An overview of the Hotel
Describe about the Critical assessment on satisfaction of customer in hotel Mandarin Oriental in Singapore?
It is to be noted that the term hospitality management is both intellectually and ironically problematic. It is ironic for the fact that it the term has emerged globally, but it does not apparently confer to its meaning. It means the process of managing and providing the provision for the accommodation, food as well as other related services in both non commercial and commercial contexts as well as voluntary services (Brotherton and Wood, 2015). The term is now more used as a descriptive label for the hotel management, restaurant management etc. it can be said that the hospitality management is a energetic business and are changing as the way to include more external issues. The business has greatly been successful as well as aggressive than it was before. According to the global Council of Travel & Tourism, tourism and travel accounted for nearly about $3,575 billion (10.8% of global GDP) and provided more than 200 million jobs worldwide during 1999. There was a great impact of the Industry due to the economic crisis in Asia around 1997, where reducing arrival of the visitor resulted in vicious price competition.
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Due to the globalization the competitiveness for the industry has strengthened. It has also increased the competition of the companies that are in this hospitality industry. The companies have to become large and have to incorporate innovations so as to stay aggressive in the business (Bradić, Kosar and Kalenjuk, 2015). There are many companies that are who cut on their expenditure to save money while providing customer satisfaction. It is important to note that the effect hospitality management has on the people and the society at large. Hospitality management has a number of problems that a part of the business (Enz, 2015). They are the human resources management, the problem relating to the satisfaction of the customers and whether the people are committed to the company or whether they will remain loyal to the company is a big question.
Today’s hospitality business are governed totally by the technology be it in the form of new machines that aid in the process of the service being delivered or the computerized mode of services. There are various challenges that are faced by the hospitality industry today. Gathering the data for the preferences of the customers so as to serve them in a better way is essential for the business (Foss and Stone, 2015). How the industry can integrate and implement new customers? This is a very common challenge faced by the companies in this sector. The use of the social media is a big way that the companies can to draw more and more customers. How the demanding needs of the customers are met? How the companies are able to generate more revenue and lower the cost? These are some of the few challenges that the companies face in the hospitality sector. With more and more companies emerging it is making the market place more competitive (Grigoroudis and Siskos, 2015). The companies need to constantly innovate and improve their performances so as to draw more customers as well as retain the customers.
Delighting the guests
Mandarin Oriental Hotel was first built in the year 1963 in Hong Kong. The hotel was previously called the Mandarin. By the year the company employed 6000 employees and operated 12 hotels worldwide. The Mandarin Oriental Hotel is a brand that always looks up to the traditional values, elegance and runs on the concept of delighting the guests (2012 Sustainability Report, 2015). It needs to be seen that with the rising in the competition, the hotel needs to customize and differentiate it from the others so as to meet the customer satisfaction. The oriental charm of the hotel, along with the use of the improved technology, the good food and beverages and the Mandarin Oriental Spa, have always tried to meet the needs and the demands of the customers. There are two big ball rooms in the hotel, special boardrooms for significant meetings, 14 suites and a quantity of changeable sized purpose rooms. Furthermore, the hotel is also facilitated with Business Center accessible to its visitors.
The customer feedback and the guests are vital for the success of the organization. Mandarin Oriental Hotel uses a third party company to survey the customers or the guests to find whether they are satisfied with their stay in the hotel or not through a structured questionnaire which they provide the customers after their stay via online. It is seen that the Mandarin Oriental Hotel’s overall satisfaction rating was 87 % in 2013 and it was consistent to the 2012’s result. The hotel has an annual footfall of 35000 guests and each of the guests is evaluated to find whether they like the services provided by the Mandarin Oriental Hotel (2013 SUSTAINABILITY REPORT, 2015).
Mandarin Oriental has the vision that it will provide guests more than their expectations on a regular basis. The hotel is aimed at providing personalized services to the guests on a regular basis. There is an innovative method that the people of the hotel have adopted, that is they allow the staffs and the colleagues to know their guests and by doing so, the staffs can delight the customers as well as surprise them.
It is good to know that the Mandarin Oriental Hotel maintains some quality measurement process so as to monitor as well improve the performances of the people in the hotel in terms of the delivery of the services. Some of the measurement standards that the company uses are ‘Leading Quality Assurance’, the Forbes Travel Guide, American Automobile Association (AAA), and the Michelin Guide. Last year Mandarin Oriental has achieved the “Five Star” status given by Forbes, and the restaurants were given 13 Michelin stars, which was more than any other group of hotel in the world.
It is to be noted in the context of the hospitality industry and in case of Mandarin Oriental, customer satisfaction is very necessary. The increased customer satisfaction leads to a greater loyalty of the customers. It is also an important aspect that through the increased customer satisfaction, there is more chance that the companies will earn more revenues since the loyalties of the customers will remain with the hotel (Ashton and Sung, 2015). The more the customers are satisfied the more there is chance that the products and the services of the company will be more sold in the market. There is a chance that the satisfied customers will generate more customers for the company by means of reference. Once a customer is satisfied with the services of the hotel, he or she will refer the name of the hotel to others who will seek advice from him or may he may convey this by himself (Cribbin and Kennedy, 2015). There arises a question that whether it is possible that the companies may provide lesser customer satisfaction and yet have a higher level of productivity? Though it can be said that the companies may generate more productivity but their customer base will gradually decrease if they do not find anything innovative or tempting in the services that the hotel provides (Holjevac, Marković and Raspor, 2015).
Customer satisfaction and its importance in the productivity of the business
The quality of the products and the services are the most important aspect in the delivery of customer satisfaction. Services of the company are becoming an important aspect not only nationally but also globally (Inc.com, 2015). The companies have to innovate the way they are providing the services, moreover they need to remain ahead of the competitors in the market. Then only the companies will survive in the fierce competition. Caruana (2002) argues that the behavior of the people is an important aspect to measure the loyalty of the customers. Behavior of the people towards a service is important for the company to identify whether the people is loyal to the company’s products and services (Hospitality, Travel, and Tourism: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and …, 2015). It is the first experience of the customers that is the most important in building a relationship with them. The more the people or the staff of the hotel associate with the customers or the guests, the more they will be successful in providing better services to the people, and hence derive more customer satisfaction (MANDARIN ORIENTAL HOTEL GROUP, 2015). Not only the products and the services, but the attitudes, behaviours and the way of con duct of the employees of the hotel has also a influence on the guests and they feel secure, homely and an atmosphere they can associate with.
Mandarin Oriental Hotel has six eating and dining choices as well as a lounge and bar. Of all these, Dolce Vita, Cherry Garden, and MELT ~ The World Café have both been acknowledged for cooking brilliance. This hotel Mandarin Oriental, Singapore has an outsized ballroom along with fourteen assembly rooms (Mandarin Oriental Annual Report, 2013).
The Oriental Club Lounge, situated on the crest floor of the hotel lodge, is a meant for personal use for visitors who resides in 21st and 19th floor. The entry to the lounge consists of panoramic vision of the marina, complimentary blend, and conference place. The club oriental is the biggest lounge in hotel throughout Singapore (Hotel mandarin, 2010).
The Spa at the hotel consists of six management rooms, along with pair of two groups, a segment for split manicure and pedicure section, a tea loaf for free time and one-to-one conversation region and a rubdown area (Mandarinoriental.com, 2015).
- Dolce Vita: This is an Italian restaurant which is headed by Michelin celebrity Executive cook Marco Pedrelli.
- Morton’s, The Steakhouse: a conventional steakhouse bought from abroad i.e. the United States
- Cherry Garden: This is a restaurant which serves Cantonese cuisine
- MELT ~ The World Café: This is a restaurant contributing a dramatic dining understanding by method of “show kitchens”
- Axis Bar and Lounge: This is a cocktail lounge neglecting Marina Bay
- Wasabi Bistro: This is a restaurant presenting a menu which is encouraged by Japanese and Californian cooking style.
Delighting the guests- the hotel strives to deliver to the people world class services. they try to listen to the needs of the guests as well as their requirements, an d they try to respond to the needs of the customers in timely and accurate manner (Mohg.snaphire.com, 2015). They make sure that the services that they provide to their guests are according to their needs. Moreover they are committed to deliver more than the expectations of the people.
Cooperation with the colleagues- the management of the Mandarin Oriental believes that the employees will be able to deliver efficiently if they are work together as a team. The employees need to have mutual respect in order to serve the guests. This will in turn lead to the overall productivity of the group rather than the growth of an individual (Mandarin Oriental Annual Report, 2013).
Service quality and loyalty of the customers
Performance appraisal- Mandarin Oriental always tries to maintain the fairness, integrity and honesty in the business. The employees try to maintain internal as well as external relations with the guests so that they are able to live up to their expectations. Moreover the employees are rewarded if their performances are up to the expectations. They try to bring out the best from their employees so that they are able to deliver their best.
The Hotel of Singapore makes a thorough attempt keep contact with their clients through their reviews and feedback, quick replies to each admiring comment or criticism they achieve and client focus gatherings. The hotel then merges this contribution with other statistical input to generate a bulletin ‘Service Performance Index’ that is very familiarly seen all the way through the hotel (Hotel-online.com, 2015).
Mandarin Oriental encourages every hotel of their group to influence the local and the sustainable suppliers for the products and the services so that that they are able to engage the local people in their activities thus in a way they are trying to look at the satisfaction of the customers. It is so because the local people are aware of the needs and the cultural influences that the people have. Thus they are able to serve the people much better.
The company employed 12,095 employees in the various hotels throughout the world. They try to employ people from diverse culture from across the world and promotes that there are equal opportunities for the people in the workplace. There are people in Mandarin Oriental who are independent of race, nationality, ethnicity and gender. This is done so as the employees feel that they are equal in the company and thus they treat their customers with equality and respect. Moreover if the employees are satisfied, they will look at the fact that that the guests are also satisfied (Linking Employee Satisfaction with Productivity, Performance, and Customer Satisfaction, 2015). The main aim of Mandarin Oriental is to look at the customer satisfaction as they keep the interest of the customers at their heart no matter what they do. Thus the employee motivation and the benefits will eventually lead to the satisfaction of the customers (McKay, 2015).
There are 41% women employees among the total workforce. It is to ensure that the women feel free to interact with the hotel staff without any fear. Moreover the employees are provided state of art training so that they are able to serve the guests better.
The company should maintain and build relationships with the guests in order to provide an experience for the people which are problem free. The hotel wishes to provide the guests a personal recognition by providing a problem free experience. The company should build these personal relationships so as to tie the business together along with providing customer satisfaction (Intelligent Resort Management, 2015). The study indicated that the workers are significant to all features of processes. This commonality of critical success factors is somewhat unusual, as it could have been expected that different hotels had different success factors that were unique to their own operation. The manpower and planning of the talent plays an important role and it needs to be executed; so as to create success for the company. The people should be well trained and motivated in order to generate customer satisfaction and grab more people with their services (Seals, 2015).
The hotel is planning to make a Guest History network so that the company is able to look at the history of the customers of any one of the hotel of the group. It is done so as to seek the experience of the customers even if it is the first time experience of the customers in a new hotel. This is an innovative experience foe the people as they can expect their favorite drink which they had tasted in Oriental Bangkok being served to them in Oriental Singapore. This are some of the ways that the company needs to maintain so that the customers feel satisfied and have a pleasant stay in the hotel.
Moreover the hotel Mandarin uses telephonic follow up of the guests who have stayed in the company. Mandarin Oriental should make the people feel special and lat them know that their opinions are valuable for the success of the company. Moreover these opinions are assets for the company in improving their services towards the people. Mandarin Oriental believes that whatever changes that the company makes will ultimately lead to the customer satisfaction in the future. In conclusion as it is the employees that provide the superiority of the goods and services in hotels, the staffs have been acknowledged as a significant accomplishment issue across all the hotels in the main study (Szulanski, 2015). All the way through this survey the hotel also seek the consumer’s views on some anticipated products or services which the hotel is considering to introduce.
Conclusion
One thing needs to be kept in mind that unable to meet the customer satisfaction does not necessarily mean that it is customer dissatisfaction. It is essential to believe that the services to the people are the only source by which the hospitality sector will be able to generate profit and at the same time customer satisfaction. It is obvious from the study that the hotel workers are making incomplete links among significant achievement factors and performance extent even although the hotel operators do calculate some significant achievement factors such as client satisfaction and worker performance and standard other factors such as standard of service, property, and goods with their contestants. This imperfect deliberation of significant success issues is apparent to the impact on trade achievement. This may be due to the difficulty of the extent of a number of these factors; on the other hand, it is also probable to be another expression of the unsophisticated approach to routine measurement that has been recognized by this study (Mandarinoriental.com, 2015).
It must be noted that the training provides the staff of the hotel self confidence to perform much better. The communication process needs to be well managed so that the staffs are able to communicate with the guests and also act according to the situation without seeking the guidance or the approval of the actions that they do (Mandarin Oriental International Limited Annual Report 2012, 2015). The staffs are trained to so that they are able to solve the problems of the customers and are able to serve them better. With the improvement in the technology and modern techniques they are able to provide the people with better services to ensure that the customers or the guests get a life time experience during their stay in the hotel. one more thing that the staffs need to ensure is that the people or the guests are followed up so that they are able to record their experience and keep them loyal to the company.
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