Customer Experience Reflection: Expedia and McDonald's Analysis

This report provides a detailed analysis of customer experiences with two different companies: Expedia and McDonald's. The report begins with an introduction to customer experience and its importance, followed by a main body that describes the author's personal experiences with both companies. The positive experience with Expedia involved online booking and the helpfulness of a chatbot, while the negative experience with McDonald's involved poor customer service from the staff. The report then delves into the customer journey, detailing the thoughts and actions taken during each experience. It also applies two Customer Experience Management (CEM) concepts: customer centricity and listening and learning, highlighting how Expedia excelled in these areas while McDonald's fell short. The report uses proto persona diagrams to illustrate pain points, needs, and goals. Finally, it compares and contrasts the two experiences, concluding that customer expectation and centricity are crucial for providing a good customer experience. The report references several books and journals to support its analysis and includes appendixes with negative and positive persona diagrams.

Customer Experience
Reflection
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Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY..................................................................................................................................3
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6
APPENDIX......................................................................................................................................7
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INTRODUCTION
Customer experience means experience of customer with business. It is result of interaction
of customer with business by receiving product or service. It is necessary to provide good
customer experience as it shows how people perceive product that company provides (Bolton
2018). The report will describe experience of customer with 2 different product of 2 companies.
MAIN BODY
Customer experience
I like to travel to various countries as tourist. Thus, for that I visit websites of different
tour companies that provide different tour packages. So, for that I did book my entire tour
package of 3 days from Expedia company. In that my experience was positive. Here, two touch
points which I observed was booking and travel. As I was not having any experience of booking
package online. So, during this touch point the chat bot helped me to doing booking. I was not
expecting this.
But on contrary my negative experience during my tour was doing breakfast in
McDonald’s. When I ordered food at counter the staff rudely said to me that I have to wait for 10
minutes. When I did not received order after 10 minutes I asked again staff (Godovykh & Tasci
2020). This time he said angrily that my I don’t know how much more time will it take. I was
just like this is way they treat customer. Hence, I cancelled my order and ask for refund. The two
touch point in this was staff and restaurant.
Thoughts /actions taken during customer journey
Thus, in my first experience that was positive I want to go to Switzerland to spend
holidays. So, I thought to book package online as I was having several coupons. Thus, I searched
on internet and found Expedia (Peppers & Rogers 2016). I was happy to see that company
accepted coupons in tour package. Thus, when I visited website the chat bot helped me to make
my search more easy and simple. So, I was overwhelmed. I did follow steps as described by chat
bot. Thus, in quick time I booked my tour package. Immediately after booking I got an e mail
from Expedia. I was very happy with that. I thanked the chat bot and gave 4 star rating as well on
company website.
Now, for negative experience which was negative I found that I was hungry and like to
eat burger. So, I visited McDonald’s I saw menu and then order (Jain, Aagja & Bagdare 2017).
But the reply of staff made me sad. I was not expecting such reply from him. Then, even after
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waiting for sometime again I asked staff for my order. This time I got angry by his reply and
cancelled my order. I asked for refund as well. So, my satisfaction was poor in this.
Two CEM concepts
Customer experience management is process which company use to monitor and manage
interaction with customer. In this there are 4 components included in it. Similarly, in my
customer journey as well there are some CEM concepts which is applied.
First is customer centricity which state that every company need to focus on customer needs.
Thus, they need to take decision by focusing on customer needs only. This enable in creating a
positive environment so that customer can buy products or service. Hence, in same way in
McDonald’s the staff treated rudely to me (Kandampully, Zhang & Jaakkola 2018). So, it
lacked customer centricity. But in case of Expedia the chat bot helped me to book tour package
easily. There was a good and proper communication in that.
The second concept of CEM which can be applied is listening and learning. It means to
listen to customer needs and accordingly providing products. In my first experience I found that
Expedia chat bot listened my needs. So, it was easy for me to book package and it shortened by
customer journey. But in second experience the staff did listen to my needs but talked rudely.
Thus, my request was not answered properly. Hence, McDonald’s should learn Expedia that
how to deal with customer in future. It will help in improving customer experience.
Proto persona diagram
In this it has been described about my pain point, needs and goals in proto persona
diagram. So, I am unhappy with customer treatment and way of responding to customer question
in my negative experience in McDonald’s (McColl-Kennedy 2019). Thus, this point is my pain
point that is directly related to product being offered by restaurant. In addition, I am unhappy
with customer service as well as after asking for second time I was given same response.
Therefore, it is directly related to my needs and goals as customer should be given proper
services.
Compare and contrast two customer experience
So, by comparing both positive and negative experience I found that it is important to
make a good customer experience. In my positive experience the chat bot of Expedia guided me
and provided info about various services available. So, it set a positive framework of good
customer experience. Also, it established a strong relationship and bond with customer. But in
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my negative experience I found that McDonald’s staff treated me in rude way. He did not know
how to greet customer and disrespected me. Thus, there was lack of customer centric services.
Therefore, in my mind a good customer experience must include greeting in fair way (Goodman
2014). Also, it include offering services in effective way and answering queries of customer
properly. Besides, it must be personalised and continuous just like in case of Expedia.
CONCLUSION
So, it can be concluded that customer expectation and centricity are factors in providing a
good customer experience. Expedia used chat bot to interact with customers. But McDonald’s
staff interaction with customer was poor. CEM is process which company use to monitor and
manage interaction with customer.
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REFERENCES
Books and journals
Bolton, R. N., McColl-Kennedy, J. R., Cheung, L., Gallan, A., Orsingher, C., Witell, L., & Zaki,
M. (2018). Customer experience challenges: bringing together digital, physical and social
realms. Journal of Service Management.
Godovykh, M., & Tasci, A. D. (2020). Customer experience in tourism: A review of definitions,
components, and measurements. Tourism Management Perspectives, 35, 100694.
Jain, R., Aagja, J., & Bagdare, S. (2017). Customer experience–a review and research
agenda. Journal of Service Theory and Practice.
Kandampully, J., Zhang, T. C., & Jaakkola, E. (2018). Customer experience management in
hospitality. International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management.
McColl-Kennedy, J. R., Zaki, M., Lemon, K. N., Urmetzer, F., & Neely, A. (2019). Gaining
customer experience insights that matter. Journal of Service Research, 22(1), 8-26.
Goodman, J. A. (2014). Customer Experience 3.0: High-Profit Strategies in the Age of Techno
Service. New York, NY: American Management Association. Retrieved
from http://search.ebscohost.com.ezproxy.laureate.net.au/login.aspx?
direct=true&db=nlebk&AN=686821&site=ehost-live&ebv=EB&ppid=pp_Cover
Peppers, D., & Rogers M. (2016). Managing customer relationships: A strategic framework (3d
ed.). Hoboken, NJ: Wiley. Retrieved from https://ebookcentral-proquest-
com.ezproxy.laureate.net.au/lib/think/reader.action?docID=4729311&ppg=5
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APPENDIX
Negative persona diagram
Positive persona diagram
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