Final Project Vijay Ibs

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A REPORT ON COMPARATIVE STUDY IN VARIOUS INDIAN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRIES

By Vijay kumar verma Enrolment No.08BSDDU0128

GALLUP INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED NEW DELHI A REPORT

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ON COMPARATIVE STUDY IN VARIOUS INDIAN HOSPITALITY INDUSTRIES By Vijay kumar verma Enrolment No.08BSDDU0128

GALLUP INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED NEW DELHI

Date of submission: 16th May2009

GALLUP INDIA PRIVATE LIMITED Member of The Gallup Organization, Princeton, New Jersey

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Date: 16th may 2009

TO WHOMESOEVER IT MAY CONCERN THIS IS TO CERTIFY THAT MR. VIJAY KUMAR VERMA IS WORKING AS AN INTERVIEWER ON THE PROJECT HOSPITALITY INDUSTRIES. THE CENTER FOR THE STUDY IS DELHI. THE DURATION OF THIS PROJECT IS FROM 24th FEBRUARY TO 24th MAY . WE REQUEST YOU TO YOUR COOPERATION AND MAKE THIS A SUCCESSFUL STUDY.

YOURS SINCERELY FOR GALLUP INDIA PVT.LTD.

(INTERVIWING MANAGER)

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT

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I would like to gratefully acknowledge to Miss. Mona Pandey (Interviewing Manager) for his enlightening experience and for flagging of this opportunity, which will definitely open new gateways and avenues to my journey into this new world. Sincere thanks are also extended to Mr. S. k. Verma, Mr. Sanjeeva Kumar Das for their inspiring guidance, motivation, valuable suggestion and constructive criticism during the course of my summer internship program and preparation of this report. I also extend my sincere gratitude to Prof. Loveraj Takru (Dean Icfai Business school Dehradun), and entire teaching staff of MBA.Department for their support and cooperation. Words are not enough to express my gratitude to Prof.T.N.Shaw (Associate Dean Icfai Business School Dehradun) and all those persons who helped and guided me throughout my summer internship program by providing me with precise and apt knowledge pertaining to my subject and interest in this very short span of time.

Indeed, words fail to express my profound sense of appreciation and heartfelt indebtedness to my parents for their love and affection showered upon me.

VIJAY KUMAR VERMA

TABLE OF CONTENTS

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Authorization

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Acknowledgement ………………………………………………………………………`ii Executive summary ……………………………………………………………………. iii 1. Introduction 1.1. Company overview …………………………………………………………….9 1.2 .Customer engagement management 1.2.1 .The Gallup CE 11 ……………………………………………………...11 1.3 .Employee engagement management 1.3.1. The Gallup Q 12 ………………………………………………………..12 1.4. The Gallup path ……………………………………………………………….13 2. Industrial analysis 2.1. Customer engagement …………………………………………………………14 2.2 Total customer engagement ……………………………………………………17 2.3. Measurement …………………………………………………………………...19 2.4. Customer engagement in hypercompetitive time in India …………………..20 2.5. The constant customer …………………………………………………………23 2.6. Indian hospitality research 2.6.1. Methodology …………………………………………………………….28 2.6.2. Area focus ……………………………………………………………….29 2.6.3. Advantages ………………………………………………………………29 2.7. Data collection …………………………………………………………………30 2.8. Managing customer relationship in Indian hospitality industries 2.8.1. Challenges ………………………………………………………………33

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3. Results 3.1. Findings on hospitality industries surveys and feedback………………….36 4. Conclusion ………………………………………………………………………….42 5. References …………………………………………………………………………..43 6. Glossary……………………………………………………………………………..44

EXEUTIVE SUMMARY This report is about customer engagement study in HOSPITALITY INDUSTRIES randomly outside or inside the property, through Questionnaires i.e. Self-administered C-11(face to face) questionnaire.

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What we need to, comparative study in hospitality industries, of different 5 star’s hotel in India on five-point rating scale point 1 is for strongly agree and 5 is for strongly disagree in order to develop relationships with customers that result in repeated business, referrals, profitable relationships and high life-time value, the following statements must be core to customer facing activities and processes: • Every interaction with customers (or lack of interaction) tells customers how much they are truly valued (we the Gallup trainee survey from time to time on people’s opinions and view) • These interactions are moments of truth are when a customer learns if promises made to them (the brand) will be honored or not • In order to create great experiences for customers, companies must know what they want customers to feel, think and do at every stage of the relationship • The most unsatisfied customers can be a company’s greatest resource for innovation. Customer engagement failures must be pursued aggressively to find out how to create great experiences and value WITH – not for –customers • Business Processes must enable Brand Promises to be realized as Customer Experiences In hospitality industries there are three type of guest available i.e. • Business guest • Tourist guest • Frequent travelers guest From our side survey we would like to ask question based on customer preference like... 1. Could you please tell me how many times you stayed at hotel while traveling on business or holiday in last twelve months? 2. Which type of hotel you likely to prefer? 3. How many times are you stayed at hotel? 4. Could you tell me education and occupation? 5. Which type of industry do you work for? 6. When you think about the hotel chain which all names comes in your mind? And what others? 7. In the past 6 month do you seen, read or heard any communication? 8. Which of the hotel chain do you stayed most often? 9. Which type of services do you often use? 10.Etc. Customer Engagement Strategies, Inc. analyzes, assesses, designs and builds strategic customer experience and relationship programs and processes for

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Businesses that serve other businesses. These programs and processes result in customer interaction practices that drive long-term, profitable customer relationships.  To evaluate satisfaction level of customer engagement with the property.  To find out the market share of the property.

Methodology:

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Survey on hospitality industries which can easily be conducted by individual researchers by using C-11(i.e. face to face) questionnaire.

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I need to do a intensive market survey, in order to gather information about the property.(i.e which property/brand is more demanded whether it is Taj group of hotel, Oberoi group of hotel, ITC Sheraton , Le Meridien , The park etc.)

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Looking for interested researchers to cover all aspects of questionnaire.

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I usually visit tourist place, inside or outside the property to collect data related to customer engagement.

Limitation of the study: There are some drawbacks related to the hospitality industry survey – just as almost every human activity has costs as well as benefits. Some of the drawbacks of hospitality survey and operations include the following.  

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New demands for local property can distort local markets. Getting the information related to the topic is big problem as some respondents don’t disclose their particulars and some respondents do not provide the accurate information intentionally. We need to collect information through surveys as per the company policy, respondents either doesn’t give enough time to collect information or not willing to listen.

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INTRODUCTION Company Overview Gallup, Inc., a performance management consulting company, provides research and consulting services, educational programs, and print and online publications. It assists leaders at various levels of business, government, and society in identifying and monitoring behavioral economic indicators through its research, as well as provides consulting services in the areas of employee and customer management. The company also offers on-campus degree and non-degree programs, and online courses in management education and leadership development. In addition, it publishes books on management, social, and political research, as well as an online business publication that provides timely stories, videos, and analysis related to important world developments for business leaders and management thinkers. Further, the company operates a store that offers books, DVDs, mugs, silver buckets, and t-shirts. It serves its clients in automotive, business services, education, faith, financial services, government, healthcare, hospitality, manufacturing, and retail industries in the United States and internationally. Gallup, Inc. was formerly known as American Institute of Public Opinion. The company was founded in 1935 and is based in Washington, District of Columbia. It has additional offices in Australia, Germany, the Netherlands, Belgium, Hong Kong, New Zealand, Brazil, Hungary, Poland, Canada, India, Romania, China, Italy, Singapore, Colombia, Japan, Spain, Costa Rica, Korea, Thailand, Croatia, Lithuania, the United Kingdom, the Czech Republic, Malaysia, the United States, the Dominican Republic, and Mexico. Gallup aims at becoming the World's Top Research-Based Management Consulting Firm. Combine leading-edge research with top practitioners to tackle the toughest challenges facing our clients. Gallup was founded in 1935 and is privately owned by partners and employees. With headquarters in Washington, DC, and 40 offices in 20 countries across the globe, the Gallup Organization has approximately 1,300 full-time and 750 part-time associates worldwide. It is ranked as the number one consulting firm for quality of life .

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Gallup research and recent advances in economics, psychology, and management sciences have led Gallup researchers to discover how organizations can win by creating highly engaged customers and building powerful, engaged workforces of talented employees.

Organic Growth The growth rate of a company, excluding growth from takeovers, acquisitions, or mergers.

Driving Organic Growth Figure 1

Gallup consultants are trusted advisors to a number of the world's leading companies. Our consulting approach allows us to identify, develop, and implement integrated and customized solutions that align with leaders' visions and strategies.

Different approach at Gallup We evaluate the client's strategies to emotionally engage their customers and employees. We show company leaders how to devise integrated and effective strategies for building employees' and customers' emotional attachment. We work to assure the solutions we recommend produce measurable results that directly tie to business outcomes. Our programs are financially quantifiable and we can show they yield an exponential return on investment. We identify the variation in performance right down to the local level. We pinpoint where outstanding performance and underperformance is occurring and then guide management in using this knowledge to reduce the variation in performance across the entire organization. To drive improved performance we offer solutions that can be deployed in any type of organization. Our management consulting practices include: Organizational Performance

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Strategy, Human Sigma Customer and Employee Engagement, Management, Talent Based Hiring, Executive Performance Coaching, Strengths Development Programs, Performance Evaluation and Development, Succession Management, Performance Rewards and Compensation, Brand Management, Marketing Research and Sales Force Effectiveness.

Human Sigma When engaged employees utilize their natural talents, they provide an instant, and constant, competitive edge. They build a new value: emotionally driven connections between employees and customers. Human Sigma combines the power of two Gallup concepts: customer and employee engagement. Gallup's Human Sigma approach provides leaders with the means to reduce the variance in performance across organizational units. Customer Engagement Management

Customer Engagement Pyramid Figure 2

Gallup's extensive research has identified the crucial emotional characteristics of an organization's best customers. These customers are not just satisfied or loyal; they are emotionally attached to the organization's brands or services. They are engaged. Organizations must understand, develop, and sustain customer engagement to achieve success. Gallup customer engagement programs enable organizations to identify and manage the key emotional dimensions of customer engagement.

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The Gallup CE11 Through rigorous research, Gallup has identified 11 questions that measure customer engagement and powerfully link to financial performance. These questions the CE11 measure dimensions that executives, managers, and employees can influence. Gallup has developed CE11 measurement tools, development programs, and strategic advisory services that improve organizational performance. CE11 enables organizations to assess and improve customer engagement in all key areas. Employee Engagement Management

Employee Engagement Pyramid Figure 3

Gallup published research proving that engaged employees are more productive employees. It also proved that engaged employees are more profitable, more customer-focused, safer, and more likely to withstand temptations to leave. Many have long suspected the connection between an employee's level of engagement and the level and quality of his or her performance. Gallup's research has laid the matter to rest.

The Gallup Q12 Gallup's rigorous research has identified 12 questions that measure employee engagement and link powerfully to relevant business outcomes, including retention, productivity, profitability, customer engagement, and safety. These questions the Q12 measure dimensions that leaders, managers, and employees can influence. What can organizations do to build workplaces that foster higher levels of employee engagement? Q12 is Gallup's process for organizations that seek to improve their financial performance through a more engaged workforce. Gallup Q12 programs offer integrated solutions, including research based measurement, coursework, and strategic advisory services that improve workgroup and organizational performance.

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The Gallup Path The Gallup Path is used by the world's most successful businesses.

The Gallup Path: Identify Strengths > The Right Fit > Great Managers > Engaged Employees > Engaged Customers > Sustainable Growth > Real Profit Increase > Stock Increase Figure 4

Gallup research and recent advances in economics, psychology, and the neurosciences have led Gallup researchers to discover how organizations can win in today's increasingly competitive marketplace. A new model has emerged - one that provides conclusive evidence that organizations can only reach their full potential by emotionally engaging their employees and customers. Gallup offers a performance management model - The Gallup Path - based on proven strategies used by the world's most successful businesses. Our practices and industry expertise help our clients achieve measurable performance improvements that boost the bottom line.

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Real profit increase drives stock increase. Sustainable growth drives real profit increase. Loyal customers drive sustainable growth. Engaged employees drive customer loyalty. The right people in the right roles with the right managers drive employee engagement.

Reasons to come in research field Gallup has discovered a powerful approach to measuring and increasing the strength of the employee-customer encounter: Human Sigma. Companies that are able to manage Human Sigma effectively stand to drive organic growth and boost financial performance by orders of magnitude.

WE HAVE TO: • • • • • • • •

understand/see how to reduce employee costs and turnover by hiring qualified managers and employee understand/see how can increase service quality by engaging employees see how to devise integrated and effective strategies for building employees' and customers' emotional attachment understand the emotional engagement of both new and mature customers improve response to business problems identify how customer engagement differs between small businesses, large corporations, and those in between know how to enhance management's knowledge and understanding of customer product usage know maximize customer outreach programs

Come to find innovative, integrated solutions, to discover the employee-engaging concepts, strategies and tools that assist Managers in turning the Four Keys to Great Management and unleashing the human potential within an organization. Come to discuss the latest discoveries from a wide range of world class organizations encompassing FMCG, retail, financial services, automotive and including case studies in call centers, manufacturing, R&D, sales and finance.

Gallup India's Principal believes measuring the emotional connect between company and customer will reflect the true health of customer relationships, and explains a measure of customer engagement. CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT

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Most businesses today accept that customers don't want to be satisfied merely in a rational way. They are looking for an emotional connection with the bank where they handle their financial transactions, the retail outlets where they do their regular shopping and the hotels (hospitality industries) where they stay. Needless to say, it is difficult to measure and manage these emotional relationships with customers. Consequently, marketers have focused more on the tangible or intangible benefits arising from features in a product or economic benefits from a promotion, without necessarily building a strong relationship with the brand or the service provider. But that's imperative if you want the customer to keep coming back. The trick is to devise a metric that measures both, the 'rational' drivers and the 'emotional' component of customer satisfaction. The result is customer engagement in hospitality. Admittedly, it is difficult to measure, but companies that make the effort find that the payoff is multifold engaged customers buy more and buy more often; they are often willing to pay a premium; they cost less; and importantly, are more ready to forgive when a problem occurs with the service or the product. Going beyond the traditional measures of satisfaction, loyalty and advocacy, we quantified the strength of the relationship built on the basis of meeting the emotional needs of the customer. Here's how CE11 work in survey: Confidence At the base of the hierarchy of customer engagement is confidence the customer's belief that the company will keep its promises. And companies' reputations are based on how often they deliver on promises. Promises are nothing but moments of truth at every touch point (whether it is a call centre agent picking up a call in two rings, or an ATM machine that is able to dispense the right amount of cash or the Teller at the branch who is efficient, knowledgeable and courteous). This is not about 'usually' doing a good job or 'trying' to do your best it's about 'always.' Integrity Next on the hierarchy is integrity. When a customer trusts a company, he doesn't expect things to always be perfect. He accepts that sometimes there will be problems; but he expects the company to adopt a problem-solving approach, rather than play a blame game. The question is: what are the

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standards with which the company operates and how fair are they from a customers' perspective in hospitality? If a company plays fair, attempts to solve problems, and communicates effectively with its customers though survey, it will score high on integrity. And it has been our experience that often when people have successfully come through problems along with a company, they actually become more involved with it.

Pride Pride of association creeps in when customers believe they are valued and respected for the business they provide, reflected in the form of courtesy, special treatment and more importantly, respect. Loyalty programmers typically help reinforce that sense of pride. You fly with a particular in hospitality, and you get treated as a special guest. You carry a identity that reflects your special status and that entitles you to privileges not accorded to less loyal customers. When you stayed in 5 star hotels (such as Taj, oberoi and Hilton) evoke that sense of pride. In India especially, customers take pride in owning multinational brands. But, remember, this pride has to be fundamentally built on top of mind the lower order emotional needs of confidence and integrity. Otherwise it will be transient, because the experiences of the customer with the brand/service provider over a period of time will not reinforce that sense of pride. Pride cannot compensate for poor delivery on promises made or ineffective problem resolution. Passion At the height of a customer's emotional needs is passion. This defines the strong emotional connect the customer feels with the brand/property, so much so that there is a sense of irreplaceability about it the customer can't imagine life without the brand or product. 5 star hotel is a perfect example: loyalists of the hotel chain will tell you that they can't imagine life without its hotels. There's a sense of pride as well as passion about such brands. The difference between confidence and passion is that while confidence is about good brand and good people supporting the brand, passion is created through great brands and excellent people. In India, consider Taj group, Oberoi, The Park are the famous brand in Indian hospitality without this we can’t imagine the world.

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What is Total Customer Engagement?

Figure 5 Total Customer Engagement is an outcome. The outcome can be measured by two different measures Customer Loyalty and Customer Satisfaction. Both are required. The input is Customer Service in hospitality. Total Customer Engagement occurs when there is alignment between a supplier and the supplied of emotion, experience and expectation. Customer Service, while difficult to define and probably impossible to measure, is the interaction between the supplier and the supplied which, when done well, results in satisfied and loyal customers. The diagram above seeks to illustrate the input of customer service which is measured in terms of outputs of customer loyalty and customer satisfaction. Total Customer Engagement then is the result of certain activities that are undertaken by parties, (customer and supplying hospitality company). Measuring Total Customer Engagement Customer Loyalty can be measured. Does the customer continue use services from the supplier within the normal buying cycle of that industry? Customer Satisfaction can also be measured but it is a more subjective measure than Customer Loyalty. A customer’s satisfaction is usually an opinion of that customer as to whether or not the product or service met the needs of that customer at that particular time. At another time, the same product or service might not satisfy the customer.

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Emotion Experience and Expectation the E’s of Total Customer Engagement Both the supplier and the supplied have these three elements and so when the Supplier’s 3 E’s and the Supplied 3’E are in alignment the outcome is Totally Engaged Customers and Vendors. How do you do it? To deliver customer excellence, you need to manage emotion, both yours and the customer’s; manage the experience and manage the customer’s expectations, (not exceed them!!). Do this and you’ll keep your customers, even have them acting as advocates and you can charge more for your products and services. Emotion: Think of the most expensive thing you’ve ever bought or used. It’s most probably in hospitality services. It’s interesting how price plays such an unimportant role. Once you’ve decided your budget, price is no longer of great importance. The questions you ask about the hospitality services have nothing to do with price. They are more likely to be questions such as: “Can I see myself staying here?”, “Does it suit my business style?” Figure 6 Now, when it services are different. Its strong feeling towards the Brand name. Experience: Something happen to you that affect how you feel. For instance employees of hotel industries they always treet me fairly. “Did you get what you wanted and did you have an enjoyable experience?” How might your answers affect your future business with that organization? Did you get what you wanted “yes?” Did you have an enjoyable experience “yes?” What might you do? Use the services again, that’s great? Tell others. It’s the ideal outcome. Its add value to customer engagement also.

Expectations: I love to use services like room, butler, gym, business center services etc.Your expectation regarding these services. Here are two: The customer is NOT always right. I don’t want to spend too much time here on that. In hospitality industries they must meet the customer’s expectation 100% if we want to maximize the customers’ loyalty. Watch what your competition is doing because if they set a

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higher expectation, and by that I really mean “add more value”, you’ll need to manage that challenge. MEASUREMENT OF CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT How is the CE11 measured? Essentially, the CE11 is a metric that considers 11 issues.  Overall satisfaction  The likelihood of continuing to choose/repurchase  The likelihood of recommending to others  [Brand] is a name I can always trust  [Brand] always delivers on what it promises  [Brand] always treats me fairly  If a problem arises, I can always count on [Brand] to reach a fair and satisfactory resolution  I am proud to be a [Brand] customer  [Brand] treats me with respect  [Brand] is the perfect [company/product] for me  I can't imagine life without [Brand]

Each of the 11 items that form the CE11 is measured on a five-point scale, with five being a strong positive response and one a strong negative response. Since customer engagement is an outcome, in a typical survey, these 11 questions are asked first for the specific brand/service provider before we drill down to the attributes that impact this outcome. In addition, the survey includes other measures such as value for money, experience with various touchpoints, problem incidence and resolution. These attributes are referred to as 'drivers' as they impact the engagement. Who is interviewed to arrive at the CE11 metric depends on the nature of the business. When customers are the end-users of the product or service (a hotel or bank, for instance), we speak to them.

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But in a business-to-business environment, there are multiple people involved in the decision making and so we interview both the key decision-maker and the influencer. Of course, it's not easy convincing companies that they're falling short of achieving customer engagement. The immediate rejoinder is always along the lines of 'You must not have spoken with the right customers' or 'The sample size is not adequate to draw such inferences' and so on. Often, management gets to hear only the good news from the interviewers teams like us, so findings such as these come as a shock. But a good way to evaluate whether building customer engagement is worthwhile or not is to look at the repeat business and business expansion of those customers who are designated as 'fully engaged.' That should provide organisations a powerful motivation to take a second look at customer engagement.

Customer Engagement in Hypercompetitive Times in Indian hospitality. EVERYONE KNOWS we are in a supercharged, challenging economic environment. Now, more than ever, it is important to be proactive in order to stay on top of issues which are top-of-mind with your customers. Surveying the pulse of your customers can reveal some startling insights about their mindset and what they really think. One arena that fluctuates with a significant change in executive leadership, organizational climate, and the economy is customer/employee engagement. Under increased stress and downturns in the economy, how well do supplier continue to represent the brand promise to each guest? Simply put, if morale is down, leadership insensitive, and personal futures uncertain, customer become disengaged, lose focus, fail to walk-the-talk, and experience attitude shifts ultimately affecting service quality, personalized service, and memorable guest experiences. Only engaged customer with passion, drive, and enthusiasm to get use of services right. It is easy for guests today to view the hospitality industry with too many promises, too many claims, and too much confusion. As a result, guests turn to brands who walk-thetalk and where product excellence prevails, service is engaging, and the experience is beyond expectation. One estimate of the eventual shake out of brands in the high-end sector of the hospitality industry is an eventual reduction from 130 to 25 global companies. To thrive, peak performing organizations will keep their messages focused on reinforced vision, fundamental core values, and measuring their brand promise.

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EVERYONE RECOGNIZES the need to cut costs in tough economic times but top brands also recognize that the right brand investments today will ensure their own future as well as allow them to jump the curve of competition when economic conditions improve. In short, cut the right costs, keep the brand image strong, and don’t stop investing in your people power. BUT NOT EVERYONE REALIZES fundamental principles of surveying staff,customer and turning raw numbers into strategic information need to be embraced. Top brands are peak performers not by accident. They thrive by working continuously in good times and bad to remain relevant to their brand promise. Just who drives your brand promise? In day to day operations the answer is your gust as well as staff. How well do they understand your brand? What are their perceptions of how well their team delivers the brand promise and to get? To what extent are employees engaged in selling to each guest the features and benefits of your brand? Surveys can tell you this and more. The following proactive steps will make your brand thrive and not just survive: Step #1: Make sure your survey measures the right stuff. For this Survey Report, it is our custom to measure numerous organizational dimensions such as: Communication, Motivation, Teamwork, Quality of Product, Service, and Experience, Mid-Management Practices, Leadership, and many more. These areas are further refined into sub-dimensions. For example, leadership is segmented into three behavioral sub-dimensions: providing optimum direction, providing meaningful support, and providing passionate engagement with the guest/customer. In today’s hypercompetitive times, everyone needs to be continuously monitoring their employee-customer engagement practices. We correlate the metrics of employee engagement to leadership and report results in property overviews, by department, and by organizational levels. While executive committees are managing the big picture, it is department heads and their staff who are managing the operation’s day-to-day standards for their gust. We provide each mid-level manager with a report of their individual department complete with benchmarks, comparatives, and norms. This is their tool for monitoring change and continuous improvement, and operationally this is where the rubber meets the road! Step #2: Ensure confidentiality and anonymity. Top-of-mind for each respondent is the question: How confidential and anonymous is this survey? Unlike marketing surveys which characteristically use random samples of large consumer populations, customer and employee feedback surveys ask questions

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sensitive to the performance levels of individuals and teams. The population is finite and these surveys can influence individual’s professional futures. Customer feedback surveys focus on external populations all of whom normally participate in the survey process. For complete and honest data, all participants need to feel comfortable that no one from within their organization will see the respondent’s data in its original form. Whether surveys are conducted on paper or over the internet, customers need to be reassured that the process is highly confidential and that it will protect the anonymity of each person regardless of their position, status. I recall receiving a phone call from a vice president of finance with a large international hotel company. He asked, “Gene, just how confidential is this survey?” Only after personally explaining to him that no one except us would ever see his responses did he feel reassured with the process. So, confidentiality is a key concern at all levels. With it, you get good data. Without it, you run the risk of putting your ladder up against the wrong wall. Step #3: Be prepared to share survey results. Guests who have taken the time to complete a survey expect the results to be communicated to them. With no feedback, the next survey will receive no interest and no enthusiasm whatsoever. Interviwer who do not share results should not expect commitment to change. External feedback can be accomplished by providing an overview of the top five items customers see as strengths and the five lowest scoring items customers see as their greatest dissatisfactions, frustrations, and challenges. This feedback needs to be reported on at least two levels: the overall passion level as well as each satisfaction level of customer. We have found that while customer find overall results interesting, they really became attentive, eager, and fully engaged when their own property scores are revealed to them. Step #4: Develop action plans that have staying power. Actions plans developed in a vacuum have no commitment. Customer/Employees need to be involved in the action planning process with their input seen as contributing to the improvement process. We advocate a double-loop process whereby each satisfaction creates their action plans which are copied to top management. In this way, their goals on a scheduled basis and top management follows-up on progress, accountabilities, and recognition. Step #5: Keep results top-of-mind daily, weekly, and monthly. It is a waste of time and money to look at survey results only as the topic-of-the-day and

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put reports on the shelf until the next survey. Properly formatted reports should be referred to on a continuous and systematic basis throughout the year. We report survey results in such a manner that all employees feel comfortable in referring to them in daily line-ups, management by wandering around (with purpose) tours, staff meetings, orientation programs, training seminars, and strategic planning meetings. Too often results are reported in complicated spreadsheet formats to be interpreted only by executives whose interest is primarily in seeing the positive, top-side numbers to be reported to head office and owners. The real power for continuous improvement lies with front-line customer and their need to be engaged in peak performance: quality, personalized service, and memorable guest experiences.

The Constant Customer Holding onto a customer has never been harder or more important. Proprietary Gallup research shows that the key to wooing customers isn't price or even services. It's emotion. Here's how to win over fickle customers and make them love you for life. Today, the search for the ties that bind customers to brands hospitality industries has taken on fresh urgency. The equity markets are volatile and venture investors are chastened, so loyal customers represent a company's best prospects for pumping capital into a business. Unlike stock appreciation, which can fluctuate wildly over the short and medium term, loyal customers can be counted on to build a solid base of revenues as well as to expand profits. Such customers are likely to try new offerings of hospitality industry and to provide strong word-of-mouth for a brand, saving companies advertising and product-assessment costs. So it's not surprising that customer loyalty ranked first among the management concerns of CEOs in this year's Conference Board survey, a widely watched gauge of hot-button issues across a range of industries. But what is it that actually makes customers loyal? Simply satisfying them certainly isn't enough. The idea that a customer who is satisfied today may have a different set of needs tomorrow. Since then, and especially in the past five years, marketing scholarship has established many times over that satisfaction scores alone fail to predict how customers will actually behave.

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Part of the problem is that satisfaction scores measure only past experience. The American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI), for instance, plots whether a customer thought she received good value whether, for example, a computer is as functional or a hotel room as clean as she expected it to be. The index reflects a rational assessment at a particular moment. But it fails to capture either the customer's intentions whether she would recommend the brand to others or emotions. People stay faithful Figure 7 to brands that earn both their rational trust and their deeply felt affection. That dynamic, which Gallup has studied extensively, turns out to be a better predictor of behavior than consumer satisfaction measures alone. In the past few years, a marketing discipline has evolved to capture this distinction. That's where Gallup's new 11-question metric of "customer engagement," called CE11, comes in. CE11measures rational formulations of loyalty according to three key factors (L3): overall satisfaction, intent to repurchase, and intent to recommend. But it also adds eight measures of emotional attachment (A8). "The total score, which reflects overall customer engagement, or CE11, is the most powerful predictor of customer loyalty .Gallup's research into the dynamics of rational loyalty (L3) and emotional attachment (A8) to a brand began with testimony from the customers of a world-renowned theme park. Gallup found that, despite agonizing waits for rides, high prices and imperfect service, customers, by and large, remained loyal to the park. "Expensive food and long lines made me want to tear my hair out," said one customer, sounding exasperated with the park. "But when I looked down and saw the joy in my Figure 8 children's eyes, it was all worth it." That customer's emotions had trumped her reason; the brand had managed to create a sense of magic that transcended the park's shortcomings. There is more to this, though, than just magic dust. When a brand inspires both rational loyalty and emotional attachment, customers will continually reward it with their business. Consider a Gallup study of a major hotel chain's affinity club. All members have rational incentives to spend more of their lodging dollar with the chain, because they qualify for perks and discounts when they spend more. Yet some members spent more than others. Affinity club members who were strongly attached gave the chain 32% more of their total lodging dollars than did those who were not emotionally attached.

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But CE11doesn't identify just attached customers of theme parks or luxury hotels. Its questions let customers of any product raise signs above their heads, declaring themselves the most eager buyers in the bazaar. The L3establishes a customer's rational disposition toward a brand. Then the A8 captures what goes on in that customer's psyche when a product earns her confidence and coincides with something so useful or so delightful in her experience that it becomes a touchstone of her day. When L3and A8 scores are high, the customer seeks out the brand even when she doesn't necessarily need to replenish her supply. The statistical science behind the A8 captures the sequence in which that kind of emotional attachment develops. Gallup developed the eight A8 questions as paired indicators of four emotional states: confidence in a brand, belief in its integrity, pride in the brand and passion for it (see the table below). An analysis of responses to the questions revealed that customers develop emotional attachment to a brand in a cumulative way: customers who agreed strongly with the first two statements of the A8 were more likely to agree with the next two, and so on. Traditionally, marketing images have associated passion for a brand with only a few items –hotels, cars, beer, and jewelry. Businesses like hospitality and banking rarely try to appeal to consumers' passion. That's a mistake. Gallup surveyed random customers in ten hotel industries(such as Taj group, Oberoi group,Hilton, The park) using its CE11metric. CE11measures three key factors pertaining to a customer's rational assessment of a brand but also adds eight questions on emotional attachment (below left). Across diverse industries, the proportion of emotionally attached consumers is remarkably consistent (below right).

26 L3 + A8 = CE11: QUESTIONS THAT GET AT THE HEART OF CUSTOMER LOYALTY.

L3 • • •

Overall, how satisfied are you with [brand]? How likely are you to continue to choose/repurchase [brand]? How likely are you to recommend [brand] to a friend/associate?

A8 CONFIDENCE • •

[Brand] is a name I can always trust. [Brand] always delivers on what they promise.

INTEGRITY • •

[Brand] always treats me fairly. If a problem arises, I can always count on [brand] to reach a fair and satisfactory resolution.

PRIDE • •

I feel proud to be a [brand] customer. [Brand] always treats me with respect.

PASSION • •

[Brand] is the perfect company for people like me. I can't imagine a world without [brand].

When customers agreed strongly with both statements about a brand's reliability “this brand always delivers on what they promise" and "this brand is a name I can always trust" they were demonstrating their confidence in the brand. Confidence normally precedes more intense feelings of attachment, because it determines whether a customer feels secure about a brand's utility. To build confidence, then, a manager needs to strive to keep a brand's marketing message in sync with the product or service the company delivers. Gallup found that among members of a hotel

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affinity club who said they got less from their membership experience than they thought they would when they enrolled, not quite one in 25 was confident in the brand. Compare that to the customers who said the membership matched their expectations: one in four was confident. The lesson is clear: When customers get less than they expect, they're unlikely to have confidence in the company and we've seen that confidence is a precursor to long-term loyalty and emotional attachment. Belief in a brand's integrity gauged by whether a customer feels fairly treated and by whether she expects a fair resolution to any problems she encounters follows. That belief is reinforced when a customer feels she is dealing with a company that is not only competent and forthright but also fair and ethical. It can be instilled, for instance, by a salesperson who steers the customer to a product she says she wants instead of dumbly pushing the most expensive merchandise. Similarly, if a desk clerk botches a room reservation, he should know to offer an upgrade or some other token of apology. When such practices become common place when a customer can count on getting reliable service and when she knows that someone will make amends if she doesn’t then she feels proud of the brand. (Pride, in Gallup's classification, reflects the customer's strong sense that the brand treats her with respect and that she, in turn, feels good about using it.) High scores on pride questions indicate that a customer has crossed a threshold of commitment to the brand. We can all think of brands with which customers proudly identify luxury brands such as Taj group of hotel, as well as discount brands such as the hotel Clarks. It's no coincidence that both enjoy reputations for treating customers with deference and respect. When a customer use services of hotel or employee behavior conversation, she has reached the highest rung of emotional attachment: passion. Customers with passion strongly agree with the statements "This brand is the perfect company for people like me" and "I can't imagine a world without this brand." They would never take a trip to the beach house without stocking up on their favorite long time stayed hotel. It's no coincidence among that brands focus on service in ways that can make an often-frustrating experience pleasant for customers. At the top of the A8 ladder, a passionate customer can and will shower dollars on a brand. But on the ground, a manager has to figure out how to persuade uncommitted customers to move up the rungs of that ladder, from provisionally satisfied to rationally loyal to emotionally engage. Gallup's research has revealed three powerful ways managers can reach that goal: 1) creating products that are as flawless as possible; 2) training employees to act as ambassadors of the brand; and 3) transforming problems into opportunities to please customers. Great companies become great by cultivating distinct brand identities. CE11offers an analytical tool for gauging how that brand resonates in the marketplace. It enables companies to clearly see the path from its products and services to the hearts, minds, and wallets of its customers.

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Indian Hospitality Research Today's guest wants it all: personalized service, more comfort and style, excitement, sophistication, reliability, and value. To meet these demands and guests' evolving needs, the hospitality industry must become more customer-focused, creating more memorable customer experiences. Whether it's providing timely information on hospitality trends or building the best customer service model to drive customer engagement, Gallup is able to support your organization's growth objectives by strengthening your customer relationships and identifying new market opportunities. Built on Gallup's rich tradition as the world's leading public opinion pollster, Gallup Hospitality Research gives true representation and a collective voice to the people while studying their behaviors, attitudes, and preferences regarding the products, brands, and services you and your competitors provide. We conduct projects for our clients with consumers worldwide. So, whether your project involves a single market, multiple countries, or a global view, Gallup reports the voice of the people. Market Research-Based Consulting Applications Market segmentation Define discrete market segments and tailor product and servicing strategies to increase market share and maximize sales effectiveness. Customer Assess key drivers of customer engagement including customers' engagement attitudes toward and expectations of brands, products, and services. Concept design and Leverage conjoint and other trade-off analyses to optimize product or testing service concept, assortment, and design. Pricing studies Measure price elasticity; build product pricing and corresponding volume curves to improve margin and sustain growth. Brand positioning Identify the most profitable position for your brand in the market's and messaging mindset; develop and/or refine your key messages to deliver on your brand's promise. Promotion Measure the incremental value of alternative advertising messages effectiveness and promotional materials and activities. Competitive brand Identify brand differentiators and determine your brand's specific assessment advantages or disadvantages relative to your competition.

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Methodology Our Hospitality Research is the most scientifically sophisticated method of consumer engagement. Our hospitality research is powered by The Gallup Panel. This proprietary in-house, probability based panel for which all members are recruited via random digit dial (RDD) methodology offers the largest hospitality intelligence panel from which you can accurately project the total population. Globally, we leverage stringent RDD recruitment processes designed to collect the most reliable information available, based on the nuances of each country. This ensures scientific integrity for unparalleled confidence when you are making global business decisions. Couple these advanced forms of data collection with our leading staff of experienced consultants, and the result is a scientifically sound foundation from which to assess trends, identify opportunities, and drive growth. Areas of Focus Gallup partners with the world's leading hospitality companies to address many of their most challenging business issues. We take a research-based approach to developing enterprise-wide business solutions for: • • • • • • • • •

hotel groups time-share companies resorts and casinos restaurant chains food-service providers management companies travel management companies entertainment parks cruise lines

The Gallup Hospitality Research Advantage Multiple data Offers outbound phone, Web, and/or mail surveys to ensure we reach collection methods the right audience and leverage the best research method to get the answers you need. Random digit dial Ensures accurate representation that allows for precise weighting for recruitment insight among total populations. Controlled survey Provides responses that are more thoughtful and accurate by carefully management managing the number of surveys and topics consumers receive. An average Gallup panelist completes no more than two to three surveys per month. No incentives Eliminates professional survey respondents and helps ensure unbiased

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responses. Longer, more Allows for longer, more detailed surveys (up to 30 minutes) because we detailed surveys already have consumer commitment to participate and profile information collected. Demographic and Enables you to pinpoint exactly whom you want to survey, with lifestyle profiling extreme precision and unprecedented speed. Custom panels Leverages our panel development and management expertise with the creation of a custom panel exclusively for your own research needs. Global perspective Provides a global view for decisions that affect your organization worldwide. Dedicated Ensures seamless data collection and detailed analysis, resulting in consultants recommendations and plans that are both scientifically sound and actionable.

Data Collection We collect data through random survey in and outside the property; our other data collection methods include phone, mail, Web, IVR, and multiple-mode surveys. Phone The Gallup Organization operates one of the world's largest telephone research data-collection systems. With an unparalleled capacity for completing small- to large-scale projects, Gallup's telephone interviewing teams have conducted more than 20 million interviews over the last five years, averaging 10,000 completed interviews per day across 200 individual survey research questionnaires. Gallup's telephone survey capabilities include extensive use of the latest computer-assisted telephone interviewing (CATI) and automated sample management technologies. In addition, our interviewers often leverage our pre-recruited Gallup Panel members to conduct quick, efficient telephone research. On an average day, Gallup processes approximately 2 million sample records, using state-of-the-art data processing procedures and quality sample methodologies. Mail Gallup offers the capability to produce mailed or self-administered questionnaires in a variety of formats in multiple languages. For assured quality control and maximum efficiency, questionnaires are printed and mailed by Gallup, using our internal print shop for production, distribution, and fulfillment tracking. More than 150,000 surveys can be processed in one day by our optical scanning center. Optical Mark Recognition Capability

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For high-speed, low-cost data collection and capture, Gallup offers optical mark recognition (OMR) scanning capabilities. Our four state-of-the-art optical mark readers use reflective read technology and a digital line-scan camera that captures survey data at a very high rate: approximately 4,000 sheets per machine, per hour. Unlike conventional optical scanning systems that read surveys based on a universal setting, Gallup uses an algorithm that determines the characteristics of each individual page. To establish an algorithm, all response positions on a page are examined to assess how the respondent has filled out the questionnaire. Based on that assessment, the algorithm for that page is developed. This algorithm then becomes the mark discriminator for that page, differentiating at the pixel level between intended responses and cross-outs, erasures, and stray marks. In addition, our scanning confidence level is 100%. All "out data" (anything the computer can't read at the 100% confidence level) are automatically sent to one of 50 operators at the optical scanning center for verification. Every question type, from closed-ended to alphanumeric to verbatim, can be verified within the single system, significantly streamlining the data collection process at 10,000 items per hour. Optical Character Recognition/Image Capture System Gallup has an additional survey processing approach that minimizes handling of surveys and improves the speed, accuracy, and efficiency of the data collection task when compared to hard copy surveys, but is less expensive and more appropriate for smaller data collection studies. Specifically, as each survey is received in Gallup's scanning facility, it can be immediately be scanned using our proprietary optical character recognition and image capture system. This system produces a digital image of all the contents of the survey. The scanning procedure minimizes hand sorting while maximizing flexible and efficient electronic sorting, processing, and reporting. Web Gallup formalized its operations by constructing a comprehensive Web-based system with fulltime programming staff devoted exclusively to supporting its Web operations. Today, our systems support more than 450 simultaneous Web surveys fielded in multiple languages with tens of thousands of respondents each. Gallup has in place a system for capacity planning for all of its Web surveys, and monitors Web use in real time to identify capacity needs and to assess the quality of our projections against actual usage. Should circumstances warrant, our system architecture has been designed so that it can be expanded immediately upon demand. Gallup's Internet survey services also include complete sample management, including e-mail invitations and reminders. Gallup has developed its own Java-based Internet data collection software to control survey execution. Data that are collected on the Web are stored in an Oracle ® database. Gallup's Web servers are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. IVR

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Interactive Voice Response (IVR) is a data collection technology in which the computer plays a recording of the question to the respondent over the telephone, and the respondent indicates the response by pressing the appropriate key on his or her touch-tone telephone keypad. IVR is created by programming the computer to play prerecorded prompts to the respondent based on the respondent's answers. Ideally, IVR is used when the data desired are numeric or can easily be linked to a numeric code, such as, "press 1 if yes; press 2 if no" (though open-ended data can also be collected via IVR). IVR is especially appropriate for surveys that are short and repetitive.

Managing Customer Relationships in the Indian Hospitality Industry The Indian hospitality industry is a fascinating one from a CRM perspective, because of the quality and quantity of customer touch points. Hospitality and I go way back, when in my earlier college days she helped me pay for school by employing me as a front desk agent and Auditor at a Holiday Inn. Over the years, I've also had a couple of large clients from this vertical (hotels, resorts, clubs, and restaurants), providing a full-circle experience to reflect upon. In the world of servicing guests, there are as many challenges as there are, well... challenging customers, but I think in the current age of "branding" one of the biggest ones is ensuring a consistent customer service experience. This challenge is three-pronged: First, managers must be able to manage consistency in the face of interchanging slow and busy times and seasons. Second, consistency needs to be ensured across job titles, roles, and pay ranges. Third (or perhaps First, if you'd like), the marketing message must be in tune with a plan to set guest expectations according to the season and customer tier considerations. As with any strategy, the goal is to help meet the corporate objectives, which often begin with defining the customer segments that can help move the enterprise in the right direction, and then approach them with the right marketing message, via the right marketing channels. On the subject of job roles, I found that while some job roles had specific training on interacting with customers, others did not, or worse, were trained in an inconsistent way. So the first order of things in this area is to establish a clear procedure for greeting, servicing, and addressing guest issues across various situations. All employees which come in direct contact with guests need to be in tune with this common standard. A set of behavior and service standards also provides clear guidelines which can empower employees to provide special or "magical" moments to their guests. The guest servicing standards themselves should focus on not just consistent responses, but also should prevent consecutive negative experiences. In other words, if a guest has experienced a negative event (i.e. complained that the room wasn't clean upon check in), this fact needs to be captured and made available to customer-facing employees so that they can put an extra effort

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into making sure that the remainder of the hotel stay or restaurant experience is as positive as possible. A further back-end benefit to capturing the negative event information is that it will enable analysis of customer experience shortcomings. This in turn allows for active methods for managing, monitoring, and predicting customer satisfaction, which can then lead to fine-tuning the marketing message, interaction standards, and employee training. Predictive analytics can be used to understand latent pain or dissatisfaction before it percolates and impacts customer loyalty.

Challenges for Hospitality Industry Shortage of skilled employees: One of the greatest challenges plaguing the hospitality industry is the unavailability of quality workforce in different skill levels. The hospitality industry has failed to retain good professionals. Retaining quality workforce: Retention of the workforce through training and development in the hotel industry is a problem and attrition levels are too high. One of the reasons for this is unattractive wage packages. Though there is boom in the service sector, most of the hotel management graduates are joining other sectors like retail and aviation. Shortage of rooms: The hotel industry is facing heavy shortage of rooms. It is estimated that the current requirement is of 1, 50,000 rooms. Though the new investment plan would add 53,000 rooms by 2011, the shortage will still persist. Intense competition and image of India: The industry is witnessing heightened competition with the arrival of new players, new products and new systems. The competition from neighboring countries and negative perceptions about Indian tourism product constrains the growth of tourism. The image of India as a country overrun by poverty, political instability, safety concerns and diseases also harms the tourism industry. Customer expectations: As India is emerging as a destination on the global travel map, expectations of customers are rising. The companies have to focus on customer loyalty and repeat purchases. Manual back-end: Though most reputed chains have IT enabled systems for property management, reservations, etc., almost all the data which actually make the company work are filled in manual log books or are simply not tracked.

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Human resource development: Some of the services required in the tourism and hotel industries are highly personalized, and no amount of automation can substitute for personal service providers. India is focusing more on white collar jobs than blue collar jobs. The shortage of blue collar employees will pose various threats to the industry.

Customer Engagement The Customer Side of the Human Sigma Equation Human Sigma combines the power of two Gallup Consulting concepts: customer and employee engagement. Our Human Sigma approach provides leaders with the means to reduce the variance in performance across organizational units. Our extensive research has identified the crucial emotional characteristics of an organization's best customers. These customers are not just "satisfied" or "loyal," they are emotionally attached to the organization's brands or services. They are engaged. Organizations must understand, develop, and sustain customer engagement to achieve success. Our customer engagement programs enable organizations to identify and manage the key emotional dimensions of customer engagement. Maximizing Customer Engagement with CE 11 Through rigorous research, Gallup Consulting has identified 11 questions that measure customer engagement and powerfully link to financial performance. These questions the CE 11 measure dimensions that executives, managers, and employees can influence. We have developed CE 11 measurement tools, development programs, and strategic advisory services that improve organizational performance. CE 11 enables organizations to assess and improve customer engagement in all key areas. Customer Engagement and CRM Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems and technologies are ineffective unless their underlying strategies will increase and improve customer engagement. Gallup Consulting's customer engagement programs provide the vital strategic framework a CRM technology initiative needs to be successful. Developing Brand Strategies

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The CE 11 metric is also a superior tool for developing brand strategies and tactics that attract the most profitable customers. Used as the basis for brand management, segmentation, and positioning, CE 11 supports brand managers in developing strategies that will appeal to the most profitable customer segments. Effective consumer messages must: •

• •

Differentiate: convey a brand promise that clearly sets the company's products or services apart from its competitors'. This promise must include an emotional component that customers understand. Excite and Activate: convey a compelling message that will overcome consumer inertia, perceived risk, and "switching cost" barriers Connect: establish or reinforce an emotional connection with target customers. This serves as the foundation for an enduring customer relationship.

Companies successfully acquire and retain customers when they communicate compelling and differentiating brand promises promises that the company can deliver at all customer touch points. Companies must align their activities and performance to turn transactions into enduring relationships. Companies that consistently reinforce a brand promise with performance or a customer's expectations with great experiences will develop enduring and profitable customer relationships. Gallup Consulting has the resources and experience to support organizations that seek to improve their business performance by developing better leaders, more profitable customers, and more productive employees. Our successes demonstrate our effective consulting and performance improvement solutions.

Take Action on Customer Engagement Surveys & Feedback

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Customer no. 1.

Respondent name Mr. Manish pali

Male/Female

Age

Hotel chain

Hotel/Poperty

M

32

Oberoi Group of hotels Oberoi Group of hotels The Park hotels Hilton Group of hotels Taj Group of hotels Oberoi Group of hotels The Park hotels Le Maeridien hotels Oberoi Group of hotels Oberoi Group of hotels Oberoi Group of hotels Hyatt Group Welcome Group of hotels Welcome Group of hotels Hilton Group of hotels Oberoi Vilases hotels The Park hotels

The Oberoi Bangalore

2.

Mr. Ramkripal

M

46

3.

Mr. Ramachal

M

57

4.

Mrs. Dayal

F

51

5.

Mr. H.S.Sethi

M

65

6.

Mr. R.K. Mittal

M

52

7.

Mr. Vikram Singh Arya Mr. Chandrika Prasad

M

39

M

42

9.

Mr. Vijay Tripathi

M

32

10.

Mr. Rohit Singla

M

32

11.

Mr. G. Ramesh M

44

12.

M

48

13.

Mr. Sarabjeet Singh Mr. A. Mathur

M

33

14.

Mrs. Shruti

F

32

15.

Mr. Himanshu Sirvastava

M

35

16.

Mr. Ahmad Siddique

M

34

17.

Mr. Rajindra Gupta

M

44

8.

The Oberoi New Delhi The Park New Delhi Hilton Towers Mumbai Taj Connemara Chennai The Oberoi Bangalore The Park Bangalore Le Maeridien Bangalore The Oberoi Grand Kolkata The Oberoi Bangalore The Oberoi Mumbai Hyatt Regency New Delhi ITC Grand Central Mumbai ITC Maurya Sheraton New Delhi Hilton Towers Mumbai Oberoi Amarvilas Agra The Park Chennai

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Table 1

Comparative study in various Indian Hospitality industries

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Figure 9

Objectives & Scope: Observing and understanding the existing hospitality industry growth rate. Acquiring in-depth knowledge of customer engagement in hospitality. Identifying issues which are leading to high growth rate in particular hospitality. Study last year customer/employee satisfaction report & action taken. Give recommendations which can be aligned with organizational culture. There is lot of mismatch in terms of customer and employee engagement.

Findings & Recommendation Structured interviews for all customers classed as medium to high. Exit interview should be taken very seriously. Communication across organization is very critical & should be given due importance. Prepared customer engagement report.

Table 2 Companies are increasingly seeking to maximize the value of their customer satisfaction measurement investment. With customer satisfaction scores "flat lining" with little change from period to period, it is no wonder many companies are taking a serious look at how to get the most out of their customer satisfaction budget. At People Metrics, we take a very different approach to measuring and acting on customer satisfaction feedback. Two of the most important differences are:

•

We measure Customer Engagement, not customer satisfaction

•

We help clients focus on taking action on customer feedback, not just aggregate results

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With People Metrics Customer Engagement Management (CEM) solution, both B2B and B2C companies can take action on client and customer experiences to create engagement, not just measure satisfaction.

Measure Customer Engagement, Not Customer Satisfaction

Customer satisfaction is a nice to have, but does not result in a secure customer. Satisfied customers may be pleased with a recent experience, but often do not have an emotional connection with the company. This lack of an emotional connection often results in customers with high levels of customer satisfaction switching to competitors for reasons such as a minor cost difference or a slightly more convenient location.

On the other hand, Customer Engagement is a must have, and used by the best and most successful companies in the world. What does an engaged customer look like? People Metrics has established four characteristics of Customer Engagement:

•

Retention: Engaged customers will spend more with you over their lifetime than with your competition.

•

Effort: Engaged customers will actually go out of their way to do business with you - even spend more to benefit from your products, service and brand.

•

Advocacy: Engaged customers spread the good word, making it easier and cheaper for you to attract new customers.

•

Passion: Engaged customers are passionate about the brand so passionate that they may even spend time actively promoting the brand to others or defending the brand if others speak negatively about it.

Take Action on Customer Feedback. Every time a customer provides feedback on their experience, companies have the opportunity to use that feedback to improve their business, but some simply "roll it up" to view general trends over time. Unfortunately, a majority of companies focus on aggregate trends rather than empowering managers to take the best actions on customer feedback to improve engagement.

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While aggregate analyses can be valuable, they are often not actionable to managers who are responsible for affecting the trends.

At People Metrics, we are passionate about helping our clients take the best actions on customer feedback. Our CEM solution is designed to help both B2B and B2C companies and their managers respond in the most effective way to customer feedback. Here are a few highlights:

•

Questions Designed for Action: our proven core CEM (B2B, B2C) question sets are designed to enable our clients to take action on specific aspects of the customer experience. Our tracking surveys are short (less than 5 minutes) and enjoyable for the client or customer. For our B2C clients, we often begin with a longer survey (about 10 minutes) designed to identify the specific behaviors required to engage customers. Once analysis reveals the top drivers of customer engagement and standards are developed for each driver, a shorter tracking survey measures the pulse on how well these behaviors are being lived by the employees who serve customers. Results from these tracking studies are often used in incentive compensation plans.

•

Action Alerts: based on individual customer responses to specific questions in the survey, Action Alerts are sent directly to the designated people within the client organization via e-mail immediately after the customer submits feedback. CEM includes five types of Action Alerts Recover, Grow, Recognize, Improve and Market. While the full range of Action Alerts are most applicable to high-value transactions in the B2B space, more and more B2C businesses are seeing the value in following up on their most important customers' experiences.

•

Action Alert Management: after an Action Alert is sent, a case is automatically created in the CEM Hub and is assigned to the appropriate person who provides updates with regard to progress. This person or a supervisor can then close out cases as appropriate actions are taken. Suggestions are provided on what specific actions will be most effective depending on the type of Action Alert generated. Successful actions are recorded, tracked and shared with the entire organization.

•

Manager Action Planning Tool: largely for our B2C clients, we offer a planning tool that enables managers to identify areas of focus that, if improved, will have the greatest impact on Customer Engagement within their location. This tool includes People Metrics proprietary library of bestpractice actions for each question in our core B2C CEM survey and is especially helpful for managers who are incentivized based on Customer Engagement scores.

•

Integration with CRM Packages (e.g., Salesforce.com): we can easily integrate individual level customer feedback into Salesforce.com and other popular CRM packages.

People Metrics has helped some of the world's most respected B2B and B2C companies take action to improve Customer Engagement.

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Customer engagement, satisfaction, experience, and loyalty solutions from People Metrics will improve organization's business outcomes

Conclusion: Accordingly to our survey report on hospitality industries in India The Oberoi group of hotel is in top, in India 27% of people like Oberoi brand of hotels. In my personal opinion tourism business in India play a major role in Indian business. Today customers are more loyal towards continues use good services render by service sector. They are intelligent too use of 3E’s of customer engagement i.e. emotion, experience, and expectation towards the hospitality brand. There are different brands of hospitality industries, like Taj Group of hotels,oberoi Group of hotels, ITC-Sheraton, Le Meridien, Hyatt Group, Trident Group of hotels, Park hotels etc. Among these 23% people likes Park group of hotels , 14% people like ITC , Hyatt group and least preferred hotels are Marroitt and Leela groups (i.e.0%) of hotels in India. Customers are confident while choosing the hospitality services like brand name, trust, delivery etc. On Integrity side customers like to be treated fairly. Pride, Passion are the other side of customer they like from the service sector. Customers have proud to be guest of such branded hospitality industry. To summarize, in my personal view, Human beings are emotional creatures. If we effectively tap into the emotionality of our engagement with customers we can charge a premium price. Here’s something to think about. Could your prices be 10% higher than your competitors if you “wow” them by your lovely service? Whether you measure it or not, a customer is loyal and/or satisfied will be determined by an alignment of the emotion, experience and expectation of both the customer and the organization providing the product or service. This is the place of Customer Service. Understanding and correctly applying these three essential components is the key to Customer or employee Engagement in hospitality industries.

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References:  Business research methods by Donald R Cooper.  www.gallupindia.com, www.galluporg.com, www.google.com  India’s first retail opportunity magazine (www.franchiseindia.com)

 www.imagesretail.com  www.tridenthotels .com  Hospitality management book (www.breyerstate.com)

 Christine Jaszay. (2006). Ethical Decision-Making in the Hospitality Industry  Karen Lieberman & Bruce Nissen. (2006). Ethics in the Hospitality And Tourism Industry

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Glossary: Attractions - General all inclusive term travel industry marketers use to refer to products that have visitor appeal, like hotels, restaurant, museums, historic sites, theme parks, entertainment and national sites. Blocked - Hotel rooms held without deposit Booked - Hotel rooms, airline tickets or other travel services held for a specific client. Travel - Travel for commercial, governmental or educational purposes with leisure as a secondary motivation Co-op Advertising - Advertising funded by two or more destinations and /or suppliers. Cooperative Marketing - Marketing programs involving two or more participating companies, institutions or organizations. Fulfillment - Servicing consumers and trade who request information as a result of advertising or promotional programs. Service often includes an 800 number, sales staff and distribution of materials Five Star- Top rated resort in the Interval International system Group Ownership- Another term for Timeshare Guest Certificate- certificate issued by the exchange company authorising a nominated guest to use an exchange instead of the owners Holiday Guest- customer for hospitality industry. Hospitality Industry - Another term for the travel industry. Incentive Travel - Travel offered as a reward for top performance and the business that develops markets and operates these programs. Inclusive Tour - A tour program that includes a variety of feature for a single rate (airfare, accommodations, sightseeing, performances, etc.) International Marketing - Marketing a destination, product or service to consumers and the trade outside the of the United States.

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Leisure Travel - Travel for recreational, educational, sightseeing, relaxing and other experiential purposes. Management Company- The Company contracted, usually by the Owners Club, to carry out all the day-to-day management of the resort. Very often owned or controlled by the developer Marketing Company- A separate company from the developer responsible for marketing. Sometimes a developer will manage the on-site marketing and employ a separate Marketing Company to manage off-site marketing Perpetuity- The law in some countries (England and Wales for example) does not allow licensed property rights for more than 80 years. Property - A hotel, motel, inn, lodge or other accommodation facility. Property Bonds A system, similar to Points clubs, for owning shares or bonds in a company owning properties. Retail Agent - A travel agent. Retailer - Another term for travel agents who sell travel products directly to consumers. Supplier - Those businesses that provide industry products like accommodations, transportation, car rentals, restaurants and attractions. Target Audience/Market - A specific demographic, sociographic target at which marketing communications are directed. Target Rating Points - TRPÕs are a statistical measurement which allows one to evaluate the relative impact of differing advertising campaigns. Tariff - Rate of fare quoted and published by a travel industry supplier (i.e. hotels, tour operators, etc.) Usually an annual tariff is produced in booklet form for use in sales calls at trade shows. Tourism - Leisure travel. Tourist/Visitor/Traveler - Any person who travels either for leisure or business purposes more than 100 miles (round-trip) in a day or who stays overnight away from his/her primary domicile. Travel - Leisure and other travel including travel for business, medical care, education, etc. All tourism is travel, but not all travel is tourism. Travel Agent - An individual who arranges travel for individuals or groups. Travel agents may be generalists or specialists (cruises, adventure travel, conventions and meetings.) The agents receive a 10 to 15% commission from accommodations, transportation companies and attractions for coordinating the booking of travel. They typically coordinate travel for their customers at the same or lower cost than if the customer booked the travel on his/her own. Travel Product - Refers to any product or service that is bought by or sold to consumers of trade including accommodations, attractions, events, restaurants, transportation, etc.

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In my personal opinion, successful marketers are doing…………. 1. Promote your brand as the best in the study. 2. Offer your lowest price, most converting offer as your front end. 3. Implement your best IDEAS as soon as possible. 4. Double your promotion –law of average. 5. Focus your available time on your business. 6. Make your website more users friendly and attractive. 7. Focus on list building. 8. Over –deliver your promise. 9. Drive traffic from multiple channel and distributors. 10.Track and measure every aspect of your business. 11.Never stop your best producing traffic sources.

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