Managing Customer Experience

This report analyzes customer experience management in the travel and tourism sector, focusing on Thomas Cook Group. It explores the importance of understanding customer needs, factors influencing engagement, and the role of digital technology like CRM systems. The report also examines customer service strategies and how touchpoints create business opportunities.

MANAGING THE
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
IN TRAVEL AND TOURISM
SECTOR

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
P1. Value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target
customer group.......................................................................................................................1
P2. Different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target
customer group.......................................................................................................................2
LO 2.................................................................................................................................................4
P3. Customer experience map for Thomas Cook Group........................................................4
P 4. How touch points create business opportunities.............................................................7
LO 3.................................................................................................................................................7
P5. Digital technology such as CRM system employed in managing customer experience..7
LO 4.................................................................................................................................................9
P6. Customer service strategies in Thomas Cook Group.......................................................9
P7. Customer service strategies develop consumer experience that meet the client's need and
business standards..................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION ...............................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Customer experience management is a process that organisation use to oversee, track and
organise every interaction to meet potential customer's expectations that in turn increase
consumer loyalty, satisfaction and advocacy. The study is based on Thomas Cook Group that is
one of the leading leisure travel and tourism sector in the world and renamed as Thomas Cook
Group after merging of Thomas Cook AG and MyTravel Group. The report will evaluate
understanding consumer's needs and preferences is important and valuable for the organisation.
It will also analyse various factors that drive and influence consumer engagement. The report
will cover consumer experience map and analyse the touch points that create opportunities for
the business and it will determine how organisation can employ digital technology to manage
customer experience. Lastly the report will evaluate various customer service strategies to meet
consumers need.
LO 1
P1. Value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target customer
group
It is essential for every organisation to understand needs, wants and preferences of its
target customers as the consumers are backbone of every industry and they are the reason of
longevity and continued success of Thomas Cook Group (Homburg, Jozić and Kuehnl, 2017).
Target consumer of Thomas Cook Group are; travellers, families, couples, price consious people,
visting purpose like for leisure, refresment or recreation, business meetings, etc., consumers who
want customized services according to their wants and preferences.
Needs, wants and demands of consumers depends on their purpose or objective of visting
or demanding services. For example; couples need non disturbance rooms and lesuire facilities in
the hotel. Aged persons want comfortable rooms and in-room services as well as comfortable
and hassel free travelling.
If Thomas Cook know its customer's need and expectations they are able to serve exactly
what the demand of its customer, in turn it results in increase loyalty, satisfaction, engagement
and more important it build strong customer relationship (Kandasamy and et.al., 2015). Also, it
will help them to better plan in future to influence more target customer. If consumers are
satisfied, engaged they promote the brand and its services trough word-of-mouth.
1

By understanding needs of target customer will help Thomas Cook to include the services
that meet the goal and objective of guests and influece the decision. It is important for fulfilling
customer's expectations and help Thomas Cook to deliever their services accordingly and
increase brand image. Understanding what the potential and target customer demand is essential
to make strong customer base by effective marketing campaigns.
Analysing targert customer group and their need help Thomas Cook Group to develop
effective marketing strategy and marketing campaigns to attract them efficiently (Kumar and
Reinartz, 2018). For effective growth and development it is important for the organisation to
know what its target cutsomer are willing to pay and offer them services that make most sense
for the specific situation and particular demand.
P2. Different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target customer
group
Customer engagement is about encouraging consumers of Thomas Cook Group to
interact and share their experience organisation create for them and it is a relation between target
customer and the organisation. It can be influenced positively or negatively by some drivers or
factors. Consumer engagement is very essential for Thomas Cook Group as; it increase loyalty
and committment of consumers toward brand and engaged customer are effective marketing tool
that promote brand through word-of -mouth as well as it foster brand growth. There are several
factors that influence customer engagement of potential target customer group:
Marketing
Marketing and promotional activities can influence or drive customer engagement of the
organisation (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Marketing include; social media marketing, other
marketing campaigns, email marketing, marketing through offering various offers on the
products and services, etc. These all marketing activities drive the behaviour of different
consumer like; youth, families, business person, etc. towards the organisation. It is important for
the organisation to provide services according to different target consumer segment. For
example; social media is two way communication channel that increase interaction between
youth and organisation as they are more active on social media and put their thoughts by reviews
and feedbacks.
Services and Products
2

Services can influence consdumers who focus on their premium services and who are
social status seeker. Good and quality customer services of Thomas Cook Group can enhance
customer engagement and in opposite bad services or if Hotel cannot able to meet consumers
need it can decrease their loyalty as well as engagement with the organisation. It is important for
the company to be customer-centric and focus on customer experience by providing qulaity
services and products that consumer demanded (McKee, 2015). Also, if company understand
what really matters to the guests and are able to greet them effectively can enhance their
experience.
Communication
Effective communication channel and continous communication activities enable and
build good relation between customer and organisation. The target customer who influence with
this factor are; travellers like, business person, families, couples, youth, aged person, etc.
Communication includes invlovement and interaction of employees as well as guest.
Communication lead them to get involved with the organisation and it develop emtional bonding
with target customer group that increase their trust and comminttment towards brand. Customer
engagement can be influenced by creating new ways to interact with target guests by improve
customer support and activities.
M1 Customer engagement factors determine consumer on-boarding strategies for target
customer group
There are different strategies that can be employed by Thomas Cook Group to attract its
target customer:
 Organisation should segment consumers according to the product and services.
 Segmenting customers help in analysing and understanding needs, wants and preferneces
of target customer group (Pedron and et.al., 2016).
 Industry should develop effective marketing strategies and campaigns to attract
consumer.
 Thomas Cook can use emails, calls to interact and communicate with their guests.
D1 Broad range of various target consumer groups' need and expectations
Thomas Cook Group can evaluate target consumer group's need and expectation:
 They can investigate their needs by gaining insight from conversation.
3

 By categorise feedbacks that give full pitcure of customer's opinions and their need and
expectation from the company's products and services.
LO 2
P3. Customer experience map for Thomas Cook Group
Customer experience map is the full, end to end experience that starts from when
customer hear about organisation (Customer Journey Map, 2019). Customers always have an
experience whether it can be bad, good or indifferent. It is the perception that guests have of their
interaction with the industry.
Stages Awarene
ss
Research and
planning
Booking Pre-
travel
In-room
or in-
flight
services
Post-
travel
Custome
r
engagem
ent
Touch
points
Word-of-
mouth
Online
ads
Email
Tradition
al media
Comparative
tools
Social ads
Reviews
Direct mail
Travel
Website
Store
E-commerce
Commun
ity forum
FAQ
Ticket
and tour
detail
page
Staff
Tour
guide
Custome
r service
departme
nt
Store
Agency
Staff
Thank
you cards
Emails
Surveys
Blog
Social
networks
Consum
er
activities
Friends
or
relatives
recomme
nd
Read in
magazine
and
newspap
ers
Compare
available
alternatives
and do
research and
gather
necessary
information
Select the best
suitable option
Book tickets,
rooms and hire
car from the
website or
from the store
of Thomas
Cook and
make payment
through online
or offline
Get
detailed
informati
on about
flights,
tickets,
rooms by
contactin
g
customer
Enjoying
and
experien
cing
services
Visiting
again
Activitie
s after
experien
cing
services
Giving
review
and
feedback
of
experienc
e and
engaged
with the
organisat
4

See
online ad
that meet the
expectations
and fit within
the price range
service
departme
nt of
Thomas
Cook
ion
Experie
nce
Excellent Not Satisfied Satisfactory Poor Fine Satisfact
ory
Good
Improve
ment
ideas
Their
social
media
presence
is quite
impressi
ve but
they can
employ
more
technical
advance
ment to
attract
customer
They
should
adopt
aggressiv
e
marketin
g policy
to
Information is
limited and
customer do
not get to
know what
they exactly
want. So it is
recommended
that they
should add
more
information as
well as
comparative
tools on social
media.
They should
allow payment
and booking
from smart
device.
Simplify the
booking page
flow
Hire new
capable
staff or
give
training
to
departme
nt that
are
responsib
le for
managin
g
customer
services
Ensure
by some
sort of
surveys
that
consume
r get
what
they
want and
improve
their
services
They
should
simplify
the
feedback
form
They
should
give
similar
value to
existing
customer
as new
customer
5

increase
brand
awarenes
s in
internatio
nal
market.
M2 Customer journey model and examine action taken at each touch point to create
business opportunities
Illustration 1: Customer journey map
(Source: Customer Journey Map, 2018)
After evaluating touchpoints, now its time for taking actions on the basis of touchpoints
of customer experience map to that help the organisation to create opportunities.
 Stores are the biggest touch point where consumer meet the employees face to face, so it
is important to behave very well and in positive manner that impact consumer behaviour
and enhance business opportunity and it is also important to understand what are their
need and expectations from the company.
 When customer come for enquiry or concern, company can do customization for guests
on the basis of their requirement that attract consumes and increase business
opportunities.
6

 By providing appropriate services to the consumer and meet their expectations can
enance consumer engagement and engaged consumer use word-of-mouth to promote the
services of Thomas Cook that can increase the business opportunity. It is important for
the organisation to maintain customer experience by providing them quality products and
services as well as it is also important to respond to negative feedback and resolve
customer's issues on immediate basis.
P 4. How touch points create business opportunities
A customer touchpoint is an interaction between your business and customer (Peppers
and Rogers, 2016). Interaction can be before , during or after consumer purchase or take services
from the organisation. Thomas Cook can look upon the touch points that help in growth and
development of business opportunities.
Word-of-Mouth- This touch point is very effective promotional activity for the
organisation. If existing or new customer are engaged and satisfy with the service of the
organisation then they promote the brand name to their relatives and friends. Consumers mostly
influence easily by word of mouth so it is great touch point that create opportunities for the
organisation.
Customer service department- Customer service deaprtment invloved with customer
from the point when customer research and planning and gather information about bookings and
customer service department is responsible for resolving their issues and by direct mail they are
focused on influence customer towards brand (Rosenbaum, Otalora and Ramírez, 2017).
Customer experience should match what customer want and expect from the service team.
Emails- Emails direct connect with the targeted customers and can influence better than
social media. Thomas Cook can use email with relevant information that can make impact on
consumer. Emails include; marketing email, transactional email, queries related emails, offer
related emails, etc. that can be used for increase business opportunities and enhancing customer
engagement.
LO 3
P5. Digital technology such as CRM system employed in managing customer experience
Travel and tourism sector lead their old customer experience management to managing
them trough digitalization (Schmitt, 2016). Customer relationship management use for managing
relationship and interaction between organisation and customer. CRM system help Thomas Cook
7

Group to stay connected with consumers, improve profitability and streamline processes. Digital
technology can enhance customer loyalty, their engagement with the organisation, simplify the
process of managing consumer information, etc.
Thomas Cook Group can employ CRM technology in the organisation to record, analyse
interaction between industry and users (Customer Relationship Management, 2018). Basically
CRM system records contact information of guests like; email, phone no., social media profile,
personal preferences, etc. to analyse their demanding and visiting behaviour. This technology
enhance customer relationship management by creating a 360 degree view of potential and
targeted customers.
Sales team of Tomas Cook can use CRM to understand their sales pipeline and marketing
team of the organisation can use this technology to make accurate and simplify forecasting,
customer service team can track conversation with customer across channels (So and et.al.,
2016).
M3
With the rapidly changing world in digitalization, companies convert their traditional way
of managing customer experience in managing them by digital software that is fast, easy
implementation, understanding better of consumer's need, wants and expectations. CRM system
help the organisation to provide efficient customer service and it in turn enhance customer
experience and relationship with the organisation (Stein and Ramaseshan, 2016). Thomas Cook
adopt customer-centric approach that help the organisation to retain its consumers.
D3
CRM system have some advantages and disadvantages, that are following:
Advantages
 CRM system streamline all the critical areas of interaction with customer. The software
spot emerging trends and pattern that allows Thomas Cook to develop new initiatives that
help the organisation to stay ahead from the competitors and run the business more
efficiently.
 It helps in to centralise data and automated the process of sending emails, SMS to
consumer automatically that simplify the process of being in touch with them.
Disadvantages
8

 The disadvantage of implementing CRM system in the organisation is that it increase
overhead cost for implementing, maintaining (Taylor and et.al., 2015). As well as they
don't have control over the system and there are chances of loosing of consumer data.
LO 4
P6. Customer service strategies in Thomas Cook Group
Covered in poster
P7. Customer service strategies develop consumer experience that meet the client's need and
business standards
Covered in poster
CONCLUSION
From the above report it was concluded that consumer experience management is as
important for the Thomas Cook as giving them high quality and distinctive experience.
Managing consumer experience increase loyalty of existing customers and attract new generation
to Thomas Cook Group. The report was concluded that understanding the need of its target
customer help them to deliver and exceed services based on customers' preference and their
segment. By giving high quality services organisation can increase guests loyalty and increase
engagement. It was also analysed that there are various factors that influence customer
engagement such as; marketing, social media, emails, etc. Customer experience map help
Thomas Cook to understand that where consumers are not getting require services and improve
the gaps by developing strategies accordingly. The report was also determined that organisation
can employ CRM system as digital technology in the business structure that simplify the process
of managing customer experience.
9

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
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.
Kandasamy, V. and et.al., 2015. Customer experience management (cem) metrics and
operational correlation techniques. U.S. Patent Application 14/076,623.
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.
McKee, S., 2015. How To Collect Consumer Insight With A Customer Journey Map.
Pedron, C.D. and et.al., 2016. Value-focused objectives for CRM system adoption. Industrial
Management & Data Systems. 116(3). pp.526-545.
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.
Schmitt, B., 2016. Customer experience management. Handbuch Sozialtechniken der
Kommunikation: Grundlagen–Innovative Ansätze–Praktische Umsetzungen, pp.1-13.
So, K.K.F. 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.
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.
Taylor, J. and et.al., 2015. Customer relationship management system and method. U.S. Patent
8,972,876.
Online
Customer Journey Map. 2018. [Online]. Available Through: <https://www.ngdata.com/how-to-
create-a-customer-journey-map/>
Customer Relationship Management. 2018. [Online]. Available Through:
<https://www.aptean.com/blog/definition-of-a-crm-system>
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Customer Service Strategies. 2019. [Online]. Available Through:
<http://www.pressat.co.uk/releases/skyline-marketing-ltd-claim-direct-marketing-
successful-channel-for-handling-customer-variability-
77483846f78808677ee8dece376dae5d/>
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