[Essay] How Sleeping Accommodation Contributes to Customer Satisfaction

Introduction

In any hotel and hospitality business, sleeping accommodation becomes their main asset to attract tourist visitors. The ambiance of the place, safety and relaxing mood are factors that contribute to the satisfaction of customers. Actually, quality of services and satisfaction of the customers are related. However, there are some instances that the difference of the quality and satisfaction of a costumer depends on their familiarity of hotel facilities especially the sleeping accommodation of the hotel. Quality and hotel satisfaction in hotel industry results in specialised patterns of resource use and localised large generalist hotels compete to occupy the center of the market, i.e., the locations for which demand is most dense.

Discussion

Competitive advantage is achieved by many organizations through their offer of superior service quality (Schmenner, 1995), which is a harder thing to do than offering product quality because there are a lot of service factors that are intangible and cannot be completely controlled such as the decisions and actions of employees and the result of the interaction between employees and different customers. Moreover, the customer judgment on the quality of service is based on the perceptions of the service recipient’s perceptions and expectations causing a difficulty in identifying and correcting service failures (Hays & Hill, 2000).

Achieving service quality especially through sleeping accommodation of hotel/hospitality business requires them to focus on building and transmitting the importance of service quality to the members of the organization. The efforts and contributions of management and personnel should be directed towards a clear vision of delivery of superior service quality. Employees should be motivated to provide quality service in all aspects of the operations of a service organization such as hotels. Outstanding service organizations have strong vision, initially market their offered service internally, evaluate service and publish results (Albrecht & Zemke, 1995). In sleeping accommodation, quality is a significant predictor not only of profitability but also of the respective market share of organizations in the market (Buzzell & Gale, 1997). The primary actors involved in ensuring quality are the personnel of the organization. The attributes of the personnel of the organization directed towards the achievement of quality plays an important role in consequently achieving customer satisfaction. The attributes emphasized in the field of service are commitment (Farber & Wycoff, 1991), organizational culture (Collier, 1994), and service delivery environment (Schneider, 1980). Employee attributes in the achievement of quality service is significant because service quality starts with people.

Customer satisfaction is what sustains the operations of the organization because an unsatisfied customer will not do business with the organization again and dissatisfaction may also dampen potential referrals to the friends and business associates of the unsatisfied customer. Actually, tangible enhancement of sleeping accommodation is not enough if the customer is not satisfied. Even if the organization implement the newest technology in building the hotel and designing sleeping accommodation rooms, offer the most expensive items for the use of customers, and train their personnel but if these do not meet the particular needs of customers, then satisfaction is not attained. The measurement of customer satisfaction is through the perception of customers and their propensity to engage the service again.

As Gerson, (1993) believed, there is a direct connection between service, satisfaction, sales and profit. However, these cannot be achieved without the imposition of measurements for performance. Measuring the customer satisfaction is important because everything that the organization measures are completed, improved and mastered. Having a measure of customer satisfaction also provides a detailed learning of the factors considered by customers as crucial to their satisfaction that will form the basis for identifying areas for improvement and the efficient change management. Every aspect of customer satisfaction should be centered on the customer.

Conclusion

For the organization to meet customer satisfaction, the organisation must first measure the cost of delivering a poor service. In the hospitality industry, customer satisfaction is based on the expected ultimate hotel experience of the customer. People are not only looking for the services of hotels for board and lodging or sleeping accommodation but customers also seek a hotel experience that includes the amenities of the hotel, the overall services, and the attitude of personnel, the completeness of service, and the manner that the organization values its customers. Although price still remains to be the consideration of customers, there are customers who are willing to pay a higher price for hotels with an excellent brand image but they also expect top service in return.

References:

Albrecht, K. & Zemke, R.E. (1995). Service America. Homewood,IL: Irwin (Richard D.).

Buzzell, R.D. & Gale, B.T. (1997). The PIMS Principles: Linking Strategy to Performance. New York: Free Press.

Collier, D.A. (1994). The Service/Quality Solution Using Service Management to Gain Competitive Advantage. Milwaukee, WI: Irwin (Richard D.).

Farber, B. & Wycoff, J. (1991). ‘Customer service: evolution and revolution’. Sales and Marketing Management, 44–51.

Gerson, R. (1993). Measuring Customer Satisfaction. Massachusetts: Course Technology.

Hays, J, & Hill, A. (2000). ‘A preliminary investigation of the relationships between employee motivation/vision, service learning, and perceived service quality, Journal of Operations Management, 250, 1–15.

Schmenner, R.W. (1995). Service Operations Management. Englewood Cliffs: NJ Prentice-Hall.

Schneider, B. (1980). The Service Organization: Climate is Critical. New York: Amacom.