Faculty & Research
Cornell Hotel School's Center for Hospitality Research Offers Insight Into Industry's Ongoing Questions
CONTACT: Mara Begley or Chuck Mardiks
KWE Associates
Tel: 212/255-7403
begley@kwepr.com or mardiks@kwepr.com
Trends In Technology, Tipping, Turnover and Customer Complaints Examined
ITHACA, N.Y. - July 2001 - The Center for Hospitality Research at the Cornell University School of Hotel Administration provides studies that address current industry issues and concerns, including technology, customer service and employee turnover. The following studies offer insight into these topics. For more information on The Center for Hospitality Research, please visit its new Web site at: www.hotelschool.cornell.edu/research/chr.
Demand For Technologies In Hotel Customer Service Increases
According to a recent study from the Center, the use of technology to improve guest services will potentially be the most sweeping new use of information technology to affect the lodging industry. While technologies have successfully been implemented to improve employee productivity and enhance revenue, managers will need to more aggressively incorporate technologies into guest services to increase competitive advantage or be left behind. The study identified such "next-wave technologies" as curbside check-in, voice recognition and biometric payment systems that are adopted first by the most innovative hotels.
This study was conducted by Cornell Professors Judy Siguaw, associate professor and ; Cathy Enz, Lewis G. Schaeneman Jr., professor of innovation & dynamic management; and Karthik Namasivayam, of Pennsylvania State University.
Managers Who Lead By Example Boost Hotel Profits
A recent study by Cornell Hotel School Professor Tony Simons and a Washington University professor found that hotels can increase their profits by ensuring that managers live by their word and do not over promise. Simons surveyed 7,000 employees at 76 Holiday Inn hotels to find that small improvements in a manager's "behavorial integrity," as perceived by employees, leads to substantially higher profits for the hotel. In fact, an improvement of only one-eighth of a point in a hotel's managers' "behavioral integrity" score led to a boost in hotel profits of as much as 2.5 percent of revenues. For an average full-service hotel, that adds more than $250,000 to the bottom line. Simons attests that a quarter-point of improvement is challenging, but doable at hotels and other companies.
The Art Of Anticipating Customer Complaints
A recent study conducted by Alex Susskind, assistant professor at The Cornell Hotel School, showed that the more often diners eat out, the more educated they become on what demands they can make and how to best form a complaint about inadequate service. Given that there is a connection between the customer's confidence in forming complaints and a perception of what the response should be, service providers should learn to anticipate when service failures occur rather than wait for a customer to complain. Susskind has found that customer complaints can be classified into five, progressive intensifying stages: the "hints stage," "confirmation stage," "blame stage," "emotional stage" and "emotional display stage." For service providers to offer a timely and appropriate remedy for each service failure, it is important for the service personnel to understand the customers' perceptions of the service failure and their expectations for the delivery of a complaint remedy.
Reducing Turnover By Reviewing Employee Performance Trends
Although employers have long known that employee job performance and turnover are related, a recent Cornell Hotel School study found that turnover rates can be reduced by reviewing employee performance appraisals over an extended time period. Using performance trends can help identify employees who are top performers and valuable to their organizations, but may be at risk of leaving the company because they have had flat or declining performance reviews. Once identified, these employees may be retained by supporting them with training, job enrichment, pay changes or job changes. Not taking action may cause the company to lose such employees, lose the benefit of high performers, and bear the cost of another job search for candidates of unknown quality. This study was conducted by Michael Sturman, associate professor at Cornell, and Charlie Trevor of the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
The Center for Hospitality Research strives to be the leading source for high quality, useable and important research on and for the hospitality industry. It offers a unique meeting place where researchers can combine their expertise to solve complex and challenging problems facing the industry.
The Cornell School of Hotel Administration's mission is to "create and disseminate knowledge about hospitality management to the global hospitality industry." Founded in 1922, the School of Hotel Administration was the nation's first collegiate course of study in hospitality management. It is now recognized as the leading institution of higher education for hospitality industry management. The School opened with just 20 students, under the guidance of Director H.B. Meek. Today the Hotel School has over 940 students and offers professional kitchens, a wine cellar and tasting room, a computer center, a hospitality-research library, and the world's largest teaching hotel - the 150-room Statler Hotel.