Customer Satisfaction in Ritz - Research Paper Example

Business Research Table of Contents Business Research Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 Research Methodology 3 Questionnaire and Analysis of the Research Questions 5 Conclusion and Recommendations 8 Reference 10 Bibliography 11 Introduction The concept of customer satisfaction has evolved over the years. Various organizations are attempting to reach the zero defects standard and subsequently increased amount of investment is made to capture, count and eliminate defects. Dr. Deming, the father of the quality movement, has opined that ‘quality’ is defined by the consumers. The organizations have recognized that in order to better serve the customers it is necessary to find the factors that ails them. Customer survey is one of the most popular means of analyzing the level of customers’ satisfaction in an organization (Miller & Lawton, 2002). Customer satisfaction gains all the more relevance in hospitality industry like the hotel industry. The Ritz hotel is one of the prestigious and luxurious hotels in France. The hotel is located at the heart of Paris in France and is one of the seven recognized Parisian palace hotels. Ritz presently offers 159 rooms with suites, restaurant, bars and private salons. True to the spirit of Ritz, each room offers a harmonious blend of modern ease and classical charm in a quintessentially French style. While there can be many reasons to choose Ritz over others; some reasons can only be experienced (Ritz Paris, n.d.). The hotel, now, plans to evaluate the level of customer satisfaction with the help of a survey. ‘Guest Satisfaction Questionnaire’ is distributed in various guest rooms and suites of the hotel. This report contains the questionnaire along with proper methodology to analyze the same. A conclusion has been inferred from the analysis and plausible recommendations are suggested to improve the service. Research Methodology Customer satisfaction is majorly understood as the sense of satisfaction that a customer feels when he or she compares his or her expectations with the actual quality of the acquired service. Satisfaction is closely related to the quality of the service (Krivobokova, 2009). In the absence of customer feedback, the quality of service is extremely difficult to assess. That is why direct involvement of the customers is necessary to analyze the improvement activities. Since evaluation of the level of customer satisfaction demands a considerable involvement from the customers, surveys are of paramount importance. Customer survey is a part of primary research. In this case primary researches are used to investigate an issue specific to business and to get feedback from the customers. Primary research delivers more specific results than the secondary research. On the other hand, secondary research is done on the information gathered from the secondary sources which may not be tailored as per company requirements. That is why primary research is used to evaluate the level of customer satisfaction in the Ritz. To carry out a research study, it is very important to choose proper respondents. Customer surveys are effective to get the required information; however the entire process can go in vain if appropriate respondents are not chosen. Asking the wrong question to the wrong people will yield disastrous result. Here sampling should be done on a random basis. However, care should be taken to include both the customers, ones who have visited the restaurant for the first time and the frequent goers. The rationale behind this strategy is to initiate a comparison of the hotel’s previous services with that of its present one. Certain drawbacks are associated with primary research (Sagepub, 2005). Customers may deny providing any feedback. Some customers may also give wrong feedback. The questionnaire may not reflect the perception of the customers about the hotel. All these can be avoided by encouraging the customers to fill in correct information in the questionnaire by making them understand that it is being done for the betterment of services. Questionnaire and Analysis of the Research Questions Two methods can be used to gather feedback from the customers. The most popular being the structured method, where the customers are requested to choose one from the given set of alternatives. The second method is to give freedom to the customers to provide any feedback they would like to offer. In the second method, the information offered can be vague as the customers would be commenting on the services offered rather than going into the details of satisfaction or dissatisfaction level. To solve the problem, a ‘fuzzy logic’ could be used. The concept has its base in the intensity of truth rather than ‘true’ or ‘false’ approach (Andrea, Dogbu & O’Grady, 2000). The ‘fuzzy logic’ would consider in-between numbers to represent different intensity level of satisfaction. In this questionnaire, satisfaction levels are assigned a number in between 1 to 5. At first, the questionnaire was created using close ended questions. However, after discussing the same with peers, one open ended questions were also added to it. Though care has been taken to ensure that the questionnaire is comprehensive in all ways, the open ended questions would come to rescue if some components are missed. The questionnaire has been created for transactional surveys whereas the latter is conducted immediately after each customer transaction (Conklin, 2006). Questionnaire We value your time. However, we will be highly obliged if you can kindly fill up the following questionnaire, so as to help us serve you better. Please choose any of the following options for each of the questions. 1.How would you rate our staff:  Best    Good    Poor Reception 5 4 3 2 1 Housekeeping 5 4 3 2 1 Room Service 5 4 3 2 1 Restaurant Services 5 4 3 2 1 2.Could you please rate our           Front Desk Services 5 4 3 2 1 Check -in efficiency 5 4 3 2 1 Check -out efficiency 5 4 3 2 1 3. How would you like to rate   Bathroom cleanliness 5 4 3 2 1 Bedroom cleanliness 5 4 3 2 1 Television 5 4 3 2 1 Air Conditioning 5 4 3 2 1 Wireless Connectivity 5 4 3 2 1 Lighting 5 4 3 2 1 4. How would you rate the quality of our food and beverage? 5 4 3 2 1 5. Do you have any complaint against our services? Yes No   6. Have you communicated you complaint to any of our staffs? Yes No   7. How fast your complaints have been attended and resolved? 5 4 3 2 1 8. Do you think the service fees are in compliance with the service offered? Yes No 9. Overall, how would you rate you stay? 5 4 3 2 1 10. What more could we do to make your stay more comfortable?           The above questionnaire is created keeping in mind all the facts discussed above. The questionnaire contains nine close-ended questions and one open-ended question. The questionnaire is meant to measure different components of customer satisfaction including services provided at guest rooms, food and beverage, hotel services, costs and fees, check-in and check-outs (Mersdorf, 2009). Human resource is the key behind the success of any organization. In any hospitality industry, the significance is much higher. The first job is therefore to rate the human resource of the hotel; which includes staffs engaged in front desk, housekeeping, hotel and restaurant service activities. A sample of 100 was taken to carry out the analysis of this questionnaire. Almost 80 % customers have given a rank ‘4’ to the reception staffs, which means that they are efficient in carrying out the front desk activities. Most of the customers seem to be quite satisfied with the front desk activities; however, 20 % of the customers have given a rank ‘3’ to the efficiency of front desk staff. The housekeeping staffs were rated ‘4’ by 95 % customers. It seems that they are quite happy with the housekeeping keeping activities carried out by the respective staffs. The hotel and restaurant service staffs are rated with ‘4’, which reflects the high satisfaction level of the customers. While most of the customers have rated the check in efficiency as ‘4’, majority of the customers have given a ranking of ‘3’ to the check out efficiency. Customers have complained that they have to face congestion while checking out from the hotels. The hotel was ranked the highest in cleanliness. 90 % of the customers were very satisfied with the cleanliness with which the rooms were maintained. The customers do not have any complaint regarding the television and air conditioning. However, some of the customers were not so happy with the wireless connectivity in the rooms. The customers have ranked ‘4’ to the lighting. Many of them believe that lighting of the rooms can be more pleasant and attractive. The food and beverage section was given a rank ‘4’ by most of the customers. Many of them think that the taste can be improved further. The hotel has 1000 different types of wine for their customers. Many customers have explicitly appreciated the beverage collection of the Ritz. Almost 90 % customers have said that they do not have any complaint against the services of Ritz. About 5 % customers have said that despite having problems they did not communicate the same to the concerned staffs of the hotels. However, 5 % have placed complaints to the hotel staffs. Most of them have claimed that the complaint management service is not so good and has given a rating of ‘2’. The customers have been asked whether the service fees and other charges are in compliance with the services offered. While answering this question, the customers have said ‘yes’ as they have felt that the service fees and charges are quite in alignment with the services. The entire service has received an overall ranking of ‘4’ by most of the respondents. However, most of the customers have left without answering the last question. This is one of the disadvantages of open ended question. Respondents leave the place blank or give some brief answer with no specific details. A few customers have said that the hotel is required to improve its complaint management system and accelerate the related processes to resolve the issues. Conclusion and Recommendations Customer satisfaction is regarded as of paramount importance in Ritz. The significance of customers has been pointed out by many researchers and academicians. In the year 2000, Zairi said “customers are the purpose of what we do and rather than them depending on us, we very much depend on them. The customer is not the source of a problem, we shouldn’t perhaps make a wish that customers ‘should go away’ because our future and security will be put in jeopardy” (Singh, 2006, p.1). This has influenced the organization to focus on customer satisfaction, loyalty and retention. The customers are found to have been quite satisfied with the services of Ritz. This is quite in alignment with the brand name of this luxurious hotel. However, a small portion of the sample has conveyed their dissatisfaction regarding the operation and services in Ritz. The complaint management system is not quite satisfactory in the hotel. Although most of the customers do not have any complaint against its services, the hotel is required to strengthen its complaint management system to enhance the quality of its services. The processes in this luxurious hotel are required to be accelerated to enhance customer satisfaction. Effort must be made to resolve the issues as soon as possible, mostly during the stay of the customers. The motto of this luxurious hotel should be to keep themselves at par with the changing demands of the customers. Reference Andrea, D., Dogbu, S. & O’Grady, C. April 20, 2000. Tools for Measuring Customer Satisfaction. [Online]. Available at: http://www.circuitree.com/Articles/Feature_Article/616813cda57d7010VgnVCM100000f932a8c0____ [Accessed on October 25, 2010]. Conklin, M. 2006. Measuring and Tracking Customer Satisfaction. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.zoomerang.com/WorkArea/DownloadAsset.aspx?id=822&linkidentifier=id&itemid=822 [Accessed on October 25, 2010]. Krivobokova, V., O. 2009. Evaluating Customer Satisfaction as an Aspect of Quality Management. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.waset.org/journals/waset/v53/v53-92.pdf [Accessed on October 25, 2010]. Mersdorf, S. July 30, 2009. Customer Satisfaction Has Increased, Hotel Guest Survey Says. [Online]. Available at: http://survey.cvent.com/blog/customer-satisfaction-survey-methodology [Accessed on October 25, 2010]. Miller, K. & Lawton, L. R. 2002. The change agents guide to radical improvement. America: Quality Press. Ritz Paris. No Date. Rooms. [Online]. Available at: http://www.ritzparis.com/jump_to.asp?id_target=1210&id_lang=2 [Accessed on October 25, 2010]. Sagepub. 2005. Formulating Research Problems. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.sagepub.com/upm-data/6051_Chapter_3_Brewer_I_Proof_2.pdf [Accessed on October 25, 2010]. Singh, H. May, 2006. The Importance of Customer Satisfaction in Relation to Customer Loyalty and Retention. [Pdf]. Available at: http://www.ucti.edu.my/wps/issue1/wp-06-06-paper.pdf [Accessed on October 25, 2010]. Bibliography Brace, I. 2008. Questionnaire Design: How to Plan, Structure and Write Survey Material for Effective Market Research. Kogan Page Publishers. O’ Fallon, J. M. & Rutherford, G. D. 2010. Hotel Management and Operation. John Wiley and Sons. Thompson, A. February 11, 2002. Customer Satisfaction in 7 Steps. [Online]. Available at: http://articles.sitepoint.com/article/satisfaction-7-steps. Read More