Problem Definition
Arabian Dreams is a hotel conglomerate headquartered at Al Raffa, Dubai. This research will focus on the Arabian Dreams hotel apartment at its headquarters. The quantity of negative feedback that the company receives at its websites and at holiday watchdog sites has increased (Holiday Watchdog 2012).
The Hotel needs to identify the aspects of service production that cause customer dissatisfaction. If the organisation understands these discontentments, then it can work towards reducing or eliminating them. It would then have a greater advantage over its competitors.
The business needs to build relationships with its customers and thus increase loyalty. Higher commitment eventually results in greater returns for the company. If clients are dissatisfied with the services in a specific hotel, then they are unlikely to come back or generate repeat sales for the organisation.
Furthermore, dissatisfied customers may create negative word of mouth patterns that will harm the institution’s potential clientele. Cherubini (1997) adds that whenever an unsatisfied customer fails to report his grievances to the concerned organisation, then he or she will look for unofficial channels of complaint. Here, negative word of mouth will thrive for the concerned organisation.
Statistics indicate that only 4% of all unsatisfied customers will officially report the sources of their dissatisfaction. If Arabian Dreams Hotel does not gather this information properly, then its image will be tarnished. Currently, tourists and visitors have become more aggressive about their expectations of hotel service quality. Players in the hospitality industry cannot become complacent about these customer demands as they will loose out in the end.
It is one thing to know the extent of customer satisfaction in a certain business; however, identifying the source of dissatisfaction can be quite groundbreaking. The company already knows where it stands in the UAE Hotel and lodging industry. It has a four-star rating and ranks relatively well among its competitors. However, the firm does not fully grasp the causes of discontentment among some of its users. This research will concern itself with identifying the causes of dissatisfaction so as to allow Arabian Dreams to work on them.
Development of an approach to the problem
Customer dissatisfaction may be manifested in a series of ways. Wuest et al. (1996) claimed that an understanding of hotel attributes perception reflects the degree of customer satisfaction among visitors. Consequently, the failure of a company to meet these attribute expectations reflects the level of dissatisfaction.
Ananth et al. (1992), McCleary et al. (1993), and Barsky and Labagh (1992) also backed this information by explaining that if a company fails in the provision of these attributes, then clients will be less likely to stay in the hotel again. Some of these qualities include security, service standards, physical appearance, relaxation opportunities, location, cleanliness, price and personalisation of services.
On the other hand, one may look at the problem from a relatively different perspective. One may opt to consider the emotional aspect of customers’ experiences. Fyall et al. (2003) explain that sometimes customers’ loyalty is influenced by a number of emotional needs. If customers do not get any of these emotional needs met, then they may become highly dissatisfied with the hotel. For instance, a client may visit a hotel in order to meet the same group of people; these may be other customers or staff members.
Therefore, if staff turnover is high, then the customers will not meet the same people, and will be dissatisfied. Alternatively, visitors may simply develop an emotional affection towards a certain place. Consequently, if the organisation changes its location or the environment around it, then customers will be unhappy with their stay. Sometimes tourists may choose a hotel a second time for the opportunity to explore it a little more.
If a company offers minimal areas of exploration, then customers will be dissatisfied. Arabian Dreams can choose to handle the issue of customer dissatisfaction by focusing on emotional aspects. However, the problem with such as approach is that few if any of the factors can be controlled by the concerned hotel.
For instance, it is difficult to control the kind of people that a tourist meets in their stay. Alternatively, a company cannot change a tourist’s desire to show off the place to friends. Therefore, the emotional approach would not be a plausible option (Gideon 2012).
The attribute approach is better because it not only focuses on tangible outcomes, but it also identifies issues that can be controlled by the hotel. For instance, the company can work on its cleanliness, staff friendliness, security and many other factors. When the company knows what really matters to its customers or where it has erred, then it can have a solid basis for improving its service outcomes.
Research design formulation
Research objective and hypothesis
This market research will employ qualitative methods to determine the challenges that customers in its facilities are facing. The main research objective is to identify the factors that lead to customer dissatisfaction at Arabian Dreams Hotel. The research hypothesis is as follows: “Customers are dissatisfied by the service quality offered at Arabian Dreams Hotel”. This main hypothesis will be followed by other minor hypotheses.
Hypothesis 1: Customers are not dissatisfied by price
Hypothesis 2: Customers are dissatisfied by the lack of other amenities
Hypothesis 3: Poor service quality leads to customer dissatisfaction
Hypothesis 4: Security concerns lead to customer dissatisfaction
Hypothesis 5: The location of the hotel causes dissatisfaction
Hypothesis 6: Room quality leads to customer dissatisfaction
The dependent variable in the main research question is customer satisfaction while the independent variable is service quality. In the minor hypotheses, the independent variable remains the same but the dependent variables change. They are price, other amenities, service quality, security, location and room quality respectively.
Sampling strategy
This research will employ the use of stratified random sampling. A random sample is one which subjects are selected by chance without adherence to a particular mathematical formula. A stratified is one in which the researcher creates subgroups so as to select a certain group from the population.
For instance, if there were men and women in a certain population, and the researcher knows that men and women will give different responses, then he or she can divide the population into these two groups and draw samples from both groups. Likewise, in this research, it is likely that dissatisfied and satisfied customers will yield different results. Consequently, it is essential to purposely select dissatisfied customers as they are the main point of the analysis.
The research will be collected from 50 respondents. The researcher will wait for clients to check out at the reception. Customers will be asked whether or not they were satisfied with the services in the company. If they were, then the researcher will request them to participate in a fifteen minute interview about their experience in the hotel. Approximately 150 customers will be approached, as only a small number are usually willing to participate in an interview.
The number 50 was selected because it represents at least ten percent of the total customer population per night. Since the interviews will not be conducted continuously in one day, then this will increase the chances of representing the views of the entire population. The researcher will interview about five customers per day for a period of 10 days.
Data collection
Justification for data collection tools
The semi-structured interview will be used because it is a flexible method of shedding light on a particular issue (Cochran 2008). As mentioned earlier, this is a qualitative interview aimed at exploring the problem of customer dissatisfaction at Arabian Dreams.
Semi structured or open ended interviews are always a good approach to qualitative studies as they give interviewees a platform to get deeper meanings about certain phenomena. Additionally this study is focusing on the perceptions of the consumers, which are always learnt effectively by an interview.
Information will be stored using a tape recorder. The interviewee will not be expected to select answers from a predetermined set. The latter approach would limit the level of insight that can be generated from the study because the researcher might not think about certain issues.
The semi-structured interview is also quite personal. Unlike a mail survey that would not allow the researcher and participant to interact directly; this will not be the case in the semi structured interview. The interviewer can get an opportunity to probe the participant about certain things or ask him some follow up questions.
It is also possible to get clarification about a certain matter. It should be noted that conversational or informal interviews were not selected because they can easily drift from the main agenda. They may also provide too many responses that may complicate data analysis. Having a preset list of questions can guide the interview and can also increase the speed of condutcting the interview.
How to enhance outcomes in data collection
When conducting the interview, the interviewer must ensure that he or she adheres to a number of requirements. First, he or she needs to seem confident and certain about the questions being asked. Some customers may not understand the questions or may require clarification.
The interviewer should be able to give clarification without confusing the customer. No contradictions should come from the interview. The researcher should know exactly when to show emotions and when to remain expressionless. In this regard, he or she can seem agreeable when inviting customers to the interview and at the end of the interview. However, the person should appear serious during the question-asking sessions.
During the interview, the interviewer will establish rapport by introducing himself formally and explaining the purpose of the project. Customers are more likely to engage with the interviewer if they realise that the information they provide will assist them in accessing better services.
These latter aspects can be done when the interviewer is requesting for participation at the reception. The interviewer should ask for the customer’s permission before tape recording. Some individuals may object to it, so the interviewer should write down as much as he can when the customers reject tape recording. The interviewer should then proceed with the interview.
The semi structured interview will contain only three questions, so as to provide customers with more time to expound on their answers (Vecchio 1990). Furthermore, since the interview is supposed to last for only fifteen minutes, then only few questions should be asked.
These are the three questions: “List at least five issues that caused you to become dissatisfied with the services in the organisation (It is alright if you have less than five issues that you were unhappy about)” , “Explain how the company failed on these issues” and “Please suggest some possible remedies for these challenges.”
During the interview, it is likely that some customers may be ambiguous in their explanations. At such times, the interviewer ought to request for clarification on the issue. He or she should also encourage the customers to expand on their experiences by asking them to tell him or her more or by using words such as “that is quite interesting”. At the end of the interview, the interviewer should try and summarise what the customer said in order to ensure that he or she captured the right answers.
There could be a number of challenges that emanate from conduction of the semi-structured interview. For instance, sometimes, the respondents may misread the interviewer’s cues or they may alter their responses in order to please the interviewer.
Some of the statements made by the interviewer to prod the participant may also bias the customer. Therefore, the interviewer should be sensitive to the possibility of these occurrences. He or she needs to learn from the first five interviews words or phrases that can be misunderstood by respondents and avoid using in subsequent interviews.
It should be noted that the interview process always takes a long time, especially in this case where the 50 respondents will be targeted. Furthermore, the process will utilise a lot of resources especially in terms of tape recorders. In order to reduce this negative effect, the interviewer will restrict himself to the three questions selected earlier.
Prompts and statements made in order to encourage the customer to elaborate on a specific point should not be overdone. The researcher should also pay attention to the time in order to ascertain that he does not go overboard. All interviews should not be more than fifteen minutes.
Note –taking should still accompany all the interviews regardless of the use of tape recorders. This will allow the researcher to clarify some of the issues that cannot be detected by ear. The interviewer should record signs of discomfort among the participants. Field notes also provide the interviewer with an opportunity to interpret the responses given by the customers.
Notes will not be written during the interview as this may prevent the interviewer from facilitating the interview properly. Since the interviews will last for fifteen minutes, then it is easy to recall and record some of the observations noted by the researcher (Fink 2003).
Data analysis
Data preparation
While collection of information through the qualitative approach may seem like an easy process, it is the preparation and analysis that are quite troubling to concerned researchers. Since most of the data will be in verbal form, the researcher must work towards recording the interviewee’s information in written form.
In this process, the researcher will consider a number of issues. First, there ought to be no contradictions in the assertions made by the customers. Statements should make sense and should be realistic. Inconsistent statements should not be regarded as they could be misleading.
A researcher should also look at the logic of an argument in order to ensure that he records accurate information. When writing down the statements from the tape recorder, the interviewer ought to combine them with the notes. At this point, simple sentences should be written down. There ought to be no need for dwelling on patterns as that will come in the next phase.
Data codification
The next phase of the research will be codification. At this point, one must try to notice, collect and think through the raw data. Noticing involves breaking up and disassembling the research materials (Berry & Linoff 2002). The researcher should disassemble all the materials into small units or elements. Thereafter, the person should collect information. This aspect involves sorting and sifting through material.
Thinking entails an analysis of the sequences, processes and patterns covered in the data. The research hypotheses will guide the researcher in determining some of these patterns. All the responses should be categorised into six major areas: Price, room quality, service quality, security, location (or environment), and other amenities. These words will be codes that will guide the researcher in analysis.
For instance if a customer talks about shabby rooms, or if he objects to the thinness of the walls, then this will be coded under room quality. Similarly, if some of the clients explain that the state of the bathroom was unsatisfactory then these assertions will also fall under room quality.
A person who talks about the presence of mould or the overall status of maintenance will also fall here. Customers who do not like the look of the furniture in the hotel may also be regarded as persons who were dissatisfied with room quality. It should be noted that the number of times a particular issue was mentioned will be measured. For instance, if 25 clients had a problem with furniture or room size, then these numbers will be noted.
Some of the customers will recommend suggestions for improvement. Arabian Dreams ought to follow the same codification procedure to analyse the data. For instance many of the respondents might suggest that WIFI access should be free. Others may argue that the hotel should fix its air ventilation system so as to reduce noise.
The electric wiring may need replacement or the fire alarm may need fixing. All these recommendations need to be done in relation to the six codes. Recommendations for room quality should be counted and placed under that category. Similarly, recommendations for security, price, service quality, and location should be placed under the right categories as well.
Data presentation
The researcher ought to consider presenting the findings graphically on the basis of the research hypothesis and the number of times that the customers mentioned a particular issue.
For instance, if 2 respondents talked about theft in the hotel while 5 talked about the many routes one must follow in order to access one’s material in the room and 4 mentioned the safety of their luggage when exiting the hotel, then a total of 11 respondents will be dissatisfied with security. The researcher should sum up the total number of responses under each code and compare them graphically so to establish whether the hypotheses were nullified or confirmed.
Conclusion
It is likely that the qualitative research will yield critical results concerning the source of dissatisfaction among customers. The interviewer ought to minimise biases in the interview and use predetermined codes when analysing the research.
References
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