Customer Relationship Management Practices in the Hotel Industry in Kenya
Abstract
With the increasing competition that businesses especially in hotels industry face today in
order to survive, firms have to adjust their approach towards customer relationship
management practices and come up with response strategies for dealing with the highly
competitive environment. Traditionally hotels are more focused on the physical product and
services. Hotels industry today is waking up to consumers who demand consistent delivery
of the brand promise, changing needs and sensitivity to socio-political both locally and
globally. This study sought to determine customer relationship management practices in the
hotels industry in Kenya. The study was conducted through a cross sectional descriptive
survey. The study used semi structured questionnaire as a primary data collection instrument.
The questionnaires was administered thorough sales account managers of the 22 hotels
comprising of 6 five star hotels, 8 four star hotels and 8 three star hotels in terms of rankings,
which represents 10% of target population. Data collected was quantitative; analysis was by
descriptive statistics and presented in form of charts.The study findings illustrates indeed
there are several customers relationship management practices known in the hotel industry.
However it is emerging that most of hotels are faced with challenges in effectively
implementing all the known CRM practices which is mainly attributed to lack of
technological skills, organizational goodwill, status quo and budgeting allocations towards
successful implementation of the same. The study concludes that CRM Practices is an
important component because of incremental impact it has to the market share. The CRM
practices tracks customers interactions with the firm and allows employees to instantly draw
information about the customers such as past sales, services, recalls, experiences, feedback
and trends of universal problems. The study is recommended that managers and
organizational heads should not only continuously strive to support CRM activities in the
hotels, but also embrace all CRM practices that make the hotels more competitive to ever
changing customer’s trends.
Citation
Masters of Business AdministrationPublisher
University of Nairobi