Sheraton Kampala Hotel last week engaged in an exercise aimed at reaching out to its customers all over the country and across the region. This was part of Starwood’s Global Blitz exercise with a theme “Unstoppable” and had over 1000 hotels under the Starwood brand participating in similar activities.
Last year Sheraton had a ‘Downtown Sales Blitz’ and it was used a dipstick to understand the public’s perception of the Hotel, its products and services. Based on the findings the Sheraton sales team and the staff that participated had the opportunity to discover some of the possible areas for improvement and also used some positive feedback which the team has used to enhance their performance and service delivery. This was also an opportunity for the team to reach out to a market segment that was previously untapped.
“Following our sales blitz dipstick that we had last year downtown Kampala, we got a lot of feedback that we have used to improve our services and customer care. This year we conducted another sales blitz with the theme “Unstoppable” because we are the only International Brand hotel in Uganda and boast a rich heritage. During these sales blitz’ we get to meet our customers’ 1 on 1 and try to understand them and their specific needs as we also inform them of our various products, services and offers. This year we used a different unique approach where we called many of our customer from our data base all in Uganda, South Africa, Rwanda, South Sudan just to mention a few. Participants included senior managers from various departments as well as members of the Sales teams. Each member was assigned a session in the “War Room” to interact with customers. This was done to help us understand our customers more and use the insight to improve our interaction with customers all the time.” Explained the Sheraton Marketing director Ms. Jennifer Musiime.
The hospitality industry in Uganda is extremely competitive and the management of Sheraton Kampala acknowledges this fact, so it strives hard to stay on top by trying out new things like improving their menus, improving their services and hiring international chefs, creating new dining concept and partnering with various events to fully utilize the hotel’s sprawling garden space. The sales blitz helps also helps Sheraton discover new things the customers’ desire to find at Sheraton and this has so far helped improve Sheraton.
“We are privileged to have a good market share in Uganda and we are not resting until we have achieved a consistent market share leader status. This year we have a lot in stock for our customers like recently we set up an amazing Women’s day dinner with a theme of “Phenomenal Woman…” after a hugely successful Valentine’s day celebration at the Paradise and Seven Seas Restaurants and this is just a sneak peak of what we have lined up this year. Sheraton has definitely stood the test of time and understands the needs and demographics of the hospitality industry. We often translate this experience into our impeccable services and customer care.” Concluded Jennifer.