LRA Develops Innovative Quality Assurance/Mystery Shopping Program for Leading Canadian Hotel Compan
Audit to Measure Functional and Emotional Elements of "The Delta Hotels Guest Experience"
TORONTO, OT/HORSHAM, PA, October 27, 2005. LRA Worldwide, Inc., one of North America's leading providers of "Customer Experience Management" (CEM) services, will design and implement a unique quality assurance program for Delta Hotels, Canada's leading hotel management company. In keeping with the company's brand promise of warm and caring personal service, the mystery shopping program that LRA has designed will capture and score the elements of personal engagement that Delta Hotels - and its guests - value most at its 37 hotel and resort properties located from Newfoundland to British Columbia.
"We were confident bringing on LRA as a partner because they clearly understood the promise of our brand, from their initial proposal, to their presentation to our regional managers, through the design of the mystery shopping program," explained Paul Gardian, Delta Hotels' Executive Director of Rooms and Guest Experience. "LRA helped turn the 'intangible' into 'tangible' measuring posts."
LRA brings a unique perspective to the project, as Quality Assurance/Mystery Shopping programs are only one tool in its set of CEM services. With many clients, LRA bundles its quality assurance services with a standards review and writing process, the design and development of related training programs, and rigorous "voice of customer" and employee engagement research. In this way, LRA helps clients "operationalize the brand" - turn brand promise and customer strategy into operational reality. Thus, with its CEM background, LRA is positioned to not only help Delta Hotels measure the guest experience but to identify opportunities to improve the guest experience at either the property or corporate level.
In addition to Delta Hotels, LRA provides similar customized QA programs - as well as full CEM support - to a number of leading brands in lodging, hospitality and leisure, both internationally and domestically. Among them are Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Troon Golf, Hyatt Hotels, Grupo Posadas S.A. de C.V., Summit Hotels & Resorts, Radisson Hotels & Resorts, Pestana Hotels & Resorts, Hard Rock Hotels, The PGA TOUR - and many others.
"With our range of services, we will serve as a true partner to Delta Hotels, not just as a QA vendor," said John Roberto, the LRA Executive Vice President leading the Delta Hotels project. "I think this level of engagement was reassuring to Paul. He was seeking a partner to approach the project not with the mindset of identifying deficiencies, but of enhancing their standing as the premier hotel company in Canada."
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