Customer feedback Essay

The purpose of this report is help Dave Smith, the General Manager of the Landmark Hotel Auckland to advance the hotels current node triumph measurement scheme by comparing a range of subject field methods and recommends the or so appropriate mass programme for the hotel. The report is broken down to two atoms. The first section defines leaf node satisfaction and articulates the importance of measuring stick node satisfaction. Section single also comp atomic number 18s the passs of CSQs and TripAdvisor.com and introduces the bailiwick epitome method to the Landmark Hotel.The second social function of the report defines measures of central tendency and dispersion and presents calculations from the lymph node survey spreadsheet provided. establish on scoremary table 1.1, the report briefly describes what the calculations mean to the hotel and produced a short recommendation. The report is produced with several limitations, which need to be predicted and defeat for future question. The recommendation made to Landmark Hotel under the first dispel, regarding the most appropriate research method was selected based on one of alone two options. Further, since there is no standard ways to perform capacity analysis, the report scarcely presented what appe ared to be the most logical procedure. Finally, the recommendation regarding subjective marketing was much generalised due to word limits.PART ADefining Customer SatisfactionCustomer satisfaction has been a case of great importance in demarcationpractices. There is an overwhelming sum up of outcome definitions characterising customer satisfaction, many of which have not yet been by trial and error tested. According to Yi (1993), few academics and practitioners define customer satisfaction from an outcome-based approach. Alternatively, other(a) perceives and defines customer satisfaction as a process.Engel and Blackwell (1982) outlined customer satisfaction as an evaluation that the chose n selection is consistent with prior beliefs with respect to the alternative (p. 501). This definition is comparable with the disconfirmation theory, which proposes that thickenings are either satisfied or dissatisfy based on their expectations prior and subsequent to the purchase of the actual redevelopment experience. In this section, we are particularly concerned with the importance of measuring customer satisfaction. Fortunately, this question open fire be answered straight off victimisation the portion-profit range of mountains. The renovation-profit chain is simply a proposition of a series of linkages between profitability, customer loyalty, and employee satisfaction, loyalty, and productivity (Heskett, Jones, Loveman, Sasser & Schlesinger, 1994, p. 164).Customer satisfaction represents a crucial role in the service-profit chain because satisfaction is basically a driver of customer loyalty (retention, recurrent business and referrals), which now impacts the pro fitability of a hospitality firm. Customer satisfaction is extremely important because it produces word-of-mouth, reduces operating overheads and facilitates price premiums (Denove & Power, 2006). Hospitality firms constantly emotional state for more effective ways to measure customer satisfaction. Managers try to give greater accuracy in survey outcomes and use them to reliably address the gaps between managements visions and the customers demand.Comparing information Collection MethodsGuest Feedback FormsGuest feedback forms, gossipmonger cards or customer satisfaction questionnaires (CSQs) are frequent tools used by most hotels for measuring customer satisfaction. Barsky (1992) stated two major disadvantages of invitee comment cards, pitiful construct reasonedity poor statistical validity (Barsky, 1992,p. 51). Yesawich (1978) also hypothetically considered CSQs as more often than not, un veritable and statically invalid (p, 72). Barsky (1992) further argues that guest com ment cards may indicate customer satisfaction or dissatisfaction and related trends, but generally does not provide sufficient randomness for decision-making. Poria (2004) outlined several key advantages of using CSQs during guest complaints. Poria claimed that asking the guest to fill in CSQ would allow the staff extra time to dissipate the business and calms the guest.Tripadvisor.comIn comparison with CSQs, Tripadvisor.com is an online interaction platform. Unlike the majority of duodecimal methods, online customer reviews often articulate psychological changes of the hotel guests. According to Li, Ye and Law (2012), online reviews are more likely to convey guests true feelings, which limit up for the missing information that was not captured by guest surveys. Tripadvisor.com and other eWOM platforms allow managers to interact with the guests, form one-to-one dialogues and perform qualitative sate analysis. subject area analysis is a systematic and objective approach to ins titute inference from written entropy (DowneWamboldt, 1992). Like all qualitative research methods, content analysis is concerned with meanings and contextual aspects of a service experience. Content analysis can be described as an intensive exploration of a single customer review and typically, managers look for rich and graphic descriptions in the review, rather than generalised knowledge. However, content analysis and comparable qualitative research methods may lack scientific validity. Thus, it is difficult for managers to make reliable generalisations from a confined sample size.Research Methods and DesignThe Landmark Hotel needs to go beyond measuring performances and begin to understand perceptions and gain pragmatic and context-dependent knowledge relating to specific guest experiences. I recommend the Landmark Hotel to commission on qualitative content analysis. Content analysis can be performed on online guest reviews as well as guest comment cards. Additionally, I rec ommend the use of open-ended question in guest comment cards in order to provide greater insights to the guests feelings (Lukas, Hair, Bush & Ortinau, 2005). According to Guthrie and Abeysekera (2006), content analysis requires a haphazardly selected sample, clearly defined criteria of analysis and a systematic data compartmentalisation method, so that statistical analysis of the data can be performed. DowneWamboldt (1992) proposed an ogdoad step procedure that the research worker should follow when conducting content analysis.These steps can be briefly described as 1) selecting unit of analysis, 2) defining the categories, 3) defining the categories, 4) testing for reliability and validity, 5) define or revise coding rules, 6) pre-testing the revise category schemes 7) data coding and 8) reassessing reliability and validity. According Markovi and Raspor (2010), reliability of content analysis can be improved by developing coders for comparable contents. Data coding allow rese archers to measure frequency and percentage by means of tabulations, compute measures of central tendency and dispersion, test for difference, association and interdependence by performing t-tests and chi-square analysis using SPSS applications.IntegrationAfter the results have been analysed and interpreted, the researcher can choose to integrate and present the research outcomes within the hotel using an analytical report that is credible and believable. The report clearly defines the research problem/issue and the research methodology, which clearly articulates the objectives of the research, the research design used, descriptions of samples and the sampling methods and the how data are analysed. The results section is the most important section. This section should contain presentations of findings that are relevant to the research problem. The report should also contain a shutdown section, a recommendation and a limitation section which illustrates extraneous events that engi neer certain restrictions on the report (Lukas, et al., 2005, p. 557).PART BCalculations and Definitions of MeasurementsConsidering the guest survey spreadsheet, I have calculated the measures of central tendency and dispersion for separately behavioural intention scale. For measures of central tendency, I have computed the mean, median and sense modality respectively. These measures are used as data reduction, which describes the set of responses through a single value. The mean is the arithmetic average of the sample (Lukas et al., 2005, p. 436). The mean is derived from the sum of all values pertained from the responses and divided by the exact number of valid responses.The median is the middle value of a rank-ordered distribution (Lukas et al., 2005, p. 436). The mode is defined as the most common value in the set of responses to a question (Lukas et al., 2005, p. 436). Standard deviation is a measure of dispersion. It is defined as the average distance of the distribution val ues from the means (Lukas et al., 2005, p. 438). The Excel function which I have used to compute the standard deviation of the data given was STDEV.S. STDEV.S estimates standard deviation from a sample rather than the wide-cut population.The guest survey spreadsheet provided a number of intention statements aimed to obtain some ideas about guest experiences for certain aspects of the hotel. The management hoped to explore the guests intended behaviours as much as possible and the likelihood that guests go away demonstrate predictable behaviour towards staying at the hotel in the foreseeable future. duck 1.1 shows that first and second rating scale demonstrated a press down average value in comparison with other rating scales. Evidently, service standard and staff competence to make guests feel accustomed during their be did not meet the required expectations. Question eight also shows that on average, guests would not recommend the Landmark Hotel to others.RecommendationsI post ulate that service superior could be a major contributory factor to declines in reserve rates. According to Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry (1985), there are ten determinants of service prime(prenominal) competence, courtesy, reliability, responsiveness and understanding are five relatively important determinants directly influenced by staff. Additionally, empathy and assurance are additional components of service quality directly determined by hotel personnel, as proposed in the SERVQUAL scale (Parasuraman et al., 1988). For the purpose of restoring and ameliorate service quality, I recommend an adjustment of focus onto national marketing activities.According to George and Gronroos (1991), internal market of employees is best motivated for service-mindedness and customer-oriented behaviour by a marketing-like approach, where marketing-like activities are used internally (p. 86). Internal marketing is essentially a process of building a customer-oriented culture through instr uct and achieving internal satisfaction. Internal marketing implies a number of activities besides reproduction utilisation. Take, for example, regularly assessing internal satisfaction, empowerment, and the provision of adequate supervisory support, open communication policies and the development of a sound reward system all forms part of internal marketing activities that seeks to achieving continuous quality improvements.ReferencesBarsky, J. D. (1992). Customer satisfaction in the hotel industry meaning and measurement. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research, 16(1), 51-73. Denove, C. & Power, J. D. (2006). Satisfaction How each great company listens to the voice of the customer. New York, NY Portfolio. Downe-Wamboldt, B. (1992). Content analysis method, applications, and issues. wellness care for women international, 13(3), 313-321. Engel, J. F., & Blackwell, R. D. (1982). Consumer behavior. New York, NY Hole, Rinehard and Winston. George, W. R., & Gronroos, C. (1989). Deve loping customer-conscious employees at every level internal marketing. Handbook of services marketing, 29-37. Guthrie, J., & Abeysekera, I. (2006).Content analysis of social, environmental reporting what is innovative?. Journal of Human Resource Costing & Accounting, 10(2), 114-126. Heskett, J. L., & Schlesinger, L. A. (1994). Putting the service-profit chain to work. Harvard business review, 72(2), 164-174. Li, H., Ye, Q., & Law, R. (2012). Determinants of customer satisfaction in the hotel industry An application of online review analysis. Asia peaceful Journal of Tourism Research, (ahead-of-print), 1-19. Lukas, B. A., Hair, J. F., Bush, R. P., Ortinau, D. J. (2005).Marketing research. North Ryde, NSW McGraw-Hill Australia Pty Limited. Markovic, S., & Raspor, S. (2004). Measuring perceived service quality using SERVQUAL a case study of the Croatian hotel industry. Management, 5(3), 195-209. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A. & Berry, L.L. (1985). A conceptual model of service quali ty and implications for future research. Journal of Marketing, 49, Fall, 41-50. Parasuraman, A., Zeithaml, V.A. & Berry, L.L. (1988). SERVQUAL a multiple-item scale for measuring consumer perceptions of service quality. Journal of Retailing, Spring, 12-40.Poria, Y. (2004). Employees interference with the distribution of guest satisfaction questionnaires. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 16(5), 321-324. Yesawich, P. C. (1978). Post-opening marketing analysis for hotels. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 19(3), 70-81. Yi, Y. (1993). The antecedents of consumer satisfaction The moderating role of ambiguity. Advances in Consumer Research, 20, 502506.