Hotel Management and Customer Service

The provided document is a report on hotel chain management strategies, focusing on the importance of managing customers, developing services to ensure comfort, and utilizing Customer Relationship Management (CRM) software. The report highlights key findings from various studies on hotel chain management, including the determinants of hotel chain expansion through international franchising, strategic entrepreneurship in the hotel industry, and the role of chain affiliation.

Hotel chain recruitment
for skills

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Value and importance of understanding needs, wants and preferences of target customers.
.....................................................................................................................................................1
P2 Different factors which drive and influence customer engagement of different target
customers.....................................................................................................................................3
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
P.3 Customer experience map.....................................................................................................5
P4. Customer touchpoints throughout customer experience .....................................................7
TASK 3 ...........................................................................................................................................8
P5 Digital technology employed in managing the customer experience with in inter
continental hotel group................................................................................................................8
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Hospitality management is a service industry. The main of this industry is provide better
services to their guest and gain customer satisfaction. This industry includes various segments
like hotels, restaurants, event management, tour and travel and private clubs etc. To better
understand this concept IHG Hotel, United Kingdom is being selected. The present report is
aiming at managing customers experience in hotel industry. As customers needs, wants and
preferences of target customers is very important in service sector industry is being explained in
this report. There are different factors which influences different target customer groups is also
explained in this report. The customer experience map can be helpful so which is also prepared
in this report. The touch points creates business opportunities for hotels is also discussed in this
report. As importance of digital technology is employed in managing customer experience is also
being discussed in this present report.
TASK 1
P1. Value and importance of understanding needs, wants and preferences of target customers.
Customers are considered as most valuable person of market and whether its service or
product industry everyone wants to meet and understand customers needs, wants and
preferences. As it is very important in order to identify the need and want of target customer
group so that customers can be satisfied and they become loyal to company. The understanding
of these elements assist companies to meet requirement of customers and achieve goal of profit
maximization. The preferences of customers changes very frequently so for hotels like IHG, it is
important to know target customers preferences and than according to provide services. Market
segmentation and customer profiling activities are very important in order to determine their
target market. Importance of understanding needs, wants and preferences is discussed below:
To identify target customers and markets :
Understanding customers needs and wants enables companies to identify the customers
whom they are going to target and target markets also. As IHG can segregate their customers and
markets on basis their need and wants. For example : Business class customers required all kind
of luxury services in hotel so IHG can divide their customer on basis of class and than target
their customers accordingly (Mattimoe, 2013).
To maximize sales and profits :
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The organisation main goal is to generate maximum sales and earn maximum profits. To
maximise profit and sales it is very important to satisfy needs and wants of customers. So
understanding taste and preferences of target customers can enable the IHG to generate more
sales and maximise their profits. As enhancing figure of sales and profit is totally depend on
customers so by understanding their need organisation can earn maximum profits.
Apart from this, this also helpful in taking strategic decisions and implementation, to
know customer's desire to purchase the products and to know number of customers who are able
to buy their products.
This is reason organisation carries out market segmentation and customer profiling
activities to identify its target market.
Profiling the customers:
Profiling refers to recording and evaluating the person's psychological and behavioural
characteristics. This data is used to predict capacity and then make categorisation. The IHG can
get to know psychologically by directly interaction with customers and behavioural aspects by
observing and asking close people with customers. These ways are as follows:
More interaction with customers:
The company should do more interaction with customers in order to find out their
interests, habits, likes and dislikes etc. As hotel should try find out the consumer spending like
how much money they are ready to spend to render services. It will help them to profiling
customers (Masadeh, 2013).
Looking at customer daily activities:
As approaching consumer at right time is very crucial. So keeping continuous focus on
their regular activities and understanding what they want and where they go etc. can be helpful
for business to target customers accordingly and attract the customers.
Collect information from various sources:
Information should be collected from each and every source in order to identify exact
need and want of customers. These collected information should be saved in database of hotel.
There are some sources which can be helpful like friends, colleagues, at the reception, while
interacting with them and from customers of customer etc. can be sources to get information.
These can provide valuable information in order to profile customers (Nwosu, 2016).
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The wants, needs and expectations of target market drives the products and services
offers of organisation. There are factors which are discussed below:
Preferences of customers:
The preferences of customers drives the products and services which is offered by hotels.
As IHG provides services to their customers on basis of taste and preferences of customer.
Because it allows them to gain customer loyalty and customer satisfaction.
Environmental changes:
As this factor also drives the products and services which needs to be offered by
organisation. According to environment change, customers needs and wants also gets changes so
IHG provides the services accordingly. For example, there is whether change in country so IHG
hotels have to provide room heaters as customer will also demand for this (Giousmpasoglou,
2012).
So this is how need, want and preference drives the products and service offering of
organisation.
P2 Different factors which drive and influence customer engagement of different target
customers.
Customer engagement refers to communication of business between external
stakeholders and an organisation with help of different channels of correspondence. This is an
regular communication and ongoing interaction between consumers and organisation, offered by
company and chosen by customers. In this dynamic and competitive environment the profit
margin is not only way to examine effect of marketing interventions. To be sustainable and get
growth robust customer relationship is very important. This helps to nurture marketing program
of company. Customer engagement is powerful activity of effectiveness of marketing program.
As it is considered that engaged customers are loyal who promotes company's image. These kind
of customers trust quality of services which is being offered by hotels and also less sensitive to
price. There are different groups of target customers which are affected by different factors and
make influence on employee engagement. There can be target groups for IHG on basis of
following:
Age:
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As on the basis of age market is targeted by different service industries. As IHG hotel
also target this groups by providing services on basis of age. As for example, hotel provides the
gaming services to children.
Gender:
The gender is very common base for targeting customers in market. As it is natural for
every industry to provide services according to nature.
Income:
Income is major factor on which customers gets services from various service industry.
As IHG hotel also provides services on basis of Income as they provides luxurious services to
higher income groups followed accordingly (Erbakanova, 2016).
Family:
This is also a basis for targeting customers as families also visit hotels so IHG hotel
provides services according to their need.
There are some factors which drives and impact customer engagement of various target
customer groups. These are as follows:
Consumer expectations and needs:
The consumer expectations and needs are primary and foremost thing which is fulfil by
organisations. Organisations are totally devoted towards fulfilling need of customer and meeting
their expectation so that they can be loyal customer of company. As it drives and influence
consumer engagement with IHG. If hotel is able to meet expectation of customers than
customers will be satisfied and they will be loyal to hotel. This will assist organisation to make
regular interaction with customers. With help of this consumer engagement can also be
enhanced. As if IHG is unable to meet need and expectation of customer than customer
engagement will be decreased between organisation and customers.
Providing Excellent customer services:
In service industry, it is very important to provide better and quality services to different
targeted customers in order to achieve customer satisfaction. This factor is very important as it
directly influence consumer engagement. The IHG hotel should also provide excellent service to
its different target customer groups. For example, if IHG is not able to provide luxury service to
its higher income class customer than they will not feel satisfied and interaction between
organisation and customers will also gets decreased.
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Clear communication:
The clear communication with customers is very important in order to keep them
engaged with organisation. As having clear communication will help organisation to understand
need and expectation of target customers and than provide the services to customers. If IHS is
not having clear communication with its customers than they would not be able to provide proper
services which will lead to losing of customer interest in service of hotels. This also decrease
consumer engagement with hotels.
Customer on boarding is refers to process which allow new users to get familiar with
organisation products and services. This on boarding program includes step by step tutorials,
support and guidance etc. to customers. There are different strategy for on boarding which is
used by organisation while coming up with new products and service for customers. As
organisations are used to ensure a smooth sales hand-off, under this managers used to make
interaction with sales representative to re cap pre sales discussion. Apart from this, business used
to ask regularly to customers regarding their services and regarding any problem which is being
faced by consumers (Carlbäck, 2012).
TASK 2
P.3 Customer experience map
The customer experience map recognises and organises each and every counter a
customer gas with company and brands. These interactions are generally referred as touchpoints.
As creation of map for IHG hotel would be very beneficial for understanding how customers
communicate and interact with company and to see opportunities for where and how
organisation can enhance customer's experience. As experience map gives a framework which
can set hotel to increase customer satisfaction, loyalty and more profits. This experience map is
very helpful for companies in order to fulfil requirement of customers and satisfying the need of
customers. A customer map does not shows journey but also displays various department of
company work together in order to strengthen or weaken a customer's experience. As map gives
an at a glance dashboard view which directly shows executives and key stakeholders where best
practices exist in a process (Shademan and Blenkinsopp, 2012). The customer experience map
for IHG hotel is explained below:
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Exploring Itineraries – Book hotel – Pre booking – During stay – Post booking
Customer Experience
Touchpoint
s
 Hotel booking
 Pre sales
support channel
 Hotel booking
page
 Hotel
book
ing
page
 Com
pany
apps
 Hotel
bookin
g page
 Visit
detail
page
 Hot
el
gui
de
 Picture
album
Thinking
and feeling
 Lack
sophisticated
tour searching.
 Brochure not
printed
 Lack of real
time support.
 Com
plicat
ed
book
ing
proce
ss
 Not
able
to
book
via
smart
devic
es.
 As not
having
direct
way
for
printin
g
tickets
 Lack
of
hotel
inform
ation
 Not
hap
py
due
to
buy
ing
exp
ens
ive
hot
el
 not
abl
e to
co
m
mu
nic
ate
wit
h
 Happy
when
get the
picture
albums
from
hotels.
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loc
al
resi
den
ce.
As from above map it can be said that experience map has a process which start with
Exploring Itineraries and ends at post booking. There are some touchpoints at every stage of this
process which enables organisation and customers to interact with each others. After touchpoint
the customers have feeling and thinking regarding their visit at each and every process. At
starting point customer thinks that there is lack of real time support with company. At time of
booking they can think that will it be book via smartphones.
P4. Customer touchpoints throughout customer experience
Customer touchpoints are very important for every organisation. A touchpoint is any time
a potential customer or customers comes in contact with IHG brand, before, during or after
rendering the services of hotel. There are different ways to with help of them hotel can create
business opportunities for themselves. As touchpoints can be before purchase, during purchase
and after purchase also. These are described below:
Before Purchase:
The before purchase is discussed below:
Social Media:
Social media is a tool which can help IHG hotel to interact with their people and than
convert those people to their potential customers. As it can be great business opportunity for the
hotel. There are social media platform like Facebook and Instagram etc. which can help
organisation to make interaction with people and attract them (Block, 2016).
Advertisement:
Advertisement is a major tool for the companies to make interaction with people and
make aware people about organisation so that they can visit hotel. As with help of creative
marketing advertisement one can turn their people to potential customers.
During Stay:
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During stay hotels also can attract people to make customer loyal. These are as follows:
Promotions:
The promotion is very important tool which helps organisation to promote the brand to
their customers so they can be turned as loyal customers for them.
Staff team:
Hotel staff members can also help organisation to make their potential customers to loyal
customers. As by providing better quality services to visitors they attract customers and it can be
great opportunity for business.
After Purchase:
After purchase services are also useful for creating opportunities for business. These are
as follows:
Follow ups:
The regular follow ups is very useful for hotel to make consumer engagement. As
consumer engagement plays an important role to create business opportunity for future. By
taking feedback regarding the hotel services one make better consumer engagement.
TASK 3
P5 Digital technology employed in managing the customer experience with in inter continental
hotel group
The customer relation management system is described as a set of software applications
that helps a company to find out the preferences and needs of their customers. It will find out
with the help of arranging, organizing, following and storing all customer interactions. Customer
relationship management is designed according to marketing and sales for collection and analysis
of information to support decision to understand and support existing and potential customer
needs. It includes account appointment, cat-log and order entry, payment processing, credits and
adjustments and other function. In intercontinental hotel group used advanced digital technology
to connect with customer and satisfy them. IHG hotel have personal system application that have
provide information and services related to hotel (Alon and Ni, Wang, 2012). Mobile application
providing these facility to the customer, they are as follows -
Payment system – It is provide on payment system on mobile application and it is beneficial for
customers because they are easily payment to hotel without any problem.
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Provide local maps and directions - The great thing of mobile website is that is takes account of
location so they are provided local maps and directions. IHG takes mobile very gravely and its
test and learn approach is providing insights and better decision making. In future they are
launches planned of a series that are including and iPad app for the Intercontinental brand.
Customer Reviews – With the help of other customer reviews known about hotel facilities as
well as services. So other customer easily select hotel according to their accommodations.
Room booking system – On this application they are select any room according to choice and
booking room.
Direct connect with hotel – It will helping to customer direct connect to with hotel and easily
provide information.
Operational system in IGH hotel –
In hotels group for maintain customer relation using property management system in
operation system. It was defined as a platform that modify to hotels and group of hotels to
arrange front office capabilities like as booking of room, reservation of particular room
according to demand, guest check in and check out, managing room mate, billing and room
allotment. This technology has evolved and greater integration offer services that broaden well
on the far side on the front desk. In present time it is critical business operation systems that
enables hoteliers to deliver a seamless guest experience. Hotels are now integrated with property
management system to other on-site services that impact the guest's complete experience. For
this system including many operations that are as follows -
 Food and beverage operations
 Revenue management
 Spa management
 Sales and catering execution for group booking and event management
 Housekeeping and maintenance management
Technical system in IGH hotel -
In IGH hotel recruited highly qualified and experienced engineers for supporting
technical system. It is associated with international partners and technical system division that
provides a broad range of integral technical solutions and services to projects of several sizes.
These division are deals with mega projects and total solutions for critical complexes like hotels,
commercial buildings and residential. With the help of technical system IGH hotel not facing
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these problems like cost effective solution, check frauds and clerical errors, passage an
uninterrupted night audit and helps in reducing paper works and maintenance of records. In
technical system including systems are as follows -
 Building management and security access control system
 Long range detection and assessment system
 Intrusion detection and assessment system
 Check full range of CCTV system
 Integrated with large scale security and ID management systems
CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that managing customer is the crucial
objective of Hotel. They develop different services in order to make their visitor feel comfortable
such as, best front desk information, best food and beverages services etc. It is very important
that need, wants and preferences of each customer are and group visitor must be fulfilled so that
they must visit again. When customer visit to the hotel for the very first time it is the
responsibility of front desk manager so that they feel comfortable. Hotel uses CRM software to
record detail information about their visitor so that services are provided accordingly.
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REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alon, I., Ni, L. and Wang, Y., 2012. Examining the determinants of hotel chain expansion
through international franchising. International Journal of Hospitality Management.
31(2). pp.379-386.
Block, P., 2016. The empowered manager: Positive political skills at work. John Wiley & Sons.
Carlbäck, M., 2012. Strategic entrepreneurship in the hotel industry: The role of chain affiliation.
Scandinavian Journal of Hospitality and Tourism. 12(4). pp.349-372.
Erbakanova, I., 2016. Hotel chains and higher education institutions. The Routledge Handbook of
Hotel Chain Management, p.449.
Giousmpasoglou, C., 2012. Global versus local HRM practices in the hospitality industry: the
case of Greek luxury hotel managers. Current Issues in Hospitality and Tourism:
Research and Innovations, p.165.
Masadeh, M., 2013. Perspectives on foreign training: middle managers in Jordan's international
hotel chains. European Journal of Tourism Research. 6(1).
Mattimoe, R. B., 2013. Financial management skills in small tourism businesses: an exploratory
study. Accounting, Finance and Governance Review: The Journal of the Irish
Accounting and Finance Association. 20(3). pp.37-63.
Nwosu, B., 2016. A review of the hotel industry in Nigeria: size, structure and issues. Worldwide
Hospitality and Tourism Themes. 8(2). pp.117-133.
Shademan Pajouh, M. and Blenkinsopp, J., 2012. Knowledge transfer into a developing country:
HRM practice in an Iranian hotel chain. European Journal of International
Management. 6(3). pp.283-299.
Vuorinen, T., 2015. Hotel and Restaurant Industry in Russia: Recruiting Channels and
Employment Process of Finnish Employees.
Yang, J. T., 2012. Effects of ownership change on organizational settings and strategies in a
Taiwanese hotel chain. International Journal of Hospitality Management. 31(2).
pp.428-441.
Online
Touch Point. 2018. [Online]. Available Through:
<http://360connext.com/customer-touchpoint/>
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