Quality at Ritz-Carlton

Ways that can be used by the hotel to monitor success in achieving quality

Quality is the ability to meet the target operational goals.  Any measurement of quality should therefore be defined in the way it is able to satisfy the expressed and the implicit need of the process.  There are many ways that the hotel can use to measure quality aspects of its operations.

One of such way would be through the assessment of the external quality which in this case refers to customer satisfaction. Customer satisfaction can be assessed through various means using the financial and non financial attributes. The overall satisfaction of the consumer is expressed in their reaction towards the product or services offered.  A simple survey using a questionnaire can be used to collect data about the satisfaction of the customer.  The increase or decrease in the number of customer served can also be sued to assess the satisfaction of customer and therefore the improvement in quality (Drucker, 2004).

The other way can be through the assessment of the internal quality marked by the efficiency of the internal operation of the hotel.  This can be assessed by the way in which hotel function in scheduling of jobs, reduction in internal conflicts, reduced complains from the customers. These are some of the way that can be used to assess internal quality improvement. But the generally the delivery of services to customers will be the best way that will be used to assess improvement in quality of goods and services.

Action to improve quality

The purpose of any quality improvement procedure will be to ensure that a company charges the way it had been operating before and it adapts a new way of operation which will improve the delivery of services as compared to the way it had been done before.  It is one thing to talk about improving quality and another thing to improve quality.  Therefore for a company that really intends to improve quality, there has to be actions that are specifically directed to address the issue.  There has to be assessment of the current quality in the company and coming up with new plans to improve quality of goods and service.  There has to be setting of standards of quality that will act as benchmark for the company to gauge its improvement. These standards can be sought from other companies or they can be set according to the capability of the company.  Once there is a plan in place and standards for gauging its operation, the company must then put the plan into actions.  This should be followed by continuous monitoring process that will be strategic to implement changes that are needed in course of the operation.  From time to time there has to be evaluation of the plan according to the standards that were set (Gilbert, Veloutsou and Goode, 2004).

Why it might cost less to do things right the first time

In many instances it cost us less to do things the right way the first time that we do them.   This is because the more the times we tend to experiment on something without taking it serous, the more we tend to lose the focus on the need to improve it. When something is taken serious right from the start, then it means that we will be doing that thing the correct way and we will strive to improve it. If the hotel fails to do thing right the first time, they will have an added cost of improving it.

In their efforts to improve quality, there is need to implement the plan the correct way right from the start. This is because it will save them time to and cost to redo that plan again and to improve it.  There is also the factor of change that is always associated with resistance especially from the employees.  The way the hotel will do something the first time becomes the standard of doing it later. Any attempt to introduce any change might be met by resistance by the worker and therefore will be costly to implement.

The use of control charts, pareto diagram and cause-and-effect diagrams  

These are among the most important tools that are use in administration of quality.

The control charts will be used in order to monitor the ongoing process of   implementation of the quality improvement measures. They can be used to predict the expected outcome of the quality improvement measures and to determine the stability of the whole process.

The cause and effect diagram can be sued to diagnose a quality problem in the hotel as it act as a first step in solving problem through generation of   a list of the possible causes of the problem.  At the minimum the cause and effect diagram will help to understand the problem and come up with list of solutions (Kaplan and Norton, 1996).

The pareto chart will be useful in helping the organization to identify the quality issue that is of great concern to the hotel.  It will also the hotel to minimum source are causing majority of the problem and which  are the possible solution that can be used to  achieve the greatest possible improvement for the quality problem.

Therefore these tools will be important in monitoring the process of quality improvement in the hotel.

Non-financial measures of customer satisfaction

 There are various number of non financial measure that ca be used by the hotel to evaluate quality improvement. Customer service will be an important measure that will help to evaluate the level of customer satisfaction. The quality of the service will be very important in this case.  Market performance will be another important measure that can be evaluated on the number of customer who are coming to the hotel or the market growth of the hotel. If the costumers will be satisfied, then there will be a positive market growth for the hotel.   But customer satisfaction  factor like  the  plate remains when food is served,  the booking of rooms, retention of customers, and  others  is an important way to understand whether the quality has improved and  the level of customer satisfaction (Stivers, 2006).

References

Drucker, F. (2004): Managing the future. New York: Truman Talley Books

Gilbert, G., Veloutsou, V. & Goode, M. (2004): Measuring customer satisfaction in fast food industry. Journal of Service Marketing, Vol. 18(5): 370-379

Kaplan, R. & Norton, D. (1996): The balanced score card:  Measures that drive performance. Harvard Business Review

 Stivers, B. (2006): How non-financial performance measures are used. Harvard Business school Press