Managing Customer Experience

This document focuses on managing customer experience in the service sector, with a specific emphasis on the importance of understanding customer needs and preferences. It explores different factors driving customer engagement and discusses how customer touch points can create business opportunities. The document also explains how digital technology is employed in managing customer experience, providing specific examples of customer relationship management (CRM) systems.

Managing Customer
Experience

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Explanation of values as well as importance related to understanding the needs, wants and
preferences of target groups of customer.....................................................................................1
P2. Exploration of different factors driving and influencing customer engagement of different
target customer groups.................................................................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3. Creating a customer experience map for a selected service organization.............................3
P4. Discussing how the customer touch points throughout the customer experience can create
a business opportunity for a selected service sector organization...............................................4
LO3..................................................................................................................................................5
P5. Explaining how digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience
within the service sector, providing specific examples of customer relationship management
(CRM) systems............................................................................................................................5
LO4..................................................................................................................................................6
P6. Illustrating Consumer service strategies in a specific service context: ................................6
P7. Enhancement of services by using customer service strategy:..............................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Customer experience is undoubtedly the most important thing for any company (Rotimi,
2018). Be it a small scale, medium scale or a Multi national company, everyone wishes to satisfy
their customers. Positive reviews and feedback increases the motivation of employees of the
company and it induces them to work even harder. For the project, considered entity is Radisson
Blue which is global chain of hotels established in 1960. It have existence at more than 380
locations across the globe.
The current assignment focus on ways to manage consumer experience effectively and
efficiently and the importance of digital technology in CRM. Also, the report will focus on
various customer touch points that can help in improving customer experience.
TASK 1
P1. Explanation of values as well as importance related to understanding the needs, wants and
preferences of target groups of customer
Consumer is the king of the market and that is an undeniable truth. Customers influence
the entire market and the industry operates on their terms. Therefore, it becomes imperative for
companies to identify the needs and wants of the consumers. The organization should conduct a
proper market research to analyse the problems faced by the customers and that will further lead
to idea generation and finally these innovative ideas are converted into successful business
model and a product/service is developed accordingly. (Smith, 2019). A target market refers to a
group of potential customers to whom a company wants to sell its products and services. Benefits
related to understanding needs and wants of target consumer group for the Radisson Blue is to
improve customer base by meting needs of target market and making unique position in the
industry. At same time, it is important to meet needs of target customer market as this brings
revenues in the entity and provides a competitive position in travel and tourism sector.
Radisson Blue has always given first priority to their customers' comfort and satisfaction
level. The Hotel company recently performed a customer survey and found out the preferences
and priorities of their different segment of customers. The different segments of consumers of
Radisson Blue Hotel and the essential things for them are
 Disabled person: The disabled people also comprises large share of Hotel's potential
consumers and their priorities included access to ramp next to stairs, specialise meals
1

prepared according to their wish, use of brail language in Menus and other important
places (Prohl, and Kleinaltenkamp, 2020)
 Business people: The requirements of business people are very important for them. If
their needs and want are not satisfied then there is a high chance of them switching or
changing the hotel. Their requirements involve high-speed internet, meeting or
conference rooms, availability of telephone phone and lastly a beautiful view.
 Tourists and travellers: The majority share of target customers of Radisson Blue
comprises tourists and travellers. It is very important for the Hospitality company to serve
them well because it will not only satisfy their needs and wants but also it will have a
direct impact on company's image. Good hospitality and service will lead to free
promotion of the hotel in customer's home country. Their needs are simple yet
complicated like authentic local food, availability of swimming pool, a local guide, local
taxi etc (Aslam, Tariq and Arif, 2019)
 Patients: Extra care should be taken for hospital patients and their food should be
prepared with extra care and consultancy from doctors, prompt service must be provided
to them and meals should be provided to them in their hotel room.
P2. Exploration of different factors driving and influencing customer engagement of different
target customer groups
Customer Engagement refers to an emotional connection among a customer and a brand.
Highly engaged customers buy more, promote more and demonstrate more loyalty then this
provides high-quality customer experience within organisational customer engagement strategy.
The scope of a hospitality industry is very wide. It has a wide range of customers from business
men to school children and it is their responsibility to fulfil every individual's needs and wants.
In order to attract people from different backgrounds, the hotel industry needs to perform market
research and also identify the socio-culture needs of the people, their expectations and requisites.
These factors can really help the company to grow in its industrial path. Different factors of
consumer engagement used by managers of Radisson Blue are:
Primary factors: Primary factors are those factors that are applicable for every individual
and cannot be ignored in context to hotel industry. These factors include-
 Accessibility: The hotel location plays an important role in attracting the customers.
Some people tend to prefer the location of hotel near the airports or railway station while
2

some people wish to have their hotel or resort located in some touristy location like near
the beach or on mountains. Therefore, it is important to do market research and identify
the priority of target customers. Since, Radisson Blue is one of the largest group in the
entire United Kingdom, they have their properties located near the beaches and in
corporate areas as well. (Chang and et.al., 2017).
 Price: The most crucial factor that affects the buying decision of people is the price. Even
the richest of target customers also evaluate whether the service offered to them is worth
the price or not. Generally, Radisson Blue are priced on the higher end but the services
offered by them are unmatchable. The area of property is as wide as it gets and the hotel
company has always focused on satisfying customers’ needs and wants.
Secondary factors: Secondary factors are basically the services followed by Radisson
Blue that attract customers from different segment.
 WI-FI: Wireless network or wireless source of internet connection has become the major
reason for influencing and attracting customers. Every person be it a school child or a
retired officer needs high speed internet. Internet has become a part of everyone's lives
and therefore it has become one of the top factors for consideration while selecting or
booking a hotel of Radisson Blue (Babin, Zhuang and Borges, 2021)
 Restaurant: Majority of people look for a restaurant inside a hotel so that they do not
need to worry about eating good food. The major properties of a restaurant that are
required by an average customer are good quality food, proper seating and dining area,
local cuisines etc. According to a survey it has been found out that many people prefer to
have a bar attached alongside the restaurant.
TASK 2
P3. Creating a customer experience map for a selected service organization.
Customer experience maps are concerned with allowing businesses to represent complex
interactions. They highlight the major points that can be useful for a company for serving their
customers well. As stated above, it has been emphasised enough that how much importance
Radisson Blue gives to its customers. Customer experience map that is devised by managers of
Radisson Blue is as follows:
3

Figure 1 Customer Experience Map. 2021
(Source: Customer Experience Map. 2021)
Every day the hotel company try to improve their guest- host relationship which is
remarkable. The company recently drafted a customer experience map for creating smooth
consumer experience right from their check into the hotel to their exit. Major points for creating
smooth experience in context to Radisson Blue are:
 Websites: Websites are extremely important especially in today's era because nowadays
the customer's judge a hotel by looking at their websites. Positive impact is that the
websites is user friendly, responsive and smooth to operate that helps in smoothly
meeting demands of customers. It must provide every single information about the Hotel
to its customers. The websites should be able to facilitate easy booking of rooms,
payment and the customer should face no difficulty while using it. Also, it must have a
simple domain name. Radisson Blue have given great importance to its websites.
Negative impact is that there are certain customers who do lack accessibility to
organisational website because of which their needs are not met promptly.
 Review sites: It is the duty of hospitality industry to solve consumer grievances and
problems and that can be done by reading their reviews and feedback and ultimately
suggesting a proper solution. The feedbacks should be given through e-mails, telephones,
4

websites and through suggestion boxes. Radisson Blue have always been open to
feedbacks and reviews and they believe that these feedbacks will help them in improving
their services further. Therefore, the company has set up a different department that deals
with all the feedbacks and E-mails and also reply to them.
 Hotel environment: The working environment of any place define their future growth
and prospects. Radisson Blue have always had smooth working environment and they
have always treated all the employees in the organization equally that impacts positively.
Be it manager, chef or waiter, the Hotel group treats them with respect and dignity. This
not only boosts their confidence which negatively impacts of employee motivation to
maximize their profits.
 Hotel management: Managing a hotel is not an easy job to do. A single Radisson Blue
hotel has at least a thousand employees managing the jobs of waiter, chef, manager,
cleaner, security etc. Even if a single task is not managed properly then it could lead to
failure of the hotel which is a negative impact for business. Therefore, the Hotel Group
has prepared a proper hierarchy level with proper flow of communication so that the
smooth functioning of hotel prevails so to meet interactions timely that positively impacts
of entity (Chkoniya and Mateus, 2019).
P4. Discussing how the customer touch points throughout the customer experience can create a
business opportunity for a selected service sector organization.
The hospitality industry has been the most changing and innovating industry over a decade.
The industry has been affected by lifestyle, spending ability of people, changes in attitude and
standard of living. Therefore, it has become imperative for them to innovate and increase their
focus on customer satisfaction. Radisson Blue has changed their business model and they have
mainly emphasised on the customer relationship management facilities. The company has a
separate department that deals in customer grievances and problems and also help them if they
have lost any valuable items in the hotel property.
Also in order to survive the competition, hotel companies have improved their websites
and made them more responsiveness and user friendly. Radisson Blue become more consumer
friendly by greeting their customers with a warm welcomes and providing them with wet wipes
and welcome drinks so that they feel refreshed. The hotel also provides complimentary breakfast
to all its customers and on certain occasions they offer attractive discounts and rebates. The
5

hotel company also offers loyalty points and other gift card options to retain their target
customers.
The most understated yet the most important function for any Hotel property is to
manage it successfully. The biggest change in the hotels have been the use of internet. The Hotel
and Resort chains now provides a 360 degree view of its rooms through Virtual reality. Internet
has also helped them in the preparation and storage of data base that is important for security
purposes. Use of smart keys to punch in and out, internet facility and chatbots has truly enhanced
the customer experience. Also, a lesser known fact that hospitality and tourism industry is the
second largest industry contributing towards the growth of UK's economy.
LO3
P5. Explaining how digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience within
the service sector, providing specific examples of customer relationship management
(CRM) systems.
The internet has been all over the place and it has deeply contributed towards the growth
and evolution of hospitality sector. CRM is an important technique that has helped in improving
digital technology.
Customer relationship management is a technology used to communicate and interact
with the customers. This further helps them to improve their relationships with the people and
increase their business image. Radisson Blue uses CRM activities on regular basis to increase
consumer effectiveness and efficiency. This has also helped the company in retaining their
potential employees. Types of CRM activities that are adopted by managers of Radisson Blue
are as explained:
 Operational CRM: Operational CRM deals with sales automation, service automation
and marketing automation. (Agnihotri and et.al., 2016.)
 Analytical CRM: Analytical CRM is generally used by top level management of
Radisson Bluefor the purpose of marketing, sales and human resource.
 Collaborative CRM: Collaborative CRM is concerned with the employees of an
organization sharing information they collect while communicating with the customers,
with different departments like sales, technical and marketing of an organization. This
6

helps the organization in many ways as now they can understand consumers view point
and their requirements which allows them to serve their customers better.
Some examples of customer relationship management system that are used at Radisson Blue are
mentioned below:
Really Simple Systems CRM: It includes everything business need to manage sales and
marketing in an all-in-one system. It’s easy to set up, and it only takes minutes to learn, while not
compromising on quality.
Pipedrive: It is dedicated sales management tool. With no optional modules for
marketing, project management etc available. According to the Pipedrive, Radisson Blue website
its CRM system is built for small teams with intricate or lengthy sales processes.
Within Radisson Blue, digital technology is employed in form of Wi-Fi infrastructure
overhauling wherein Hotel guests expect to be able to connect to the internet seamlessly and
without too many interruptions, leading hotels to invest in better, faster Wi-Fi infrastructure so
that people can do business and use their technology devices with ease when they book their
stay. At same time, digital conference facilities are offered to hotel guests so to access audio
visual as well as digital facilities while attending conferences,
On line customer experience is also on its all-time peak as it deals with current and future
potential customers through internet tools like E-mail, direct message or via calls. The online
customer experience is easy and accessible. It is economical and time saving too. The digital and
online payment system for booking a hotel is quiet impressive because now people from all
around the world can book hotels with the help of their international cards and cancelling has
also become quite easy. (Consumer Touch Point, 2019)
Moving on towards social media, the most powerful tool in the world for building
relationships. Social media not only helps in interacting with future customers but also helps in
attracting them and inducing them to book their hotels. With the advanced technology, social
media tools like Facebook and Instagram help these companies to find their potential customers.
The company then runs up various offers and give away contests which gives people a chance to
win free trips. This further increase awareness and acts as an important tool for these companies
to get like and gain followers on these pages, so that their community can grow. Apart from this
travel and tourism law will be discussed further.
7

Travel and tourism laws – the tourism law is referring to the state as well as federal and
the international laws that will helps to regulate the various aspects as well as functions of the
travel and tourism industry. However, the travel law that involve anything from the hospitality to
the employment as well as public health regulations. This are the laws related to the safety as
well as security on legislation that is keep concentrating on hazards within the travel and tourism
sector that will make sure the risk of any accident occurs by travelling and tourism. However, the
main aim and objective of law to do focus on people safety in every respect of working
environment.
LO4
P6. Illustrating Consumer service strategies in a specific service context:
Radisson Blue use Customer relationship strategy to increase the customer satisfaction,
meanwhile increasing customer loyalty towards it, and influence them for the further
recommendations of the hotel to their friends and the family. This defines that the members of
the hotels should interact with its guests to know their perceptions and understand their
expectation from the hotel and they should maintain profile of the customers so that they can
meet the expectations of their customers which leads to framing of satisfied and happy
customers.
Customer service strategy is a thorough plan to handle customer interactions. Customer
service strategy that is adopted by Radisson Blue are recruiting and developing people, leading
from the top, welcoming complaints and so on. Likewise, customer service policy is a written
document that employees follow when dealing with customers who are not satisfied with
company's products or services. In the company, we put you, the customer, first., we provide
honest responses, and do not make promises we cannot keep, We treat all information received
from you as proprietary and for the purpose of benefiting our partnership and many more are
some customer service policies on which employees carry out practices. Key objective of the
hotel is to to become a venture of choice for guests, owners, investors along with talents. Some
of policies of customer service on which Radisson Blue works are as follows:
Demonstrate courtesy and politeness: The staff members of the Radisson Blue are very
polite with their guests and treat them with the respect and the courtesy and value them. They
show friendly behaviour and very helpful nature towards their guests. This is very important
8

strategy for the hotels because the softness and the behaviour of the staff members has many
impacts on the customers and this services also empowers their customers to come back to the
hotel in the future. (Chang and et.al., 2017) Workers in the hotel are very punctual and
organised. They give fast services to their customers and deliver all the resources to their guests
exactly on the time they need.
Share discount and complementary offers: Radisson Blue avail discount offers for its
customers which influence people to enter the room of the hotel. This strategy helps the hotel to
influence and to frame new customers. They also avail the larger amount of discounts for their
regular customers which leads to create loyal guests. They provide facilities of the
complimentary breakfast and the dinner and also provide one complementary spa treatment
service to their guests.
Share service availability: This strategy explains that the members of the hotel should
describe every detail to their guests about the availability of the number of rooms in the hotel and
of the other services including the no. of beds, pillows and all the other articles present in the
rooms and they should also describe details about all the other facilities they are availing to their
guests such as lodging, breakfast, dinner, lunch, games, spa, gym and also about the travel
facilities.
P7. Enhancement of services by using customer service strategy:
As the guest arrives to the hotel, they use their first strategy, by giving them the warm
welcome, and by serving welcoming drinks to them. The next strategy they used is that they
demonstrate respect, courtesy and pleasing personality to the visitors. They behave very politely
and also shows friendly and helpful behaviour towards the guests. Using these strategies, hotel
has very good impact on its guest as it creates better image of the hotel in front of them, resulting
in happy visitors. After that they use consumer experience management strategy that is they
interact with the customers and examine their expectations so that they can meet their
expectation which can cause satisfaction of the guests. Sharing strategy allows them to share
every detail about the services available within the hotel and the discount offers and
complementary services that they are availing to their guests (Kumar, Rajan, Gupta and Dalla
Pozza, 2019)
This strategy includes sharing of all the discount offers, free services and all the details about
rooms and the articles present in the rooms, and about all the other resources. This allows
9

customers to comfort themselves with their own choice and to select the room service as per their
convenience. The next strategy they apply is that they provide 100 percent guarantee of
facilitating all the comfort zone, healthy environment and all the services with proper time
management this leads to create loyal customers. All this strategies are practised at the time of
arrival of the guest. After allotment of the room services they use their next strategy that is
maintaining proper time and providing fast services to their customers, and they also show
punctuality towards the work and organise their work with very cleanliness. They provide
breakfast, lunch and dinner in the correct time. And also allow them to use all the other resources
with managing their time (Kumar, Rajan and Dalla Pozza, 2019)These strategies create well
managed and right image of the hotel leads into customer's retention. The last strategy is used by
the time their guests are leaving is that they promote their hotel by giving them the cards of the
hotel, by applying hotel name tags with luggage of the visitor and by showing gratitude towards
the guests.
All these above strategies are is used in Radisson Blue so that the customer feel happy,
comfortable, and enjoy all the services and resources availed by the establishment. The strategies
used by the hotel influence the visitors for more upcoming visits that is their retention in the
hotel and also influence them to promote and recommend the hotel to their friends and family so
that they can also enjoy the fun and the services' hotel is giving to them (Soltani and Navimipou,
2016.)
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it can be concluded that Hotel industry is among the fastest
growing industries in the world and with the increasing competition and rivalry. The hotel have
focused on improving their customer relationships which has led to extensive growth in their
annual sales. The company changed their business model and focused on identifying consumers
needs and wants. It also segregated its target customers into different groups which further
helped them to focus on individual needs and wants. Also, the company increased the use of
social media and tools like CRM to handle employee grievances and increase their customer
base. Thus, at the end it can be referred that the role of CRM cannot be ignored and it plays a
major role when it comes to retaining its target customers and attracting future customers.
10

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Agnihotri, R. and et.al., 2016. Social media: Influencing customer satisfaction in B2B
sales. Industrial Marketing Management.53. pp.172-180.
Berezina, K. and et.al., 2016. Understanding satisfied and dissatisfied hotel customers: text
mining of online hotel reviews.Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management.25(1).
pp.1-24.
Bilgihan, A. and at.al., 2016. Hotel guest preferences of in-room technology amenities. Journal
of Hospitality and Tourism Technology. 7(2). pp.118-134.
Calefato, F. and et.al., 2015. The role of social media in affective trust building in customer–
supplier relationships. Electronic Commerce Research. 15(4). pp.453-482.
Chang, Y.C. and et.al., 2017. Social media analytics: Extracting and visualizing Radisson Blue
hotel ratings and reviews from TripAdvisor. International Journal of Information
Management.
Conroy, R.M. and Yemen, G., 2018. Radisson Blue: Tru to its Brand?.
Dardeer, M. and et.al, 2017. The Influence of Physical Work Environment on Hotel Back-of-the-
House Employees’ Satisfaction and Productivity: A Case Study on Radisson Blue
Hotels. JOURNAL OF TOURISM. RESEARCH. p.43.
Niemelä, M., 2019. Brand management strategies of hotel chain sub-brands Sheraton Marriott
and DoubleTree by Radisson Blue.
O'donnell, C. and et.al., 2016. Method of enhancing customer relationship management content
and workflow. U.S. Patent Application 14/854,591.
Paraskevas, A. and Quek, M., 2019. When Castro seized the Radisson Blue: Risk and crisis
management lessons from the past. Tourism Management. 70. pp.419-429.
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.
Rotimi, A., 2018. Impact of the uses of various technologies on the thermal performance and
energy efficiency of UK hotel buildings: application to Radisson Blue in the UK (Doctoral
dissertation, University of West London).
Sajid, S. I., 2016. Social media and its role in marketing.
Smith, N., 2019. Exploring the Role of Twitter as a Public Sphere that Facilitates Civil
Discourse.
Soltani, Z. and Navimipour, N.J., 2016. Customer relationship management mechanisms: A
systematic review of the state of the art literature and recommendations for future
research. Computers in Human Behavior.61. pp.667-688.
Prohl, K. and Kleinaltenkamp, M., 2020. Managing value in use in business markets. Industrial
Marketing Management, 91, pp.563-580.
Aslam, W., Tariq, A. and Arif, I., 2019. The effect of ATM service quality on customer
satisfaction and customer loyalty: An empirical analysis. Global Business Review, 20(5),
pp.1155-1178.
Babin, B.J., Zhuang, W. and Borges, A., 2021. Managing service recovery experience: effects of
the forgiveness for older consumers. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 58,
p.102222.
11

Chkoniya, V. and Mateus, A., 2019. Digital Category Management: How Technology Can
Enable the Supplier-Retailer Relationship. In Smart Marketing With the Internet of
Things (pp. 139-163). IGI Global.
Kumar, V., Rajan, B., Gupta, S. and Dalla Pozza, I., 2019. Customer engagement in
service. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, 47(1), pp.138-160.
Online:
Consumer Touch Point. 2019.[ONLINE] Available through: https://www.interaction-
design.org/literature/article/customer-touchpoints-the-point-of-interaction-between-brands-
businesses-products-and-customers
Customer Experience Map. 2021. [online]. Availblee through: <
https://medium.com/@azviss4/customer-journey-mapping-in-7-bookmarks-
d116da67a0c2>
12