Handling Telephone Queuing at The Operator Phone Lines During Office Hours at Novotel Bandung.

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ABSTRACT

Tugas akhir ini bertujuan membahas masalah antrian telepon di operator selama jam kantor di Novotel Bandung, berdasarkan pengalaman masa magang saya selama 3 bulan sebagai operator telepon di Novotel Bandung. Masalah tersebut disebabkan oleh terbatasnya staf reservasi yang

mengakibatkan banyak penelepon yang ingin berbicara dengan bagian reservasi harus menunggu lama di line operator, bahkan ada kemungkinan mereka harus menelepon kembali dua sampai tiga kali. Masalah ini

mengakibatkan hotel mendapatkan keluhan yang dapat berdampak buruk bagi citra hotel dimata penelepon.

Saya juga menganalisa beberapa sebab dan akibat dari masalah yg dihadapi. Beberapa penyebab tersebut adalah antara lain: terbatasnya staff reservasi, kebanyakan dari penelepon ingin berbicara dengan bagian

reservasi, dan terbatasnya waktu reservasi. Sedangkan akibat dari masalah tersebut adalah antara lain: munculnya keluhan penelepon, hotel akan mendapat citra yang buruk, dan penelepon yang menghubungi bagian reservasi diluar jam kerja tidak dapat berbicara dengan staff reservasi, sehingga dapat mengurangi kemungkinan para penelepon untuk melakukan booking kamar.

Oleh karena itu, saya menganalisa beberapa pilihan solusi yang mungkin dapat diterapkan, beserta dampak positif dan negatif yang mungkin terjadi. Solusi-solusi tersebut adalah memperkerjakan pemagang-pemagang untuk bagian reservasi, reservasi dibuka selama 24 jam, dan memperkerjakan lebih banyak karyawan untuk bagian reservasi. Solusi pilihan yang saya pilih adalah gabungan dari reservasi dibuka selama 24 jam dan memperkerjakan pemagang-pemagang untuk menambah staff reservasi. Hal ini diharapkan dapat meningkatkan kualitas dan kuantitas pelayanan telepon di hotel,

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CHAPTER I

INTRODUCTION

A. Background of the Study

Nowadays, the business world is developing and businesses are

competing tightly, including the business of tourism. As tourism is prospective

to be developed in almost every place, business in this field can be promising

and profitable. Based on an article entittled Business Tourism, it is stated that

“At present, business tourism is one of the leading highly-profitable and most

dynamically developing branches of the world economy” (par.1). There are

many areas in the field of tourism, one of which is hotel. Hotels in Indonesia

are developing and very competitive, ranging from the hotels of low quality to

those of high quality.

I had an internship as a telephone operator in Novotel Bandung, one of

the four-star hotel businesses in Bandung, which has domestic and also

international guests coming for pleasure or doing their business. Thus, it is

very important for the hotel to build trust and provide the guests comfort in

order to win the competition in the hotel business. Therefore, it is important

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including its telephone service to make the guests willing to stay in Novotel

Bandung.

When I worked in Novotel Bandung, I found that there was a significant

problem which could make the callers upset when calling to make a

reservation. The telephone queuing problem could occur as there were just

two reservation staff in charge, therefore, the caller should wait for a long

period of time. There are chances that they even should call back two to three

more times. Furthermore, there were still many calls waiting in lines from

other callers calling for other purposes which must also be answered.

Besides, on certain days there was only one reservation staff in charge which

caused many of the calls that had been connected to reservation was put

back through again to the operator. That is why I decide to discuss this

problem as my topic for my term paper with the aim of keeping good quality

phone service, thus, maintain the good image of Novotel Bandung.

B. Identification of the Problem

The problem that I am going to analyze is stated in two questions below:

1. Why is there telephone queuing in the operator phone lines?

2. How is it to solve the telephone queuing in the operator phone

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C. Objectives and Benefit of the Study

The objectives of the study that will be achieved at the end of this term

paper are; to find out the causes of telephone queuing at the operator phone

lines during office hours at Novotel Bandung. The second is to find out the

ways to solve telephone queuing at the operator phone lines during office

hours in Novotel Bandung, the last is to find out the best solution to the

problem of telephone queuing at the operator phone lines in Novotel

Bandung.

The benefit of the study for the hotel is the hotel can find out and solve the

main problem in the division of phone operator based on my research.

Moreover, the benefit of the study for the readers is they can use this term

paper to increase their knowledge about telephone operating in a hotel and

how to solve the problem if they encounter similar problem like what I

analyzed in this term paper. Furthermore, the benefit of the study for the

writer is that I can improve my knowledge and skill as a telephone operator.

D. Description of the Institution

Novotel Bandung is a four-star international hotel under the management

of Accor Hospitality from France and is the only Accor’s hotel in Bandung. It

started to operate on December 10, 2006. It is located in Jl. Cihampelas

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of two parking areas including the basement, ground floor, and 156 rooms.

The facilities of the hotel are including: Square Restaurant, Business Centre,

Lounge Bar, Premiere Lounge, Ballroom, Meeting Rooms, Swimming Pool,

Dolfi Children Playground, and Odiseus Fitness Center & Spa. The mission of

Novotel Bandung is providing the best service to keep best relationships and

trust with the guests.

E. Method of Study

In this term paper, I will analyze the telephone queuing in the operator

lines during office hours based on my observation during the internship

program which lasts for about three months as a telephone operator in

Novotel Bandung. The analysis is also supported by library research.

F. Limitation of the Study

I analyze about telephone queuing in the operator lines during office hours

during my internship in Novotel Bandung as a telephone operator for about

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G. Organization of the Term Paper

This term paper consists of the Abstract, which is the substance of the

discussion of the term paper in Indonesian. This section will help the readers

to know the overall term paper quickly. After that, it will be followed by

Declaration of Originality, Acknowledgements which contains my thankfulness

for the people who are related to my writing term paper, and Table of

Contents which allows the readers to find the content through page number,

followed by Chapter 1 which is Introduction of Study, Chapter 2, the Problem

Analysis which contains the causes and the effects of the problem, Chapter 3,

the Potential Solutions to solve the problem including the positive and

negative effects, Chapter 4, the Conclusion which presents the best solution

to the problem, Bibliography which contains printed and electronic sources of

theories that support this term paper, and Appendix which contains the

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CHAPTER IV

CONCLUSION

In the previous chapters, I have explained the main problem, causes,

and effects of telephone queuing in the operator phone lines during office

hours in Novotel Bandung. In addition, there are each three causes and

effects that are related to the problem. The first cause is there are limited

reservation staff, the second is that most of the callers want to talk to

reservation staff, and the third is that limited reservation staff. Besides the

three causes, there are three effects of the problem. The first effect is

creating callers’ complaint, the second is the hotel will have bad image,

and the third is that the callers who call out of the office hours cannot talk

to reservation staff. Besides, I have also discussed about the potential

solutions including with the positive and negative effects for each potential

solution.

In this chapter, I would like to discuss the best potential solutions to

solve the problem; including, first, hiring trainees as the reservation staff

and the second is having reservation available for 24 hours. I decide to

combine these two potential solutions, considering that both potential

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service to the callers.

It is crucial for Novotel Bandung to be concerned about increasing

the number of staff and providing more time for reservation service in

order to make each call directly handled and to open the chance to

increase room occupancy. Regarding the proposed solution of increasing

the number of staff, the best solution is hiring trainees as reservation staff.

I totally agree with an article entitled Training (par.3) Training programme

can help the trainees to improve their capability, capacity, and

performance. Hiring trainees in reservation department can help

reservation to improve their performance to handle more callers and more

matters more effectively and efficiently. As they are trained specifically for

the hotel’s purposes. Furthermore, the callers have no need to wait too

long to talk to the reservation staff because of more reservation staff in

charge.

In order to provide longer phone service, I decided to choose

having reservation available for 24 hours. In my opinion, having

reservation available for 24 hours can give good effects for the hotel and

the customers. First, the hotel can get the higher level of inhabited rooms

so that they can increase the hotel revenue. It is proven from an article

entitled Other Hotel Operation Part. II which states that “One of the

reservation functions is to accommodate the guests to get their rooms as

to increase the hotel room occupancy as high as possible” (par.15).

Besides, the guest’s complaints will decrease because the callers can talk

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or having to wait for a long time. Moreover, the guests can talk to the

reservation staff to reserve a room or ask about any information anytime

they need without having to think about office hours. Furthemore, the

callers from different time zone can also speak to the reservation staff

without having to think about the time differences between their country

and Indonesia, Bandung in particular. Therefore, Novotel Bandung can

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