Melissa Manske Biography Melissa Manske is a Culinary Lecturer with the University of Houston, Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management. Melissa brings 18 years of industry experience in food and kitchen management, banquet production and bakeshop development. She has also taught for 10 years in culinary arts and hospitality management including courses in classical culinary techniques, food procurement and cost controls, banquet production and management, and employee management and retention. Melissa’s background includes working in various facets of the food and hospitality industry including front desk with Hilton Hotels, healthcare foodservice management with the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Tx and Park Plaza Hospital in Houston, Tx, Banquet and Pastry Chef for the Beaumont Country Club, Assistant Culinary Director for the Art Institute of Houston and Culinary Instructor for Spring Branch ISD. Melissa is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, has a B.S. degree in Food Management from Texas Christian University and a Master’s in Hospitality Management from the University of Houston. Fun Facts: 1. I’ve just adopted my first dog, a beagle named Jackson, who has taught me more about squirrels and dog bones than I’ve ever wanted to know! 2. I’ve only started running 3 years ago, but I’m about to run my 10 th half marathon this month in the Aramco half (I haven’t been brave enough to tackle the full marathon yet!) 3. Last Spring, I binged watched 7 seasons of Game of Thrones in 5 weeks so I could be caught up for Season 8.
Transcript
Melissa Manske Biography
Melissa Manske is a Culinary Lecturer with the University of Houston, Conrad N. Hilton College of Hotel and Restaurant Management. Melissa brings 18 years of industry experience in food and kitchen management, banquet production and bakeshop development. She has also taught for 10 years in culinary arts and hospitality management including courses in classical culinary techniques, food procurement and cost controls, banquet production and management, and employee management and retention.
Melissa’s background includes working in various facets of the food and hospitality industry including front desk with Hilton Hotels, healthcare foodservice management with the University of Texas Medical Branch in Galveston, Tx and Park Plaza Hospital in Houston, Tx, Banquet and Pastry Chef for the Beaumont Country Club, Assistant Culinary Director for the Art Institute of Houston and Culinary Instructor for Spring Branch ISD.
Melissa is a graduate of the Culinary Institute of America, has a B.S. degree in Food Management from Texas Christian University and a Master’s in Hospitality Management from the University of Houston.
Fun Facts:
1. I’ve just adopted my first dog, a beagle named Jackson, who has taught me more about squirrels and dog bones than I’ve ever wanted to know!
2. I’ve only started running 3 years ago, but I’m about to run my 10th half marathon this month in the Aramco half (I haven’t been brave enough to tackle the full marathon yet!)
3. Last Spring, I binged watched 7 seasons of Game of Thrones in 5 weeks so I could be caught up for Season 8.
Customer Service: Developing a Culture of Care
Prepared for the Texas Hotel & Lodging Association
ActivityBest & Worst Case Scenario
‘At Your Service Spotlight’: Walt Disney –a legacy of customer service
• Disneyland is a work of love. We didn’t go into Disneyland just with the idea of making money’.
• Walt’s personal philosophy (values, morals, religious beliefs, creative goals, innate psychographic awareness)
• Excellence more crucial than profits
• Disney’s commitment to its customers - focus on the guest experience rather than traditional business efficiencies
• ‘Imagineering’ • ‘what ifs’ • positive alternative to saying ‘no’
• ‘Guestology’• novel approach to staff training • internal language• ‘wow’ moments
•
Customer service
• …the practice of delivering products and services to both internal and external customers via the efforts of employees or through the provision of an appropriate servicescape.
• Services and service culture
• Interaction between employees and customers
• Physical infrastructure
The services marketing triangle
Company
Internal Marketing
Enabling Promises
External Marketing
Making Promises
Service Providers Customers
Interactive Marketing
Keeping Promises
Unique characteristics of services
Characteristic Description
1) Intangibility
Service products cannot be tasted, felt, seen, heard, or smelled. Prior to
boarding a plane, airline passengers have nothing but an airline ticket and
a promise of safe delivery to their destination. To reduce uncertainty
caused by service intangibility, buyers look for tangible evidence that will
provide information and confidence about the service.
2) Inseparability
For many services, the product cannot be created or delivered without the
customer’s presence. The food in a restaurant may be outstanding, but if
the server has a poor attitude or provides inattentive service, customers
will not enjoy the overall restaurant experience. In the same way, other
customers can affect the experience in service settings.
3) Heterogeneity
Service delivery quality depends on who provides the services. The same
person can deliver differing levels of service, displaying a marked
difference in tolerance and friendliness as the day wears on. Lack of
consistency is a major factor in customer dissatisfaction.
4) Perishability
Services cannot be stored. Empty airline seats, hotel rooms, daily ski
passes, restaurant covers—all these services cannot be sold the next day.
If services are to maximize revenue, they must manage capacity and
demand since they cannot carry forward unsold inventory.
Snapshot: Customer service at the Augusta Masters
‘In the race for excellence, there is no finishing line’.
Many key features of professional golf tournaments introduced in Augusta
o Patrons
• Sight lines, bleachers, observation stands, closed circuit TV
• Lunch food, refreshment stands
• Picnicking grounds, plenty of lavatories
o Tournament played over four days
o Media
• First tournament on nationwide radio
• Cups, bags ‘invisible’ to cameras
• On-course scoreboard network
• Roped galleries
Customer Service
“There is only one boss. The customer.
And he can fire everybody in the company from the chairman on down, simply by spending his money somewhere else.”
-Sam Walton
Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs in Hospitality
• The needs of the lower level of the pyramid must be met before the next higher need on the pyramid can be met
The Difficult Guest
• Once in a while, the front of the house is confronted by a difficult guest
• Majority of handling complaints: falls into employee hands
• Must be trained to problem solve
• Approach: “What can I do to help?”
• In itself, quite disarming
Strategies for Handling Complaints
• Win-win action tips
• Act immediately on a complaint
• Let the guest know you care
• Calm the guest
• Tell how the problem will be addressed
• Invite the guest to express their feelings
• Never invalidate or make the guest wrong
• Offer appropriate and reasonable amends
• Nurture the relationship
Strategies for Handling Complaints (cont’d.)
• Other tips
• Be diplomatic
• Remain calm, listen, and empathize
• Control your voice
• Get the facts
• Take care of the problem immediately
Quality Service
Hospitality Employees
• Employees who are focused on guest needs have these characteristics:
• Address guests by name
• Are well-groomed
• Have good posture
• Make eye contact
• Respond quickly to requests
• Smile
Can a culture of
care change the service
industry?
This Photo by Unknown Author is licensed under CC BY
