| |
Horsham, PA, United States, 04/17/2008 – K Hotels, the exclusive collection of some of the world’s finest boutique hotels, has partnered with LRA Worldwide, Inc. to create a Quality Assurance evaluation program as a service for its membership. Branded “K Quality,” the program was designed to help K Hotels members deliver an enhanced guest experience.
LRA, a leading consulting company in the rapidly-growing discipline of Customer Experience Management (CEM), worked with K Hotels leadership to create the specific standards of the evaluation protocol. LRA’s Quality Assurance (QA) practice worked directly with the internal K Hotels team, focusing primarily on how best to measure and score the boutique brand-specific elements of the K program.
“This is an important step in the evolution of the K Hotels brand and in the value we supply our members,” explained Lesley Carey, President. “You only get one chance to introduce a program of this nature to your membership, so we wanted to make sure that we designed and deployed a valuable, actionable tool. LRA has a stellar reputation in the Quality Assurance field, so they were a natural fit to guide us in this process.”
In all, LRA’s Quality Assurance practice works with seven of the top 10 hotel companies in the world, conducting nearly 13,000 evaluations each year across all sectors of the industry. In addition to its large corporate lodging clients such as Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Choice Hotels and Hyatt Hotels Corporation, LRA also works with several smaller high-end boutique and resort companies such as The Kessler Collection, Destination Hotels & Resorts and the Preferred Hotel Group. In addition, LRA provides QA services to industry leaders in sports (the PGA TOUR, Delaware North Companies), Conference Centers (ARAMARK), Gaming (Churchill Downs, Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos), Homebuilding (Toll Brothers) and Travel (The Port Authority of New York and New Jersey).
“This was a great opportunity to assist K Hotels in laying the foundation for ‘K Quality’,” said Shannon Pruce, the LRA Account Director who worked on the program design and training. “We look forward to expanding the program as K Hotels grows its sales and marketing membership program.”
About K Hotels
K Hotels is a Sales and Marketing Representation Company that is the modern source for independent boutique hotels across the globe which travelers and travel planners have relied upon for over fifteen years. With a portfolio of more than 50 member hotels, the K collection provides full service sales and marketing resources and access to loyal travelers in major markets such as New York, Chicago, Los Angeles, Miami, Mexico, Tokyo, Jakarta and London. Member hotels must qualify for membership in the K Collection as measured on four- and five-star hotel standards.
As part of a one-of-a-kind and unsurpassed hotel collection, members get the benefits of a full-time, dedicated sales team, exclusive member events and industry tradeshow presence, worldwide brand affiliation, an exclusive KH GDS booking code, comprehensive database marketing, revenue management, Quality Assurance evaluations, public relations programs and an innovative web-accessible database of corporate, leisure and group account information. K Hotels services also include consultation in design and purchasing, sustainability practices, revenue management and advanced hospitality technology solutions. Headquartered in Beverly Hills, with representation in New York City, Chicago, Jakarta, Tokyo, Costa Rica and London, K Hotels seamlessly blends the capabilities of a global hotel company with the needs of independent hotel operators.
About LRA Worldwide, Inc.
LRA Worldwide, Inc. is a leading consulting, organizational development and research company that specializes in Customer Experience Management (CEM). LRA helps companies and brands design and deliver the optimal customer experience across all key touch points using an integrated suite of services that measure and improve service quality, customer satisfaction, employee performance, loyalty, customer advocacy and profitability. LRA specializes in “operationalizing the brand” – turning brand promise and customer strategy into operational reality. LRA’s CEM practice areas include Customer Experience Strategy Consulting, Standards Development & Content Management, Organizational Development & Training, Research and Quality Assurance & Mystery Shopping; these are either deployed together in a strategic manner to continually monitor and improve the customer experience or deployed individually to address a specific tactical client need.
LRA’s clients include some of the world’s leading companies and brands, including Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Hard Rock Hotels & Casinos, the PGA TOUR, Hyatt Hotels Corporation and the NBA.
|
zach.conen[.]lraworldwide.com 
