Nelson College London: Managing Customer Experiences Report - Unit 02

This report, prepared for a Hospitality Management unit at Nelson College London, delves into the critical aspects of managing customer experiences within the service sector, using Holiday Inn as a case study. It begins by explaining the importance of understanding customer needs, wants, and preferences, emphasizing the value of providing services like gym facilities and accommodations for disabled individuals. The report then explores factors influencing customer engagement, such as providing Wi-Fi and charging points. A customer experience map is created, focusing on touchpoints like websites, review sites, emails, and phone calls. The report also discusses how customer touchpoints create business opportunities, from pre-purchase interactions on social media to post-purchase feedback. Furthermore, the report examines the role of digital technology, particularly CRM systems, in managing customer experiences and illustrates customer service strategies, emphasizing how these strategies meet customer needs and business standards. The report provides a thorough analysis of customer experience management and digital technologies in the hospitality sector.

MANAGING THE CUSTOMER EXPERIENCES

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION................................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY ......................................................................................................................................3
P1 Explain the value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target
customer groups for a service sector industry..................................................................................3
P2 Explore the different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target
customer groups within a service sector organisation.....................................................................4
P3 Create a customer experience map for a selected service sector organisation...........................5
P4 Discuss how the customer touch points throughout the customer experience create business
opportunities for a selected service sector organisation..................................................................5
P5 Examine how digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience within the
service sector, providing specific examples of customer relationship management (CRM)
systems.............................................................................................................................................6
P6 Illustrate customer service strategies in a specific service sector context..................................7
P7 Demonstrate how customer service strategies create and develop the customer experience in a
way that meets the needs of the customer and required business standards....................................8
CONCLUSION....................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES.....................................................................................................................................9

l INTRODUCTION
Holiday Inn was founded by Kemmons Wilson in the year 1952 in United Kingdom. The
company is a subsidiary of the InterContinental hotels group. The headquarter of Holiday Inn is in
Denham, Buckinghamshire, United Kingdom. It is one of the largest hotel chain with 1173 active
hotels all over the world. The company was very profitable until 1980 when they lost some market
share but then this was again recovered and Holiday Inn gained there market position once again in
the year 1985.(Hogan, 2018) The company is currently performing excellently and in 2008 they
announced thre new brand known as Holiday Inn club vacation.
l MAIN BODY
l P1 Explain the value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of
target customer groups for a service sector industry.
To be successful in the service industry the company operating must value the importance of the
needs and wants of the customer so that they can make a strong customer base. Holiday Inn should
provide services which enhances the value for their customer, some services which Holiday Inn
could provide are given below:
This is very important for company to know more about needs of consumers as it aids in offering
them desired products and meeting their expectations. People always wants value for money if

needs of consumers are not known to business then it will not be able to satisfy them. That may
create problem of sustainability in market hence it is very essential to have accurate information
about requirement of consumers.
Gym services
This service has gained popularity in the recent past decade when people started to focus
more on their health. All the luxurious hotels in the United Kingdom have the facility of gym as
people in UK are more and more health concious. Holiday Inn should also have this service in their
hotels because nowadays the health freak people requires this facility. With this the company menu
can also include the number of calories gained by having a particular meal. If this additional service
is being provided then the customer experience will become great and people will start preferring
Holiday Inn over other hotel.
Services for disabled people
This is considered to be very basic facilities which must be provided by every hotel.
Holiday Inn should have the some arrangements so that people who are disabled can also have a
good time in their hotel. Holiday Inn should provide ramps for the people who cannot walk so they
can use their wheelchairs on the ramps, menus should also be written in Braille script so that people
who cannot see can also order etc. this would make the experience of people who are disabled
peaceful. All these are very basic services and the hotels must have them for better experience of the
customers.
Holiday Inn should give proper attention to these kinds of services as they are operating in service
industry. A good customer experience will help Holiday Inn to generate an excellent brand image in
the eye of the customers. (Kusens, 2008)
l P2 Explore the different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different
target customer groups within a service sector organisation.
l Value to consumers: it is considered as essential aspects if consumers are getting value by
company then individual will be loyal and that will raise engagement of them towards firm.
l Get customer feedback: this is another essential factor as if firm is taking feedback from
consumers then they will feel that firm is taking care of them. This would aid in making them
positive and engaging them with firm for longer duration.
Wi-Fi services
In today's fast moving world the Wi-Fi service is considered to be very important and it is
kind of becoming mandatory for the hotels to provide this service. Holiday Inn must have Wi-Fi
service in each and every hotel it has, because generally every hotel is being visited by businessman
who are on their business trip requires this facility. Also, visitors other than businessman also need

this facility for there daily use. An analysis have shown that more than 50% of the customers
irrespective that they are businessman or leisure traveller prefer hotel with free Wi-Fi facilities, so
Holiday Inn must have this service in order to make the customer experience good enough.
Charging points
Again this is a very basic service which every hotel have in all there rooms. The main point
to consider here is that the location of these charging point. Its is often seen that the charging point
is far away from the bed or study table and this is very frustrating for the customer who visits the
place for the purpose of work. Holiday Inn should have these charging sockets near the bed or the
study table if there is one in the room. (Etheridge, D., 2018)
Pool service
This service is for the people who visits the hotel for leisure purpose, they look for such
services in the hotel so that they can chill while they are in the hotel. Holiday Inn provides this
service to their customer. The main point to consider here is that the pools should be neat and clean
as no one wants to go into a dirty pool. Holiday Inn must maintain there pool and regular cleaning
must be done for proper hygiene.
These are some different services which will be required by different customer so that they can have
a good and peaceful experience when they visit Holiday Inn.
l P3 Create a customer experience map for a selected service sector organisation.
Website of the company
The website of the company is of great use for knowing how the experience of the customer
was and what the customer feels could have been improved. The company directly get the
customer’s feedback on there websites so this will help the company to communicate with there
customer the feedback on the company's website should be taken seriously and the company should
implement the required changes so that the same problems are not faced by other customers too.
Review sites
These are the sites which are especially being created to judge the service which were
received by the hotels, for example Trip advisor, Trivago etc., on these websites the different hotel
can be reviewed in terms of the prices and the quality of services being provided by them. Holiday
Inn should also list themselves on these review sites and then they can ask their customers to give
the review about Holiday Inn.
E-Mails

Holiday Inn should send a feedback form to the email of the customer visited and they can
ask to fill it and then they can analyse these result to work on the issues faced. They can then work
out to solve these issues so that they are not faced by other customer too. In this way the customer
experience will be improved. The weakness of using this is that some the customer won't reply to
the email being sent to them and just ignore it.
Telephone call
This is another way in which the in which Holiday Inn can interact with there visitors.
Generally all the hotels have the number of there customer so they can directly call them to ask
about there experience.(Aveling, Parker and Dixon-Woods, 2016) These phone call must be
recorded by Holiday Inn so that they can be analyse the basic problem which every customer faces
and so that they can remove firstly the basic problem then the particular problems in order to make
there customer experience as smooth as they can.
l P4 Discuss how the customer touch points throughout the customer experience create
business opportunities for a selected service sector organisation.
Customer touch points means the points at which the customer contacts with the company from the
start to the end of there experience, which include before the purchase, during the purchase and
after the purchase.(Kusens, 2008)
Social media is considered as most effective touch point, as people use it on frequent bases. This is
the common source through which business can interact with consumers and can know more about
them. This aids in understanding their preferences and fulfilling their desires greatly. By this way
firm can generate more sales hence it creates profitability opportunity to business.
Website is another touch point, company has all detail on its website. Consumers can get
information about quality of products and its services. By They can send comment or review on it.
By this way firm can make change in its services to meet expectation of consumers hence it creates
opportunity to business.
Before Purchase
Holiday Inn's customers can interact with them before booking there hotel through social media
sites like Instagram, Facebook, YouTube etc., as the company generally puts there advertisements
on these social media sites. So, the customers will get an idea about what the Hotel services are.
The interaction could have been through verbal communication with anyone who has previously
visited Holiday Inn, advertisements in newspapers and televisions, any kind of testimonials etc.
these are the touch points which comes across before the customer has decided to go with Holiday
Inn.
During Purchase

The customers can come in contact while they visit the stores, websites of Holiday Inn where they
will search their requirement and they will communicate with the sales executives of Holiday Inn.
Other touch points at this stage will include catalogues, phone calls made by the customer to
Holiday Inn, the point when the customer finally purchases the services of Holiday Inn etc., all
these touch points are made when the customer have made there minds to go with Holiday Inn.
After Purchase
These touch points are made when the customer comes into the contact while billing, feedbacks,
replying to the company's emails etc. these touch points are very important for Holiday Inn as this
will help them to know what the customer have experienced, what they felt could have been better
and in which services they need t a lot of improvement, so that they can provide their customer with
better experience next time. These touch points are made when the product is finally sold to the
customer.
l P5 Examine how digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience
within the service sector, providing specific examples of customer relationship management (CRM)
systems.
In the current era, digital technologies are playing an important role in managing the customer
experience in the service sector industry. Holiday Inn should use these digital technologies to
provide the best service they can to there customers.(Wylie, 2016) Holiday Inn can get reviews by
using CRM system. This is the tool that help business to get review of consumers so that they can
share actual feeling towards business. This aids in developing brand image and attracting new
consumers towards the brand.
Holiday Inn can use digital technologies uses the internet to enhance there customer relationship
management. Digital technology includes use social media in order to gain more market share.
Digital technologies have helped in reaching the customers all over the world which was never
possible before, Holiday Inn can use digital technology like online websites, apps on play store and
app stores, use of social media like Instagram, Facebook etc. to target broader customer base and
thus increase there market share. The customers just need an internet connection and they can
search all the option available.
CRM means the use of internet to communicate and improve the experience of the
customers. The customer relationship management provides the customer with better experiences,
some examples are given below.
General CRM
The general CRM is available for every organisation whether it is on a small scale or large
scale. The general CRM include Sales force CRM who helps in redefining the sales strategies of

Holiday Inn. The company should make investment in the sales force CRM as it will help in the
achievement of the long term goals of Holiday Inn.
Social CRM
The social CRM looks into the management of brand conversation in the eye of the
customer by using social media. They will allow the marketers to converse with the customer of
Holiday Inn and know their needs and demands of the customers. These CRMs go beyond
collecting customer data like demographics, transactions and conversations; they add a layer that
can prove critical to selling: social influence and network effect. Likewise, social CRM taps into the
publicly shared customer social data and leverage it for a more personalized campaign or deal.
(Hristov and Zehrer, 2015)
l P6 Illustrate customer service strategies in a specific service sector context.
There are some strategy which will improve the customer services of Holiday Inn that will help in
maintaining the competitive edge of the company. These strategies are discussed below:
Excellent product knowledge
The customers service will be good when the employee working at Holiday Inn have the
knowledge about what there product. They must have the knowledge of the ins and outs of the
company and the service they are providing. This can be done by providing proper education about
how to deal with the customers.
Training employees
The customer may or may not remember what they were being told before but they will
definitely remember how was there experience in the hotel. Therefore, a well trained team of
employee will know how to handle the customers. Research have shown that training have helped
in successfully operating the customer.
Infrastructure
This is one of the dominating strategy to attract customers. Holiday Inn should have a good
infrastructure so that when the customers visit there hotel then they can have an excellent
experience. The customer these days are becoming very much conscious about the ambience of the
place they visit so having a good infrastructure will help in attracting more customers.
Resolve customer issues
It has been noticed that same problems faced by same customer often lead to frustration

among the customers and the customer then never want to visit the same place, therefore Holiday
Inn should solve any issue being faced at the first point of contact. The company should use all
source to get the feedback from the customers.(James, 2015)
Deliver the service as expected
The customer becomes very happy when they want exactly what they need. So the customer
wants there demand to be satisfied with the smile. This will help Holiday Inn to build a strong
customer base and a brand image.
l P7 Demonstrate how customer service strategies create and develop the customer experience
in a way that meets the needs of the customer and required business standards.
Customer service helps to create an excellent customer experience as they meet the needs and
requirements.
Taking feedback from consumers is the great strategy, this make the consumers feel valued and
individual think that company has concern towards its buyers. This makes them positive and make
them loyal consumer of business unit.
Use of CRM platform is another great strategy that aids business in making interaction with
buyers and giving them platform to share their views. This generates sales and this is considered as
effective customer service strategy.
Customer service vision
The company should know the vision of the customer and communicate the same to the employees
of Holiday Inn. In this way the employee will know the path to provide the best customer service to
the customer of Holiday Inn. For this to happen the company must have a trained task force who are
able to deal with the customer services and can provide them with what they want. Holiday Inn
should remember that an unsatisfied customer can spoil the image of the company. Therefore, the
vision of the customer service should be clear in the mind of the employees. (Montemaggi, 2015)
Hire the right employees
For the above strategy to be successful Holiday Inn needs to hire the right employee for the
right position so that they can work effectively and efficiently to achieve the goal of the
organisation. The employee with the right skill can then be trained to give the best result to the
organisation. Holiday Inn should remember that the attitude and personality cannot be taught so the
person with these abilities must be hired immediately.
Hold people accountable
The people should be held accountable for the responsibility they are given, this should be
the part of Holiday Inn performance management system and also the part of the cultural norms. If

the people are not held accountable then the tasks will always be correctly completed.(Howard,
2016)
l CONCLUSION
From this report we have come to a conclusion that Holiday Inn is currently performing well
in the service industry and is expected to perform further good in the future. The report is divided
into 7 tasks which include the importance of the customer needs and wants, different factors which
drive the customer engagement, the customer map and the customer touch-point are discussed in the
next task, then there was a discussion about the digital technologies and customer relationship
management. At last there were some customer strategies being discussed briefly. Comprehensively
the report says that Holiday Inn has good scope in the hospitality sector.
l REFERENCES
Books and journals
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ability. Routledge.
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teacher agency. Journal of Education Policy. 33(5). pp.617-631.
Howard, K. and et.al., 2016. Systems and methods for serving content to merchandising
communication systems. U.S. Patent Application 14/815,745.
Hristov, D. and Zehrer, A., 2015. The destination paradigm continuum revisited: DMOs serving as
leadership networks. Tourism Review. 70(2). pp.116-131.
James, D., 2015. How Bourdieu bites back: Recognising misrecognition in education and
educational research. Cambridge Journal of Education, 45(1), pp.97-112.
Kusens, N., Cerner Innovation Inc, 2016. Method for determining whether an individual leaves a
prescribed virtual perimeter. U.S. Patent 9,489,820.
Kusens, N., Cerner Innovation Inc, 2018. Method for determining whether an individual leaves a
prescribed virtual perimeter. U.S. Patent 9,905,113.

Montemaggi, F.E.S., 2015. Sacralisation–the role of individual actors in legitimising religion.
Culture and Religion. 16(3). pp.291-307.
Wylie, K., and et.al., 2016. Serving transgender people: clinical care considerations and service
delivery models in transgender health. The Lancet. 388(10042).. pp.401-411.