SYLLABUS
Tulsa Community College
Spring/2015
BUSN_2403_460_26733_201520 Guest Relations & Customer Service in the Hospitality Industry
No campus meetings Start and end dates: 1/12/15- 3/8/15
Course Delivery Method: online Course format: 8 week online
Instructor: Jim O’Mealey Office Hours: TBA
918-595-8094
TO CONTACT THE DIVISION OFFICE:
Division: WC Business & ITAssociate Dean: Gornie Williams
Office: L-244
Phone Number: 918-595-8033 / TO CONTACT ACADEMIC & CAMPUS SERVICES:
DiAnne Cunningham
Office: I-106
Phone: 918-595-8060COURSE PREREQUISITES: No previous industry experience or coursework is required. Students are expected to possess basic computer skills such as creating a Word Document and file management. All students are required to complete the online blackboard orientation.
COURSE DESCRIPTION: Basic concepts and current trends in customer service and guest relations in the hospitality industry. Special areas of emphasis include problem solving, development of a customer service strategy, creating customer service systems, coping with challenging customers, customer retention and measuring satisfaction. In this course, we will examines the organization and operation of the hotels and restaurants from frontline, front office and guest service operations. We will explore key front office functions, related systems and skills necessary to ensure guest satisfaction and efficient operations.
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TEXTBOOKS, SUPPLIES, & OTHER RESOURCES:
Managing Quality Service in Hospitality Authors: Robert C. Ford, Michael Sturman and Cherrill P. Heaton ISBN: 978-1-4390-6032-2 Publisher: Delmar Cengage Learning, 2012. Textbooks and supplies may be purchased at: West Campus Bookstore (918-595-8026) Textbooks for distance learning classes are available at the Northeast Campus Bookstore (918-595-7425) All textbooks are available online at:
http://tccstores.tulsacc.edu/TULSA/home.aspx
COURSE STRUCTURE: TCC’s Hospitality Management Program prepares students for supervisory and management occupations in the hospitality industry. This course is a requirement of all TCC hospitality management degrees and certificates. The purpose of this course is to provide students with an overview of the importance of guest service and will provide students with the basics of a solid guest service program. This eight week course is presented in four modules. The learning objectives for each module are listed below and are also listed under the learning objectives link on the blackboard site. There are weekly assignments that help the students accomplish the learning objectives. Weekly assignments must be completed by the weekly deadline. These deadlines are listed on the course agenda and are also listed on the weekly assignment links. Failure to complete an assignment by the weekly deadline will result in a score of zero on the assignment.
COURSE OBJECTIVES:
Upon successful completion of this course students will be able to—
Course Level Objectives:
· Analyze the importance of customer service to the success of the hospitality enterprise.
· Investigate how hospitality organizations implement a guest-focused service strategy.
· Assess how hospitality organizations achieve excellence in the guest experience.
Module 1 Objectives- Chapters 1,2,3,4
· Analyze the components of the guest experience.
· Define service quality and service value in the hospitality field.
· Discuss the organizational planning cycle.
· Classify the key drivers of guest satisfaction.
· Demonstrate the importance of product and service branding.
· Discover the importance of the service setting.
· Explain why providing an environment in which guests feel comfortable and safe is critical.
· Show why a hospitality organization’s culture is so important to service success.
· Demonstrate how an organization can change its culture, if necessary.
Module 2 Objectives-Chapters 5,6,7,8
· Discuss the process of recruiting service oriented employees.
· Examine the various recruitment strategies.
· Demonstrate the importance of a diversified workforce for service success.
· Show how to measure training effectiveness.
· Examine how hospitality organizations motivate their employees.
· Discover the importance of employee empowerment.
· Demonstrate strategies to involve the guest in co-creating their experience.
· Examine the advantages and disadvantages of guest involvement in the service experience.
Module 3 Objectives-Chapters 9,10,11,12
· Demonstrate the importance and uses of information to hospitality organizations.
· Discuss the information systems that hospitality organizations are now using.
· Analyze the hospitality organization’s service delivery system.
· Classify various wait patterns.
· Demonstrate how to plan and manage a wait.
· Discuss the effectiveness of service guarantees.
Module 4 Objectives-Chapters 13,14
· Discover the key front office functions, related systems and skills necessary to ensure guest satisfaction and efficient operations.
· Point out why fixing service failures quickly-on the spot, if possible-is so important.
· Apply a service recovery method in order to handle a service failure.
· Illustrate the importance of matching the service recovery strategy to the service failure.
TEACHING METHODS: Teaching methods will include textbook reading, online discussion of case studies, guest service projects, and exams.
Use of Blackboard will be REQUIRED for this course. It is private for each student. Your grades are visible only to you and the instructor and the teaching assistant. You are responsible for reading course announcements and your TCC email on a daily basis. The instructor is not responsible for technical issues. Students should plan to submit their work well in advance of course deadlines. Having a technical issue, even if it is blackboard related, is not an excuse for not turning an assignment in on time. If you are having problems with your personal computer equipment you are expected to use a computer elsewhere at a TCC campus, a friend’s house, or even a public library.
Required software: Microsoft Office (Word)
If you do not have MS Office, you can easily download it for free from Blackboard:
· Go to the Organization tab.
· Search for Software Downloads.
· Follow the instructions in Office Install (Software Downloads).
Students must submit assignments using the specified software. If you have WORD PERFECT or MS WORKS on your computer, this will not work. The instructor cannot open WordPerfect or MS Works files.
EVALUATION TECHNIQUES: Assessment is accomplished through a variety of projects, exams and online discussions. Exams will be conducted online. There are no exams or other assignments that will require you coming to campus. Grades for assignments will be posted by Sunday of the week following the assignment’s due date.
COMMUNICATIONS: Effective communications is a necessary management skill. Business writing should be clear and concise and should use language that is clearly understood. All assignments will be graded for grammar, spelling, punctuation, and content. TCC offers a free writing tutor service on all four campuses. If you are concerned about your writing, it is a good idea to see a writing tutor before submitting a written assignment. If you have any questions, please feel free to contact the instructor.
NETIQUETTE: Open and mutually respectful communication of varied opinions, beliefs, and perspectives during online discussions and in other communications encourages the free exchange of ideas that are essential to higher learning and to the ability to learn from each other. Disrespectful comments or unfair criticism of any type will not be tolerated.
Making the Grade:
Overall Possible Points for Course
Blackboard Orientation = 10 points
Syllabus Quiz = 10 points
Introductory Discussion = 30 points
Guest Service Journal = 100 points
Mystery Shopper Report = 100 points
Discussion Board Assignments (4) = 100 points
4 Exams @ 100 points each = 400 points
Final Exam (comprehensive) = 100 points
Guest Service Research Report = 150 points
TOTAL 1000 points
Grading Scale: Use this scale to determine your letter grade:
A = / 900-1000B = / 800-899
C = / 700-799
D = / 600-699
F = / 599 or less
INTRODUCTION DISCUSSION: I have created a special discussionboard in the discussion board area entitled "Class Introductions." The purpose of this discussion is for us to get to know each other. Create a discussion thread in which you introduce yourself and give us your background. We are particularly interested in why you are taking this course. Also,we would like to hear aboutany jobs you have held or currently holdin the hospitality industry.If you already have career plans in the hospitality industry, we would like to hear about your plans. A couple of strong paragraphs should be sufficient to complete the assignment. Get to know each other by responding to your classmates.
GUEST SERVICE JOURNAL: Keep a journal of your guest service experiences as you go through the course taking particular note of critical incidents and moments of truth. These experiences can be from any service encounter you may have and may be positive or negative. It might be a visit to a convenience store, a restaurant, a hotel, etc. Analyze the causes of any service failures you experience and what you would have done to correct the problems and what you would have done for service recovery if you were in management.You should have at least1 entry (a paragraph or two) in your journal for each week of class for a total of eight entries. You will wait until week 8 to submit your complete journal. Please submit your journal in a Word Document within the assignment. Please do not email assignments to the instructor. You will be graded in accordance with the Guest Service Journal Checklist located in course information. Be sure to review this checklist before you submit your paper.
DISCUSSION BOARD ASSIGNMENTS: On-line student discussion is required several times throughout the course. The discussions will involve your analysis of case studies or videos concerning the hospitality industry. You will be graded on the quality and depth of your analysis of the assigned study and for commenting on the analysis of other students. Your points will be based on the content of your case analysis (up to 15 points)and for responding to at least two others. (Up to 10 points-5 for each response) Refer to the discussion board rubric posted in course information. You must complete the discussion assignments during the week in which they are assigned. A score of zero will be given for posting after the deadline. You should also plan to participate early in each discussion. Points will be deducted for participating late in the discussion after most posts have been made. If you wait until Saturday or Sunday of the assigned week you can count on losing points. For these assignments, be sure to use proper grammar and complete sentences. Points will be deducted for grammatical, punctuation, and spelling mistakes. Brief responses with phrases such as “I agree”, “Yes’, “No”, “That is what I was going to say,” etc. are not considered active participation. Your instructor may participate in the discussions.
MYSTERY SHOPPER REPORT: This project will provide you and the class with a snapshot of a typical guest experience. You will pose as a guest at a hospitality business of your choosing (not where you work or have worked in the past.) You may wish to sample a restaurant meal, a trip on a cruise ship or an overnight stay at a hotel. You will critique the service and its delivery. Take notes on the quality of the guest service experience and then write a detailed report. (2-3 pages) Consider how the employees are empowered by their organization. Is this factor making a difference in the quality of the guest service? Did the business you visited have a diversified workforce? Demonstrate how that is making a difference or could make a difference to service quality. How is the organization utilizing information technology? Are they using it effectively or are there ways to incorporate it to improve the guest experience? You will write your report in a MS Word document. You will be graded in accordance with the Mystery Shopper Report Checklist located in course information. Be sure to review this checklist before you submit your paper.
GUEST SERVICE RESEARCH PROJECT: You will research a hospitality industry organization of your choosing that is currently exhibiting world-class guest service. Write a paper (at leastfour to five pages, double-spaced) describing how they are accomplishing their guest service goals.
Describe the culture of the organization. How did the organization create and sustain this culture? How does the organization motivate its frontline personnel and guest service employees? How does the organization utilize training, employee incentives, communications, etc. to create and define the service culture? Show why the service culture is so important to the success of the organization. If this organization needed to change its service culture, demonstrate how they would go about doing it. Also, as part of your analysis, demonstrate how this organization benefits from its product branding.
Write the assignment as a Word document. Be sure to include a bibliography with the proper annotations for sources utilizing MLA formatting guidelines. You will be graded in accordance with the Guest Service Research Report Checklist located in course information. Be sure to review this checklist before you submit your paper.
ATTENDANCE: Students are required to actively participate in the class within one week of the beginning of class. Failure to participate within the first week of class will result in a WN (withdrawn, never attended grade.) Active participation means more than just logging into the class. You must have completed an assignment to have fulfilled this requirement. In this online class, not participating for one week constitutes six hours of class absence. The student may be subject to Administrative Withdrawal [AW Grade] for non-participation. Any student who fails to earn 30% of the available points in the course will receive a WN grade. After 30% of the available points have been earned, the student will receive the letter grade according to the table above.
You will be expected to log on to the course site 2-3 times per week. You are also expected to participate in all assigned activities in the course. Attendance will be measured by completion of course assignments.
LATE ASSIGNMENTS: Deadlines are marked in red on the course agenda and are listed on the weekly assignment buttons on blackboard. You are required to have your work completed by the appropriate deadlines. Exams and other assignments will not be accepted after their deadline. After the deadline, exams will no longer be visible to the student and cannot be made up.
COURSE WITHDRAWAL: The deadline to withdraw from a course shall not exceed 3/4 the duration of any class. Check the TCC Academic Calendar for the deadline that applies to the course(s). Begin the process with a discussion with the faculty member assigned to the course. Contact the Advisement Office at any TCC campus to initiate withdrawal from a course ('W' grade) or to change from Credit to Audit. Withdrawal and/or change to an audit from a course after the drop/add period can alter the financial aid award for the current and future semesters. Students may receive an outstanding bill from TCC if the recalculation leaves a balance due to TCC. Students who stop participating in the course and fail to withdraw may receive a course grade of “F,” which may have financial aid consequences for the student.