Radisson Hotels are world wide and are committed to the customer, employee, and community. Radisson strives to provide warm and engaging hospitality at every point of customer contact. They are dedicated to responsible business initiatives that focus on ethics, culture, community and the environment (2009). In the beginning years Radisson held with the strategy to grow at any cost.
In 1997 and 1998 Brian Stage, Radisson’s president, and Maureen O’Hanlon, Radisson’s executive vice president, took several initiatives to direct and drive Radisson towards becoming a more customer-focused brand. They made these initiatives based on the realization that Radisson was left with a tremendous diversity of hotel quality and an unfocused brand image due to their strategy. They decided to focus the goals of the organization away from growth at any cost and towards the most trusted and respected brand worldwide (Schroeder, 2008, p 454). In an effort to do so, Radisson developed five strategies.
These strategies are focus on the customer, provide individualized marketing and services, develop hotels in key locations, leverage the Carlson Companies Advantage, and strengthen global brand presence. With these goals in mind they developed “The 100% Guest Satisfaction Guarantee Program” (Schroeder, 2008, p 455). How should Radisson define and implement their service guarantee? In order to become a customer driven learning organization Radisson should create a meaningful vision that communicates to employees and customers their focus on customers in three ways.
Radisson should focus on employee training and development in order to further increase customer service quality and consistency. Radisson should focus on the commitment to service quality by integrating it into its strategic plans, generating leadership support, and infusing it into the organizational culture. Radisson should focus on its quality management system. This Commitment to SERVICE QUALITY through franchise and organization should be linked to the business’s vision and its organizational culture and values Radisson Hotel should focus on its quality management system and this recommendation includes the following key components:
- Implement the service guarantee in order to create the right services and unique experience to the target market. The 3Ds model is Define – Identify the target market and define demographic characteristics, and preference Design – Address what the customers’ needs in the service Delivery – Training employees, especially front line employees to assist customers.
- Develop and Utilize Fully Integrated Guest Information System by tracking, organizing logbook (reservation) information and collecting data for process improvement, such as; Organization – Benchmark employee performance Customers – Identify problem trends within each hotel.
- Initiate ‘SATISFY OUR GUESTS BEFORE THEY LEAVE’ program that provide outline issues for employees to follow up to resolve problems.
- Perform market research. This phase includes studying customer behavior and pre-test for potential new services to collect the feedback before launching.
- Initiate integrated marketing campaigns such as Radisson Hotels club Radisson membership benefits
What role should information technology play in accelerating the drive to improve service quality? Use of information technology can improve service in many ways. Information technology will enable customers to make reservations quickly and easily. The system can also measure customer and employee satisfaction. In addition Radisson can use information technology to keep an accurate record of prior visits of their repeat customers. This information can assist the staff in providing a pleasurable visit for the customer. Information technology should enhance the values of the company by providing information in a timely manner.
How should Radisson measure and improve customer satisfaction nd employee satisfaction? Radisson should use information technology, to track customer likes and dislikes. Knowing what appeals to their customers can assist in providing the service that the consumer wants most and entice them to be a repeat customer. Customers should be encouraged to fill out comment cards. This information should then be entered into the database for future reference. Employees performance can be monitored and employee performance revues should be conducted. The company should have an open door policy that allows for employees to voice their likes and concerns.
Allowing the employee to feel as though they have a personal stake in the organization will help to improve morale. How should Radisson drive commitment to service quality through their franchise organization? Franchisees should be held to the same high standards that the core organization must adhere to. Before signing an agreement with a potential franchisee the organization should ensure that the franchisee is inlign with the organizations ideas, mission, and goals. It should be made clear that franchise organizations must maintain the organizations high standards and any deviations will not be tolerated.
How should Radisson align the goals of the management team, hotel workers, owners, corporate management, and corporate staff with their new brand strategy? Communication and training will help convey the company’s strategy and goals. Commitment to the strategy must start at the top and work down. Corporate management needs to be onboard and show that they are committed to the strategy and live by it. They should lead by example, train the staff, and follow up with future training and encouragement. Conclusion Radisson has found a good mix that helps to improve customer and employee satisfaction.
Radisson is in the service industry and needs to maintain the philosophy that the customer is their priority. Radisson needs to maintain training opportunities for all employees. Continued use and development of information technology will help the organization to stay focused on the company mission. Carlson Companies, Inc. , was founded in 1938 by Curtis L. Carlson and was organized into four different groups, Carlson Hospitality Worldwide, Carlson Wagonlit Travel, Carlson Marketing Group, and Carlson Leisure Group.
About thirty years later, Carlson purchased the Radisson Hotel. The hotel chain operated on the model of “growth at any cost. ” Because they were growing the company, they faced the challenges of customer service inconsistencies and low employee satisfaction. They lacked a clear direction and it was time for their leadership team to provide a clearer vision. In 1997, Brian Stage, Radisson’s president and Maureen O’Hanlon, executive vice president started formulating change to focus the company on a paradigm of becoming a more customer-focused brand.
By 1998, Radisson Hotels identified that they not only needed to focus on the quality of the services provided but also take on a better growth strategy. The hotel chain focused on the following five key strategies:
- Focus on the customer
- Provide individualized marketing and services
- Develop hotels in key locations
- Leverage the Carlson Companies Advantage
- Strengthen global brand presence.
In addition to these strategies, Radisson should integrate their commitment to service quality into their strategic plans as well as focus on employee training and providing leadership support.
By implementing their commitment to service quality and leadership support, they can also focus on their service guarantee and information technology plans. This not only will assist them in the improvement of both customer and employee satisfaction but also strengthen their brand strategy. Radisson should also take into consideration how they will align the goals of the management team, hotel workers, owners, corporate management, and corporate staff with their new brand strategy. Meeting and managing customers’ expectations is important because as long as customers are made aware of the services provided, they are less ikely to be dissatisfied. Radisson should define their service guarantee by identifying its’ market and customers.
Schroeder (2008) states that service guarantees are “a way to define their service and ensure its satisfactory delivery to the customer. ” (p. 85) The company should also define the costs they are willing to pay to implement their service guarantee. They certainly have an approach to their “100% guest satisfaction program. ” Radisson’s initiative to design their service guarantee included addressing customers’ needs while ensuring that its hotels did not suffer financial hardships because of the guarantee.
Within the industry, they allocated allowances of one percent based on customer complaints and generated a “customer defection” spreadsheet model to illustrate and analyze the potential advantages of the service guarantee. They also wanted to ensure that the wording of the guarantee was proper and allowed for a two-step guarantee, “If you have a problem, please let us know and we will make it right or you will not pay. ” In an effort to measure the success of the program, Radisson tested their guarantee with thirty hotels in different markets. Within the implementation process, training was needed.
Appropriate training should definitely be delivered to each of the hotels from not only the employees but also the leaders, owners, and executive staff. By implementing effective training, it would ensure Radisson and all of its locations improved customer service, increased employee performance and even better reliability to make a step towards reaching their goal of making Radisson “the most trusted and respected brand worldwide. ” Once the training has been completed and constantly improved upon, they could start marketing the guarantee as well as implementing a toll-free phone number for additional customer support.
Radisson also implemented information technology to fully integrate their guest information into a system comprised of three main applications that supported marketing and technology under a main infrastructure of training as well as created a global data network all housed under their uniform database structure. They focused on three core systems, the Curtis-C System, the CustomerKARE Systems, and their HARMONY Product Suite. These systems were designed to focus on the distribution of their product, a way to enable reliable relationships with their customers and provide local service delivery.
These systems can be used to not only measure trends for marketing purposes but also focus on building relationships with their guests by providing resources to them such as Internet check-in and support marketing campaigns all in one place. By expanding their Curtis-C System to the Internet would allow guests to check-in not only at airports but anywhere including their own laptop computers and mobile phones. This provides customer-routed services which allow their customers the “decision-making power to determine the components of the service, as well as how, when and the sequence in which it is delivered. (Schroeder, 2008, p. 81) This allows for customizing the check-in experience for the customer so they are prepared when they arrive. Their CustomerKARE system could be used not only to house data on their customers but also allow for their customers to share their experience, add preferences and take control of their experience. Then, hotel management could poll this data and use it to track customer complaints and continually improve its service to their guests.
One key component of their information technology strategy utilized the HARMONY Property Management System. This system was designed to analyze and measure aspects of the company internally such as sales patterns and productivity. This would work through their global network of hotels and provide not only corporate staff the data but also deliver that data directly to hotel management. This technology can deliver comprehensive and standardized training at each hotel location which also drives employee and customer satisfaction.
Schroeder (2008) suggests that “service delivery is automated as much as possible so that costs are reduced and standardization is achieved. ” (p. 87) The hotel can even use e-mail or web site surveys to allow its guests the ability to share their experiences and at the bottom line, continually improve processes and quality. Technology can provide innovation and make strong leaders at Radisson. “The ability to lead innovation is really important. We need to know that a strong general manager can run a good innovation program. ”
Measuring and improving customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction go hand in hand. In order to improve customer satisfaction, Radisson must focus on employee satisfaction. By implementing a loyalty program that ensures that employees are satisfied with their roles can improve performance and effectively provide each of their hotels with consistent customer service. They must ensure that their employees understand Radisson’s mission and visions and reward those employees by keeping them satisfied and providing them with room for advancement.
By assisting employees with movement inside the company, it can increase productivity and ideally reduce any expenses related to its turnover rate because employees will be more satisfied and inter-company relationships will be enhanced between hotels. . A program that allows employees to provide feedback can help to provide “cross cultural diversity which is a great driver for innovation” according to Lafley & Charan, co-authors of The Game Changer (p. 112). This idea not only provides employees a sense of empowerment but also illustrates employee experience within the Radisson hotels organization.
Radisson implemented a complaint card that was used to collect guest feedback at the end of their stay. This program was unsuccessful because many guests did not even complete them. One way that they could improve the customer experience is to provide discount programs or membership benefits to their customers, frequent customers might receive a steeper discount than regular hotel rates. Guests who fill out comment card or take a survey over the Internet might receive a ten percent discount off their next visit.
Customer recognition is an important concept, especially in an industry who defines their service as an “experience. ” By enhancing their customer service experience with fully integrated information technology systems, they provide high quality reliable services. With these measures in place, customer and employee satisfaction remains consistent and ever-improving. Radisson can drive their commitment to service quality through their franchise organization by ensuring that it is integrated into its strategic planning goals and measurements.
Each location should post a Quality of Service Standards Commitment statement prominently in their location behind the check-in counters and on hotel room doors. This commitment to service quality should illustrate Radisson’s goal of a “trusted and respected brand worldwide. ” A quality of service standards statement outlines the nature and quality of service which customers can expect through their offerings. According to Radisson’s web site, they “offer distinct services and amenities so that guests can “Stay Your Own Way. ” (www. radisson. om)
Their quality of service standard states “We are committed to providing you with personalized, professional guest services and genuine hospitality. Our “Yes I Can! ” service philosophy focuses on empowering employees to make sure that you are completely satisfied with your stay. ” (www. radisson. com) By focusing on the importance of providing support to its franchise locations through leadership support and hotel culture, hotel management can document metrics and share them with corporate management. These metrics can be used to measure the data against specific target goals.
With these metrics, hotel owners will be able to show their commitment to service quality on a monthly basis which, as a result, shows their commitment to the new brand strategy as well as enhance company culture. By providing these pieces of data through a scorecard, they can measure the drivers of performance. A balanced scorecard expands metrics far beyond just financial numbers. The reason that scorecards are an important measure is because they are used to assess hotel locations employee driven factors such as “absenteeism, team productivity, leadership quality, and employee satisfaction. (Angel & Rampersad, p. 4)
As specific target metrics are put in place, the leadership of the franchise locations can help to drive success by reviewing the monthly statistics with its staff and create employee buy-in into the culture so that their locations can continue to provide consistent service quality and improvement. A successful national company must deliver a consistent brand strategy among all of its organizations. In order to ensure this, Radisson needs to implement service quality and training to all of its global locations and markets.
Since this is the hospitality industry and their guests are typically those customers who travel from place to place looking for a service that allows them to stay at a hotel, Radisson should expand their approach to that of driving commitment to service quality globally. Hotel owners and management can show this commitment by measuring the goals and providing metrics based on certain standardized criteria and then corporate management can recognize locations based on commitment to service quality excellence.
Another way that Radisson can align the goals of management team, hotel workers, owners, corporate management and corporate staff with their new brand strategy is the analysis of their service blueprint. “A service blueprint shows how the customer and service providers interact at each step of the service delivery process. ” (Schroeder, 2008, p. 132) The customer is interacting at several stages of their experience from placing their reservation to experiencing their stay at the hotel which constantly focuses on the hotel to meet its service guarantee through its two step process during the guests stay within a Radisson hotel.
This illustrates their responsiveness to their customers’ needs and assurance to resolve any issues and ensure that proper and individualized attention is made to its customers. All of these strategies illustrate Radisson’s commitment to service quality and provide a firm basis of customer-driven learning as the central strategy. Not only can Radisson focus on continued growth within their organization, they can focus on providing consistent customer and employee satisfaction.
Schroeder (2008) explains that “the key to service profitability has been linked to focusing on customer and employees as paramount in importance. By linking and improving these factors, profits will be improved. ” (p. 89) Through the use of technology resources, training programs and service level commitment programs, they can identify, measure and continue to grow their business because they are using the technology to drive the service quality within the organization’s culture and leadership.
