Managing Customer Experience

This document discusses the values and importance of understanding customer needs, wants, and preferences in the service sector industry. It explores the creation of a customer experience map, the discussion of customer touchpoints, and the examination of digital technology used in customer relationship management. The case study focuses on Pret a Manager, an international sandwich shop franchise chain based in London.

Managing Customer
Experience

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION ..........................................................................................................................1
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................1
P1 Explanation of values and importance of understanding needs, wants and preferences of
target customer groups for a service sector industry..............................................................1
P2 Different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target
customer groups within a service sector organisation............................................................2
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................3
P3 Creation of customer experience map for selected service sector organisation................3
P4 Discussion of customer touch- points throughout customer experience which creates
business opportunities for selected service sector organisation.............................................4
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................6
P5 Examination of digital technology which is employed of management of customer
experience within service sector, providing specific examples of customer relationship
management (CRM) systems.................................................................................................6
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................7
P6) Illustration of customer service strategies in specific service sector context..................7
P7) Demonstration of customer service strategies created and developed customer experience
in many ways to meet needs of customer and business standards.........................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................10

INTRODUCTION
Customer experience is basically impression of customers on the brand as a whole with
all aspects of the journey of either buying the goods company providers or services which are
served to customers in personal. A good customer experience involves making customer journey
map, establishment of positive connection with customers and most importantly actions on
feedbacks given by them (Ailawadi and Farris, 2017). The company selected for this report is
Pret a Manager which is an international sandwich shop franchise chain which is based in
London, United Kingdom and popularly known as Pret. The enterprise currently has
approximately 450 shops nearly in 9 countries. The report consists of needs and expectations of
market segment, customer experience map created for business opportunities and optimise
customer touch points for service industry. It also focuses on investigation of impacts of digital
technology in customer relationship management.
TASK 1
P1 Explanation of values and importance of understanding needs, wants and preferences of target
customer groups for a service sector industry.
For managing customer experience in company; the needs, wants and preferences are the
foremost priority for managers and owners. For this identification of customer profiles and
characteristics of target audience is necessary through market segmentation. Need of customer
can be defined as something which is necessary for healthy living of life. It is requirement of
safety, stability and healthy life while the wants are desires, which or aspiration customers have
in their life's. In other words cravings, demand or desire which is followed by infinitive is
counted as wants of customers (Bateman and 2017). Apart from needs and wants of people Pert
also focuses on preferences of target audience that are certain characteristics of consumers
desires of having goods or services. This things level ups happiness, degree of satisfaction, utility
of products and so on. The needs, wants and preferences all these are known as customer profiles
and these have certain importance and values by which organisation can segment its market.
Customer profiling is collection of information about the customers wants for selling
products or serving the services of company and then combining these people together by
different categories. This concept is more than general target market of Pert because it takes time
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for understanding the customers. The groups in which company divides its consumers are as
follows:
 Demographics- For this group company considers age, gender, education, occupation,
marital status of targeted customers.
 Geographic- With this division of customers, Pret gets to know from where the audience
is more attracted it can be country, region, city, state or mile radius sometimes. This
grouping is suitable with the customers are close the restaurant (Beltagui, Candi, and
Riedel, 2016).
 Psycho-graphics- This grouping of customers is done on bases of shared interests,
lifestyle choices and people with similar mindsets.
 Behaviours- For company it is very important to understand the present and future acts
of customers. This grouping of people is done with consideration of actions like: Why?
When? How often? What? Influences behaviour of people.
P2 Different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target customer
groups within a service sector organisation.
Segmentation of market involves the process of categorizing market in different goods
based on some homogeneous factors, such as their behaviour, lifestyle, buying pattern, attitude,
etc. Understanding attitude and behaviour of customers plays a vital role in increasing brand
loyalty of company. In context to Pret a Manger it can be noticed that firm has identified that
customers' need is of having natural and fresh food hence, organization advertised that it uses
natural ingredients in sandwiches and food is prepared on the day in which it is purchased.
Through this strategy firm targeted health conscious customers (Bilgihan, 2016). Business
claims to use paperboard instead of plastic for packaging product. This strategy clearly indicates
that firm studied increasing environment- friendly attitude of people and hence used this strategy
to increase brand value among them. Entity also states that it donates all the left out food in
charity. It is build as a go-to restaurant to target youngsters and professionals.
All these strategy are focused on increasing brand loyalty and trust on organization.
Which in turn leads to increment in scope and profitability of business. Base of this effective
strategic planning is studying and understanding behaviour and attitude of customer segments
which plays a very important role in achieving organization goals and increasing brand value.
There are different factors that influence engagement of customers in business. These are -
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compelling offers, competitive prices and accessibility. Offering compelling offers to target
customers further requires detailed analysis of their behaviour. It involves evaluating their needs,
interests and challenges. Due to high competition in this global era, various competitive pricing
strategies are adopted by firm (Chun and Hiang,2016). Mentioned company provides various
promo codes and coupons, providing free coffee with sandwiches to attract customers. They
recently announced 50% discount scheme in august. It can be evaluated that business is using
penetration pricing strategy. It provides products at cheaper rate as compared to its competitors,
which are Whetstone station, Salmontini Le resto, Levant restaurants etc.
Firm is focused on continuous improvement of services provided and their accessibility.
Its digital services are concerned to provide accessibility to disable people. Firm also announced
partnership with 'Equal Rights Centre' to focus on its accessibility. Website's usability is
reviewed on continual basis to ensure required development and changes are fulfilled. Hence, its
focus is on providing convenience. Effective planning and customer engagement provided
spectacular growth to business which is currently serving in more than 450 locations.
TASK 2
P3 Creation of customer experience map for selected service sector organisation.
A simple idea in diagram format illustrates the steps in which customers go through for
engagement with company for its products, online and retail experience or of any combination if
known as customer experience map of company. It is a visual method that helps marketers
outline story of good or bad happening with customers in company from first interaction with
motive of building long-term relationship (Güzel, Ş ahin and Yetimoğlu, 2019) . With the
mapping Pret can measure customers opinion on the brand and values which provide base to
customer journey. The support of experience mapping for company can be:
 Getting valuable insights- This methodology give insights insights of customer
expectations of Pret at every step of journey which in return helps company create good
expectations. This motivates customers to reach out the final step of their journey.
 Understanding expectations of customer- This journey map allows company to
understand channels and touchpoints of customers which are taken to get products, and
expectations for products and their possible frustration which could happen in the whole
process.
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 Predicting and influencing consumer behaviour- The details of experience mapping
gives information as it has right data which helps manager of Pret predict and accordingly
influence customers in return turn optimize conversion process.
Apart from such support of customer journey maps, the following are some stages of the
same by which the interaction of customers can be smooth-en by company:
 Awareness- For boosting customer awareness, the customers are the dependents of
company but it is commonly seen that reaching them on correct time and with right
platform is very important (Ailawadi and Farris, 2017). This can be done by Pret via
conducting survey for its audience.
 Consideration- It is very necessary that companies prominently features the testimonials
in their outlets. However this can not stop the opinions of people but can add companies
commentary on how company can get helped with insights of customers.
 Purchase- Various methods of payments can make the business more diversified in
market. However there might be no need of offering every method from cash to card and
mobile payments which are considers as better sources by consumers of Pret.
 Retention- By offering the customers variety of ways to interact with organisations post
purchase activities just because company is more convenient in such terms. The customer
can get frustrated if services of Pret staff has no access to the services they need and they
are not enough flexible to provide it.
 Advocacy- Such strategies involve proactive ways of dealing with the criticism and
company can showcase prise. If the company has negative reviews on social media then
such comments about company can hammer the image of company.
Looking at these stages the company also focuses on Online customer experiences which
is trending in market and with this adoption Pret can compete in market with more innovative
strategies. It refers to the experience of business which is created online through its website or
mobile application (Islam, 2019). With the changes in organisational functions due to change in
time, it is important for companies to grow in market with adoption of such techniques and build
relationship thorough digital channels.
P4 Discussion of customer touch- points throughout customer experience which creates business
opportunities for selected service sector organisation.
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Customer touchpoints are the points of brand or company by which customer can be
contacted from the start to the end. For example, the customer find the business of Pert through
online mode or via the advertisements or by visiting the website of company. All such things
help customers in contacting with company (Jain, Aagja and Bagdare, 2017). This might be long
list but the managers of organisation needs to provide alternative so that customers can connect
with company easily. For such purpose pre, during and post moments for customer interaction in
customer experience are as follows:
Pre moment interactions are the activities which are followed for attracting the
customers to the products and services of company. The activities may include:
 Following current training and professional development opportunities for which
complete training courses are performed in Pret and advantage of professional
development opportunities its taken by company.
 Putting company in positive mindset as the customer support can be easy as well as
difficult function for Pret. Managers generally do not contact with this factor when they
think they are satisfied by experience they are facing (Journée and Weber., 2017) .
During moment interaction can be stated as the interaction while the customer is having
experience of the services which are providing by Pret. The following are the points on which
company focuses:
 The company personalizes the experience of customers as satisfying the needs of
customers in the main aim of company and by taking care of their preferences the relation
ship customers can be easily made.
 While communicating respectfully and honestly the experience of customers can be
enhanced because with this things conversation can be made smoothly. If people Pret
offer false promises and customer do not get such experience then it becomes difficult for
them to retain them.
Post moment interactions are those interactions which happen after the completion of
customer experience with the services provided by Pret. The following can be the moments for
post customer experience:
 The best customer service is provided when the customers are asked for the feedbacks
about their experience, with this thing company can come to know the flaws which
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customers thinks company has and with which things managers can work on such
strategies.
 Good professionals understand that initial service interaction is completed and that is
where their responsibilities begin. Frequently reaching out customers represents other
departments of Pret to check the status of customer requests (Kumar, 2018) . With this
thing company relish the primary point of contact with its customers.
TASK 3
P5 Examination of digital technology which is employed of management of customer experience
within service sector, providing specific examples of customer relationship management
(CRM) systems.
Customer relationship management is a technology used by the company to manage
interactions with the potential customers and help in building customer relationship. Through
this company increase sales, profitability and improve customer service. CRM is a system which
help in contact with management and sales management, through this model marketer have
better understanding of the product sales and also help them in forecasting . The best benefit is
generate from CRM is customer service which is manage through online system also. consumer
can place their issue in the mail and send to the department (Kumar and 2019). In, Pret a
Manger this technique is very important because it is a restaurant industry, sales person have to
focus on the customer preference or taste in this company they have to maintain a relationship
with customer to increase their sales, improvement in their product or service by make their
brand loyal.
It also provide customer facing employee which have data of all customer preference for
maintaining the relationship with them . The staff of CRM is analyzing user data and help in
creating market campaign for organization. There are various types of CRM systems which can
be implemented by Pret. The following shows some types of systems and there contribution in
management of customer relations by company:
 Operational CRM system- It is a system which gives complete view of interaction of
each customer within company. This is basically sales CRM system which is used for
sales and marketing automation by which time can be saved and no contacts or tasks may
fall through cracks can be made sure by managers of company. With the application of
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this system the contact management can be benefited by Pert. As this software keeps the
track of leads there is no need that managers keep them in their minds. In addition to this
operational CRM automatically manages the lead score and calculate the profitability that
lead to nurture the automation or personal touch.
 Analytical CRM system- With this CRM gathers, organizes and analysis the data of
customer and sales data to help Pret to make better business decisions. The data can
involve the average deal cycle, monthly recurring revenues and other information that has
been collected by company (Mate, Trupp and Pratt, 2019). The benefits of this system
can be the data mining which uses the statistical analysis and finds different patterns and
relationship with the customer data. Apart from this with the use of such system
company can have insight of behaviours which its customers have and what where their
past purchase and according to that managers can chase the people how are interested in
services of company.
TASK 4
P6) Illustration of customer service strategies in specific service sector context
Management of customer experience is one of the most important part of operating
business activities. The company selected for this presentation is Pret a manger which is a
sandwich shop franchise chain and deals at international level. The presentation focuses on
application of effective customer experience management within service sector business to
maximize customer engagement. It consist of suitable designs of food production and
preparation are discussed which can be adopted by Chelsea Dining Room to serve their guests
with a la carte menu. A critical comparison analysis of these different approaches is discussed
along with a range of factors to meet requirements of business and customers as well. Ways in
which restaurant can set up kitchen and meet all the deviation from plans are effectively is
described below as:
Customer experience management- It is combination of process tracking, overseeing
and organisation of every interaction between customer and company throughout customer life
cycle. The benefits of such management to Pret can be stated as follows:
Retention cost would be less than acquisition- With this it can be indicated that there
can be 5% increase in customer retention if the profit is increased by 25%. This can be see by
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numerous reasons but the main reason would be retention of customers avoid costs of acquiring
new target audience.
The feedback drives improvement- The data of customer in form of web surveys and
mobile applications give feedback in addition to phone calls and chat conversations that provide
blueprints to improve customer experiences and retain customer.
Satisfaction of staff members can project a better brand experience to audience- It
has been seen that strong link between employee experience and customer experience creates
good understanding amongst company. Pret has best customer experience as it concentrates on
measuring voice of employees data.
P7) Demonstration of customer service strategies created and developed customer experience in
many ways to meet needs of customer and business standards.
Customer service strategy
It is a plan through which customers interaction is handled by Pert. It lets the managers of
company provide consistent customer experience throughout journey of its customers. The loyal
customers of company buy more often, spends more and refers their friends and families be part
of such experience. The following are the steps for customer service strategies which can be used
by Pret:
 Clear understanding of customers- At initial stage, managers need to understand the
performances of audience and accordingly formulate the strategies to enhance work and
modify the services of restaurant.
 Mapping out customer journey- It is essential for Pert to get visual overview of
customers interaction with brand from the beginning to the end. With this company gets
benefit of getting knowledge of customer experience at every point.
 Collection of competitive insights- The research of competitive companies help in
discovering the kinds of customer experience other companies are delivering. With this
Pert can get to know the strategies on which it needs to work on.
 Creating reach ability and customer service a priority- The communication is factor
which easily influences all over experience of customer. So proper interaction creates
reachability and increases the priority of companies target audience.
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CONCLUSION
From the above project report it can be concluded that consumer experience is required to
be managed by every company. A good interaction with customer keeps the company and its
staff satisfied as the hard work gives them positive responses by which they get motivated to do
good work. With effective customer experience the needs and expectations of market segment
and experience map help in creating good opportunities. With effective customer experience
management in a company engagement of people can be maximised and good profits can be
earned. With those profits and earning the expansion in business environment, company can
capture large customer base. Moreover, effective consumer experience management retention
cost would be less than acquisition cost for company, the feedback of customers drives
improvement in companies activities. In addition to this satisfaction of staff members can project
a better brand experience to audience which are targeted by organization
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REFERENCES
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232-257.
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Kumar, V and et.al., 2019. Customer engagement in service. Journal of the Academy of
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