Analysis of Customer Engagement and CRM in the Hospitality Sector

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MANAGING CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
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Executive Summary
Managing the experiences of the customers is one of the most important lookouts for the
hospitality industries, since they have to directly deal with the customers and deliver services to
them. The importance of understanding the demands and needs of the customers lies in the fact
that they need to be amply satisfied, in order to ensure that they visit the organizations time and
again, thus ensuring a steady flow of revenues. Digital technologies and CRM helps in
communicating with the customers, thus understanding their demands and has a role to polay in
the success of the hospitality organizations.
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................4
P1 Explain the value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of
target customer groups for the hospitality industry........................................................................4
P2 Explore the different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target
customer groups within a service sector organisation...................................................................5
M1 Review how customer engagement factors determine customer on-boarding strategies for
different target customer groups within a service sector organisations.........................................6
D1 Evaluate a broad range of different target customer groups’ needs and expectations in terms
of customer engagement for service sector organizations............................................................6
P3 Create a customer experience map for a selected service sector organisation......................7
P4 Discuss how the touch points create such opportunities throughout the customer experience
in your hospitality organisation......................................................................................................7
M2 Create a detailed customer experience map that charts the customer journey model and
examines the activities and actions taken at each customer touch point to create business
opportunities for a selected service sector organisation................................................................8
D2 Analyse how a selected service sector organisation can optimize each of the customer touch
points to influence the behavior, responses and actions of its customers to enhance the
customer experience.....................................................................................................................9
P5 Examine how digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience within
the service sector organization, providing specific examples of customer-relationship-
management systems.................................................................................................................10
M3 Evaluate how digital technologies employed in managing the customer experience within the
service sector are changing CRM systems to effectively acquire and retain customers.............10
D3 Critically evaluate the advantages and disadvantages of CRM systems used in service
sector businesses for acquisition and retaining customers.........................................................11
P6 Illustrate customer service strategies in a specific service sector context.............................11
P7 Demonstrate how customer service strategies create and develop the customer experience
in a way that meet the needs of the customer and the required business standards.................12
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M4 Review the application of customer service strategies of an appropriate service sector
organisation in creating the customer experience and make recommendations for improvement
.....................................................................................................................................................12
D4 Evaluate the delivery of customer service strategies and communication, justifying and
making valid recommendations for improvement for developing a quality customer experience13
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................13
References..................................................................................................................................14
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Introduction
The hospitality sector of the UK has been recently experiencing a boom in the number of visitors
visiting the country and thus, the revenue earned by the sector has also increased by leaps and
bounds, from 15.7 billion GBP in 2015 to over 19.3 billion GBP in 2017 and has been increasing
ever since (Ukhospitality.org.uk., 2019). This industry involves personal interaction with the
customers while dispensing their services and thus, requires managing the experiences of the
customers every well, in order to ensure repeat-visits and increased sales for the sector. This
report focuses on the importance of knowing the demands of the customers and planning to
cater to the same in an appropriate manner, while exploring the concepts of customer
experience map and customer touchpoints in detail.
P1
The term ‘target market’ refers to the part of the total market to which the concerned
organization focuses on selling its products or offering its services and comprises of the
potential group of customers, either belonging to a particular demographic range or representing
particular economic section of the society usually. For any business organization, identification
of the target market is essential, since it eases the decision-making process for marketing and
product development processes and well as plays a role in boosting the revenue generated by
the company.
Catering to the needs, wants and preferences of the customers is essential for any business
sector since it ensures customer satisfaction, which is essential for establishing the business on
strong grounds in the market segment as well as for earning revenue, repute and customer
loyalty. Hotel Indigo, located in the Northern Quarters of Manchester, is a hotel offering a peek
into the Victorian era as well as the times of Industrial Revolution (Dixon, 2019). The individuals
visiting this place usually are travelers who want to catch a glimpse of the Victorian Era as well
as enjoy music, fashion and other creative facets of the neighborhood that the hotel is located
in.
Thus, the target customer group for this hotel is travelers belonging to the age group of 20- 50
years, with an interest in music, fashion and food as well as with a knack of spending time in
places with historical pasts and serene neighborhoods.
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The needs of the customers are a safe and cozy place to rest as well as enjoy delectable
meals, while enjoying their travel. Their wants can be availability of all necessary amenities like
geysers and heaters in the rooms, internet facilities to enable them stay connected with their
friends while travelling as well as options of tasting cuisines from different parts of the world,
which would be a treat to their taste buds. The preferences might include availing all such
facilities like gym, spa and other such facilities, which might make staying at the hotel worth the
price that they are paying for the same. Possessing a clear understanding of all these needs,
wants and preferences helps Hotel Indigo to arrange for the amenities accordingly as well as
strategize for the inclusion of such others, which are not a part of the services offered to the
guests currently. This not only ensures customer satisfaction but also enables the hotel to retain
their customers for a longer time and influence them to make repeated visits, which is important
for hospitality businesses.
P2
The term ‘customer engagement’ refers to the relation between the brand or the company and
the customers, which is a result of customer satisfaction; this paves way for customer loyalty
and in the long run, proves to be beneficial for all the business organizations.
In case of Indigo Hotels, the target customers being of the age group of 20-50 years and mainly
travelers, they would expect the management of the hotel to deliver impeccable and comfortable
services, at reasonable prices, meeting all their desires and necessities appropriately. Satisfying
the demands and desires of the customers would ensure positive customer engagement for the
hotel.
Factors that drive and influence customer engagement positively includes Communication,
Well-defined services and goals, availability of Personalized services, Language adaptability
exhibited by the staffs, Security of the visitors and the reputation of the organization (Berezan et
al., 2016).
Factors that drive and influence customer engagement negatively includes delivery of
inappropriate services, technological issues in the functional systems, Unethical behaviour in
services, Lack of information amongst the employees as well as the customers as well as
unrealistic promises on the part of the organization.
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M1
The term ‘customer on-boarding’ refers to the entire process for positively associating the
customers with the products or services offered by the business organizations, which
encompasses all the stages of consumer decisions, right from pre-purchase decisions to the
time that the customer avails the services or products offered to them, for the first time
(Harmeling et al., 2017).
The customer engagement factors like communication, availability of personalized services,
security and language adaptability helps in understanding the fact that the customers look for
getting associated with the hotels positively and desire that the staffs within the hotels should
cater to all their needs and comforts effectively (Semeradova and Vávrová, 2016). The
customers, for deciding to avail the services from a hotel, also take the reputation of the
organization into consideration. In case of Indigo Hotels, establishing proper communication
channels with the guests, while they login to the company websites for retrieving information
about the amenities offered to by the hotel is thus, an effective on-boarding strategy that is
resorted to, by them. This ensures that all the details regarding the preferences and the needs
of the customers are recorded in the hotel database, which aids in delivering personalized
services, in the own language as that of the visitors and thus, meeting another factor of
customer on-boarding efficiently.
D1
The millennial population, as target customers, desires availability of technologically advanced
services within the hospitality sector, for attaining satisfaction. Their needs are multifarious and
usually concerns availability of premium services, no matter what the cost is. Engaging this
section of customers to the company requires formulation of such engagement strategies like
delivering personalized services, establishing proper communication channels for collecting
information about the needs as well as attending to the grievances of the customers and things
as such (Sigala, 2018). The older generation like the people belonging to the age group of 40-
50 years is usually pacified with decent arrangements while travelling and availability of basic
facilities, at economic prices. However, for them the name and repute of the company matters a
lot and thus, for positive customer engagement, Indigo Hotel should concentrate on gaining an
enviable position in the market. Security is another major factor affecting customer engagement
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of this group and thus, arrangement of proper security measures for the visiting guests would
help in pacifying this target customer group.
P3
Customer experience map for hospitality industry
Fig 1: Customer Experience Map
(Source: Soltani and Navimipour, 2016)
Customer experience map for Indigo hotels
Fig 2: Customer experience map for Indigo hotels
Source: Created by the author
P4
The ‘touch-points’ are defined as the time when either the potential customers or the existing
customers comes in contact with the brand or the organization; it can be before, during or after
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the purchase. The touchpoints have a role to play in influencing the purchase intentions and
thus, are important.
Fig 3: Touchpoints of journey of the consumers
(Source: Harris, 2017)
The major touchpoints for the hospitality industry includes good website, Emails and SMS
before, during and after availing the services of the organizations, providing perks and small
gifts to the customers on check-in as well as check-out and continuing to maintain connections
with the existing customers even after the travel, in order to encourage repeat purchases and
things as such. In Indigo Hotels, the customer touchpoints are catered to very efficiently, in
order to motivate the customers to avail the services repeatedly. The website of Indigo Hotels is
very informative and allows the customers a 3D tour of the hotel rooms as well; this plays an
important role in attracting the customers and making a lasting impression on their minds.
Constant notifications, through emails and messages, are delivered to the customers, in order to
make them feel associated with the organization. The short reminders about necessary
documents that the visitors need to carry while they are travelling, the ‘happy journey’ messages
while the traveler embarks on their journey, welcome notes and cards on the arrival of the
travelers as well as a goodbye note for those leaving the hotel after the stay aids in establishing
appropriate communication channels, which is necessary. The complimentary drinks to
welcome the guests as well as the small token of goodbye given to the guests at the end of their
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stay also helps in forming a positive image of the hotel in their minds and influences their
repeat-purchase intentions.
M2
The customer journey model exhibits six different stages through which every customer passes,
before deciding to avail a product or service from a business organization, purchasing a product
and then finally deciding whether to avail the services again, depending on the experience
gained. The first stage is pre-trigger wherein the repute of the organization, brand name as well
as the brand value of the organization plays a role. The customer learns about the Indigo Hotels
from the website, social media advertisements as well as the ‘word of mouth’ of the existing
customers (Viglia et al., 2016). The second phase is ‘trigger’ in which the customers go through
the websites, comparing the services with other notable hotels in the sector as well as checks
the reviews and feedback of the existing customers on the social media and the company
websites. The competent prices offered by Indigo hotels in relation to the customers, along with
its near-premium amenities offered to the guests, coupled with the presence of updated as well
as interactive websites positively influences the trigger phase (Wang et al., 2015).
Fig 4: Customer Journey Model
(Source: Kalbach, 2016)
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The next is the ‘consideration’ phase, in which the offers that are put forth by Indigo hotels as
well as the expert opinions on other sites, travel blogs and availability of very relevant content
over the online as well as offline media sources plays a major role. The fourth phase is
purchase, which is usually eased with the presence of online-booking and payment facilities.
The customers are also provided with a 3D-virtual hotel-tour, which influences the purchase
decisions significantly. The touchpoints like interaction with customers through messages, from
the time they depart from their homes to the time they reach the hotels and even after that, the
availability of the services as per the preferences of the customers, the welcome drinks and kits
as well as the ‘goodbye’ souvenirs influences the customer experience positively (Lemon and
Verhoef, 2016). Good experience, coupled with the eagerness of the hotel staffs and
management to correct their flaws, as proven by the feedback collection systems as well as
attending the grievances of the customers promptly, brings forth customer loyalty, which is the
last stage in the customer-journey model.
D2
The website of Indigo Hotel, besides giving away information relevant to the services, should
also display a 3D preview of the personalized services that are made available to the customers
on request, in order to influence the purchase intentions of the customers.
The hotel should put up a list of their loyal customers as well as allow them certain small awards
and extra facilities for being associated with the organization since a long time, which would
influence the image of the company in the minds of the customers positively as well as aid in
establishing consumer-loyalty. Since the first impression is the last impression, the travellers
can be provided few other complimentary services as well, which would help them feel positively
associated with the organization and improve their outlook towards the hotel (Wang et al.,
2017). The offers made available to the customers should be put up on offline media platforms
as well, in order to ensure that the maximum percentage of customers are able to avail the
information and act accordingly.
P5
The Customer Relationship Management System at Indigo Hotel aids in the effective
management of relevant data of the customers, collected through personalized interaction with
the customers, by means of surveys and feedbacks. In order to collect the feedback effectively
from the customers, the systems are usually connected to social media, in order to reach out to
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a large number of customers at the same time and collect their reviews. The data collected are
maintained over cloud systems, to ensure its complete protection from unauthorized access as
well as proper dispersal of data through all the departments who require to access the data.
Both social media as well as cloud technology are examples of the digital technology systems
and helps in managing the customer experience at Indigo Hotel since storing the relevant
information as well as working on the feedback provided by the customers helps in improving
the quality of services provided by this hotel and delivering personalized services to the guests.
M3
Incorporation of social media in the CRM systems of Indigo Hotel increases the visibility and
reachability of the company, among its existing as well as potential customers and thus,
increases the probability of success manifold (Kasemsap, 2017). Social media is the platform
that is often resorted to by the travelers (major guests) for posting their grievances; proper
knowledge of the complaints of the customers actually enables the management of Indigo
hotels to identify the flaws in their systems and correction of the same, thus, improving the
quality of services. The incorporation of the cloud technologies ensures protection of the
customer data as well as its proper sharing among the concerned departments, thus enabling
Indigo hotels to deliver personalized services to the customers, as per their preferences and
specifications, while also considering their special needs, which again helps in acquiring and
retaining customers to the company (Rahimi et al., 2017).
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