Customer Experience Management Assignment - Thomas Cook Group

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