Measuring Customer Satisfaction in the Hotel Industry Essay

Measuring Customer Satisfaction in the Hotel Industry - Essay Example This savaging effect of global economic crisis has proven to be a real challenge to the UK hotel industry. With a decline in demand due to decrease in the number of travellers, UK hotels are pushed to intensify their marketing strategies to tap the available market. One factor then that hotel owners should look at is how to drive the demand up basing on the quality of their products and services. A careful investigation of this aspect of hotel business is of paramount interest both to the government and to the private sectors as well. It is also essential information to the UK Hotel customers, both local and foreign. It is an interest to the government so that they will have information as to where to help in improving the customer relations of UK Hotels. While for the private sectors, this study will give valuable information as to how customer satisfaction can be improves, both in the hotel and in the non-hotel industry. This study specifically touches on the aspect of customer satisfaction from the UK Hotel Industry, particularly to know if hotels are aware of the level of their customers' satisfaction and to know what particular methods they use to ascertain this. It also aims to look whether customer satisfaction varies with the type of hotels as to local or international, and as to big, medium or small hotel Specifically, we wish to answer the following questions: a) Is customer satisfaction important in the UK hotel industry b) How important is customer satisfaction to UK hotels c) What is the level of implementation of customer related process within the hotel industry d) What is the level of awareness of the UK Hotels to TQM e) What methods of ensuring total quality are employed within the hotel f) What is the difference between local and international hotels in terms of customer satisfaction Small, medium and big THEORETICAL BASIS Business Dictionary defines customer satisfaction as "Degree of satisfaction provided by the goods or services of a firm as measured by the number of repeat customers" (BusinessDictionary.com). BNET Business Dictionary defines it as "the degree to which customer expectations of a product or service are met or exceeded" (CBS Interactive Inc.). The increase in competition is forcing more businesses to give much attention to satisfying the customers (Authenticity Consulting, LLC). Customer satisfaction in the UK was found to be a key weapon for competitive differentiation and customer retention (Horsnell 1998). Because of this, guest satisfaction is found to be a common practice as managers found out that excellent customer service is essential for their organization's health (Horsnell 1998). Customer satisfaction is the paramount criterion used to determine the quality that is actually given to customers through products/services and other accompanying services (Vavra 1997). More and more studies have revealed the importance of customer satisfaction. It is of great importance to business firms as it fuels repeat purchases and word-of-mouth recemmendation (H.W Berkman 1986). "Satisfaction reinforces positive attitudes toward the brand, leading to greater likelihood that the