Understanding Customer Needs and Preferences in the Hospitality Industry: A Case Study of PremierInn

This report examines the importance of understanding customer needs and preferences in the hospitality industry, using PremierInn as a case study. It covers factors that drive customer engagement, creating a customer experience map, touchpoints that create opportunities, and customer service strategies.

MCE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
MAIN BODY ..................................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1. Value and importance of understanding that needs wants and preferences of target
customer groups for the hospitality industry...............................................................................1
P2. Different factors that drive and influence the customer engagement of different target
customer groups within a service sector organization................................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................4
P3. Create a customer experience map in a given situation........................................................4
P5. Digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience within the service
sector organization......................................................................................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................6
P6 Customer services strategies in a specific service sector context.........................................6
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Market is a place where the buyers and sellers are engaged to make purchase and sell of
goods. The consumer are the ultimate king of the market. They are very crucial factor from
business point of view because the organisation main aim is to satisfy their demand. This report
will examine the hospitality industry and their contribution in maximising profit. It is going to
examine the growth and efficiency to increase customer base . In this report, company is chosen,
named PremierInn which is well known hotel located in the United kingdom. It focuses on
providing best food service, safe environment to its guest in the hotel. The hotel deals with the
wide varieties of services to its customer such as swimming, gaming zone, airports, hills and
mountain view (Bangur, 2020). The hotel was established in the year 1987 and the founder was
the Whitebread. This report will observe the customer behaviour and trends of PremierInn.
MAIN BODY
TASK 1
P1. Value and importance of understanding that needs wants and preferences of target customer
groups for the hospitality industry.
Customer experience is termed as the evaluation and assumption observed by the customer in
connection to goods and services of particular brand of company. Every company aims to ensure
better services to its customer to great goodwill in the market. A customer experience is crucial
to examine the success of the business which helps to generate revenue. They tries to primarily
focus non the core segment of activities such as sales, production, marketing, customer services
etc. They focus on coordinating and developing the product that will meet the criteria of
customer needs. In context to PremierInn , its main objective is to provide smooth supply of the
goods and services.
Importance of Understanding the needs, wants and preferences of customers:
The organisation primarily understand the human behaviour and psychology to decide the
actual need of the customer. They decides essential product that needed humans to survive. The
basic needs includes food, shelter, cloth etc. It is very challenging to understand the human
behaviour and taste related to the product. It is the duty of the organisation to take care of self
esteem , self respect and fulfilment of customer needs. This can be done through extensive
analysis of consumer preferences which helps in succeed in the business organisation. The
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ultimate goal of every business is to build strong relation between the consumer and employees.
Also, this helps them to build goodwill in the market. The Organisation needs to establish plans
and strategy to achieve desired result of the business. Customer satisfaction helps in company's
growth and production of the goods and services (Chen, Lin and Song, 2019). The general rule
says that resources are limited and human wants are unlimited. In order to make them satisfy, the
organisation has to evaluate the human perspective and human psychological behaviour towards
the product requirement. In context to PremierInn, Management plays important role to consider
all the factors to ensure the demands of the consumer. It involves: Focus on customer’s personal taste and preference: It is an important factor to
determine the taste and expectation of the consumer which sometimes challenging for the
company. It is quite difficult to observe such factors which may change time to time,
person to person. The availability of goods can be meet when the consumer taste can be
determined easily. Organisation focus on taste and preference to achieve the production
target to survive in the competitive market. Understanding the different categories of customers: The goods are categorised into
various types of product and services. It may be understand through surveys and market
analyse to trigger the customer to achieve success in the market. Different good are
known at different place so, geographical boundaries also plays an important role in the
business.
 Track the customer’s real-time behavior: The human behaviour may varies time to
time , helps to promote business strategy to understand the demand of its customer. As
they are the kings of market, so demand needs to be fulfilled to exist in the competitive
market.
P2. Different factors that drive and influence the customer engagement of different target
customer groups within a service sector organization.
 Customer engagement marketing requires active participation of the consumer to
increase production and profit of the business. It is kind of two ways communication and
personalised message transfer from customer to seller through various medium. It is not a
new concept but winning tool for many companies. It strengthen the consumer loyalty
and brand value in the market. It helps to interact with the consumer through multiple
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channels. It helps in building strong business brand in the market. It helps in formalizing
plans and policies to make effective participation of the consumer. Customer engagement
helps to grow and diversify the business in different areas of product. In relation to
PremierInn , they focused on providing high quality product and offers various schemes
and programs to attract large participation of consumer in the business. The consumer
purchase the good which ensure safety and healthy product. The main reason behind the
success of the hotel PremierInn is to influence customer engagement and includes many
factors such as:
 Families: Hotels are designed to the families visitors who likes varieties of fresh food
and better services provided by the PremierInn , this is the main reason to achieve the
target market. Family wants safe place where they can spend quality time with the family
members (Dai, Chan and Yee, 2018) . The hotel is succeed in providing the better view
place where they can experience nature beauty, swimming , fun games etc.
 College Students: College going student also prefer PremierInn, to spend quality time
with their friends . They take benefit of available services in the hotels to create brand
value in the market. The college student are the main reason behind the success of the
hospitality industry. The services like nature view, swimming , game zone are the
attracting facilities to its customer.
 Corporate personnel: Corporate body use the hotel premises to conduct client meetings
and visit hotels to gratify the contract deals. In context to PremierInn. It delivers positive
ambience for their customer where business deals can do to ensure standards of living.
The positive impact of the hospitality industry aims to trigger large consumer base.
There are certain negative impact which may affect the profitability of the hospitality industry.
There are certain factors that hotel has to focus on taking care of due care to facilitate it. The
Hotel Management should analyse the factor to improve the hotel policies and avoid certain
factors:
 Inappropriate food and beverages quality: The food Court is the essential part of the
hotel which deals with providing the better food services to its customer. It is important
to maintain hygiene and food safety of its customer. Nowa days, health is crucial to
survive effectively and it can be possible when hygienic food is available in the market. It
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is the duty of the hotel management to ensure all the food policies and standards to offer
to its customer.
 Improper Management: Efficient management system is necessary to build reputation
in the market. The hotel manager is responsible for managing all the activities in the
hotel. The poor coordination and ineffective planning may risk the business organisation.
This is highly beneficial for the hospitality industry to make effective management
strategy.
It is an essential factor to maintain goodwill and reputation of business and highly required to get
success in the competitive market. It requires management attention to focus on above mentioned
factors.
TASK 2
P3. Create a customer experience map in a given situation.
It outlines the number of customers engage in the particular business and use the product of
that particular brand. It defines complete information related to customer experience with brand ,
customer behaviour, possible outcomes and review the quality of the product. It deals with the
benefits for the overall health and safety of the business (Haj Youssef and Teng, 2021). The
customer experience map helps to achieve better result of output and generates better revenue. It
helps in making correction from the overall experience and helps to improve the quality of
work. In context to Premier Inn, it provides better customer deal according to their choices and
preferences. The map of customer experience is defined thereunder:
 Request- This stage deals with the identification of methods and means through which
attention of the customer can be seek. It is necessary to select from available alternatives
method to communicate the information related to the company and its consumers. In
context to the PremierInn, the company uses different modes to achieve the strong
consumer share all over the country. It facilitates communication with customer about
their available schemes and discount offers which helps them to generate source of
revenue.
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 Analyse- The second stage includes analysing the various forces that indirectly and
directly affect the business performance. The organisation aims to establish business
reputation and goodwill .
 Buy- This stage deals with the techniques and methods to increase the capital asset for
the business which helps to increase efficiency of the business.
 Gather- This stage involves dissemination of information to take decision related to
customer , their needs and demands which is best suited for the interest of the customer.
 Enjoy- It includes last stage in which hospitality industry focuses on the enjoyment of
goods which will fulfil the taste and expectation of the consumer.
The map of customer experience is created to create large market share of customer and offer
them valuable goods.
P4. Touchpoint that create opportunities throughout the customer experience in hospitality
organization.
Customer touchpoints is the widest concept that includes channels through which product and
services are transferred. A “touchpoint” includes connection that dies not involve any physical
characteristics. This transmission can be possible through media, online advertising, mail etc.
Customers spends their time and money to expect certain level of satisfaction. It is customer
perception to identify the different product , quality, services etc. The connection can be oral or
written form to connect with the people (Li, 2018) . In context to PremierInn, they used
touchpoint strategy to improve the quality and efficiency of the business. There are many ways
to communicate with the customer:
 Online advertising: In respect to promote the product, the online advertising is the best
way to foster the growth of the business. It is necessary for the business to adopt such
techniques to maximise profit. It is less expensive and mass contribution of customer is
involved. The first impression about the product can be made through advertisement.
 Communication with the clients- The communication with the customer and clients
helps to build strong between them and helps to get feedbacks and revised about the
product through direct meeting . These techniques helps to achieve strong image about
the company.
 Social media: The current market world is all about social media where each information
can be transmitted through social media and received to everyone . Most of the activities ,
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promotion are done on social media which is not only cost saving but also time reducing
prices. Through this, hotel industry is succeed in creating image and good impression in
the business market. In relation to PremierInn, they have own separate account on social
media dealing with the offering discount and offers for joining online.
P5. Digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience within the service
sector organization.
Customer relationship Management helps to build relation between the customer and
company to make them satisfy with their services. These resource management primarily focus
on providing customer care services to its customers to solve their problems. The effective CRM
is the beneficial for the companies to enhance productivity and profitability of the business and
create local customers (Stirling, 2019). Digital technology is the demand of today's trade
industry to increase sale and production of the business.
Customer relationship management package - In order to attract large customers , special
package scheme use by the company by using digital technologies. It is used to improve the
experience related to customers and establish good relation. In relation to PremierInn, the CRM
system helps to develop strong consumer base and large market share . It assist and guide the
activities which is required to track all the activities related to social media and advertisement.
Social media is used to interact with the people through various means. The aim behind
establishing this system is to satisfy the customer, analyse their needs, demand fulfilment and
service facility to address their greivances.
TASK 4
P6 Customer services strategies in a specific service sector context
The hospitality industry develops final product as the service of the company as it is
intangible in nature . The customer service is provided to satisfy the consumer and add value in
the market. In context to the PremierInn, the organisation is used consumer-oriented goal where
consumer are the king of the market and emphasise more on their demands. The customer can
be satisfied only when they adopt following techniques:
 Customer Centric : Business organisation is centre focus on consumer and develop
multiple mechanism to create brand value and loyalty for the product and services. Their
employees add their efforts in building strong relation with the market and clients. This
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company focuses on ensuring healthy and safe environment where they can contribute
more effectively and efficiently.
 Building customer centric team : The managing team is made to conduct all the activities
to succeed the business strategy . These teams are responsible for making communication
with the client and among the staff members for flexible functioning of business.
 Aligning with the emerging technology : The company used the strategy to attract the
customer with their effective technological system. The hotel PremierInn, trained their
employees to enhance their skills and knowledge in particular area of business. These
training programmes helps them to develop advance skill to win over the other.
P7 Evaluate how the customer service strategies facilitate the development of customer
experience
Customer experience aims to build relation between the business and its customer to foster
growth and profit through such services. The better customer services is witnessed to high
quality product and services available to its customer. This customers service helps to create
customer loyalty and brand value in the market (Wang and Fan, 2019). The business operation
can work more effectively only when it solve the problem of their customer in relation to the
product so that trust can build upon the particular product. In relation to PremierInn, it develops
strategies and plans to satisfy consumer and experience (Zou and Yu, 2020). It uses the various
business strategies tool such as touchpoints, which ensure creation of connection ensure positive
review about the product, customer mapping strategy to understand the customer preferences and
market expectation to offer them services physically and digital way. It adds value in the
business and trust of the customers in PremierInn hotel.
The hotel PremierInn offers effective and proper mechanism for customer service to create
product loyalty. The crucial factor of customer service requires proper training to address their
grievance and resolve their problems related to product so that faith in the company remains
forever. The hotel PremierInn uses the standard and quality service strategy for management
department who are responsible to manage all the business activities.
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CONCLUSION
From the above report, it has been concluded that the business activities must ensure
consumer satisfaction in terms of product, quality and service. The objectives of the business can
be fulfilled only when they achieve positive result from the customers by ways of reviews and
feedback. It helps the company to attract the consumer and understand their individual
prospective to establish product quality and brand loyalty. The positive response can be achieve
when all the needs and demands related to product has been fully satisfied by the company. They
must ensure the standards and quality to build brand image among the customer. Therefore, the
interaction and communication is important to build strong relation between the company and
customer.
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