Digital Technology and Customer Experience

The provided study highlights the vital role of digital technology in improving customer experience in service sector industries. It also showcases different customer service strategies used by companies to meet customers' needs, with a focus on digitalization and CRM systems.

Enhancing customer
experience
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
PART 1:...........................................................................................................................................3
P1 Value and importance of understanding needs & preferences of target customer groups
within service sector industry......................................................................................................3
P2 Different factors that influence customer engagement of different target customer groups
within a service sector organization............................................................................................5
P3 Customer experience map......................................................................................................6
P4 How customers touch points throughout the customer experience create business
opportunities................................................................................................................................8
PART - 2..........................................................................................................................................9
LO4..................................................................................................................................................9
P6 Customer service strategies in a service sector context..........................................................9
P7 Customers service strategies create and develop the Customer experience in a way that
meets the requirements of the business standards.....................................................................11
PART 3:.........................................................................................................................................12
P5 Importance of digital technology in managing customer experience with examples of
customer relationship management system...............................................................................12
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................14
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................15
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INTRODUCTION
Customer experience can be defined as a relationship which a customer has with a
business. This present study has 3 parts in which first part is presentation, second part is
individual report and third part is article. Thomas cook is a British global travel company whose
headquarter is in London, UK. This second part and individual report is going to show some
customers service strategies that are being used by Thomas Cook hotel. It helps them in
developing customers experience and satisfies their all needs and demands. Last part of this
present study and article will show the importance of digital technology in order to manage
customers experience along with advantages and disadvantages of CRM system.
PART 1:
P1 Value and importance of understanding needs & preferences of target customer groups within
service sector industry
Covered in PPT...
P2 Different factors that influence customer engagement of different target customer groups
within a service sector organization
Covered in PPT...
P3 Customer experience map
Covered in PPT...
P4 How customers touch points throughout the customer experience create business
opportunities
Covered in PPT...
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PART 2
LO4
P6 Customer service strategies in a service sector context
The customer service strategy is essential from the growth perspective of the business of
Thomas Cook Group. It is a vital part for the travel and tourism sector to enhance their customers
services. To take lead in competitive market the company adopt following strategies -
 Voice of customer Strategy – Thomas Cook Group perform regular survey for
measuring the customer satisfaction in their company. As the customers returns from
their holiday destination within one or two days they frequently ask them about their
experience. Through identifying the lacking points of their travel agency they try to make
further improvements (Wilson, Zeithaml and Gremler, 2016). By overcoming their
drawbacks they are able to make increase in their customer satisfaction. Voice of
customer strategy is helpful in reacting the customers’ queries on more quickly basis.
 24/7 hour service - At the time the customers arrived at their destination the company
asked them what they can do additional to make everlasting experience for their
customers. There 24-hour services promise their customers to quickly fix their issues. In
case the company is unable to resolve those issues. The customer gets voucher which is
25% of cost of their holiday package. They provide them opportunity to fly their home as
the next flight is available. The company offers an excellent holiday experience for their
customers by asking them about their issues. The firm tries to resolve the issues as soon
as possible.
 Online bookings – The customers are facilitated with the online booking. Thomas Cook
Group enables their customers to make the bookings online on the official website of the
company. This facility allows them to choose their hotel rooms before arriving at their
destinations (Yang, Liu and Li, 2015). The Company tries to set a level route between the
destination, hotel and flights. They keeps the balance between them all in order to
minimise the further delay and not to make their customers wait. The last minutes
bookings is also available by the company.
 Makes customer feedback actionable - The company has introduced the NPS which is
Net promoter score which measures their main customer KPI. They asked them about
their experiences by texting the feedback messages to their customers. By considering
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those feedbacks the Thomas Cook Group make further improvements on the services on
which they are lacking behind. The company identifies on timely basis about the pain
points of their customers. The company tries that the negative NPS gets reduced. The
action is being taken by seeing the customers’ feedbacks within the 24 hours as they have
promised to its customers. The Company seeks for the feedback in order to take
immediate actions.
 Providing Quality service – Thomas Cook Group is the passionate travellers and
experts. Hence, they create quality holiday experience for their customers. They share the
customer reviews on their online portal before making any trip booked for their clients.
They suggest the most suitable trip advices for their customers. For improving their
quality they listen to their customers feedbacks and make further improvements in their
service quality by considering them (Homburg, Jozić and Kuehnl, 2017). They listen to
their customers in order to make their next trip experience even more better. They give
necessary information regarding the trip and holiday packages to their customers in detail
so that they can enjoy their trip stress free. They creates sort of reliability whom which
there customers can trust upon. They make the customers booking secretarial and safe.
They are committed to send their customers home by making great memories at their
holidays.
P7 Customers service strategies create and develop the Customer experience in a way that meets
the requirements of the business standards.
Thomas Cook Group is able to identify the drivers of the customers satisfaction by
successfully implementing the Net Point Score in their business. It is one of their key metrics
which measures their business performance. Thus, the company is able to meet their business
standards by identifying their customers requirements. This will increase the customer
satisfaction in the company (Yates, 2017). Hence, this is overall objective of the company as
they put customers in their hearts. Thus, it is crucial for them to meet their needs. As they are
now on pan which is linked with their customers promises of giving quality services. As
Thomas cook group provides quality services to its customers. Therefore, they are able to retain
large number of customers towards them.
To know the customer insights they ask for the feedbacks on regular intervals during the
trip and after the journey (How to Define a Customer Experience, 2019). Through this any
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inconvenience which is faced by the customer during the trip and after the trip get resolved
easily. By taking quick actions on customers queries and problems, the firm is able to gain
customer loyalty. Another one is that they provide services on which the customers can relay
upon. They safeguard their customers as they make online payments while doing bookings. By
providing security on customers bookings, they are able to increase their brand reputation
among the customers. Thus, through this the company profitability get increased.
The few rules is being followed by Thomas Cook agency in order to improvise the
customer service in the organization. The company do one to one interaction with their
customers in order to break the glass in the case of the fire. This means that in case of the any
issue which is faced by their customers on the journey or off the journey, they directly contact to
them and continuously do communication with them in order to solve their problems. They keep
customers to do realistic expectations (Venkatesan, 2017). The Company doesn't claim or make
any promise which is not attainable. They try to fulfil every promise which they have made to
their customers. The company also respect its customers. Thomas Cook Group philosophy is to
respect their customers, they listen their customers with patience. Overwhelming and greeting
their customers are remaining forefront by the company. Satisfying the customers’ needs is
foremost priority of the company. Thus, this leads to increase the reputation of the Company and
eventually helpful in achieving higher profitability.
PART 3:
P5 Importance of digital technology in managing customer experience with examples of
customer relationship management system
Tours and travels industry’s main purpose is to manage customers experience and increase
their sales. The marketing manager and other functional departmental employees perform several
functions for providing better services to customers. For accomplishing their company’s goals
they take help of technologies’ and digitalization. Digital technology makes them able to provide
better services in a right manner and at a right time. Technologies help Thomas Cook Company
in Increasing customers engagement, their loyalty and trust. It also makes them able to offer
reliable platforms for transactions & also to provide customized services.
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As a discovery store manager it is also important to identify preferences of target customers
and with the help of technologies to increase and manage customers experience. In the context of
Thomas Cook company it is stated that it is now focusing on making planning for improving
customer services by standardising its portal software that support approximate 17,000 users
across its departments. This company have an effective use of CRM system in order t6o serve
holidaymakers by using its Thomascook.com, My travel etc. It also reduces their time number of
transactional calls which agents of Thomas Cook have to take and by this they can more focus
and serve their customers (Importance of CRM system, 2019).
Customer relations management is an effective strategy that helps the company to the great
extent in managing all type of information’s of their users through customer life-cycle. There are
some types of CRM including analytical, collaborative & operative. Main aim of all types of
CRM system is to help the company in increasing and managing customers relationship.
By using different E-commerce platforms it drives digitalization. The main purpose of using
different E-commerce platform is to make its Web usage more flexible for customers that is a
easy access for them. It has adopted virtualization solution as the base (Importance of
digitalization in customer’s experience, 2019). It uses several tools like BPM, mobility, CRM,
CMS, cloud and many more. All these platforms make the company more able to ramp up the
performance by using reliable services.
In addition, it is also stated that single platform has made Thomas Cook company more
effective to gather all required information at one single place rather than doing multiple
searches on different platforms and web sources. The main reason of this success is this
technology and digitalization which contributes 20% of its total holiday sales. This digitalization
and CRM system encourage manager of this company to move and more focus on digital
platform.
These platforms do not only help customers in booking hotels and flights but also facilitate
them in travel guides, maps and weather reports. In the context of CRM system Thomas Cook
make an effective use of INET, SOFT & interactive intelligence as well. Choose your Room
through Holiday app is called the best app digital technology that is being used by this company.
It is beneficial for both the company and customers as it retain customers for the long run.
Managers of Thomas Cook remain active on social media platforms with the main aim of
resolving and interact with its customers. They provide 24*7 services to its customers and also
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make promises to resolve any kind of problem within a specific time period. It makes customers
feel valued and respected and also increase loyalty for the company (Crittenden, Biel and Lovely
III, 2019).
There are several features in its E-commerce digital platforms such as API integration with
airline systems, distribution systems, application of leisure travels, foreign exchange etc. By
making available around hundreds of hotels & airlines, Thomas Cook Company help its users via
each stage of teh process of travel purchasing.
Advantages of CRM system
 The preliminary aim of Thomas Cook of using customer relation management system is
to make them able to know customers’ tastes, needs and other things. By knowing all
these things they can increase customers experience level to the great extent.
 This system and tool also help them in increasing and developing a strong and long term
customers relationship.
With the help of CRM system the manager of Thomas Cook can differentiate and identify their
profitable and non-profitable customers. By identifying they can more focus on potential
customers (PATEL, 2018).
 By using this software the company can solve problems of its customers easily and
quickly.
 It also improves customers experience by allowing personalization.
Disadvantages of CRM system
 This CRM system can dissatisfy customers if they come to know that the company is
collecting information’s of them and they are being hacked.
 It is not possible for all types of company to use this software if they do not have strong
financial status as it is costly to maintain this software.
 This system can also put a sensitive and important data in the hand of a third party.
It is said and stated that the CRM system and software do not work for all type of customers and
it also requires enough training (Lillard and Koster, Noble Syetems Corporation, 2015).
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CONCLUSION
From the above study it has been concluded that digital technology played a vital role in order to
increase and manage customer experience within a service sector industry. It has also shown
different customer services strategies that has been used by the selected company with the main
aim of creating as well as developing their customers experience in a specific way by which they
can meet customer’ needs.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Crittenden, W.F., Biel, I.K. and Lovely III, W.A., 2019. Embracing Digitalization: Student
Learning and New Technologies. Journal of Marketing Education. 41(1). pp.5-14.
Frow, P., Nenonen, S., Payne, A. and Storbacka, K., 2015. Managing co‐creation design: A
strategic approach to innovation. British Journal of Management.26(3).pp.463-483.
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.
Lillard, B.T. and Koster, K.H., Noble Syetems Corporation, 2015. Sending callback text
messages from a contact center. U.S. Patent 9,065,915.
PATEL, D.M., 2018. CRM INTEGRATES WITH ERP. RED'SHINE Publication. Pvt. Ltd..
Venkatesan, R., 2017. Executing on a customer engagement strategy.
Wilson, A., Zeithaml, V. and Gremler, D., 2016. Services marketing: Integrating customer focus
across the firm.
Yang, Y., Liu, X. and Li, J., 2015. How customer experience affects the customer-based brand
equity for tourism destinations. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing.32(sup1),
pp.S97-S113.
Yates, J., 2017, March. Managing service quality in a software defined network. In Optical Fiber
Communication Conference(pp. M2H-4). Optical Society of America.
Online
How to Define a Customer Experience, 2019 [ONLINE] Available through:
https://blog.hubspot.com/service/customer-experience-strategy
Importance of digitalization in customer’s experience. 2019. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.cio.in/case-study/thomas-cook-drives-digitalization-through-e-commerce-
platform>
Importance of CRM system. 2019. [Online] Available through:
<https://www.cio.in/case-study/thomas-cook-drives-digitalization-through-e-commerce-
platform>
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