A case study of formal training of the front desk agent in Rochester/Monroe County, New York

The hospitality industry is a billion dollar industrybased upon customer service. Measure of quality service isan intangible concept based upon the perception of thecustomer. It is the industry's front-line employee that hasthe responsibility of fulfilling the perceived image ofservice the guest has envisioned.In 1991, industries throughout the U.S. budgeted 43.2billion dollars to be spent on formal training of itsemployees. The dollar commitment made to trainingexemplifies a companies commitment to its employees andcustomers. The formal training of the front desk agentbares the same commitment.In this study is was assumed that through formaltraining the front desk agent would gain a better knowledgeand confidence in their job performance and overall jobsatisfaction. As a result the industry would have aknowledgeable, confident and satisfied front desk agent thatwould provide better customer service.This descriptive study attempted to identify the statusof formal training of the front desk agent, the effectformal training had on job satisfaction and retention andthe differences in the perception of formal training betweenthe front desk agent/trainee and the front deskmanager /trainer in the Rochester/Monroe County, N.Y. area.The study was conducted through a 28 and a 40 itemquestionnaire asked of both the front desk agent/trainee andthe front desk manager/trainer. The questions asked dealtwith formal training, job satisfaction and demographics.It was concluded that although formal training is animportant factor in the hospitality industry overall jobsatisfaction is an independent variable of formal training.The questionnaire did however infer that for those hotelsthat do provide formal training there is a difference in theperception of training between the front desk agent/traineeand the front desk manager/ trainer.