Table of Contents INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1 LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1 P1. Needs and expectations of different market segments.....................................................1 Value and importance of understanding need, wants and preference of target customer group.2 P2. Various factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target customer group.......................................................................................................................................3 LO2..................................................................................................................................................4 P3. Customer experience map for Thomas Cook stores.........................................................4 P4. How touch points create business opportunities..............................................................7 LO 3.................................................................................................................................................8 P5. Importance of digital technology in managing customer experience..............................8 LO 4.................................................................................................................................................9 P6. Customer service strategies..............................................................................................9 P7. Customer experience developed by customer service strategy that meet consumer's need ..............................................................................................................................................10 CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10 REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
INTRODUCTION Every organisation's success is based on their consumer and it is important to manage consumer experience. Customer experience management refers to the process an industry used to oversee, track and organise every interaction between customer and organisation. Thomas cook group is one of the world's leading leisure travel and tourism industryand operates in 16 countries. In 2007, Thomas Cook AG merged in MyTravel Group plc, and renamed as Thomas Cook Group plc. The study will analyse need and expectation of market segment for Thomas Cook and explore customer experience map that create business opportunities and analyse industry's weak points that need to work on. The report will determine impact of digital technology in customer relationship management and lastly it will end up with the application of effective customer experience management to maximise customer engagement. LO 1 P1. Needs and expectations of different market segments Travel and Tourism industry is very large and diverse that need to reach effectively. Marketers of Thomas Cook use segmentation to understand in a better way to its consumer need and their demand and implement marketing strategies effectively. Market segmentation is a procedure of dividing market of potential customer who shares similar tastes into various groups based on their characteristics.Market segmentation is important for the hotel to tailor marketing mix and meet effectively to the consumer need, it help in identifying purchasing power of consumer by pricing differentiation. Market segmentation help the marketers in developing appropriate marketing strategy and promotional scheme according to the need, want and expectation of target consumer (Market segmentation, 2017). 1
(Source:Market segmentation,2017) Thomas Cook segment their market in different bases such as: Age/ Life stage-Thomas Cook target all age group consumers but their needs and expectations vary from each other. For example; Youth needs are; budgeted and customized services, healthy food, leisure activities, etc. Aged or retiree need safe journey experience, hassle free and comfortable services, etc. Purpose/ Motive-It includes purpose of travelling such as; leisure, holiday, refreshment, business purpose, etc. and the need of business person is; Wi-Fi facility in flight as well as in rooms, person who come for holiday want spa services and other recreational facilities. Socio-economic status-Consumers who are social status seeker want luxury rooms and luxurious cars to hire, premium services, etc. Value and importance of understanding need, wants and preference of target customer group It is very essential for any organisation to know what their customer exactly want and their preferences with the variable trend and most effective way to make the products and services available. Target consumer refer to the person identified by market and consumer segmentation and they are likely to buy organisation's product and take services from the company (Homburg, Jozić and Kuehnl, 2017). Consumers are the one reason of longevity and continued success of Thomas Cook as they consistently meet and exceed the expectation of their consumer. Following are the need of target consumers- Business person need is Wi-Fi service in 2 Illustration1: Market segmentation
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airlines and non disturbance room in hotel as well as a big conference hall to conduct meeting. Familiesneed is flexible check-in-out timings, comfortable rooms, quality food, fast booking services of airlines. Couples need quality facilities such as spa, non disturbance rooms, etc. There are various ways to determine consumer needs such as: by identifying target customer, what is their value, how industry can become more relevant to their consumer. Following are the importance of understanding customer need, want and preference: Understanding target consumer group and their need help Thomas Cook Group in developing effective marketing strategy according to their segmentation and preference. It is important for a successful business to understand and provide exactly what guests want rather than exceed services (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). It is essential for the hotel to know what customer are willing to pay and offer them those services that make most sense for the specific situation. It is also help the Thomas Cook Group to know about consumer visiting purpose such as recreation, business meeting, study trip, family trip, etc. Understanding consumer preference promotes customer loyalty. Customer remains loyal to the industry if Thomas Cook understand what their consumer want and exceed their expectations. P2. Various factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target customer group Customer engagement is a process of optimizing the relation between consumer want, need and company's objective to develop the most feasible deliverable. In simple words, Consumer engagement refers to a connection or relation between consumer and the organisation, this connection can be interaction, reaction or consumer experience. Build customer engagement enhance customer loyalty towards the industry (Nema and Joshi, 2016). Customer engagement become important measure of effectiveness of marketing program. Engaged consumers are more loyal and they promote brand image of Thomas Cook. There are various factors that influence and drive consumer engagement of different target customer group of Thomas Cook. Interaction and involvement-Regular interaction with families as well as retiree by Thomas Cook lead them to get involved with the industry. This will influence their buying behaviour and they feel valued. IfThomascook deliver their services effectively that help in to 3
establish sound relation with the organisation. Interaction develops emotional bonding with families and retirees and increase commitment and trust towards the brand. Social media-Social media is the best way to target youth as they are more active on social media. It help to communicating to the FAQs of youth and resolve them as soon as possible. By using social media as customer service channels and continuous respond to consumer's queries can drive customer engagement. Services-It includes internal services and response to consumers that are concerned with social status. Providing quality services by knowing what customer need enhance customer engagement that build loyalty and satisfaction (Peppers and Rogers, 2016). And engaged consumers promote for the brand to others. Luxurious facilities, quality services, premium rooms and cars can drive royal and consumers who seeks social status. No response to negative feedback-Either existing customers or new clients, negative feedback put impact on every type of consumer's mind and moreover no response by industry on negative feedbacks can decrease consumers loyalty towards industry. It can change the brand perception and affect the growth of new customers as well (So and et.al., 2016). M1 Customer engagement factors determine customer on-boarding strategies for target customer group Company can use different strategies to attract their target consumer group and enables what consumers expect and want from the company. Industry can use digital marketing to attract consumer towards the product and services. It is important for consumer engagement that Thomas cook meet their consumer expectations, if their expectation are not met they can switch easily. Industry can use emails, calls, advertisements and work on all the touch points of consumer. D1 Evaluation of broad range of different target consumer groups' need and expectations Evaluation of target consumer's need and expectations is important to understand their buying behaviour (Srivastava and Kaul, 2016). Industry can gain insight from conversation, service conversation help in to investigate consumer's need and expectations. It can be evaluated through email and customer contact form, feedback survey, social listening, on-site activities, repeat purchase ratio, through social media community, etc. 4
LO2 P3. Customer experience map for Thomas Cook stores Mapping customer experience is not only important for the industry, it is very useful to the marketers to visualize the kind of experience they are providing to their guests. Customer experience mapping is the process of visually and strategically mapping consumers interaction and experience with the brand. It is slight different from customer journey mapping. Customer experience map give an understanding of the procedure that every target consumer go through when interacting with the brand and throughout their buying journey (Customer Journey Maps, 2019). It includes information gathers through social connection, reviews, feedbacks, payment related information, etc. StagesResearch and inspiratio n Comparis onand decision making Booking and payment mode Pre-sale services and channels In-flight/ In-room Post-sale services and channels Customer engagement Custom er activitie s Hear from relatives and friends see online ads read from magazine sand newspape r Stores Consumer compare and evaluate allthe alternative sand selectthe best option that meet their needand expectatio ns Customer Book rooms, flightsor cabsthat meet their needand make payment Askany queries relatedto services and flights, etc. Analysing thatthe services and products areup-to expectatio ns finding Enjoy and experienc e services. Consumer behaviour andall the activities after experienc ing services. Order againif satisfy. Engaged throughsocial mediaandby rebooking. Giving feedbackand reviewsthat are they happy withthe services or not. 5
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detailof booked service Touch points Wordof mouth Social Media Emails Traditiona l media Wordof mouth Website Online booking and payment system, like: Company appor tour booking page Offline booking and traditional payment system Ticket detail page Tour detail page Tour guide Call Website Staff Agency Social media Website Visiting again Experie nce Satisfacto ry Don't know Satisfactor y Not Satisfacto ry SatisfiedSomewha t satisfied Satisfactory FeelingsIheard fine reviews forthe industry theirown Thereis no way to compare tool comparing through Booking processis easybut sometimes itis unableto Service departmen tisnot cooperativ eand doesn't Rooms are comfortab leand clean,all the services Overall experienc e is a mix of feeling, some services I'mvery impressed with their behaviour andpresence onsocial media. 6
website is quite presentabl eand attracts me towards them. wordof mouth and different websites book from smart device, otherwise booking staffis cooperativ eand payment systemis also fine. respond kindly. The behaviour of staff is not generous. areon time, other services arein between nottoo badand notup-to the expectatio n The provided guideon touris cooperativ e aregood and some are bad. Ideas for improve ments Theycan improve their services and present- abilityon their website Industry needto hire better and Allows compariso n in tours increase informatio non website Simplify thepage flowof booking Support booking viasmart device Addhints tothe field Provide planning checklist Give training to customer service departmen t Trainthe tour guide forbetter communic ation Ensure that customer meet what they want Improve their services Train their staff Improve social media activity treatprevious consumeras goodasthey treatexisting consumers 7
effective customer service staff M2 Customer Journey model (Source:Customer Journey Map, 2019) P4. How touch points create business opportunities Customer touch points refers to that points or way from which consumer contact or being in touch with brand. Following are the touch points through customer experience map: Social Media-Social media is one of the major and repeatable touch point in customer experience map. Through social media consumer get to know about Thomas Cook Group, being in touch with the industry, etc. industry also use this touch point to create business opportunities by using it as marketing tool to attract consumer. Social media help in attracting consumer. Emails-Company use emails to being in touch with its consumer, it starts from marketing emails, from pre-booking to transactional emails and feedback source. Emails can increase business opportunities and attract consumer (Kumar and Reinartz, 2018). It is the best way that industry can being in touch personally to each consumers and can influence their behaviour towards the industry. 8 Illustration2: Customer Journey Model
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Word of mouth-Word of mouth means if any previous consumer gives good or bad reviews about their experience with the brand. Customers mostly believe on word of mouth by their relatives and friends.If customer satisfy with the services of Thomas group, they promote the brands in relatives and friends. Website-Website is one of the important touch points for consumer as well as for the industry it reflects brand image. Customer research through website and get information about the services of Thomas Cook. Also, they book their services and make payment through website. Website is first look out for consumer and can make first impression in customer's mind. Attractive, complete with necessary information can attract consumer to try its services and increase business opportunities. Staff or sales team-Staff and sales are being in touch with consumer from the point they decide to book from ThomasCook. Trained staff and sales team can enhance business opportunities by providing excellent services to its consumer. Service and support team-Service and support team involvement starts from pre- booking to journey to post-booking to resolve any queries or issues of its consumer.Their behaviour and activeness in resolving consumer service can increase customer satisfaction and their loyalty towards brand. LO 3 P5. Importance of digital technology in managing customer experience Servicesectorsspeciallytourismandtravelagenciesaredeliveringsatisfactory experiences to its customers through digitalization. Technologies have helped these industries to: Enhance customer loyalty Customers' engagement Provide appropriate on time services Provide an advanced analysis of needs and demands of customers. Easy customized services through Business Intelligence technology. Reliable platform for transactions Thomas Cook, has adopted efficient and advancedplatform to leveragecustomer experiences. It has increased its quality of services through e-commerce initiative. This digital e- commerce plan of Thomas Cook uses some general tools like BPM, CRM, CMS, Mobility etc. It can track customers' needs deliver them daily updates regarding holiday vouchers, packages and 9
other beneficiaries (Customer Relationship Management,2018). Its website has variant of reports available for resolving customers issues in terms of locations, weather conditions and many more. “One View” is one of the project that continuously helped this agency to reach up to the expectations of customers. Its destination centres to approximately 60 countries have cultivated an environment of global engagement and multi-lingual management system to increase customer services. CRM systems like INET SOFT, INTERACTIVE INTELLIGENCE are some software utilized by Thomas cook to strengthen its customer relationship management and experiences. More advanced software are used by it to strengthen communication process among its diversified group of customers as well as authorities. M3. Digital technologies employed in managing customers' experience Its “Personal Engagement strategy” of develops a healthy bond with its customers Adopting utmost customer- centric approach to the business helps Thomas Cook to retain its customers with higher pace. The “Holiday App” creates easy booking options for the customers. “Choose you Room” option is also one of its strategic digital contribution to facilitate and retain its customers (Cook, 2017). D3 Advantages and Disadvantages of CRM system Advantages CRM system help the industry to manage all the data of customer in one place and it results in increase in productivity of employees. It builds long term relationship with consumer. Disadvantages The disadvantage of CRM is that company does not have control over the data. And there are chances of losing consumer data. LO 4 P6. Customer service strategies Covered in Poster P7. Customer experience developed by customer service strategy that meet consumer's need Covered in Poster 10
CONCLUSION From the above report it was concluded that Customer are the main reason of Thomas Cook Group's longevity and continued success, and they are committed to consistently meet and exceed the expectation of its customer. The report was analysed that segmentation of market and consumer is important for understanding their need, want and expectations and it is also essential for the company to know what its consumer exactly want it will help them to build consumer loyalty and relationship. It was concluded from the report that there are many factors that influence and drive customer experience and engagement. Analysing customer touch points from customer experience map help organisation to develop business opportunity. Itwas also discussed that industry can employ digital technology in CRM, it resulted in a great maintenance of customer data and information. 11
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REFERENCES Books and Journals Cook, S., 2017.Measuring customer service effectiveness. Routledge. De Keyser and et.al., 2015. A framework for understanding and managing the customer experience.Marketing Science Institute working paper series.pp.15-121. 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. Kumar, V. and Reinartz, W., 2018.Customer relationship management: Concept, strategy, and tools. Springer. Lemon, K.N. and Verhoef, P.C., 2016. Understanding customer experience throughout the customer journey.Journal of Marketing.80(6). pp.69-96. Nema, G. and Joshi, A., 2016. Managing Customer Relationships through Customer interaction management.International Journal of Research in Finance and Marketing.6(4). pp.74- 82. Peppers, D. and Rogers, M., 2016.Managing customer experience and relationships: A strategic framework. John Wiley & Sons. So and et.al., 2016. The role of customer engagement in building consumer loyalty to tourism brands.Journal of Travel Research.55(1). pp.64-78. 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. Venkatesan, R., 2017. Executing on a customer engagement strategy. Online CustomerJourneyMaps.2019.[Online].AvailableThrough: <https://www.toptal.com/designers/product-design/customer-journey-maps>. CustomerRelationshipManagement.2018.[Online].AvailableThrough: <https://www.aptean.com/blog/definition-of-a-crm-system>. Market segmentation.2017. [Online]. Available Through: <https://www.comalytics.com/market- segmentation-a-quick-guide/>. 12