Customer Service Management Assignment

Customer Service
Management

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................1
P6 Customer service strategies within Marriott Hotel and Resorts...........................................1
P7 How to create and develop the customers experience through customer service strategies in
order to meet the needs of the customer as well as the needs of business.................................3
Conclusion ......................................................................................................................................6
References........................................................................................................................................7

INTRODUCTION
Customer Service Management (CRM) is defined as the practices, technologies and
strategies that a company uses to manage its interaction with the current and potential customers
in order to achieve the goal of serving the customer in better ways and in retaining the customer.
In this report Marriott hotel is taken as an organisation, Marriott hotel and resort is the
multinational brand of providing services in hotels and resorts. This report discusses about the
strategies of customer services that a company provides to its customer in order to assess the
importance of these services to customers, the pricing strategies, differentiation strategies etc.
This report also highlights how these strategies meets the needs of customers and business
standards.
Task 1
P6 Customer service strategies within Marriott Hotel and Resorts.
Marriott is very big company providing various services to its customers and has many
strategies to provide these services to the customers(Bowen and Chen McCain., 2015). The
strategies the company uses to provide its services includes
 Assertively Friendly i.e to sought out the customers who need help before they ask for the
help.
 Reassurance, this strategy develops a positive experience to the customer by being
helpful and assuring them to solve any kind of a problem faced by the customer.
 Show ready, each and every employee of the Marriott hotel is always show ready and
every one knows when to play their part(Chang and Ma., 2015 ).
 Responsibility, each and every employee are committed and are responsible for assuring
security of their property, cleanness, and get them entertained.
 Quality food and beverages
 Spa packages
 Room Upgrades
 Preferred Views
 offers and reward with high speed and medium speed internet.
 Concierge services
 Membership programs
 shuttle services
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All these strategies is very important for the customers, because when ever a customer
comes to the hotel for the first time he/she should be provides best services like assertively
friendly reassurance, offers and packages etc this will help the company in developing a positive
experience and also gain their confidences. This helps in the satisfaction of the customer and also
in retaining of the customer(Kandampully, Zhang and Bilgihan., 2015).
The market size of the product will be huge as it targets upper middle class and upper
class customers. The higher cost that the customer is willing to pay for these services is 50
pound. By providing these services it will attract customer from both upper middle class and
upper class, cost of acquisition will little bit expensive as it is attracting the customers of upper
and upper middle class. Offers provide by the company are membership programs in which
customer gets reward points and shuttle service I.e pick and drop at free of cost these offers are
unique which are not provides by most of the hotels. It is not easy for competitors to copy
because they can not afford it or is simply out of their idea. The quality is the product the
company serves is the best and at this point it does not need an alteration in negative way.
The strategies the company is formulating in order to attract the customers before the
purchase of product or services and before the stay of a customer in the hotel includes a company
goes for the digital marketing where the customers can make search about the product and
services of the hotel, check the ratings, a company should get connected with the online travel
agencies. A company should get savvy with the social media to attract , more customers and
also to make the hotels website as a visual for the customers(Lu, V. N and et.al., 2016). During
the stay a company should treat the customers at its best and provide what they promote and treat
the customers at their satisfaction level so that they feel delighted with services offered to them
which helps in their retention. After making the purchases company should take their feedbacks
about their products and services offered which will help the company in making the necessary
improvements and delivering their services at the better level.
Six customer service management strategies are:
1. Taking care of employees: A company has to focus on taking care of its employees , as they
are most important part of hospitality of the customers. As the employees are the representatives
of the company it is responsibility of company to keep them happy, satisfied and retained. A
company should make the environment full of fun, treat them as valuable asset. Train and
develop continuously this will beneficial for the company in future.
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2. Rewarding loyal customers: Company should reward its loyal customer which will make
them a delighted customers by giving them special offers and facilities like free spa, membership
programs, discounts etc this approach will make their customers happy and will also act as the
word of moth marketing for the company(Molina-Azorín and et.al., 2015).
3. Surprising customer with a gift: Giving surprise gifts to their customers will increase their
value as they feel that they have taken care by the company, this will increase their satisfaction
level. This can be done at the time of arrival or during the check out
4. Employee engagement: In the hotel industry employee is the brand ambassador of the
company. Good employee engagement programs will support the company in working smoothly
and meeting the goals of serving its customers in a better way. More the employee engagement
more the profitability. Hiring, training and retaining of the great talent is important for the hotel
industry.
5. Consistency in online and offline communications: A proper strategy should be
implemented in developing the consistency between online and offline communications. It is
necessary for the company to maintain the consistency across various channels of
communications in order to tell brand story of the company. They both should share the same
story. There should be proper collaboration between offline and online marketing.
6.Feedback: It is the important part to get the feedbacks from its customers to check their areas
of improvements. This can be by done through companies websites, online ratings , and also
asking from the customers about the service provided by the company(Snyder and et.al., 2016).
This is important for the company in building its brand image and brand value across the globe
and even acts as marketing tool for them.
P7 How to create and develop the customers experience through customer service strategies in
order to meet the needs of the customer as well as the needs of business.
Various customer service strategies that will develop an customer experience in order to
meet the requirements and needs of the customer as well as for the organisation are as follows.
a) Encouraging and celebrating with customers: if a company's motive is to bring joy and
happiness to its customers, then a company should participate in the customers enjoyment as it
is the job of the company about to entertain their customers at every level. This can bedone by
make the environment of the hotel joyful and full of entertainment as per their reason of their
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joy(Subramanian, Gunasekaran and Gao., 2016). This will give a good experience to its
customers and in return it will develop the loyalty among the customers towards the company.
b) Delighted services: A company should formulate the strategies to delight the customer. When
the customers get delighted from the service rendered by the company this will develop the
positive experience towards the company, this will help in retaining the customers and will
increase the value of the company among the customers. A company should look for the various
ways to delight their customers and develop a “wow factor”. This will help in generating more
profits to the company.
c) Emotional Intelligence: A company should develop a emotional intelligence in providing
higher services to its customers. A company should get emotionally connected with its customer
by taking care of their needs, requirements, security and other things which will benefit the
customers emotionally. A company should address their bad feelings and should not avoid them.
With the help of emotional intelligence a customer feels that their emotions are valued by the
company and they will enjoy their experience with in the hotel and this will bring positive
feedback while sharing their experience with the company and with others(Han, Bonn and Cho.,
2016).
d) Be a good listener: while making any conversations with the customer telephonic or face to
face a company should listen to its customers what they want actually. Front office should listen
the words they speak, understand what customer is trying to say, address their body language,
tone of voice etc. This will help in attracting the customers and will increase the bookings of the
hotel.
e) Customer website: A company can effect the satisfaction of the customers by it digital and
online presence. It will surely improves customers experience. As customer gets first information
about the hotel from the online or from the company's website. A company should build its
standard website and make its website quite attractive by posting images, providing directions,
contact numbers, reviews from the previous customers, foods and beverages etc, this will help in
gaining the customers and also helps the company in holding the attention of the customer.
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f) Post and pre-booking communication: A company establishes the connection with customer
as quickly as possible with the help of follow up email or a text message. This will help in setting
a connection with the customer and gather a valuable information from the customer. After
booking a company has the to deliver what it has promised to the customer. This sets a two way
process by increasing the satisfaction level of customer and help the company in generating
leads.
g) Reward to repeat customers: In order to build a customer loyalty and for the success of the
hotel in present competitive world it is essential to maintain the loyalty of customers. For this
purpose a company have to provide a positive experience to its customers which can be done by
rewarding to its loyal customers(Cetin and Walls., 2016). These rewards can be in the form of
cash backs, points, free food and services like free drink at the bar, late check outs, free internet
etc all these factors will improve the customers experience and meeting the needs of the
customer at free of cost and this will also bring positive rewards to the company in the form of
profits and revenue.
h) Taking care of customer: This is the best way in meeting the needs of the customer. A
company should take care of the belongings of the customer, provide security for guests stuff,
helping a customer in wrapping up during checkout time, providing the services of pick and drop
to its customers, also providing pet friendly services to its customers etc. This will help in
meeting the needs of customers and will develop the positive experience among the customers.
This in return will provide a step for the growth of business and helps in its expansion.
i) Feedback: This is the best way to know how a company has served its customers. During a
feedback process a customer share its experience regarding a hotel it may be positive and even
negative this will help the company in improving its services and learn from its failures and helps
in meeting the needs of the customer in better way(Navarro, Garzón and Roig-Tierno., 2015).
This is how customer service strategies can be implemented to create and improve the
customers experience with the hotel and also allows a company to improve its business standards
and even gain the competitive advantage.
Conclusion
It is concluded from the report that customer service strategies plays an important role in
the Marriott hotel. In this report what are the various customer management strategies that a
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company has implemented in order to serve its customers. This report discusses about the need
and importance of the product or service, its target markets, cost of acquisition etc of its product
and services. This report also highlights the pre-stay and post- stay customers experience. This
report also discusses what are the strategies of the customers services will improving relations
and it help in creating positive experience for the customers by meeting customers requirements.
It is also concluded that by implementing customer service strategies will improve the company's
brand image and achieving competitive advantage.
References
Books and Journal
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Bowen, J. T. and Chen McCain, S. L., 2015. Transitioning loyalty programs: a commentary on
“the relationship between customer loyalty and customer satisfaction”. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(3). pp.415-430.
Cetin, G. and Walls, A., 2016. Understanding the customer experiences from the perspective of
guests and hotel managers: Empirical findings from luxury hotels in Istanbul,
Turkey. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 25(4). pp.395-424.
Chang, H. P. and Ma, C. C., 2015. Managing the service brand value of the hotel industry in an
emerging market. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 47. pp.1-13.
Han, S. J., Bonn, M. A. and Cho, M., 2016. The relationship between customer incivility,
restaurant frontline service employee burnout and turnover intention. International
Journal of Hospitality Management, 52. pp.97-106.
Kandampully, J., Zhang, T. and Bilgihan, A., 2015. Customer loyalty: a review and future
directions with a special focus on the hospitality industry. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management, 27(3). pp.379-414.
Lu, V. N and et.al., 2016. In pursuit of service excellence: Investigating the role of psychological
contracts and organizational identification of frontline hotel employees. Tourism
Management, 56. pp.8-19.
Molina-Azorín, J. F and et.al., 2015. The effects of quality and environmental management on
competitive advantage: A mixed methods study in the hotel industry. Tourism
Management, 50. pp.41-54.
Navarro, S., Garzón, D. and Roig-Tierno, N., 2015. Co-creation in hotel–disable customer
interactions. Journal of Business Research, 68(7). pp.1630-1634.
Snyder, H and et.al., 2016. Identifying categories of service innovation: A review and synthesis
of the literature. Journal of Business Research, 69(7). pp.2401-2408.
Subramanian, N., Gunasekaran, A. and Gao, Y., 2016. Innovative service satisfaction and
customer promotion behaviour in the Chinese budget hotel: an empirical
study. International Journal of Production Economics, 171. pp.201-210.
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