Donnell Truong is the chief operating office of a vast real-estate empire. His major holding is resort hotels. His resort properties are rated five-star hotels and are in over forty countries. The challenge of keeping such a high rating in an extremely competitive industry that relies so heavily on customer perception and expectations is enormous. All Donnell’s hotels contain a casino. He expects each of his hotel/casino general managers to ensure the clientele are treated as special. More importantly, Donnell demands that the customer satisfaction ratings are always a 5, a rating of outstanding in the survey his hotels administer.

The hotel industry is an excellent example of an industry that depends extensively on suppliers. In addition to the services it provides within its confines, Donnell’s hotels/ casinos offer recommendations to five-star dining, connections to cruises, access to golf courses, membership to local spas, and much more. Consequently, although it does have a supplier relationship management program for its direct suppliers such as food suppliers, liquor suppliers, etc., Donnell decided they must go beyond this “routine” approach and develop a supplier certification for the businesses they recommend to their guests. Donnell believes this is necessary because his five-star rating depends on his clientele’s total experience, including his resorts’ recommendation of a cruise, restaurant, etc. to rich clientele. Therefore, these indirect or complementary suppliers must be certified as well.

Donnell is confident that the businesses that “supply” the added amenities that influence the total experience for his clientele would be supportive of this initiative. Much of their business is dependent on his resorts’ recommendation and goodwill. In theory, being part of his complementary supplier certification program is a win–win for everyone. The challenge is that these “complementary suppliers” provide services, not goods. What would be the key metrics?

Donnell and his executive team perused the research on strong supplier relationships. For their situation, they believed four intrinsic characteristics were paramount—trust, commitment, adaptation, and personal relationships. Donnell was big on quantitative performance metrics. The next action was to identify the specific metrics that would demonstrate the “complementary suppliers” adherence to the four intrinsic characteristics.

List and defend any other metrics you think should be used for this certification.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

1 The characteristics are best enough however need additional me... View the full answer