Typology of Clients and Their Roles in Innovation in Hotels (Case Study: Ardabil Hotels)

Extended Abstract: Service organizations such as hotels seek to achieve efficiency and profitability in the development of appropriate services to clients. Thus¡ in competition with others¡ those organizations are successful that have creativity and innovation in creating opportunities and can use the existing opportunities innovatively. In today’s turbulent market environment¡ many businesses are facing increasing competition and they have to increase the quality of their products and services. In some businesses such as travel¡ tourism¡ catering and banking the delivery of high quality services to consumers is increasingly recognized as a key factor affecting the performance of the firm. Some dissatisfied customers express their dissatisfaction to sellers through their complaining behaviors¡ while others do not necessarily report their dissatisfaction directly to the sellers. They tend to remain silent about the problems¡ or they seek support via social networking sites. Because of these tendencies¡ it is not enough to retain or recover customers just by handling complaints in e-commerce. Other post-purchase behaviors triggered by dissatisfaction should also be carefully examined
In the tourism industry¡ the study about service quality¡ customer satisfaction and intention to revisit are important elements for developing marketing strategies about how tourism products are designed to satisfy the needs of target market.
One of the best ways for achieving innovation is the use of customer''s information¡ capabilities¡ complaints and grievances. With all these in mind¡ the present research investigates the role of client kinds (current¡ satisfied¡ dissatisfied¡ comparative and critical) on innovation in hotel services. Many organizations are considered troublesome dissatisfied customers while they give you the weaknesses of the organization without cost and this provides an opportunity for organizations to improve their services.
Hotel and lodging services as one of the important pillars of the tourism industry''s need for capital and consumer information for this type of service institutions is more necessary. The hotel managers and staff can viewpoints and fuels complaints of customers use to improve their services.
Lee¡ et al. (2004) investigated the relationship between service quality and satisfaction and their influences on behavioral intentions among foreign visitors. They found that service quality proved to be an antecedent of satisfaction¡ and satisfaction played a partial mediating role between service quality and behavioral intention. Baloglu¡ et al. (2003) examined the relationships among destination performance¡ overall satisfaction¡ and behavioral intention of various market segments among Canadian visitors to Las Vegas. They found that overall satisfaction played a mediating role between destination performance and behavioral intention¡ both at the individual segment level and at the aggregate sample level. Nevertheless¡ they did not find a direct relationship between destination performance and behavioral intention. While Cole and Scott (2004) studied the mediating role of experience quality between performance quality and overall satisfaction¡ the results showed that experience quality fully mediated the relationship between performance quality and overall satisfaction¡ while overall satisfaction in turn had a significant effect on revisit intention.
The research method is descriptive-correlation. A questionnaire was used as the main tool to collect data. The standardized Duverger Questionnaire was used to evaluate the kinds of customers. Cummings and Paramita Questionnaire were utilized to evaluate innovation. The sample included 130 employees and managers of hotels in Ardabil. Pearson correlation coefficient and multiple regressions were used to analyze the data. To determine the validity and reliability of Cronbach''s alpha coefficient was used. Client divided to five ordinary customers¡ satisfied¡ dissatisfied¡ comparator and critics and three types of service innovation and product innovation¡ process innovation and management innovation is tested questionnaires distributed.
Research Findings :Pearson correlation test was used to test hypotheses. results showed that there is a positive correlation between client kinds and innovation in hotels. The five types of customers are positive and significant role in innovation in hotel. Furthermore¡ In order to achieve a decisive role in predicting which of customer innovation regression analysis was used to repeatedly input. results showed that dissatisfied clients had more impact on the innovation than other clients.
The results showed that a significant and positive relationship among the five types of customers and innovation in the hotel. Based on the findings¡ recommendations are made for using dissatisfied customers ideas¡ especially through the Suggestion Box¡ welcoming their requests¡ using personal and follow-up questionnaires as well as getting information about the needs and demands for reform and innovation in the services provided in hotels. Also recommended for each type of asset and the view of all customers as they use¡ each of these different points of view about the hotel can provide and these points of view are necessary to provide an innovative service in the hotel¡ Dissatisfied customers and critics express your weaknesses and customers comparator¡ the strengths of the other hotels you say¡ these are all opportunities that are available to you free of charge and it is you who decide how to use them. According to research findings each customer can help hotels in all three areas of innovation in service and product innovation¡ process innovation and management innovation.