Describe your chosen organisation

The organisation I have chosen for my assignment is The Pier Hotel. This is a small business located in the heart of Limerick city. It has 55 bedrooms and is home to The Quays Bistro Bar and Restaurant, which is a modern sports themed bar. The building is located on Sarsfield Street, Limerick and was previously used as an apartment building with a cafe on the ground floor called Blueberry Hill. In 1999 the building was sold and the new owner opted for construction for a new business.

He had the building renovated into a hotel and leased it out as The Sarsfield Bridge Hotel.

It was a thriving business from the week of opening boasting river and castle views, beautifully decorated rooms and restaurant which served great food at reasonable prices. The Sarsfield Bridge Hotel was taken over by new management in 2004, but the reputation of the hotel only grew. In 2008 shortly after the recession hit Ireland the Sarsfield Bridge Hotel closed due to insufficient business levels.

Later the same year The Kenny Group, a local Limerick based company, turned the hotel into a hostel for people seeking refuge.

The potential in the hotel was seen again by a local business man; he bought the property and refurnished the establishment in an attempt to bring it back to its original success as it was as The Sarsfield Bridge Hotel. He also renamed the hotel to The Pier Hotel. Although, it has yet to reach the level success it used to maintain before recession The Pier Hotel has upheld business and gained more popularity in the past year alone.

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I really wanted to choose this particular business because of its history. I thought that good or poor customer service would have been a major factor in varying success under different management.

An internal customer is someone who works within a business and works as part of a team to provide the best possible service. Take a hairdressers for example; a receptionist makes appointments, the hairdresser styles/cuts hair and the apprentice cleans the area used by the hairdresser. If the receptionist logs an appointment incorrectly it can have a bad effect on the hairdresser and the customer. Or if the apprentice does not clean the area of the last customer can cause for business not to be up to standard.

External customers are basically the everyday run of the mill person who is connected to that organisation by way of purchasing a product from that business. For example, a person walks into a bookstore and pays for a book are now an external customer. (Twomey 2012, p. 5) Corporate: These are customers in which supply/receive large supplies to/from a company. An example of this would be when a hospital orders linen, cleaning items/medical supplies they become a corporate customer of the business selling them.

(Twomey 2012, p. 5) Internal Customers of The Pier Hotel Employees of a hotel have to communicate with all departments at all times to maintain the smooth running of the establishment. The reception is the face of this company as it is the first thing you see as you enter the hotel, and it is where you go for any information or to give feedback about the other departments. A function sheet is given and updated on a daily basis to ensure all departments and staff members are up to date with the current events of the hotel.

For example; if the hotel were hosting a birthday function and the customer wanted to make a change in the guest list by having an additional 20 people, this would mean all departments would have to make adjustments. The kitchen would need to order extra food, the bar would need to roster a another staff member on that night, front office would need to adjust the invoice and accommodation would need to have an extra staff member on the next morning to make sure the bar and restaurant is sufficient for breakfast. External Customers of The Pier Hotel

Being a hotel, The Pier has many types of external customers. The majority of hotels refer to their customers as Guests. A guest is a customer who has reserved a room in the establishment, although they may eat at the restaurant, or have a beverage at the bar they are still referred to as guest. Whereas, a person who makes a reservation for the restaurant or just walks in to have a meal or visit the bar, is known as either a customer or patron.

The hotel offers a function room for events such as birthday parties, office parties, christening etc.and the external customers that book such a function are known in the hotel as an event customer. Corporate Customers of The Pier Hotel The hotel may be a small business but it has a big corporate customer base. To keep the business flowing in a smooth manner the hotel depends on various suppliers to deliver facilities for daily use. Take the accommodation department for example, this department needs cleaning supplies, laundry service and room conveniences (milk, tea, coffee, shower cap, soap etc. ) to maintain the 55 bedrooms at a high standard for guests.

This means that the hotel requires another company, such as cleaning supplier, to provide the service and therefore become a corporate customer. Another type of corporate customer of The Pier Hotel is known as corporate guests. When a business is sending an associate to Limerick for training or other purposes they are a corporate guest as the company is paying for their stay. This is good for the hotel and the business in question as the hotel now has a long term or repeat guest (a guest who returns on a regular basis) and the business gets a special rate that saves on company expense, so they become corporate customers of each other.