Case study question- Indentify two potential areas of growth for the Essay

Case study question- Indentify two potential areas of growth for the 'Penang' Mutiara' hotel and discuss how these changes might be implemented from an operatio - Essay Example Speed and fast response are other strengths of the Penang Mutiara. Flexibility in exploiting opportunities and employment of staff through multi skill training has created unique strengths. This has resulted in the dependability factor, which a customer in the service industry cherishes and has improved occupancy rates leading to corresponding economies of scale. (www.booksites.net). The hotel can leverage its strengths as there is adequate potential for growth with continuous improvement with reference to organizational quality and performance, focusing on customer satisfaction, through constant incremental improvements to processes including removal of unnecessary activities. (www.managementhelp.com). A service industry has to balance between strategy and operations before it can consider growth options. Since Penang Mutiara is operating as an international destination, it has to see operational management from an international perspective. (Slack: 2003). International guests in the luxury segment whether these are business or tourists seek the comfort of familiarity. Thus if they have been looked after well by a particular hotel once, they would like to continue stay in the same hotel and also recommend this to their friends and associates. Word of mouth is a powerful communication tool for luxury clientele with a strong network. This aspect can be exploited by the Penang Mutiara. Thus a customer loyalty programme is the first growth area recommended for the hotel, exploiting its customer relationship, familiarity with the loyal customers and service orientation. At present the 50 percent returnee guests show that there is adequate potential for growth in this segment may be 70- 75 percent with schemes involving loyalty bonus and also loyalty recommendations which entails that any recommendation made by a customer will gain him loyalty points for him as well as his recommended guest.