Adam Pawlicz University of Szczecin DETERMINANTS OF RESPONSE TO CUSTOMER E-MAIL ENQUIRIES TO HOTELS: EVIDENCE FROM POLAND Adam Pawlicz University of Szczecin Szczecin

Agenda Introduction E-mail as a part of customer service Researching customer satisfaction via e-mails in hospitality Methodology

Introduction The number of Internet users in 2011 has exceeded 2 billions worldwide Tourism organizations that fail to provide an appropriate service via Internet face similar difficulties that those organizations that fail in traditional marketing.

E-mail as a part of customer service E-mail is commonly used in homes and organizations. In hospitality customer still need a personal interaction Will it become obsolete?

Researching customer satisfaction via e-mails in hospitality one country Sample >200 Quality of response is measured in terms of: Number of questions answered Response ratio Response time

Usual hypothesis Hotel size Chain Star rating Others

Methodology e-mails has been sent to hotels across one country – Poland E-mail sent twice, to 200 hotels Sample stratified across hotel category and regions

Methodology (2) Hypthotesis Quality of e-mail responses in big hotels is better than in small ones. Quality of e-mail responses in better in hotels with higher category. Quality was conceptualized as a set of three elements: (a) response rate, (b) information depth and (c) response time.

Results of the survey (Response behaviour and star rating (Information depth) – 2b) Category High Low Total No. of hotels 102 63 165 Mean of answered questions 3,18 2,94 3,09 t = 1,25 α = 0,05 tCV = 1,97

Results of the survey (hotel size) Poland 2011 Austria 2002 Response rate Not supported Information depth Supported Response time Partly supported

Results of the survey (star rating) Poland 2011 Austria 2002 Response rate Supported Information depth Not supported Response time

Thank you for your attention Σας ευχαριστώ για την προσοχή σας adam.pawlicz@wzieu.pl