ABSTRACT

This study has been carried out to examine the role of frontline operations in the management of customer service feedback. Collecting feedback from customers, understanding them and acting on feedback is of utmost importance for every service industry because it will help to improve and the services rendered and help management to meet with customers needs and expectations.

Also understanding the roles frontline operations play and their qualifications in the management of customer service feedback. In the literature review, theories on customer satisfaction have been used to further explain the roles of frontline employees.

This is because customer feedback is as a result of customer experiences about a rendered service and cannot be studied without mentioning some key aspects such as customer expectations, customer perception, customer satisfaction because customers feedbacks are often based on these factors.

Questionnaires were used to collect data and the results were analyzed using a statistical method. Conclusions have been drawn based on findings and recommendations made.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1  Background of the study

The front office has traditionally been thought of as a check-in, check-out point by the guest. Secondly it is seen as a source of infinite information, and third, a problem-solving center.

Working as a front line manager, situations developed which created a definite ‘gap’ between management’s expectations when defining the role of the front office personnel and how the front office employees perceived these expectations as they were related to their guest service responsibilities.

Management credit policy was a necessity in certain circumstances, the awkwardness of many situations could have been avoided by simply allowing the front office agent to assume some of the responsibility.

By using his or her own judgment and utilizing management only when they felt uncomfortable, a friendly, compatible first impression would have been the result.

As the saying often goes satisfied frontline employees create satisfied customers. Hotel businesses who focus their efforts on their frontline staff are investing in people who are providing customer service and who are actively turning leads into customers.

It has never been easy to be a frontline employee. They’ve always had a difficult job long hours of work and changing priorities.

But now on top of all that they are dealing with, personal health and safety worries have added due to the outbreak of the Covid-19 pandemic, which has affected them in different ways. Majority of people now work from home but the frontline personnel’s don’t have that option, they clock in their shifts every day to keep the hotel business.

Here are some ways the frontline training has evolved due to the pandemic; before the pandemic training on health and safety focused on basics such as personal protective equipment, slips and falls but now health and safety training is now part of your daily work experience.

Hotels have included critical safety topics including hand washing regularly and social distancing.

In pursuit of excellence of the frontline operations in the management of customer service feedback , many hotels have understood the importance of handling customer satisfaction measurement and service recovery and many firms have systems and procedures to do at least part of these activities.

However few hotels have implemented integrated customer feedback systems to systematically collect, analyze and disseminate the various types of feedback coming into the hotel and guide customer focused learning, many hotels including parliamentarian flat have customer feedback systems to enable improvement in service quality especially of frontline operations as they are the first people to meet guest upon arrival.

One of the community challenges in the hotel industry is providing consistent levels of quality service across units. This study examines the role that frontline operations play in the management of customer feedback.

Given the strategic importance of service quality of hotels in Buea. By employing a modified SERVQUAL model. The results from the model shows that the overall level of service of quality is primarily derived from the ‘reliability’ factor.

This study is strategically and managerially important to the hotel industry especially the hotel management, researchers and government. The hotel manager will use this research to improve service quality of front line employees, literature on service industries front line employees has largely focused on relationships between service providers and customers.

However there is increasing approbation that managers influence the front line employees’ motivation to work which ultimately impacts service quality.

Customer feedback cannot be mentioned individually without mentioning customers’ expectations and customer’s perceptions of service because this are the factors that combine to produce customer feedback.

Feedbacks includes positive and negative comments from customers about the service, customer expectations are pre purchase beliefs or opinions people have while customer perception is how customers feel about a service.

The importance of understanding customers’ needs is a widely accepted pre-requisite to providing quality services. Gathering customer feedback is important for any service industry. Frontline operations are the best for collecting these feedbacks because they are the first to get in contact with guest upon arrival.

Many hotels obtain optimal guest feedback through different means proactively by polling and surveying customers, interviewing them or by asking reviews. Customer feedback is gradually becoming the cornerstone of growth initiatives. Some hotels especially in Europe make use of robots services as a channel for collecting customer feedback.

1.2 Statement of the problem

Customer feedback is very important for any hotel business or organization. The problem of this study here is to understand the role of frontline employees in the management of customer service feedback.

Feedback can either be positive or negative depending the experience which the customer had at the hotel. So it is very important for the frontline management to properly submit feedback to the hotel manager for proper evaluation and improvement of service quality.

Effectively capturing customer feedback can help organizations swiftly react and improve on the quality of their service processes. In most organizations frontline employees are a vital source of customer feedback as they interact with customers frequently and intimately.

Thus this current work seeks to understand the roles frontline workers play in the management of these feedbacks.

1.3  Research questions

1) What are frontline operations in hotels?

2) What are the methods used by frontline staff to collect feedback from customers?

3) How can customer feedback help the hotel business?

4) What roles does frontline play to manage customer feedback?

1.4       Research objectives 

1. What are the different roles and qualifications of the frontline staff or workers?
2. How does frontline operations impact the management of customer service feedbacks?
3. What are some challenges faced by frontline staff in collecting feedback?
4. What are some of the recommendations to solve these challenges?

Role of Front Line Operations in the Management of Customer Service Feedback. Case Study at the Parliamentarian Flats Hotel in Buea, South West Region of Cameroon.