Reference no: EM133338220

Case Study: Sanctum Sanctorum runs a series of luxury vacation resorts. They were established in the early 1990s and renovated in the mid-2000s to address the increasing demand in the resort industry. As an increasing number of luxury hotels opened in the area, Sanctum Sanctorum found it difficult to garner repeat customers. By the mid 2010s, Stephen Strange, the company's CEO, decided to differentiate the company by focusing on the customer experience and "reinvent themselves each year." To do so, Stephen created a "customer experience team" that would monitor customer behaviours to identify any minor annoyances at the resorts. Every 2 or 3 months the team's suggestions would be incorporated into the resort's operations. These changes often were very minor, but still necessitated a change in the way employees did their jobs. For example, Sanctum Sanctorum began accepting American Express credit cards after the customer experience team noticed some customers attempted to pay with the card. Employees would now have to initiate such transactions through a different menu. Another instance saw the company introducing compost bins throughout the resort when they overheard some customers commenting about throwing food into the general waste bin. Janitorial staff adjusted their routes to accommodate the new bins. Stephen Strange noted that there has been a sharp increase in customer satisfaction ratings since they shifted to this new strategy with many complementing the resort on their attention to detail. Peter Parker, a front desk employee feels that the changes can sometimes be stressful. He noted that the most recent change was the shift to tablet point of sale systems (implemented after a customer commented they would make the resort look more modern). This came just 6 months after a shift to online check-ins.

Questions:

1. What type of change is being used by Sanctum Sanctorum? Justify your answer
2. Which change model should Sanctum Sanctorum use when implementing each change? Justify your answer.
3. Describe how the change model noted above could be used to implement a change seen at Sanctum Sanctorum. Be sure to link your answer to the case.
4. Describe 2 strategies Stephen can use to mitigate resistance to this change.