Marriott Hotels – Measuring Customer Satisfaction Online

International hotel group Marriott recently commissioned ORC International to conduct its first-ever online 'Conference Standards Customer Audit" among buyers of its UK conference facilities. The customer satisfaction and mystery audit research is a continuous tracking study and its main objective is to monitor the satisfaction levels of business clients who organise and/or host conferences at Marriott hotels.

ORC International will conduct the survey wholly online. The day after an event the conference organisers/hosts are e-mailed the link to the web questionnaire. As well as providing their views, respondents are given the option of requesting contact from Marriott Hotels to discuss their experience. Throughout the year 7,500 interviews will be conducted.

The research programme comprises two components - an anonymous standards audit, and a customer satisfaction survey. The anonymous standards audit evaluates whether staff are adhering to company standards that were put in place to ensure customers receive the best possible service. Actual Marriott clients are recruited to act as anonymous assessors on the day of an event. A total of 50 hotels are being audited several times a year, with the focus being on service delivery in areas such as pre-event contact, meeting room set-up, quality of catering, cleanliness of restrooms etc.

As soon as each mystery audit and customer satisfaction questionnaire is completed it is loaded onto ORC International's portal facility. The portal enables management staff from each hotel to access their own hotel's information, including the completed surveys, the scores that are being achieved and the response rates. Respondent anonymity is maintained and access to the very latest scores for all hotels - centrally and regionally - enables more strategic decisions to be taken for development of new product and standards.

Mark Kemp, Marriott's business marketing manager commented: 'Customer insight will drive Marriott's product development and guest service initiatives in the UK conference and events market. Being able to access information instantly through ORC International's online portal has proved to be highly advantageous, particularly as previously we had to wait for quarterly reports to see this data. This approach is providing us with an opportunity to have a continuous conversation with our customers and make sure the products and services we provide are consistently meeting their needs'.

All articles 2006-23 written and edited by Mel Crowther and/or Nick Thomas unless otherwise stated.

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