Managing the Customer Experience in the Hospitality Sector

This document discusses the importance of knowing the needs and priorities of targeted customers in the hospitality sector. It explores various factors that drive and influence customer engagement. The document also provides insights into the use of digital technology in managing visitor's experience and creating business opportunities through various touch-points.

Managing the Customer
Experience

TABLE OF CONTENT
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Importance of knowing needs and priorities of targeted customers in hospitality sector. ....1
P2 Various factor that drive and influence customer engagement. ............................................2
LO2..................................................................................................................................................2
P3 Customer journey map for the hotel. .....................................................................................2
P4 Creation of business opportunities by various touch-points. .................................................4
LO3..................................................................................................................................................4
P5 Use of digital technology in managing visitor's experience...................................................4

INTRODUCTION
Customer care manager also known as customer service manager ensure that customers
of a company are satisfied. The job role of the manger is to provide superb customer service by
leading and motivating the team which provides service, developing loyalty programs and
creating such goals which focus on customer satisfaction (Stein and Ramaseshan, 2016). Started
in a single room Claridge's, is now a famous London-centric hotel. The hotel began in 1856 and
had royal notice ever since. The study includes needs and expectations of customer for service
sector industry. Various ways of engaging customer and targeting them towards the organization
is discussed in study. For better experience of customer a new map is designed for the
organization.
LO1
P1 Importance of knowing needs and priorities of targeted customers in hospitality sector.
A customer need is something which prompts it to buy a service or product. Whatever
customer wants, needs and prefer in the service should be discovered by the organization,
explored as an opportunity and provided so that targeted customer are better attracted. There is
way in which a customer need restaurant the restaurant to function in order to solve their
problem and desire (Rosenbaum,Otalora and Ramírez,2017). So functionality of the in terms of
how it serves the food, how quickly the order get ready etc. should be perfect in eye of people
visiting it.
The initial step to know needs and preference is to identify the customers in the market.
Understanding why targeted customers visit hotel and what services they want. A customer
makes decisions to choose a hotel based on following things :
Work demands, Family needs, budget pressures, social or emotional needs, brand performances.
Work demands : Weekends are the time when people usually get free from their work and make
plans for visiting hotel. Organization should keep the idea in mind and work on what it special it
offers on weekends. Weekend cocktail parties, Open mic events, music show conduction at
Saturdays and Sundays will help in targeting people.
Family needs : While visitors come to firm with their family, providing them with big space to
stretch out, looking after every little things. Children of the family can be engaged in video
games, art or craft activities which would let parents feel more relaxed.

Brand preference : While using various items like soaps, shampoo etc. visitors may have a
preferred brand choice, serving the same brand will satisfy customer better.
P2 Various factor that drive and influence customer engagement.
There are many types of customers groups on which the hotel targets. The visitor could
be at the hotel to spend holidays, to conduct business meetings or just to eat good food. There are
different factors of driving various customer groups and keeping them engaged (So, et.al.,2016).
Holiday seekers for finding a good hotel as holiday destination, people consider factors like
location of the hotel, amenities provided by it, testimonials/videos, accessibility and values as
trips pleasure is directly proportional to the hotel one choose to stay.
Hotel location : The Claridge's is situated in proximity of many tourist destination which let the
client choose the hotel. Also, it provides transportation facilities to the customers included in
hotel charges only which serve as bonus for people. Assisting visitors with professional guide
facilities let people save there time and make there experience more pleasant.
Testimonials : In the era of technology, every user end up checking the video's hotel has
uploaded depicting experiences of people. Individual also go through the reviews given to hotel,
so always ask people to share there reviews online.
Accessibility : Smoother the transport accessibility is to the hotel more chances grows of people
choosing it. Not just reaching it, but after that also maintaining proper arrangements for
transportation to key destination of travellers is key to influence people.
Value : The prices should be decided by comparing same of different hotels simultaneously.
Providing discount and other best value for visitors money is very crucial way to influence and
engage targeted customers. Inventing better value added services is also important.
Attracting business traveller to hotel can lead to an increase in occupancy rate. The
factors which business travellers wants, can be looked after to influence and engage visitors are
as follows :
Proximity, a personalized experience, free and fast wi-fi, plenty of power outlets, accessible
meeting rooms, fast service, healthy hotel dining options, easy fitness opportunities,a setting that
promotes productivity and rest, some place to relax and unwind, providing with speedy check in
and check out and providing easy transportation (Foroudi, et.al., 2018).

LO2
P3 Customer journey map for the hotel.
A customer journey map tells organization, user's experience story from initial awareness step to
the final step which includes payment and check-out from hotel (Peppers and Rogers,2016). It
shows feeling the customer have gone through during the whole event, behaviour, concerns and
motivations across touch-points in the complete journey.
Inspiration to travel : The foremost part of booking a hotel is a wish to travel or the need to travel
. Through conversation with friends, watching TV advertisement an individual is reminded to
travel. Newsletter via email, Facebook or Instagram appearance can also be factored to arrive the
wish to travel.
Research : The person when has made mind to travel the next step is to search where to go and
what type of accommodation to choose, if hotel is what it goes for then they start looking for
hotels on various sites like booking.com, holidaycheck. To attract people towards the hotel it is
necessary to make an attractive presence on such sites by certain videos and photos.
Illustration 1: Source :
https://www.gchhotelgroup.com/en/newsroom/blo
g/customer_journey/3258?rel=/en/newsroom/
blog,2018

Bookings : The hotel bookings can be done via website of hotel or via email or telephone.
Providing user a quality experience with easy procedure is an important step which influence
customer towards the hotel.
Service : Customer satisfaction has to be on top when taking of on-location preferences.
Individual's good experience result in sharing of the review and recommendation to friends and
acquaintance.
Post-stay / loyalty : The goal of every hotel management group is to secure the guest's loyalty to
the hotel and wherever applicable to the brand. Time to time guest should be motivated to re-
book by regularly reminding them for their positive stay.
P4 Creation of business opportunities by various touch-points.
Customer touch points are important convergence where audience and the brand of
organization meet. A customer touch point can occur at any point of customer journey :
Realization, awareness, evaluation, purchase. It is brand's points of customer contact, from start
to finish. Various touch-points before visiting hotel includes social media, ratings and review,
testimonials, word of mouth, marketing and during the visit the ambiance, phone system, service
and support teams, follow-ups and thank you cards (Lemon and Verhoef,2016). The touch points
helps in better understanding of customer's needs attitude and wants which are fulfilled by the
service organization provide which increases its sales thus more profit could be made.
Identify the most important customers. Concentrate investment on the customer touch
points that will do the most to raise profitable demand. Set realistic goals for implementation.
Constantly check their performance. A more direct focus allows the brand to implement touch
points in better way and gives clear view of the achievement.
Research : Claridge's advertise itself in such form that on search engine it appears in top ten
hotel of London. This increases the chances of bookings raising opportunities for organization.
Collaboration : Very often many events are organized in London. Collaboration with these
events has much potential to increase opportunities for the hotel and serving as a great touch
point.
On-property : Providing every class of visitors the service it wants, demands and prefer. For
instance : To a couple with small kid who have come to Claride's to attend a music event,

babysitting should be provided (Kluiters, et.al., 2018). Garbing such opportunities and serving
best in it retains customer in long run.
LO3
P5 Use of digital technology in managing visitor's experience.
A customer is one of the most important aspects of a business enterprise. For any
business to succeed in long term it is really important to have a loyal customer base. Talking
personally about hotels, delighting customer through personalized experiences is very necessary.
The following five tips can help organization using digital advancements to improve the
customer experience :
Make information available online : The ability to store information online is the simplest way to
shift toward digital transformation (Kandampully,Zhang and Jaakkola, 2018). This makes it
much more convenient for customer's to find what they want eliminating need to speak to
employee. Efficient employees are clubbed together to form customer relationship management
team to manage hotel's current and potential customers. This team compiles data from a range of
different communication channels including telephone, mail, social media are attracted the
targeted customers.
CONCLUSION
From the above case study it could be concluded that knowing customer's need and
preference and serving exactly same can make the hotel a big brand in no time. Also, it is
necessary bring automation and efficiently use technology to improve customer satisfaction and
retain customer by making customer relationship management systems.

REFERENCES
Books and Journal
Foroudi, et.al., 2018. Investigating the effects of smart technology on customer dynamics and
customer experience. Computers in Human Behavior.80. pp.271-282.
Kandampully, J., Zhang, T.C. and Jaakkola, E., 2018. Customer experience management in
hospitality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
Kluiters, et.al., 2018. Creating an automation tool for customer journey experts at ING.
Lemon, K.N. and Verhoef, P.C., 2016. Understanding customer experience throughout the
customer journey. Journal of marketing. 80(6). pp.69-96.
Peppers, D. and Rogers, M., 2016. Managing customer experience and relationships: A strategic
framework. John Wiley & Sons.
Rosenbaum, M.S., Otalora, M.L. and Ramírez, G.C., 2017. How to create a realistic customer
journey map. Business Horizons. 60(1). pp.143-150.
So, et.al., 2016. The role of customer engagement in building consumer loyalty to tourism
brands. Journal of Travel Research. 55(1). pp.64-78.
Stein, A. and Ramaseshan, B., 2016. Towards the identification of customer experience touch
point elements. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 30.pp.8-19.
Online Reference :
THE HOTEL BUSINESS ALONG THE CUSTOMER JOURNEY.2018.[Online] available through
:<https://www.gchhotelgroup.com/en/newsroom/blog/customer_journey/3258?rel=/en/
newsroom/blog>