Evaluating The Effectiveness Of Customer Service Policies Tourism Essay
The London Marriott Hotel Grosvenor Square is a 5 star hotel that is located in the Central London near to the Oxford Street and Park Lane. It is one of the classic hotels in England. The hotel has 236 luxurious bedrooms and 45 Club Level bedrooms with many facilities like Club Lounge, Wi-Fi Internet access, versatile meeting and event space, Maze Restaurant, Maze Grill, Complimentary, fitness centre, 24-hour room service. (MARRIOTT, 2010)
The hotel is located in Central London which has many tourist spots and centre of attractions around the locality. Some of the tourist spots nearby the hotel are: The London Eye, Buckingham Palace, Theatre district, Madame Tussaud, Covent Garden, Big Ben and the Palace of Westminster, Oxford Street/Bond Street shopping, The Tate Modern, The British Museum, Big Bus London Tours, The Tower of London. These tourist spots are within walk able distance from this hotel which attracts more of tourists. This saves them a lot of money from spending on transportation. Thus, tourists choose this hotel for their stay so that they have much more time to explore these tourist spots.
As mentioned above Central London is not only a tourist spot but also a place full of Information Technology corridor and some of the main industry’s head quarters are located here as well. The business customers and corporate choose this hotel because it saves a lot of time and money. Marriott also provides good banqueting and boardroom facilities that are used to organise meetings and the banquets are also put to good use. The hotel provides lots of facilities and services to the corporate such as group check in, bill to the company etc. which provides good hospitality.
The hotel also includes ‘The Maze’, which is a restaurant created by the world famous celebrity Chef Gordon Ramsay. It’s one of the famous French and Asian blend restaurants in London. Thus this is one of the key reasons that there are many celebrities who choose to dine in this restaurant often. Few family customers also visit this restaurant during the weekends to experience one of the fine dining restaurants in London. Due to its locality, Marriott attracts worldwide celebrities who come to London for world premiers. The hotel is also frequented by sports personalities who have their after win celebrations.
CUSTOMER CARE POLICIES:
Marriott has many customer care policies which they are very keen on following to attract people from all corners.
Marriott has a very unique method of marketing and also takes utmost care in making the customer’s stay a pleasure hence increasing the chances for them to come back. In this Marriott, the personal information of the residents is stored in the database. This database is securely stored to prevent non-breaching. This database is shared by all the Marriott across the world. This enables them to send a greeting card or a gift for their customer on the occasion of birthdays and anniversaries no matter where they are in the world. Because of the inter relationships between the chains, this is achievable. According to surveys this method has been really beneficial in bringing back the customers, hence ensuring excellent customer care.
When it comes to corporate/business customers, Marriott follows mutual profit dealing. Marriott often maintains a relationship with regular customers from corporate companies. For a certain number of customers, Marriott provides discounts and additional services if the company for which the customer works has a tie up with Marriott. Under the package, even banqueting and board rooms can be provided for free based on the particular organisation. This includes accommodation in reduced price. The company ensures that the connection with the hotel is beneficial by using the services and hence increase the times of usage of the hotel. In the other hand, the hotel confirms a constant flow of customers. This can be considered as a profitable circle and hence it’s unique way of standing out from the crowd.
As mentioned before, Gordon Ramsay’s restaurant, The Maze, always has the capacity to attract people. People who want to taste the authentic French cuisine blended with Asian from the kitchen of a world famous chef always makes The Maze the centre of attraction. Due to the world premier of movies in theatres nearby, Marriott has seen an array of celebrities. And celebrities always attract crowd because of which Marriott increases its growth. Marriott ensures special attention, security and privacy for high profile people who need them the most. Privacy for these people is even provided in restaurants by providing special separate seating arrangements and hence keeping them away from the watchful eyes. These qualities make Marriot one of the most desired places to stay for the celebrities and hence ensuring a perfect service for different type of customers.
IMPORTANCE OF ESTABLISHING EFFECTIVE CUSTOMER CARE:
“A customer is an individual or group of individuals to whom you supply one or more products or services.” (Smith, 2004:6). “Customer care involves putting systems in place to maximise your customers’ satisfaction with your business. It should be a prime consideration for every business – your sales and profitability depends on keeping your customers happy.” (Business Link, 2010). The success of any business is hugely depended upon providing effective customer care.
Customer care is all about customer satisfaction. If an organisation can make an experience as a memorable moment, then there will be more return customers. Establishing effective customer care gives the organisation a high return and also the profit. Loyal customers are the one who are to be given extra care as they are worthy.
In this competitive world, the competition in the market is also very high. Customers are demanding for good service, good response to the complaints, and are demanding for extra bit of attention. Thus it is necessary for the organisation to prove a point to the customer that they really care for their customers.
The expectations of the customers have been constantly rising. To meet these expectations, the organisation must consistently analyse the level of service. If the requirement is not fulfilled by the organisation, then it will become a hurdle for the progression of the sector. Guests who are not satisfied will spread the news which will also create many obstacles to the business.
Effective customer care is important in order to get repeated guests and also the guest tends to refer their friends also. This improves the sales and also the profit of the organisation. The reputation and the image of the organisation are improved if the customer care is good. This in turn brings more shares in the market. Especially the internal customers i.e. the employees get more of job satisfaction by caring the customers.
The main goal of establishing effective customer care is satisfying or delighting the customers. It also helps to exchange more information, maintain a good relationship, trust and also to decrease the workloads and costs. In hospitality industry, customers are the king. Effective customer care will benefit the customers in many ways. It is one of the important parts of marketing mix. Quality in service will give more loyal guests. It also ensures that the services and products delivered to the customers will be of good quality. Thus, establishing effective customer care in hospitality industry is very much important for improving the growth of the organisation.
EVALUATING THE EFFECTIVENESS OF CUSTOMER SERVICE POLICIES:
The evaluation of the effectiveness of customer service policies is an important factor to increase the growth of any organisation. The evaluation shows how the policy implemented influences the organisation. Even though most policies are practically followed only after careful considerations, there are always chances for misleading factors which might give more cons then pros for the policy. A simple example can be the usage of man power for the different sections of a hotel. Using more people for work which takes more time to be done can be a simple and effective solution.
An effective customer service strategy has to be followed with considerable modifications based on the customer and their needs. Each customer is unique, so are their needs. In a customer service based roles, the colleagues will develop the capacity to differentiate the types of customers. If the situation permits, more importance can be given to customers with a higher value and who are more prone to be a regular customer. This just ensures that the specific customer goes through a different level of service hence providing equal service to all the customers.
Excellent customer service is achieved when the customer is provided with what he/she wants even before they use it. The needs of the customer and how these needs are to be met with are meant to be determined. Exceeding the customer’s expectation always frames a name for the organisation. These needs are to be met with great care and also with consideration for other factors like cost and profit. Creating a name in the market is one challenge and maintaining it for years is a more challenging feat. The colleagues should have a good knowledge about the service the hotel can provide and also the capacity with which it has to be provided.
Training for the employees should be focused and taken care of. The organisation must meet the needs of the employees and respect their decisions and ideas must be considered. Quality control is often achieved not by intensive supervision, but by building a sense of pride and the ability to work as a team. A proven method to increase the customer service skills of the employees is by sheer encouragement. This can be in any forms, as in increasing the bonus, the status in the organisation or even organising a special event. In a nut shell, happy employees provide excellent service, thus making the customers happy and make them come back again. This increases the profit and also the bonus for the employees, which makes them happy. This cycle is very crucial for any customer based organisation to stand out from the crowd.
