Customer Relationship Management (A Case Study of Tourism (Hotel) Services in Navi Mumbai)

Customer Relationship Management: A key Success Factor in Services Marketing
(A Case Study of Tourism (Hotel) Services in Navi Mumbai)
Ms Vani Kamath*, Ms Shweta Bhonsale* and Dr. Pradip Manjrekar**
Introduction
In order to survive in this present world of competition, hotels will have to formulate marketing strategies
in a way to not only woo customers toward them but also retain them. The secret here is that retention cost
is very low when compared to the cost of attracting new customers. Some of the basic problems facing
hotels today are provision of better service alternatives to its customers, generation of more income from
non core based services, improving the profitability of the hotel system and above all the "Customer
Retention". The root cause of all these problems lies in the failure to adopt marketing approach. This is so
because the marketing concept will facilitate them to be more scientific in solving their business problems,
satisfy their customer's requirements or needs and maintain a profitable win-win relation with their
customers, which will enable hotels to stay closer to their customers, maintain as well as increase market
share and counter the competition successfully.
The Navi Mumbai Scenario: Hotels in Navi Mumbai are facing high competition both from within the area
and also from other hotels. In order to succeed under existing conditions, hotels will have to perceive the
needs of its customers and devise better means of fulfilling them. In general, most of the studies on hotel
sector deal with an analysis of financial aspects such as profitability, productivity and financial
performance without much concentration on the customer retention, loyalty, etc., which has now changed
in the recent years, with attempts being made to study certain aspects of marketing in hotels. However, a
majority of these studies have been on customer service satisfaction, without much focus on customer
relationship management. Very few attempts have been made to assess the marketing function from a
hoteler's point of view. With a dearth of literature on marketing of hotel services in Navi Mumbai, it is
hoped that the present study makes a humble contribution in this area.
The changes in the present day hotel environment has led to introduction of a marketing philosophy in
banks. The 7 Ps, viz., product, price, promotion, place, people, process and physical evidence of a hotel can
help in meeting customer needs as well as tackling competition and establishing a strong customer base
with customer relationship management as a core function. With the emergence of liberalization in the
Indian hotel system, there is a great change in the future hotel market scenario. The organization structures
have become more customer focused and any further reorganization would depend on future strategy which
would surely have customer relationship management as a focus area. This means that the hotels are now
obliged to make a serious attempt to deal with the problems affecting their future growth and profitability,
with customer orientation being a non-negotiable strategy.
The origin and growth of hotel marketing is something that migrated from the west. Indian hotels are
witnessing the marketing in the correct perspective only in recent times and there is still an absence of
synergistic effort in this direction. But even India is feeling that the times have changed; where once upon a
time most of the customers were only concerned about basic needs, today they are acutely aware of a
multitude of aspects due to the emergence of competition in this sector, bringing them alive to higher levels
of customer service hitherto unknown to their experience. Though the concept of marketing has originated
in hotels in the past, yet efforts have been scattered and without full exploitation of professional marketing
tools. If a hotel wants to become marketing oriented and attain a sustainable competitive advantage, then
there could be three types of strategies that a hotel can adopt, viz., defensive strategy which aims at
protecting and retaining existing customers, offensive strategy which focuses on penetrating new areas
through geographical expansion by adopting innovation and seizing market opportunities and, finally, the
rationalization strategy, which means application of cost reduction methods-thereby being able to service
its customers at a price lower than its competitors.
The marketing in hotels should aim at improving the quality of services rendered by widening the range of
products offered, developing and promoting products which meet the needs of customers and that are
acceptable to them. It should also be at a realistic price which will produce a profit when provided through
methods of sales and services that are reliable and cost effective. Successful hotel marketing depends not
only on marketing strategy and development but commitment at all levels, with the customer focus as the
base. CRM in Hotel Services in India: Prominent features associated with a service sector like hotel sector