Enhancing Customer Experience

This report examines the customer experience at Imperial Hotel, analyzing market segmentation, customer profiling, and drivers of customer engagement. It maps the customer journey, identifies touch points for business opportunities, and provides recommendations for enhancing customer experience. Desklib provides past papers and solved assignments for students.

ENHANCING CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1 Explain the needs and expectations of market segments for the service industry..................1
P 1 Explaining the value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of
target customer groups for Imperial Hotel..................................................................................1
P 2 Exploring the different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different
target customer group..................................................................................................................3
LO 2 Explore the customer experience map to create business opportunities and optimise
customer touch points......................................................................................................................4
P 3 Mapping customer journey for Hotel Imperial.....................................................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Every organisation use their strategies, develop the products and services, give unique
facilities, purpose of all the actions result in customer satisfaction and experience (Cross and et.
al., 2015). Customer experience is important for all the business as well as mapping the customer
experience is also essential to meet the consumer needs. This research report analysing customer
experience of Imperial Hotel and explaining value and importance of understanding needs, wants
and preferences of target customer group. The study will explain the importance of market
segmentation for target the market. Report will map customer journey in Imperial Hotel and will
give a brief that how customer can be profiled in the hotel. And will evaluate drivers of customer
engagement by various services of Hotel Imperial.
LO 1
P 1 Explaining the value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of
target customer groups for Imperial Hotel
Explaining why the Hotel Imperial carries out market segmentation and customer profiling
activities to determine its ‘target market’.
Market segmentation is a process of dividing the market of potential customer on the
basis of certain characteristics into several groups and segments. Each market segment is
different and unique and marketers use different criteria to create a target market for their
services and products (Customer Segmentation And Customer Profiling, 2018). Customer
profiling and segmentation help the Hotel to know about its consumer better and then break them
into particular groups that share specific characteristics.
To determining target market it is essential for the hotel to identify its potential customer
by market segment: Target market based on demographic segmentation- This segmentation include
consumer's age, gender, income level, single or family status, occupation, ethnic
background. Target market based on Psycho-graphic segmentation- This segmentation include
personality, attitude, values, lifestyle, behaviour and interest of customer.
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 Target market based on behaviour- It focus on length of stay of the customer, purpose of
stay; Leisure or business, events, weddings, conferences, Loyalty status and engagement
of consumer (Rosenbaum and et. al., 2017).
 Target market based on geographic- Geographic segment include market size, area,
population, substitute threat, etc.
Market segmentation make easy to identify the particular market and consumer according to
their services and products (Homburg, Jozić and Kuehnl, 2017). It helps to determine the needs
and wants of consumers and able to use the resources effectively and make better strategic
marketing decision. Customer is also can be profiled on the basis of market segmentation.
Examine the different ways in which customer can be profiled, and how the wants, needs
and expectations of the target market drive the products and services offer the Hotel
Customer profile is a semi-functional representative of ideal customer by including
customer demographic, behaviour pattern, goals and motivation. Customer profiling aims to
know customer better and describe their personas. It helps the Hotel to deliver enhanced
customer service and boost customer satisfaction by know about their needs and wants of
consumers. And industry can concentrate on target consumers not to try to attract everyone
which can result in failing of marketing strategy (Kandampully, Zhang and Jaakkola, 2018).
Customer persona is a description of set of customer that includes demographic, geographic, and
psycho-graphic characteristics. Following are the example by which customer can be profiled:
1) Profile with personal information- This type of profile is basic way of profiling,
include name of customer, their number, email address, their occupation, etc. This is best for
those customers who have no time or they don't want to spend more time filling out a huge
profile.
2) Profile with interest of customer- For using this profile it is important for the hotel to
map out the interest of the customer based on behavioural, demographic, psycho-graphic as well
as environment. This profile include age, location, interest, purpose of visit, etc.
3) Profile with customer abilities- It is important to have an ideal customer profile to
prioritize where to focus marketing efforts of the industry. This profiling depends on specific
abilities, such as need of the services or product, spending power of consumers.
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4) Buyer profile with demographics- This profile is in depth and have a lot of detail
about customer. It includes Background part of customer, like; Where he/she is working, marital
status, do they have children(Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Demographic part, Behavioural
section, Psycho-graphic part all in one.
P 2 Exploring the different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different
target customer group
Evaluate the drivers of customer engagement across a range of different target customer
group for the Hotel Imperial
Customer engagement is important for establish loyalty or trust, their commitment
towards the hotel and engage customer may work as resource for other customer, they
recommend the hotel to relatives or sharing their experience. Hotel Imperial can build effective
strategy based on the target customer to increase customer engagement. Hotel can build effective
engagement by providing superior facilities according on what customer want (Liu and et.al.,
2018).
Front office operation- It includes staff behaviour of responsiveness, language
proficiency, service standard, easy process of check-in without standing in queue. Effective front
office operation influence customer who are in hurry such as traveller and business person.
On-boarding services- Pleasant and surprise welcome, pleasant appearance,
courteousness of staff.
Accommodation- They provide refreshment facilities to the consumer who visit their for
leisure (Cross and et. al., 2015).
Food and beverages- They offer variety of quality foods to their consumers. Also they
provide facility of customize food services according to the choice of customer, like healthy
foods for health conscious people, sugar free beverage, facility of providing food and beverages
in the room for aged consumers (Maechler, Neher and Park, 2016).
Recreation and entertainment- They provide pool and according facility, child
entertainment for kids, indoor and outdoor recreational activities for children and sports person.
Auxiliary services- they provide facility of spa, Ayurvedic treatments. Also they offer
free auxiliary services seasonally to their existing consumers.
Pricing and payments- They customize their services that can be afford by all the
segment of consumer. For example, for traveller they have affordable price services and
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convenient payment facility (Peppers and Rogers, 2016). For social status seeker and who are
seeking for luxury services the prices are accordingly.
These all are the different factors or facilities that drive customer engagement towards the
hotel. It can build up when organisation meet the consumer's need and give priority to their
wants and expectations.
Customer engagement factors determine On- boarding strategies that are employed in the
hotel
Front office services of hotel should effective, hotel staff should welcome the guest with
smile and courteousness, behaviour of employees should helpful and happy which influence
customers behaviour and increase loyalty. Services should effective according to consumer
preferences. Staff should consist pleasant personality that attract customer and give them
pleasant experience.
LO 2
P 3 Mapping customer journey for Hotel Imperial
Customer journey refers to the overall process of customer research about a hotel to
check-out from the hotel. The journey include various stages where customer make decision for
choosing a hotel and after booking, experience the services provided by the industry (Cross and
et. al., 2015).
Searching for a hotel- The first stage of customer journey starts from researching about
the hotel according to his preferences. Customer can search from social media, through travel
agents, online hotel sites, etc.
Do comparison- After doing research about hotels, customer do comparison between top
hotels fit in his preferences, and analysing which hotel give best services that customer want.
And select a best suited hotel.
Evaluate information- After this customer evaluate information about selected hotel and
seek all the necessary information about it. Information can be evaluated by existing customer,
feedbacks, reviews, etc (Kandampully, Zhang and Jaakkola, 2018).
Booking- After satisfying from all the needed information customer start the booking
process, it can be done through online website of hotel, through travel agent, or by visit in hotel.
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Hotel experience- It starts with the process of check-in. Hotel experience include process
of on-boarding, staff services, room services, quality of food, customer services, check-out
process.
Check-out and continue engagement- Checking out is the last stage of customer
experience, it should be smooth and positive or customer. After checking out if customers
impressed with the services of the hotel they provide online feedback, reviews and recommend
others as well (Rosenbaum and et. al., 2017).
Touch points of customer journey
By developing touch-points of customer journey effectively it help to create opportunity
for businesses. Hotel can Create effective website with all the needed information that attract
consumer. Check-in and Check-out process should simple and effective, Mode of payment
should simple and flexible.
EXPLANATION PAGE
At a good level: Touch points of customer journey that create business opportunity
Hotel can use the touch points where consumer get in touch with the hotel by using
customer journey map. Industry can build effective strategy and take actions using these touch
points to create business opportunity at good level. Hotel Imperial should take action to create
attractive official website of the hotel, that is used by customer to book the hotel or evaluating
information about it. Effective and attractive website attract consumer mind.
Hotel can give training to their employees and staff to behave adequate and effectively
within the hotel, it will give satisfaction to consumers which increase the customer loyalty and
by this business can increase their opportunity.
CONCLUSION
The above study report analysed market segments and its importance in target market of
Imperial Hotel and meeting the need and objective of customer. The report determined different
factors that influence customer engagement with Hotel. It showed that customer journey
mapping and customer profile is important for better knowledge about consumer wants, needs
and preferences. And identified the factor of touch points that create business opportunity.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Cross, J.C and et. al., 2015. How marketing managers use market segmentation: An exploratory
study. In Proceedings of the 1990 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual
Conference. (pp. 531-536). Springer, Cham.
Homburg, C., Jozić, D. and Kuehnl, C., 2017. Customer experience management: toward
implementing an evolving marketing concept. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science. 45(3). pp.377-401.
Kandampully, J., Zhang, T. and Jaakkola, E., 2018. Customer experience management in
hospitality: A literature synthesis, new understanding and research agenda. International
Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. 30(1). pp.21-56.
Kranzbühler and et. al., 2018. Outsourcing the pain, keeping the pleasure: effects of outsourced
touchpoints in the customer journey. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. pp.1-
20.
Lemon, K.N. and Verhoef, P.C., 2016. Understanding customer experience throughout the
customer journey. Journal of Marketing. 80(6). pp.69-96.
Liu and et.al., 2018. Market segmentation: A multiple criteria approach combining preference
analysis and segmentation decision. Omega.
Maechler, N., Neher, K. and Park, R., 2016. From touchpoints to journeys: Seeing the world as
customers do. McKinsey & Company. pp.1-10.
Peppers, D. and Rogers, M., 2016. Managing customer experience and relationships: A strategic
framework. John Wiley & Sons.
Rosenbaum and et. al., 2017. How to create a realistic customer journey map. Business
Horizons. 60(1). pp.143-150.
Online
Customer Segmentation And Customer Profiling. 2018 [ONLINE] Available Through:
<https://www.softwebsolutions.com/customer-segmentation-and-profiling.html>
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