CUSTOMER SERVICE

LHECKlnG In UNDER IIIIRRIOTT’S FIRST TEN PROGRRm What can a hotel do to better serve its customers? One answer to that question, the Marriott Hotel Corporation discovered, was speed up the check-in procedure. In re- sponse to that finding, Marriott developed the First Ten program, which streamlines check- in so that waiting time is virtually eliminated.As outlined in this article, the program has not only improved operational efficiency, but also boosted customer satisfaction.

by Emily Knight and Gordon M. Amsler

You grab the last bag from the airport baggage claim con- veyor and race to catch the shuttle to the hotel where you will be staying tonight. The rain is pouring down and the roads are congested with rush-hour traffic. You’re about to doze off, when the van comes to a screeching halt; you have finally arrived at your hotel.

You head into the lobby where you expect to walk to the front counter, check in, and retire to your room for the evening. To your dismay, however, you see a long line formed in front of the registration desk, and the people in it don’t look very happy, You notice that there are only two clerks working and that the express check-in desk is not staffed. Thirty minutes later, you have your keys and go to your room. But when you anive, you discover that your request for nonsmoking accommodations had not been fulfilled.

You go back to the first desk, where a clerk tells you that your request was noted but not guaranteed, and that all the rooms designated as nonsmoking were taken. With no energy left to fight, you go back to your room, hoping that someday you will come across a hotel that has your keys ready and room type requests confirmed when you arrive. Wouldn’t it be great, you muse as you finally drift off to sleep, not to have to stop at the registration desk at all.

The Marriott Hotel Corporation has tested just such a hassle-free check-in procedure called First Ten. The con- cept behind the program’s name is that guests ideally should

be in their hotel rooms within the first ten minutes of their arrival.

COMPARING THE OLD SYSTEM WITH THE NEW At a Marriott resort hotel in the southeast, the staff at

the front desk in the lobby handle guest services and all check-in and check-out duties. The main piece of equip- ment used is the Property Management System (PMS), which holds all the data on each reservation for the hotel. This system records travelers’ personal preferences, as well as credit card information, scheduled arrival, and departure dates. The mainframe computer for this system is located in the hotel’s accounting department. Marriott’s Automated Reservation Service for Hotel Accommodations. or MARSHA system, can be accessed by all company proper- ties, other national reservations systems, travel agents, and car rental agencies. The mainframe for the MARSHA sys- tem is housed in Omaha, Nebraska. This reservation sys- tem is directly linked to PMS, and data are downloaded every three days. The current system has been used ever since the hotels were automated, twelve years ago.

Printed registration cards that provide a hard copy of all computer data are also used at the front desk, as are phones that connect to various hotel departments and guest rooms, credit card machines, and the mainframe for the in- room movie service.

The front desk is considered the heart of the hotel.

* * *

Emily Knight is a service and marketing recruiter for Career Consulting, Inc., in Wayne, Pennsylvania. Previously, she was employed in the sales department of the Marriott resort described in this article. Gordon M. Amsler; Ph.D., is an assistant professor of management atTroy State University in Troy, Alabama. He teaches operations management at the undergraduate and graduate levels.

NATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY REVIEW / Autumn I998 0 I998 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.

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54 Emily Knight and Gordon M . Amsler

Whenever there is a challenge or question, the front desk is the first place a guest calls. The individuals at this location are trained not only to be prompt on the computer but also to react quickly in any situation and to have the ability to provide excellent service at all times. The pay for this posi- tion often is higher than for other entry-level hotel posi- tions because of the higher degree of stress and responsibility.

Sixteen people on average are employed at the front desk of the hotel. They work varying schedules and receive training for one week on Marriott’s Computer Based Train- ing program (CBT) before they are allowed to interact with guests. There are three managers who also interact on the front line. One director oversees the entire operation and handles the administrative duties. During slow times when there are no more than fifty check-ins and fifty check-outs during a shift, the front desk is staffed by two to three clerks and one manager. When a large group is checking in. as many as six clerks and two to three managers are available. These clerks function both as guest service representatives and front office associates.

Before the First Ten process was implemented, the check-in process at the hotel involved these steps:

The guest arrives at the hotel and, if there is no line, steps up to the counter to be assisted. If there is a line, the guest joins a queue formed within stra- tegically placed stanchions. The guest presents his or her name and/or confir- mation number. The clerk pulls the reservation up on the computer and puts it into “I“ status, which means “In-house.” The clerk then pulls the regis- tration card and has the guest sign it, verifying the arrival date, departure date, rate. address, and method of payment. The clerk swipes the credit card, prints a manual copy of the receipt for the guest to sign, selects a room, and enters it into the system, checking for any special request codes and guarantees. The clerk makes card keys in a computerized key system, hands them to the guest and directs the guest toward his or her room, or to the bell stand. Not taking into consideration any questions the guest may have or problems that might arise, this process takes on average four and one-half min- utes (Exhibit 1).

Under the First Ten check-in system: The guest arrives at the hotel and is met by a guest service agent. The guest is escorted into the lobby, with the guest service agent carrying bags. The agent pulls the guest’s registration card from a large card rack in the center lobby area. The agent verifies the information. hands keys to

the guest, and escorts the guest to his or her room. If changes need to be made to the guest’s account, the agent escorts the guest to the counter where changes can be entered directly into the PMS. This entire process takes less than two minutes, not in- cluding the time spent walking to the room. The process is completed by one person. The bell stand, guest service, front office, and switchboard opera- tions are combined into one team, thus ensuring a faster check-in for all guests (Exhibit 2).

THE IMPACT ON OPERATIONS MANAGEMENT When analyzing the First Ten program’s impact on hotel

operations management, several factors must be considered: Capacity-The capacity of a work center depends on

its ability to process units of work per unit of time. At the original front desk, no more than five people could check in at a time because of the fixed number of computers avail- able. With the First Ten process, check-in is limited only by the number of guest service agents you have on the floor at one time. These agents can easily determine what time guests will be arriving because this information is solicited when the original reservation is placed into MARSHA. Staffing and effective scheduling are crucial in First Ten.

Setup time is also an important factor in determining the capacity of a system; with the original system, setup is not necessary, because all data are already within the computer. With First Ten, however, there is a tremendous amount of pre- registration work-time that must be used to complete regis- tration cards, pre-key guest rooms, verify credit card informa- tion. and select rooms according to guaranteed characteris- tics. This setup time, however, can be spent during off-peak hours. especially on the graveyard shift, when people do not work to full capacity.

Analyzing the true capacity for the hotel’s front desk is difficult to break down into time spent with each guest. Under both systems. check-ins will have varying capacity require- ments, because some individuals may require more time when checking in if they have questions or if there is a breakdown in the system. This is especially true under the original front desk operation, where there is a high degree of variety leading to high complexity, which. in turn, makes the exact capacity of the entire process difficult to determine.

Queues-Under the old system, when every front desk was being used, a line would form in the center of the lobby. No sign was posted to let guests know that this was the pro- cess: nevertheless guests would intuit that they should form a line within the stanchions and advance through this line until reaching an available clerk. This meant that all individuals waited for the guests in front of them to finish checking in before they could begin their own check-in procedure.

With the new system. the lobby has neither queue nor stanchions. There is instead a guest services representative who watches the lobby and several guest service agents who

NATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY REVIEW /Autumn I998

Checking In Under Marriott’s First Ten Program 55

Guest presents name and confirmantion number

EXHIBIT I. Original Process Check-In Flow

R m m assigned. keys are presented

rn Guest Arrives at hotel

Guest presents name and confirmation number

Guest enten queue and waits 9 Guest obtains

bellperson assistance and is escorted to rmrn

Guest checks out at end 01 slay

complete everything from bag delivery to key selection. This saves guests valuable time; they no longer feel that they are waiting in an endless line. The clerks at the front desk are there only to cash checks, answer phones, and make any changes to rooms; there may be only one individual at the desk. The back office may have several agents preparing the documents for the next business day and putting the guests who check in during the day into “I” status.

Bottleneck-With the old system, bottlenecks fre- quently occurred. An arriving guest who was originally only fifth in line might be required to wait an extraordinarily long time for even a simple request, if those guests being served first had several questions about their reservations.

With First Ten, each person is brought into the lobby by a guest service agent and presented his or her keys; that same agent takes the bags up to the guest’s room. With one individual completing all steps at check-in, arriving guests don’t have to wait for the guests in front of them to €inish. The check-in takes as long as the guest would like, depend-

EXHIBIT 2. First Ten Process Check-In Flow

Guest arrives at hotel and is greeted by a guest sewices agent

Guest reviews information on already-prepared

registration card

lnformatlon Guesl goes to lmnt deSk for CorreCtmLs correct?

Keys are presented. guest sewices agenl takes bags and escorts guest to room

Guest checks out at end of stay

ing on any questions or immediate requests, or as long as it takes to walk to the guest room. Scheduling of hotel staff is determined by each particular day’s arrival schedule, to en- sure that there is always a guest services agent available to meet any arriving guests.

Time standardeAs previously discussed, the old sys- tem, on average, took about four and one-half minutes to com- plete if there were no changes. The new system has cut that time in half, allowing less than two minutes for the actual selection of the room and presentation of keys, Guest service agents now complete the work of selecting a room behind the scenes, during down times. The initial reservation now is more detailed when it enters the MARSHA system; it allows smok- ing or nonsmoking preferences, choice of credit card for final payment, arrival and departure dates, and bedding size prefer- ences to be recorded. Accuracy here is vital and the quality of the information must be the best available. The agents at the hotel use this information from their PMS terminals to select an appropriate room for each individual.

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56 Emily Knight and Gordon M. Amsler

Cycle and Throughput Time-For both the old and the new systems, the cycle starts when the guest enters the hotel and ends when he or she leaves. This cycle includes the initial check-in, as well as any time the guest spends at the desk while in-house, to the time of check-out. The cycle for this process happens the same way for each person that stays on the property. Once the guests check into the sys- tem, they must subsequently check out. This cycle allows for immediate “double checks” to see who is in what room and to see whether any one person stayed over the allotted time established in the reservation process.

With the implementation of the new system, the cycle has stayed relatively the same. The throughput time has re- mained the same as in the first system, which still depends on the length of stay the guest has established. The time for a particular job or unit to pass through an operating unit is the basic definition of throughput, so this will stay the same for either system when evaluating the entire system process.

COMPETITIVE CONSIDERATIONS All performance evaluations of an operating unit should

be driven by the overall goals of the firm. In some environ- ments, customer service is, if not most important, at least considered in a different light. For any hotel faced with in- creasing competition, this remains true. Many surveys of

individuals frequenting hotels emphasize the importance of a hassle-free check-in process with a minimum amount of time spent at the desk. This was the main reason why the Marriott Corporation developed the First Ten system.

The current check-in system has decreased the amount of time a guest waits for a room and the number of errors stemming from having to quickly enter data when a indi- vidual arrives on the property. In evaluating the First Ten system, Marriott discovered that efficiency, capacity, and guest satisfaction increased.

Before the implementation of First Ten, two of every ten individuals had difficulties with their check-in process. Under the new system, the number is down to one. This is a dramatic improvement, for the new system added capac- ity and increased speed while improving the accuracy of each transaction. Such results have not gone unnoticed. Since the implementation of First Ten three competitors have adopted very similar hassle-free processes.

The hotel used in the pilot program has formally adopted it, and many other Marriott Properties are making the nec- essary changes to switch to First Ten. In a couple of years, this process may be added to the list of Standard Operating Procedures for all Marriot-run hotels, for i t supports Marriott’s mission statement of providing 100 percent guest satisfaction 100 percent of the time.

NATIONAL PRODUCTIVITY REVIEW / Autumn I998