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Introduction:
Premier Inn is one of the most prominent and largest hotel brands of the United
Kingdom. It is subsidiary company of Whitbread and has over 580 hotels. It is high
revenue contributor to Whitbread as its profit share is 70%. This hotel lies in
significant sector of Hospitality industry.
Types
Premier Inn London Hammersmith is one of the important parts of long chain of
Whitbread Company. According to a website (www.tripadvisor.co.uk) it ranks 239
out of 1061 hotels in London. It experiences a wide variety of customers, ranging
from young people to business travellers but most of its target customers are young
couples and business travellers. Two of the sole reasons customers opt for Premier Inn
is its location and affordable prices. Most of the customers find its location as very
convenient one and its price to stay is very reasonable. Its location is central one and a
good thing about it is that yet being central it is out of rush which customers find very
attractive part. It is just one stop away from the tube so its location is not only ideal
but convenient too. It gives a good luxury in a worthwhile deal. It is not expensive in
terms of money considering the services and meal range it provides to its customers.
Per room it charges 59 £ which is a worth considering deal. Apart from these two
main reasons, some of the customers are very attracted by the prompt services and
cleaning criteria. It is the bonus for its goodwill and market reputation as customers
feel a homely and safe environment. It staff is very friendly towards customers and
the level of services are always very prompt and efficient. This automatically
increases customer¶s level of satisfaction and make them come again and again to
same hotel.
Customer care policy:
In order to know some of the ingredients the customer care policy of Premier Inn, we
must have a clear idea about what customer care policy is? According to Turban, a
chain of activities designed to increase customer¶s satisfaction and creating a feeling
of customer that the consumed product or services has been up to his or her mark. It is
a policy of an organization to take care of its customers to a supreme level.
Premier Inn has a very remarkable policy to take care of its customers. One of the
customer care policy is that it has a very effective and efficient top level co
coordinators who take immediate step to resolve the issues of the customers and it
provides a very accurate solution to customer¶s query. The management is keen to
take immediate action when customer satisfaction is in line. It has always given first
preference to its customers by responding in rightly manner to meet its customer¶s
need.
In past, Premier Inn has won National Business Award for its customer care
strategies. It provides 100% guarantee to customers regarding the privacy policy and
cleaning orders. It has a ³Brand Audit´ which monitors the quality of room to ensure
it matches the standards for which Premier Inn is well known. This privacy policy
helps the customers to get direct in contact with the hotel management and ensure that
they are not being over charged for anything.
One of the customer care policy is that along with providing the comfortable
surroundings and friendly environment, it has a suggestion box and web link through
which it gets a feedback from its customers. It does not only just take a feedback but
also response to it so that customers feel that they have been heard. It has strict
criteria to maintain a good discipline and provide a quality services to its customers
which increases the overall satisfaction of the customer. For business travellers it has
special lodging programme. Under which it provides a room to business traveller
according to his convenience along with services from hotel at a special discount rate.
It gives a special privilege to families by providing them a special deals and offering
complimentary products along with deals.
For its internal customers that are the staff members, there is meal along with special
allowances on important occasions which motivates them to work in the hotel and
leads to overall satisfaction of customers.
Importance:
According to a research by a website (www.trainerbubble.com) effective customer
care policy helps an organization to make its grip more prominent on the market
share. Customer is a brand for company, so they must have most effective ways to
satisfy them so that they keep returning to same organization when it comes to
satisfaction.
(According to Sarah Cook) Customer is always about the competitive advantage in
the continuously changing environment. Companies can always increase its
profitability by developing a good customer care policy. An effective customer care
policy improves the overall image of the company in the eye of customers. It also
creates goodwill in the sector by making its reputation as customer care oriented
organization.
Effective policies of customer care ensure that customers have attained right first time
product and services from an organization. It always contributes towards the
hospitality industry in a larger perspective because customer satisfaction is vital for
the hospitality industry. The whole hospitality industry¶s foundation lies on the pillar
of the customers. It is doing and proposing all in order to gain the satisfaction of
customers. Customer¶s satisfaction is a key to succeed in the business and therefore its
importance cannot be denied at any stage. Only those sectors prosper and survive who
take care of their customers and it is only done by keeping and maintaining a good
customer care policy.
According to a research conducted by Henley Centre, a survey results show that
customer feels his importance when he has a right to complaint. Companies who has
effective customer care policy they have always increased their profitability.
Effective customer care policy is not always the one which take immediate response
to a customer complains but it is the one which ensure that similar complain should
never arise again.
According to a survey, 1 dissatisfied customer will take away your 11 customers but 1
satisfied customer will bring 3 more customers. An effective customer care policy
makes customer to think again of the same brand, product or services as their
experience has been good one.
The hospitality services enhance and a business always progress in right direction
when customer care policies are effective and efficient one.
One of the most important things about customer care policy is that it helps the
organization with the value chain, the profitability of organization with increase with
the increase in customer¶s satisfaction and customer satisfaction will only come with
the hospitality services provided by the staff of an organization, so it is important that
staff are tackled in right way so they can satisfy customers through effective policy.
An organization should always see the customer care policy as a guide map to
increase its profitability. In order to survive and stride more in the process of
continuous growth an organization should use a customer care policy as a tool to
march forward.
Evaluation
It is vital for the organization to have an effective customer policy as it help in the
continuous improvement of company. For company its very important to evaluate the
effectiveness of the customer care policies in a rightly manner because it will help the
organization in a long run. By long run I mean to say that it will assist the
organization in the future. A company can make its presence stronger and appealing
towards the customer by maintaining a proper, efficient, and effective customer care
policies.
Having a good policy is never enough as it requires a fine evaluation process too
because no matter how good the polices are written, the practical approach to
implement those policies are very vital and after implementing policies the proper
evaluation is very important because it help the organization to compete in the
dynamic environment. A satisfied customer will always stitch to some organization
which has assist and dealt him in good manner so the future profitability of company
will enhance more if the present policies are well specified and well evaluated.
In case of selected organization, I would like to include that their customer care
polices have been dealt well in past, which has increased customer satisfaction and
therefore it has increased its profitability to a greater extent. This can be understood
by the offer of µGood-night-Sleep¶ which means money will be refunded to customers
who are not 100% satisfied. The internal customers are motivated and work as a team
which has helped the organization in retaining its goodwill in market. If internal
customers are enthusiastic about their progress then organization will eventually
progress. Organization is never about bricks and building, it is from people who work
as a unit to achieve the collective goal. It has help the organization to spread more
outlets as we can see that customer response is a clear indication that they are satisfied
and willing to go because hotel has a sound approach towards customer care policies.
A company can keep on improving and developing more and more as they set good
customer care policies and then evaluating polices in a well defined manner according
to set criteria.
I have concluded from my analysis that only those companies develop in future which
are able to attain customer satisfaction and customers can only be satisfied by using a
customer care policies tool in efficient and effective way.
References:
Cook, S. (2008). "c
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   c    c
 
" (5th
edition)Kogan Page. Pp. 1-5, 29-30, 118-119, 128-129,

Solomon, M. (2010). "  
     c
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" Fast
Company, Pp. 12-28

Turban, E. (2002).  c ! 
. Prentice Hall, Pp. 4-5

Executive Education [Henley Centre for Customer Management] Available:

http://www.henley.reading.ac.uk/executiveeducation/excellence/cl-henleycentrecustomermgmt.aspx.
Last accessed: 28 March 2011.

Premier Inn [Privacy Policy] Available: http://www.premierinn.com/en/home.action. Last accessed: 28

March 2011.

Premier Inn [Premier Travel Inn Winners at National Business Awards for Unique Customer Service
strategy] Available: http://www.premierinn.com/en/news/news_category/national-business-award-
winners-001.html. Last accessed: 28 March 2011.

Trainer Bubble [Effective Customer Care] Available:

http://www.trainerbubble.com/products/effective_customer_care.aspx. Last accessed: 29 March 2011.
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