Customer Expectations Are Managed in Term Paper

In addition to these aspects of the training programs that fuel the unique culture of Marriott, there is also recognition of regional and local differences in customs of customers (Altinay, 2007). The combining of the externally-facing strategies for creating a community of customers and in effect recruiting them as customers is balanced with the development of a highly unique internal culture that revolves around creating tangible value for customers from inherently intangible services.

Recommendations

In assessing the performance e of Marriott from personal experience in addition to the cited research, it is clear that the company is strong at delivering an adequate level of customer service (Zeithami & Bitner, 2005), yet can improve in exceeding customers' expectations in the area of pleasure travel and global business travel. The company excels today in U.S. business travel, yet from experience, has shown difficulty making the transition to purely pleasure-based travel. The company's resort hotels in Hawaii for example still have a services pricing structure more suited to corporate travelers and as a result do not reflect the bundling pricing prevalent in that segment of the market.

The following are recommendations to Marriott for increasing the level of performance in the pleasure travel segment:

First, Marriott needs to intensively train those employees in the remote resort locations in both vernal and nonverbal communications as personalized service as integral to their brand.The points made by (Sundaram & Webster, 2000) are a case in point.

Second, Marriott need to concentrate more on social media of all types specifically to increase their reputation in the pleasure segments of the hospitality industry. Bill Marriott, CEO, has his own blog today which isn't a PR ploy and is refreshing in its honesty. Yet much more could be done to stimulate word-of-mouth advertising for the pleasure travel segment of Marriot, and research has shown this is one of the three critical signals of service quality (Dean & Lang, 2007).

Third, Marriott needs to continue to push their culture to be even stronger in terms of training employees to be customers and transforming customers into employees ((Bowers & Martin, 2007).

Fourth, the build-out of the community and loyalty programs is needed, specifically in the areas of integrating with other hotel chains that are exceptionally strong and adept in their process expertise in these markets.

EXECUTIVE SUMMARY

Background and Introduction

Main Conclusions

Recommendations

MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPECTATIONS at MARRIOTT

Background

Nonverbal Communications Are an Essential Part of Brand Building

Social Media and Word-of-Mouth in Pleasure Travel Critical

Transforming Employees into Customers, and Customers Into Employees.....