Improving the Customer Satisfaction in Hospitality Industry free essay sample

There is a Chinese proverb â€Å"into also Xiao He is defeated also Xiao He†. In the hospitality industry the â€Å"Xiao He† is referred to the customers. Customer like the free advertisement, they can pass the information by word of mouth. There is research indicate that if you lose a loyalty customer you may lose 100 potential customer. So satisfy the customer is very important for the hotel. Last, but not least, for the hotel, customer is not only refer to the customers but also refer to the employee. Employee is very important for the hotel, because they Improve Customer Satisfaction provide the service, the quality of the service determine the external customers’ satisfaction. If we want improve the satisfaction of external customers, we first should improve the internal employee’s satisfaction. All in all, the customer is god, hotel should try their best to satisfy the customers. Hotel must find the efficient ways to satisfy the customers, which help them make money and win in the competition. Literature review Can you imagine how many profits you will gain if you retain 5% of your customers? The answer is 25 to 125% profits. So you can see the important of the customer satisfaction. In order to understand the customer satisfaction more completely, first let us review of the literature that has been published about definition of customer satisfaction and how to improve the customer satisfaction by different people. Definition of customer satisfaction: In the pervious year, the customer satisfaction is regarded as the buyer’s cognitive state of being adequately or inadequately rewarded for the sacrifices he has undergone (Howard Sheth, 1969). Because the economic limited, they still in the product stage, the products are limited, so they can not to understand the customer satisfaction efficiently. Later, some people realize that the customer satisfaction is an emotional response triggered by a cognitive evaluative process in which the perceptions of (or beliefs about) an object, action, or condition are compared to one’s 6 Improve Customer Satisfaction values (or needs, wants desires) (Westbrook Reilly, 1983). They begin realize that customer satisfaction is related to the customer need, it not only depend on the product but also depend on the customer expectation. In recent year, the Oliver points out that the customer satisfaction is the consumer’s fulfillment response, it is a judgment a product or service feature, or the product or service itself, provided (or is providing) a pleasurable level of consumption-related fulfillment, including levels of under-or overfulfillment (Oliver,1997). People realize that the customer satisfaction is that at least should fulfill the customer expectations. But they still define the customer satisfaction is during the consumption, they fail to realize that they can satisfy the customer before they consumption. Different idea about how to improve the customer satisfaction: What should we first do? An experienced training teacher says that the first thing you need to do for improve the customer satisfaction is to teach your staff the importance of respecting the customer (Peggy Carlaw, 2011). I agree this, because the good staff is the basic for the customer satisfaction. There is a theory I agree a lot that is â€Å"The Service-Profit Chain† (first developed at Harvard University by James L Heskett). Which indicate that highly satisfied customers drive growth and profitability, and highly equipped and satisfied employees will better satisfy customers to drive the profit growth. It is true, especially for the hospitality industry that customers choose your hotel not merely because your equipment is new, your decoration is fashion but also consider the service, the 7 Improve Customer Satisfaction friendly staff in the hotel and etc. According to the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, people have five different levels needs that is physiological, safety, love/belonging, esteem, self-actualization (Abraham Maslow, 1943). With the competition intensive, people have more choice within the same level hotels, so the hotel should prepare for two eventualities, on the one hand they should definitely fulfill the basic need like safety, physiological, on the other hand they need to try their best to think of the way to satisfy the customer by the love, esteem, self-actualization aspect. The Bambang Haryanto points out that 7 strategies to increase the customer satisfaction: 1. Respond quickly or at least within a reasonable time frame. 2. Ask how your clients would like to be responded to. 3. Create a positive website experience. 4. Personalize and customize. 5. Think from the customer’s point of view. 6. Educate your clients. 7. Conduct surveys and track results. (Bambang Haryanto, 2009). This combines the new technology and tries to use the new technology to satisfy the customer. But in my opinion, we can satisfy the customer before the service. Discussion Definition of the customer satisfaction analysis: First, we should understand the meaning of customer satisfaction completely. Who are we customers? For the hotel, staff and customers are all the company’s customers. And when should when satisfy the customer? We should satisfy the customer before, during and after they consumption. In order to satisfy the customer 8 Improve Customer Satisfaction what should we focus on? It should include the product and service, product is the basic thing. If the hotel can not provide the good environment for sleep and relax, they can not satisfy the customer. However, service is also important, because it will determine the repeat customers. How can we say that we fulfill the customer satisfaction or fail to fulfill the customer satisfaction? Customer satisfaction is depend on the customer expectation and the really feeling about the product or service, so if the score of really feeling about the product is higher than the expectation, that means that the hotel success satisfy the customer, and on then contrary, that means the company fail to fulfill the customers. Then, we should know how to improve the customer satisfaction. Internal staff satisfaction analysis: Internal staff satisfaction is the very basic for the hospitality industry. Because they provide the service, so we first should satisfy the staff. First, we should understand that what the staff need? Obviously, people work with these low positions because they need money, they need to support to the family. And after they earn the certain level money, they begin have the sense of success and self-value. Then, after we know their need, how can we really fulfill their needs and make them happy? Definitely, we should give them the money they deserve earn, and not reduction of wedges. Staffs also have the mouth-of-word effect, so the images of the company in staff’s eyes determine the potential staff quality. So don’t be mean as the 9 Improve Customer Satisfaction service company. Then, we have to solve the tough parts, how to make the staff feel success and self-value? I think this part is important because this related to the morale of the staff, high morale may lead to the high profit, on the contrary, low morale within the staff must lead to the fail of the business. So company must have their certain way to incentive the staff to. Bonus is very popular way for the each hotel, and they may also have the â€Å"Employee-Of-the-Month† program, I think except these, communication, ask for and implement staff’s idea, show our cares and group meeting also the excellent way to motivate them, and make them satisfy. External customer satisfaction analysis: After analysis how to satisfy the staff, we now should analysis that how to satisfy the external customers. The same as the previous part, we should know what the customer need as far as our hospitality industry. Obviously, people go to the hotel because they want to find a place to sleep. So at least the hotel should provide a clean, safety and provide the equipment equal to their stars. How about the loyalty customer? What they need? As I mentioned in previous, the Maslow’s hierarchy of needs, for the temporary customer, if we provide the first two is enough, but for the repeat customer, we must find out some ways to satisfy their belonging, esteem and self-actualization needs. So how can we satisfy their belonging, esteem and self-actualization needs are the key questions. Most experts like Bambang Haryanto have already found the ways that is respond quickly or at least within a reasonable time frame; Ask how your clients would like to be responded to; Create a positive website experience; 0 Improve Customer Satisfaction Personalize and customize; Think from the customer’s point of view; Educate your clients; Conduct surveys and track results. (Bambang Haryanto, 2009). They find the way to use the advance technology to collect the customers’ opinions after they consumption, but why the hotel don’t use the data to satisfy the customer before they consumption, to make these data meaning ful. Everyone likes the friendly surprise, so we can use these data, to create the surprise for the customer, like give the wish to the customers when they on their birthday day. Here I want to say that, most hotel will sent a massage to their VIP customers, but why they don’t give them a phone. That would more effective than a massage. Conclusion From the discussion, we can conclude as follow: First, let us make sure what the customer satisfaction is. Customer satisfaction is that the companies try their best before, during and after they provide the service to the customers to make sure that their internal customer (staff) and external customer’s feeling about the company’s service and product is higher than their expectation. Then, for different customers, we have different strategies to fulfill their needs. For the internal customer, we should use following strategies to improve their satisfaction: 1. Give them the money they deserve to earn. 2. Give their bonus for their good performance. 3. Effectively communicate to them. 11 Improve Customer Satisfaction 4. Show the care to the staff. 5. Implement â€Å"Employee-Of-the-Month† program 6. Ask and implement staff’s idea. 7. Group meeting. For the external customer, the strategies are list as follow: 1. Respond quickly or at least within a reasonable time frame. 2. Ask how your clients would like to be responded to. 3. Create a positive website experience. 4. Personalize and customize. 5. Think from the customer’s point of view. 6. Conduct surveys and track results. 7. Try to give your customer friendly surprise. 8. Efficient trained your employee to be kind, and smile, enthusiastic. 9. Encourage the employee to remember each repeat customers’ hobby, preference. Reference Howard, John A. and J. N. Sheth. 1969. The Theory of Buyer Behavior.