First of all, in behalf of the Heathrow ATHMI hotel management, I should like to express our gratitude to you for taking time to write us to give us feed back regarding your experiences in our hotel. Your letter dated September 08, 2004 addressed to our Chief Operating Officer Mr. Christopher Britton has been received and was duly given appropriate attention especially with regard to our hospitality promise on our website. We appreciated your feed back very much which you expressed in the most appropriate manner because it serves as an eye opener to the management to re-examine ATHMI Hotel customer relations policies.
Regarding your letter, the hotel management conducted investigation and we found out that there was a problem in the system of the employee in the hotel; our staff had indeed committed gross violations of our customer relations protocol. In line with this, we have taken appropriate action in order to insure that such kind of problem will not happen again, and also to make sure our customer will have wonderful experience of our facilities, and warm Heathrow ATHMI hotel customer relations services. We sincerely apologized for all the inconveniences you and your wife had gone through during your stay in the hotel and we wonder how we could redeem ourselves in view of the hassles this circumstance has brought on you. We deeply regretted this has happened in our hotel but please rest assures that the Heathrow ATHMI Hotel management will not condone any act of impoliteness on the part of our staff.
Nevertheless, as a token of our sincere appreciation, and, in consistency with our hospitality promise on our website, herewith is refund check of your hotel bills during your stay in the hotel along with a one day free accommodation gift check for two in our newly up scaled hotel. I would like to inform you that we have just completed an extensive renovation of the hotel to provide our customers with more convenience and make their stay in hotel a pleasant experience.
The cheque is valid within two years and you can check-in in our newly up scaled rooms free of charge for a day the next time you visit again and we will be happy to have you as our guest then. Perhaps we could redeem our selves then so we hope to see you again in the hotel. Again, I would like re assure you that we have identified the problem that caused much inconveniences on you and have dealt with it accordingly and you can be sure that the next time you stay with us in the hotel it will be a pleasing and memorable experience.
Summary In Support of My Solution
The solution given to the problem identified above arising from a complaint letter from a customer is justifiable especially in the context of customer relations. Obviously, Mr. Hankins and his wife had a very unpleasant experience which they did not deserve. As Lovelock, Wirtz and Chew stated, among the forces transforming the service economy “is the focus on quality and customer satisfaction” (Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew 2009, p. 11).
Today, firms are spending million dollars for advertisement to attract customers. Dissatisfied customers however can simply destroy this aim. In a statistics published by the Technical Assistance Research Program, it stated that every unsatisfied customer will tell between eight and sixteen others about his or her experience and ten percent of them will tell twenty other potential customers (Irwin, Sutton, & McCarthy 2008, p. 9). Going back to Dr. Hankins, apparently, he was a good customer and his well intentioned complaint reflects his good character. Andres Mertz himself was convinced of the failure of the hotel to perform the basic services and that something has to be done to settle the issue (Case study 17). In this case, failure to resolve his dissatisfaction on the part of the ATHMI could ruin its reputation before a number of potential customers. Thus, today, businesses tend to demonstrate that companies with higher levels of satisfaction tend to be profitable (Allen 2004, p. 116).
In view of the above, the solution to the problem given was in the first place, consistent with the company’s promotional policy. The added incentive was to regain the company’s reputation and to turn the potential damage for the benefit of the company. Researches according to an article published by Performance Associates, Inc. entitled Delivering knock your socks off Service consistently find that it costs five times more to attract a new customer than it does to keep one you already have (Performance arts associates 2007, p. 8). Of course not all customer complaints will be treated in this way but will be surely be given appropriate attention. Dr. Hankins is obviously a potential customer and his continues patronage of the hotel is important in the effort of building up the image and reputation of the hotel, to attract new customers in view of his profession.
References
- Allen, D.R. (2004) Customer Satisfaction Research Management ASQ Quality Press Cawsey
- Irwin, R.L., Sutton, W.A. & McCarthy, L.M. (2008) Sports and Sales Management
- Human Kinetics Lovelock, Wirtz, & Chew (2009) Essential of Service Marketing
- Performance Associates, Inc. (2007) Delivering Knock Your Socks off Service USA
