Customer Experience Management Assignment Solution

MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
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Table of contents
Introduction......................................................................................................................................3
Task 1...............................................................................................................................................3
LO1 Explanation of the needs and expectations of market segments in customer service
industry.........................................................................................................................................3
P1 Explanation of the importance of understanding the requirements and preferences of
existing customers in service industry.........................................................................................3
Task 2...............................................................................................................................................5
P2 Explore the different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different
target customer groups within a service sector organisation.......................................................5
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................14
LO2 Discussion about the customer experience map to create business opportunities and
developments.............................................................................................................................14
P3 Establish a customer experience map for the service sector organisation............................14
P4 Discussion of the way by which the customer touch points through customer experience
helps to create business opportunities for the service sector organisation.................................15
LO3 Analysis of the impact of digital technology in customer relationship management....17
P5 Analysis the way by which digital technology helps in managing customer experience
within the service sector by providing specific example of CRM system...............................17
LO4 Application of customer experience management within the service sector to develop
customer relationship.................................................................................................................18
P6 Analysis of the strategies for improvement in customer service........................................18
P7 Demonstration of customer service strategies that helps to develop customer experience
and meet their requirements.......................................................................................................19
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................23
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References list................................................................................................................................24
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Introduction
In this study, it mainly focuses on the customer needs and preference of different customer of the
organisation name “Gilpin Hotel & Lake House. This analysis maintains helps to determine the
preferences and expectation of customer in different firms. However, it provides a good quality
food and accommodation in a wide, arranged room as per the customer’s need. In this case,
organisation may offer the holidaymaker with poolside services and entertainment materials to
fulfil their requirements.
Task 1
LO1 Explanation of the needs and expectations of market segments in customer service
industry
P1 Explanation of the importance of understanding the requirements and preferences of
existing customers in service industry
It is seen that the following customer requirements can be appropriate for the different customer
types.
Disabled Customer  Access ramp next to front steps
 Sufficient space to pass between tables
 Menus written in brail
Business Person  Wi-Fi
 Mobile, telephone charging points
 Meeting rooms
Gym Instructors  Calorie information printed on the menu
 Healthy dishes
 A nice view from the window
Primary School children  Menus written in brail
 Fun food
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 Crayons and colouring books
Holiday maker  Local food
 Entertainment
 Poolside service
Hospital Patients  Nutritious food
 Meals brought to the bedside
 Easy to eat food
Couple on a first date  No garlic in the dishes
 Candlelight
 Soft music
Old age pensioner  Meeting rooms
 Plenty of time to eat the meal without rushing
 Food that makes them remember things from the past
Popstar  Champagne
 Private section of the restaurant
 Luxurious food
College student  Wi-Fi
 Poolside service
 Comfortable sofas to sit on
Commuter  Grab & Go coffee and food
 Wi-Fi, so that they can collect emails
 Restaurant/Cafe is on their route to the bus/train station
Teenagers  Loud pop music
 Milkshakes and soda
 Fast food
Mothers with babies  Nappy changing facilities
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 Bottle warmers
 Strollers and prams
Customer going to theatre  Restaurant being close to the theatre
 Themed menu reflecting the show they are going to see
 Quick service
Soldier  Meals that give extra energy
 Plenty of space to eat with other soldiers
 A secure place to put their rifles
Hence, the above mentioned requirements are appropriate for the different types of customers.
Task 2
P2 Explore the different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different
target customer groups within a service sector organisation
In the modern competitive market, there are many hospitality organisations which provide
customer services as per their customer needs. As stated by Eggert et al.(2014), the competition
makes the entire hospitality organisation create different strategies to develop their business in
the modern service industry. Among all, Gilpin Hotel & Lake House is a top rated hospitality
organisation, which provides the service of a luxury hotel, proper accommodation, and quality
restaurants. There are different types of customer, who like different things and have different
taste such as a holidaymaker always wants quality foods and accommodation, poolside services
and entertainments to make their holiday better. The organisation can provide a good quality
food and accommodation in a wide, arranged room as per the customer’s need. The hospitality
organisation may offer the holidaymaker with poolside services and entertainment materials to
fulfil their requirements. This business strategy can help the organisation to meet their customer
needs and make a good service experience among the customers.
On another hand, a couple on a first date wants a candlelight dinner and soft kinds of music to
make their date memorable for them. Hence, the organisation needs to provide an arrangement of
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candlelight and some soft background music to meet the customer’s need. The better service can
make a great experience among the customers and help the customer engagement to be
developed. Similarly, the old persons want quality and hygienic foods and plenty of time to eat it
without rushing as well as a meeting room for spending the spare times. According to Kumar and
Reinartz (2018), the hospitality organisation has to provide healthy and quality food at a fair
price and a better room service with separate meeting room services. This will create a good
experience about the service sector organisation for old persons and help their customers to be
more engaged with the organisation. The mothers with their babies want healthy and hygienic
foods with a nappy changing facility from a service sector organisation. This type of customers
wants a small playground and park for their babies’ entertainments. The customers do not want
uncomfortable smells and noises as those are harmful to their babies.
The Gilpin Hotel & Lake House needs to maintain their food service healthy and hygienic as
well as to give nappy changing facilities for the babies. The organisation also needs to have a
small playground and park to maintain customer needs. The concerned service sector needs to
keep their environment clean and silence. These can attract customers to use the organisation’s
services more and make their customer engagement better. A better customer engagement helps
the service sector to develop their services more as well as their progress in modern customer
service industry.
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Mother with baby
Explore the different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of
different target customer groups within a service sector organisation

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Couple first date

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Holiday Maker

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Older age or pensioner

12
Primary School children

13
Teenagers

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Disable customer

Task 3
LO2 Discussion about the customer experience map to create business opportunities and
developments
P3 Establish a customer experience map for the service sector organisation
Figure 1: Customer Experience Map
Scripting between Customer and counter assistant
Waiter: “Welcome sir, with a smiling face, how may I help you?”
Customer: “Good evening! Can we have seats beside the window?”
Waiter: “Yes please, number of seat required?”
Customer: “four members but we need corner seat. Can you arrange it?”
Waiter: Yes sure, sir. Please have seats here.
Waiter: We have special offers on some of our dishes. There are 20% off on some dishes.
Customer: Ok. Can you tell me about those dishes?
Waiter: The dishes are Chicken Tangri Kabab, Mutton Rezala, Roasted spicy chicken in non
veg and in veg part Paneer Tikka and Peas pulao have discounts. So what do you prefer to order
sir?
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Customer: Can you please tell me about the best dishes from it of your restaurant?
Waiter: Sure sir! What will you prefer to have, veg or non veg?
Customer: Non veg.
Waiter: Roasted spicy chicken is the best dishes we serve.
Customer: Ok. Get that dish.
Waiter: Anything needed in beverage sir?
Customer: Yes a coke please. How long will it take to serve?
Waiter: Sir just 15-20 minutes.
Customer: Excuse me, can I get some soft music to listen?
Waiter: Yes, sure sir.
Waiter: (After few minutes) This is your dish sir. Can I proceed to serve it?
Customer: Yes please.
Waiter: (After dinner of customer) Sir, how was the food?
Customer: It was delicious. Thank you for providing the quality foods and services with a
smiling face.
Waiter: Thank you sir. We used to provide this type of foods and services continually and
customer satisfaction is the most important thing for us. Please visit again sir.
Customer: (After payment) yes surely, we will come again. Thank you.
The manager, after visiting their organisation’s outlet, has observed that the outlet is quite clean
and the environment is silent very much. The staffs behave with their customer with a smiling
face and in a well mannered way. Besides that, it is observed that the customers are also happy
using their services. It is seen that the staffs are fulfilling all their customers’ requirements and
queries and reacted according to that.
P4 Discussion of the way by which the customer touch points through customer experience
helps to create business opportunities for the service sector organisation
As mentioned by Peppers and Rogers (2016), the service sector organisations used to connect
with their customers in different ways to know about the customer feedbacks and to develop
their services according to that. The organisation mostly uses websites to inform their customers
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about their services and about their latest offers. In order to provide information, the organisation
needs to maintain their websites regularly to provide daily updates regarding their offers. Many
customers use to search websites to visit nearby restaurants according to reviews and book seats
or foods online.
Hence, the organisation needs to create a warm welcoming and designed websites which can
attract people to use their services. The service sector organisation needs to hire a professional
web designer to maintain their website in an attractive manner. This can make the organisation
maintain a good customer relationship. As stated by Homburg et al.(2017), the reviews in the
review sites, given by customers, help an organisation to develop their services and identify their
mistakes. The organisation can approach their customers to give reviews according to their
services and also request to give a recommendation for their service improvements. The
customer service can connect with the customers by using text messaging service. The message
can help the customers to gather information about their special offers and discounts. The
customer can also get their details regarding bookings and orders information. Using email
service, a service sector organisation can develop their customer relationships and engage them
with the organisation.
In order to maintain proficiency in email service, the hospitality organisation needs to respond
quickly against the customer emails. For this, the organisation can hire an efficient mail operator
to maintain their customer satisfaction. The organisation, by using paper mails needs to maintain
quick delivery and fast response against the customer emails. According to Lemon and Verhoef
(2016), by using telephone the organisation can meet their customer queries fast and can inform
people about the service details provided by the organisation. The customer wants a clean and
pleasant environment and proficient waiter services. The organisation, by fulfilling this criterion,
can make great opportunities in the service industry. The organisation’s development also
depends on efficient management. It needs to give priority on customer relationship over profits.
The good manner and behaviour and good assistance quality of the staffs help to make the
customer pleased. Hence, by following these customer experience map, the hospitality service
sector can develop their business and create great opportunities for the organisation.
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LO3 Analysis of the impact of digital technology in customer relationship management
P5 Analysis the way by which digital technology helps in managing customer experience
within the service sector by providing specific example of CRM system
Responses after attaining the workshop:
1. What was the presentation making company?
Gilpin Hotel & Lake House had made the presentation.
2. Who was the responsible person for making the presentation?
Mrs. Kim Stuart, the customer relationship manager had made the presentation.
3. What was demonstrated software programmed?
Salesforce, Zoho, NetSuite CRM are CRM softwares demonstrated here.
4. What were the important topics discussed in the program me?
Increasing sale with better customer relation was the main agenda of their programme.
5. Who are their present customers?
Some business personals like Jim Williams, George Smith from , Olivia Taylor, Sophie Evans
and many more.
6. What is the business running period of this company?
For more than a decade, they are operating their business.
7. How these software can help in improving the future for this company?
Improving the better connectivity with customers
Digital technology is used for enhancing customer experiences nowadays. In words of Bernard
and Andritsos (2017), in order to have an idea regarding customer choices, preferences, and
insights to understand their needs and design services according to that, digital technology is the
key platform. Any organisation in hospitality needs strong marketing strategies along with
technical bits of help. Gilpin Hotel & Lake House is top rated and high-quality hotel of UK, that
has utilized its digital marketing tools. in the case of hotel industry, digital marketing helps to
recognise its potential customers and promotes company values. Through the company website,
customers can easily make reservations and get confirmation through emails, that creates a deep
impression on the customers' mind. This confirmation email may contain the check-in time, that
can be beneficial for the customer as it does the job of a valid paper document. The hotel has
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provided free a wireless WiFi connection facility for their customers throughout the rooms.
Moreover, it has implemented several digital marketing tools through different platforms like
Facebook, Instagram, Youtube, and various search engines to connect with customers. Online
booking provides additional information regarding the offers or quality of rooms so that people
can easily confirm their bookings. Tell The Chef is a famous online tool that helps to manage
the pre-orders of food and drink, this facility now helps to understand the food preferences of
customers in a short period of time.
In this regard, the Customer Relationship Management that contains customer service, sales,
marketing as its main functions also plays a vital role in hospitality management. In order to
maintain a better relationship with the customers having along with efficient, reliable and price
effective service technologies are crucial in optimizing CRM. Day to day actions of customer
services, marketing and sales operational CRM is important. Strengthen the collaboration
between several departments and stakeholders require better functioning collaborative CRM. In
order to track the record of customer involvement and customer retention process, the required
tool is analytical CRM. Some important CRM software used by the organizations is Salesforce,
SugarCRM, Zoho, NetSuite CRM and so on.
Baglioni Hotel, Claridge’s, and The Milestone Hotel and Residences are some rivals compete
with Gilpin Hotel & Lake House. Though they are providing standard quality rooms and their
prices are relatively low but the prices are much higher for Gilpin. On the other hand the CRM is
fur better for Gilpin in compared to other three hotels. Moreover, gilpin provide better online
portals for their customers and better technical tools, by providing the photos of hotels rooms and
the comments of their existing customers.
LO4 Application of customer experience management within the service sector to
develop customer relationship
P6 Analysis of the strategies for improvement in customer service
Providing quality in customer service is the key that any hotel industry needs to satisfy to
strengthen their relationships with customers as they can forget the expenses for better quality
service. As opined by Taylor et al.(2015), dynamic, ambient and better experiences creating for
customers to ensure loyal and long-term relationships. The key customer service strategies in
hospitality industry required Meeting the customer expectations with highly energetic and
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unforgettable experiences for them. In words of Bhat and Darzi (2016), on time service is a most
important strategy in running a business along with giving individual priority to every customer.
After a time it required maintain a level of etiquettes in service and respect towards customers.
These types of qualities should be maintained in both on-phones as well as in-person services.
According to Khodakarami and Chan (2014), measuring a customer’s mood to understand their
need is crucial. This is because various kinds of customers such as families with children,
patients, pregnant lady, elderly people or celebrities, business persons are coming to the hotel
and their needs are obviously different from each other. As per Navimipour and Soltani (2016),
satisfying these customers can lead to loyal customers; in addition, they can recommend their
friends and family as well to come at the particular hotel. Moreover, asking them to give their
valuable opinions, comments, and recommendations whether it is good or bad, helps to improve
the quality of service.
P7 Demonstration of customer service strategies that helps to develop customer
experience and meet their requirements
Customer Audit Trail, Critical Observations
The visited hospitality organisation: Gilpin Hotel & Lake House
Visiting date and
time:
15th November, 2018 at 2pm
First impression: Nice environment with beautiful nature views but service need to more
perfect.
Impressio regarding the first visit:
Positive qualities of
the organisation
Negative qualities of the
organisation
Changes required for
betterment
Well decorated rooms
with pleasant
surroundings.
At the time of check-in, in spite of
reservation rooms were not properly
arranged and well decorated.
They need to work on their
commitment and provide on
time service.
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Signage, Tariff Boards, Labelling
Positive qualities of the
organisation
Negative qualities of the
organisation
Changes required for
betterment
The cost of hotel rooms are
provided on their online portals
and the food prices are also
mentioned in their menus.
The service taxes,VAT and
other external charges are
not properly disclosed to its
customers.
All the rules, regulations
and conditions need to be
clearly mentioned that
involves extra charges.
Prices
Positive qualities
of the
organisation
Negative qualities of the
organisation
Changes required for betterment
Affordable prices
of food items and
hotel rents.
After investing lots of standard
quality service is not provided.
They charged extra price for
everything and service charges
are also high.
They should provide compensation to
their customers if customers are
suffering because of them. This
compensation may be in terms of
cash or in kind.
Variation in products
Positive qualities of the
organisation
Negative qualities of the
organisation
Changes required for
betterment
They have a large variation in
their foods by offering various
Continental, Italian, Chinese,
Too much of junk food and
fast foods were served
there. Nutrition level was
Foods with low calorie, sugar
and more nutritious food
items need to be served for
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Thai, Russian foods and so on. not maintained. health conscious customers.
Employees
Positive qualities of the
organisation
Negative qualities of the
organisation
Changes required for betterment
Employees are friendly in
nature and also provide
guidance by giving
direction to visit the town.
Service quality is
relatively poor, lack of
perfection. No
coordination in their
work.
Management system need to be more
organised. Several training programs
need to be conducted to manage
customer issues with extra care and
experience.
Time management
Positive qualities of the
organisation
Negative qualities of the
organisation
Changes required for
betterment
Online reservation procedures are
very fast because of their better
online services. Check-out
procedure also took less time and
was trouble free.
As mentioned earlier at the
time of check-in, they took
lots of time because rooms
were not organised.
Proper time schedule need
to maintained. If customers
get their needs to be
fulfilled on time they feel
satisfy.
Supplementary products
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Positive qualities of the organisation Negative qualities of
the organisation
Changes required for
betterment
In this time of technology, they have
provided a free WiFi facility for its
customers
The speed of internet
is not very fast.
Better Wifi service need
to be incorporated.
Payments
Positive qualities of the organisation Negative qualities of the organisation Changes
required for
betterment
Online hotel booking facilities with
no charges on hotel cancellation is a
positive side of this organisation.
The online hotel booking and
payment methods are too complex
and need a long process of
documentation.
Processes need
to be simple.
Other things
Positive qualities of the
organisation
Negative qualities of the organisation Changes required for
betterment
Rooms are clean and
beautifully decorated. It
has a large poolside
area.
Rooms were a little small and had
not enough space to move suitcases
or to put clothes. Moreover the
fireplace was not working properly.
Larger rooms are expected
with better fireplaces.
Poolside areas need to be
cleaned and maintained.
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The poolside areas were not properly
maintained.
Conclusion
At the end of the study, it is clear that organisation can provide a good quality food and
accommodation in a wide, arranged room as per the customer’s need. It also helps to manage the
business strategy can help the organisation to meet their customer needs and make a good service
experience among the customers. Hence, it each and every preference have its important
accordingly.
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