Customer Satisfaction Challenges at Imperial Hotel: A Report

This report examines the customer satisfaction issues at the Imperial Hotel in the UK, a four-star establishment facing challenges in maintaining its reputation. The report delves into guest complaints regarding check-in/check-out processes, staff behavior, and service quality, highlighting the impact of unmet customer expectations. It analyzes these issues from the customer's perspective, emphasizing the importance of staff training in handling complaints and understanding customer needs. The report also explores the application of the human relations approach to management, advocating for improved staff training and a focus on customer-centric service. The report provides recommendations for enhancing customer satisfaction and improving the hotel's overall performance. The report uses various management theories like Fayol's management theory, disconfirmation theory and customer service theory to analyse the problems in the hotel.

INTRODUCTION TO MANAGEMENT
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Executive summary
This report is based on the issues that have been faced by the Imperial Hotel situated in U.K.
These report discuses on the poor customer satisfaction that has been reported by the hotel
guests. The Imperial Hotel is a four-star hotel in London and is possessed by the four Star market
Star hotels. This hotel is a part of Star market- Star Hotels in the UK. This hotel mainly serves
international business persons and tourists.
The guests expect high service from this hotel. However, the hotel is experiencing certain issues
which can degrade its image as a four-star hotel. This report will discuss the first problem
regarding poor customer satisfaction that the hotel is currently facing. Customer satisfaction for
any hotel industry plays an essential criterion to become successful. Moreover, customer
satisfaction is the ultimate criteria for any hotel industry in order to become successful as well as
to create their brand name. The issues faced by the Imperial related to customer satisfaction and
the reasons behind their degrading service quality have been explained in the finding and
analysis part.
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Table of Contents
1.0 Introduction................................................................................................................................4
2.0 Analysis of Poor guest satisfaction............................................................................................4
2.1 Analysis from customer’s perspective.......................................................................................5
2.2 Customer expectations...............................................................................................................5
2.3 Training of the staffs regarding satisfaction of customer complaints......................................6
2.4 Human relation approach to management.................................................................................7
3.0 Recommendations and Conclusion............................................................................................8
Bibliography....................................................................................................................................9
Appendices:...................................................................................................................................10
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1.0 Introduction
The Hotel Management provides the areas that help to implement services upon the customers.
The services includes with the process that exists with the food service, lodging, recreation,
casinos and convention of management. The Hotel management provides the unique areas
among the people by providing better services through the training employees. The hotel
management provides the unique planning by efficient services that can meet the demand of
customers. The hotel management implements a better ideas in the planning of services through
the online booking of rooms (Baum, 2016).
The Imperial Hotel is a four-star hotel in London and is possessed by the four Star market Star
hotels. This hotel is a part of Star market- Star Hotels in the UK. This hotel mainly serves
international business persons and tourists. The guests expect high service from this hotel.
However, the hotel is experiencing certain issues which can degrade its image as a four-star
hotel. This report will discuss the first problem regarding poor customer satisfaction that the
hotel is currently facing. According to Shafritz et al. (2015), customer satisfaction for any hotel
industry plays an essential criterion to become successful. From the beginning of customer
service revolution, a body of customer research has concentrated on improving customer
satisfaction in any organisation. Business consultants and customer relation managers have tried
to find out the ways in order to please their customers by improving their quality services in their
management system. However, much of the researches have been done in the corporate sector
but customer satisfaction is not limited to the only private sector.
Moreover, customer satisfaction is the ultimate criteria for any hotel industry in order to become
successful as well as to create their brand name. There is a common perception in the hotel
industry that a satisfied guest would become a repeat guest. Additionally, the concept of
providing quality service by a hotel ensures guest satisfaction and this helps to achieve guest’s
loyalty. Highly satisfied guest would return to the same hotel for repeat visits. Due to increasing
global market competition, many hotel industries are facing challenges in retaining guests. By
raising their service standards as well as improving guest’s expectation levels, it becomes more
costly for them to please their hotel guests. Likewise, The Imperial Hotel is facing issues related
to customer satisfaction. The reasons behind their degrading service quality will be explained in
the finding and analysis part.
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2.0 Analysis of Poor guest satisfaction
The Imperial Hotel is managed by a well known international branded chain of four-star hotels
which operates around 25 hotels other than this hotel. The Imperial Hotel consists of 500
bedrooms and has 12 conference rooms which can accommodate around 1000 people. The hotel
also has a swimming pool plus 3 bars and 4 restaurants. Mainly the hotel is divided into 6
Departments that are: food and beverage, hospitality department, Housekeeping department and
Human resource department. This hotel has total 450 staffs in which 300 staffs work as full-time
and rest works as part-time. According to the new general manager, Peter Farnsworth, this hotel
is experiencing many issues and one of such issue is regarding poor customer satisfaction. The
hotel has been rated lowest in terms of overall customer satisfaction. The company has been
running at a rate of 65% in the company's benchmark system where the average rating is 74%.
The 4 star hotel chain conducts a monthly guest satisfaction survey with the views from their
regular guests (Li et al. 2013).
The disconfirmation theory provides the main areas that helps to implement the poor guest
satisfaction. The performs on the products focused on the expected theory that helps to growth in
the Hotel Management.
2.1 Analysis from customer’s perspective
The maximum complaints from the guest received are the issues related to check-in and check-
out process. Guests have reported that they are facing problems while checking-in and checking-
out process in the hotels. Moreover, the guests have also complained about the rude behavior of
the hotel staffs with their customers at the reception desk and they have also complained that
they have been charged extra at the last moment while checking-out. Among all of these issues
being reported by the guests, the severe one is that the customers have not been responded by the
hotel staff members in time to their complaints (Li et al. 2013). The hotel customers were made
to wait for check-in and check-out process. Additionally, the hotel guests have faced hygiene
issues in their rooms especially bathrooms were not cleaned properly, some guests have reported
about their showers not working properly and other technologies that were provided in their
rooms were not working properly. It has been analysed by the new general manager, Peter
Farnsworth that their hotel guests were not at all satisfied with the services that they been
provided by this hotel.
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The customer service theory needs to focus on the service that helps to identify the needs of
consumers through meeting the needs. In the Hotel Management provides the standards in the
gaining of services and retaining of loyalty among the customers.
2.2 Customer expectations
The definition of customer satisfaction has been widely analysed by various industries however,
in any hotel industry, customer satisfaction is an essential criteria for retaining their customers as
(Luthans et al. 2013). Customer satisfaction is a highly personal assessment that is mostly
affected by customer’s expectation. Satisfaction of a customer depends on the experiences that
an individual has experienced during visiting any hotel. According to Fayol’s management
theory, scientific approach to work concentrates on improving better, stronger as well as more
productive team in an organisation in order to provide quality services to the customers. Since
the Imperial Hotel guests have complained that the staff members were not behaving properly
with their guests as well as they were sometimes behaving evenly rudely, hence, this behavior is
not at all acceptable to any guests. The guests of any hotel always expect high quality service and
polite behavior from such a reputed four star hotel like The Imperial Hotel. The customer expects
the hotel staffs to listen and then solve their complaints on time. Moreover, the hotel guests
expects warm welcoming, special treatment from the hotel staffs and mostly comfort (Blut et al.
2015).
2.3 Training of the staffs regarding satisfaction of customer complaints
According to Henri Fayol’s management theory, work specialisation enhances the efficiency of
the workforce as well as increases the productivity of the organisation (Arogundade, 2015).
Moreover, customer satisfaction can varies from individual to individual. It depends upon the
experiences that the individual might have faced. Hence in order to please the hotel guests, the
hotel staffs needs to understand customer behavior as well as their needs accordingly. Customer
satisfaction is highly self assessment that depends on customer expectations. In any public
sector, customer satisfaction depends on both the personal interaction with the service provider
and experience faced by the customer.
However, in any hotel industry, customer satisfaction depends on the guest’s personal
experiences while staying in the hotel. Common dimensions of customer satisfaction include
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service quality, price and location of the hotel. Many researchers claim that people factor might
be the most essential features while determining overall customer satisfaction of any hotel
service industry. It is very important to train the staff members who are handling customer
service department in order to effectively solve customer’s complaints. The way in which the
staff members handle the complaints of their customers is a huge factor in order to retain their
customers.
Moreover, Agnihotri et al. (2016), suggests that it is important to train those staff members
regarding how to deal with aggressive customers with proper ways and politely with the
complaining customers in order to prevent any violent situation. The staff members in the
customer service department must need some complaint handling skills in the hotel. According
to Khorasani and Almasifard (2017), some of the basic points to be remembered while training
the staff members to handle customers in the hotel are as follows:
● The staff member should not try to minimise any issue or any complain that been
reported by the hotel guests since, this will make them feel that are being patronised.
● Don’t argue with the guests; simply understand the issue and then the problem needs to
be solved politely and effectively.
● Everyone makes mistakes, thus if the person in the customer service has done any
mistake then that staff member needs to apologize. This will be appreciated by the
customers as well as this will reinforce the hotel’s brand and culture.
● The staff members need to train in such a way that they will be able to resolve customer's
issue in time. They should never make any excuses to resolve customer's issue since
satisfied customers usually repeat customers.
● The staff members need to be trained in such a way that whoever takes the complaint
must be able to resolve and should come with the solution. It does not matter who has
seniority in the workplace. The aim of the staff members must be to solve the problem
fully in order to satisfy their guests (Benavides-Velasco et al. 2014).
By training staff members properly in order to handle customer complaints and issues promptly,
a hotel can achieve proper customer satisfaction issues as well as other goals.
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2.4 Human relation approach to management
In this section, Human relation approach management theory has been considered to analyze the
poor customer satisfaction problem in the Imperial Hotel. According to Agnihotri et al. (2016),
the preferred management approach argues that the managers need to improve the overall
organisational structure by first analysing the organisational behavior. The human relation
approach was developed by Elton Mayo in order to improve the performance of any organisation
in 1990. This management approach states that people are not economic rational beings, but they
are emotional. Hence, the hotel guests need to be handled politely irrespective of any situation.
Figure 1: Human relation approach to management
(Source: Created by author)
The main features of the Elton Mayo's human relation approach are as follows:
● The staff members should be well trained in order to handle critical issues regarding
customer satisfaction.
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Management

● A manager must understand human behavior so that he could implement proper
organisational management within the organisation.
● Good human relation with the guests will help to retain customer as well as will lead to
improved hotel's reputation (Arogundade, 2015).
Moreover, the Imperial hotel needs to improve their services according to the customer's needs
and they must work immediately on resolving the issues regarding customer satisfaction. The
Imperial hotel must use the human relation management approach in their management system to
solve the problem of customer satisfaction. By implementing this approach, the hotel staffs will
be able to serve quality services to their customers as well as to resolve their customer's issues.
Figure 2: Human relation approach to management
(Source: Created by author)
3.0 Recommendations and Conclusion
It has been concluded from the above analysis that the Imperial Hotel must implement the human
relation management approach in their management system to solve the problem of customer
satisfaction. The new general manager, Peter Farnsworth should ensure that the hotel
management staffs must behave politely as well as resolve all the complaints that were reported
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Goodhumanrelation

by their hotel guests. The hotel manager must address issues related to customer satisfaction and
then needs to implement some necessary actions regarding solving those issues. Currently, the
Imperial Hotel is facing poor customer satisfaction because the guests are unsatisfied with the
hotel services that have been provided by this hotel. Peter Farnsworth needs to use the concepts
of Elton Mayo's concept of human relation management approach in order to rectify the issues.
It has been analysed that guest satisfaction not only depends on the guest loyalty as well as guest
satisfaction in terms of quality service providers. The Imperial Hotel might serve their own
financial interest if the hotel tries to invest much in maintaining proper hotel hygiene and
comfortable hotel rooms as well as public spaces. In this way, the hotel will be able to create
more memorable experiences for their guests. Different customers might have different
expectations hence, in order to better serve the guests, hotel staffs need to provide improved
service quality to their hotel guests. In order to serve better to the business guests especially, the
hotel staff must provide better communication technology in their rooms and for the tourists,
they must be provided with all the comforts in their rooms. By meeting these above-discussed
requirements, the Imperial Hotel will be able to deliver quality services to their customers and
their guests will be pleased. Hence, the hotel guests will be satisfied with their hotel services.
Thus, a highly satisfied guest would return to the same hotel for repeat visits and this will help to
achieve customer retention to the hotel. Moreover, high customer satisfaction leads to achieve
success in the global market. Hence, customer satisfaction for any hotel industry plays an
essential criterion in order to become successful.
The poor guest satisfaction and customer perspectives are the two important problems that might
lies in the Imperial Hotel. The hotel needs to manage the poor guest satisfaction and consumers
perspectives at the time of facing of problem. The disconfirmation theory and customer service
theory provides the appropriate solutions regarding the happened problem in the Imperial Hotel.
The most appropriate theory includes with the following of customer service theory at the time
of providing of better services among the customers.
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Online Articles:
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