C&D Hotel's customer service manager, Han Zhang, was preparing for the hotel's executive meeting, which would be held the following Wednesday. At the meeting, Zhang would address the senior executives concerning how to improve the hotel's service delivery process. In particular, she needed to present her plans for handling some recent customer complaints, including her recommendation for compensating for the mistakes that had recently taken place during service delivery. Time was running out, and Zhang needed to proceed with these questions carefully in a very limited period of time.

THE C&D HOTEL, XIAMEN

The C&D Hotel was the first five-star deluxe hotel in Xiamen. Its style featured peace, beauty, elegance and warmth. This hotel was the flagship hotel of Xiamen C&D Corporation Limited the largest state- owned corporation group in Xiamen which had a registered capital of RMB 6.5 billion 1, total assets of more than RMB 250 billion, an annual operating revenue of more than RMB 280 billion 2, and total annual profit of more than RMB 8 billion 3. The C&D Group was ranked 71st among China's Top 500 Enterprises and 39th among China's Top 500 Service Enterprises. Due to the elegance of the C&D Hotel, it had served as Xiamen's state guesthouse. The services provided to government guests represented an important part of the operations at C&D Hotel. As a result, the hotel had become known as a deluxe accommodation for both business travellers and leisure tourists.

The hotel's business-customer sector had grown steadily from 2008 to 2010. Since 2011, however, growth in the hotel's leisure-customer sector had taken off, due to China's successful development of the family vacation market. During 2014, the ratio of business customer versus leisure customer was 72 per cent: 28 per cent (see Exhibit 1). A map of C&D Hotel and exterior images of the hotel are shown in Exhibits 2 and 3.

Based on 600 million customer reviews from ctrip.com, C&D Hotel was the only high-end hotel in Fujian Province to win "The 2013 Best Guest Service Prize" and "The 2014 Most Popular Hotel" from Ctrip.com and Brandwisdom.cn.

XIAMEN CITY

Xiamen is a coastal city in China's Fujian Province. As part of the ancient Maritime Silk Route, Xiamen was one of five open trading ports created by the Sino-British Nanjing Treaty in 1842. In 1903, Xiamen's Gulangyu Islet became one of China's two International Settlements (the other is Shanghai) and was known as the "richest square mile on earth." Gulangyu's more than 20 educational institutions pioneered many fields of modern Chinese education. In 1978, Xiamen furthered China's opening-up process when it was designated as one of four Special Economic Zones. Today, Xiamen is one of China's 10 New Special Economic Zones. Xiamen is China's primary commercial, cultural and academic link with Taiwan, as well as a major international shipping centre. Xiamen means "door to the house," referring to the city's centuries- old role as a gateway to China and Southeast Asia. The city is not as developed as Shanghai or Hong Kong, but compared with most other cities in China, Xiamen is vibrant, affluent and modern. In 2002, it received an international award as one of the world's most livable cities.

Exhibit 4 shows the location of the C&D Hotel, Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport and some of the area's popular tourist spots (e.g., Gulangyu Islet, the Ancient Fort at Huli Hill, Baicheng Beach and the Zhongshan Pedestrian Mall).

RECENT CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES

In thinking about her upcoming board meeting, Zhang reflected on the experiences of three recent guests at the C&D Hotel.

Bohai Wang

Bohai Wang was a department manager in a Chinese financial company who had decided to take a vacation in Xiamen with his wife and two children, ages 7 and 4. The Wangs' flight was scheduled to arrive in Xiamen at 9:30 p.m., but the flight was delayed several times because of a typhoon in the area. After waiting for a long period of time inside the airplane, the Wangs finally arrived at the Xiamen airport at 12:31 a.m. After two and a half hours of flying and three hours of delays, they were very tired.

Much to his surprise, when Wang turned on his cellphone at the airport, he saw the following message from the C&D Hotel: "Dear Mr. Wang, we apologize that, due to the delay of your flight, we are unable to provide you with our free hotel shuttle service. We will be waiting for you in the airport lobby and will arrange for taxi service. We will gladly pay for the taxi fare. Have a nice trip."

Since they had no other alternative, the Wangs followed the airport signs to the taxi stand. The line was very long due to multiple flight delays.

"It was supposed to be a 10-minute ride from the airport, but it took us nearly an hour!" Wang complained loudly after arriving at the hotel lobby.

Zhang was working when the family checked in. She apologized to the family and welcomed them to the hotel. "Mr. Wang, your family must be exhausted, and it is now very late. Why don't we check you in, and you can just rest for now. I will address the problem tomorrow."

John Goldberg

John Goldberg was a senior purchasing manager at a Canadian company. During the summer of 2014, his company had sent him to Xiamen for the first time on an important business trip. He had made a reservation for an executive guest room for a five-day period.

Because of a problem with the local weather, Goldberg's flight was delayed by an hour, arriving at 11:30 a.m. at the Xiamen Gaoqi International Airport. After retrieving his luggage, Goldberg saw Chuhua Liu, C&D Hotel's customer relationship manager, holding a colourful banner with his name on it. Liu told him that she had learned about the delayed flight before coming to the airport. She had texted the revised pick- up information to Goldberg, but he had been unable to check his messages as he had been on the plane at the time.

Upon arriving at the hotel vehicle, Liu offered to help load Goldberg's luggage into the trunk, which was part of her duties as a hotel customer relationship manager. However, Goldberg insisted on doing the task himself.

After Goldberg had arrived at the hotel and had spoken with several staff members, Zhang asked him how he had been enjoying his trip. He replied that the hotel and city were beautiful, and he had no problems communicating with the front-line hotel staff. However, he also indicated some concern about having to take a taxi the following day.

Ping Li

Ping Li was a senior manager in a Chinese electronic product-design and manufacturing company. She was visiting Xiamen to attend the China International Fair for Investment and Trade (CIFIT). She checked into the hotel one day before the CIFIT opened, and when she asked for a taxi the next morning at the lobby, she found that several guests were waiting for taxis ahead of her. The hotel guest service staff explained that it was the shift-change time for taxi drivers, so fewer taxis were in service. Furthermore, because of strict traffic control areas around the conference hall hosting the CIFIT, the traffic was worse than on a typical day. As a result of these delays, Li arrived at the conference 10 minutes late.

After Li finished her business activities during the CIFIT, she invited her business partners to join her for dinner at the C&D Hotel's Western-style restaurant. They arrived at the restaurant on time, but the serving staff were busy serving other customers. In the meantime, the Wangs also arrived at the restaurant, and the manager immediately took them inside. Li complained about the late customers being seated first.

After Li and her guests were seated, the dinner went well. However, as the server was collecting the dishes, one of the guests put his fork and knife in the position that indicated he was finished eating, and the server immediately picked up his dish. The guest said he was unfamiliar with Western food culture, and he explained to the server that he had yet not finished eating. This incident had created an awkward moment for Li and her guests.

THE EXECUTIVE MEETING

C&D Hotel management took regular notice of various complaints, and Zhang needed to compile a complaint report for the management team. Moreover, Zhang also needed to develop a strategy for increasing the hotel's service quality and fulfilling a variety of customer needs. She would be expected to present her plan to the senior executive during next Wednesday's management meeting.

write the executive summary and summary of important facts.