Kristen Adams had recently transfer

Kristen Adams had recently transferred to the Excelsior Hotel to improve
the level of customer service. She had been with the company
for five years and had been quite successful in improving the level
of customer satisfaction at the two previous hotels to which she had been assigned.
Kristen knew that the Excelsior was going to be a real challenge. The
mix of business was 60 percent individual transient guests and 40 percent
group business. Of this group business, about one-third was motor coach tour
groups.
On her first day on the job, she witnessed quite a sight. There was a line
of about 20 guests waiting to check in when two motor coaches arrived and
more than 80 additional guests and guides walked into the lobby to check in.
Needless to say, the two front desk agents had a look of terror in their eyes
as they worked diligently to process the registrations for those waiting to check
in. Some 40 minutes later, everyone had been checked in, but the general manager
said to Kristen, “I’m glad that you are here; we need to work out a better
system. Let’s meet for lunch tomorrow to discuss your initial ideas.” Kristen
had just picked up a pen to start brainstorming ideas to present to the
general manager when a guest approached her desk.
“Hello, my name is Bill Foster, and I stayed at your hotel last night with
my family. We really did not have a good experience, and I want to tell you
about it. I want to make sure that this does not happen again, to me or anyone
else.” Mr. Foster then proceeded to tell Kristen his account of the events.
“I was traveling with my wife and our son, who is four years old. Our connecting
flight was delayed, so we did not arrive at our final destination until
10 p.m. The Excelsior had an advertised check-in facility at the airport,
and I assumed that I would be able to secure my room while waiting for the
luggage. When I approached the employee at the hotel’s airport facility, I
was told that check-in service was not available at that time of the day. I
found this to be surprising, since this was the very type of situation in which
an airport facility would be beneficial.
“Next, my family took a shuttle van from the airport to the hotel, where
we were given directions to the front desk. Two front desk clerks were on
duty when the passengers from the airport shuttle arrived a little before 11
p.m. However, one of the front desk clerks was apparently going off duty at
11, and she proceeded to close her drawer at that exact moment. This left a
line of approximately 10 or 12 guests to be checked in by one clerk. Needless
to say, it took some time to process all of the guests, and we had to wait 20 or
30 minutes for our turn. We were assigned to a room, but at this point we
had a few bags and my son was fast asleep and had to be carried. When I