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Page 1: MKT 431 FINAL

Report on

Hotel Abakash

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Report on

HOTEL ABAKASH

Course: Service Marketing (MKT 431)

Instructor: Dr. Mohammed Tareque Aziz, Associate Professor & Head of Operations, BRAC

Business School.

Submitted by

1. 12204027

Mehedi Hasan Rana

2. 12304075

Faiyaz Bin Rahman

3. 13104099

Md. Jubair Ahmed Hridoy

4. 13104117

Ashrafur Rahman Shemanto

5. 13104130

Sazia Afrin

6. 13104139

Sajid Ishtiaque

7. 13104145

Mir Istiak Ahmed

8. 13104 Mahfuzur Rahman

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1479. 13104

194Didar Hossain Dip

10

13304010

Rubaiyat Tabassum

11.

13304020

Shahdat Hossain Tanzil

12.

13304062

Fahmid Ahmed Chowdhury

13.

14104180

Layas Bin Amin

14.

14204119

Khandakar Ashikur Rahman

Date: August 1, 2016

Table of Contents

Introduction..................................................................1

Literature Review.........................................................3

The GAPS model of service quality...............................4

Consumer behavior in services.....................................9

Customer expectations of services.............................13

Perception about Hotel Abakash:...............................16

Listening to Customers through Research.................21

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Building Customer Relationship:................................35

Service Recovery:.......................................................39

Service Development and Design...............................45

Integrated Marketing Communication:......................50

Way forward for Hotel Abakash..................................57

Conclusion:.................................................................60

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Introduction

‘Hotel Abakash’ which is a state owned hotel inaugurated its journey in 1947 and currently, run by Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation (Bangladesh Tourism Corporation). It serves both the national and foreign tourists.

The main hotel building is four-storied; consisting of 35 rooms (22 relax rooms and 13 standard rooms). On first floor, it has reception hall while third and fourth floor accommodate training facilities for National and Tourism Board.

Despite being located in a major commercial zone of capital city Dhaka and run by government to facilitate tourism in Bangladesh, Hotel Abakash can be regarded far from being even a good quality hotel. Even many of the local visitors have shared bad reviews about this hotel specially, with the quality of treatments they receive. Although a hefty rent of Tk. 2,200 (approx. $28) has to be paid for a day for standard rooms but there is no freezer available in the rooms. Deluxe rooms have most of the modern facilities like internet, ISD telephone, air conditioner and freezer and thereby, a rent of Tk. 3000 (approx. $40) is charged for each day. (Online Dhaka Guide, 2016)

Unlike many other hotels run by government or Bangladesh Parjatan, ‘Hotel Abakash’ has no transport facility of its own to

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provide to the both national and foreign guests to visit various places nor has any facility to receive guests from airport. So, one has to take the hustles of arranging his own transport which may come as an awful surprise for the foreign visitors.

The hotel provides American breakfast and guests have the option to choose from Continental and Chinese foods for lunch and dinner; guests can also enjoy local fruits as well. The restaurant has no separate facilities for boarders and non-boarders, all gets the same quality service. Food cost is not included in the rent for room, one has to pay it separately.

Foreign tourists seeking for a swimming pool, a gym or a health club, tennis court or even a squash court will be highly disappointed as Hotel Abakash only caters to need of resting and of food. Therefore, it cannot be regarded as an ideal place to receive the hospitality of Dhaka.

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Literature Review

This research paper is written with a view to find out the customer GAP and to minimize the GAP by building customer relationship.

Initially, a survey was conducted based on customer expectation and perception to find out what actually the customers think about Hotel Abakash. Customers response helped us to carry the research paper into a new dimension of analysis. Throughout the paper, we tried to explain and analyze what customer expectation and perception is. Furthermore, emphasized has been given on GAP analysis and finding out similar situations going through hotel industries.

After proper analysis of the survey result, SQI has been determined. Much effort has been given on service development and design of Hotel Abakash. Moreover, effective campaign has been designed for IMC and the way of implementation has been shown. Above all, way forward part was specially designed for Hotel Abakash so that they can really come out of their limitations and build a strong customer relationship.

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The GAPS model of service quality

(coster, 2009)The customer gap is the difference between customer expectations and customer perceptions. Customer expectation is what the customer expects according to available resources and is influenced by cultural background, family lifestyle, personality, demographics, advertising, experience with similar products and information available online. Customer perception is totally subjective and is based on the customer’s interaction with the product or service. Perception is derived from the customer’s satisfaction of the specific product or service and the quality of service delivery.(Abu Khalifeh, 2012) studied hotel service quality with the help of SERVQUAL and found when customers perceive a higher service quality, they will ultimately turn into a loyal guest of a specific service quality provided such as the F&B department, and secondly, guests may have higher satisfaction level. The application of this model by hotels can bring success for food and beverage departments to achieve high service quality which has a direct effect on satisfaction level of guests.

The degree of expectation & perception towards service quality of Hotels was set from 1 to 5 .5 denotes the highest expectation/perception, whereas, 1 is the lowest expectation/perception). In addition following criteria is used for analysis part:-The score among 1.00-1.79 mean lowest expectation/perceptionThe score among 1.80-2.59 mean low expectation/perception

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The score among 2.60-3.39 mean average expectation/perceptionThe score among 3.40-4.19 mean high expectation/perceptionThe score among 4.20-5.00 mean highest expectation/perception

AttributesLevel of Expectation

Level of Perception GAP

  Mean Level Mean Level  Surrounding area of the hotel 4.13 High 3.53 High -0.6

Room space 4.5Highest 3.67 High -0.83

Interiors/decoration of the rooms 4.4

Highest 3.16 Average -1.24

Hygiene factors, washroom facilities 4.9

Highest 4.12 High -0.78

Room services 4.37Highest 4.1 High -0.27

Comparison between room fare and room facilities 4.93

Highest 3.2 Average -1.73

Ambience of 4.33 Highes 2.83 Average -1.58 | P a g e

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the restaurant t

Quality of food 4.87Highest 4.13 High -0.74

Delivery timing of food 4.67

Highest 3.23 Average -1.44

Comparison between food quality and price charged 4.76

Highest 2.67 Average -2.09

Safety and security 4.97

Highest 1.15 Lowest -3.82

Help from the hotels online resources 4.63

Highest 1.47 Lowest -3.16

Hotels telephone help desk 4.45

Highest 3.27 Average -1.18

Average 4.61Highest 3.12 Average  

Surrounding area of the hotel There is a gap between the expectation and perception of the surrounding area of the hotel. However, the gap is negative (-.06) and is less compared to other attributes. A similar gap is also found in a research conducted in some tourism centered hotels in the city of Natal in Brazil (Domingos Fernandescampos, Jan-Jun 2012). The average of those hotels gap was (-.31).Hygiene factors, washroom facilities

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The differences between expectation and perception shows that there exist a negative gap (-.78). That means customers are not satisfied with the hygiene factors. Similarly, tourism centered hotels of Brazil are also going through a similar situation (Domingos Fernandes campos, Jan-Jun 2012). A negative gap of (-.34) is observed. However, if we look at the cleanliness of "Hotel of Udaipur" we can see the gap is positive 0.27 which means they are successful in satisfying their customers expectation (Dharmesh Motwani, May,2013). Comparison between room fare and room facilitiesThe difference in the expectation and perception in respect of room fare and room service is negative (-1.73). A very similar scenario is found in the luxury hotels of Natal city, Brazil. They have a negative gap of (-1.93) in room fare and customers expectation about the fare (Domingos Fernandes campos, Jan-Jun 2012). Ambience of the restaurantKotler (1973) defined physical environment as the conscious design of space to create certain effects in buyers to enhance purchase likelihood. Therefore, a negative gap (-1.5) found in this criteria is not at all expected.

Delivery timing of foodThe expectation and perception difference regarding proper delivery time of food shows a negative gap value (-1.44). We can relate this with the criteria “Hotel giving service at promised time”. While relating we found that hospitality industry in the Western tourism circuit of Kenya has figured

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out a negative gap of -0.78 (Antoneta Njeri Kariru,January,2014).Safety and securityThe differences between expectation and perception is highly negative (-3.82). This scenario is similar to the scenario of Hotels in Cyprus found from a survey. Where it shows the gap is negative (-1.44) (Christou Loizos, 1/1/2005).Help from the hotels online resourcesThe gap found in this variable is also highly negative (-3.16). On the contrary, tourism based hotels of Brazil are providing good service in this sector. They have a positive gap of 0.48(Domingos Fernandes campos, Jan-Jun 2012)

Hotels telephone help deskIf we consider the front desk or the telephone help desk service we will find a negative gap of (-1.18). Whereas, tourism based hotels of Natal city has a gap of -0.00 (DomingosFernandes campos, Jan-Jun 2012). That means, Hotel Abakash which is also a tourism based hotel, need to emphasize on service upgradation of their front desk.To improve the performance of hotels. (Kumar,2011)suggested hotels to focus more on tangibles e.g. they must introduce wi-fi facility which is a necessity today, swimming pool, healthclub, more entertainment facilities etc. Hotels must have well trained groomed and reliable staff. This will help the hotels to focus better on the other dimensions.To sum up, the overall service quality of Hotel Abakash is not at all satisfactory. Negative gap is found in every variable.

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Continuing such service may result in serious quality fall and customers may not feel attracted to stay here.

ReferencesAbu Khalifeh, S. (2012). Service Quality Management in Hotel Industry: AConceptual Framework for Food and Beverage Departments. International journal of Business and Management, 135-141.Antoneta Njeri Kariru, C. A. (January,2014). Customers’ perceptions and expectations of service quality in hotels in western tourism circuit,kenya. Journal of Research in Hospitality, Tourism and Culture Vol.2(1)pp.1-12,January,2014, 8.Christou Loizos, I. I. (1/1/2005). A Customer's Expectation and Perception of Hotel Service Quality in Cyprus. Hospitality review volume 23/Issue 2, 50.coster, N. (2009, July 08). Brainrants. Retrieved from https://www.brainmates.com.au: https://www.brainmates.com.au/brainrants/the-customer-service-gap-modelDharmesh Motwani, D. D. (May,2013). CUSTOMER EXPECTATION AND PERCEPTION IN HOTELS: AN EMPIRICALSTUDY. Intercontinental Journal of Marketing Research Review, 5-9.

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Domingos Fernandes campos, T. G. (Jan-Jun 2012). PERCEPTIONS OF QUALITY AND EXPECTATIONS OF HOTEL SERVICES. Journal of Operations and Supply Chain Management 5 (1), 13.Kumar, B. (2011). An assesment of service quality of Hotel Industry. Pacific Business Review International, 13-30.

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Consumer behavior in services

“Miracles happen when the intention is Love” said by an actress Daniela Nikolova. Customers need to feel loved and it makes them loyal towards any business. So, for building the loyalty, every business organization should be able to understand the consumer behavior while they are buying, consuming or disposing any particular service (Importance of consumer behavior to business managers marketing essay, 2016). Consumer react to the stimuli given to them and thus they make decision and behave according to that ("The Black Box Model Definition | Marketing Dictionary | MBA Skool-Study.Learn.Share.", 2016). To understand consumer behavior the first challenge is to know how the consumers look and define the service. However, time is the biggest factor while they are defining service quality. There are three ways of defining service quality- search, experience and credence. For Hotel Abakash consumers define the service quality as both search and experience quality. Although only 20% of the consumers have defined this as search qualities because they were selected this hotel to stay based on the price range. According to the Resident Manager A.N.M. Zeaul Karim, 80% consumers come here based on their past experience. After scrutinizing past records, it can be said that consumers of Abakash mostly prefer this hotel because they think the service they are getting is okay according to what they are paying. However, it is not that they are very

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much happy with the service but they are also not fully pleased with it.

Service Mechanism of Hotel AbakashHotel Abakash is a service provider organization, started its journey in 1984. It has no branches. It provides lodging, meal and guest services.

Xsdsdsds

Table: Service mechanism

Consumer decision making process

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Resident

Assistant Executiv

e

Assistant Executiv

e

Assistant Executive (Front Office)

Assistant Executiv

e (Bakery)

Executive (Front Office)

Executive

(Restaur

Executive

(Residen

Executive

(Bakery)Staffs

(Cooks)Staffs

(Bakery)Staffs

(Restaurant)

Staffs (Room

service)

Staffs (Others)

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Information search: Consumers tend to search information before any service purchase. The consumers of Hotel Abakash can be divided into two:

1. Local2. International/foreign

Most of the local customers come to know about this hotel from their friends & family and colleagues. Among the local many consumers are government officials and thus they prefer this hotel. Foreign guests, book this hotel through their website and telephone. Some of them are regular customers of Abakash. Evaluation of service alternatives: In this step a consumer tries to evaluate several alternatives according to his need. Those who come to this hotel mostly come because of Parjatan. This is situated in Mohakhali area which is known as a commercial area. This is also reason why consumers prefer to stay here. How they actually experience services: This is the most crucial step for any business organization. We have found many errors here. Consumers have complained about many problems what they have experienced while taking the service. Water leakage from air condition, slow wifi connection, late room service, and lack of workers is the most common problems we have found from our research. User friendly: From the visitor’s book of Hotel Abakash, we have seen that some customers want lounge facilities where they will drink coffee and do some business discussions. Moreover, we have seen that the website of Abakash is hard to

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find. It has its website under Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation though we did not find any complain from the customers. Additionally, the food menu for dinner and lunch is not very friendly since most of them are based on prior order. Fault Free: From the visitor’s book we have encountered that many of the consumers are complaining about the service. Although sometimes it’s fault free but most of the time consumers are used to encounter faults. For example, one visitor complained that he ordered coffee in his room but unfortunately he got the coffee cold. Moreover, an adequate number of guests complained about air condition problem, slow wifi connection and mosquito problem. Customer’s mood and emotion: Although hotel Abakash has some major problems for delivering services; still they try to understand their guests’ emotion. There was a recent case where a family couldn’t pay their room price on the due time so the authority extended their time considering their financial problem.Post experience behavior: All the activities and behavior which follow purchases are called post purchase behavior. It includes whether the consumer will return, become loyal, become word of mouth or not. In our survey we have asked (those who have stayed in the hotel) whether they will recommend this hotel to others or not. Only 40% of the respondents said that they are going to recommend. We have noticed a strange behavior among the consumers. Many of them are visiting this hotel for several times. However, they are not fully happy with the service Abakash is

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providing. From the visitor’s book we have detected some of this type customer. They are positively biased about Hotel Abakash. Often they give opinion on service development and constructive idea.It is true that Hotel Abakash has a good number of loyal customers. However, the arrival of new consumers is not appreciable. 93.33% of the consumers come here for business purpose. So for them a coffee lounge is more important. Since it is the Commercial Unit of Bangladesh Parjatan and Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation is a statutory board under the Ministry of Civil Aviation and Tourism of Bangladesh., it has an appeal to the local as well as foreign people. (Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation Wikipedia, 2016)

References:1. Importance Of Consumer Behavior. (n.d.). Retrieved July 30,

2016, from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/importance-of-consumer-behaviour-to-business-managers-marketing-essay.php

2. The Black Box Model Definition | Marketing Dictionary | MBA Skool-Study.Learn.Share. (n.d.). Retrieved July 30, 2016, from http://www.mbaskool.com/business-concepts/marketing-and-strategy-terms/11419-the-black-box-model.html

3. Bangladesh Parjatan Corporation. (n.d.). Retrieved July 30, 2016, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bangladesh_Parjatan_Corporation

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Customer expectations of services

 Our Survey

Assessment of Customer Satisfaction in a Five Star Hotel Services - A Case Study(W. M. K. K. Karunaratne and L. N. A. C. Jayawardena1Postgraduate Institute of AgricultureUniversity of PeradeniyaPeradeniya, Sri Lanka)

TangibilityAttributes

Expectation of Customers

Expectation of Customers

Attractiveness (external )  4.13 4.6Internal decorations  4.40 4.4Staff appearance & tidiness/hygiene factor 4.90  4.7

 ReliabilityTimely accommodation  4.67 4.9Room delivered to customers  4.37 4.9Room space 4.50Room service 4.37

Responsiveness

Helps from the hotel online service 4.63Ambience of the restaurant 4.33

AssurancePrice of service  4.93 4.8Compare between food quality and price charged 4.76Effort done by staff for  4.97 4.9

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security Empathy Staff availability  4.45 4.9

Over all mean 4.61 “The first step in exceeding your customer’s expectations is to know those expectations.” Roy Hollister Williams, So, in our survey we are tried to detect the expectation of consumer of hotel Abakash. We are identified 13 attributes for hotel Abakash and ask consumers give numbers (1 to 5, 1 =very bad, 5=very good) about their expectation. Our average findings are given below- Average scores of service quantity expectation with compare to other research and study found The overall mean score of expectation level for the selected 13 attributes for our study on hotel Abakash was 4.61 which clearly indicate that customer have rather high expectation from its service as hotel Abakash is a part of Bangladesh Tourism Corporation, customer expecting service as other four and five star situated in Bangladesh. The same thing also find in a research in Thailand(Hotel Customer Expectations of Service: A Provincial Analysis of Family Business in Chiangmai, Thailand (Phusit Wonglorsaichon and RawidaWiriyakitjar(2013).p.8) shows that customers expected a hotel to provide products and services equivalent to other competitors. In our survey we detect that consumer is giving high expectation on staff appearance and tidiness/hygiene, staff service and security factor of the hotel. The same thing also find in a research (GehlenMarodin,T.(2012), Perceptions of Quality and Expectations of Hotel Services,Volume 5,Number 1 ,( January - June 2012).).p.92). that quality of staff

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service, safety installations, service in the allotted time, problem solving and cleanliness, were considered to be amongst the most important attributes by the guests. In our survey we are asking about “were the hotel staff polite and willing to help” hare we find out that 100 percent customer expect that always hotel staff will ready for the help. The same also find out in a study (customer expectation and perception in hotels: an empirical study (Dharmesh motwani(assistant professor, pacific business school, Udaipur)(Dr. Devendra shrimali(associate professor, pacific business school, Udaipur)(may,2013).p.7). they are asking “Employees of the hotel never too busy to respond to customers request” and find out average score 4.7(out of 5). So, we can say that in hotel service every consumer want that always hotel staff will be ready for help. In our research we observe that 66.7 percent customer expect swimming pool in hotel Abakash and most of the consumer(63.33%) want that they will taken care of at the reception within 2-3 minutes. The overall mean score and other expectation we reveal in our study on hotel Abakash, clearly indicate that customer have rather high expectation from its service as hotel Abakash is a part of Bangladesh Tourism Corporation.

Reference-1. Dharmesh M. Dr. Devendra. S. (May, 2013). Customer

Expectation and Perception in Hotels: An Empirical Study. Intercontinental journal of Marketing research

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review, Volume 1, Issue 3. Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2435842.

2. Karunaratne W. M. K. K. and Jayawardena L. N. A. C.(2010), Assessment of Customer Satisfaction in a Five Star Hotel Services - A Case Study, Vol. 21(3), 258 – 265. Retrieved from http://www.pgia.ac.lk/files/Annual_congress/journel/v21-3/258.pdf .

3. GehlenMarodin,T.(2012), Perceptions of Quality and Expectations of Hotel Services, Volume 5,Number 1 ,( January - June 2012). Retrieved from http://bibliotecadigital.fgv.br/ojs/index.php/joscm/article/download/9131/824

4. Wonglorsaichon and Wiriyakitjar, J. (2013), Hotel Customer Expectations of Service: A Provincial Analysis of Family Business in Chiangmai, Thailand, (Tourism Res Hospitality 2013). Retrieved from http://www.scitechnol.com/hotel-customer-expectations-of-service-a-provincial-analysis-of-family-business-in-chiangmai-thailand-n3q9.pdf.

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Perception about Hotel Abakash:

Customer perception refers to how customers view a certain product based on their own conclusions. While working with hotel Abakash, we selected thirteen service variables because we tried to find exact customer perception on those selected variables. We arranged a survey for finding out the real result of the customer perception on Hotel Abakash. Here is the result of our survey findings:

Average scores of service quality perception:

Variables Scores/ResultsSurroundings area of hotel

3.53

Room space 3.67Interiors/Decorations of the room

3.16

Hygiene factors and washroom facilities

4.12

Room services 4.10Comparison between room fare and room facilities

3.20

Ambience of the restaurant

2.83

Quality of food 4.13Delivery timings of 3.23

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foodComparison between food quality and price charged

2.67

Safety and security 1.15Help from the hotels’ online resources

1.47

Hotels’ telephone help desk

3.27

Room services:

Among different service quality perception, it is found that room services perception of the hotel Abakask is 4.10 where the expectation was 4.37 which are little bit higher than perception. According to (Loizos & Lycourgos, 2005) “In their article it was found that customer perception of room service in Cyprus is 2.16’’ (P. 50) which is worse than Abakash in spite of being a developed countries’ hotel.

Interior/Decorations of rooms: Customers experienced that the decorations of rooms of Abakash is 3.16 where the expectation was comparatively high that is 4.40. In the article (Loizos & Lycourgos, A Customer'sExpectation and Perception of Hotel in Cyprus, 2005) found that customer perception about decorations of rooms is only 2.08.

Hygiene factors and washroom facilities:Hygiene factors and cleanness is one of the most important variables for a hotel. Our survey shows that the perception of hygiene factors of Abakash is 4.12 the second highest score.

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We found almost same hygiene factors and cleanness in Indians hotels that is 4.70. (MOTWANI & SHRIMALI, 2013)

Surrounding area of hotel:Customer perception about surrounding area of hotel is 3.53 whereas expectation is 4.13 in hotel Abakash. But in most of the of three star Serbian hotel customers perception on surroundings area of hotel is 3.43 which is slightly differ from Abakash. (BLEŠIŠ, IVKOV-DŢIGURSKI, STANKOV,STAMENKOVIŠ, & Bradiš, 2009)

Room fare and facilities:

In Odisha a state of India, room fare and facilities is 3.112 according to the customer perception. (Debasish & Dey, 2025). In Abakash room facilities and fare customer perception is little bit varying with Odishas’ hotel perception that is 3.20 which is better than Odishas.

Room Space:In hotel Abakash, customers’ perception on room space is 3.67 out of 5. Therefore it is noticed by researches t that in Mauritius hotels customers have almost identical perception on room spaces that is 3.39 and difference only 0.28 where Mauritius is economically strong than Bangladesh. (Ramseook-Munhurrun, Naidoo, & Lukea-Bhiwajee, 2010)

Ambience of the restaurant

Ambience of the Abakash hotel is not so high. After our research we found the mean, which is 2.83 out of 5. It is found that a hotel of Jordan that ambience of the restaurant is more than Abakash, which are 4.48 (Abukhalifah, A. N. and Som, P. N. (2014))

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Quality of foodDelivering quality food should be the main target of every hotel management. The quality of the food of the hotel is up to average that is 4.13. A hotel of a Jordan it is found that the mean of the quality of the food is 4.66. (Abukhalifah, A. N. and Som, P. N. (2014)) that is almost similar to hotel Abakash.

Delivery timings of food

Delivery timing of the food (from order to its arrival) is below the average that is 3.23. If customer wait for the food for too many times they will get frustrated and will not come back to that hotel anymore. We found this statement from a Malaysian hotel management. (Poon, W. C & Lock-Teng Low, K. (2005))

Comparison between food quality and price chargedIn the hotel Abakash the pricing of the food is so high compare to the food quality. In our survey we found the mean of this variable is 2.67, which is below the average. We also found another mean of this variable that is 4.2 of a hotel in Petra. (Abukhalifah, A. N. and Som, P. N. (2014))

Safety and security

The safety and security is too poor in this hotel. From the perception of the people we found the mean of this variable is 1.15 that means a great weakness of a hotel management like Abakash, which is under Parjoton. In Malaysia there are many hotel which are managed by the fully security system. (Poon, W. C & Lock-Teng Low, K. (2005))

Help from the hotels’ online resources

From our research methodology we found the online system of hotel Abakash is very poor. The mean of this variable is 1.47 that is below the average. In the era of upgraded technology,

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every hotel management should improve their IT department for getting the highest satisfaction of the customers. (Law, R. and Hsu, C. H.C. (2005)

Hotels’ telephone help desk

As like every hotel management this hotel also have the telephone help desk. From this help desk people found help when they have faced any kind of problem. This variable also contains a mean, which is 3.27 and this mean is up to average of the scale. In a research paper it is found that in China almost every hotel have the help desk for the customer of the hotel. They also try to increase the IT sector to use that for the help desk (Law, R. and Hsu, C. H.C. (2005).

References:BLEŠIŠ, I., IVKOV-DŢIGURSKI, A., STANKOV, U., STAMENKOVIŠ, I., &

Bradiš, M. (2009). RESEARCH OF EXPECTED AND PERCEIVED SERVICE QUALITY IN HOTEL MANAGEMENT. Journal of tourism, 5-13.

Christou Loizos, H. L. (2006). A Customer's Expectation and Perception of Hotel. Hospitality Review, 1-14.

Debasish, D. S., & Dey, M. S. (2025). Customer Perceptions of Service Quality Towards Luxury Hotels in Odisha Using Servqual Model. International Journal of Research in Business Studies and Management, 1-9.

Loizos, C., & Lycourgos, H. (2005). A Customer's Expectation and Perception of Hotel in Cyprus. Hospitality Review, 43-54.

MOTWANI, D., & SHRIMALI, D. D. (2013). CUSTOMER EXPECTATION AND PERCEPTION IN HOTELS: AN EMPIRICAL STUDY.

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INTERCONTINENTAL JOURNAL OF MARKETING RESEARCH REVIEW, 1-13.

Ramseook-Munhurrun, P., Naidoo, P., & Lukea-Bhiwajee, S. D. (2010). MEASURING SERVICE QUALITY: PERCEPTIONS OF EMPLOYEES. GLOBAL JOURNAL OF BUSINESS RESEARCH, 47-58.

Abukhalifah, A. N. and Som, P. N. (2014). CUSTOMER PERCEPTIONS OF SERVICE QUALITY IN LUXURY HOTELS IN PETRA AND AQABA, JORDAN AN EXPLORATORY STUDY

Barsky, J. D. (2015). Customer Satisfaction in the Hotel Industry, Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research February 1992 vol. 16 no. 1 51-73

Law, R. and Hsu, C. H.C. (2005),"Customers' perceptions on the importance of hotel web site dimensions and attributes", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 17 Iss 6 pp. 493 - 503

Poon, W. C & Lock-Teng Low, K. (2005),"Are travellers satisfied with Malaysian hotels?", International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, Vol. 17 Iss 3 pp. 217 – 227

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Listening to Customers through Research

The main research instrument which we have used for measuring quality in service of Hotel Abakash is the SERVQUAL model, developed by Parasuraman, Berry and Zeithaml (1985; 1988). In this model, a level of agreement or disagreement with a given attribute is measured on a Likert scale. The level of service quality is determined by the gap between perceived and expected service. The SERVQUAL model is based on five service quality dimensions, such as- i) tangibles (physical facilities, equipment and personnel appearance), ii) reliability (ability to perform the promised service dependably and accurately), iii) responsiveness (willingness to help customers and provide prompt service), iv) assurance (knowledge and courtesy of employees and their ability to gain trust and confidence) and lastly, v) empathy (providing individualized attention to the customers).

Methodology We had developed two sets of questionnaires- one set for guests’ perception and another set was for the expectation level of potential guests. Hotel guests’ perceptions and expectations were measured with these questionnaires.

The questionnaires were developed on the basis of a literature review and adopted to suit the specific features of the hotel setting that we had chosen to conduct our study (Parasuraman, Zeithaml and Berry 1988; Zeithaml et al. 1990;

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Snoj and Ogorelc 1998; Pizam and Ellis 1999; Markovic 2003). The questionnaire measured guests’ perceptions/ expectation of hotel attributes using a modified SERVQUAL model. Service quality perceptions were measured on a five-point Likert-type scale ranging from 1 ‘strongly disagree’ to 5 ‘strongly agree.’

The original attributes of the SERVQUAL model were slightly modified to suit our target organization settings. For example, instead of asking whether the ‘xyz Company has modern looking equipment,’ the questions were modified to interrogate about ‘Room interiors, Washroom facilities.’ The original item whether the ‘Guests feel safe in their transactions with employees’ was replaced by the attribute whether ‘Guests feel safe and secure in their stay at the hotel.’ Moreover, in order to measure attributes specific to the hotel environment, the following attributes were added: ‘surrounding area,’ ‘availability of clear information,’ ‘variety of facilities’ (Snoj and Ogorelc 1998), ‘clean and tidiness of the hotel,’ ‘feeling safe and secure,’ and ‘typical service quality for hotel category’ (Markovic, 2003).

Target PopulationThe target population of our study was the guests who are already staying at Hotel Abakash or just checking out from the hotel in order to get the knowledge of how the experienced the hotel’s hospitality; plus, people who are planning to stay at Hotel Abakash in near future who supplied us with their level of expectation from the hotel. Hotel’s residential manager

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agreed to participate in the study. We were given permission to administer the questionnaires to guests during their hotel stay, and to collect them after completion. We were able to collect data from 30 current guests about their perception of the hotel and 30 potential guests about their expectation and this data collection process took almost more than a month time.

Results

Table 1: Demographic profile of the respondents

Respondents of Perception Questionnaire

Respondents of Expectation Questionnaire

Gender Percentage

Male …………………..…… 100% Female …………………….. 0%

Gender Percentage

Male ………………………… 83.33% Female ……………………… 16.67%

Purpose of Stay Business …………………....

93.33% Pleasure …………………….

6.67%

Purpose of Stay Business ……………………. 100% Pleasure …………………….. 0%

Country of Residence Bangladesh …………………

96.67% Others ………………………

3.33%

Country of Residence Bangladesh …………………. 100% Others ………………………. 0%

Duration of Stay 1-3 days …………………….

90.00% 4-7 days …………………….

Duration of Stay 1-3 days ……………………...

86.67% 4-7 days ………………………13.37%

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10.00% More ………………………...

0%

More …………………………. 0%

Some demographic and travelling characteristics of our respondents have been provided in Table 1.

Although, hotel Abakash also serves guests from outside Bangladesh, most (96.67%) of our respondents were the residents of Bangladesh. In case of hotel Abakash, male guests were of higher percentage but we were able to take responses on expectation from some potential (16.67%) female guests who were planning to stay at the hotel with their male counterparts. 93.33% guests who stayed at the hotel reported to have had stayed or have been staying for business purposes. The majority of guests (90.00%) who have stayed or staying currently is for 1-3 days’ stay and only 10.00% have been reported to stay between 4-7 days, also, among those who are planning to stay 86.67% is willing to stay for 1-3 days and 13.37% is for 4-7 days.

A customer evaluates quality by his or her perception of the way in which the service is delivered (Solomon et al., 1985; Juwaheer & Ross, 2003). As a result, service quality has been defined as the outcome of a comparison between expectations of a service and what is perceived to be received (Czepiel et al., 1985; Choi and Chu, 2000; Al-Rousan & Badaruddin, 2010; Al Khattab, 2011).

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Table 3: Average scores of Service Quality Perception

Attributes MeanScore

StandardDeviatio

ni. Surrounding area of the hotel

ii. Room spaceiii. Interiors/ decorations of the roomsiv. Hygiene factors, washroom facilitiesv. Room services

vi. Comparison between room fare and room facilities

vii. Ambience of the restaurantviii. Quality of food

ix. Delivery timings of food (from order to its arrival)

x. Comparison between food quality and price charged

xi. Safety and securityxii. Help from the hotel’s online resources

xiii. Hotel’s telephone help desk

3.533.673.164.124.103.202.834.133.232.671.151.473.27

0.49890.47140.37270.37300.30000.65320.37260.33990.42300.47150.37270.61830.4423

Overall mean for 13 attributes 3.12

On the perception part, the mean score given by our respondents fluctuated between 1.15 and 4.13. The perception item that scored the lowest was the ‘Safety and Security’ (Olsen et al., 2005) which clearly points out that hotel Abakash is still not meeting safety and security standards which would make their guests feel safe and secured. Studies show that getting a good quality of service from the food and beverage (F and B) department of a hotel is important for many guests (Armstrong et al. 1997; Crick and Spencer, 2011; Cronin and

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Taylor, 1992; Getty and Thompson 1994; Sulek and Hensley, 2010; Zeithaml and Bithner, 2003). Highest score was given by the respondents to the ‘Quality of Food’ as most of the guests felt that this one service at which Hotel Abakash is being satisfying.

Some of the other attributes which also scored high in perception were- ‘Room Services’ which scored 4.10 and ‘Hygiene Factors and Washroom Facilities’ which scored 4.12.

The overall mean score on the perception level for the selected 13 attributes for our study on hotel Abakash was 3.26 which indicate not so good perception from the guests about the hospitality provided to them and there are still a lot of things to be done to improve this level.

Table 4: Average scores of Service Quality Expectation

Attributes MeanScore

StandardDeviation

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i. Surrounding area of the hotelii. Room space

iii. Interiors/ decorations of the roomsiv. Hygiene factors, washroom facilitiesv. Room services

vi. Comparison between room fare and room facilities

vii. Ambience of the restaurantviii. Quality of food

ix. Delivery timings of food (from order to its arrival)

x. Comparison between food quality and price charged

xi. Safety and securityxii. Help from the hotel’s online resources

xiii. Hotel’s telephone help desk

4.134.504.404.904.374.934.334.874.674.764.974.634.45

0.34000.50000.48990.30000.48190.24950.22220.33980.47140.42300.17950.48190.4958

Overall mean for 13 attributes 4.61

Now, on to the expectation part, we see that far more emphasis has been given from the potential guests on having strong ‘Safety and Security’ (Olsen et al., 2005) 2measurements (4.97) at the hotel premises; while from the survey, we found that ‘hotel surroundings’ (Snoj and Ogorelc 1998) is comparatively less sought of a factor among the rest with ‘Surrounding Area of the Hotel’ item from our selected attributes scoring 4.13.

The overall mean score on the expectation level for the selected 13 attributes for our study on hotel Abakash was 4.61 which clearly indicate that customers have rather high expectations from its services as hotel Abakash is a part of

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Bangladesh Tourism Corporation and it should really try to match international standards.

Table 2: Some Other Findings from Our Study on Hotel Abakash

i) Were the hotel staffs polite and willing to help? Perception

Yes ………………………… 80.00% No …………………………. 20.00%

Expectation Yes ……………………………… 100% No ………………………………. 0%

ii) How long before you were taken care of at the reception? Perception

2-3 minutes ………………... 26.67% 4-5 minutes ………………... 40.00% More ………………………. 33.33%

Expectation 2-3 minutes …………………….. 63.33% 4-5 minutes …………………….. 36.67% More …………………………… 0%

iii) How long before your luggage were shifted to your room?Perception

2-3 minutes ………………… 43.33%

4-5 minutes ………………… 56.67%

More ……………………….. 0%

Expectation 2-3 minutes ………………………

60.00% 4-5 minutes ………………………

40.00% More ……………………………... 0%

iv) Did you experience electricity cut?Perception

Yes ………………………… 36.67% No …………………………. 63.33%

Expectation Yes ……………………………… 25.00% No ………………………………. 75.00%

v) Did the hotel provide any transport facility?

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Perception Yes ………………………… 46.67% No …………………………. 53.33%

Expectation Yes …………………………….. 93.33% No ……………………………… 6.67%

vi) Which recreational facility the hotel should add?

Perception Swimming pool …………... 53.33% Fitness Center ……………. 13.33% Indoor play courts ………...

20.00% Outdoor play courts ……… 13.33%

Expectation Swimming pool ………………. 66.67% Fitness Center ………………… 16.67% Indoor play courts …………….

10.00% Outdoor play courts …………..

6.67%

vii) Do you think, social media interaction can help Hotel Abakash improve its service quality?Perception

Yes ……………………….. 53.33% No …………………………46.67%

Expectation Yes ………………………… 56.67% No …………………………. 43.33%

viii) Will you recommend Hotel Abakash to others?Perception

Yes ………………………... 40.00% No ………………………… 60.00%

Expectation Yes ………………………… 53.33% No …………………………. 46.67%

 

SQI of Consumer Perception    100

%SQI

Tangibles      

  Surrounding area of the hotel 70.60% 56.01%  Room space 73.40%

  Interiors of the rooms 63.20%

  Interiors of the Restaurant 56.60%

  Transport Facility 46.67%

  Recreational Facilities 25.56%

  Overall Mean Score 56.01

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%

Reliability      

  Hygiene Factors and Cleanliness 82.40% 61.90%  Safety and Security 23.00%

  Quality of Food 82.60%

  Arrival time of ordered items 64.60%

  Availability of Electricity 63.33%

  Comparison between food quality and price 53.40%

  Comparison between room facilities and fare 64.00%

  Overall Mean Score  61.90%

Responsiveness

     

  Help from online source 29.40% 51.05%  Telephone Desk 65.40%

  Social Media Interaction 0.00%

  Overall Mean Score 31.60%

Assurance      

  Politeness of the employees 80.00% 80.00%  Overall 80.00%

Empathy      

  Quickness in Receiving Guests 40.00% 59.56%  Room Service 82.00%

  Luggage porter service 56.67%

  Overall Mean Score 59.56%

Total 308.52% out of 500%

Elements of Effective Marketing Research Program

Complaint SolicitationObserving service delivery contracts, pricing and complaints handling are all important for a business (Al Rousan, 2011;

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Parasuraman et al., 1985; Tat and Raymound, 1999). With our interview with the Resident Manager of Hotel Abakash Mr. A.N.M. Zeaul Karim, we came to know that they have provided opportunity at hotel premise for the customers to register their complaints against any service failures and every month the hotel authority sits to discuss about these failures and to bring improvement and employees are also informed of these latest developments.

Critical Success StudiesCarev (2008) defines service quality satisfaction based on overall consideration by a guest of the advantages of a service taking into account perceptions of what is promised and what is given (Parasuraman et al. 1988b). Individual customers whether staying at Hotel Abakash and even the B2B customers arranging seminars or meetings at Hotel Abakash are able to provide feedback on their satisfaction level via email or through a chat with the manager in-charge.

Requirement ResearchThe respondents emphasized that Hotel Abakash must add recreational facilities such as swimming pool and fitness center and there was also an urge to strengthen the security measures. Here, we would like to mention, during the time period of our survey, Dhaka have had witnessed an unfortunate terror attack on a restaurant at Gulshan and therefore urge of increasing the security was evident. Specially, in an interview with a guest from India, he spoke of

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the security guards of Hotel Abakash do not carry any weapon and there is no metal detector at the main entrance. So, these are the things that most of the guests expressed to see added to the service of Hotel Abakash.

Relationship and SERVQUAL SurveysIn the study by Sriyam (2010, pp.7-17), the use of SERVQUAL approach to measure service quality in hotel and other service industries is accepted. While Hotel Abakash does provide the opportunity for guests to give their feedback on the services at the hotel, disappointingly no SERVQUAL surveys had been conducted before by the hotel authority to find out gaps between perceptions and expectations. The model on which SERVQUAL is based, allows customers to evaluate quality of service based on five distinct dimensions: tangibiles, reliability, responsiveness, assurance and empathy. The provision of individualized attention to customers and the use of this model are suggested by previous studies (e.g., Lin, 2006; and Nield et al., 2000). Moreover, the hotel governing body also appeared very negligent about the competition in hotel industry and how other hotels of the same category of Hotel Abakash is luring away guests from them by providing better services at the same price and in some cases, even in lesser price. For example- Hotel Zakaria International Ltd. is providing car rental service, saloon, secured car parking spaces, ATM booth service and even foreign money exchange facilities for international guests.

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Trailer Calls or Post Transaction SurveysWe found from our survey that Hotel Abakash does not have the tendency to collect feedback from the guests through a quick check list when they check out.

Service Expectation Meetings and ReviewsGuest satisfaction is the evaluation of a guest whether or not the quality of service meets his expectation. Performance that falls below expectations makes guests dissatisfied (Kottler and Keller, 2006). Although Hotel Abakash is mostly concerned with service expectation meetings and reviews with single large B2B customers, they are yet to make a good mark or to bring radical change in service expectation meetings and reviews for B2C customers. This has created a ‘one sided tilted’ kind of situation where corporate clients are getting most of the priority but lots of complaints still exist in handling individual local/ international guests.

Process Checkpoint Evaluation There weren’t any thorough rechecking option found of the entire service chain in the service process of Hotel Abakash. They do take note of the individual complaints and discuss how to improve that at the end of the month general body meeting but a top-down process check of the services provided is missing.

Market Orientation Ethnography

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Ethnography is not just a form of data collection; it aims to clarify the ways culture simultaneously constructs and is formulated by people’s behaviors and experiences. Ethnography aims to explicate patterns of action that are cultural and/or social rather than cognitive (see, e.g., the focus on the sociocultural importance of market animation in Sherry 1990a). Ethnography not only establishes the context and subjective significance of experience for particular groups of persons, but also seeks to convey the comparative and interpreted cultural significance of this experience (Denzin, 1989).

We had the opportunity to talk with an Indian guest who has been to many hotels both in India and Bangladesh. He was positive about what he was getting from Hotel Abakash and could compare the level of services of the hotels of the same category like that of Hotel Abakash. According to him, the price range of hotels of the same category of Hotel Abakash in India is much higher but they also provide various services. But he also complained about lack of security and the lack of facilities such as fitness center, swimming pool, plus, he also put forward of the idea of creating a small coffee shop at the lobby where guests who are staying at the hotel can meet with outsiders rather than taking them to room or to the restaurant.

Mystery ShoppingThe mystery shopping is a technique applying the anonymous observation of a service delivery procedure from a customer

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perspective (Wilson, 1998a; Wilson, 1998b). We conducted our mystery shopping on the restaurant of Hotel Abakash and could get a first-hand experience of their service. Some of the key findings are as follows:

We went there during lunch hours in the guise of students and the first thing we came across was their security which was almost non-existent.

Upon entering the restaurant (called ‘Maloncho’) we found it in a hodgepodge condition. They were arranging delivery crates in the middle of the place and there were roughly 4-5 guests beside us taking meal.

Seeing us as students, the waiter did not approach in a professional manner and rather than being calm while taking our orders, he showed hurriedness as if he wanted to dispatch us in shortest possible time.

He also misinformed us about delivery time of food. Firstly, most of the items on the menu card were unavailable as we came to know those items are only prepared on pre-order basis. Then, the waiter told us if we order any Chinese or continental food item it will take 1 hour 30 minutes to deliver but Bangladeshi items such as plain rice, fish could be delivered within 30 minutes. Despite this shocking timing to deliver food we ordered Chowmein, Fried Rice, Chili Chicken and Chicken with Mushroom; only to find out that the timing told the waiter was false and perhaps a trick to send us away

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quickly. The food items were delivered in just 25 minutes.

We found the quality of food was quite good. The dishes used to serve the food items were also

properly cleaned. The ambience of the hotel was not up to the mark and

even in our research this attribute could not score more than 2.83 in a scale of 5.

The price charged for the food was much higher than the price charged in other nearby restaurants.

Customer PanelsFrom our study on Hotel Abakash we found that they do not arrange any focus group discussion with their clients, especially those who have visited Hotel Abakash on several occasions in the past, to talk openly how the hotel can improve and survive in the very competitive hotel industry. Although the resident manager Mr. Zeaul Karim did mention that they provide discounts to their regular customers, plus, to international delegations up to 25%, no steps which is as cordial as focus group discussion had been arranged to take note on key insights on their perception about the hotel’s service.

Lost Customer Research Kurtz and Clow (1998) claim that despite the efforts of service organizations to attract customers, and to manage supply, demand and productivity in order to provide high quality

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service, their customers do not always remain loyal. Service organizations must go beyond simply satisfying customers: they should focus on building relationships which will lead to customer retention (Kurtz and Clow, 1998).

But in the case of Hotel Abakash- despite successful emergence of several hotels in the near vicinity and the declining customer consideration of hotel Abakash, the hotel authority is not being proactive to find out the reasons behind those customers who left them and those who will be leaving soon. In the modern days of hotel business, just a little complains’ box near the registry table is not enough to solicit proper customer responses.

Future Expectations Research As for future expectation, many potential customers suggested more involvement by Hotel Abakash in creating an interactive website where they will also be able to interact with helpline operators over Skype or on video calls for booking and other necessary information. Also an active participation on social networks, such as- Facebook, is expected which will help to gather more reviews from customers to improve services and to reach out to the potential customers through the easiest possible medium.

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References

Amissah, E. F. (2014). Customers’ Perception of Service Quality in Hotels. Oguaa Journal of Social Sciences 7, 100-125.

Markovic, S. & Raspr S. (2010). Measuring Perceived Service Quality Using Servqual: A Case Study of the Croatian Hotel Industry. Management (Volume 5), 195-209.

Boon-itt, S. & Rompho N. (2012). Measuring Service Quality Dimensions: An Empirical Analysis of Thai Hotel Industry. International Journal of Business Administration (Vol.3).

Siddique, M. N.-E.-A., Mst. Momena Akhter, & Abdullah Al Masum. (2013). Service Quality of Five Star Hotels in Bangladesh: An Empirical Assessment. Asian Business Review (Volume 2, Issue 4).

Arnould, E. J., & Wallendorf, M. (1994). Market-Oriented Ethnography: Interpretation Building and Marketing Strategy Formulation. Journal of Marketing Research (Vol. XXXI), 484-504.

Olsen, M. D., Ralph D. Badinelli, Daniel J. Connolly, Suzanne K. Murrmann, & Claire D. Schmelzer. (2005). Investigating the Process of Valuing Investments in Intangibles: A Case Study in Safety and Security in the Multinational Hotel Industry. Blacksburg, Virginia: Nuttapon Punpugdee.

Petzer, D. J., T. F. J. Steyn, & P. G. Mostert. (2009). Customer retention practices of small, medium and large hotels In South Africa: An exploratory study. African Journal of Marketing Management Vol. 1(1).

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Building Customer Relationship:

Relationship is all about communicating with the consumers by giving proper and adequate service. Customers are the main part of an organization. So the organization should be aware of their service for every customer. Hotel Abakash authority is under government maintenance. Relation between the customers and the services of Hotel Abakash is not always good enough for everybody. As it is run by government so the employees are not bothered to give a service what their competitor is giving. They just do their job somehow when they think this should be done. As a result the customers sometimes lose their patience. It harms the relationship between them and Hotel Abakash. Employees knows that their incentives comes from government and however government will pay it anyway. So they do not think about customer relations.

The goals of relationship marketing are not covered by Hotel Abakash. They are not successful by giving service to their customers. Their relationship level is low. They do not get to fulfill customer’s expectations as we came to know from doing survey. In Hotel Abakash people gets basic services which any hotel offers. Their services are not anything which u can admire. But the services should be done properly in time in order to build good customer relationships. Hotel Abakash is not fully concerned about this. So they are not in a position to building any relation. Hotel Abakash personally dose not maintain any customer policy. They do the basic things like when any individual or group comes here for the accommodation they put their names in the database but later on this database does not do anything. It’s just a record to keep nothing else.

They have few things which they maintain with their customers and these things are pretty basic and average. Hotel Abakash has some

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affiliation with some corporate and for some purpose employees of those corporates if they come and stay for few days then they get 25 percent discount but there is a condition which is that employee needs to bring a letter from the office that the company is giving him the privilege to stay there and have the discount offer. Matter of fact is if someone comes for a personal use and however he couldn’t manage the letter then being despite an employee of that corporate he or she can not enjoy the offer. This 25 percent discount is valid only for accommodation not for any other services of the hotel. Beside this they do not give any others this facility of discount but they have a “privilege card” which they sell in many fairs and in head office. It’s not an all times process thing. It’s a limited offer you can get. Occasionally they make these privilege cards and sell it. If someone has to buy this card then they have to pay 300 BDT for it and can enjoy the offer for a whole year. This card will give the privilege to have 25% discount no matter how many times you visit to stay. This offer is only valid for one entire year. Suppose Hotel Abakash’s lowest room rent is 4000BDT per night, so if anyone has this privilege card and comes visit the place they can have a discount of 1000BDT which sets his room rent to 3000BDT. Every time he will check in and get this 25 percent discount just against of spending 300BDT for that privilege card. Now the privilege card is also a matter of luck because you cannot get it all the time if you want. They sell it in fairs and all and rest of the cards they give it to their known persons and all close ones. If someone calls to head office and ask for a privilege card then the possibilities of getting of the card is really low.

When we interviewed their manager and came to know that Hotel Abakash previously has 25-30 percent foreign customers but now the percentage has decreased to 10 percent. The foreign customers do not get any extra facilities from the hotel. But the manager said if any group or individual goes to accommodation manager and ask for discount then he can provide it up to 20 percent only for accommodation. Once it happened with a Chinese group of people. They stayed there for about a

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week and they managed to talk with the accommodation manager and asked if they can get a discount as they are traveller here then it will make a difference to them and without further delay the accommodation manage gave 20 percent discount to the group. These discount policies are not very strong type of ways to create customer relationship building. These things are based on sometime luck and fortune. Beside these they do not have any strong bond with the customers like if any person visits frequently then he will automatically get a membership card and will get some benefits from it. This thing make a bond with the customer and feel them special because they regularly visiting the place and the place itself value the customer.

Also the behavior of most of the employees are not friendly enough. For example, during doing the survey some of our group members went to Hotel Abakash to experience their food & environment. The moment we entered in the restaurant it felt like we are in a dark hazy cave. So, anyone who will visit first time here he or she will have a negative impression at the first step. After that we waited 25-28 minute to get a waiter for our table and the most amazing part is that the waiter was demotivating us to order anything except Bangla Foods. But, eventually we were able to have our desired food after 30 min of ordering.

By doing our survey and analyzing Hotel Abakash’s past and current condition of building customer loyalty program we found that they are not customer focused rather than they are just focusing on delivering food for the Govt. organization and its personnel. So, we can recommend some measures for building customer relationship effectively which is already being followed some of their competitor’s. They are given bellow-

Hotel Abakash can go for some promotional activity along with Bangladesh Tourism Corporation to get more vibe. There foreign customers are reducing day by day. They can introduce TVC’s since this is a Govt. driven so they have got enough budget for doing that. Only thing they need is the implementation. For example,

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most of us has probably seen the advertise of Beautiful Bangladesh by Bangladesh tourism corporation during the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. If Hotel Abakash can introduce that kind of campaign it would be enough to get customer attraction.

Another recommendation for improving their service is to introduce or extend food offerings for the customers. Currently they are focusing on mainly Bangla food mostly. Though they have some Chinese food offerings but since they face many foreign customers they can bring other foreign countries to attract more foreign people as well as local. The price of the food in some cases needs to be changed. Some of their foods are overpriced. If the food prices can be revised than more people will love to visit there.

Online ordering service can be another opportunity for Hotel Abakash. People now a days use to check online before visiting any place. Like what are their offerings? How is the price? What menu they offers? How is the environment of that place? Etc. in short consumer’s wants an overview of the whole place before experiencing it directly. So, they can introduce this online facility to boost up their sells.

Introducing call center is another aspect. Sometime customers are confused about taking their service or they want their clarification after experiencing the service. Currently Hotel Abakash do not have any customer care service. So, what is happening is that people who needs this service they are either remaining unsatisfied or moves to another competitors of Hotel Abakash. This is a big loss indeed.so, Hotel Abakash should introduce this service as soon as possible to enhance existing customer satisfaction that will lead to customer loyalty in the long run. Primarily this service may not get that much vibe since people would not know about this service but as soon as customer awareness will be built it would be great initiative.

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Phone apps are now a days getting famous among the types of customers that Hotel Abakash are focusing on. If they can bring an apps of their service and all that could be a revolutionary initiative. That phone app will show all the latest updates for the customers as well as offers. Also latest offerings will be displayed there. Visitors will rate based on what they like or dislike and from that ratings Hotel Abakash’s expected customer can a get a clear view from customers who has already experienced (that would make information more authentic to the customers).

Social media involvement is needed badly for Hotel Abakash. They have to get as close as possible to the customer through the social medias like Facebook pages, groups, instagram, twitter etc. now a days most of the hotels & restaurants have their own social pages to get customer expectations and experiences. This is also an easy way to get customer feelings and preference rather than doing a one to one survey.

Also Hotel Abakash need to change the current interior and exterior. Since the beginning of their journey it has been the same. From the first step customer can get a hazy feeling while getting the service of Hotel Abakash. It has the same old interior with no latest customization. Also the environment needs to be changed. Hotel Abakash authority can customize the interior, change the furniture, color combinations etc. to make the place more attractive.

Introducing tour guide for the visitors can be another service recommendation. Foreign tourists will appreciate that service. It will add more safety and authentic service for those peoples. As the manager said that their foreign customers are decreasing day by day this might be a way to resolve the problem. Also the transport

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facility for the visitors is another issue that needs to be solved. Visitors should not face the hassle to get their preferable transport from secondary source while staying a renowned hotel.

Beside all these recommendations Hotel Abakash should increase their food quality, assure hygiene factors, employee behaviors and waiters behaviors development, if possible than manage parking facility for the visitors etc. if all these are implemented than very soon Hotel Abakash will get the place in the in consumers mind to be preferable. From what support and budget they have from the govt. these measures is implementable.

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Service Recovery:

Service recovery happens when service provider fails to deliver the service. Service failure leads to dissatisfaction among the customer. In simple words, a service failure is service performance that fails to meet a customer’s expectations. When a service failure happened, customer expects to get compensation for the inconvenience. Compensation can be in any form such as refunds, discounts or apologies. This is called service recovery. In other words, according to Fitzsimmons, service recovery is converting a previously dissatisfied customer into a loyal customer. Listing to your customer’s need and wants is extremely important for service recovery. Now I am going to describe Service Failure and the Service Recovery in perspective of Hotel Abakash.

Service Failure and Service Recovery in Hotel Abakash:1. Exceeding the time limit to

bring the food to the customer.

N/A. Hotel Abakash prepares the food on order basis. They bring fresh ingredients from the bazar and cook form the scratch. Because of this reason they sometimes exceed the time limitation but they do not give any service recovery option.

2. Limited food items in the menu.

N/A. Hotel Abakash provide adequate item list in menu from their perspective and they are not

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willing to increase the menu list at this moment.

3. Food quality doesn’t meet with the customer’s expectation.

N/A. Hotel Abakash sometimes failed to deliver the customer’s expectation but they do not give any compensation for this. This is how their policy works.

4. Low items in the complimentary breakfast menu.

N/A. Tourists who are staying in the Hotel Abakash face this problem a lot. In complimentary breakfast menu the list of items are very low and most of the customers want more items than that but Hotel Abakash management do not allow to have more items in the menu because of their limitation.

5. Closing the restaurant earlier than usual.

Hotel Abakash’s restaurant closes at 10pm for the outsider customers but customer who are staying in the hotel can order for food.

6. Hard drinks are not served in the hotel room

N/A. As a Muslim country Hotel Abakash do not allow to server hard drinks directly hotel but customers can bring hard drinks from the bar to their room.

7. No pick up facility from the airport for the customers

N/A. Hotel Abakash do not provide any pick up facility from the airport for the customers.

8. No car parking facility for N/A. Hotel Abakash’s building do 56 | P a g e

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the customers not have any car parking space. That’s why they are

9. Security force do not carry guns.

N/A. Hotel Abakash do not have any permission to carry fire arms at this moment

10. A/Cs in the rooms are old and makes noise.

N/A. Hotel Abakash is using old model A/C and it makes a lot of sound while it is in use. They planning to change some of them at moment but not all.

11. Rooms are not well furnish and most of them contains old furniture.

N/A. As we can see that Hotel Abakash is bit old model and their all of equipment are old fashioned. Since customer want a modern environment, they can’t change it.

12. Too much mosquito in the room.

In this situation Hotel Abakash management gives some basic alternatives. They spray anti mosquito spray and give some “Good night liquid insect killer” to their customers.

13. Room cost is high for middle class people.

N/A. Hotel Abakash has already revised the prices and this is their final price. They are not giving any discounts at this moment.

14. Room service is poor. Hotel Abakash’s room service is poor according to some customer. In this situation Hotel Abakash’s management are hiring some well-

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trained members to make their room service better

15. Enrich the information for the travelers in the information desk.

Hotel Abakash has made a booklet guide for the customers so that they can get a lot of information at a glance.

16. Adequate medical service for the tourist

Hotel Abakash has a doctor stand by form 9 to 5 and a first aid facility to treat the customers whenever they are in need.

17. Hot and Cold water service in the room

If somehow there is no Hot or Cold water in the room then they try to fix it or give boiled or cold water manually to their customers.

18. Standby generator failures

N/A. If this service failed they do not have any backup power supply.

19. Internet connection failures

N/A. Hotel Abakash uses third party internet service and sometime they get slow or lost connection. In this case they do not provide any solution

20. Failed to serve the Laundry Service

N/A. Hotel Abakash do not give any recovery option if this service fails.

Successful companies are always great in successful service recovery in terms of strong operational management and fast reaction to customers concern. According to the research around 96% chance of a customer have faith on the business whom a fast recovery they have taken from.

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Idiosyncratic choices of responding to customer criticism exist, ordinarily they are one of the accompanying three mostly a mixture thereof:

1. Remedy: The 'Fix' In a perfect world, a business will excellent effectively listen to the customer's necessities before the beginning of the administration come upon. On the other hand, if administration is not recovered progressively, customers frequently end the involvement with an unfulfilled criterion. Organizations attempt to recover in such cases by first satisfying the essential requirements of the client.

2. Apology: When the service experience doesn’t deliver on even the most basic expectations of the customer, then an apology is most likely expected by the customer. It is important to business that this apology does consider the customer’s business more important than it just showed through the last service incident and that the treatment was not intended.

3. Compensation: Sometimes, the service incident leads to a damage or loss that the customer may expect the

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business recover. It is nothing but a financial condition that if service was performed without any issues.

Service Recovery earlier than Time: Most of the business sees overwhelmingly reassuring results when they move the recovery point much prior, to minutes while a client is as yet encountering the item or administration. In some case is snatching matters that people experience while they are still nearby in the accommodation. Pay desires are totally relieved on the grounds that normal results can be created with simply little delay. Surprisingly better results are seen when the business disable the more basic client by struggling to set up their experience altering their experience according to their preferences. In these cases, customers are ‘tuned’ positively and are generally easier to please throughout the experience live cycle.

Suggestions and Recommendation:1. Hotel Abakash should increase the items in their food

menu because most of the people now like to eat various kinds of foods.

2. Hotel Abakash should provide pick up service because in Dhaka city finding CNG or a CAB is very difficult.

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3. Hotel Abakash should change all of their A/Cs because old window type A/Cs make a lot of noise than split type A/Cs.

4. Present situation in Dhaka city is not very good and specially for the restaurant. Hotel Abakash should tight their security and should give firearms to their security guards for customer’s better safety.

5. As most of the customers of Hotel Abakash are businessman and they need internet most of the time. So if their internet service failed then they should give some recovery option to their customers.

References: Wirtz/Mattila, NUS, School of Hotel Penn State, 2002,

‘Consumer responses to compensation, speed of recovery and apology after a service failure’

Kwon/Jang, School of Hotel Penn State, Tourism & Hospitality Management Purdue University: ‘Effectiveness of compensation of Service Recovery: Roles of perceived equity and relationship level’, 2010

Kau/Loh, NUS ‘The effects of service recovery on consumer satisfaction: a comparison between complainants and non-complainants’ 2006 http://www.iseg.utl.pt/aula/cad1228/effects_service_recovery.pdf

Xin, L., & Rong, W. (2007). Survey Research on Relationship among Service Failures, Service Recovery and Customer Satisfaction. 2007 International

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Conference on Management Science and Engineering. doi:10.1109/icmse.2007.4421996

Choi, T.Y., Chu, R., 2001. Determinants of hotel guests’ satisfaction and repeat patronage in the Hong Kong hotel industry. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 20, 277-297.

Mattila, A., 1999. Consumers’ value judgments. Cornell Hotel and Restaurant Administration Quarterly, 40(1), 40-46.

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Service Development and Design

Consistent service quality development is always necessary and it is highly applicable for hotel industries because customer satisfaction is one of the most important strategic weapons of best practice in hotel organizations (Hokey Min, 2002). To gain the customer satisfaction the hotel must know its competitive position in changing marketplace and realizing the opportunity of continuous service development. First I want to clarify the word improvement and development here. Improvement is to make something better to increase the value or productivity while development is to change with a specific direction, progress (wikidiff). As our GAP analysis showed that Abakash is lacking in their existing services and needs to add some services so we are doing service development of Abakash by service improvement and with some Systematic change and designing some services to compete and do better than its competitors. For doing that we need to apply two steps:

1. Identify and prioritize customer service attributes that influence the customers perception of service quality

2. Develop a strategic action plan for continuous service improvement (Camp, 1989; Balm, 1992; Min and Min, 1996).

Development

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Living: We get the feedback from our customers that the room is ok but sometimes they find insects. Another problem is they think that room service is not up to the mark as the

serviceman delay to deliver the service. Moreover, the A/C system seems 18 century cooler and takes too much time to cool the room. To keep that in mind we are planning to do pesticide our whole area in a regular basis and supervise our floor attendant that they can respond faster and deliver the necessity as early as possible. Furthermore, we talked to our contact person at ABAKASH Mr. A.N.M Zeaul Karim (Resident Manager of Abakash) and he said they are planning to change the whole air condition system of residential rooms from old windows to new split A/C.Security: As we know the current security situation of Bangladesh is not good and everyone is worried about the instability and restlessness of it (Blood, Shock, Horror. (2016, July 03). The Daily Star, p.1.). So security is one of the biggest concerns of everyone. As right now our security personnel uses only metal detectors for security but do not carry guns to tackle the unwanted situation so we are going to apply for firearms to ensure the safety of our customers as well as to assure and give our customers a sense of reliability and safety.

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We are planning to install CCTV cameras in our whole premises to cover and monitor the area.Food: Abakash already offers variety in their food section like Bangla, Thai, Chinese, Continental etc. but we have seen in our GAP analysis that food quality is good and they arranges catering for PM office, Ganabhaban, Bangabhaban etc. but they take too much time to deliver the service at Malancha restaurant and for room delivery both run by Abakash.. As we know ‘a happy customer is one whose problem was solved quickly and satisfactorily’ (5 Ways to Deliver Excellent Customer Service at your restaurant. (2015). Retrieved July 26, 2016 from http://restaurantengine.com/deliver-excellent-customer-service/). So we have to offer faster delivery and do not make our customer wait. Conference and Banquet: Abakash offers a moderate conference hall and a large banquet and convention facility. According to Mr. A.N.M Zeaul Karim it is one of the profitable sectors of Abakash. Though we found a lot of scopes for improvement on those areas. We know hospitality firms such as hotels are the ideal example of market where implementation of a service innovation become highly beneficial for us (Reid and Sandler, 1992). It also helps us to differentiate us from our competitors. Hospitality industry is rapidly changing due to accelerations in information technology (Olsen & Connolly, 2000). Managers will need to make proactive changes which focus even more intensely on customer preferences, quality and technological interfaces in order to stay competitive in such a dynamic environment

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(Karmakar, 2004). That’s why we are aiming to add tele-conferencing and video-conferencing facility with our current offering. We already provide Wi-Fi services all over the hotel area but these addition will enhance our service area more. Another addition we want to make is to add official facility for our customers that they can browse, print and e-mail from our own supported cyber center.

DesignIn this time where customers have many options available they actually do not exhibit, as in past decades a truly brand loyal behavior. Instead they are choosing to patronize hotels that offer the best value proposition under existing budgetary constraints. In order to add value to the guests’ experience, hotel managers and marketers must meet the challenge of determining which services are preferred by hotel guests (Olsen and Connolly, 2000). That’s why we have chosen to launch a gym, swimming pool and beauty care (saloon & spa) option for our customers. Though many people find it unnecessary but understanding prominent customers and the influential factors for customers’ loyalty is necessary. Numerous examples illustrate that it is important that the hotel industry develop customer loyalty. Researchers have shown that a 5 percent increase in customer loyalty can produce a profit increase of 25 percent to 85 percent (Reichheld and Sasser, 1990). To ensure and receive the loyalty from both existing and prospective customers we are

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designing some services according to our GAP analysis and interview from the customers of Abakash.

Gym & fitness center: Gym and fitness center becomes a must addition for mid-range hotels as we can see this facility to our competitors’ facility and service profile (Hotel Zakaria Intl. Ltd and De Crystal Crown etc.). With the same price range they are offering this facility so se are planning to open a gym and fitness center for our customers.

Swimming Pool: From our perception survey of customers we have seen more than half of the portion named it first when we asked which recreational facility Abakash should add. We see this facility to some similar price range hotels as well (FARS hotel & resorts and Contemporary heights hotel and apartments).

Beauty care (saloon & spa): One of the most common amenities that our competitors (Hotel Zakaria Intl. ltd and Hotel 71 etc.) provide is beauty care facility. To feel refreshed and invigorated it is an essential element because most of the customers may come here for leisure or for business so it will offer them the chance to be relaxed and revitalized.

Above design part is the front end planning and for evaluation, execution and sanction of the plan consent of the chairman of Parjatan Corporation is necessary.

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Reference1. Hokey Min Hyesung Min Kyooyup Chung,

(2002),"Dynamic benchmarking of hotel service quality", Journal of Services

Marketing, Vol. 16 Iss 4 pp. 302 – 3212. (Camp, 1989; Balm, 1992; Min and Min, 1996)3. Liana Victorino Rohit Verma Gerhard Plaschka Chekitan

Dev, (2005),"Service innovation and customer choices in the hospitality industry", Managing Service Quality: An International Journal, Vol. 15 Iss 6 pp. 555 – 576

4. Retrieved July 26, 2016 from http://www.hotelzakariabd.com/ and http://www.crystalcrownhotelbd.com/hotel-services.htm

5. Retrieved July 26, 2016 from http://www.farshotelbd.com/fitness-fars.php and http://www.contemporaryheights.com/)

6. Retrieved July 26, 2016 from http://www.hotel71.com.bd/

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Integrated Marketing Communication:

Integrated marketing communications (IMC) is a methodology utilized by associations to brand and facilitate their correspondence endeavors. The American Association of Advertising Agencies characterizes IMC as "A comprehensive plan that evaluates the strategic roles of a variety of communication disciplines and combines these disciplines to provide clarity, consistency and maximum communication impact." The essential thought behind an IMC methodology is to make a consistent ordeal for purchasers crosswise over various parts of the promoting blend. The brand image and popularity are being strengthened by Integrated Marketing Communication.

Identifying Target Audience:

The first step of designing an IMC is identifying the target audience. In order to design the right message and select the right channels for IMC campaign depends on characterizing the appropriate target audience. That is, the type of message likely to be disposed by the audience (for example, customers’ priorities concerning quality or price), as well as the awareness of the audience’s current image of the company and its product or service. (Rowley, 1998) Based on the survey on the clients and the experience of Mr. A.N.M Zeaul Karim, Resident Manager of Abakash, the majority of the clients of Hotel Abakash are staying in the hotel for business purpose. For that reason, our target audience for the IMC campaign is the businessmen and the corporate clients.

Message Design:

The message we are promoting to our potential clients and customers is -“Explore Your Relaxation- Experience Our Renovations!”

We have designed this message to convey the information to the customers about our renovations of services. We are renovating all our existing services and facilities such as luxuries bedrooms, high quality

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food, digital conference hall, securities etc. We are also introducing some new facilities such as Swimming Pool, Beauty care & Spa to ensure the luxury and comfort of our customers. In our Integrated Marketing Communication Campaigns, we will deliver this message to our potential clients through all the media channels. As most of the clients of our service are Businessmen and corporate people, our main target audience for our IMC message will be them.

Media Selection:

Success of a IMC mostly depends on selecting the most appropriate media or communication channel to deliver the message. As our main target audience is the businessmen and corporate people, our media channels includes only the medias that our target audience have access on. There are main tools we are using for our IMC campaign are- Advertising, Direct Marketing and Public Relations.

Advertising: In today’s competitive world, the importance of advertising is increasing for any service industry especially for hotel and tourism sector. It is “any form of non-personal presentation and promotion of ideas, goods and services usually paid for by an identified sponsor” (Dominic, 2013). According to our contract person Mr. A.N.M Zeaul Karim (Resident Manager of Abakash), Hotel Abakash did not have any advertising campaigns previously. As Hotel Abakash is controlled by Bangladesh Tourism Corporation, a government institution; the authority did not prefer investing money on promotional activity. In order to survive in today’s competitive market, Hotel Abakash must adapt its own promotional activities like advertisement. That is why in the new IMC plan for Hotel Abakash we are prioritizing different forms of advertisements. The main focus of our IMC advertising plan will be Print media which includes Ads on Newspaper and Magazine, Billboards, Placards, Brochures etc. The reason behind it is businessmen usually do not have enough time to watch TV. They prefer newspaper and magazine. Billboards, Placards and Brochures are also highly noticeable in the

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roads and business or corporate areas. Through our advertising we will make our clients aware about the renovations and modifications we are doing to our services. Some of our advertising designs are:

Illustration: Newspaper Ad Design

Illustration: Billboard Ad DesignDirect Marketing:Direct marketing is an effective way for marketing communication. Direct Marketing consists of directly communicating with the targeted customer to get an immediate response. The ultimate purpose of direct marketing

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is to build and manage direct relation with customer by collecting their personal information in a database. There are few advantages of direct marketing. Like, Marketers get direct feedback from customer and it’s cost effective. We can also focus on specific group relates with our target customer. One of the traditional ways of direct marketing is Direct-mail marketing. ABAKASH is doing Direct-mail marketing through their customer database. Hotel ABAKASH is maintaining and building these databases with the information they have got from recipient form of customer. E mail is one of the most common way of communicating to the customers. When Internet was innovated everyone loved email. I would add some several reason for using email suggested by Peter Roesler who is the president of web marketing pros. 1. Easy way to reach to the customers 2. Effective way to keep customer informed. 3. easy to customize and integrate into other marketing tactics.As E-mail is reasonable manner for marketing we will use this as tool of our IMC. According to Mr. Karim, resident manager of Hotel Abakash, E-main is one of the important method to stay connected with the customers”. We will send our customers e-mail on a monthly basis. We will collect database of our loyal customer and our potential customers according to their priority and we will send promotional activities through e mail monthly, annually and occasionally and tell them about our offers and innovations. Monthly and occasional mail will be delivered to our loyal customers and annual and occasional mail will be delivered to our potential customers. We will set a critical alarm system to our database and this will make our database much more convenient. (Hill, 2013)

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Illustration: Sample Email Ad

Public Relation:Public relation is one of the important tools in IMC. Hotel ABAKASH is using public relation tool to build a long time relation with the customer. We talked with our contact point who is Mr. A.N.M Zeaul Karim (Resident Manager of Abakash) regarding public relation and he said they are trying to maintain this public relation through giving discount to potential customer and arranging different seminars. Public relation involves endorsement of facilities and services by the demonstration of hotels as an effective member within the local community. Hotels make strong customer bases and public relations by involving themselves in functions and events at respective domestic levels (UKessays, 2015). Public relation also helps to spread positive word of mouth towards customers. Hotel ABAKASH is doing public relation to get the attention of their target customer. Hotel ABAKASH is also arranging seminar of

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different corporation. They are sometimes sponsoring different governmental seminar and also arranged Fair in different festival. Hotel ABAKASH is also offering their valuable customer 20% discount on total cost to maintain the relation with the customer. They have a membership card for customer which is charged 300Tk in every year and the facility it’s providing is 25% discount at any time. Since we are renovating our hotels, we got more opportunities to make our public relation stronger. We have now swimming pool, Gym, big conference hall and beauty care facility which emphasize on attracting customer. We also intend to give more sponsorship opportunity than ever before in big corporate events. These sponsorships help to make relationship with different companies and sector.

IMC Plan of 2017:Month Point A Point B Point CJanuary Direct Marketing Newspaper Public

RelationFebruary Billboards Newspaper Public

RelationMarch Billboards Newspaper Public

RelationApril Newspaper ____ Public

RelationMay Direct Marketing _____ Public

RelationJune Newspaper _____ Public

RelationJuly Billboards _____ Public

RelationAugust Billboards _____ Public

RelationSeptember Direct Marketing Newspaper Public

Relation

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October Billboards Newspaper Public Relation

November Billboards Newspaper Public Relation

December Direct Marketing Newspaper Public Relation

Illustration: IMC plan for Hotel Abakash

Total IMC Budget Plan:

ITEMS TK

Newspaper 15,00,000

Billboard 20,00,000

Direct Marketing 2,00,000

Public Relation 10,00,000

Sponsorship 5,00,000

Total Budget 52,00,000

Illustration: Total Budget Allocation

Newspaper32%

Billboard42%

Direct Marketing4%

Public Relation21%

Sponsorship1%

IMC Budget Allocation

Illustration: Total Budget Allocation as Percentage

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Bibliography: Rowley, J. (1998). Promotion and Marketing Communications in the Information Marketplace. Journal, Library Review, Vol. 47, No 8, pp 383-387Dominick, J. (2013). The Dynamics of Mass Communication, New York: McGraw-Hill.Hill, L. (2012). HP IMC: Email Alerting.Roberts, C. (n.d.). Small Business. Retrieved from Chron: https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/marketing-strategies-used-in-the-hotel-industry-marketing-essay.phpRoesler, P. (n.d.). Top 5 Reasons Why Email Marketing Still Works. Retrieved from http://www.inc.com/peter-roesler/top-5-reasons-why-email-marketing-is-still-works.htmlUKessays. (2015, march 13). Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/marketing-strategies-used-in-the-hotel-industry-marketing-essay.phpHill, L. (2012). HP IMC: Email Alerting.Agencies, m. A. (n. http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/integrated-marketing-communications-IMC.htmld.). Retrieved from The Business Dictionary: http://www.businessdictionary.com/definition/integrated-marketing-communications-IMC.htmlUKessays. (2015, march 13). Retrieved from https://www.ukessays.com/essays/marketing/marketing-strategies-used-in-the-hotel-industry-marketing-essay.php

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Way forward for Hotel Abakash

1. At first Hotel Abakash will have to implement CCTV cameras all over the hotel premises as “Hotel Zakaria” has implemented in their premises and according to Publicans’ Morning Advertiser, (2013), CCTV system puts both the owners and customers mind at rest. 2. To ensure the security the guards should carry Arms at the entrance of the Hotel gate and as the guards of hotel “Ruposhi Bangla” does. 3. They should improve the lock system of their rooms as Chad Callaghan, principal of premises Liability Experts and AH&LA security consultant said in article “12 ways to increase hotel security”,(2013), that locks that can track who goes in and out of rooms can serve as a deterrent to theft. 4. Hotel Abakash should have their own website like “Hotel Regency Garden”, Dhaka has. 5. Hotel Abakash should increase their online presence because an organized and diligent approach to the management of social media and online reputation is a sure way to improve a hotel’s guest satisfaction scores said by Ed Watkins in the article, “8 ways to improve guest satisfaction” (2014). They should form a system where the feedback especially the negative reviews get immediate attention and set clear policies and guidelines for management of online guest feedback (Ed Watkins, 2014). 6. Hotel Abakash can apply the Ubers idea where the authority puts the demands of the customers in their group page and the

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employees choose the services they want to cater to increase the efficiency of their hotel services (MEST, C.E. 2016). 7. Hotel Abakash should have a fire exit as there is in the Palmer House Hotel, USA (Transue, R.E. (2009).8. Hotel Abakash should provide rent a car services like “Hotel Zakaria Int.” provides to its customers.9. Hotel Abakash should reduce its food delivery timing and make it as quick as possible in both the restaurant Malancha and room services in order to make the customers happy because, “a happy customer is one whose problem was solved quickly and satisfactorily” (5 Ways to Deliver Excellent Customer Service at your restaurant.(2015).10. They must make their hotel as clean as they can make it because to 86 percent of the customers cleanliness is the key factor while selecting the hotel (Clean room preferred 4-to-1 over Internet, 2015).11. Hotel Abakash should provide 24 hours WIFI to the hotel as Clarkes Hotel, Shimla provides it.12. Hotel Abakash should have a swimming pool and fitness centers as a way of recreation as there is in the Seyfert Sarovar Portico in Dehradun, India. (HVS Global hospitality report, 2016).13. Hotel Abakash can implement a live chat system like Hotel 71 has implemented in their hotel.14. Hotel Abakash should take extra security measures for the single women travelers as Lemon Tree hotel of Delhi has taken (Delhi hotels prioritize security for women guests, 2013).

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15. Abakash should have a lounge in their hotel as there is in the Clarkes Hotel, Shimla.

References:1. Retrieved July 27, 2016 fromhttp://www.hotel71.com.bd/2. Retrieved July 27, 2016 from

http://www.hotelzakariabd.com/3. MEST, C.E. (2016). Hotels invest in new technology to

gain behind the scenes benefits. Hotel Management (21582122, 231(9),12-13.

4. Clean Room Preferred 4-to-1 over Internet. (2015). Travel Agent, 346(11), 5.

5. Sarovar Hotels opens the Seyfert Sarovar Portico in Dehradun, India. (2016). HVS Global Hospitality Report, 1-2.

6. Transue, R.E (2009). Life safety systems at the Palmer House. Consulting-Specifying Engineer, 45(1), 24-28.

7. Delhi hotels prioritize security for women guests. (2013). Indo-Asian news service.

8. CCTV systems puts licensees’ mind at rest. (2013). Publicans Morning Advertiser, (115), 8.

9. Donaldson, D. (2013). 12 Ways to increase hotel security.

10. Watkins, E. D. (2014). 8 Ways to improve guest satisfaction.

11. 5 Ways to Deliver Excellent Customer Service at your restaurant. (2015). Retrieved July 26, 2016from

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http://restaurantengine.com/deliver-excellent-customer-service/

12. Retrieved July 30, 2016 from http://www.ruposhibanglahotel.com/

13. Retrieved July 30, 2016 from http://hotelregencygarden.songzog.com/

14. Retrieved July 30, 2016 from http://www.clarkesshimla.com/

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Conclusion:

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