HOSP2050 – INTERNATIONAL TOUR & HOTEL OPERATION Field Notes Project Destination Consulting Your consulting services have been retained by a Sorrento hospitality company. The company reached out to your firm to help them better market/manage their destination. They have been around for many years and the business has changed quite a bit since the current owners took over. They have been having some issues with customer ratings and have enlisted your help to create a process and standard operating procedures to meet their service promise. So far the customer concerns regarding the services have included: difficulty accessing information about services, uncertain purchasing process, rate structure of services is hard to understand, and ambiguous service. You and 3 of your colleagues are going to have to evaluate their operations and deliver your professional assessment of the product/service design and customer service delivery. There are two components to this assignment. Pre-departure component (individual) and Sorrento component (group). The groups will consist of 4 people. Pre-departure Component Evaluating a service provider. Part I Individual component (everyone must complete). Using an online search, find a specific service provider in Sorrento and evaluate their operation. Judging by information and pictures available online, detail the service components of your chosen restaurant, rental agency (bikes, beach equipment) tour-operator, etc. and identify the components of their activity. The details should include a discussion of the following components: 1. Identify: How do they plan and organizing people (opening hours, online content, at location control, & staffing)? 2. What is the infrastructure needed to provide the service, include the information available on the service scape, what do the facility component look like online? 3. How is the communication component of the service including, pricing, options, menus, what is the core product and how is it detailed? 4. What are your expectation of service provider and its customer’s interactions? Service promise sets the expectation for the experience which the customers will use to rate the service and evaluate whether they are satisfied with what they purchased. 5. Search for user generated content (online reviews) and summarize the evaluations. What is your general expectation of the service do you think you would be satisfied with the service? 1 Thorsson’s Field Notes Project Individual pre-departure component, Purpose: The purpose of the individual assignment is to gather information on services available ahead of time. When we arrive in Sorrento, we will begin to work with the information gathered individually and select from one of the establishments for the group project. By completing the project while still in the U.S. we can evaluate their online presence and the service promise, and experience what their customers see while planning their own trip. We will also have gained some knowledge of what is available to work with and what might be of interest to you. Individual pre-departure component, graded assignment: The final project should be submitted on Ulearn. The length of the paper, to adequately describe all the aspects of the services to be examined, should be between 3-5 pages. Double spaced and include a discussion of all 5 components. Please include references and links to all your material so that your group can access the information for the field notes and secret shopping visit. Sorrento Component Service Evaluation NOTE: We will meet and discuss how these components will be put into action. All will participate and will be randomly assigned into groups of four. This project will require you to visit the service provider and for your group to purchase/engage in the actual service. Team on-ground; Sorrento component: As a group meet and plan your field notes and data gathering expedition. The consulting partners, as a group should discuss all components of the service design and create an evaluative tool for all five components drawing information from your individual pre-departure project. Part II How do you intend to evaluate and take notes on all five components of their operation? The information you are gathering will be organized in the final consulting report to be shared with your chosen client. You need to make sure your evaluation is: objective, based on facts, well-articulated and include specific examples of interactions/observations. The final report created by your group will be presented to the proprietor of the destination. 1. Identify: How do they plan and organizing people (opening hours, online content, at location control, & staffing)? 2. What is the infrastructure needed to provide the service, include the information available on the service scape, what does the facility component look like online? 3. How is their material components of the service communicated, pricing, options, menus, what is the core product and how is it detailed? 4. What are your expectation of service provider and its customer’s interactions? Service promise sets the expectation for the experience which the customers will use to rate the service and evaluate whether they are satisfied with what they purchased. 5. Search for user generated content (online reviews) and summarize the evaluations. 2 Thorsson’s Field Notes Project Part III Based on your evaluations and data gathering, create a marketing campaign for the client. This should include the medium you intend to use i.e. print, website, posters, video or cooperative contracts with other service providers. Select three different communication methods and create the actual ad/message. This could be a video or poster or website proposal. Your marketing campaign proposal should be based on your findings and recommendations from (Part I). Part IV Create a PowerPoint presentation detailing the overall process, field notes, evaluation & observations, specific examples of service interactions, service product, and core-competency evaluation (what is their core product and how do they deliver it better than their competitors). Identify strengths and weaknesses of the operation discuss how and why and offer recommendations for improvements. The presentation should be geared towards a situation analysis presentation to a client. The presentation should be 10-15 slides and be between 15-20 minutes. You are going to have to practice the presentation to make sure you are NOT READING the slides, but competently presenting to you client. Resources: Service Blueprint: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Service_blueprint Zehrer, A. (2009). Service experience and service design: concepts and application in tourism SMEs. Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, 19(3), 332-349. What defines good service? http://www.mycustomer.com/service/management/what-defines-a-goodservice-culture-and-how-can-service-design-help 3 Thorsson’s Field Notes Project
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