Kristen Adams had recently transferred to the Excelsior Hotel to improve the level of customer service. She had been with the company for five years and had been quite successful in improving the level of customer satisfaction at the two previous hotels to which she had been assigned.
Kristen knew that the Excelsior was going to be a real challenge. The mix of business was 60 percent individual transient guests and 40 percent group business. Of this group business, about one-third was motor coach tour groups.
On her first day on the job, she witnessed quite a sight. There was a line of about 20 guests waiting to check in when two motor coaches arrived and more than 80 additional guests and guides walked into the lobby to check in.
Needless to say, the two front desk agents had a look of terror in their eyes as they worked diligently to process the registrations for those waiting to check in. Some 40 minutes later, everyone had been checked in, but the general manager said to Kristen, “I’m glad that you are here; we need to work out a better system. Let’s meet for lunch tomorrow to discuss your initial ideas.” Kristen had just picked up a pen to start brainstorming ideas to present to the general manager when a guest approached her desk.
“Hello, my name is Bill Foster, and I stayed at your hotel last night with my family. We really did not have a good experience, and I want to tell you about it. I want to make sure that this does not happen again, to me or anyone else.” Mr. Foster then proceeded to tell Kristen his account of the events.
“I was traveling with my wife and our son, who is four years old. Our connecting flight was delayed, so we did not arrive at our final destination until 10 p.m. The Excelsior had an advertised check-in facility at the airport, and I assumed that I would be able to secure my room while waiting for the luggage. When I approached the employee at the hotel’s airport facility, I was told that check-in service was not available at that time of the day. I found this to be surprising, since this was the very type of situation in which an airport facility would be beneficial.....

Case Study Questions and Issues 1. What steps should Kristen recommend to the general manager?
2. What action steps and timetable should she recommend? How should decisions be made about which steps should be done initially?
3. Develop a service blueprint of the check-in process. How might this be used to improve the situation?
4. Discuss the gaps in the service quality process that Bill Foster experienced.
5. What kind of service failures occurred and what recovery strategies were employed?
6.How did the Excelsior Hotel fail to meet Mr. Foster’s expectations?
7. What other actions could have been taken?