What is hospitality?

Hospitality is a proactive, emotion-focused approach that creates a warm, welcoming environment and makes guests feel valued and cared for. Companies in the hospitality field aspire to build a lasting emotional connection and a positive, memorable experience. This often involves anticipating a person’s needs and going above and beyond.

For example, a hotel concierge remembers a returning guest’s coffee preference or a server at a restaurant offers personalized recommendations. Your service typically aims to make people feel valued, cared for and comfortable.

Hospitality applies to businesses in nearly every niche and is not limited to the traditional hospitality industry. Integrating hospitality into your organization can help create a memorable customer experience and contribute to the success of your business.

Examples of good hospitality

For a better understanding of hospitality, consider these examples:

• welcoming guests warmly as they arrive at your establishment
• providing alternative food options at a conference to accommodate different dietary preferences
• creating a welcoming environment for customers
• offering complimentary refreshments while clients wait or receive services
• providing books, toys or entertainment for children
• customizing pillow and bedding choices for overnight stays
• hiring multilingual employees to ensure that guests speaking different languages feel comfortable

Common roles in hospitality

Every employee who interacts with customers can integrate hospitality into their service. However, certain career paths, such as catering, event planning and hotel management, are particularly focused on this concept and are considered part of the traditional hospitality industry. Employers who hire candidates with strong hospitality skills can enhance customer experiences significantly.

Examples include:

• Hotel staff: Front-desk agents typically interact most often with guests in hotels and other businesses offering overnight stays. In larger resorts, staff may also include concierges, bartenders, restaurant servers, housekeeping staff and baggage porters. These professionals help create a welcoming environment for their guests.
• Hotel and restaurant managers: The management team of hospitality businesses typically trains all staff members to enhance the quality of hospitality your business provides.
• Servers: Restaurants and country clubs are common workplaces for servers. They might demonstrate their hospitality skills by warmly greeting diners, suggesting meal options and checking for dietary restrictions.
• Event coordinators: From weddings to business conferences, large events require meticulous planning. Event coordinators help hosts by creating a welcoming atmosphere for guests during the event.

What is customer service?

Customer service delivers the services and support your customers want and need. It is generally the direct help a company offers to a customer before, during and after a purchase.

Customer service aims to efficiently resolve a specific issue or answer a question. For example, a customer service interaction could be a call to a support centre to report a billing dispute or a store associate helping a customer find an item.

Anticipating and meeting your customers’ needs can help with satisfaction and encourage marketing and additional purchases. Effective customer service often determines whether customers stay loyal or take their business elsewhere.

Employers who recognize and understand the importance of customer service skills and know how to find candidates with them can build teams that excel in responding to customer feedback and questions about how to use a product.

Examples of good customer service

The following examples of customer service help you better understand the business concept:

• providing accurate information about a product or service
• showing customers how a product works
• following up with customers after purchases or deliveries
• processing refunds
• developing a ticket system for submitting requests and issues

Typical roles in customer service

Many roles within your organization involve customer service. Some employers hire a dedicated customer service team to deliver an exceptional customer experience. The specific roles vary depending on the type of business. For example, a service-oriented business might employ call centre agents to handle customer service over the phone, while a brick-and-mortar store provides customer service through its retail associates.

Typical customer service roles might include:

• Call centre representatives: These team members answer calls to handle customer inquiries. Call centres also have supervisors and managers who oversee more complex situations.
• Customer service representatives: This role is similar to call centre representatives, but customer service reps help customers directly in business offices or retail settings.
• Account coordinators: When you work with ongoing clients, an account coordinator can help serve them. Account coordinators use a mix of sales and customer service skills to manage clients’ needs and encourage them to add services.
• Technical support specialists: Some businesses hire support specialists to provide technical support for consumers. This option is popular in the IT industry, where customers might need help troubleshooting products or learning how to use them properly.
• Customer service managers: In this supervisory role, the manager oversees other customer service employees to ensure they provide quality service. The role usually involves supervision, training and policy setting.

How are hospitality and customer service similar?

Hospitality and customer service involve interactions with customers, clients or guests. Combined, they make a positive impression on consumers, earning your company positive reviews and recommendations. A company that trains its employees to use skills from both areas can help create a more holistic and satisfying customer experience.

For example, at a restaurant, hospitality might involve playing ambient music, greeting customers warmly, asking about special celebrations and providing personalized meal recommendations. Customer service includes taking orders accurately, delivering food to the table, refilling beverages consistently, bringing any requested items and processing payments promptly.

How employers can measure success

Customer satisfaction is what typically sets your business apart from the competition. Employers can gain deeper insights into client perceptions and evaluate their teams’ success using customer satisfaction surveys and other metrics.

For customer service, metrics like First Contact Resolution Rate, Average Handle Time and Customer Satisfaction Score (CSAT) can be helpful. For hospitality, metrics such as Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Lifetime Value and online review ratings on platforms like Google, Yelp or TripAdvisor can offer valuable insights.

What are some differences between hospitality and customer service?

While both concepts contribute to a positive customer experience, there are differences between hospitality and customer service roles and services. Customer service aims to meet customers’ needs efficiently, while hospitality emphasizes creating memorable experiences and fostering long-term customer relationships.

Your customer service efforts focus on providing information or service. With hospitality, you consider elements beyond the product or service, such as the environment and how you treat each customer.

Building emotional connections can also be essential in hospitality. You aim to impact your guests emotionally to ensure a positive experience. Conversely, customer service typically concentrates on specific actions to meet the customer’s needs.

Here’s a comparison:

Sample job titles for hospitality and customer service employees

Here is an example of job titles that highlight the distinction between the two roles:

Customer service representative vs. hotel guest services agent

Customer service reps typically work in call centres, help desks or online chat support. Their primary objective is to resolve a technical issue or inquiry for a high volume of customers.

A hotel guest services agent also assists guests with requests. Still, their primary goal is to create a welcoming and personalized experience by remembering a guest’s name, booking a reservation or making them feel at home.

Both solve problems, but one focuses on the transaction while the other focuses on the relationship.

Key skills for hiring: A skills-first approach

The distinction between hard and soft skills becomes especially important for both hospitality and customer service roles, so a skills-first hiring approach allows employers to look for the specific capabilities needed for each role.

Here are some hard and soft skills for employers to consider for customer service roles:

Hard skills:

• Product knowledge: Deep, technical understanding of the product or service to provide effective support
• Data entry and management: Ability to accurately log information from customer interactions
• Technical troubleshooting: Following specific steps to diagnose and resolve a problem
• CRM and ticketing system proficiency: Ability to use customer relationship management software like Salesforce or Zendesk to track and manage customer issues

Soft skills:

• Patience: Remaining calm and professional, even with frustrated or difficult customers
• Active listening: Ability to listen closely to understand the customer’s full message, including their underlying emotions
• Problem solving: Critical-thinking skills to analyze a situation and find a solution

Hospitality roles require specific skills to establish a welcoming environment and build emotional bonds, such as:

Hard skills:

• Reservation/booking systems: Proficiency with systems like Opera or ResDiary to manage guest information and preferences
• Multilingualism: Ability to communicate with international guests and make them feel more comfortable
• Local knowledge: Understanding of the local area to offer personalized recommendations
• Event logistics: Familiarity with event planning software, catering and venue management

Soft skills:

• Empathy and emotional intelligence: Ability to understand and connect with a guest’s feelings
• Proactiveness: Anticipating needs and offering help without being asked
• Interpersonal skills: Warm, friendly and engaging demeanour
• Adaptability: Ability to adjust to a guest’s mood or unexpected changes in plans

The experience you provide can be your most valuable asset, and hospitality creates a welcoming atmosphere while excellent customer service ensures seamless experiences. By understanding their similarities and differences, businesses can deliver comprehensive experiences that satisfy customers. Companies providing exceptional hospitality and customer service can source top candidates to potentially achieve higher profitability.