Page 165 - DMGT308_CUSTOMER_RELATIONSHIP_MANAGEMENT

Customer Relationship Management

Notes Self Assessment

Fill in the blanks:
6. One of the fascinating things about contact centres is their never-ending pursuit of
…………………….

7. Full form of ACD is …………………….
8. Full form of CTI is …………………….
9. …………………… sends down a Web form with required text fields or an email form.

10. …………………… is like a telephone call, but instead of talking, the two people are typing
their dialog.

6.3 Front Office Management Technology

Regardless of the class or type of the hotel, front office is the most visible and essential focal-
point of a hotel. The focal point of activity within the front office is the reception desk, which is
located in the front lobby of a hotel and dispenses all front-of-the-house activities of the hotel.
It is the communication centre of the hotel with great amount of guest contact.
Guests interact with the hotel for the first time by interacting with the staff of the front office,
and they form the first impression about the hotel based on the efficiency, competency and
behaviour of the front office staff.
The reception desk performs the functions like the sale of rooms, guest registration, room
assignments, handling of guest requests, maintenance of the guest accounts, cashiering along
with handling mail and providing information. The financial tasks usually handled by the front
desk personnel include receiving cash payments, handling guest folios, verifying cheques and
handling foreign currency and credit cards. In this Section, you will be familiarized with all
these aspects of the front office management.

The first contact of the guests with a hotel is mostly with its telephone switch-board, which is
part of front office. The telephonist put the guest through to someone in the reservations
department, who take care of his booking and deals with any subsequent steps such as
confirmations, amendments or cancellations.
When the quest arrives he/she may be assisted by a uniformed concierge. What is certain is that
he will have to go to the reception desk to register and obtain his room key.
During the time period of his stay, he may have occasion to go back to reception various times,
sometimes for information or sometimes to pick up messages, and for help with tickets or
further travel. He will possibly have to call there at end of his stay in order to return the room
key and deal with his bill.

This does not end his connection with the hotel. His registration form must be kept for a
specified period, and the information of contains can be used for a variety of follow-up
communications designed to get him to come back after some time.

All these vitally important contacts are the job of front office. An American term used in place of
the older world ‘reception’. Strictly speaking, it only covers those staff that come into direct,
face-to-face contact with the guests, the other associated sections being known as ‘back office.’
However, the term’ front office’ is now generally used to describe the whole range of ‘front of
house’ sections, namely:

 Uniformed staff
 Switchboard

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