Hotel Florencia Case

Hotel Florencia

Hotel Florencia is a five star hotel located on the most popular strip in South

Beach Miami. In this area, luxury hotels are in great competition and, as such,

retaining customers is the key to success. As competition began to increase and

retaining customers became more essential, Hotel Florencia adopted an "100%

Customer Satisfaction!" policy to guide its staff.

Non-managerial employees follow very strict rules and procedures when dealing

with customers. They greet them, check them in, and answer their questions

according to a strict set of rules and procedures outlined by management. They

have very little authority to act outside these regulations.

Recently, top management at Hotel Florencia has been noticing a decreasing

number of repeat customers. When top management was looking through their

online ratings, they noticed that they were all complaints relating to customer

service. One incident particularly caught their eye and they decided to

investigate.

Julia, a receptionist of 2 years had received a complaint from a customer that

they had a leak. Having no authority to directly contact a plumber, she phoned

her manager. The manager was not available so she left him a message. Two

hours later the manager got the message and approved the plumber.

Disappointed, the customer asked for a discount the next morning to

compensate for the long time it took to fix the leak. Julia, having no authority to

do this informed the customers that the manager was in a meeting and she

could not authorize such a decision at the moment.

Julia was not concerned with the dissatisfied customer. She followed her

procedures and dealt with the situation as instructed. She was well aware of the

100 percent satisfaction policy but had no power to satisfy them in this situation.

After hearing this story, top management immediately hired consultants to find

a solution and ensure a situation like this would not occur in the future.