Managing the Customer Experience in the Service Sector

This report discusses the value and importance of understanding customer needs, wants, and preferences in the service sector, specifically in the context of Hotel Ritz. It explores market segmentation and customer profiling activities, as well as various factors that drive and influence customer engagement in different target groups. The report also covers customer experience mapping for Hotel Ritz and the use of customer touchpoints for opening new doors and exploring opportunities. Overall, it provides insights into managing the customer experience in the service sector.

UNIT 2 MANAGING
THE CUSTUMER
EXPERIENCE

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................3
P1. Value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target
customer groups for service sector..............................................................................................3
P2. Various factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target groups in
service sector...............................................................................................................................4
TASK 2 ...........................................................................................................................................6
P3 Customer experience map for Hotel Ritz...............................................................................6
P4 Use of customer touch point from experiences of guests for opening new doors and
exploring opportunities for Hotel Ritz........................................................................................7
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Customer experience is the internal part of the customer relation and interaction between
the organisation and the individual during the passage of time (Barusman, 2019). This journey is
basically made up of three essential elements which include brand, interaction and customer
experience. The present report is based upon the The Ritz hotel London which is a five star hotel.
There are around 111 rooms which are provide best services in UK. This provide different
services to the consumer such as parking, gym and other facilities present in the market. This
report covers different objectives which include touchpoint and other features which attract the
customer in the well define manner.
TASK 1
P1. Value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target customer
groups for service sector
Market segmentation and customer profiling activities for target market
Market segmentation is the process of dividing the market into different sub group of the
consumer with the similar taste and preference. In the particular market and help in making
effectively decision for satisfying the needs and wants of the customers. In the context of Ritz
hotel the management of the company must make sure about to provide better services to the
consumers in the well define manner. Market segmentation is done on the basis of different
characteristics. Here are some reasons which are explained down below in the detail manner.
Gender This is consider as one of the crucial factor such segmentation on the basis of
male and female which have different theory and interest at the various aspect. In order to target
the market this is essential for the organisation to communicate with the customers and identify
their needs and wants. For the hotel Ritz this is essential for the management to indulge in proper
services as this will develop the brand image in the minds of customers.
Age group: This is essential for the firm to separate the customer on the basis of age
group. This is done according the age which include children, elders etc. as this will aid the firm
to have better understanding of the individual. In the context of Ritz hotel the management of the
organisation must avail services as per the age group which include gym for younger people and
yoga for elder people. This kind of services will aid the firm to capture larger market share in the
limited time frame.

Income: This is done on the basis of earning of the people which can be varied from
person to person. On the basis of income this is done as per the high income group, mid income
group and low income group (Correia, 2019). For the hotel like Ritz this is essential for the
organisation deals only in Five star hotel as low income group people cannot afford the this kind
of hotel.
Lifestyle: This is mainly related to the people, interest, hobbies and personal factors and
they are vary from person to person. For the hotel like Ritz London this is essentials for the
organisation to offer the lifestyles which is trending in the culture. As this can be done on the
basis of gathering information and taking feedback from the consumer.
Occupation: This is done on the related work of the user which is mostly related to the
income and earnings. If the individual has high earning then they will prefer to have 5 star hotel
and if the person have low earning this individual can afford low hotels. This help in describing
the needs and wants of the user and company have the idea to expand their business in the well
define manner.
P2. Various factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target groups in
service sector
Drivers of Customer engagement
Customer engagement is the method where companies try to make a healthy relationship
with the user for the longer time duration. This communication is related to products and services
which a company provide and for knowing the response he do this process. There are certain
drivers customer engagement, are explained down below:
Business people: These are the person who visit the hotels for the business purpose in the
hotel. So in this case Ritz hotel must ensure about providing better services to the consumer such
as Wi-Fi , meeting hall and privacy. They are ready to pay the high prices in regards of high
quality service.
Families: These kind of people have different demands which vary from business
people. They require parks and spas for their family and children as they have paid for these kind
of facilities. So this essentials for Ritz hotel to offer services which are beneficial for the users.
Youngsters: They prefer to those kind of hotel which include different facilities such as
pub, and live music which attract the customers. In the context of Ritz hotel this is essentials to

have to have all kinds entertainment which help in capture larger market share in the limited time
frame.
Customer engagement for on board customer strategies
There are different kind of method and strategies which are use in customer engagement
programmes as this will help firm to offer the better services to the consumer in the well define
manner. For the service sector this is crucial to avail these kind of offer to the end user as it
attract the consumer in the effectively manner. There are different kind of elements present in the
service sector such as transportation, food, accommodation and lodging facilities. The service
industry should take care of special occasion of the individual such as birthday party they can
offer emails and gift cards which makes them feel special. This kind of strategies will aid the
Ritz hotel to create brand image in the market. Along with this , it is important to maintain the
hygiene level and implement new technology as this will provide convenience for the individual
in check in and check out. Apart from this service industry can implement robots to attain the
customer which will create a better impact on the consumer.
TASK 2
P3 Customer experience map for Hotel Ritz
Customer experience mapping is a process of strategically communicating, interacting
and driving customers towards the organisations. This procedure is used to conduct proper
communication mainly with complex customers who are very hard to convince. Managers of
Hotel Ritz use this process for analysing, evaluating and knowing the customers, their
experiences and post journey experiences (Prastiwi and Hussein 2019). This will assist the Hotel
Ritz managers to provide their customers proper products packages and their staff to render
services according to the needs of guests. If experiences of guests are bad or not up to their
expectations then hotel staff tries to reach to what they anticipated so their journey can be
changes to good. Customer experience mapping some steps are involved which Hotel Ritz
personnels needs to perform. Those steps or stages are as follows:
 Research planning- First and foremost step of customer mapping process is research and
planning. Here at this stage, customers search for suitable hotels and destinations where
they can visit according to their budget. For doing so they use internet, online websites
and travelling agencies. This is the first chance for Hotel Ritz to attract consumers

towards them and gain their attention. It is important for travel organisations and hotel to
develop good healthy profile in marketplace in order to be attractive and gain attention of
most of the population.
 Evaluation and Booking- Next phase is where customers make their bookings according
to their research. They make booking through online applications or through approaching
travel agents. If consumers booked Hotel Ritz they make evaluation of products and
services offered to them. These services can be accommodation, transportation, food and
customer services.
 Hotel customer experience- Once, guests uses the services and products rendered by
Hotel Ritz, then customers provide feedbacks to that will work as customer experience. If
the services rendered by Hotel Ritz and their members are good and up to the
expectations of guests then their feedback will be positive and in favour of hotel.
 Check out and continued engagement- This is the last and the most important step of
customer experience. Hotel Ritz will concentrate on assisting and conducting smooth
checkout in which no hustle is faced by guests. They make their checking out process fast
as much possible and do not waste time of customers by asking them fill long feedback
forms. Also, providing transport service to their destinations from where guests will make
their way towards their home or next destination. This will provide consumers ease and
saves them an effort to worry about their travel also, it will give Hotel a good reputation.
There experiences will be proved good and helpful if guests revisits the Hotel, next time.
These are some steps Hotel Ritz management will follow and perform their actions accordingly
to map customers path towards their hotel and attracting new customers. These steps will
enhance the knowledge of company about their existing guests and enables them to attract more
new people by understanding current trends and desires of population.
P4 Use of customer touch point from experiences of guests for opening new doors and exploring
opportunities for Hotel Ritz
Touchpoints of customers are the ways or methods by which consumers interacts with
product or service. In other words these are the methods by which people gets to know and
gather information about goods and services. These ways can be in person and by using websites
and online informations. In service sector or in service industry customer's touchpoints are
emails, advertisement, marketing done by company, blogs by third party, travel agencies, hotel

applications and other social media handles (Santos and Abreu 2019). These touchpoints are
related with the brand, quality of their products and services organisation is offering. Hotel Ritz
develops its touch points with the public and their customers by their logos, making websites
attractive along with online applications. For instance, if person are interested in visiting Hotel
Ritz, first they will search the hotel online and visit their website. They will gather all required
details, talk with travel agents if have any confusion or need more assurance. Travel agencies are
linked with hotel they will assign agents to customers who assist them with all related details
required. Those agents will firstly give overview to the customer about Hotel Ritz. They will
inform about the services hotel render to their guests and additional facilities they provide for
fulfilling and satisfying the needs of customers.
Aim of Hotel Ritz is to give exact and correct information to their customers by using
touchpoints. These correct details will help public to make right decisions and choose Hotel Ritz
over others. Main objective of creating touchpoints is to spread the word in public about the
company and the products or services they render. Through these touchpoints organisation can
connect with customers they can interact with potential consumers and drive their purchasing
decisions towards themselves. Also, these will enable Hotel Ritz to know their potential
customers, market trends and the needs or desires of people. It will help Hotel Ritz staff to
connect with guests and build long term relations with them and retaining guests for longer
duration.
Touchpoints plays important role in growth and expansion of organisations, so is the case
with Hotel Ritz. The data company provide to public through touchpoints will help them to gain
attention of more people and several sources of information enables customers to get proper data
which is correct. These touchpoints will help consumers to know about the Hotel Ritz and the
services they render and than make their decisions according to their needs. People will
definitely, choose Hotel Ritz if the services they give match with the desires of customers and it
will help organisation to increase their customer base. This will automatically lead Hotel Ritz
towards growth and expansion, opening new doors for it and assisting hotel management in
grabbing and exploring new opportunities.

CONCLUSION
From the above discusses report this has been analyses that managing customer
experience is essentials as this help in providing better services to the consumer in the well
define manner. There different ways in which the customers can be profiled their wants, needs
and requirement of the target market are also examined. Customer engagement driving force for
different customer groups for the hotels and various plan of action for these customers are also
described in the report in the detail manner.

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Barusman, A.R.P. and Rulian, E.P., 2019. The Antecedent of Customer Satisfaction and Its
Impact on Customer Retention in Tourism as Hospitality Industry.
Correia, C.F., 2019. Drivers of emotions and purchase intention in virtual supermarket setting:
explore the rule of mental imagery, product involvement and presence (Doctoral
dissertation).
Prastiwi, E.H. and Hussein, A.S., 2019, October. The Role of Value Co-Creation in Improving
Customer Loyalty with Customer Satisfaction as Mediating Variable. In 2019
International Conference on Organizational Innovation (ICOI 19). Atlantis Press.
Romero, A.S.M., de Esteban Curiel, J. and Antonovica, A., 2019. Experiencing Smart Tourism
Destinations in Madrid: primary and secondary drivers. RITUR-Revista Iberoamericana
de Turismo, pp.39-58.
Santos, R. and Abreu, A., 2019. A study on the feasibility of implementing a quality
management system, based on the EFQM model in a School of
Engineering. Millenium, (9), pp.25-38.
Sartor, M., 2019. Customer Satisfaction Analyses. In Quality Management: Tools, Methods, and
Standards (pp. 109-116). Emerald Publishing Limited.
Vidriales, A.L., Ruiz, R.L.A., Vaca, J.G. and Vargas, J.L.C., 2019. The importance of public
relations interconnected with sustainable tourism in Mexico. International Journal of
Research in Social Sciences, 9(5), pp.750-763.