Impact of COVID-19 on Organisational Customer Acquisition and Retention

Impact of COVID-19 on organisational customer acquisition and retention. A
case study on Holiday Inn London

ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
I would like to thank my mentors and teachers for giving me such a good opportunity to
conduct the study and give their valuable suggestion for research work.
I respectfully thank my parents and friends for constantly support that helped me to attain
success in every sphere of life, as without their kind devotion, this dissertation would be not
properly completed.
I would also like to acknowledge the efforts of all those that have indirectly or directly assist
me in the completion of the research.
I submit this research work of mine with great humanity and utmost regard.

ABSTRACT
The main aim of this research is to examine the impacts of Covid-19 on organisational
consumer’s retention and acquisition. Covid-19 impose huge adverse effects on each sector and
majorly puts on the hospitality sector due to the implementation of lockdown. In that situation, it
becomes important for all companies to recover their growth and development by making some
effective strategies and opting for new technologies. The main concern of the hospitality industry
is how to retain their consumers to improve the sales and profit margin of the company.
Therefore, by taking steps towards hygiene and safety, it is possible to regain growth and
success. Organisational consumer's retention and acquisition become an important factor for
companies after the pandemic situation. For this, companies are using effective strategies by
considering all hygiene and safety factors of consumers. As after covid-19, consumers are more
concerned about hygiene. Therefore, all organisations need to focus on this and devised
strategies accordingly to retain their potential consumers.
The study adopts a descriptive qualitative research method following an research
philosophy. As a research approach, the inductive approach is effective as it is associated with
the qualitative researcher and provide descriptive data as well. For collecting the information,
both primary and secondary method will be used. In context to primary, customer survey
questionnaire and online interview will be applied.
For primary, a questionnaire is developed, and for secondary, the viewpoint of various
authors is taken into consideration. It is concluded that there at present, there is a negative
influence of COVID-19 on the performance of customer acquisition and retention in the
hospitality sector.

Table of Contents
Research Project...............................................................................................................................1
ACKNOWLEDGEMENT...............................................................................................................2
ABSTRACT.....................................................................................................................................3
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................5
Research aim.........................................................................................................................5
Research objectives................................................................................................................5
Research questions.................................................................................................................5
Approaches and methodology................................................................................................6
The rationale of the research..................................................................................................6
Chapters Preview....................................................................................................................6
Chapter -2 LITERATUR REVIEW.................................................................................................8
Impact on COVID- 19 on hospitality organisation................................................................8
Customer acquisition and retention strategies of Holiday Inn prior to COVID- 19 pandemic
measures.................................................................................................................................8
Strategies for improving customer retention after COVID- 19.............................................9
Chapter-3 Research Methodology.................................................................................................11
Chapter 4- Analysis and findings...................................................................................................14
Chapter 5- Critical Appraisal and Recommendation.....................................................................21
LO5:Performance Reflection And Alternative Method.................................................................21
Chapter 6 Conclusion.....................................................................................................................23
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................24
APPENDIX....................................................................................................................................25

INTRODUCTION
The unfolding of the COVID-19 pandemic has induced mass isolation & widespread
closures worldwide, affecting the business of all the sectors to an unprecedented degree. In
addition to this, many of the business’s growth is declined, and closure of business activities take
places, such as disruption of the supply chain, the decline in income sources, cancellations of
projects, travel restrictions and many more (Majid, 2020). This pandemic has highly influenced
the hospitality industry, and for this, it is important for the hotel to align activities to acquire and
retain customers so that organisational performance will be maintained. In addition to this, it is
important for obeying the guidelines of COVID-19 at the time of striving for acquiring and
retaining customers. For conducting the study, Holiday Inn is taken into consideration. It is the
UK owned American brands of the hotel that is founded in the year 1952. It is a Subsidiary of
Intercontinental Hotels Group and is present in more than 1145 locations. The research examines
the Impact of COVID-19 on organisational customer acquisition and retention. Along with this,
Customer acquisition and retention strategies of Holiday Inn prior to COVID-19 pandemic
measures will be described.
Research aim
To examine and assess the impact of COVID-19 on organisational performance in terms of
customer retention to make recommendations for customer retention and acquisition strategies. A
case study on Holiday Inn, London Kensington.
Research objectives
 To identify the impact of COVID-19 on customers of the hotel.
 Identify the customer acquisition strategies of the hotel prior to and during the COVID-
19 pandemic.
 Identify the customer retention strategies of the hotel prior to and during the COVID-19
pandemic.
 To explore strategies for improving customer retention after COVID-19 19.
Research questions
 What is the impact of COVID-19 on hospitality organisation?
 What are the customer acquisition and retention strategies of Holiday Inn prior to
COVID-19 pandemic measures?

 What are the strategies for improving customer retention after COVID- 19?
Research approach and methodology
The study adopts a descriptive qualitative research method following an interpretivism
research philosophy. As a research approach, the inductive approach is effective as it is
associated with the qualitative researcher and provide descriptive data as well. For collecting the
information, both primary and secondary method will be used. In context to primary, customer
survey questionnaire and online interview will be applied. On the other hand, books, articles,
journals and so on are used to gather secondary information. The non-probability sampling
method will be applied as it is effective in choosing a small sample size and in conducting
qualitative research.
The rationale of the research
The main reason for conducting this study is to assess the impact of COVID-19 on
organisational performance in terms of customer retention. This help researcher to gain
knowledge of customer retention and acquisition strategies as customers are an important aspect
on which the growth and success of an organisation depend. In addition to this, it also helps the
investigator to enhance their communication skills, data analysis, data interpretation, data
collection and so on. Moreover, this research will assist the researcher in future to conduct
further research projects and grab opportunities as well.
Research scope:: the present covid-19 situation has possess a great impact on the hospitality
organisations. The present research is going to assist in analysing the overall impact of covid-19
in the way it is affecting the customer acquisition and retention process. This research is very
helpful in identification of various strategies to improve the customer retention process. It is also
going to help in identifying the different ways in which intercontinental group of hotels can
retain the existing loyal customer base in this covid-19 situation.
Chapters Preview
The preview of each chapter associated with the present investigation is given below:
Chapter 2- Literature Review: In this, a critical analysis is conducted of the academic
literature by several secondary sources. In addition to this, it gives a theoretical perspective in