Service Delivery and Customer Satisfaction †MyAssignmenthelp.com

Question: Disuss about the Service Delivery and Customer Satisfaction. Answer: Introduction The hospitality industry is a highly competitive and global industry. Hotel chains started going global as early as the 19th century and since then the race to win customer loyalty and develop a somewhat firm client base has been on. In light of the above, Stay Together hotel management has made some strategic and key decisions in winning over customers and retaining them. The main aim of these decisions is to combat the sale of hotel rooms through popular websites such as booking.com and hotels.com. By employing the services of these websites, their profits have reduced and their corporate image compromised. Due to this Stay Together hotel senior management has come up with a solution to develop and deploy their own website, and a mobile app which will be centrally managed. Complimenting these, will be some customer loyalty and corporate responsibility strategies. This report will enable them to clearly see what they should do, in order to achieve their general organizational objective of acquiring and retaining customers. The hospitality industry is very wide industry with various sectors. In various parts and cultures of the world, hospitality can have varied meanings, although it is generally and psychologically accepted by most people that the hospitality means the hotel sector. Variantsof hospitality include, but not limited, to commercial establishments such as inns, taverns, boarding houses, guest houses, lodges, hydropaths, sanatoria and holiday camps/villages (Brotherton, 2013). Tourism is also a complimentary part of the hospitality industry, popular with almost every country and race. Structure and characteristics of the hospitality industry The hospitality industry consists of two main structures, that is, the capital structure and the management structure. According to Brotherton (2013), the hospitality industry is capital intensive and requires a high, fixed investment cost. Investors in the hotel industry have several conventional ways of raising capital for start up. These include private finance, bank loan, funding from an investment company, funding from stocks and shares of a company and funding through the government. Choosing the most suitable means of funding may vary from investor to investor, depending on their unique reasons. Management arrangements include the development of hotel chains (an important feature of the hotel sector), consortium membership, franchising or management contracting. A hotel chain is a group of hotels owned by a single investor, which operates under central management which makes key decisions in its business processes. Hotel chains mostly target the international market and may have units spanning several countries or continents. A perfect example is the Marriot chain of hotels, which has over 6000 hotels and properties in 122 countries, including luxury suites, hotels and vacation clubs (Marriot, 2017). As for consortium membership, a group of hotels cooperate gain corporate benefits in order to gain revenue or cut costs. The operating principle here is that many hands make work easier. Members share responsibility and hence the workload is shared, unlike if a member was the only one running the investment. Franchising, on the other hand, enables a hotel owner to purchase a specific style of operation from a parent company, whereby the parent company retains the business format, name and proprietary rights (Brotherton, 2013). Another management approach is management contracting, whereby ownership of the investment is separated from its operation. In such situations, a hotel owner, or a potential one, incorporates an operator to run the investment for them. The operator may be experienced hoteliers and could run the establishment in a far more cost effective manner, therefore ensuring profits remain high. This could probably not have been achieved by the inexperienced investor if they were running the establishment themselves. Service delivery and customer satisfaction In any business or industry, customer satisfaction is a key ingredient to success. The hospitality industry is no exception. Customer satisfaction, with products, services and performance of operational facilities and equipment is a cornerstone of hotels corporate strategy, laying the foundation for long term sustainable success (Ejikeme, Enemuo Edward, 2016). Quality is a wholistic and long term process which focuses solely on customer satisfaction. According to Adesina and Chinono (2015), customer satisfaction is a measureof how products and services supplied by a company meets or surpasses customers expectations. This directly translates to increased profits. The driving force for customer satisfaction everywhere is value for money. The average customer seeks the best service or product at the least or desired cost. In the hospitality industry the factors which come into play include, physiological comforts, aesthetics, how the staff handle customers, cost, location and offers such as rebates and bonuses. It is for the establishment to know or anticipate what the customer wants or needs and to meet those needs in the best way possible. Trial and error over time could perfect service delivery to customers. The establishment may also take it upon themselves to find out directly from customers what exactly they want to be offered through m arket research. Through quality and accurate delivery,a loyal customer base is created with time, leading to marketing being done by word of mouth, which is free and very effective. The role of media in the hospitality industry The 20th and 21st centuries have been commonly referred to as the information age. It has seen advancement of knowledge, information and communication management tools, specifically the personal computer, the world wide web and telecommunications (telephones, fax machines and mobile phones). More recent advances have seen the emergence of technologies such as laptops, smartphones, tablets and iPads all of which give the average user the capability to handle huge amounts of information in a very fast and effecient manner by accessing, storing and distributing it at will. This has been in tandem with Moores law which states that computing power doubles every year as devices keep getting smaller. Faster, smaller, cheaper is the general direction which computing is taking. The world has become a global digital village. The hospitality industry, among many others, has seen a way of using the information revolution to achieve success in its business. Information systems are key in its operations as it improves operational efficiency and is cost effective. An information system is a set of interrelated components that collect, manipulate, store and disseminate data and information and provide a feedback mechanism to meet an objective (Stair and Reynolds, 2013).Its array of uses includeknowledge management, marketing, customer services and communications. Knowledge management systems include revenue management systems, central reservation systems and global distribution systems. Customer services include website booking engine, mobile booking engine (for smart phones and tablets), search and metasearch distribution for price advertising and trip advisories (xotels, n.d). Websites are are also used for marketing purposes through corporate image promotion and brand advertising. According to a study by Verma, Stock and McCarthy (2015) of the Cornell University of Hotel Administration, many people visit an online search engine, such as Google and Bing, to check out the available choices of destinations and hotels. Afterwards, they visit brand sites and online travel agencies to get a closer look at what they are looking for and to make any necessary bookings.The study also found out that customers frequently use smartphones in three modes, that is communications based (text messages, voice mails etc.), services based (booking, housekeeping, room service, etc) and location (GIS) based (local information, attractions, directions etc.). Of the three modes, the location based mode was found to be the most popular. In contrast, recommendations by word of mouth of friends and colleagues are of first priority to potential customers. However, once they acquire the information, they are turn more to such sources as the brand website and online travel agencieswhere the y can book their room. Corporate social responsibility refers to the ethical principle that an organization should be responsible for how its behaviour might affect society and the environment (Jobber, Chadwick Ellis, 2012). A study by Singal and Rhou (2017) revealed that hotel companies with CSR practices can better attract, motivate, and retain their employees. Employees are most likely to want to work for a company with a positive image and a good reputation. They experience higher job satisfaction which in turn reduces turnover of employees. Several hospitality firms, like Marriott and Sodexo among others, have invested in proactive diversity management programs that have indirectly helped the firms reputation. The study also further revealed that some companies may reap benefits of employee engagement when they give employee contributions to charities or donate time by giving employees free time to volunteer at local non-profit organizations. CSR initiatives, therefore, become a component of an integ rated high performance work system. Conclusion The decision by Stay Together Hotel top management to develop their own brand website for booking and other services is a good business decision. Firstly, booking will be made quick and easy through onlinebooking and secondly, the website will enable customers to get a feel and look of what they have to offer and hence be able to influence their decisions in choosing their destination. The mobile booking application will also take advantage of the increase in use of smartphones, and its wide range of capabilities, by users all over the world. Information systems also enable senior management to make sound decisions by getting the right information at the right time and in the right way. This improves the overall growth and performance of the company, resulting in bigger profits. Customers always need to be made to feel special and appreciated hence the strategies employed by Stay Together Hotel management to attain customer loyalty are most likely to work, although it may take some time. Offers such as rebates and bonuses are common and have been proven to have tremendous effect. A corporate social responsibility program will also improve the corporate image of Stay Together Hotel among its already existing clientele and potential clientele. Recommendations The Stay Together may introduce a location based application for their mobile application services which will enable people to take directions, and to know the exact location of each of its units. This is helpful, especially for tourists. Making some research on customer needs from time to time will definitely be of use. Feedback mechanisms, both on line and on site are useful tools for gauging customer satisfaction in most organizations. Keeping customers needs in mind will help the company to continually improve their services and maintain quality. References Adesina, K.I, Chinono, I, "Service delivery and customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry:A study of the Divine Fountain Hotel Limited, Lagos, Nigeria". Journal of Hospitality Management and Tourism(6)1 (2016): pp 1-10. DOI:10.5897/JHMT2015.0139 Borghoff, U.W, Bareschi, R, (2013). Information Technology for Knowledge Management. ISBN 3-540-63764-8, Springer-Valerg Berlin Heidelberg New York Brotherton, B. (2013). The International Hospitality Industry: Structures, characteristics and issues. Butterworth Heinemann. ISBN 978-0-7506-5295-7 Ejikeme, J N U, O B Enemuo, and C Edward. The Role of Customer Satisfaction and Maintenance Culture in The Sustainability of Hospitality Industries inUmuahia North and South Local Government Areas ofAbia State. Journal of Hospitality Management and Tourism 7.1 (2016): 1-10. Web. 10 May 2017. Jobber, David, Ellis F., (2012)Principles and practices of marketing. London, McGraw Hill companies Marriott, (2017). Marriott. Retrieved from https://www.marriott.com/marriott/aboutmarriott.mi Stair, R., Reynolds, G., (2012). Principles of information systems. Eleventh Edition. Course technology, Cengage learning. ISBN-10:1-133-95351-4 Singal, M., Rhou, Y., (2017). Corporate social responsibility in the hospitality sector. Boston hospitality review. Retrieved from https://www.bu.edu/bhr/2017/01/27/hospitalitycsr/ Verma, R., Stock, D., McCarthy, L. (2012). Customer preferences for online, social media, and mobile innovations in the hospitality industry. Cornell Hospitality Quarterly, 53(3), 183-186. Retrieved [4th May, 2017], from https://scholarship.sha.cornell.edu/articles/48/ Xotels, (2017). Hotel technology solutions. Retrieved from https://www.xotels.com/en/hotel-technology