Chapter 3: Problem Solving for Guest Service

Terminology

  • Duty of loyalty:Regarding employees, it implies they have a responsibility to act in the best interest of the business in all of their actions. This means they should: want to help, be empathetic, give their full and personalized attention, and have a sense of pride regarding their work.
  • Emotional intelligence (EI):A view of personalities, personal encounters, and success. It consists of four dimensions: self awareness—knowing your emotions; self-management—controlling your emotions; social awareness—knowing others’ emotions; and relationship management—the ability to manage interactions with others.
  • Emotional labor: Psychological demands of customer service.
  • Empathy: Understanding and compassion for someone else’s emotion. When expressed, it often creates a connection between the staff member and the customer.
  • G.U.E.S.T.: An acronym for Greet, Understand, Empathize, Suggest, Track. G.U.E.S.T. can be easily adapted to resolving customer issues. It is straightforwardbut detailed enough to serve as a foundation for others to follow.
  • Intent to return: The belief of a customer that he or she will patronize the establishment or services in the future.
  • Keep important stuff simple (K.I.S.S.): Also known as “Keep it simple, stupid,” theidea that processes doesn’t always need to be complicated. Instead, keep processes as simpleas possible, thus reducing the chance for error.
  • Keirsey Temperament Sorter:Tool used to outline personality types into four primary categories: Artisan, Guardian, Idealist, and Rational.
  • Lateral service principle: The idea that employees are to stop what they are doing and help to solve customer problems even if it is not in their department.
  • Lifetime customer value: All potential futuresales from thecustomer.
  • Meyers–Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI): Tool used to outline personality and temperament types.
  • Moment of truth: Popularized by Jan Carlzon of SAS Airlines, a phrase and best-selling book, Moments of Truth explains how a guest experience is made up of many individual moments of truth—many points at which quality guest service can be made or lost. This concept helps businesses to break down the service experience, understand its importance, and be able to monitor and improve upon it.
  • New customer cost: All of the costs associated with obtaining a new customer.
  • Rate of dissatisfaction: Amount or percentage of errors in a system. If calculated through a survey, the amount of low-scoring results.
  • Red flags: Indicators that go off in customers’ minds when they do not receive what they need and expect. Not easily detected by employees. The red flags have a cumulative effect and result in a poor service experience.
  • Service recovery: Popularized by Ron Zemke, a system for acknowledging, apologizing for, and fixing customer complaints. Other authors have devised their own variations of rectifying mistakes, each version being slightly different.
  • Transactional analysis:System for understanding and controlling behaviors. By Dr. Eric Berne, it was the first to popularize the premise that every time two people come together, they are constantly evaluating each other.