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 world’s most recognized hotel brands. It has also stepped into major international markets all over the world.
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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 Kampala’s 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 customer’s 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 customer’s 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 customer’s 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 hasn’t created an interface for customer’s 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.
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