Customer Experience Management in Service Industry

This assignment delves into the world of customer experience management in the service industry. It analyzes the effects of digital technology on relationships between organizations and customers, as well as customer service strategies that foster positive experiences. The report also discusses recommendations to improve problems and provides insights from various studies on customer loyalty and brand management.

MANAGING CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE IN SERVICE
INDUSTRY

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
Needs and exceptions of market segmentations.....................................................................1
Customer engagement............................................................................................................2
Different groups of customers and their preference, needs and wants...................................3
LO2..................................................................................................................................................4
Presenting customer experience map.....................................................................................4
Presenting Some touch points are there that can help to easily interact with the customers. 6
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
Employment of technology in managing customers experience............................................7
LO4..................................................................................................................................................9
Customer service strategies....................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Customer experience is a perception to know about any brand or product. Customers
experience is an interaction between enterprise and consumers. Customer experience is helpful to
know about the perceptions of customers such as – feedbacks, their needs and wants. It implies
the involvement at different stage such as spiritual, physical, rational and emotional. The chosen
hotel for this report is Imperial which is a UK based five star hotel. This file discusses about the
needs and expectations of market segmentation for service industry and customer experience
map. This file also identifies the business opportunities and impact of digital technology in
customer relationship management. In addition to this file also describes the customer touch
points and identify the customers' engagement factors.
LO1
Needs and exceptions of market segmentations
Hotel imperial is ensuring their customers about the services of hotel and reliability and
quality. By providing them good services' hotel imperial can offer new packages to the
customers. Hotel imperial is mainly targeting the tourist to expand their business in the different
countries. It is an essential for the service industry to understand the expectations, needs and
wants of the customers. The quoted firm can be segmented into five ways such as :
Demographic segmentation- this type of market segmentation divides the market
according to demographic variables such as- religion, age, gender, nationality, occupation
income of the customers etc. all these factors helps to find out the needs and expectations of a
specific market for hotel Imperial.
Following are the factors -
 Age-younger generation loves to visit new hotels in different countries. So Hotel Imperial
can make a discount package for the couples. Hotel is providing various packages
according to the age of tourists.
 Disable person- these types of person needed food with low calories. There should be
facility of ramp so that wheelchair can be lifted properly. These people needed food with
low calories so that they can manage their body well. Furthermore, Hilton hotel is
requiring giving adequate space of such guests so that they can manage themselves
easily.
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 Business man-There are many business persons those who visit hotel on regular bases.
They always expect free WIFI facility, nappy changing, meeting rooms, mobile charging
points in hotel. Hilton hotel provides them all these facilities.
 Nationality- hotel imperial if providing the different types of offers for the local
customers of the country. Psycho-graphic segmentation this segmentation will help to
divide the market according to such variables- values, life cycle, and interests. By using
all these variables' hotel can target their customers. Interest of tourist includes their needs
and exceptions from hotels. So by understanding the expectations of customers hotel
imperil can provide them special hotel packages.
 Income group- people of high income group will give preference to luxurious tour
packages. By using this segmentation, hotel imperial can find out their customers and
their expectations from the hotel. It is mainly focusing on the international market where
the density of people is so high. Geographical segmentation can be helpful for the hotel to
sell out their special hotel packages.
 Couples-Hotel is focusing on the tourist by providing them many special offers. Hotel
is offering many discount packages to the customers let’s take an Hotel can also attract
the customers by provide them complementary services. Many tourist comes from
different countries to stay in Hotel Imperial, they expect their own home country food. So
Hotel imperial can also provide this facility to attract more customers (Roy,
Lillrank,Sreekanth and Torkki, 2019)
There are two factors which influence the customer engagement
Customer engagement
It is a business communication interaction between an organisation and customers
through various channels. This interaction can be in many forms such as- connection, reaction,
response.
Price: Money is most important element that influence behaviour of couple, disable and
professional consumers all. If Hilton hotel is unable to offer value for money then it will not be
able to raise engagement of guests. All three group of people need best quality services against
their paid money but if entity is unable to offer them quality products at affordable prices then it
may make them negative towards brand and can influence their engagement as well.
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Accessibility- this factor helps to find out the particular product in the market.
Accessibility is all about the service of product, that should be user friendly. Hotel imperial can
provide the service that should be user-friendly with the tourist such as- the process to booking,
process of accessing the Wi-Fi services. By focusing to provide easy services' hotel Imperial can
be able to attract more customers.
For an example- Hotel can provide easy accessibility of their web pages because the
speed of the page also effect the customer engagement process.
Language- it is one of the most essential factor because language plays a big role in
decision making process of the consumers. There are many consumers who does not understand
the different languages so they don't give the preference of that products. So, hotel imperial
should use the various languages in their product promotion strategies. Hotel should use different
marketing channels to serve their special packages. Language plays a key role to promote the
business in different countries. Own country language helps to change the mind of customers and
they can take a decision easily (Zhang, Kim, and Goodsir, 2019).
Different groups of customers and their preference, needs and wants
Hotel imperial is mainly focusing on 2 Kinds of customers groups to identify their needs
and demands.
Disable customers – these people have various needs such as low calorie meal, sufficient
space, ramp. They are always aware about the brand and they follow the brand on regular basis
that's why they are called loyal customers. This type of customers expect the individual
attentions. They expect special services from the hotel imperial. For the imperial hotel, these
people have various needs such as low calorie meal, sufficient space, ramp.. These types of
customers always expect so special offers from hotel. These types of customers always keeps in
touch with the hotel imperial.
Business persons-- business customers are those who always takes the benefits. This type
of customers always take an advantage of the services of hotel they find the values in the special
offers of company, this type of customers don't buy the packages at full price because usually
they expect some extra services from the hotel. There are many business persons those who visit
hotel on regular bases. They always expect free WIFI facility, nappy changing, meeting rooms,
mobile charging points in hotel
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LO2
Presenting customer experience map
Illustration 1: Company journey map
Customer experience map is to know about that what consumer go through and improve
the quality of customer experience. There are some steps of customer experience map which are
written below-
The persona- in this stage hotel imperial will find out the types of their customers. Hotel
will make a clear persona. Listed hotel can make several personas which will include many touch
points during their life cycle with the hotel. It will be helpful to show the specific time period of
any customer journey. Somehow, customer journey map is the part of customer experience map.
This persona indicates toward the customer journey.
Customer phases- customers phases can be founded by the journey maps. Each of the
stage has its specific activities of the customers. Customers phase also indicates towards the goal
of customers to achieve journey. After create the persona hotel will find the particular stages of
the customer journey. In this phase hotel imperial can know about the all the phases from which
a customer went through. This phase will show the various activities which has done by the
customers.
Touch points- touch points plays a big role while creating a customer experience map.
Hotel can identify the touch points to create a journey map of customer and it will also help to
know about the satisfaction level of consumers. Hotel imperial will collect the customer journey
map to know about the various touch points of the customers. Touch points indicate toward the
specific period of a customer during their journey. Touch points are the source to recall the
journey of a particular customer (Vakulenko, Shams, Hellström and Hjort, 2019).
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Conduct a research- hotel imperial can conduct research to identify the goals of
customers. It is very important part of creating experience map. In this stage hotel will also
address some related points of customer journey.
Points of frictions- in this stage hotel will describe the touch points of the customers by
understanding the goals of personas. This stage also includes some valuable points of the journey
of customers.
Customers touch points – through points are the overall journey of a customer from the
staring to end. Hotel will interact with the customers by using their touch points. Touch points
indicate toward the platform, through which hotel can interact with the tourists.
Various
stages
Research
travel plan
Books various
tour packages
Pre booking
services for
customers
During
services
Post- services
Thinking and
expectations
of the
customers
Ineffective
transportations
channels
Ineffective
services such
as- online
booking
Lack of online
services such
as- online
payment
Unable to
approach
international
tourists
Feeling happy
to share the
holiday
experience
Touch points Information of
tour and
details
through
different
channels.
Official
websites of
Imperial hotel
Rooms
services and
prices on their
web page.
Support
services of
Hotel during
holiday
Recommendati
ons
Ideas of
improvement
Different tools
and
techniques to
support
systematic
process of the
organisation
Adopt a basic
method for
tour booking
process
Customers
care services
for booking
Hire new
employees for
different
services
Provide
complementar
y services
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Business opportunities of Imperial hotel-
Hotel Imperial can increase its opportunities by addressing the feedbacks of the
customers. Feedbacks will be helpful to improve the services of the hotel. Hotel can also
implement new services to attract more customers. Customers journey map will be helpful to
understand then perceptions of the customers. Hotel can also provide new services such as-
special offers for the couples. Special holiday packages. Hotel is expanding its business through
various marketing channels. Different marketing channels will be helpful to create business
opportunities (Zhang, Kim and Goodsir, 2019).
Presenting Some touch points are there that can help to easily interact with the customers
Web interaction- This touch point helps to know about the customers' expectations.
Customers can share their experience on the website of the hotel. Nowadays all the customers are
accessing the web pages to know about the information, special offers, discounts it is one the
best source to interact with the customers. Websites tend to bring more customer increases their
experience from provision of better services. It provides the organisation with opportunities to
develop their services and overall strategies.
Applications- applications are the best source to interact with the customers. Each and
every company is providing the facilities of applications. Customers can easily know about the
special offers, activities and tour packages of the hotel. Tourist can easily book their hotel rooms
thought these applications of organisation. This platform is helpful to know about the feedbacks
of the customers. They can post their experience of journey on the official websites and
applications of the Hotel.
E-mails- Hilton hotel send emails to its guests on each occasion. It wishes them and
inform people about new products, services, discounts of organisation. In emails entity attaches
attractive photos of new vouchers and discounts so that people may become positive and gain
amazing experience.
Social Media – Social media is another strategy used in order to bring more consumer to
the organisation. It brings more opportunities for the organisation to review their products and
services and promote them to them consumers. It helps to them to improve their strategies and
development.
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Personal relationship- hotel can interact with the customers by organising several
meetings and conducting activities. By establishing personal relationship hotel can interact with
the customers(Roy, Lillrank, Sreekanth, 2019).
Other communication channels- organisation can interact with the customers by
promoting branding strategy. It will be helpful to aware the customers about the new product of
the company. Instead of this, enterprise can aware the customers through different marketing
channels. All the touch points will be helpful to improve the brand image and is quality.
LO 3
Employment of technology in managing customers experience
Customers relation management is one the best strategy to establish the good relationship
with the people. It is very important for the every organisation to find out the potential
customers,CRM is the strategy through which they can find their potential customers. CRM
strategies will be helpful to enhance the productivity and services.
There are two kinds of CRM strategies which mostly used by the service industry-
Analytical CRM- this CRM strategies helps to collect the customers Data by using
various source. All the analytics find out the various source to identify the problems of the
customers, their perceptions and expectation. Analytics can provide the best customers service to
the customers by identifying needs and wants of the customers.
Operational CRM- is an integrated management system which includes various
activities such as- marketing activities, customer care strategies, sales automation. By using
marketing automation strategies hotel imperial can make their processes more effectively. All the
big companies are also adopting the way of digital technologies for different purpose such as
data base, cloud computing. Hotel is using the operational CRM strategy for various activities.
That will help to provide effective marketing activities. Thorough which hotel can improve its
brand image in the market. And will also helpful to take the participation in various social
activities.
Social media- becoming the social is very helpful for the organisation to improve brand
image. Social websites such as- twitter, Instagram, Facebook all are very important to know
about the reviews of the customers. The biggest impact of the social media on the service
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industry is democratization of online reviews. Tourist s visit online websites to find out – hotels,
accommodation (Roy, and et.al., 2019).
Databases- it is an integrated management system. That allows all the fictional units to
collect their data which can be accessible from another functional units of organisation.
Mobile devices- are the best source for the customers to research about any specific hotel,
to provide the feedbacks and reviews. It is also helpful to track the locations of hotels.
Online marketing- it is one of the effective way to expand the business of company.
Online marketing strategy includes various marketing channels through which an organisation
can expand its business across the world
CRM systems to effectively acquire and retain customers.
Better conversion rates. -Existing customers have already bought from you, so unless
they had a disappointing experience, they will buy from you again. You’ve already established
trust, inspired confidence in your product, and even know something about them, which makes it
easier to identify their needs and predict their moves
Target customers with special offers- CRM software view a customer’s purchase
history, so that you can determine what kind of offer will be the most appealing to each
individual and increase relevancy, which will keep your brand on your customers’ minds. What
they need right now is identify ways to revive their interest and convert it into an actual
purchase! They can do it by offering them special discounts or some additional value for their
product.
Advantages and disadvantages of CRM:
Advantages Disadvantages
 It will help to provide better
customer service
 it helps to manage the customers'
data and integrate all the functional
units of organisation
 It is slowdown process. It takes a lot
of time for changes.
 The Biggest disadvantage is
organisation cannot control the
Data.
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LO4
Customer service strategies
Customers service strategies and recommendations-
Give excellent knowledge to employees- by giving the excellent knowledge to the
employees, organisation can provide the best service to their customers. It can be helpful to
improve the effectiveness of their services by providing the knowledge about services to
employees.
Train employees- tourists interaction is the form to exchange the emotions. Hotel can
give this tool to share enthusiasm and reduces the tensions of the customers. Employees should
have the adaptability quality because every customer is different so employees should Pendle
their customers according to their moods and their nature.
Solve the customer issues at first stage – hotel can improve the customer care services
by ensuring that the person who initially handles the calls should take full responsibility until the
customer will not satisfy by making empower the employees tom make their customer happy.
Discount offers- it is one of the useful strategy to attract the customers towards the
special offers and discounts. Usually customers are attracted towards the discount offers and new
offers.
Enhance the customers service strategy- hotel can enhance their customers service
strategy by getting personal with the customers. By creating the communities, customers can feel
more valuable for the organisation. Customers wants to be treated that, they are the important
members of the community. Hotel can add many customer services for the customers according
to their demand.
Deliver the promises- every service which arrives on a specific times that works. So
organisation should focus to deliver the services in a specific time.
Recommendations-
Hotel should conduct the training sessions to let their employees know about the roles
and responsibilities of them so they can be able to provide effective services. It is very necessary
for the hotel to train their employees so they can improve their skills (Sharma, 2019). Hotel
should focus on the needs and wants of the customers instead of speed and productivity. It will
be helpful for the companies to admit their mistakes to build the trust in employee.
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CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that the need of market segmentations
helpful to full fill the needs and expectation of different types of customers. This report identified
the different factors that are affecting the customer engagement and discussed about the
customer touch points throughout the customer experience by creating the opportunities for
service industry. This report concluded that the impact of digital technology to establish the
relations between organisation and customers. This report also analysed the customer service
strategies to develop the customer experience in a way that meets the expectations of the
customers and recommendations to improve the problems.
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REFERENCES
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Online
Managing customer experience in service industry., 2019. [online] available through:
<https://searchcrm.techtarget.com/definition/customer-experience-management>
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