Actions to improve services at the Cabarroca and Canímar centers at the UBC matanzas.
In the present work entitled "Actions to improve services in the Cabarroca and Canímar centers of the UBC Matanzas" belonging to the business system of the Revolutionary Armed Forces (FAR), the theoretical-practical problems of the entity under study are analyzed, where it is declared as a general objective to prepare an action plan for the improvement of services in the aforementioned centers.
In the development of the study, different methods and techniques were used, such as: documentary analysis, group dynamics, analysis-synthesis, induction-deduction, logical-historical, interview, survey, observation, method Kendall and the SPSS statistical package version 19.0.
In order to obtain the results, we worked with internal clients (administrative-employees) and with external clients (FAR-family officers). Once the main difficulties have been detected, actions are proposed to be implemented by the entity, aimed at improving services.
Key words: actions, improvement of services.
Introduction
The difficulties and dynamism of the modern world make both consumers and suppliers face new situations on a daily basis. Being able to maintain a good position in the market that manages to satisfy increasingly demanding needs, reach and maintain the desired level of production, as well as the best conditions of service, are purposes that require the search for new ways of seeing and facing the facts.. (German, 2019)
The economic development of a country usually entails the transformation of its production system from agriculture to industry, and from this to services. Authors such as Feás E. (2017), Low P. (2016), Serrano, JC (2011), Delgado N. et al. (2015); they highlight the role of services in the development of current organizations. Among its criteria are the creation of a new mentality and a new state of spirit that must have its beginning at the top of the organization, bringing a new organizational culture and creating a climate of participation and realization of the mission and vision of the organization to better serve the customer.
In Cuba, in relation to the aforementioned, there has been a growing awareness on the part of the organizations' management, where it is recognized that to obtain good economic results it is necessary to continuously improve the quality of products or services. Quality has become one of the essential factors for the effective operation of any organization. All this change in the way of thinking of Cuban managers is given by the current world situation that demands to be more and more professional. (German, 2019)
"Many companies recognize that in order to be truly competitive and stay in the market, they need their products or services to be as desired by the customer and to have the required quality, which can only be achieved through continuous improvement," as López Z says.. and Michelena E. (2014).
In the guidelines of the economic and social policy of the Party and the Revolution for the period 2016-2021 approved in the VII Congress of the PCC, reference is made to the increase in productivity, the diversification of offers, the need to enhance the training of human resources and raising the quality of services with an adequate value for money, which is why Cuban service companies are obliged to implement this policy to ensure better operation.
The business sector of the Revolutionary Armed Forces, specifically the Central Commercial Administrative Unit (UACC) is not an exception, since it is made up of companies where services prevail and their main clients are officers of the Revolutionary Armed Forces.
According to the provisions of Order 344 of the Minister of the Revolutionary Armed Forces of June 4, 2002, ¨It is an atypical system in relation to the rest of the FAR Business System, since it is the only one that operates in a restricted and It does not have many possibilities of expanding its market, nor diversifying its productions of goods or services ”.
Despite this, each Commercial Administrative Unit (UAC) that makes it up, has the political will of the Revolutionary Armed Forces to maintain the facilities of the system and increase services in the interest of improving the quality of life of the officer corps. and their relatives and other categories of entitled personnel. All its entities are applying business improvement and have accumulated experience in the processes of service provision and marketing. In addition, they have been able to verify an acceptable demand for the services they offer and their growth, for which having the Revolutionary Armed Forces as the main consumer and single market has been the opportunity to have safe clients.
Therefore, within the strategic objectives for the period 2015-2019 in this sector are:
1- Work on continuous improvement and complete the implementation of the Quality Management System (QMS) of the processes that directly affect customer satisfaction until 2019.
2-Raise the offers and quality in the production of gastronomic goods and services, accommodation, recreation, commercial and personal provided by the entity, seeking excellence and competitiveness of them, preceding the needs of customers, as well as working to achieve an occupational index of not less than 90% of the accommodation capacities.
In the UAC-Center this process is partially fulfilled since the Matanzas Basic Commercial Unit has not yet been able to endorse its Quality Management System, a situation from which it can be deduced that the provision of services is affected.
As background to this research is the Diploma carried out by the author Muñiz Cruz, D. (2015) where the fundamental problems of the UAC-Center are revealed, among which are the deficiencies in the provision of services (gastronomy, accommodation and recreation), which brings with it dissatisfaction with the services that the Cabarroca and Villa Canímar centers of the Matanzas Basic Commercial Unit provide to their external clients.
Hence, the objective of this work is to define : define actions to improve services to external customers in the Cabarroca and Villa Canímar centers of the Matanzas Basic Commercial Unit .
Development:
Services according to Didier, J (2016) referred by Alemán, Y (2019) are of great importance since they are activities that satisfy needs, in the same way that happens with goods. In this sense, the tertiary sector complements the production process, because in terms of the production cycle, after an industry transforms the raw material and produces a specific good, it needs activities from the tertiary sector.
If the aforementioned aspects are taken into account, it is necessary to differentiate between the product for which the customer pays and the service that surrounds that product. Customer service is any effort aimed at serving the customer and solving their concerns, suggestions, doubts or claims. In other words, customer service is every moment of contact between the customer and the company; therefore, the latter must take into account the elements shown in figure 1, to provide services.
Figure 1: Elements to be taken into account by the company to provide customer service.
Elements to be taken into account by the company to provide customer service Source: Own elaboration.
It is the author's criterion that companies should not focus on just one of the variables addressed in Figure 1, it is about finding the right medium among the three, so that the product meets the customer's specifications and needs while being competitive. compared to others in quality and price; and that in turn is accompanied by an added value represented in comprehensive service and friendly, respectful, and timely care.
The fundamental importance for an organization to know the opinion of its customers, in the author's opinion, is what will allow it to subsequently establish improvement actions in the organization. The customer has become the center of the business and the key decisions are based on the fundamental desire to serve them better and offer them a better product.
To carry out the improvement of the provision of services in the Cabarroca and Canímar centers of the UBC Matanzas, a sequence of four steps is followed:
Step 1: Characterization of the services in the Cabarroca and Canímar centers of the UBC Matanzas.
To carry out this step the methods are used: documentary analysis, analysis-synthesis, induction-deduction, which allowed us to know that in the Cabarroca and Canímar centers of the UBC Matanzas gastronomy services are provided through bars, restaurants and cafes They have III category, where meals, drinks and light foods are offered for guests and associates. They also offer recreation services with entertainment activities for children and adults, excursions, fair and passive games, sports games and swimming pool. They also provide accommodation services, for this it has facilities that have a two-star category, where nine-night cycles are offered, their main guests are first officers.Table 1 shows the gastronomic facilities of the Cabarroca and Villa Canímar centers and their characteristics.
Table 1: Gastronomic facilities of the Cabarroca and Villa Canímar centers. Source: Information from the UAC-Centro gastronomic network (2019).
| CABARROCA | VILLA CANÍMAR | |||
| Gastronomic facilities | characteristics | Gastronomic facilities | characteristics | |
| RESTAURANTS | 1. “Brisas del Mar” restaurant | Þ Conceived as a main restaurant, with 112 seats.
Þ Offers a la carte service for breakfast, lunch and dinner for guests and by reservation for associates. |
1.Restaurant “Vista al Mar” | Þ Conceived as a main restaurant, with 60 seats.
Þ Offers à la carte service for breakfast, lunch and food for guests. |
| 2.Restaurant "Family Corner" | Þ Conceived for the main and associated bosses, with 30 places.
Þ A la carte service at lunch and dinner by reservation and celebration of anniversaries. |
2.Ranchón "Canímar" | Þ A la carte service at lunch and dinner by reservation for guests.
Þ Lunch and food in activities for associates, with 100 seats. |
|
| PUBS | 1.Bar Lobby “Brisas del Mar” | Þ Coffee, Rum, Cocktails and salads for those who enjoy in the Restaurant area. | 1.Bar "Sea View" | Þ Coffee, rum, cocktails and salads for those who enjoy in the Restaurant area. |
| 2. Cafeteria Bar " 41 Anniversary " | Þ Coffee, Rum, Cocktails and preserves for children and adults who enjoy in the Games room. | 2. Bar Cafeteria “Ranchón Canímar” | Þ Coffee, beer, rum, cocktails and light foods. | |
| 3. Cafeteria Bar " Caleta " | Þ Coffee, Rum, Cocktails, light food and beer with food on Sundays in the "Tropical Afternoons" and directed activities. | |||
| 4. Cafeteria Bar “ Pista ” | Þ Coffee, Rum, Cocktail, dispensed beer, light food. | |||
| 5. Cafeteria Bar " Pool " | Þ Coffee, soft drinks and salads for those who enjoy the pool. Meals and beer at partner activities. |
It should be noted that efforts are being made to obtain satisfaction, positioning and economic efficiency from the facilities and services that are provided in them. It is important to argue that the client market is captive, since only the body of FAR officers and their families and other categories of entitled personnel are served.
Step 2: Determine the main dissatisfactions that affect the services in the centers.
This is the starting point to carry out improvement actions, so it is very important to know the opinion of external customers. For this, interviews are conducted and surveys that were validated by the Company are applied. The SPSS statistical package, version 19.0 for Windows, is used for data processing.
The surveys are applied taking into account a probabilistic sampling stratified by proportional allocation, the sample size used is 315 clients.
As a result of the application of the aforementioned instruments, it is obtained that the main dissatisfactions are:
- Lack of professionalism of employees. Instability in the quality of food preparation. Insufficient variety of gastronomic and recreational offerings. Poor state of constructive maintenance in some cabins.
It should be noted that there is coincidence in the information obtained by the interviews and the applied questionnaires.
Step 3: Selection of the most important causes.
With this step, it is intended to go to the root of the problem. It starts from a diagnosis, where the centers were visited, exchanged with members of the board of directors, specialists and workers and applying the techniques: brainstorming, group dynamics and observation, 12 causes were identified that give rise to the affectation of services.
For the selection of the most important causes that affect the services, the method of Kendall or of the Experts was used, which constitutes a very efficient tool for the selection of the fundamental causes, where 10 people participated (members of the UBC board of directors Matanzas, representatives of the union section and workers of recognized prestige in the collective).
The result of each expert was taken and a summary was made calculating the expressions that appear in Table 1.
Table 1: Results of expert assessment. Source: self made.
| Items | EXPERTS (m) | Ijaij | r | r ² | |||||||||
| one | two | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | ||||
| one | 7 | 5 | 9 | 8 | eleven | 12 | 8 | one | one | 8 | 76 | 11.5 | 132.25 |
| two | two | 3 | 4 | two | 3 | two | one | 6 | 4 | 4 | 33 | -31.5 | 992.25 |
| 3 | 9 | 12 | eleven | 12 | 8 | 9 | 10 | eleven | 9 | one | 100 | 35.5 | 1260.25 |
| 4 | 8 | two | two | 6 | 6 | one | 7 | 4 | 3 | 7 | fifty | -14.5 | 210.25 |
| 5 | 3 | one | 3 | 7 | 4 | 7 | two | 3 | 5 | two | 40 | -24.5 | 600.25 |
| 6 | 4 | 6 | 8 | 4 | one | 4 | 12 | 12 | eleven | 5 | 74 | 9.5 | 90.25 |
| 7 | 6 | 8 | 6 | eleven | 12 | 6 | eleven | 9 | 12 | 6 | 92 | 27.5 | 756.25 |
| 8 | one | 4 | 5 | 3 | two | 3 | 6 | 5 | two | 3 | 35 | -36.4 | 1324.96 |
| 9 | 12 | 7 | one | one | 5 | 10 | 9 | 8 | 8 | eleven | 81 | 16.5 | 272.25 |
| 10 | 10 | 9 | 12 | 5 | 9 | 5 | 3 | 7 | 10 | 9 | 89 | 24.5 | 600.25 |
| eleven | eleven | 10 | 7 | 9 | 7 | eleven | 4 | two | 7 | eleven | 90 | 25.5 | 650.25 |
| 12 | 5 | eleven | 10 | 10 | 10 | 8 | 5 | 10 | 6 | 10 | 97 | 32.5 | 1056.25 |
| K | 857 | 7945.71 |
Where:
m - Number of experts.
Ijaij - Sum of the scores given by the experts to item i.
K - Number of items to value.
T - comparison factor. Ijaij / K = 857/12 = 71.4
r = ∑aij - T
To check if there is agreement between the panel of specialists, the Kendall's Coefficient (W) is used from the following formula:
12 ∑ r ²
W = ------– ≥ 0.5 = 12 x 7945.71 = 95348.52 = 0.55
m² (k³ - k) 100 (1728-12) 171600
Therefore, it is true that W = 0.55 ≥ 0.5 meaning that the study is valid since there is agreement between the experts and the results are reliable.
The order of priorities of the five most important causes that affect the provision of services in the Cabarroca and Canímar centers of the UBC Matanzas as a result of the application of the Kendall method are the following:
- Failures in the employee selection process. Deficiencies in hiring and little use of contracts as a work tool. Lack of fundamental supplies, according to figures. Problems with cargo transportation. Few construction maintenance actions.
Based on the results obtained, actions can be proposed that contribute to the improvement of the services offered at the Cabarroca and Canímar centers of the UBC Matanzas.
Step 4: Proposal of actions to improve services.
Among the actions proposed to the organization for the improvement of services in the Cabarroca and Canímar centers are:
1-Incorporate the personnel of the services to gastronomic updating courses with the accredited institutions for this.
2-Conduct training at the workplace for the service of waitresses in areas and rooms.
3-Evaluate and check the performance of workers and their professionalism according to their functions and demand compliance.
4-Carry out contracting with specialized companies to carry out maintenance actions.
5-Request the highest level demand for tools and accessories to perform maintenance and light repairs.
6-Require compliance with the contracted figures that guarantee the variety of gastronomic offerings
7-Request the necessary means to guarantee various recreational offers
Conclusions:
- The customer has now become the center of the business, so companies must be aware of their way of thinking and perceiving the organization. Customers ensure its operation and maintenance. Measuring customer satisfaction is essential for any organization that intends to be successful since it allows them to know where to focus their services and what they must do to obtain profitability. Among the main dissatisfactions detected, those related to the professionalism of the staff, the variety of gastronomic and recreational offerings and the construction status of the facilities. Seven actions are proposed to improve the provision of services in the Cabarroca and Canímar centers of the UBC-Matanzas.
Bibliography:
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