Customer Care At Sheraton Hotel Kampala Tourism Essay

Customer Care At Sheraton Hotel Kampala Tourism Essay INTRODUCTION Kampala Sheraton Hotel is an international hotel in Kampala, Uganda. It is situated on Ternan Avenue in the central division of Kampala. Sheraton Hotel Kampala is part of the Starwood Hotels and Resorts Worldwide Incorporation. Sheraton is located at the heart of Kampala. Sheraton Kampala serves the needs of upscale business and leisure travelers worldwide. For over 75 years this full-service, iconic brand has welcomed guests, becoming a trusted friend to travelers and one of the worlds most recognized hotel brands. It has also stepped into major international markets all over the world. What is customer care? The customer care operates in markets whose tastes change as times change. The hospitality industry is greatly affected by these changes and this means that the customer care has to change accordingly. Customer care services at Sheraton Hotel Kampala include reliable services, security, parking space, front desk services, upscale frontiers, attractiveness, beauty, speed that comes with service delivery, attention to customers, anticipation of customer needs, honesty and a decent attitude towards customers. These services are intended to make customers comfortable, create memories they can ponder about, create satisfaction that will cause them to pay for the services and thereby retain the customers. Every business hopes to create and serve but the challenge is actually meeting the motive. Sheraton Hotel has also provided quality services for its customer base. The hotel has a customer care service policy which caters for customer activities. These policies include exclusive accommodation, efficient and timely delivery of services, hotel guides, security, customer attention, parking space, 24hour front desk services, and anticipation of customer services. Despite Sheraton Kampalas efforts to provide the best services to its customers, the hotel has competitors in the hotel industry like Serena. Unfortunately, the company can barely do much in creating a new market. This is due to the average to low standards of living of people in Uganda. PROCEDURE The target study population was the customers and staff of Sheraton Kampala. The study involved 75 respondents, 50 of which were customers of the hotel and 25 were part of the staff at Sheraton Kampala. Non statistical methods were used for example the nature of field respondents and other field situations. A descriptive study was undertaken in order to determine the characteristics of interest at Sheraton Kampala. The qualitative and quantitative data acquired from both primary and secondary sources was analyzed. The study was majorly based on customers views, opinions and preferences in order to make judgments, conclusions and recommendations. The primary sources of information were acquired from the staff and the customers of the hotel. The secondary information was acquired from Internet, newspapers, journals, sales report and invoices. Questionnaires were given out to the customers in order to seek their opinions, views and preferences. Observation of the customers was conducted in order to verify that the customers actions were a lot like their views. MAIN RESULTS AND FINDINGS These are the finding concerning the demographic characteristics of employees at the Sheraton Kampala. There were more female employee respondents than male respondents. This precisely means that females are more attractive in the hotel service industry because of they are presumed to be better at customer care in comparison with males. From the above illustration, most of the workers are aged between 30 and 39 followed by 20-29, then 40-45 and lastly 50 and above. From the results above, all the employees are educated and have the capability to respond to the questionnaires given out. The hotel customer care service recruits people who are old and mature of which most are married. The only explicable reason for the outlook of the results is mainly because Christianity dominates as a religion in Uganda. This means that conclusions can be based on the views of the employees for they have gained a sizeable amount of work experience. These are findings concerning the customer care strategies employed by Sheraton Kampala. 44% of the employees agreed that tour guides and other services are the best strategies employed by the hotel. 28% of the employees recommended training of the employees. 20% and 8% of the employees suggested that motivation of the employees and after sales services would be a great strategies. This is so because this would attract customers which in turn brings about customer retention and increased sales. 28% of the customers agreed that they work hand in hand with the top management in order to improve customer care for the purposes of customer satisfaction. This is more or less induction training of the employees. 44% of the employees were not sure about if the top management works hand in hand. One can then conclude that the activities ensure quality of customer care and customer satisfaction. 56% of the customers acknowledge that for customer care services to be successful, the customers needs should be at heart in order to achieve customer satisfaction while the others are not sure or carry a different opinion. These are findings concerning customer care services. A TABLE SHOWING THE RATING OF ASPECTS OF CUSTOMER CARE AT SHERATON KAMPALA. Rating Clean Friendly Helpful Efficient Polite and courteous % % % % % Good 60 32 68 60 90 Fair 40 68 28 24 10 Poor 0 0 4 16 0 On critical analysis of the above findings, one can rate the customer care services at Sheraton Kampala as generally good. A TABLE SHOWING THE RATING OF CUSTOMER CARE SERVICES AT SHERATON KAMPALA. Rating Parking space Security Front Desk Service Hotel guides Customer attention % % % % % Good 90 86 88 36 92 Fair 10 14 12 40 8 Poor 0 0 0 24 0 Regarding the above results, it is no wonder why people go to Sheraton Kampala. This is because of their good services despite some flaws faced in some areas especially with the hotel guides. Most of the customers appreciated the services that were offered so the services at Sheraton Kampala are creditable. ANALYSIS AND DISCUSSION. SWOT analysis is a form of strategic analysis that identifies and analyses the main internal strengths and weaknesses and external opportunities and threats that will influence future direction and success of the business. Strengths Weaknesses Internal Location of the business Recruitment of unskilled workers that require training. Strong brand reputation Poor services offered by hotel guides Good customer care policy Few services offered to customers Fair management efficiency High prices charged for quality services. Focus on customer satisfaction Opportunities Threats External Undifferentiated products and services in relation to competitors like Serena A new competitor i.e. Serena Hotel A new international market Price wars with competitors Taxation is increased on the services. CONCULUSION From the findings, it can be deduced that Sheraton Hotel Kampala has a good performance level especially towards employees. Some of their substantial customer care services include training of employees on customer service handling, complaint handling, seeking customer attention, avenues of customers complaints, transport services and replacement. Employee motivation has been a stimulant to the growing number of customers at Sheraton Kampala. However, training and motivation should be enforced in order to maximize the customer care delivery. From the research findings, the customer care services are generally good as acknowledged by hotel customers. However Sheraton hasnt created an interface for customers complaints that can air out their views on the services provided. It is also important to note that a significant relationship between customer care delivery and customer satisfaction exists. The two variables are directly proportional to each other. The better the customer care delivery, the improved satisfaction of the customer and vice versa. RECOMMENDATIONS The hotel should arrange and present streamlined hotel guides who are more knowledgeable about the hotel. When a few of the hotel guides were asked about the hotel, they were only conversant with the dining and resting rooms avenues. This is a limitation to Sheraton Kampala. The complaints of the customers should be highly regarded. A customer complaint desk should be established. The hotel will then be more open to external ideas if they handle the ideas. As the core focus of Sheraton Kampala is the customer satisfaction. The management of the hotel should involve the customers while designing the customer care policies. The employees of Sheraton should be involved in the designing of the customer care policies as their creativity will be tapped and more ideas will be sprought up. AREAS OF FURTHER RESEARCH. Research should be carried out on the employee performance and customer satisfaction. Research should be carried out on the impact of customer care services on sales volume. Research should be carried out comparing customer care services of other hotels.

Types of Organizational Chart

Businesses come in many different sizes and forms. Organizational charts are used to visually summarize the structure of a business. By using charts to study the overview of a business' structure, owners can analyze how effective operations run. By identifying bottlenecks and redundancies, organizations ensure smoother operations and increased efficiencies. Organizational charts display businesses from different aspects depending on the nature of the business and the needs of the chart creators.When creating charts, it is essential to think ahead as to how the charts will be used, how they will be presented and to whom they are presented to. Hierarchical Hierarchical charts show the relationships between top and lower levels. These types of charts can show an organization's structure, key top-level personnel and areas or employees they are in charge of. Hierarchical charts show authority and can be effective in summarizing the chain of command and accountability within an organizatio n. Matrix Matrix charts display an organization as a group of teams with functions.Each box on the chart refers to the name of a team and its function or could display the team leader's name. In the latter case, each team's box breaks down into individual subteams of members and their subfunction. Flat Flat charts are used for companies that are owned, managed and operated with few employees. For instance, mom and pop stores are horizontal or flat organizations because there are few levels between these working the front line and management. Employees in flat organizations are often involved in key decision-making for the company.Flat organizational structures can be presented as a triangle which shows the owner at the top followed by a middle level and bottom level of departments. Geographic For very large companies with divisions dispersed throughout the world, a geographic organizational chart that shows the locations of divisions is beneficial. Typically, each box is used to dis play the division name, location and division head. The company's main headquarters is displayed on the top level with the other geographic locations given on the bottom level.

Economies of scale and diminishing returns Essay

In Business Economics, the short run is defined as the concept that within a certain period of time, in the future, at least one input is fixed while others are variable and the long run is defined as a period of time in which all factors of production and costs are variable. The law of diminishing returns is a short run concept, which states that increasing successive units of a variable factor to a fixed factor will increase output but eventually the addition to output will start to slow down and would eventually become negative. This is because if capital is fixed, extra labour will eventually get in each other’s way as they attempt to increase production. E.g. think about the effectiveness of extra employees in a factory that’s maximum workers is 100. If the firm employs 150 workers, then the productivity will eventually decrease, as they will get in each other’s way etc. However, this law only applies in the short-term, as in the long run, all factors are va riable. As you can see from the graph above, the average fixed cost (AFC) curve falls as output increases due to the fact that fixed costs are a decreasing proportion of total cost as output increases. Both the average total cost (ATC) and the average variable cost (AVC) curves fall, and then rise again. The curves start to rise after a certain point because diminishing return takes place. The distance on the y-axis between the ATC and the AVC represents the value of the average fixed cost (AFC). Just like the average variable cost and average total cost curves demonstrate, the marginal cost also falls, and eventually rises again as diminishing marginal returns take place. Economies of scale, however, refer to the advantages that arise from large-scale production, which in turn results in a lower average unit cost (cost per unit). It explains the relationship between the long run average costs of producing a unit of good with increasing level of output. Unlike  diminishing returns, economies of scale is a process that operates and is caused by a development over a long period of time. Economies of scale also have many sources whereas diminishing returns is the relationship between output and only one input of production.There are two different forms of economies of scale that could occur in a firm. The first is internal economies of scale. This refers to the advantages that are caused as a result of the expanding and growth of a firm/business. Internal economies of scale can be additionally categorized into commercial, managerial, financial and technical economies of scale. Commercial economies of scale arise from the purchase of raw materials and the sale of finished goods. When the firm’s output increases, they order larger quantities of the raw materials (bulk buying) and therefore these raw material firms favour these businesses, and offer lower prices due to their ordering of higher quantities. Managerial economies of scale is a process that follows the principle of the division of labour and creates specialization due to the firm’s ability to employ specialized employees, and this causes an increase in production efficiency. A financial economy of scale is when a large firm benefits by getting better credit facilities e.g. credit at cheaper rates, being able to negotiate better finance deals etc. Finally, a technical economy of scale arises due to large-scale production because there is a technical advantage in the use of large machinery in the production process. Technical economies of scale will most likely arise due to machinery being used in the production process, which are more efficient than human labour, and also require less maintenance, training and do not require payment. External economies of scale refers to the advantages firms/businesses can get as a result of the growth of the entire industry as a whole. Usually, the industry grows due to an improvement in a specific area of the industry, such as an increase in the local’s skill and training, and improving in the training facilities themselves, which causes an increase in the quality of training for the future employees or an increase in the foreign supply of labour with a higher skillset that before.

Business Success For A Business - 1204 Words

Business Success in the New Normal For a business to succeed in today’s global economy, it takes more than opening doors, turning on phones or powering up computers. Today’s businesses have to look beyond their local competition and take into consideration global competition. Globalization’s impact on business organizations continue to grow. Therefore, today’s businesses must take advantage of opportunities and make their business more agile and responsive to the needs of their ever-evolving consumer. Rhodes and Stelter (2010) speaks to this change, â€Å"†¦the rapidly developing economies also will spawn a new generation of competitors, or global challengers† (para 9) In order for businesses to move forward toward business success, they must†¦show more content†¦PESTLE analysis is a structure of macro-environmental or external marketing environment factors that can have an impact on a given business. The results of which can be used in conjunction with other analytical tools such as SWOT analysis. This business measurement tool consists of six factors: Political, Economic, Socio-culture or Social, Technological, Legal, and Environmental. The first four factors are the basic portion of this analysis tool. The Legal and Environmental factors are expansions of the technique as well as other factors such as Demographics and Regulatory. The factors will vary in importance based on a given business industry. For example, companies such as 7-Eleven may be seek social or economic factors whereas companies like HSBC may consider political or legal factors. Porter’s Five Forces Framework Porter’s Five Forces Framework considers other factors. This model identifies and analyzes five competitive factors that shape and help determine an industry’s strengths and weaknesses. These factors include competition in the industry, new entrants into the industry, threat of substitutes, buyers and suppliers. Porter’s model is applicable in any segment of the economy to search for profitability or attractiveness. In addition, theses five forces are considered items that may affect a company’s ability to serve