| dc.description.abstract | Customer retention management (CRM) is imperative to the success of today’s hotel
sector in Donegal, as it is more cost efficient to retain valuable customers than to gain
new one’s and in the current economic climate this is of high importance. The
Donegal hotel sector currently implements CRM strategies that have been updated
since the economic downturn. The most common CRM strategy used in the hotel
sector is Customer Loyalty Programs, which theory suggests that in the hospitality
sector Loyalty Programs are common. There is confusion of marketing in the Donegal
hotel sector and a factor influencing this is the reductions in marketing budgets and
that marketing personnel tend not to be marketing managers but rather owners and
managers. Customer retention management has important elements in order to be
effective. Customer satisfaction, relationship marketing, loyalty programs, data
collection, complaints handling services, recovery strategies and post purchase follow
up. The research process carried out by two phases, one descriptive in approach and
one exploratory in approach. The researcher identified that by using triangulation it
allowed the data from both phases to be corroborated and analysed with reference to
theory highlighted in the literature review. The apparent themes that arose from the
research processes included that loyalty programs were the most common method of
customer retention in the Donegal Hotel sector. It was also apparent that external
initiatives available by Failte Ireland and other local and national bodies had high
usage. Finally in relation to the measurement of marketing initiatives, 25% of hotels
stated that they do not measure the performance of the marketing used. In phase two
of the research process respondents commented that marketing metrics is where the
Donegal hotel sector fall. The researcher recommends that hotels develop written
marketing strategies that combine CRM initiatives with other marketing processes and
to implement the use of marketing metrics to measure the performance of all
marketing activities implemented in order to be cost efficient and effective in the
marketing budgets | en |
