The chain has developed its own system of Integral Quality Management of Service called Quality Focus. Its objective is to improve the quality of the services that are offered, by increasing the involvement and training of its employees and the implementation of defined quality standards.

Quality Focus is managed through an international team integrated by a Quality Coordinator in each Business Unit, a Responsible for Quality in every hotel and other participants in different work groups. This team focuses on the appropriate compliance to the service procedures of each hotel, defining action plans taking into account the results of Quality Focus, as well as reporting all the relevant information for its monitoring and control at an international level.



In 2008, more than 400 Quality Points had been defined, which had been assessed in all the hotels, and which allow more options and areas to be covered for the improvement of the chain’s quality of products and services:

• Customer Satisfaction Surveys. During 2008 32,748 surveys were received with an average assessment of 8.02 out of 10 for all the aspects evaluated.
  
  
• J.D. Power Surveys. External surveys of customers using a European quality level Benchmark among the main businesses in the catering sector. These are phone surveys of customers.
  
  
• Mystery Guest. An external auditor measures the quality of service to the customers based on the standards and procedures defined by the Company. In 2008, 324 hotels were assessed (compared to 182 hotels in 2007) having obtained an average assessment of 7.27 (7.22 in 2007).
  
  
• Customer Service Department. Centralizes and manages all communication with the guest: opinions, suggestions, complaints and congratulations. After the launch, in 2008, of the NH Hoteles Corporate Responsibility web site, guests have a new channel in order to send their suggestions or complaints. In 2008 around 2,000 communications.

Since its implementation, Quality Focus has been essential in integrating the quality management in the entire Company and progress in continuous improvement, both in the hotels that have been part of the Company for some time as well as the new acquisitions. Also, various initiatives have been identified to improve the quality management system, in particular:

• The Customer Satisfaction Surveys have become quarterly instead of annually, during 2008. The aim of NH Hoteles is to carry them out weekly from January 2009.
  
  
• The Quality Focus team has been consolidated by sharing best practices and suggestions, as well as the indentified areas of improvement, in the periodic meetings.
  
  
• The amount of Quality Points has risen from 100 to 400, which are now assessed in all the hotels, allowing greater detail.
  
  
• The QA Report tool has been developed which allows the path of each initiative to be tracked, as well as the detail of the quality evolution. In this way, it is made easier for each department and each corporate hotel to be able to define specific action plans to increase guest satisfaction.

NH Hoteles’ Department of Innovation and Quality focuses its efforts on the creation of new services and products with high added value. The intention is to find out more about our customers’ expectations, to enable to anticipate us and offer more personalized services. For this, NH Hoteles has an Integrated System of Customer Relationship Management (CRM), a tool that allows constant communication with them, allowing the adaptation of a wide range of proposals. The CRM Front Office allows:

• The maximization and standardization of customer information.
  
  
• The identification of new business opportunities.
  
  
• The improvement of customer service.
  
  
• Improvement in the effectiveness and efficiency of communication actions.
  
  
• The optimization and personalization of the processes.
  
  
• The improvement of offers and cost reduction.
  
  
• The cultivation of customer loyalty.
  
  
• Increased sales.

NH Hoteles considers it important to raise the awareness of our guests in order to work with them on the environment during their stay in the hotels, by small gestures, such as not wasting soap, not wasting water and choosing if they want to change their towels daily or every two days with the corresponding saving of water and energy that this entails. For this a dynamic awareness campaign has been started using various messages in rooms and bathrooms in which guests are invited to bear in mind small actions they can take during their stay to benefit the environment.