Customer Satisfaction in the Hospitality Sector

Introduction

In the most ideal description of the hospitality business, it is simply identified as the organizations or teams from top to bottom that usually comprises the top chefs, sales teams, and the management. During the hospitality operations, the teamwork should be seen in the setting to effectively ensure the standard of their work and functions according to their responsibility. The harmony and cooperation of the people might trigger to the success of the business and achieving the customer satisfaction.

Background of the Study and Problem Statement

Because of the changes within the trend in the globalization of products and services, the demand for tourism or hospitality services is under the pressure of the competitive markets (Smith, 2000). The success of an organization can be originated from the simple focus on the learning and skills. Employees are expected to carry out the roles and obligations to achieve the core objectives of the hospitality businesses. However, most of the products and service industries believe that through the customers’ satisfaction, the business can be evaluated towards its success.

Research Objectives

The objective of the study is divided into two important topics. First is to determine the customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry and second is to determine the effectiveness of the customer satisfaction based on the marketing and/or advertising focus of the business to attract more of their clients.

Research Questions

The study recognized the important roles of marketing and advertising functions in every industry. However, it is the main focus of the study and therefore, the study prepared the several questions that can guide the entire study towards its completion.

1. What are the marketing and/or advertising strategies of the hospitality businesses that have a potential in maintaining or attracting their clients?

2. What are the actions of the management in the variations of the promotional strategies?

3. How can the employees help the strong function of the marketing and advertising strategies of the business?

Literature Review

The employees and the management are committed to meet and yet, exceed the expectations of the customers. The clients have a lot of choice when it comes to hospitality and the business should attract and retain the customers through the application of different strategies. There are two effective strategies that the hospitality industry prefer to apply and that is the internal communication and external communication. The communication between the staff or the clients is important in the service industry most especially in the hospitality (Lazer and Layton, 1999). The internal communication is the most basic strategy to ensure that the employees’ understands the needs of the clients as well as contributing to the success of the business. On the other hand, the external communication is another method that usually involves the technology. External communication is a massive method that can affect the variety of people and through the use of the marketing strategies, such as the campaigns, advertisements in television or newspapers, posters, and others the promotion of the organization for just a day can be possible. Also, the communication methods should aim in promoting the quality as presented in the everyday process or transaction of the businesses. Furthermore, the marketing strategies are formulated to represent the best attribute of the business that can also meet the expectations of the customers (Morris, 2008).

Methodology

The applied method is the use of questionnaires that measures the satisfaction which is entirely based on the perceptions of the customers. Through the questionnaires, the customers can freely describe the level of satisfaction they gained in the particular hospitality business and the other concerns they bear in mind. In addition, the questionnaire also indicates the issue on how the marketing and/or advertising of the business affect their decision making. The participants are diversified clients. It is also determined the age, gender, and the years of the clients’ relationship with the hospitality business.

Conclusion

From learning the factors that affects the customer satisfactions, the hospitality businesses should foster the improvement in the skills of the employees. The marketing and advertising efforts of the business will be useless if the people will not create a mean action to meet the satisfaction of their clients.

References:

Lazer, W., & Layton, R., 1999. Quality of Hospitality Service: A Challenge for the Millennium. [Online] Available at: http://www.hotel-online.com/Trends/EI/EI_ServiceChallenge.html [Accessed 23 Feb 2010].

Morris, P., 2008. Guidance for the Diploma Hospitality: Foundation [Online] Available at: http://www.qcda.gov.uk/libraryAssets/media/Hospitality_foundation_-_altered.pdf [Accessed 23 Feb 2010].

Smith, R., 2000. Prospects and Challenges for Tourism and Hospitality Organizations in the 21st Century. [Online] Available at: http://www3.ntu.edu.sg/nbs/research/TM-prospects.htm [Accessed 23 Feb 2010].