Analyzing Consumer Behaviour and Touch Points in Hotel Industry

The study focuses on the importance of consumer behaviour and how hotel businesses can target their market based on segmentation. By analyzing the specific preferences and wants of guests through customer journey mapping, hotels can increase profits by enhancing opportunities with touch points.

MANAGING THE
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO 1.................................................................................................................................................1
1. Essentials of Market segmentation:....................................................................................1
2. Different ways in which consumer can be profiled............................................................1
3. Drivers of customer engagement across different target customer group..........................2
4. On-Boarding strategies.......................................................................................................2
LO 2 Customer experience map for Four Season Hotel..................................................................3
1) Consumer's journey map....................................................................................................3
2) Touch points when customer interact with the business ...................................................4
3) How the touch points create business opportunity.............................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Customer experience management refers to the activity of designing and reacting to
consumer behaviour and interactions to meet their exceptions, which enhance customer
satisfaction, loyalty towards the brand or organisation (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Four season
hotel is an international luxury hospitality industry. The headquarters is in Toronto, Ontario and
it operates more than 100 hotels worldwide. The hotel is concerned with the consumer
satisfaction and their loyalty by providing them services according to their preferences and want.
This study analyse the essentials and importance of market segmentation for targeting the
market. It also discussed about how Four Season Hotel map the customer journey.
LO 1
1. Essentials of Market segmentation:
Market Segmentation of Four Seasons Hotel is necessary to target the market effectively.
They are mainly defined by the consumer behaviour and the price sensitivity of a hotel's
customers. The proper market segmentation is allows them to uniquely price each segment
according to the type of customers they are looking for the set of Target Market.
In addition, market segment allows Four Season hotel to specifically define sales &
marketing efforts according to any trends & movements they can drive and analysis of those
segments which are impacted on target market (Wilson and et.al., 2016). There are various
categories assigned to those indicators which are actually made up for the market segmentation.
The ultimate goal of Four Season Hotel to work towards an ideal market segmentation by
profiling their customers activities to determine its target market.
Free Wi-Fi services, good value, mobile check in and check out facility and
accommodation services want by customers from Four seasons hotel, it help to retain people
with them for longer time.
2. Different ways in which consumer can be profiled
Consumer can be profiled in different ways and it is important for the Hotel to identify
consumers preferences and their needs. Consumers can be profiled on the basis of market
segmentation. The profile based on demographic, geographic, behavioural (Homburg, Jozić and
Kuehnl, 2017). Hotels can either profile their consumers by age, their spending power, family
and kids, purpose of visit, etc.
Demographic- The profile include the information of consumer's age, spending power, income.
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Geographic- It include the suitable location of the customer, purpose of visit, their background-
traveller, family, business person.
Psycho-graphic- It include the emotional reason guest come for business meeting, leisure or
refreshment.
3. Drivers of customer engagement across different target customer group
Target consumer is defined as the specific group of consumer who are the focus of a
company's advertisements. They can drives by communicated through media, TV, billboards,
words of mouth.
Demographic- Hotel targeted the consumer of all age groups as they provide wide facilities for
the families with the kids, travellers, aged persons (Åkesson, Edvardsson and Tronvoll, 2014).
Also the hotel focuses on moderate to high spending power consumers. The services are flexible
for all type and all price range of consumers.
Routine- Hotel targeted specifically the travellers, business persons and families. By providing a
good space for the business meetings and conferences.
Requirements- Consumer meet their expectations in the hotel as, the industry able to fulfil
several specific requirements of the guests.
Drivers of consumer engagement-
Billboards, word of mouth promotion and digital advertisements is considered as the
three main drivers of engaging clients and drive people towards company. Four seasons hotel
target all age groups of people, with the help of above tools they can be able to drive all of them
effectively and garb their attentions towards business. Hotel also target families and business
persons who like to travel from one place to another, digital advertisement help to garb their
attention and drive them towards visiting Four season hotel.
4. On-Boarding strategies
On-Boarding of the guests is important for the consumers as well as for the hotel, thus the
hotel giving a smooth without any complexion services from the time of check-in to check-out.
The Four Season Hotel on-boarding strategies include the warm welcome of their guests by
personalised card with the name of consumer and a welcome drink. After that the staff take the
guests to their rooms with etiquette and smile. The in room experience is great of the hotel, they
provide quality food, free services to their guests (Buonincontri and et.al., 2017).
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LO 2 Customer experience map for Four Season Hotel
1) Consumer's journey map
Consumer's journey starts from being in contact with the hotel, selecting as the final
decision for stay, having staying experience there and exit from the hotel. The journey also can
continuous by being engage with the hotel by social media. Mapping the consumer's journey by
any organisation, it can improve perception of brand, increase consumer's loyalty and profit of
the industry and to ensure a consistent experience throughout the customer journey (Dessart,
Veloutsou and Morgan-Thomas, 2015)
 Inquiry- In the first stage of consumer journey starts with the inquiry or research about
various hotels on the particular destination of the consumer. Investigation can be filtered
by consumer's preferences and wants. This is like make it or break it type situation for the
image of Four Season Hotels and Resorts because this being the very first impression that
customer ave of the hotel (France, Merrilees and Miller, 2016). Each major phase of
customer experience journey is represented and broken down on map. So it is important
to maintain a healthy profile on popular travel sites. Customers can research for the hotel
through online travel agencies, existing consumer's word of mouth, search engines.
Consumer make inquiry from the other people, who already visited Four Seasons hotel.
Before visiting at chosen destination, people gather information which is helpful and
useful. On the other hand, direct connection with management is one of the best idea, that
use by people to gather more information in depth.
 Touchpoints and channels- E-mail, phone call, internet, social media platform etc. is
considered as touchpoints that help customers to gather details regarding the hotels. With
the help of using these above channels and touchpoints people collect information and
chose the best one for itself. Through direct mail, they can be able to communicate with
customer service department and collect details about hotels services and offers they
provide to people.
 Evaluation and comparison- After doing research consumer evaluate and gather the
important and relevant information about the selected hotel (Leckie, Nyadzayo and
Johnson, 2016). Evaluation of information included online reviews, purpose of visit,
range of services, etc. customer can change the choice if they can't find the hotel who
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provides the services they want. After deciding on a hotel consumer then makes a
booking directly or trough online travel agencies.
After evaluation, comparison between hotels is one of the most essential stage included in
customers experience map, as it help to compare the top and second best hotels in chosen
destination. Customer make comparison between tow or more hotels and finally chose the
appropriate and the best one. Guest make comparison based on what hotels offers to its
customers and what services they provide and its locations, amenities and activities available on
site or not.
 Purchasing decision- After passing all the above phases and experience things, finally
customers decide to visit in Four seasons hotel.
 Customer experience from Check-in- In this stage all the interaction take place
between the guest and the hotel and it starts from the moment of check-in. The
experience from entering the hotel to exit can build up the loyalty of the consumer
towards the hotel and as opposite if the industry can't satisfy the consumer's need than it
will lose to the brands image. The Hotel staff should be well trained and ave
courteousness to welcome guests with a smile, and take them swiftly to their rooms. The
brand perception in guests mind also shaped to a large extent by offering them quality
food, great room service and other facilities. Four Season Hotels & Resorts welcome
their guest by a very sweet personalised card and welcome drinks. They also gave overall
a good service to their guest (Peppers and Rogers, 2016).
 Check-out and continued engagement- Lastly the time of check-out gives positive or
negative experience to the consumer. Four Season Hotels & Resorts gave their guest a
nice see off or check-out gift. This is one of the most important stage of the customer
journey of the hotel. Four Season Hotels & Resorts delivers a smooth check-out process
without making guest wait and giving them a long feedback form. And if the consumer
were delighted by the experience, they will promote the brand and give positive online
reviews.
2) Touch points when customer interact with the business
Four Season Hotels & Resorts must understand how customer interact with their brand
at every touch points. The journey include engage, nurture and convert phases. Touch points
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refers to the way when consumer interact with the hotel, it help in the mapping of consumer
journey.
The first touch points is when customer research about the hotels and aware that your
hotel even exists. Consumer can get touch with the hotel by any source of advertising like social
media, travel agencies, hearing consumer experience, TV ads, billboards, online reviews.
Second touch point is when customer booked the room in Four Season Hotels & Resorts,
booking can be done through hotels websites, directly from the hotel, any travel agencies. With
that interacting with the staff and management from while customer staying in the hotel to exit.
Third touch point happens after checking out from the hotel. Consumer can being in
touch with the industry by giving reviews and feedbacks, follow on social media.
3) How the touch points create business opportunity
Four Season Hotels & Resorts have opportunity to increase the business awareness
and consumer's loyalty. The hotel can improve their presentation on different online websites by
which consumer can attracted. The advertising should impressive and effective that force the
consumers mind to try the hotel. The staff should well trained to give consumer satisfaction and
feel them valuable. If consumer will satisfied by the services of the hotel, it automatically
increase the loyalty of the guests.
CONCLUSION
The study focused on the importance of consumer behaviour and studied how hotel can
target the market on the basis of segmentation. According to the study, mapping the consumer
journey is essential for hotel to analyse the specific preference and wants of guests. And hotel
business can enhance the opportunity with the help of touch points to increase the profits.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Åkesson, M., Edvardsson, B. and Tronvoll, B., 2014. Customer experience from a self-service
system perspective. Journal of service management. 25(5). pp.677-698.
Buonincontri, P. and et.al., 2017. Managing the experience co-creation process in tourism
destinations: Empirical findings from Naples. Tourism Management. 62. pp.264-277.
Dessart, L., Veloutsou, C. and Morgan-Thomas, A., 2015. Consumer engagement in online
brand communities: a social media perspective. Journal of Product & Brand
Management. 24(1). pp.28-42.
France, C., Merrilees, B. and Miller, D., 2016. An integrated model of customer-brand
engagement: Drivers and consequences. Journal of Brand Management. 23(2). pp.119-
136.
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.
Leckie, C., Nyadzayo, M.W. and Johnson, L.W., 2016. Antecedents of consumer brand
engagement and brand loyalty. Journal of Marketing Management. 32(5-6). pp.558-578.
Lemon, K.N. and Verhoef, P.C., 2016. Understanding customer experience throughout the
customer journey. Journal of marketing. 80(6). pp.69-96.
Parise, S., Guinan, P.J. and Kafka, R., 2016. Solving the crisis of immediacy: How digital
technology can transform the customer experience. Business Horizons. 59(4). pp.411-
420.
Peppers, D. and Rogers, M., 2016. Managing customer experience and relationships: A strategic
framework. John Wiley & Sons.
Wilson, A. and et.al., 2016. Services marketing: Integrating customer focus across the firm.
Online
Customer Experience Maps. 2019. [Online]. Available
through:<https://www.spotless.co.uk/insights/8-things-you-should-include-in-your-
customer-experience-map/>
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