Ways to research to improve the service

The analysis of real situations as a basis for the learning of those who work in the hospitality sector is the bet made by Cornell University.

by Glenn Withiam

For this reason, every two years an international panel of researchers and service schools holds a congress specifically oriented to the quality of service. This conference, called QUIS, an acronym for quality in service, will be organized by the Center for Hospitality Research at the Cornell Academy of Hotel Management between June 2 and 5, 2011. Registrations can still be made for the congress, officially known as the XII International Symposium on Research excellence in Service in Administration.

Representing a very diverse range of disciplines, the five confirmed keynote speakers for QUIS12 are: Ted Teng (graduated from the School of Hotel Management in 1979), President and CEO of The Leading Hotels of the World (the best hotels in the world); Sanjay Sarma, professor of mechanical engineering at MIT; Gina Pingitore, chief research director for J.D. Power and Associates; Conny Kalcher, vice president of consumer experiences at LEGO Company; and Stuart Greif, vice president and general manager of global travel and hospitality practices for J.D. Power and Associates.

As cornell Hospitality Research Center (CHR) Executive Director Rohit Verma explained, these keynote speakers will provide valuable information for the entire hospitality industry. Corporate strategic planning leader Stuart Greif has served on the executive team of J.D. Power and Associates and its parent company, The McGraw-Hill Companies. At the recent Cornell Hospitality Research summit, he presented methods for analyzing social media conversations, demonstrating how to use Internet analytics for the analysis of consumers, brands and products, markets and trends, and innovation.

Former Vice President of Global Marketing and Innovation Conny Kalcher will focus on understanding the LEGO consumer to enhance the experience for all LEGO fans. She has also directed several LEGO product lines. Gina Pingitore, Ph.D., is responsible for maintaining scientific rigor and overseeing the design and statistical analysis of all affiliated and proprietary studies conducted by J.D. Power and Associates. She is co-author of the cornell Hospitality Industry Perspective paper, "Making Customer Satisfaction Translate into Profit: Linking Survey Data to Financial Results in the Hospitality Industry," along with Dan Seldin and Arianne Walker. The article is available through the Center for Hospitality Research, in chr.cornell.edu.

For his part, the founder of the Auto-ID Center at MIT, Sanjay Sarma is part of the group that developed the technical concepts and standards of radio frequency identification (RFID). The series of standards developed by the Auto-ID Center, which is known as the EPC, is used by more than a thousand companies on five continents.
Meanwhile, as president and CEO, Ted Teng oversees and directs all aspects of business strategy, operations and performance elevation for The Leading Hotels of the World, which represents more than 450 luxury hotels, mostly independent. A longtime hotelier, Teng has been responsible for the growth of some of the world's most prominent brands, including Wyndham International and Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide.

All executives in the hospitality industry who have an interest in improving the quality of their services are welcome to attend QUIS12. Recognizing the cost of travel, we have arranged for many of the research studies and other presentations from that conference to appear in Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, and the other journals that support the event. I will also write columns for this journal based on the conference research presentations. Our hope is to find as many ways as possible to carry out CHR's mission to promote and share the best in research ideas and concepts that will help advance the hospitality, gambling and related industries.