1. Carefully read the following:

You have been appointed as the Operations Manager of a health resort and convention centre in the Blue Mountains, near Sydney. The resort, Blue Healer Spa, is made up of five areas: catering, wellness, meeting rooms, accommodation, and reception. Each area has its own full-time manager. The kitchen is large enough to feed over 100 people three meals each day. There are four full-time kitchen staff, three permanent waiting personnel and the rest of the staff are hired on a casual basis to cater for functions and retreats. There is accommodation for 80 people in twin and double rooms. Surrounding hotels provide further accommodation when needed. There are four meeting rooms of various sizes, and these can be opened up to make one large room for functions such as weddings and courses. There is also a service area where computers and printers can be accessed. The resort would like to encourage more courses to be held there as the full rooms and restaurant ern the company more that renting out the rooms does. The wellness area has two saunas, a steam room, three warm water spas, four massage rooms and four consultation rooms where naturopathic consultations and facial treatments are performed. The spa runs continuously, mostly due to locals visiting, whether a course is running or not. Reception includes the front desk and the office where the accounts are done, and records kept. It is an open plan office with 5 staff workstations. Most staff prefer to work with their own laptops, connected to the larger computer screens. The HR Manager and Marketing Manager have their workstations in this area. One of the first things you noticed when taking on the job is that, although the resort's employees were courteous towards customers, there were no formal customer service policies and procedures. You have discussed this with the HR Manager (who has only recently taken on the job), and they agreed that developing these was important to manage, and improve, the resort's customer service practices. They suggested that it would be best to start the process by getting feedback from customers and staff on the current customer service practices. Complete the following activities:

2. Develop a customer survey - 1 hour. You are required to develop a survey that will be sent to Blue Healer Spa customers. The completed surveys will be anonymised and collated by the Administration Officer. A survey template is given for you (Customer Survey Form Template). However, you may use any format you wish for the survey, but it should collect information on the following: What customers expect of a resort such as Blue Healer. Whether the customer's needs were fulfilled when they were at Blue Healer. How satisfied they were with their stay at Blue Healer. When completed, email your Customer Survey to the Administration Officer (your assessor) who will send it to the customers.

3.Send an email to all Blue Healer Spa's staff (your assessor) - 30 minutes. The purpose of the email is to give the staff the opportunity to give feedback on the resort's products and services and the customer service practices they experience. Acknowledging that the resort's employees work a variety of shifts in a variety of areas, your email should ask the staff to also include the area of the resort they work in as well as the shifts they usually work, in their response. The email should ask the recipient to send their feedback to the Administration Officer, who will anonymize and collate the responses.

4. Participate in an informal meeting with a customer (your assessor) - 30 minutes including preparation. You are required to hold a short (about 5 minutes), informal meeting with a customer that you have just met. The objective of the meeting is to find out how well they have been served during their stay at the Blue Healer Spa. Take notes of the feedback received and incorporate these into the development of your policies and procedures. During the meeting, you will need to demonstrate effective communication skills including: Speaking clearly and concisely. Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding. Asking questions to identify required information. Responding to questions as required.

5. Do customer service practices briefing report - 1 hour. Prior to developing the customer service policies and procedures, you are required to write a briefing report that summarizes the current customer service practices at the resort. Begin by reviewing the following formal research sources: Customer Survey Results Staff Survey Results The internet. Use the internet to review o Trends and changes in the hospitality environment in Australia generally and the Blue Mountains specifically. o Any relevant plain English regulatory documents that are developed and distributed by state and federal government consumer protection regulators (review Hospitality Industry Codes and Trends Sample) o Information from similar businesses about how they fulfil their customers' needs, complaints and feedback. Also review the following informal research sources: Internal Memos Summary of Customer Comments Log Your briefing report should include, as a minimum, the following: Whether customer needs are currently being met What customer expectations are, and whether they are currently being met How satisfied customers are with the products and services they receive Other customer feedback Staff feedback Internal and external changes affecting the resort's customer service practices Proposed structure of the policy and procedures documents that you will develop in the next activity. Use the Briefing Report Template provided in Project Portfolio task 2 to guide your work. When you have completed the briefing report, submit it to the Management Team (your assessor).

6. Develop customer service policies and procedures - 2 hours. To ensure that optimal customer service practices are followed throughout the Blue Healer Spa, you have decided to develop customer service policy and procedures for the following three areas of the business: Reception: covering the front of house and administration. Catering: covering both the kitchen and dining area. Wellness: covering the spa and the naturopaths. Use the internet to review the customer service practices that other, similar businesses have adopted, as well as industry standards and codes of conduct. Use this information, and the information in your briefing report, to develop three policies and procedures for the resort. You will be revising these documents following the training session you will conduct in the next activity, so save these versions of the documents as: First Draft Reception Customer Service Policy and Procedures First Draft Catering Customer Service Policy and Procedures First Draft Wellness Customer Service Policy and Procedures. When completed, email your policies and procedures and briefing report to the management team (your assessor).

7. Provide an information and training session - 2 hours including preparation. This session will give you the opportunity to get the employees' feedback on the policies and procedures you are developing. The HR Manager has ensured that employees from each area of the resort, and working each of the different shifts, will be present at the meeting, so you can get a wide range of feedback. Prior to delivering the presentation, make sure that you practice your delivery, so you are well prepared. You will be assessed on your presentation technique as well as the content of your presentation. During the training session, you are required to act as a positive role model for the staff, demonstrating the professional standards expected of service industry personnel. Your assessor will advise you of the date and time of your presentation and will organise at least two other students to attend the information and training session in the role of staff members. The training is an opportunity for staff members to participate in the development of the resort's customer service practices, so it is important that you provide the audience plenty of opportunities to give you their feedback. Take notes on this to guide the revisions you will make to the policies and procedures in the next activity opportunity for your audience to ask questions. Explain your three policies and procedures to the staff, making it clear what is expected of them in terms of customer service. Inform them that the training is the first of a number of staff training sessions designed to enhance the resort's customer service. Ask them if there are particular areas in which they would appreciate more training. During the meeting you will be required to demonstrate effective communication skills including: Speaking clearly and concisely Using non-verbal communication to assist with understanding Asking questions to identify required information Responding to questions as required Using active listening techniques to confirm understanding. Attach completed observation checklist with your portfolio.

8. Revise your policies and procedures - 1 hour. Review your policies and procedures in light of the feedback you received during the meeting. Highlight your changes in yellow. You should make at least one change to each document. Save these versions of the documents as: Reception Customer Service Policy and Procedures Catering Customer Service Policy and Procedures Wellness Customer Service Policy and Procedures Administration Officer (your assessor), who will upload these policies and procedures to the resort's website, so they are easily accessible to customers and staff.

1. Carefully read the following: Six months have passed since you initiated the staff training to enhance customer service, and the policies and procedures you developed in Assessment Task 2 were uploaded to the intranet.

2. Develop a customer survey - 1 hour You are required to alter the customer survey that you developed in Assessment Task 2 to include the customer's verdict on whether customer service had improved over the previous six months. Save this document as Follow-Up Customer Survey. This survey will be sent to Blue Healer Spa's customers. The completed surveys will be anonymised and collated by the Administration Officer. When completed, submit it to the Administration Officer (your assessor) who will send it to the customers, then collect and collate the results and send them to you.

3. Send an email to all Blue Healer Spa's staff (your assessor) - 1 hour The purpose of the email is to give the staff the opportunity to give feedback on customer service performance in the resort, and whether they have noticed any improvements over the previous six months. As with your earlier email to employees requesting their feedback, your email should ask the staff to also include the area of the resort they work in as well as the shifts they usually work, in their response. Give them the four shift options developed by the Administration Officer and ask them to select the most appropriate for the work they do. The email should ask the recipient to send their feedback to the Administration Officer, who will anonymise and collate the responses.

4. Assess the effectiveness of customer service outcomes- 2 hours. Review the following documents which have been sent to you by the Administration Officer: Follow-Up Customer Survey Results Follow-Up Staff Survey Results Write a short report on the results of the changes you have made to the resort's customer service practices. Identify any systemic customer service problems and outline how you intend to resolve them. Include in your report at least one changes you would recommend being made to each of the policies and procedures. Use your report as the text of an email to the Management Team (your assessor). The email text should also make clear that you take personal responsibility for the outcomes.

5. Resolve a dispute - 2 hours It is lunchtime and you are talking with the chefs in the kitchen when you hear a loud angry voice at the front desk. It sounds like an irate customer. You then hear your head waiter also raising their voice. You quickly get to the front desk to try and resolve the issue. Review Customer Dispute Role-play Instructions to prepare and undertake the role play. During this role-play, you are required to demonstrate the following skills and knowledge: Use questioning and listening techniques to determine the customer's needs or concerns. Clearly communicate expectations to the staff member. Take responsibility for service outcomes and dispute resolution. Act as a positive role model for professional standards expected of service industry personnel. Identify problems and make adjustments to improve service quality. Gain feedback from the customer on how to improve customer service practices. Complete the role-play. Write an email to the manager (assessor) summarising the dispute, your actions and recommendations to prevent future similar disputes.

6. Update the policies and procedures - 2 hours Revise each document to reflect the follow-up feedback you have received. Save these versions of the documents as: Updated Reception Customer Service Policy and Procedures Updated Dining Customer Service Policy and Procedures Updated Spa Customer Service Policy and Procedures When completed, submit the documents to the administration Officer (your assessor), who will upload them to the resort's website, so they are easily accessible to customers and all staff involved in service delivery.