shortcomings, and they may feel bad if they fail to draw attention to a problem that will cause difficulties for others if it remains uncorrected. We will write a custom essay sample on Complaint handling and service recovery or any similar topic specifically for you Do Not WasteYour Time HIRE WRITER Only 13.90 / page Why don’t unhappy customers complain? In some situations, people simply dont know where to go or what to do. Also, many people feel that complaining is unpleasant . Customers may not want to take the time to write a letter, send an email, fill out a form, or make a phone call, particularly if they dont see the service as being important enough to be worth the effort. Many customers see the payoff as uncertain and believe that no one will care about their problem or be willing to resolve it. They may be afraid of confrontation, especially if the complaint involves someone whom the customer knows and may have to deal with again. Customers are less likely to voice complaints in service situations in which they perceive they have low power (ability to influence or control the transaction). This is particularly true when the problem involves professional service providers, such as doctors, lawyers, or architects. Social norms tend to discourage customer criticism of such individuals, because of their perceived expertise. Who is most likely to complain? Research findings consistently show that people in higher socioeconomic circumstances are more likely to complain than those in lower levels. Their better education, higher income, and greater social involvement give them the confidence, knowledge, and motivation to speak up when they encounter problems. Further, those who complain also tend to be more knowledgeable about the service products in question. Where do customers complain? Studies show that the majority of complaints are made at the place where the service was received. One of the authors found that an astoundingly 99 percent-plus of customer feedback was given face to face or over the phone to customer service representatives. Less than 1 percent of all complaints were submitted via email, letters, faxes, or customer feedback cards. Also, customers tend to use non interactive channels to complain (e. g. , email or letters) when they mainly want to vent their anger and frustration, but resort to interactive channels such as face to face or the telephone when they want a problem to be fixed or redressed. Where do customers complain? Studies show that the majority of complaints are made at the place where the service was received. One of the authors found that an astoundingly 99 percent-plus of customer feedback was given face to face or over the phone to customer service representatives. Less than 1 percent of all complaints were submitted via email, letters, faxes, or customer feedback cards. Also, customers tend to use non interactive channels to complain (e. g. , email or letters) when they mainly want to vent their anger and frustration, but resort to interactive channels such as face to face or the telephone when they want a problem to be fixed or redressed. IMPACT OF EFFECTIVE SERVICE RECOVERY ON RETENTION When complaints are resolved satisfactorily, there is a much higher chance that the customers involved will remain loyal. Research has found that intentions to repurchase for different types of products ranged from 9 percent to 37 percent when customers were dissatisfied but did not complain. For a major complaint, the retention rate increased from 9 percent to 19 percent if the customer complained and the company offered a sympathetic ear but was unable to resolve the complaint to the satisfaction of the customer. If the complaint could be resolved to the satisfaction of the customer, the retention rate jumped to 54 percent. The highest retention rate, 82 percent, was achieved when problems were fixed quickly—typically, on the spot. The conclusion to be drawn is that complaint handling should be seen as a profit center and not a cost center. Service recovery paradox The service recovery paradox refers to the effect that customers who experience a service failure and then have it resolved to their full satisfaction are sometimes more likely to make future purchases than are customers who have no problem in the first place. A study of repeated service failures in a retail banking context showed that the service recovery paradox held for the first service failure that was recovered to a customers full satisfaction. However, if a second service failure occurred, the paradox disappeared. It seems that customers may forgive a firm once, but become disillusioned if failures recur. Furthermore, the study also showed that customers expectations were raised after they experienced a very good recovery; thus, excellent recovery becomes the standard they expect for dealing with future failures. Whether a customer is delighted by service recovery may also depend on the severity and recoverability of the failure no one can replace spoiled wedding photos or a ruined holiday, or eliminate the consequences of a debilitating injury caused by service equipment. In such situations, its hard to imagine anyone being truly delighted even when a most professional service recovery is conducted. Contrast these examples with a lost hotel reservation, for which the recovery is often an upgrade to a suite. When poor service is recovered by delivery of a superior product, youre usually delighted and probably hope for another lost reservation in the future. HOW TO ENABLE EFFECTIVE SERVICE RECOVERY Be proactive—on the spot, before customers complain Plan recovery procedures Teach recovery skills to relevant personnel Empower personnel to use judgment and skills to develop recovery solutions Be proactive—on the spot, before customers complain For example, the waiter may ask a guest who has eaten only half of his dinner, Is everything all right, sir? The guest might say, Yes, thank you, Im not very hungry, or The steak is well done but I asked for medium-rare; plus its very salty. The latter response gives the waiter a chance to recover the service, rather than have an unhappy diner leave the restaurant and potentially not return. Plan recovery procedures Contingency plans have to be developed for service failures, especially for those that can occur regularly and cannot be designed out of the system. Revenue management practices in the travel and hospitality industries often result in overbooking, and travelers are denied boarding or hotel guests are walked even though they had confirmed seats or reservations. To simplify the task of front-line staff, firms should identify the most common service problems such as overbooking and develop predetermined solution sets for employees to follow. Teach recovery skills to relevant personnel As a customer, you may quickly feel insecure at the point of service failure because things are not turning out as anticipated. So you look to an employee for assistance. But are they willing and able to help you? Effective training builds confidence and competence among front-line staff, enabling them to turn distress into delight. Empower personnel to use judgment and skills to develop recovery solutions Service recovery efforts should be flexible and employees should be empowered to use their judgment and communication skills to develop solutions that will satisfy complaining customers. This is especially true for out-of-the-ordinary failures for which a firm may not have developed and trained potential solution sets. Employees need to have the authority to make decisions and spend money in order to resolve service problems promptly and recover customer goodwill. GUIDELINES FOR THE FRONT LINE: HOW TO HANDLE COMPLAINT Act fast Admit mistakes but don’t be defensive Understand problem from customer’s viewpoint Don’t argue Acknowledge customer’s feelings Give benefit of doubt Clarify steps to solve problem Keep customers informed of progress Consider compensation Persevere to regain goodwill SERVICE GUARANTEES Guarantee = an assurance of the fulfillment of a condition (Webster’s Dictionary) In that a product offered by a firm will perform as promised and, if not, then some form of reparation will be undertaken by the firm CHARACTERISTICS OF AN EFFECTIVE SERVICE GUARANTEE Unconditional the guarantee should make its promise unconditionally – no strings attached Meaningful the firm should guarantee elements of the service that are important to the customer the payout should cover fully the customer’s dissatisfaction Easy to Understand and Communicate customers need to understand what to expect employees need to understand what to do Easy to Invoke and Collect the firm should eliminate hoops or red tape in the way of accessing or collecting on the guarantee CUSTOMER SATISFACTION AND SERVICE QUALITY Dimension Tangibles Definition Appearance of physical facilities, equipment, personnel, and communication materials Examples of customers questions 1) Are the hotels facilities attractive? 2) Is my accountant dressed appropriately? 3) Is my bank statement easy to understand? Dentist Dimension Reliability Definition Ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately Examples of customers questions 1) Does my lawyer call me back when promised? 2) Is my telephone bill free of errors? Punctuality of air service Dimension Responsiveness Definition Willingness to help customers and provide prompt service Examples of customers questions 1) When theres a problem, does the firm resolve it quickly? 2) Is my stockbroker willing to answer my questions? 3) Is the cable TV company willing to give me a specific time when the installer will show up? My internet service, Samsung example Dimension Competence Definition Possession of the skills and knowledge required to perform the service Examples of customers questions 1) Can the bank teller process my transaction without fumbling around? 2) Is my travel agent able to obtain the information I need when I call? 3) Does the dentist appear to be competent? Degree of Doctors Samsung monitor Dimension Courtesy Definition Politeness, respect, consideration, and friendliness of contact personnel Examples of customers questions 1) Are the telephone operators consistently polite when answering my calls? 2) Does the plumber take off muddy shoes before stepping on my carpet? Dimension Credibility Definition Trustworthiness, believability, honesty of the service provider Examples of customers questions 1) Does the hospital have a good reputation? 2) Does my stockbroker refrain from pressuring me to buy? 3) Does the repair firm guarantee its work? Lawyer , or wom,Claim settlement Dimension Security Definition Freedom from danger, risk, or doubt Examples of customers questions 1) Is it safe for me to use the banks ATMs at night? 2) Is my credit card protected against unauthorized use? Dimension Access Definition Approachability and ease of contact Examples of customers questions 1) How easy is it for me to talk to a supervisor when I have a problem? 2) Does the airline have a 24-hour toll-free phone number? 3) Is the hotel conveniently located? My internet service Dimension Communication Definition Listening to customers and keeping them informed in language they can understand Examples of customers questions 1) When I have a complaint, is the manager willing to listen to me? 2) Does my doctor avoid using technical jargon? 3) Does the electrician call when he or she is unable to keep a scheduled appointment? Dimension Understanding the customer Definition Making the effort to know customers and their needs Examples of customers questions 1) Does someone in the hotel recognize me as a regular customer? 2) Does my stockbroker try to determine my specific financial objectives? Insurance consultants 1) The knowledge gap is the difference between what service providers believe customers expect and customers actual needs and expectations. 2) The standards gap is the difference between managements perceptions of customer expectations and the quality standards established for service delivery. 3) The delivery gap is the difference between specified delivery standards and the service providers actual performance on these standards. 4) The internal communications gap is the difference between what the companys advertising and sales personnel think are the products features, performance, and service quality level and what the company is actually able to deliver. 5) The perceptions gap is the difference between what is, in fact, delivered and what customers perceive they received (because they are unable to evaluate service quality accurately). 6) The interpretation gap is the difference between what a service providers communication efforts (in advance of service delivery) actually promise and what a customer thinks was promised by these communications. 7) The service gap is the difference between what customers expect to receive and their perceptions of the service that is actually delivered. 8) Gaps 1,5,6, and 7 represent external gaps between the customer and the organization. Gaps 2, 3, and 4 are internal gaps that occur between various functions and departments within the organization. Prescriptions for Closing Service Quality Gaps Knowledge: Learn what customers expectconduct research, dialogue, feedback Standards: Specify SQ standards that reflect expectations Delivery: Ensure service performance matches specsconsider roles of employees, equipment, customers Internal communications: Ensure performance levels match marketing promises Perceptions: Educate customers to see reality of service delivery Interpretation: Pretest communications to make sure message is clear and unambiguous. Hard and Soft Measures of Service Quality Hard measures refer to standards and measures that can be counted, timed or measured through audits typically operational processes or outcomes e. g. how many trains arrived late? Soft measures refer to standards and measures that cannot easily be observed and must be collected by talking to customers, employees or others e. g. SERVQUAL, surveys, and customer advisory panels. Control charts are useful for displaying performance on hard measures over time against specific quality standards. Tools to Address Service Quality Problems Fishbone diagrams: A cause-and-effect diagram to identify potential causes of problems. Pareto charts: Separating the trivial from the important. Often, a majority of problems is caused by a minority of causes i. e. the 80/20 rule. Blueprinting: A visualization of service delivery. It allows one to identify fail points in both the front stage and backstage. Pareto analysis seeks to identify the principal causes of observed outcomes. This type of analysis underlies the so-called 80/20 rule, because it often reveals that around 80 percent of the value of one variable (in this instance, the number of service failures) is accounted for by only 20 percent of the causal variable (i. e. , the number of possible causes). In an airline example, analysis showed that 88 percent of the companys late-departing flights from the airports it served were caused by only four (5 percent) of all the possible factors. In fact, more than half the delays were caused by a single factor: acceptance of late passengers (when the staff held a flight for one more passenger who was checking in after the official cutoff time). Generic Productivity Improvement Strategies The task of improving service productivity has traditionally been assigned to operations managers, whose approach has typically centered on such actions as 1) Careful control of costs at every step in the process 2) Efforts to reduce wasteful use of materials or labor 3) Matching productive capacity to average levels of demand rather than peak levels, so that workers and equipment are not underemployed for extended periods 4) Replacing workers by automated machines 5) Providing employees with equipment and databases that enable them to work faster and/or to a higher level of quality 6) Teaching employees how to work more productively (faster is not necessarily better if it leads to mistakes or unsatisfactory work that has to be redone) 7) Broadening the array of tasks that a service worker can perform (which may require revised labor agreements) eliminates bottlenecks and wasteful downtime by allowing managers to deploy workers wherever they are most needed 8) Installing expert systems that allow paraprofessionals to take on work previously performed by professionals who earn higher salaries Although improving productivity can be approached incrementally, major gains often require redesigning entire processes.

The Handmaids Tale Essay Paper Example For Students

The Handmaids Tale Essay Paper As I reading the novel, The handmaid s tale, I recognized the Republic of Gilead, is a country, which is not only under the religious theoretic rule, but also dominated by the masculine power. All the men in the Republic have various of privileges that the women do not have. In the first 100 pages of the novel, I realized handmaids have think about using their bodies to make a deal with those Angle in order to escape from the red center, therefore, it hints from the beginning, men have greater power in the Republic. In the Republic, everybody has been ranked. The ranks of women, like Aunt, Martha, and Wife are specifically gendered words that mark the status of women. Therefore, regardless of her rank, a woman’s central feature is her sex. Even a Wife, the highest-ranking woman in the republic, is defined in relation to a man, her husband. Words such as Commander, Guardian, and Angel name men’s various ranks of power, but the words themselves do not reduce individual men to their sex alone. We will write a custom essay on The Handmaids Tale Paper specifically for you for only $16.38 $13.9/page Order now In the novel, we always see those words like unwomen, unbabies but we never see the word like unmen, it means there are no sterile men in the Republic s ideology and only women have defective in the eyes of the Republic s law. Moreover, men in the Republic are not defining through their bodies functions, but women do, the major purpose of women in the Republic is to reproduce baby. If those women fail to produce baby, they will declare as unwomen, and will be sent to the colonies and die in there. In the novel, we can see that all aspects of women s life were being highly regulated, their speech, writing, reading, job, economic independence or even their name. Those handmaids are never given individual names; the Republic regards them as objects or rather as state property and if giving them individual, unchanging names, those will undermine their position as state property. Therefore, the Commander names every Handmaid. (For instance Offred to Of Fred ) The Handmaid s names mark them as the property of the Commanders in whose homes they in currently. Their names will be change again when they move to another new households. I have no experience of living a country like the Republic of Gilead and I think there is no such regime existing on the earth. Nevertheless, indeed, the privilege is existed in all now day societies. Not only between two different genders, but also between dual/multiple groups/classes of people, for instance, rich people dominate the whole state economic and made a bad influence to middle/low classes people; a political party dominated a state, which provide benefit to those who are willing to bound with them and persecuted the other.