Managing the Customer Experience in Service Sector: A Case Study of Britannia International Hotel

This report discusses the importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target customer groups in the service sector, explores factors that drive customer engagement, creates a customer experience map, discusses how customer touch-points create business opportunities, examines the use of digital technology in managing customer experience, and illustrates customer service strategies in a specific service sector context.

Managing the Customer
Experience

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
Explain the value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target
customer group for a service sector........................................................................................3
Explore the different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target
customer groups within a service sector organisation............................................................4
Create a customer experience map for a selected service sector organisation.......................5
Discuss how the customer touch-points throughout the customer experience create business
opportunities for a selected service sector organisation.........................................................6
Examine how digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience within the
service sector, providing specific examples of customer relationship management (CRM)
systems...................................................................................................................................7
Illustrate customer service strategies in a specific service sector context..............................8
Demonstrate how customer service strategies create and develop the customer experience in a
way that meets the needs of the customer and required business standards..........................9
CONCLUSION .............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCE.................................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
In the service sector industry, satisfaction of customers is highly important for the
profitability and prosperity of the organisation. In order to serve the customers with higher
customer satisfaction managing the customer experience is crucial task as without customer the
business cannot exist. For the present report the service sector organisation is Britannia
International hotel- a three star exclusive hotel based in London, UK. The hotel is best known
for its services such as food, free Wi-Fi, pet friendly, rooms and other facilities. The report will
outline the needs and expectations of customers of the service industry. Further in the report
customer experience map is created to optimize customer touch points. The impacts of
technology on customer relationship management is discussed. In the end the report aims to
apply the effective approach of customer experience management to maximize the customer
engagement.
MAIN BODY
Explain the value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target
customer group for a service sector
Hospitality business is a customer centric one because of which they have to make the
analysis of needs and wants of the customers. Otherwise, the chances of achieving success by
them will not be made and the other competitors in the market will take the market share.
Knowing what the customer wants and what their preference will be is the most important thing
so that they could be able to develop the relationship with customers(Smit and Melissen, 2018).
Similarly, Britannia hotels has also made the identification of what will be required by
consumers and what their preferences will be in order to achieve the objectives and satisfy the
needs of consumers. Needs are the necessity which will definitely be required by consumers,
while wants will mean the desire of consumers to make the purchases of a products and the
preference will refer to the choice which they want to chose from many other options. Premier
Inn has the policy of Bike facility where they can store it inside the room or at any place without
any issue.
 For the hotels conducting a proper research on consumers needs is very important
because with this they would be able to develop the loyalty of consumers towards the
hotel. Britannia hotels always try to make the initiative where they develop those services

which can be unique structure, 24 hour guest reception. But with this guest majorly wants
good food quality which Premier Inn provides them the best other than Britannia Hotel
which is unable to provide them so.
 Understanding the wants and preferences of consumers will also help them to ask
consumers as to what things and what other services they would like to add in the hotel.
Listening the consumers demands attentively will be the only basis where they would be
able to grasp what all things will be required by them(NEGRICEA and PURCAREA,
2020). Britannia hotel conducts such things so that consumers can become happy and
satisfied. But on the other side, Premier Inn hotels provides the unique products or the
services which is identified by them on the research made. The needs and wants which
are described by the consumers and on the basis of which they deliver the products are
unique which is why the hotel have achieved the success(Beitelspacher and Ottley, 2018).
Explore the different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target
customer groups within a service sector organisation
In the service sector industry the customer engagement is the important function as this
employ a healthy, long term and loyal relationship and emotional connection between the
organisation and customers. In the hospitality industry which is the largest service sector industry
of the business environment higher customer engagement provide more sales, loyalty and high-
quality customer experience. The comparative analysis of factors that drive and influence
customer engagement of the different customer groups in two different hotels is discussed
below:
Loyalty scheme: it is the kind of marketing strategy of the hotels to attract, influence and
retain their customers by providing them with special coupons, discounts and other privileges.
The Britannia hotel use this factor to target the group of Business persons as they regularly visit
places for the business trips and meetings (Gao, Melero-Polo and Sese, 2020). This is highly
effective in creating a loyal customer engagement with the hotel. On the other hand the Premier
Inn utilize this customer engagement factor to drive and influence the College students as the
this generation is highly loyal to their service providers and also get influenced with such loyalty
schemes, discounts and offers.
Prices: the money customer provide in return of the service they receive from the
organisation is always an customer engagement factor that drive and influence decision of a

customer to great extent (Wu and Gao, 2019). Being a three star hotel the Britannia always
comes with low price strategy for their extra ordinary service as the low prices as always centre
of attraction for the customers for which the commuter group of customer segment is targeted by
the hotel. As the commuter prefer low price food, stay and other services. On the other hand the
Premier Inn hotel target the old age pensioners for their price factor. As the old age pensioner
prefer to enjoy the services of the high class hotels.
Create a customer experience map for a selected service sector organisation
Customer experience map defines the stages through which a customer have to go
while purchasing a product or services (Kunigami and et. al., 2021). It also include interactions
of companies with customers and what all experience is gained by customers after making a
purchase decision. In context of Britannia Hotel, their customer experience map is explained
below-
Stage 1- Awareness
It is the stage where customers and companies both are require to analyse their needs that
actually what they require. For example in context of Britannia hotel, they influence their
customers to use their services by advertising their brands and services and their customers can
get to know that they require such services to fulfil their needs.
Stage 2- Consideration
It is the step where customers create their opinion about the brand. In context of Britannia
hotel, their customers start creating their opinion that in case they use Britannia hotel services
than what kind of benefits they must expect from them and such kind of benefits is really
offered by hotel or not.
Stage 3- decision making
This is the stage where customers finally make a decision to purchase the product and
services of a particular brand (Li and et. al., 2017). In context of Britannia hotel customers, they
finally decided to purchase their services after getting influenced by their advertisements and
searching all information about the hotel. Here, it is essential for the hotel to focus on effective
delivering of services which is expected by their customers. This is the stage which plays an
important role to create a good reputation of brand in front if customers. In context of Britannia
hotel, they focuses that their each customer will get high quality of services which help them to
gain positive feedback from each customer.

Stage 4- Retention
This is the stage where company focuses on retention of their good customer experience.
Here, they ask for feedback and analyse which all services help them to gain high customer
experience and which all activities decline their brand image. Here, Britannia hotel retain their
good reviews for longer period of time by appreciating their employees for good service
providing and encourage their customers to use the particular services again next time when they
arrive the hotel. They also make corrective actions for negative feedbacks and try to modify their
services which represents bad impacts upon customers experience.
Stage 5- Advocacy
Here, customers provide online reviews to the company so that they can share their actual
experience to other people (Becker and Jaakkola, 2020). Most of the companies themselves, ask
customers to provide online reviews and they highlight their positive reviews for attracting new
customers. This is the stage which decide that whether the customer will use Britannia hotels'
service again or not.
Discuss how the customer touch-points throughout the customer experience create business
opportunities for a selected service sector organisation
Customer touchpoint help companies to maintain their regular communication with their
targeted customers. Few of the touchpoints and their effectiveness in gaining high customer
experience is mentioned below-
Advertising- It is the essential factor which is related to pre-purchase experience of
customers. Here customers attract toward a brand while noticing their advertisement on TV,
social media and many others. It is essential for Britannia hotel to promote their brand effectively
and convey right message about existing services in their advertising tools so that customers will
perceive good experience while using those services in actual. Advertising the brand should be
innovative and must focusing not to hurt any community.
Product or service performance- It is the factor which takes place while purchasing
decision made by a customer (Rahimian and et. al., 2021). Here, Britannia hotel is suggested to
focus on the service performance while its delivering to their targeted customers. Monitoring the
performance of services on each step of its delivery will help hotel to maintain good performance
of company and through this their customers will gain high customer experience.

Customer service- It is the service given by companies to their customers after using
their products or services. This is one of the most essential touchpoint for Britannia hotel that
they can listen what their customers are conveying them about the reviews of their services.
Here, their customers complaint for ineffective service and it is the primary duty of Britannia
hotel to resolve the issues of their customers as soon as possible even after purchasing and
paying the charges of services by their customers (Suleri, Meijer and Tarus, 2021). This will help
them to maintain good relations with customers and help to develop high customer experience
because when customers complaints are raise and get resolved as soon as possible then they
perceive a good value for the brand.
Examine how digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience within the
service sector, providing specific examples of customer relationship management (CRM)
systems
Customer relationship management (CRM) consist of maintaining good relations with
customers so that company can gain their trust which further help them to retain their loyal
customers for longer period of time and make a strong customer base. A proper CRM activities
by a company will also help to gain their customers experience while using their products and
services so that in case of bad experience they will make appropriate changes (A Kadim and
Nardi, 2018). In context of Britannia hotel, they use advance software within their hotels which
keeps the record of their customers like their mail id, contact number, medium of interaction,
check in and check out dates and many others. It is essential for them to gain high customer trust
by identifying their needs and fulfil them.
Digital technology plays an important role in managing customer experience for a
company especially for service providing companies. In context of Britannia hotel, they promote
their brand and services through social media like Instagram, Facebook, Twitter and many others
(De Pelsmacker, Van Tilburg and Holthof, 2018). This will help them to reach customers at
global level and gain customer experience through the reviews of their customers on social
media. These medium encourage their customers to share their opinion regarding their purchased
products and services openly. On the other hand, e-mails and company's website will further help
customers to analyse their rights and they can complaint easily through these mediums. In
context of Britannia hotel, they allow their customers a 24*7 service to share their experience on
any digital technology mode which they use to communicate with their customers. This will help

them to make changes in case customers provide negative feedback to maintain good relations
with customers.
Illustrate customer service strategies in a specific service sector context
It is essential for every hospitality companies to make effective strategies to gain high
customer experience which will further help them to develop high brand image within the
market. Few of the strategies of Britannia hotel which they can use to grow well and gain high
customer satisfaction is mentioned below-
Using advanced technology to impress customers- It is essential that a hotel must have
advance and modern technology like ID card scanner for check-in and check0out, online
payments and many others which will help to gain high customer satisfaction because using good
technologies will help to save the time of customers and employees both to manage services for
them.
Listen to customers- One of the most important strategy for Britannia hotel is to listen
first that what their customers need (Chanprasert, 2021). This will help them to analyse their
needs and wants in a perfect manner and provide those services only which will meet the
satisfaction of their demands.
Taking regular feedback and act on it to build relations- It is also essential for
Britannia hotel to ask for feedback from their customers during their check-out to analyse their
experience regarding served services. This will help company to analyse actual effectiveness of
their services which help them to gain more customers. Accepting positive as well as negative
feedback in a polite manner is effective to create a good reputation within customer's minds
about the hotel and their staff. It is beneficial for Britannia hotel to research on their negative
reviews and identify the reason of negative feedback and make some corrective measures to
accelerate changes for high customer experience.
Hiring and training should be on regular basis- It is a good strategy for Britannia if
they hire skilled and talented employees which are passionate about service (Wang, 2020).
Providing them training on regular basis will further help them to enhance their skills to serve
best services to customers and gain high customer satisfaction for the hotel.

Demonstrate how customer service strategies create and develop the customer experience in a
way that meets the needs of the customer and required business standards
The above mentioned customer service strategies help Britannia hotel to create a greater
opportunities for them to gain high customer experience by fulfilling their needs and wants. The
ways in which these strategies can help Britannia hotel to grow well is explained below-
Using advance technology to impress customers- Having advance and modern
technologies will help Britannia hotel to make their operational task easier for their employees
and also save customers time for various activities. For example, while having online payment
system, customers are not required to stand in a queue and wait for their number to pay hotel
charges. On the other hand, mobile communication will help their customers to directly order for
additional services to the management while sitting in their hotel rooms. This will help to save
time of customers to go out if the room and order for additional services on front desk counter.
Hence, this will help to gain higher customers experience.
Listen to customers- It is effective for Britannia listen the needs and wants of their
customers. Here, they can hire those employees who have good patience power and have polite
behaviour toward customers. Listening customers first and then offering hotel services will help
to gain high customers experience because after analysing customers actual needs, hotel will
offer them best suitable services. Hence, this will reduce the chances of serving wrong services
due to misunderstanding. Hence, this how the strategy of listening appropriately to customer will
help Britannia hotel to gain high customer experience to meet customer needs.
Taking regular feedback and act on it to build relations- Asking for regular feedback
will help companies to analyse their customers experience and hence it will help them to make
corrective measures for their services in case they receive negative feedback. For example, in
case they receive negative feedback for their housekeeping service then they can communicate
with their housekeeping employees and set a target for them which will help to sort out the
problem. It is essential for the hotel to monitor the decision which they made to analyse whether
next customer provide positive feedback or not on the same service (Sheresheva, Oborin and
Polyanskaya, 2018). This will help Britannia hotel to focus mainly on the errors of their
organisation and make corrective actions. This is how they achieve high business standards with
high customer experience.

Hiring and training should be on regular basis- It is essential for Britannia to hire
employees after checking their skills and ability in interview and training sessions. The skills
and talents of employees will help them to gain high customer satisfaction because front line
employees are the one who directly communicate with customers. Hence, it is essential for them
to be polite toward their customers. Providing training on regular basis will also help to enhance
their skills and train then for updating their knowledge for recent hospitality trends will help
them to achieve greater customer satisfaction.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that it is important to make the identification
of needs and preferences of consumers so that the hotels can make the planning and set their
objectives according to it. But for doing this there are different factors which helps in making the
engagement of different target group which has to be done by the hotels. It is also concluded that
digital technology plays an essential role in gaining high customer experience in hospitality
industry. The success of a hotel is dependent on making and working according to what will be
liked by consumers and what preference they will be having. By building strong strategies for
gaining good customer satisfaction will help companies to build their brand image within their
market. Few of the strategies are taking feedback from customers and making actions on
negative reviews, using advance technology and many others.

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