CUSTOMER CARE PRACTICES INFLUENCING CUSTOMER LOYALTY IN SEVENTH-DAY ADVENTIST CHURCH’S GUEST HOUSES IN KENYA
Abstract
Customer loyalty is viewed by this study as an ingredient that would yield repeat
business in the hotel sector. This study had an assumption that the low guest count
experienced by the 3 Seventh-day Adventist Guest Houses in 2017 room occupancy
statistics was as a result of inadequate customer loyalty. To address this, the study
sought to evaluate customer care practices in form of service quality, customer
satisfaction, customer relationship management and innovation as influencers of
customer loyalty. To accomplish this, the study collected opinion from 3 main Guest
Houses in Kenya owned by the Seventh-day Adventist Church namely: Adventist
LMS Guest House in Nairobi; Watamu Adventist Beach Resort in Kilifi and Eldoret
Adventist Guest House in Uasin Gishu County. A sample size of 197 was obtained
from a target population of 224 clients synonymous to weekly room occupancy.
Further, data from 15 middle level management (5 from each facility) was also
collected to enrich the study. The study adopted descriptive, correlation and regression
as research designs to carry out the survey. The questionnaire was the primary
instrument of data collection. It was clear from the findings that the extent of customer
loyalty was above average in the 3 Guest Houses. The study found out that service
quality was the most influential independent variable. The study concluded that there
was a significant relationship between the dependent and independent variables. All
the variables had a p-value of less than 0.05. Aggressive marketing, staff training,
responsive management, sufficient funding to meet guests’ needs and wants were
proposed as possible suggestions to boost customer loyalty prospects.
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