Designing The Model of Customer Delight in The Hotel Industry Based on Grounded Theory

The present study has been conducted in the framework of a qualitative approach, with the aim of explaining the process of customer delight in the hotel industry, using a systematic design of grounded theory. The data collection tool was semi-structured interviews that continued until the theoretical saturation was achieved by using purposive and theoretical sampling method with 30 experts. By constant comparative data analysis and writing theoretical memoranda and using the data analysis steps including open, axial and selective coding using Maxqda software, finally 98 concepts and 25 categories were counted and Requirements related to the validity and reliability of qualitative research were confirmed. The results show that the factors of personalization of customer care behaviors, professional skills of employees, open communication style with customers, Sincere and gracious behaviors, perceived value and quality of services, positive emotions experienced by the customer, engaging the customer's senses and fulfilling customer needs, Introduced as the causal conditions on creating the core phenomenon of customer delight, the strategies adopted in response to the core phenomenon have been measures such as customer focus, continuous monitoring of service innovation, application of service excellence strategy, customer expectations management, employee empowerment, Implementation of knowledge management in the organization and design of marketing mixed, which are influenced by the contextual conditions of organizational culture, management commitment to customer delight and customer engagement and intervening conditions by increasing expectations, increasing customer delight costs and reducing the effectiveness of delighted actions, lead to results such as organizational consequences and customer behavioral intentions.