Service Characteristics for Hospitality The Victoria House is a small Caribbean Island resort hotellocated on an island off the shore of Belize. There is one phone, no television, and no newsstand. Looking at the ocean from the Victoria House's beach, guests can see waves breaking over the barrier reef renowned for its fishing and diving. Victoria House offers North American executives a chance to escape stress and relax in a tropical paradise. Victoria House's brochures communicate this message well, showing thatched villas, palm trees, and the Caribbean Sea. But when guest arrived at the resort, the initial impression was much different than that created by the brochure. The resort consists of a main lodge (guest rooms upstairs and the reception, dining room, and bar downstairs), employee quarters, and twelve thatched roof guest cottage. The van delivering guests to the hotel dropped them off between the main lodge and the employee quarters. Instead of enjoying a beautiful ocean view, guests saw the kitchen, the employee quarters, their laundry hanging out to dry, and a car being repaired with its motor hanging from a tree. Victoria House did not create a positive first impression. Guests stepping out of the van wondered if they had made a terrible mistake. The management of Victoria House grew up on the island and accept the breathtaking ocean views as common and uninspiring. The entrance was designed for efficiency to allow delivery trucks to drop their goods near storerooms and to drop the guests off at a convenient entrance to the lodge. The management of Victoria. House failed to consider that many guests had never been to the island and were expecting a tropical paradise. The New York executive who purchased a Victoria House vacation had only the promise, of stress-free relaxation, an air ticket, and a hotel voucher

before the trip. Management should have made certain that guests' impressions upon arriving at the resort matched those created by the brochure. In hospitality marketing, this is called managing the tangible evidence. When management finally recognized this error, a separate driveway was built, allowing guests to be delivered to the front of the resort. The view now included beautifully landscaped grounds with native flowers, palm trees, and a breathtaking view of the ocean. This provided immediate positive guest reinforcement.

Chapter ObjectivesAfter reading this chapter, you should be able to: 1. Describe a service culture. 2. Identify four service characteristics that affect the marketing of a hospitality or travel product. 3. Explain marketing strategies that are useful in the hospitality and travel industries. Marketing initially developed in connection with selling physical products, such as toothpaste, cars, steel, and equipment. But today, one of the major trends in many parts of the world is the phenomenal growth of services, or products with little or no physical content. In many developed countries, services account for a majority of the gross domestic product. The following are some of the countries where 60 percent or more of the gross domestic product (GDP) comes from services: Australia (71%), Canada (66%), France (71%), Japan (63%), Norway (72%), the United Kingdom (73%), and the United States (80%).1 Service economies are not limited to developed countries; in developing countries the majority of the workforce is often employed in the hospitality and travel industries. These industries are part of this growing service sector. Other service industries include banking, health care, entertainment, legal

aid, and transportation. The growth of service industries has created a demand for research into their operation and marketing. Throughout the book we include the results of recent research into services and marketing issues. In this chapter, as well as in the remainder of the book, we examine the service characteristics of firms in the hospitality industry. THE SERVICE CULTURE Some managers think of their operations only in terms of tangible goods. Thus, managers of fast-food restaurants who think they sell only hamburgers often have "slow, surly service personnel, dirty unattractive facilities, and few return customers."2 One of the most important tasks of a hospitality business is to develop the service side of the business, specifically, a strong service culture. 2.1 Four Seasons Hotels The service culture focuses on serving and satisfying the customer. The service culture has to start with top management and flow down. Isadore Sharp drives the service culture in four Seasons Hotels through employee communications, company policies, and personal actions. This belief at Four Seasons is reinforced for all its employees when those employees who go to extraordinary efforts to satisfy the customer are made Employee of the Year. A service culture empowers employees to solve customer problems. It is supported by a reward system based on customer satisfaction. Human beings generally do what is rewarded. If an organization wants to deliver a quality product, the organization's culture must support and reward customer need attention.3 In Chapter 10 we discuss service culture in more detail.

CHARACTERISTICS OF SERVICE MARKETING Service marketers must be concerned with four characteristics of services: intangibility, inseparability, variability, and perishability (see Figure 2-1). Intangibility Unlike physical products, services cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled before they are purchased. Prior to boarding an airplane, airline passengers have nothing but an airline ticket and the promise of safe delivery to their destination. Members of a hotel sales force cannot take a hotel room with them on a sales call. In fact, they do not sell a room; instead, they sell the right to use a room for a specific period of time. When hotel guests leave, they have nothing to show for the purchase but a receipt. Robert Lewis has observed that someone who purchases a service may go away empty-handed, but they do not go away empty-headed.4 They have memories that can be shared with others. Marriott Vacation Club International realizes this, and they have made a deliberate effort to create memorable guest experiences. Marriott realizes that a while-water rafting trip can create memories a family visiting their Mountainside Resort in Utah will talk about for years. The fun the family had experiencing white-water rafting, along with their other experiences at the resort, will make them want to return. In the hospitality and travel industry, many of the products sold are intangible experiences. If we are going to buy a car, we can take it for a test drive; if we are going to buy a meal at a restaurant, we do not know what we will receive until we have experienced the food and service. To reduce uncertainty caused by service intangibility, buyers look for tangible evidence that will provide information and confidence about the service.

The exterior of a restaurant is the first thing that an arriving guest sees. The condition of the grounds and the overall cleanliness of the restaurant provide clues as to how well the restaurant is run. Tangibles provide signals as to the quality of the intangible service. The Regent Hotel in Hong Kong makes sure that all its uniformed and nonuniformed employees reinforce the hotel's image of elegance and professionalism. The appearance of the employees is part of the Regent's tangible evidence. This hotel also purposely parks luxury automobiles such us a Rolls-Royce in front to deliver an instant message of quality and upscale service. Figure 2-1 Four service characteristics

As a niche segment of the hospitality-lodging industry, conference centers face a continuous need to make their products tangible. They must differentiate themselves from resorts and hotels. Product features that conference centers use to differentiate themselves include the following: Dedicated meeting rooms that cannot be used for other purposes as in most hotels

Twenty-four-hour use which offers security and personalization for clients (computers, briefcases, and the like can be left in the room) Continuous coffee, not just coffee breaks All-inclusive pricing, a set price per day, per meeting attendee 2.2 international Association of Conference Centers Marriott Vacation Clubs International Regent Hong Kong

The International Association of Conference Centers offers an online database for travel planners. This important customer segment can access a great amount of information about conference centers, such as size of property, location, availability, and pricing. To help tangibilize the product, the system allows meeting planners to see a layout of a potential property's meeting space on the display screen. Clients can get a concrete idea of the mix of general session, breakout, boardroom, and amphitheater spaces to match their needs.5 Inseparability In most hospitality services, both the service provider and the customer must be present for the transaction to occur. Customer-contact employees are part of the product. The food in a restaurant may be outstanding, but if the service person has a poor attitude or provides inattentive service, customers will down-rate the overall restaurant experience. They will not he satisfied with their experience. Service inseparability also means that customers are part of the product. A couple may have chosen a restaurant because it is quiet and romantic, but if a group of loud and boisterous conventioneers is seated in the same room, the couple will be disappointed. Managers must manage their customers so that they do not create dissatisfaction for other customers.

Another implication of inseparability is that customers and employees must understand the service delivery system, since they are both coproducing the service. Customers must understand the menu items in a restaurant so that they get the dish they expect. Hotel customers must know how to use the phone system and express checkout on the television. This means hospitality and travel organization have to train customers just as they train employees. The Holiday Inn Newark is popular with international tourists who have just arrived from overseas. Many of these guests pay in cash or with travelers' checks, as they do not use credit cards. On more than one occasion, the front-desk clerk has been observed answering the phone of an upset guest who claims that their movie system does not work. The clerk must explain that they did not establish credit, because they paid for the room only and therefore have to come to the front desk and pay for the movie before it can be activated. Guests obviously become upset upon receiving this information. The hotel could avoid this problem and improve customer relations by asking. Guests at arrival time if they would like to make a deposit for anything they might charge, such as in-room movies. Finally, customer coproduction means organizations must select, hire, and train customers.6 Fast-food restaurants train customers to get their own drinks. This gives the customer something to do while waiting and reduces the need for employees to fill drink orders themselves. Hotels, restaurants, airlines, and rental car companies train customers to use the Internet to get information and to make reservations. The customer using these services is performing the job of customer service agent andreservationist. The benefits provided to the guest by becoming an "employee" include reduced price, increased value (all you can eat or free drink refills), customization, and reduced waiting time. The

characterisc of inseparability requires hospitality managers to manage both their employees and their customers. Variability Services are highly variable. Their quality depends on who provides them and when and where they are provided. There are several causes of service variability. Services are produced and consumed simultaneously, which limits quality control. Fluctuating demand makes it difficult to deliver consistent products during periods of peak demand. The high degree of contact between the service provider and the guest means that product consistency depends on the service provider's skills and performance at the time of the exchange. A guest can receive excellent service one day and mediocre service from the same person the next day. In the case of mediocre service the, service person may not have felt well or perhaps experienced an emotional problem. Lack of communication and heterogeneity of guest expectations is another source of variability. A restaurant customer ordering a medium steak may expect it to be cooked all the way through, whereas the person working on the broiler may define medium as having a warm, pink center. The guest will be disappointed when he or she cuts into the steak and sees. Pink meat. Restaurants have solved this cause of variability by developing common definitions of steak doneness and communicating them to the employees and customers. Sometimes the communication to the customer is verbal, and sometimes it is printed on the menu. Customers usually return to a restaurant because they enjoyed their last experience. When the product they receive is different and does not meet their expectations on the next visit, they often do not return. Variability or lack of consistency in the product is a major cause of customer disappointment in the hospitality industry.

2.3 Club Med Perishability Services cannot he stored. A 100-room hotel that only sells 60 rooms on a particular night cannot inventory the 40 unsold rooms and then sell 140 rooms the next night. Revenue lost from not selling those 40 rooms is gone forever. Because of service perishability, some hotels charge guests holding guaranteed reservations even when they fail to check into the hotel. Restaurants are also starting to charge a fee to customers who do not show up for a reservation. They, too, realize that if someone does not show for a reservation, the opportunity to sell that seat may be lost. If services are to maximize revenue, they must manage capacity and demand because they cannot carry forward unsold inventory. The characteristic of perishability means that capacity and demand management are important to the success of a hospitality or travel company. In Chapter 11 we discuss capacity and demand in detail. This Club Med example is just one way companies can manage demand to reduce product loss: Club Med operates hundreds of Club Med villages (resorts) around the world. If the company cannot sell its rooms and air packages, it loses out as the products are perishable. Club Med uses e-mail to pitch unsold, discounted packages to the 34,000 people in its database. These people are notified early to midweek on rooms and air seats available for travel that day. Discounts are typically 30 to 40 percent off the standard package. An average of 1.2 percent respond to the offers, and Club Med takes in anywhere from $25,000 to $40,000 every month from e-mail sales of distressed inventory.7

Before the program, Club Med's only alternative was to rely on travel agents to sell last-minute packages. Club Med's database includes such information as vacation preferences, preferred sports and activities, preferred time of year for travel and marital status, as well as geographic data. Although current email offers aren't targeted, the company plans to create one-toone marketing messages in the future. MANAGEMENT STRATEGIES FOR SERVICE BUSINESSES Service marketers can do several things to increase service effectiveness in the face of intrinsic service characteristics. Just like manufacturing businesses, good service firms use marketing to position themselves strongly in chosen target markets. Southwest Airlines positions itself as "Just Plane Small" for commuter flyersas a no-frills, short-haul airline charging very low fares. The Ritz-Carlton Hotel positions itself as offering a memorable experience that ''enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests." These and other service firms establish their positions through traditional marketing mix activities. However, because services differ from tangible products, they often require additional marketing approaches. In a product business, products are fairly standardized and can sit on shelves waiting for customer. But in a service business, the customer and frontline service employee interact to create the service. Thus, service providers must work to interact effectively with customers to create superior value during service encounvice. Effective interaction, in turn, depends on the skills of frontline service employees, and on the service production and support processes backing these employees. Successful service companies focus their attention on both their employees and customers. They understand the service-

profit chain which links service firm profits with employee and customer satisfaction. This chain consists of five links:8 1. Healthy service profits and growthsuperior service firm performance 2. Satisfied and loyal customerssatisfied customers who remain loyal, repeal purchase, and refer other customers 3. Greater service valuemore effective and efficient customer value creation and service deliver 4. Satisfied and productive service employeesmore satisfied, loyal, and hardworking employees 5. Internal service qualitysuperior employee selection and training, a high-quality work environment, and strong support for those dealing with customers Therefore, reaching service profits and growth goals begins with taking care of chose who take care of customers (see Marketing Highlight 2-1). The concept of the service-profit chain is well illustrated by a story about how Bill Marriott Jr., chairman of Marriott Hotels, interviews prospective managers: Bill Marriott tells job candidates that the hotel chain wants to satisfy three groups: customers, employees, and stockholders. Although all of the groups are important, he asks in which order the groups should be satisfied. Most candidates say satisfy the customer first. Marriott, however, reasons differently. First, employees must be satisfied. If employees love their jobs and feel a sense of pride in the hotel, they will serve customers well. Satisfied customers will return frequently to the Marriott. Moreover, dealing with happy customers will make employees even more satisfied, resulting in better service and still greater repeal business, all of which will yield a level of profits that will satisfy Marriott stockholders.

All this suggests that service marketing requires move than just traditional external marketing using the four Ps. Figure 2-2 shows that service marketing also requires both internal marketing and interactive marketing. Internal marketing means that the service firm must effectively train and motivate its customer-contact employees and all the supporting service people to work as a team to provide customer satisfaction. For the firm to deliver consistently high service quality, everyone must practice a customer orientation. It is not enough to have a marketing department doing traditional marketing while the rest of the company goes its own way. Marketers also must get everyone else in the organization to practice marketing. In fact, internal marketing must precede external marketing. In Chapter 10 we discuss internal marketing.

Figure 2-2 Three types of marketing in service industries Interactive marketing means that perceived service quality depends heavily on the quality of the buyerseller interaction during the service encounter. In product marketing,

product quality often depends little on how the product is obtained. But in services of marketing, service quality depends on both the service deliverer and the quality of the delivery. The customer judges service quality not just on technical quality (the quality of the food) but also on its functional quality (the service provided in the restaurant). Service employees have to master interactive marketing skills or functions as well.9 2.4 ARAMARK Marriott Ritz-Carlton ARAMARK provides a good example of using technology to aid interactive marketing, ARAMARK decided to improve its food service to hospitals by creating a propriety database that tracks patient preferences individually, by hospital regionally, and nationally. The accumulated information is immediately analyzed, and the database is updated. Future meal offerings are then based on the analysis. ARAMARK cannot rely on technology alone; the interaction of employees and customers is an important part of the hospitality businesses. ARAMARK cannot forget this high-touch component of the business. For the high-touch part of the equation, ARAMARK's kitchen staffers have been transformed into "hosts" through forty-hour training sessions that teach them to be courteous, efficient, and fast. ARAMARK combines high-tech and high-touch when the trained hosts deliver customized meals from carts preloaded according to database information on patient preferences. Using this system, ARAMARK slashed meal delivery time from twenty-four hours to two minutes. With better service, ARAMARK boosted patient satisfaction from 84 percent.10 Today, as competition and costs increase, and as productivity and quality decrease, more marketing sophistication is needed. Service companies face the task of increasing three major marketing areas: their competitive differentiation, service quality, and productivity.

Managing Differentiation In these days of intense price competition, service marketers often complain about the difficulty of differentiating their services from those of competitors. To the extent that customers view the services of different providers as similar, they care less about the provider than the price. The solution to price competition is to develop a differentiated offer, delivery, and image. The offer can include innovative features that set one company's offer apart from its competitors'. For example, airlines have introduced such innovations as in-flight movies, advance seating, air-to-ground telephone service, and frequent-flyer award programs to differentiate their offers British Airways even offers international travelers a sleeping compartment, hot showers, and cooked-to-order breakfasts. Unfortunately, most service innovations are copied easily. Still, the service company that innovates regularly usually will gain a succession of temporary advantages and an innovative reputation that may help it keep customers who want to go with the best. 2.5 British Airways Hyatt Service companies can differentiate their service deliver in three ways: through people, physical environment, and process. The company can distinguish itself by having more able and reliable customer-contact people than its competitors, or it can develop a superior physical environment in which the service product is delivered. Finally, it can design a superior delivery process. For example, Hyatt offers its guest a computerized check-in option at some of its hotels. Finally, service companies can also differentiate their images through symbols and branding. For example, a familiar symbol would be

McDonald's golden arches, and familiar brands include Hilton, Shangri-La, and Sofitel. Managing Service Quality One of the major ways that a service firm can differentiate itself is by delivering consistently higher quality than its competitors. Like manufacturers before them, many service industries have now joined the total quality movement. Many companies are finding that outstanding service quality can give them a potent competitive advantage that leads to superior sales and profit performance. Some firms have become almost legendary for their high-quality service. The key is to exceed the customers' service-quality expectations. As the chief executive at American Express puts it, ''Promise only what you can deliver and deliver more than you promise!'' These expectations are based on past experiences, word of mouth, and service firm advertising. If perceived service of a given firm exceeds expected service, customers are apt to use the provider again. Customer retention is perhaps the best measure of qualitya service firm's ability to hang onto its customers depends on how consistently it delivers value to them. Thus, whereas the manufacturer's quality goal might be zero defects, the service provider's goal is zero customer defections. The service provider needs to identify the expectations of target customers concerning service quality. Unfortunately, service quality is harder to define and judge than product quality. Moreover, although greater service quality results in greater customer satisfaction, it also results in higher costs. Still, investments in service usually pay off through increased customer retention and sales. Whatever the level of service provided, it is important that the service provider clearly define and communicate that level so that its employees know what they must deliver and customers know what they will get.

Many service companies have invested heavily to develop streamlined and efficient service-delivery systems. They want to ensure that customers will receive consistently high-quality service in even service encounter. Unlike product manufacturers who can adjust their machinery and inputs until everything is perfect, service quality will always vary, depending on the interactions between employees and customers. Problems inevitably will occur. As hard as they try, even the best companies will have an occasional late delivery, burned steak, or grumpy employee. However, although a company cannot always prevent service problems, it can learn to recover from them. Good service recovery can turn angry customers into loyal ones. In fact, good recovery can win more customer purchasing and loyalty than if things had gone well in the first place. Therefore, companies should take steps not only to provide good service every time but also to recover from service mistakes when they do occur. The first step is to empower frontline service employeesto give them the authority, responsibility, and incentives they need to recognize, care about, and tend to customer needs, For example, Marriott has put some 70,000 employees through empowerment training which encourages them to go beyond their normal jobs to solve customer problems. Such empowered employees can act quickly and effectively to keep service problems from resulting in lost customers. The Marriott Desert Springs revised the job description for its customer-contact employees. The major goal of these positions now is to ensure that "our guests experience excellent service and hospitality while slaying at our resort." Well-trained employees are given the authority to do whatever it takes, on the spot, to keep guests happy. They are also expected to help management ferret out the cause of guests' problems, and to inform managers of ways to improve overall hotel service and guests' comfort.

2.6 Marriott Desert Springs MGM Grand Hotel and Casino Outback Steak house Disney Swissair Studies of well-managed service companies show that they share a number of common virtues regarding service quality. First, top service companies are "customer obsessed." They have a distinctive strategy for satisfying customer needs that wins enduring customer loyalty. Second, well-managed service companies have a history of top management commitment to quality. Management at companies such as Marriott Disney, Delta Airlines, and McDonald's looks not only at financial performance but also at service performance. Third, the best service providers set high service-quality standards. Swissair, for example, aims to have 96 percent or more of its passengers rate its service as good or superior: otherwise, it takes action. The standards must be set appropriately high. A 98 percent accuracy standard may sound good, but using this standard, the MGM Grand Hotel would send fifty guests a day to rooms that are already occupied, the Outback Steak House chain would have hundreds of miscoded steaks, and Forte Hotels would make hundreds of errors in their central reservation office every week. This level of errors would be unacceptable for these companies. Top service companies do not settle merely for "good" service; they aim for 100 percent defect-free service. Fourth, the top service firms watch service performance closelyboth their own and that of competitors. They use methods such as comparison shopping, customer surveys, and suggestions and complaint forms. Good service companies also communicate their concerns about service quality to employees and provide performance feedback. Ritz Carlton has daily meetings with its employees to go over customer feedback and to review the guest history of arriving guests.

With their costs rising rapidly, service firms are under great pressure to increase service productivity. They can do so in several ways. The service providers can train current employees better, or they can hire new employees who will work harder or more skillfully for the same pay. Or the service providers can increase the quantity of their service by giving up some quality. The provider can "industrialize the service" by adding equipment and standardizing production, as in McDonald's assembly-line approach to fast-food retailing. Commercial dishwashing, jumbo jets, and multiple-unit movie theaters all represent technological expansions of service. Service providers also can increase productivity by designing more effective services. Many fast-food companies now have the customer get their own drinks. They hand the customer a cup, and the customer gets the ice and drink. Hotels, restaurants, and amusement parks are fitting employees with headsets so that they can maintain constant contact with other employeesincreasing their productivity. However, companies must avoid pushing productivity so hard that doing so reduces perceived quality. Some productivity steps help standardizes quality, increasing customer satisfaction; other productivity steps lead to too much standardization and can rob consumers of customized service. Attempts to industrialize a service or to cut costs can make a service company more efficient in the short run but reduce its longer-run ability to innovate, maintain service quality, or respond to consumer needs and desires. In some cases, service providers accept reduced productivity in order to create more service differentiation or quality.

Southwest Airlines creates happy customers, which create happy employees. Courtesy of David Woo Tangibilizing the Product Service marketers should take steps to provide their prospective customers with evidence that will help tangibilize the service. Promotional material, employees' appearance, and the service firm's physical environment all help tangibilize service. A hotel's promotional material might include a meeting planner's packet, containing photographs of the hotel's public area, guest rooms, and meeting space. The packet would also contain floor plans of the meeting space, including room capacities for the different types of setups, to help the meeting planner visualize the meeting space. A banquet salesperson for a fine restaurant can make the product tangible by taking pastry samples on morning sales calls. This creates goodwill and provides the prospective client with some knowledge about the restaurant's food quality. The salesperson might also bring a photo album showing photographs of banquet setups, plate presentations for different entrees, and testimonial letters from past clients. For persons having a dinner as part of their wedding reception, some hotels will prepare the meal for the bride's family before the wedding day. Thus, the bride gets to actually experience the food before the reception, so there are no surprises.

The salesperson may be the prospective customer's first contact with that business. A salesperson who is well groomed and dressed appropriately and who answers questions in a prompt professional manner can do a great deal to help the customer develop a positive image of the hotel. Uniforms also provide tangible evidence of the experience. The uniforms worn by stewards and stewardesses on BMI Midland Airlines are neat and professional looking.

Uniforms provide tangible evidence that the persons delivering the experience are professional.

Marketing Highlight 2-1 Ritz-Carlton: Taking Care of Those Who Take Care of Customers Ritz-Carlton, a chain of over fifty luxury hotels renowned for outstanding service, caters to the top 5 percent of corpora to and leisure travelers. The company's credo sets lofty customerservice goals: "The Ritz-Carlton Hotel is a place where the genuine care and comfort of our guests is our highest mission. We pledge to provide the finest personal service and facilities for our guest, who will always enjoy a warm, relaxed, yet refined ambience. The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the

senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests." The credo is more than just words on paper Ritz-Carlton delivers on its promises. In surveys of departing guests, some 95 percent report that they've had a truly memorable experience. In fact, at Ritz-Carlton, exceptional service encounters have become almost commonplace. Take the experiences of Nancy and Harvey Heffner of Manhattan, who stayed at the Ritz-Carlton in Naples, Florida. As reported in the New York Times: "The hotel is elegant and beautiful," Mrs. Heffner said, "but more important is the beauty expressed by the staff. They can't do enough to please you." When the couple's son became sick last year in Naples, the hotel staff brought him hot tea with honey at all hours of the night, she said. When Mr. Heffner had to fly home on business for a day and his return flight was delayed, a driver for the hotel waited in the lobby most of the night. Such personal, high-quality service has also made the Ritz-Carlton a favorite among conventioneers. Comments one convention planner, "They not only treat us like kings when we hold our top-level meetings in their hotels, but also we just never get any complaints." In 1991, Ritz-Carlton received 121 quality-related awards, along with the industry-best rankings by all three hotel-rating organizations. In 1992, it became the first hotel company to win the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award. More important, service quality has resulted in high customer retention: more than 90 percent of Ritz-Carlton customer return. Despite its hefty $150 average room rate, the chain enjoys a 70 percent occupancy rate, almost nine points above the industry average. Most of the responsibility for keeping guests satisfied falls to Ritz Carlton's customer-contact employees. Thus, the hotel chain takes great care in selecting its personnel. "We want only people who care about people," notes Patrick Mene, the company's vice president of quality. Once selected, employees

are given intensive training in the art of coddling customers. New employees attend a two-day orientation in which top management drums into them the "20 Ritz-Carlton Basics." Basic number one: "The Credo will be known, owned, and energized by all employees." Employees are taught to do everything they can never to lose a guest. "There's no negotiating at Ritz-Carlton when it comes to solving customer problems," says Mene. Staff learn that anyone who receives a customer complaint owns that complaint until it's resolved. They are trained to drop whatever they're doing to help a customerno matter what they're doing or what their department. Ritz-Carlton employees are empowered to handle problems on the spot, without consulting higher-ups. Each employee can spend up to $2,000 to redress a guest grievance, and each is allowed to break from his or her routine for as long as needed to make a guest happy. "We master customer satisfaction at the individual level," adds Mene. "This is our most sensitive listening post...our early warning system." Thus, while competitors are still reading guest comment cards to learn about customer problems, RitzCarlton has already resolved them. Ritz-Carlton instills a sense of pride in its employees. "You serve," they are told, "but you are not servants." The company motto states: "We are ladies and gentlemen serving ladies and gentlemen." Employees understand their role in Ritz-Carlton's success. "We might not be able to afford a hotel like this," says Tammy Ration, "but we can make it so people who can afford it want to keep coming here." And so they do. When it comes: to customer satisfaction, no detail is too small. Customer-contact people are taught to greet guests warmly and sincerely, using guests' names when possible. They learn to use proper language when speaking to guests"Good morning," "Certainly," "I'll be happy to," and "My pleasure," never "Hi" or "How's it going?" The Ritz-Carlton

Basics urge employees to escort the guest to another area of the hotel rather than pointing out directions, to answer the phone within three rings and with a "smile," and to take pride and care in personal appearance. Ritz-Carlton recognizes and rewards employees who perform feats of outstanding service. Under its Five-Star Awards program, outstanding performers are nominated by peers and managers, and winners receive plaques at dinners celebrating their achievements. For on-the-spot recognition, managers award Cold Standard Coupons, redeemable for items in the gift shop and free weekend stays at the hotel. Ritz-Carlton further rewards and motivates its employees with events such as Super Sports Day, an employee talent show, luncheons celebrating employee anniversaries, a family picnic, and special themes in employee dining rooms. As a result, Ritz-Carlton's 25,000 employees appear to be just as satisfied as its customers. Employee turnover is less than 30 percent a year, compared with 45 percent at other luxury hotels. Ritz-Carlton's success is based on a simple philosophy: To take care of customers, you must first take care of those who take care of customers. Satisfied customers, in turn, create sales and profits for the company. Sources: Quotes from Edwin McDowell, "Ritz-Carlton's Keys to Good Service," New York Times, March 31, 1993. p. D1; and Howard Schlossberg, "Measuring Customer Satisfaction is Easy to DoUntil You Try," Marketing News, April 26, 1993, pp. 5, 8. See also Rahall Jacob, "Why Some Customers Are More Equal than Lochs," fortune, September 19, 1994, pp. 215-224; Don Peppers, "Digitizing Desire," Forbs, April 10, 1995, p. 76; "About Us, Fact Sheet," http://www.ritzcarltort.cum, accessed November 7, 2001. Everything about a hospitality company communicates something. The wrappers put on drinking glasses in the guest

rooms serve the purpose of letting the guest know that the glasses have been cleaned. The fold in the toilet paper in the bathroom lets the guest know that the bathroom has been tidied. The reel and white awnings, the outside patio, and the blue-and-white striped building displaying the T.G.I. Friday's sign in large letters are signs to indicate that this restaurant offers informality and fun. A couple looking for an elegant, intimate restaurant would be disappointed at T.G.I. Friday's. T.G.I. Friday's uses their restaurant exterior to select customers that will enjoy the casual dining experience of a Friday's. Similarly, Hampton Inn's exterior appearance suggests to travelers that it will provide clean, comfortable, and safe lodging at a moderate price. When guests arrive, they find no door or bell clerks, concierge desk, or other features of an upscale hotel. Instead, they find an attentive desk clerk in an appropriate uniform and a small lobby with comfortable but moderate furnishings.

Trade Dress Hospitality companies have become very sensitive to protecting the distinctive nature of their total visual image and overall appearance; this is known as trade dress. McDonald's and Holiday Inn have brought lawsuits against competitors who dared to copy any form of the golden arches or Holiday Inn sign. 2.7 bmi British Midland Airlines Taco Cabana Burger King A U.S. court has found that the decor, menu, layout, and style of service of a restaurant was protectable trade dress.12 The restaurant Taco Cabana sued Two Pesos Inc., for trade dress infringement under the Lanham Act. Taco Cabana complained that the interior of Two Pesos was too similar to

that of Taco Cabana. Similarly, Prufrock Ltd. sued Dixie House Restaurants, claiming that this competitor had copied its concept of a full-service restaurant serving down-home country cooking in a relaxed and informal atmosphere with a fullservice bar, using booth seating, small-print wallpaper, antique drop-leaf tables, an exposed kitchen area, antique light fixtures, an antique bar, and country-style wall decor.13 Experts in this field have concluded: "It's not a simple matter to know when an operation's total visual image and overall product presentation can be considered exclusive to a particular chain or company." To compare effectively in today's marketplace, an entrepreneur, operator, or owner must design an effective trade dress while taking care not to imitate too closely that of a competitor.14 Members of the hospitality industry should not be misled by thinking that protection of trade dress is a worldwide concept. One only has to visit other nations, particularly those in the Third World, to observe that local entrepreneurs commonly copy successful trade dress from other nations. In some cases this makes it impossible for a company to use its own name or trade dress in a foreign nation. For a number of years, Burger King did not have the rights to use this name throughout Australia and instead called its restaurants Hungry Jack. Managing the Physical Surroundings Physical evidence that is not managed properly can hurt a business. Negative messages communicated by poorly managed physical evidence include signs that continue to advertise a holiday special two weeks after the holiday has passed, signs with missing letters or burned-out lights, parking lots and grounds that are unkempt and full of trash, and employees in dirty uniforms at messy workstations. Such signs send negative messages to customers. Restaurant managers are trained to do a preopening inspection of the restaurant.

One of the things they look for is that all light bulbs are working. A little thing like a burned-out light bulb can give a guest sitting near it an impression that the restaurant does not pay attention to detail. Physical surroundings should be designed to reinforce the product's position in the customer's mind. The front-desk staff in a luxury hotel should dress in professional apparel wool or wool-blend conservative clothes. The front-desk staff at a tropical resort might wear tropical. Hawaiian-style shirts. The counter staff at a fast-food restaurant might wear a simple polyester uniform. A firm's communications should also reinforce their positioning. Ronald McDonald is great for McDonald's, but a clown would not be appropriate for a Four Seasons hotel. All said, a service organization should review every piece of tangible evidence to make sure that each deliver the desired organization imagethe way a person or group views an organizationto target customers.15

This publicity photo of Accor's ibis. Novotel, und Mercure hotels illustrates the excellent locution of these hotels along Sydney's Darling Harbor.

Friday's exterior provides evidence that Friday's is a casual restaurant. Courtesy of T.G.I. Friday's, Inc. Stress Advantages of Nonownership In a service the customer does not have ownership of the product. Lack of ownership, sometimes cited as a major characteristic of a service, can be stressed as a benefit.16For example, rather than own corporate lodging and provide a staff to maintain the lodging, corporations are usually better off negotiating a rate with a hotel. The advantages of nonownership in this case include only paying for the rooms when they are used, not having to maintain apartments, having access to capital that is not tied up in the ownership of the lodging facilities, and the extra services provided by the hotel food and (leverage, meeting rooms, and shops). Managing Employees as Part of the Product In the hospitality industry, employees are a critical part of the product and marketing mix. This means that the human resources and marketing departments must work closely together. In restaurants without a human resources department, the restaurant manager serves as the human resource manager. The manager must hire friendly and capable employee and formulate policies that support positive relations

between employee and guests. Even minor details related to personnel policy can have a significant effect on the product's quality.17 One fast-food restaurant had a policy that all employees must be off the clock by 10:15 P.M. To implement the policy, employees had to shut down the restaurant starting at 9:40 P.M., even though it advertised that it was open until 10 P.M. In a well-run hospitality organization, there are two customers, the paying customer and the employees.18 The task of training and motivating employees to provide good customer service is called internal marketing. In the hospitality industry, it is not enough to have a marketing department focused on traditional marketing to a targeted external market. The job of the marketing department includes encouraging everyone in the organization to practice customer-oriented, thinking19 ( see Chapter 10). The following excerpt from In Search of Excellence illustrates the importance of well-trained employees in a hospitality operation: We had decided, after dinner, to spend a second night in Washington. Our business day had taken us beyond the last convenient flight out. We had no reservations but were near the new Four Seasons, had stayed there once before, and liked it. As we walked through the lobby wondering how best to plead our case for a room, we braced for the usual chilly shoulder accorded to latecomers. To our astonishment, the concierge looked up, smiled, called us by name, and asked how we were. She remembered our names! We knew in a flash why in the space of a brief year the Four Seasons had become the "place to stay'' in the District and was a rare first-year holder of the venerated four-star rating.20 Points-of-Encounter

Efforts to control consistency in the hospitality industry are sometimes unsuccessful because concentration is not placed on the right areas. In the book You Can't Lose If the Customer Wins, Ron Nykiel, a former senior vice president of marketing for Stouffer Hotels, discusses the importance of points-ofencounter.21 A point-of-encounter is any point at which an employee encounters the customer. This seems simple enough, but let's take an imaginary journey in which we will be staying at the fictitious King's Crown Hotel. Our flight has landed and we are now standing near the carousels waiting for our luggage. Suddenly, one of us gets the idea to call the hotel on those free phones you find in airports. The purpose of this call is to inform the hotel that we are here and arrange for a pickup in their free airport van. Encounter Point 1: The Voice on the Phone. Unfortunately, the free phone must have been surplus World War II equipment, as a constant squeal resounds in one's ear. The phone is ringing and ringing and ringing. After what seems like a number of rings equal to the national debt, a voice answers, "Hello!" We wonder if this is the hotel or perhaps Tony's pool hall. Sure enough, after asking, the voice confirms it is the King's Crown Hotel. Before we can say more, the voice says, "Please hold," and bingo, the voice is gone. The squeal is now accompanied by elevator music When the voice returns we state our name and ask if a van can be sent to pick us up. "Just a moment," says the voice and we now hear the phone ringing elsewhere. A voice from reservations now answers and asks why we called. We repeat our message and give our name. "We have you booked for tomorrow. Are you sure you're here?" We reply we are very much here and in fact the only ones left at the Carousel, as the baggage arrived sometime during the previous decade. After considerable discussion, we are told

that he can have a room, but all the nonsmoking ones are gone. Fortunately, there is one available smoking room since the previous guest just died of emphysema, leaving available space. We are then instructed to proceed to Section 32E across the street from Terminal 2 and through an unlit alley to the van loading area. Fortunately, no one is mugged as we backpack our way to this area and proceed to wait. By this time there is a constant cold drizzle, and the van waiting area is free of anything that resembles a roof. Encounter Point 2: Our Delightful Driver. Twenty-nineand-a-half minutes later the van arrives. A nonuniformed individual of questionable gender informs us that someone forgot to tell (him/her?) that passengers waiting until just now so (he/she) cannot be blamed for being late. Mr. or Ms. driver threw a bad disc out of joint yesterday, so we place our own bags in the van. Upon arriving at the hotel, we also unload the bags, but find our driver waiting with palm up. Encounter Point 3: The Invisible Bell Cap. Thirty centimeters before dragging ourselves to the front desk, a uniformed bell cap emerges from thin air and attempts to "debag'" us. Having dragged tonnage this far, we reject the offer only to be given that look of "miserable low-class skinflints." Encounter Point 4: The Front Desk. The bell cap is not the only person to emerge suddenly, as now a Convention of Royal Muskrats of Muskegon races in front of us to the only desk clerk on duty. Forty-seven-and-six-tenths minutes later, it is our turn. You guessed it! Reservation somehow did not relay the message that we were coming and the body still has not been removed from that single remaining smoke-filled room. Suddenly, the desk clerk asks if we don't love the appearance of the lobby, which was just renovated with pure gold at a cost

of $365 million. One or both of us is now being escorted to police headquarters for attempted strangulation of a desk clerk. Contrast this to the experience Ron Nykiel claims is commonly accorded to top management and owners. "Picture the hotel executive being met at the airport and whisked off in the hotel's limo, bypassing vans and cabs. He then bypasses the front desk by being taken to his room by a member of the hotel's management team. I could go on to describe the prompt room service and the superb gourmet meal, all the way to bypassing the infamous check-out counter.22 Members of management do not purposely neglect pointsof-encounter; they simply do not see them. Points-of-encounter are so familiar they become invisible. In far too many cases, management and owners are concerned with features such as the lobby. The owners of a Singapore hotel reportedly spent over $1 million on a staircase railing leading to the mezzanine. Elegant features are nice, but do not rank in guest importance to encounter points. Encounter point service can be improved only if such points are recognized and experienced by management or their representatives, such as "mystery guests."

A well-trained employee with a positive altitude toward customers can be one of the company's most important product attributes. Courtesy of the Jamaica Tourist Board

Managing Perceived Risk Customers who buy hospitality products experience some anxiety because they cannot experience the product beforehand.23 Consider a salesperson who is asked by her sales manager to set up a regional sales meeting. Suppose that the salesperson has never set up a meeting or worked with hotels. The salesperson is obviously nervous. If the meeting goes well, the sales manager will he favorably impressed; if it goes badly, the salesperson may he blamed. In arranging for the meeting place, the salesperson has to trust the hotel's salesperson. Good hotel salespeople will alleviate client fears by letting them know that they have arranged hundreds of successful meetings. The salesperson's claims to professionalism can be affirmed through letters of praise from former clients and a tour of the hotel's facilities. A salesperson must reduce client fear and gain the client's confidence. One way of combating concern is to encourage the client to try the hotel or restaurant in a low-risk situation. Hotels and resorts offer familiarization (or fam) trips to meeting planners and travel agents. Airlines often offer complimentary flight tickets because they are also interested in creating business. Hotels provide rooms, food, beverage, and entertainment at no cost to the prospective client in the hope that this exposure will encourage them to recommend the hotel. Fam trips reduce a product's intangibility by letting the intermediary customer experience the hotel beforehand. The high risk that people perceive when purchasing hospitality products increases loyalty to companies that have provided them with a consistent product in the past. Crowne Plaza attracted their competitor's loyal customers by using the following tactic: Guests were billed at the regular room rate. However, they were free to pay less if they felt the accommodations and service were not worth the price. The

promotion was highly successful, attracting a number of new guests, almost all of whom paid the full rate. Managing Capacity and Demand Because services are perishable, managing capacity and demand is a key function of hospitality marketing. For example, Mother's Day is traditionally a restaurant's busiest day of the year, with the peak time at brunch from 11 A.M. to 2 P.M. This three-hour period presents restaurateurs with one of the greatest sales opportunities during the year. To take full advantage of this opportunity, restaurant managers must accomplish two things: First, they must adjust their operating systems to enable the business to operate at maximum capacity. Second, they must remember that their goal is to create satisfied customers. Many restaurants feature bullets on Mother's Day to increase capacity. An attractive buffet creates a festive atmosphere, provides an impression of variety and value, and expedites service by eliminating the need to prepare food to order. Customers provide their own service, with the service staff providing the beverage and check, which frees the staff to wait on more customers. Buffets eliminate the Time required for order taking and preparing the order. Food is available when customers arrive, allowing them to start eating almost immediately. This increases turnover of tables, further increasing the restaurant's capacity. The buffet also allows the restaurant to create a buffer inventory. Although three hours' worth of food cannot he kept on a steam table without a reduction in quality and attractiveness, the food can be cooked in batches that will last twenty to thirty minutes.

This advertisement fur Barbados reduces a potential customer's perceived risk by stressing the consistency of its weather, the variety of activities available, flood food, and the

friendly characteristics of its people. Pictures in the advertisement provide tangible evidence of these features. Courtesy of Barbados Tourism Authority and D'Arcy, Masius, Benton, & Bowles A few restaurants, such as Boomerangs of Steamboat Springs, expect guests to prepare their own entrees. Guests select a cut of meat and grill it over a charcoal grill. They also help themselves to the salad bar. Good cafeterias such as K&W of North Carolina remain successful and popular because they manage inventory very well. Food is moderately priced, fresh, and selected to meet ordinary food preferences, such as roast beef and chicken pot pie, not specially interests such as Indian curry. How can a hotel prepare for an expected low-occupancy period? Suppose that the hotel projects a two-week period of low occupancy six months from now. One system is to reduce staff and other expenses when the period arrives, including arranging for the staff to take its holidays during the period. This, however, creates service problems. A more proactive move is to book extra corporate business during this period. Corporate group meetings are generally booked one to six months in advance, and national associations may book one to six years prior to the event. The sales manager may reassign a salesperson from association groups to corporate groups, thus putting more emphasis on a market with a high probability of producing business during the predicted soft spot. Hotels can also use this period for FAM trips and public relations in which members of the press, such as travel writers and food section reporters, can be invited to the hotel. When hotels operate near capacity or restaurants are hit with a sudden influx of guests, problems are likely to occur. Research has shown that customer complaints increase when service firms operate above 80 percent of their capacity.24 A

restaurant may seat more customers than its service staff and kitchen can handle, which results in a negative guest experience. Guests may not return and may spread bad word of mouth to potential customers. Balancing demand and capacity is critical to success in the hospitality business (see Chapter 11). Managing Consistency Consistency is one of the key factors in the success of a service business.25 Consistency means that customers will receive the expected product without unwanted surprises. In the hotel industry, this means that a wake-up call requested for 7 A.M. will occur as planned and that coffee ordered for a 3 P.M. meeting break will be ready and waiting. In the restaurant business, consistency means that the shrimp scampi will taste the same way it tasted two weeks ago, towels will always be available in the bathrooms, and the brand of vodka specified last week will be in stock nest month. Consistency seems like a logical and simple task to accomplish, but in reality it is elusive. Many factors work against consistency. The company's policy may not be clear. For example, one employee of an American plan hotel may credit a guest for a missed meal, while another refuses to do so on the grounds that the guest purchased a package and there are no refunds for unused parts of the package. Company policies and procedures often unintentionally create service inconsistency. The purchasing manager may order a new brand of vodka or switch seafood suppliers to reduce costs. The effect of such a change on the shrimp scampi or guest satisfaction in the cocktail lounge may be immediate and negate the savings on the purchase order. A corporate customer of a Sheraton Hotel in Dallas hooked a successful conference for over 100 people, appreciated the hotel's service, and called two years later to rebook the same

conference. The client had paid all bills promptly and expected the hotel's sales staff to respond accordingly. Instead, the client was told that a strict financial and room numbers guarantee was essential. The client explained that such a guarantee was not required two years ago and that conference participants always made their own room bookings, so the client could not assume responsibility for "no shows" but would assume responsibility as befoul for banquets and coffee breaks. In response, the client was told that if new sales manager was now in charge and required adherence to corporate policies. Sheraton lost that account .A competitive hotel was willing to bend corporate policy for the business after calling the Sheraton in Dallas to check on the credit worthiness of the client and being told that the client had an excellent rating. Fluctuating demand can affect consistency. If a busload of high school students arrives at a fast-food restaurant two minutes before a family of three, no matter how well the restaurant is managed, employee will not be able to deliver good service to the family. Although it is impossible to eliminate variability completely, managers should strive to develop as consistent a product as possible. Today's customers are knowledgeable and have come to expect and demand consistency. OVERVIEW OF SERVICE CHARACTERISTICS: THE SERVUCTION MODEL The term servuction was developed to describe a production system for services. The servuction model (sec Figure 2-3) provides a good summary of the service characteristics mentioned in this chapter. Interaction between Customer A and Customer B

Douglas Hoffman and John Bateson provide this story of how one customer cleared all the other customers out of a fast-food restaurant 26 While eating at a fast-food restaurant, a customer was startled when his wife clutched her chest and exclaimed, "Don't look, don't look!" Relieving that his wife was experiencing some sort of cardiac difficulty, the customer hastily inquired about the reason for the horrific expression now apparent on his wife's face. Still clutching her chest she explained, "Somebody is getting sick over there...." Upon hearing this unappetizing news, the husband's eyes fixated upon his wife's eyes as they both froze for an instant, deciding on their next course of action. In this case, customer B had indeed made a significant impact on all the restaurant's customers. This particular customer B's actions cleared the entire restaurant in under sixty seconds. Particularly frustrating for the restaurant, it could not have foreseen the "upcoming event" and minimized its consequences. Even though the restaurant had no control over customer B's actions, the event profoundly influenced the husband and wife's future purchase intentions. The couple was unable to eat in any oil the restaurant's franchises for more than a year and a half. In some cases we can manage the interaction of customers. For example, exclusive restaurants may discourage children by not having children's menus. Restaurant managers sometimes have to contend with loud drunks who may ruin the dining experience for other customers. The interaction of customers can also be positive. Guests at resorts often share information on things to do in the area with other guests. In these cases management wants to encourage interaction between the guests.

Figure 2-3 The servuction model. .Source. E. Langeard, J. Bateson, C. Lovelock, and P. Eiglier, Marketing of Services: New Insights from Consumers and Managers, Report No. 81-104, Cambridge. MA: Marketing Science Institute, 1981. Contact Personnel The model shows the inseparability of the employee and the customer from the service delivery system. The arrow from customer A to the contact personnel shows that the contact personnel will have a direct impact on the Satisfaction of customer A. This could be positive if the employee performs well or it could be negative if the employee performs poorly.

Chapter 10 is devoted to internal marketing, marketing directed toward employees, including contact personnel. 2.8 All Star Caf Hard Rock Caf Planet Hollywood Inanimate Environment The inanimate environment consists of all the physical elements other than employees and customers that are present during the service encounter. The inanimate environment provides tangible evidence and can be used to provide a point of differentiation. McDonald's makes sure that all of its restaurants are clean, which helps to tangibilize that it is a wellrun restaurant chain. Ritz-Carlton hotels use original artwork to tangibilize that it is an upscale hotel chain. Entertainmentthemed restaurants such as All Star Cafe. Hard Rock Caf Hand Planet Hollywood create a unique atmosphere that differentiates the restaurants from their competitors. The Hyatt Regency originally used atrium lobbies as a point of differentiation. This was later copied by other hotels. The Invisible Organization and System The physical environment, the customers, and the employees will be visible to customer A. In a restaurant the kitchen may not be visible unless the restaurant has an exhibition kitchen. If a restaurant decides to use an exhibition kitchen, it is critical that the kitchen and the employees be meticulously clean and professional in appearance. This is often very difficult to maintain continuously. Many chefs refuse to work in such an atmosphere. They view themselves as professionals, not actors on a stage One of the choices in developing a service system is to decide what the customer should see. Some restaurants are designed so that the customer's first view upon entering is employees making fresh pasta or tortillas. Instead of hiding this food production in the kitchen, it is brought our front to help demonstrate the freshness of the restaurant's food. When

planning, a service organization management must decide what they want the guest to set: and what they what to keep out of the guest's vision. The servuction model shows that the service outcome is influenced by a host of highly variable elements.

Rainforest Cafe uses ambiance to create the sights, sounds, and aromas of a tropical rainforest. Courtesy of Rainforest Cafe, a wild place to shop and eat . KEY TERMS Interactive marketing Marketing by a service firm that recognizes that perceived service quality depends heavily on the quality of buyer-seller interaction. Internal marketing Marketing by a service form to train effectively and motivate its customer-contact employees and

all the supporting service people to work as a team to provide customer satisfaction. Organization image The way a person or group views an organization Physical evidence Tangible clues such as promotion material employees of the firm, and the physical environment of the firm. Physical evidence is used by a service firm to make its product more tangible to customers. Point-of-encounter Any point at which an employee encounters the customer Service culture A system of values arid beliefs in an organization that reinforces the idea that providing the customer with quality service is the principal concern of the business. Service intangibility A major characteristic of services: they cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled before they are bought. Service inseparability A major characteristic of services; they are produced and consumed at the same time and cannot be separated from their providers, whether the providers are people or machines. Service perishability A major characteristic of services; they cannot be stored for later use. Service variability A major characteristic of services; their quality may vary greatly, depending on who provides them and when, where, and how they are provided.

Service-profit chain A model that shows the relationships between employee satisfaction, customer satisfaction, customer retention, value creation, and profitability. Trade dress Hospitality companies total visual image and overall appearance.

Chapter ReviewI. The Service Culture. The service culture focuses on serving and satisfying the customer. The service culture has to start with top management and flow down. II. Four Characteristics of Services 1) Intangibility. Unlike physical products, services cannot be seen, tasted, felt, heard, or smelled before they are purchased. To reduce uncertainty caused by intangibility, buyers look for tangible evidence that will provide information and confidence about the service 2) Inseparability. In most hospitality services, both the service provider and the customer must be present for the transaction to occur. Customer-contact employees are part of the product. Inseparability also means that customers are part of the product. The third implication of inseparability is that customers and employees must understand the service deliver; system. 3) Variability. Service quality depends on who provides the services and when and where they are provided. Services are produced and consumed simultaneously. Fluctuating demand makes it difficult to deliver consistent products during periods of peak demand. The high degree of contact between the service product and the guest means that product consistency depends on the service provider's skills and performance at the time of the exchange.

4) Perishability. Services cannot be stored. If service providers are to maximize revenue, they must manage capacity and demand because they cannot carry forward unsold inventory. III. Management Strategies for Service Businesses 1) Tangibilizing the service product. Promotional material, employees' appearance, and the service firm's physical environment all help tangibilize service. a) Trade dress. Trade dress is the distinctive nature of a hospitalities industry's total visual image and overall appearance. To compete effectively, an entrepreneur, operator, or owner must design an effective trade dress while taking care not to imitate too closely that of a competitor. b) Employee uniform and costumes. Uniforms and costumes are common to the hospitality industry. These have a legitimate and useful role in differentiating one hospitality firm from another and for instilling pride in the employees. c) Physical surroundings. Physical surrounding. Should be designed to reinforce the product's position in the customer's mind. A firm's Communications should also reinforce their positioning. d) "Greening" of the hospitality industry. The use of outside natural landscaping and inside use of light and plants has become a popular method of creating differentiation and cannibalizing the product. 2) Managing employees. In the hospitality industry, employees are a critical part of the product and marketing mix. The human resource and marketing department must work closely together. a) Internal marketing. The task of internal marketing to employees involves the effective training and motivation

of customer-contact employees and supporting service personnel. 3) Managing perceived risk. The high risk that people perceive when purchasing hospitality products increases loyalty to companies that have provided them with a consistent product in the past. 4) Managing capacity and demand. Because services are perishable, managing capacity and demand is a key function of hospitality marketing. First, services must adjust their operating systems to enable the business to operate at maximum capacity. Second, they must remember that their goal is to create satisfied customers. Research has shown that customer complaints increase when service firms operate above 80 percent of their capacity. 5) Managing consistency. Consistency means that customer will receive the expected product will out unwanted surprises.