Customer Experience Management and Business Performance

This assignment provides a comprehensive overview of customer experience management, including its antecedents and outcomes. It draws on a range of sources, including academic journals, books, and online resources, to explore the concept of customer experience and its relationship with business performance. The assignment includes a list of references from reputable publications, providing a valuable resource for students looking to improve their understanding of this important topic.

Managing Customer
Experience

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
LO 1 ................................................................................................................................................3
P1.value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target customer
groups.....................................................................................................................................3
P2.factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target customer groups 4
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................5
P3.customer experience map..................................................................................................5
P4.touch points create such opportunities throughout the customer experience ...................7
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................8
P5.Digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience ...........................8
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................9
P6.Customer service strategies...............................................................................................9
P7.how customer service strategies create and develop the customer experience in a way that
meet the needs of the customer ...........................................................................................10
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................11
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................12

INTRODUCTION
Customer experience is the event between the service provider and customers. This
experience include three thing i.e. journey of customers, brand touchpoint and digital
environment. Customer experience came out of their involvement & their respond on rational,
emotional, sensorial, physical and spiritual scenario (Grønholdt and et. al., 2015). It consist of
every facility offered by the organisation which touches the consumer's satisfaction. Contiki
holidays is taken as an example for understanding the concept of customer experience. It is one
of the tour & travel service providers of UK and it is working in different countries also like US,
Ireland, south Africa and Switzerland. Further in this report customer's needs, wants and
preferences are discussed, and different factors which is influencing the customer engagement is
also analysed. Importance of digital technology in managing customer experience will also be
discussed.
LO 1
P1.value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target customer
groups
Target customer group of Contiki Holidays
it is one of the very famous travel company of UK which is targetting different segment
of people. Contiki is doing this so that it can attract different variety of people to take
their services, which in return increases the company's profitability as well as its
customer base. Some of the target market of Contiki Holidays are-:
 On the basis of income: there are large number of people out there in the market with
different income group. Some earn more or some earn less, some people have more
budget for their tour and on the other hand some may have low budget for the same. For
satisfying such customers , company has segregated their tour package on the basis of
income or budget so that they can attract all of them.
 On the basis of purpose: This is other form of segmenting market which is adopted by
Contiki holidays. According to which they have created different tour & travel packages
on the basis of purpose like some people wish to go for business purpose, some wants to
go for fun and some couples may want to go for their honeymoon (Mondal, Ghosh and

Nair, Wipro Ltd, 2015). So this is how tour operator segregate their services for different
customer's preferences and they provide their clients with divergent services. For
example, A person chooses to go for business purpose, company will provide complete
meeting package to that client including conference hall and other set ups. On the other
hand couple who wishes to go for their honeymoon, company provide them a good hotel
with a perfect & romantic sweet to stay. On the basis of age group: This is another method of segmenting the market, Contiki
holidays create different packages for their clients according to their age. Every age
group people wishes to travel for their own reasons. Company make sure that it is doing
their best to satisfy the needs of youth, old and mid age customers. This is important for
company to increase their clients, rise its profitability and to compete with their
competitors.
importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target customer groups
 Product description- Understanding the needs, wants and preference of targeted
customers help in describing the products required by the customers. It is not possible for
the company to produce anything till they know about the requirement of people. It help
the organisation to satisfy the needs of their targeted customers as well as increasing its
sale of services which in return rises the profitability (Buonincontri and et. al., 2017).
 Managing expectation- Another reason behind understanding the needs, preferences and
wants of customers is to meet their expectation so that need can be satisfied of the clients.
It help the Contiki Holidays to manage the expectation by planning properly in advance
and to understand their own product and services so that they can explain it to the clients
about the result. Doing this will satisfy the customers and in return they will come back
for more services.
 Effective targeting- This is the another reason because of which Contiki Holidays try to
understand their customer's needs, wants and preferences. It help them in targeting the
customers more effectively and properly which in return increases the company's growth
by rising its profitability as well as the sales of their services (Chahal and Dutta, 2015).
P2.factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target customer groups
Contiki Holidays engage their clients or customers into the business operation. This is
because it help the company to make improvement in the services they are providing. They does

not physically involve customers but take their feedbacks and opinions so that changes can be
made to satisfy them in a better form (Bilgihan, 2016).
In case of Income group, Company engage different income group clients to understand
their preference related to services and prices. They take suggestion from customers with low
budget as well as from the customers having high budget. Contiki ask for the feedbacks also
from these clients related to the prices like are they happy with the prices, what they price they
are expecting from company to charge, are they happy from the services and many more. This
help the organisation in deciding the monetary value of their services.
Market segment on the basis of purpose is other target market of Contiki Holidays. in
which they have engaged customers to know about their experience as well as to ask for their
suggestions to make any improvement in their services (Bilgihan, Kandampully and Zhang,
2016). Some of the questions that has been asked from the clients are, if their need gets fulfilled,
what can be the other purpose for which they can choose a trip, what improvement is required in
the services and how was their overall experience .
Other segregation is done on the basis of age group, in which clients are engaged in the
service operation of the Contiki holidays. In it they are asked for their suggestions or ideas which
can help the company in improving their services. Tour operator ask from different age group of
people about their experience and what they find missing in the trip. This will help the company
in improving the quality of their services so that they can attract more customers.
LO 2
P3. Customer experience map
It is important for every company to create a customer experience maps or charts to know
about their perception related to the trip. Every company including Contiki Holidays follow this
as it is also very useful for future predictions as well as to analyse the preference of clients.

There are three phases for understanding the customer experience-:
Pre tour services During the service Post services
Action In this customer's
suggestions are fully
entertained to meet their
satisfaction level. Pre tour
services are also provided
by the company for
attracting the customers to
use their services. Under
this phase clients requests
are considered important
and customization is made
after hearing the demand
of customers.
This is also known as mid
tour services which Contiki
Holidays provide to their
customers while their trip is
going on (Tandon, Gupta
and Tripathi, 2016).
Company do this for
making the customer's
experience better with the
organisation and they will
choose it again next time.
After providing pre and
mid services to the
customers, Contiki
Holidays also provide
post services to their
clients. It include after
the trip offerings, these
are the small tactics
which companies uses
for retaining the clients
till the life of company.
It improves the brand
image of the company
and increase their
customer base. It include

distributing good bye kit
to the passengers with
little souvenirs inside it
so that customers always
remember them. This
can also act as a good
gesture which can attract
customers to becoming
the permanent client of
the company.
Feeling The customer feels good
after looking out for the
services provided by the
Contiki holiday.
Customer are feeling
satisfied through the
services provided by the
Contiki holiday.
This also enhances the
customer experience as
feedback has been taken
from them by the
company
Touchpoint
s
Promotions, pre tour
specification, location of
the city
Decor, lighting, employees
who serving the services
Feedback, quality of
services provided,
facilities etc.
P4.touch points create such opportunities throughout the customer experience
Every organisation, including Contiki Holidays have to create some touch point for their
customers so that they prefer to come back again (Rethinking touchpoints in the travel industry,
2018). Touch point can be some gestures or something which make clients to feels differently
about the company. With the digital transformation, touchpoint for companies have increased
because travellers are getting desired knowledge and information.1. Attractive website- With the help of the technology development, Contiki has made an
attractive websites which is very catchy and soothing to the eyes of customers. It is their
touchpoint which can attract customers for hiring them as their travel agent, these sites
also increase client's desire to explore more (Homburg, Jozić and Kuehnl, 2017).
Customers or clients are the important factor of any industry so it is very important for
them to influence them and attract them so that organisation's sales get increase.

2. Souvenirs- This is also one of the touchpoint for the customers, this is a friendly gesture
performed by Contiki's manager. Souvenir is a little memorable goodbye gift from the
company to their travellers so that they can always remember the trip. This is a tactic
used by companies to attract the customers for their organisation so that they came back
again.
3. Classic emails- This also act as a touchpoint sometimes only to the businessman who
doesn't have time to go through the other modes of information. Businessman find it
interesting and attractive when fancy emails are send to them related to the information
they were searching for. Emails are one of the best and easy communication method
because it gives a choice of personalization, it also help the clients in booking through
emails by making available options of continue booking (Rahimi and Kozak, 2017).
4. Greetings- Good greeting also act as the touch point for the customers from the
company. Contiki Holidays greet their clients very well by shaking hands as well as
bowing in front of them is one of their way to show respect to their clients. Apart from
this company also provided some refreshment from the start of the journey so that
customers feel good and excited about the trip. Some of the other method that
organisation is using as greeting their customers are giving them bouquet at the time of
starting the journey. It is important for contiki holidays to do if they want to influence the
customers to stay as their permanent clients (Minnema and et. al., 2018).
LO 3
P5.Digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience
Customer relationship management system is a tool which every company including
Contiki Holidays is using. They are using it for making relationship and interaction among users,
customers, employees, colleagues and suppliers better. It provides a good path for managing the
internal-external relationship and interactions. Customer relationship management is important
for the growth of every size of business. It provide support and additional services within the
relationship. CRM system is a give a place to the company where they can store all their data and
can easily find it when required.
 Better customer support- Customer relationship management system help the company
in supporting their customers digitally. Every client of Contiki Holidays want a quick and

personalized support from their company 24/7. CRM system is a good and fast digital
technology which provide quality services to their clients. Through this system, tour
agent can find out the package request of the customers as well as their queries and they
can easily respond to it quickly (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016).
 Improve product and services- Customer relationship management system help the
company to collect large amount of data from huge sources. This is possible only because
of the development of digital technology which help the company is accessing
information related to reviews given by the customers and what their clients feel about
the company. It help the Contiki Holidays to understand their weakness and area of
improvement. Company can spot problems without doing much efforts as well as they
can identify the gap between customer's demand & their services. Work from anywhere- This is the another functional area of Contiki Holidays which
uses Customer relationship management system . It help the employees of the
organisation to work from anywhere which reduced their time as well as money.
advantages and disadvantages of CRM systems
Advantages:
 one of the advantage of customer relationship management is that it help in storing data
at one place. It become easy for company to track them regularly and to put remainders
for calling them for the sale purpose or for the meetings. This is tool which help in
maintaining a relation between employees and customers, which in return help them to
acquires well as to retain the clients.
 It also help the company in keeping a touch with the clients by sending them birthday
wishes. These are small functions but very important and meaningful for the company, it
help the organisation to retain the customers.
 CRM system help in attracting potential customers by keeping a track on existing one. By
tracking the profile of existing customers, company can target more people to maximise
their customer base.
Disadvantage:
 Record loss- one of the major disadvantage of customer relationship management system
are loss of record. Some companies uses remote internet connection which is not
providing the full control to the company on data. There are lot of chances that company

can loose all their data because of which they will not be able to maintain the relationship
or interaction with the customers.
 Training- This is the another disadvantage which Company faces while using CRM
system. Big organisations are conducting training programmes for their employees so that
they can tech their employees to use the system. It is not very good for the company
because it is increasing the expenses of the organisation as well as the time. CRM system
require different training because it include more learning as compare to other systems.
LO 4
P6.Customer service strategies
Every organisation including Contiki Holidays has to make or follow some strategies
which help them in increasing their productivity and sales-:
 Online booking facility- Company should give online booking facility to their customers
instead of calling or walk-in booking. This make it easy for the customers to search about
the offers online and book the package with the desired changes they want to make.
 Trained staff- This is the other strategy which Contiki Holidays should apply for the
customers who wishes to come to the office of Contiki and talk about the offers or
packages. Trained staff is requires for interacting with clients as it it will help them to
attract more customers for their company (Peppers and Rogers, 2016).
P7.how customer service strategies create and develop the customer experience in a way that
meet the needs of the customer
Customer Audit Trail, Critical Observations:
Name of hospitality business visited: CONTIKI HOLIDAYS
Date and time of visit: 25th SEPTEMBER, 2018
Ambience and First Impressions:
Things that I observed that
were positive, or good?
Things that I observed that
were negative, or bad?
What would I change if this
was my business?
The website of company was
very attractive and catchy. My
There was no option like help
desk or guide from where I
If this was my business, I
would like to make some

first experience with it was
good.
could have taken help. As I
was facing many problems
while booking the package.
changes on the site by
providing option of tour guide
which can help customers to
understand the method of
bookings.
Prices:
Things that I observed that
were positive, or good?
Things that I observed that
were negative, or bad?
What would I change if this
was my business?
Company is providing tour
packages in all price ranges to
satisfy different customers.
I observed that some of the
packages were not providing
enough services but the
charges for it was higher.
I would have been focused on
deciding the prices of tour
packages on the basis of
services I am providing.
Range of Products:
Things that I observed that
were positive, or good?
Things that I observed that
were negative, or bad?
What would I change if this
was my business?
I have observed that there are
large number of services
available in the website of the
company.
There were unlimited services
on the website in which I have
analysed that most of them are
irrelevant and are of no use.
Even these services were
making me confused while
selecting mu package.
If I was the owner of the
organisation, I would have
taken care of these things so
that customers does not get
confused.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it has been concluded that customer relation is very important for
the organisation to keep their business running properly and how does customers needs, wants
and preferences impact the performance of the company. Apart from this organisation's complete

experience map has been prepared for understanding the different services provided by the
company. While making this assignment it has been learned that company uses some strategies
for retaining and acquiring the customers.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Bilgihan, A., 2016. Gen Y customer loyalty in online shopping: An integrated model of trust,
user experience and branding. Computers in Human Behavior. 61. pp.103-113.
Bilgihan, A., Kandampully, J. and Zhang, T., 2016. Towards a unified customer experience in
online shopping environments: Antecedents and outcomes. International Journal of
Quality and Service Sciences. 8(1). pp.102-119.
Buonincontri and et. al., 2017. Managing the experience co-creation process in tourism
destinations: Empirical findings from Naples. Tourism Management. 62. pp.264-277.
Chahal, H. and Dutta, K., 2015. Measurement and impact of customer experience in banking
sector. Decision. 42(1). pp.57-70.
Grønholdt and et. al., 2015. Customer experience management and business performance.
International journal of quality and service sciences. 7(1). pp.90-106.
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.
Lemon, K. N. and Verhoef, P. C., 2016. Understanding customer experience throughout the
customer journey. Journal of marketing. 80(6). pp.69-96.
Merrilees, B., 2016. Interactive brand experience pathways to customer-brand engagement and
value co-creation. Journal of Product & Brand Management. 25(5). pp.402-408.
Minnema and et. al., 2018. Managing product returns within the customer value framework. In
Customer engagement marketing (pp. 95-118). Palgrave Macmillan, Cham.
Mondal, S. C., Ghosh, S. and Nair, M. K., Wipro Ltd, 2015. System and method for intelligent
troubleshooting of in-service customer experience issues in communication networks.
U.S. Patent 9,026,851.
Peppers, D. and Rogers, M., 2016. Managing customer experience and relationships: A strategic
framework. John Wiley & Sons.
Ponsignon, F., Klaus, P. and Maull, R. S., 2015. Experience co-creation in financial services: an
empirical exploration. Journal of Service Management. 26(2). pp.295-320.
Rahimi, R. and Kozak, M., 2017. Impact of customer relationship management on customer
satisfaction: The case of a budget hotel chain. Journal of Travel & Tourism Marketing.
34(1). pp.40-51.
Srivastava, M. and Kaul, D., 2016. Exploring the link between customer experience–loyalty–
consumer spend. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 31. pp.277-286.
Tandon, A., Gupta, A. and Tripathi, V., 2016. Managing shopping experience through mall
attractiveness dimensions: An experience of Indian metro cities. Asia Pacific Journal of
Marketing and Logistics. 28(4). pp.634-649.
Online
Rethinking touchpoints in the travel industry. 2018. [online]. Available through
:<https://www.phocuswire.com/Rethinking-touchpoints-in-the-travel-industry>