Chapter2Guestology

• Guestology- as the scientific study of the behaviors,

needs, and expectations of people in a service environment,
and how to use that knowledge to manage a service
organization.
What are the 3 important aspects of guestology?
as the scientific study of the behaviors, needs, and
expectations of people in a service environment, and how to
use that knowledge to manage a service organization.
Guestology Practices
For example first-time guests may have general expectations when first
approach your hotel; they might be simply expecting to find a nice and
clean room with comfortable mattress, good food at the restaurant, clean
environment... at a reasonable price. However, a repeat guest may
have more specific expectations based on past experience, it is
important to be ahead and anticipate those expectations, and even more
important to try to exceed them. That is guestology in practice.
Customer Expectations
For customer satisfaction and customer service to be achieved, a complete and proper understanding of customer
expectations is very important. Unless the establishment already knows what the customers want, what they expect, and
who they are, it will be very difficult to match up to the expectations. Companies should make it a practice to always
inquire from their customers whether they have met their expectations and put all of this data into their internal research.
It is important that we note of their likes, dislikes, needs, wants, and profile as these would be the baseline of our entire
operations. Planning for customer satisfaction is really important in this case as this will be the platform for the design of
the experience. This is the role of the guestologist. It is very important that everything is in place when the guest's senses
first come in contact with anything about your establishment so the role of the guestologist is very critical.
Establishments geared toward delivery of services in tourism and hospitality should always be careful not to over-deliver
the said services. As our guest becomes more exposed to what we offer, he/she becomes more complex and, as such, is
accustomed to rely on our decision-making skills to look what best to give to them. Food attendants or waiters should
literally "wait" for their guest when dining in a restaurant. Anticipating guest needs is one of the primary responsibilities
of a waiter and that he/she should be good at it. It requires full attention so that whenever a guest needs something,
he/she could immediately handle the concern and attend to the guest's request. Depending on the service desired, most of
our guests have general similarities when it comes to their expectations. Their usual expectations would be that the
establishment be clean and the staff be courteous, responsive, reliable, and friendly. These expectations usually go up if
the establishment's level of service also goes up. Unfortunately, not all high-end or luxury establishments have
maintained this kind of service. Ekiz et. Al (2012) noted in their article that even in luxury hotels, there are still basic
problems that are actually unresolved, and with social media around, guests have easy access to flaunt these problems
which sets a springboard for other problems.
 Expected Service: Levels of Expectations

Dual Customer Expectation

Possible Levels of Customer Expectation Levels

 Desired Service:Level of
Ideal Expectations or Desires service that customer
hopes to receive
DESIRE SERVICE QUALITY
Normative "Should" Expectations
 Adequate service: Level of
Experience Based Expectation service the customer will
accept
 Zone of Tolerance:Gap
between Desired Service &
Adequate service
Acceptable Expectations
ADEQUATE SERVICE QUALITY
Minimum Tolerable Expectations
Zone of tolerance – the amount of error around the goal different Zone of tolerance
metric(perfection) that we , and the customers can consider acceptable.
• Some customers have narrow zones of tolerance
• They require tighter range of service from providers
• Others allow a greater range of service

Zone of tolerance

low Customer expectation high

Five basic types of customers that a hospitality and tourism enterprise should be aware of:
The loyal customers are actually the most important segment to please and should be one of the priorities in
mind of a specific company. Usually, this type of customers represents no more than twenty percent (20%) of the
customer base but actually drives majority of the sales revenues. Because of this, it is important to note that a
loyal customer values a product heavily. Furthermore, they are more likely to be the bearers of positive word of
mouth (WOM) and likely to recommend the company’s service products. Therefore, during the planning phase,
even in the decision- making process, these customers must be given heavy emphasis.

Impulse customers, meanwhile, are the best type to do suggestive selling. They are also second to loyal
customers when it comes to attractiveness in the market. As the name implies, these customers do not have a
shopping list in mind and do shopping instinctively. Moreover, these kinds of customers are receptive to
recommendations on products. Similar to loyal customers, it is also important to involve these customers because
what they say also matters in generating more revenue. Another type of customer which affects a company's
inventory turnover is the discount customer. They are contributory to a company’s cash flow because the
products which are seldom purchased at full price are actually availed by these customers as best markdowns
Need-based customers buy for a specific reason and occasion, and because of this, it may be difficult to
convince them to upsell. It is also important to note that these customers are adept in avoiding any attempt for
upselling and that they will immediately leave after they are done getting what they need. It has also been observed
that there a possibility to convert this segment to loyal customers. If a company can prove that the service that it
delivers could pose as a "need for this segment, along with proper positive
personal interactions, it is expected that this segment will be loyal in the long run. These customers generate the
largest amount of traffic as they have no specific need or desire in mind but yield the smallest percentage in sales
revenue. This type of customers enjoys social interaction while shopping. Thus, spending a lot of time trying to
please this segment can draw away the other segments. Although, generating small percentage revenue, it is
important to note that this segment still provides insightful information about the products and can therefore
contribute to the feedback mechanism of the company.

the internal customers. As a hospitality entity, it is important to note that

aside from external customers, it also serves its internal customers (people
which depend and "serve" each other). As they are the ones who are actually
doing the service process, they understand the feeling of being served
together with the toil of hard work that goes with it. Thus, the service given
to an external customer should be the same with that of an internal
customer. The expectations, which are to be satisfied, for an external
customer, should be the same with that of an internal customer.