Marketing the Customer Experience

This report discusses the importance of customer experience in marketing and provides insights on how to target customers effectively. It explores customer engagement strategies and the customer experience mapping process. The case study focuses on Premier Inn, a British hotel chain, and its efforts to optimize customer touch points and create business opportunities.

MARKETING THE
CUSTOMER
EXPERIENCE

INTRODUCTION
Customer experience is the sum total of the interactions of the customers and it looks at
the life cycle of the customer and mapping each and every point of the customers (Rose and et.
al., 2012). For this, customers pay extra attention to the experience than ever and also put the
pressure on those professionals in order to enhance the experience of customers and provide
better and excellent experience. This report is in the context of Premier Inn which is the British
hotel chain and the largest hotel brand in UK. This hotel was set by the Whitbread as Travel Inn
in 1987. Moreover, it is going to explain the necessarily and anticipate of marketplace segments
and also explore the customer experience map in order to create the business opportunities and
also optimise the customer touch points.
TASK 1
P1.
To target the customers it is important to understand their needs and preferences as many
companies think that each and every individual is their target market but this not true and it leads
to fail the advertisement, frustration and make the mess of product launch. Hence, to understand
need and preferences of targeted customer the marketer of Premier Inn need to consider various
points which are mentioned as under: Product Description: Before launching the product in market it is important for the
marketers of Premier Inn to describe the features of product in order to shape the needs
and offerings as per the needs of customers (Best, 2012). For instance, if Premier Inn add
new service in its offerings and for this, they need to promote and advertise it in front of
its customers and describe the benefits of the product and also analyse the problems
which can be face by their respective customers from that product.
 Identify the Target Market: Understanding and identifying the target market is important
in order to advertise their products. It will understand by analysing the social media
channels and the needs and requirements of the group of customers. All of the above
description is based on the finding of marketer and here, research and development plays
a significant role to analyse the requirements.

P2.
There are various factors which influence the target customers and also identify their
buying pattern in order to affect their behaviour (Blázquez, 2014). There are certain drivers of
customer engagement which are mentioned as under: Business People: These are the people who use the products and services of hotel for
their own purpose such as business meeting, stay or conference and many more. For this,
their needs and wants need to be fulfilling which is concerned with the meeting rooms,
wifi, privacy and peace in which they can do their work in an appropriate manner.
Moreover, these are the people who always get ready to pay for their services and hotel
also put emphasis on fulfilling the needs and requirements of people.
 Families: As per this factor the demand of these kind of people are concerned with the
entertainment, parks, party halls, play area and many more (Klaus and Maklan, 2013).
They come with whole family so they need more source of entertainment. Premier Inn
fulfils these requirements and also develop engagement of customers.
Customer engagement for on board customer strategies
A company can use various kinds of strategies in order to engage their customers and
also provide relevant products and services in order to satisfy their needs and demands (Lemon
and Verhoef, 2016). In this sector many hotels provide various services and by considering the
Premier Inn, they also provide various services such as personalised welcome, transportation,
demonstration of product and many more.
TASK 2
P3.
Customer happiness or mapping is a procedure which is used in order to communicate for
the complex customers (Peppers and Rogers, 2016). In Premier Inn, this process is conducted in
order to know the experience of customers which is related with both past and present so that
they can provide better services to them. This mapping process includes few steps which are
mentioned as under:
Research Planning: In this step, customers search hotels where they want to stay. For this
purpose, they use many online sources, agencies and movement apps and is the first way of

Premier Inn to create belief on their customers as they maintain healthy and attractive profile in
order to attract more customers.
Evaluation and Booking: This step depicts that when the research is done then customers
book rooms in order to stay and for this, they use online apps or agents (Rawson, Duncan and
Jones, 2013). As Premier Inn provide its whole detail about its services which is convenient for
customers.
Hotel Customer Experience: After using their services, customers give feedback about the
services which they use and also describe their experience. For instance, in terms of Premier Inn,
their accommodation services are good like on time breakfast, lunch, dinner, clean rooms and
many more.
Check out and Continued Engagement: It is the last stage in which customer want
smooth check out without any sort of wait and long feedback system and they also want transport
facility for the pick and drop (Teixeira and et. al., 2012). Many customers, does not fill feedback
for because they think that a happy consumer will portion its result and content by providing
reviews and continuous engagement with their services in future.
P4.
Touch point is concerned with the way by which customers interact with the offerings. It
include many ways such as person to person, websites and many more. Service industry includes
advertisement, emails, facebook, newspaper, magazines and many more (Rose and et. al., 2012).
Touch points are concerned with the brand, quality of offerings. Premier Inn create this touch
point with its potential customers by considering their logo or making their site more attractive.
For instance, if Premier Inn’s customers want to enjoy its services then they can visit the site of
hotel and also search about the hotel and consider the reviews and feedback of customers before
taking the services.
The customers touch point is essential for the development and growth of company like if
company provide excellent services for the collection of information then the customers get
correct information. Touch point is useful for customers in order to know about the hotel and its
related products and services like as per their needs and requirements the customers can choose
the various services which are helpful for the hotel in order to increase the customer line (Best,
2012). Moreover, the feedback and reviews of customers helpful in order to create opportunities
for business in the service sector. The needs and requirements of customers are mainly

concerned with the food, accommodation, transportation and many more. In food products they
want food according to them, as in room they want attack bathroom, wifi, TV and
telecommunication and other services.
CONCLUSION
From the above discussion, it is concluded that the needs and demand of customers
influence the business of hotel. As the market segmentation and profiling of customer activities
help in analysing the target market for the customers. Moreover, the target market for the hotel
depicts the needs, wants and requirements are also analysed. For this, various customer
engagement drivers are discussed and customer experience map is explained in order to examine
the activities in services sector. In addition to this, the touch point of customer is explained
which help in creating the opportunities for business.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Best, R., 2012. Market-based management. Pearson Higher Ed.
Blázquez, M., 2014. Fashion shopping in multichannel retail: The role of technology in
enhancing the customer experience. International Journal of Electronic Commerce.
18(4). pp.97-116.
Klaus, P. P. and Maklan, S., 2013. Towards a better measure of customer experience.
International Journal of Market Research. 55(2). pp.227-246.
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.
Rawson, A., Duncan, E. and Jones, C., 2013. The truth about customer experience. Harvard
Business Review. 91(9). pp.90-98.
Rose, S. and et. al., 2012. Online customer experience in e-retailing: an empirical model of
antecedents and outcomes. Journal of Retailing. 88(2). pp.308-322.
Teixeira, J., and et. al., 2012. Customer experience modeling: from customer experience to
service design. Journal of Service Management. 23(3). pp.362-376.
Wu, P.L., Yeh, S. S. and Woodside, A. G., 2014. Applying complexity theory to deepen service
dominant logic: Configural analysis of customer experience-and-outcome assessments of
professional services for personal transformations. Journal of Business Research. 67(8).
pp.1647-1670.