Impact of Soft Skills on Customer Loyalty

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Acknowledgement

I would like to take this chance for thanking my research facilitator, friends & family for support they provided & their belief in me as well as guidance they provided without which I would have never been able to do this research.



DECLARATION

I, (Your name), would like to declare that all contents included in this thesis/dissertation stand for my individual work without any aid, & this thesis/dissertation has not been submitted for any examination at academic as well as professional level previously. It is also representing my very own views & not essentially which are associated with university.

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Executive Summary

In this study we try to explore the concept of customer loyalty in a holistic context. The main focus of the research is the impact of soft skills on customer loyalty. The research tries to gauge the impact of helpfulness and friendliness on customer loyalty in hotel industry. For the better understanding of the research topic, a survey is done of Hilton Hotel. Mixed methodology is used to carry out this result. Secondary research was done through literature search of different articles , journals and books. A questionnaire based survey was also done in order to understand the customer loyalty with respect to soft skills such as friendliness and helpfulness.Contents

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTI

DECLARATIONII

EXECUTIVE SUMMARYIII

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION3

1.1 Background of the Study3

1.2 Research Objective3

1.3 Problem statement3

1.4 Hypothesis3

CHAPTER 2: LITERATURE REVIEW5

2.0 Soft skills7

2.01 Professional skills and hospitality sector7

2.1 Hotel Business9

2.2 Customer Loyalty in Hotel Business9

2.3 Loyalty program11

2.4 Key Drivers for Return to Property in Hotel Industry11

2.41 Relationship of Service Quality, Customer Satisfaction, and Customer Loyalty12

2.5 From Host and Guest to Hostings and Guestings13

2.6 Hospitality Foodscapes14

2.7 Hospitality Drinkscapes15

2.8 Hospitality Restscapes17

2.9 Hospitable Encounters19

3.1 Research Methodology21

3.2 Research Design21

3.4 Research Instrument22

3.5 Participants22

CHAPTER 4: DISCUSSION AND ANALYSIS23

4.1 Overview of the Profile Hilton Hotel23

4.2 Portfolio of hotels and brands23

4.3 Results from SPSS24

4.4 Discussion60

CHAPTER 5: CONCLUSION63

Recommendations64

REFERENCES65

Questionnaire69

Profile74

CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

First, it is to understand and make tangible the concept of customer loyalty, through the study of its principles, its determinants and its players. Then the study will transpose the Hilton Hotel in Vienna to look at the concept of customer loyalty, as an issue of major corporate strategy.

Finally, we will devote ourselves to an analysis of the survey of classified hotels, to study and measure the phenomenon of "loyalty."

1.2 Research Objective

Objective of this study is to define the determinants of customer loyalty in a highly competitive, as a basis to define the retention strategy of a company. We are interested in the loyalty in major hotels.

1.3 Problem statement

Achievement of customer loyalty is important in the hotel industry in order to make customers return to the property. Hilton Hotel as one of the largest hotel chains in world is also striving to achieve customer retention. Soft skills such as friendliness and helpfulness are the key drivers for return to property.

1.4 Hypothesis

Soft skills play a vital role in achieving customer loyalty, specifically in hotel industry. Friendliness and helpfulness of staff have a higher ...