H&M Customer Experience: Analysis, Audit, and Recommendations

This report examines the customer experience at H&M, a multinational clothing retail company. It begins with an introduction highlighting the importance of customer experience in creating value and loyalty. The main body provides an overview of the brand, its mission, and target customer segments. It identifies key aspects of H&M's customer service, including trust, personalization, empathy, timely delivery, and engagement. The report includes an audit of the brand's customer-facing manifestations and critically assesses these against relevant models and theories. The analysis incorporates the customer experience map, emphasizing planning, understanding customer needs, product design, and promotional strategies. Finally, it offers substantiated recommendations to improve various aspects of the customer experience for H&M, aiming to enhance customer satisfaction and drive long-term success. The report leverages academic sources to support its arguments and findings.

Customer
experience
Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
1

MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................3
About the brand......................................................................................................................3
Identify what the brand says about customer service and beliefs and organisational culture 5
Demonstrate that an audit of all the manifestations of customer of the brand has been carried
out...........................................................................................................................................7
Critically assessment of these against models and theories set out in the module and teaching
material...................................................................................................................................7
Set out a substantiated set of recommendations to improve aspects of the customer experience
for this brand...........................................................................................................................9
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................10
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11
2

INTRODUCTION
For an organization to be successful it is important that they focus on enhancing customer
experience so that high value can be created for the customers and their expectations are fulfilled
which help in making them loyal towards the company (AthuluruTlrumala and Attuluru, Ytrre
Inc, 2019). In order to increase customer satisfaction, the companies must analyse the changing
customer needs and wants of customers so that they can be given products and services which
can help in enhancing their experience. Through continuous innovation and R&D companies can
provide products and services in market which can increase their customer satisfaction so that a
competitive advantage can be gained. In this report H&M is taken which is a multinational
clothing retail company well known for its fast fashion clothing for all age groups. In this report
identification of customer attitude for understanding the customer engagement process will be
discussed. Further theories which can help in developing deep understanding of customer
experience will also be discussed.
MAIN BODY
About the brand
H&M is a Swedish multinational retail clothing company which deals in highly fashionable
clothing and it operates in about 74 countries with over 5,000 stores which help it in reaching to
its target customers. The company is second largest global clothing retailers having more than
126,376 employees. The company provides highly fashionable clothing to its customers which
help in increasing their satisfaction through continuous innovation to deal with their changing
needs.
H&M mission statement
The company aims at driving long-lasting positive change and improving the living conditions of
people by bringing innovation in its products so that the world can be offered with highly
fashionable and designer cloths (Fernandes and Pinto, 2019). The company thus focuses on
transforming shopping and improving the lives of people by involving innovative ideas in its
products so that high customer satisfaction can be achieved.
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Culture management at H&M company
Key customer segment of H&M:
 In order to increase the customer base of a company it is important that the target market
is identified so that strategies can be developed which can help in increasing the profitability
of company:
 1) The company aims all the people belonging to various age groups like teenagers,
adults, men, women etc.
 2) The company is located in more than 5076 locations and also it deals online.
 3) The company focus high income families who can afford expensive cloths (Dou,
Zhang and Wang,2019).
 4) The company aims at offering high quality clothing to its customers so that high
customer satisfaction can be achieved.
Attitudes of these customers to define their attitudes to the brand and overall customer services
in general
There are essentially five aspects relevant to the quality of consumer service that H & M
clothing retail company adopts. Such criteria are employed as mentioned below to maintain the
overall great experience of their target client segment:
Trust: This is the first thing relevant to the development of a solid base of consumer segment
data. Handling consumer engagement is needed by creating a good confidence connection with
them that will make consumers instinctively confidence the brand and are able to share their
personal knowledge interactions and data with the company (Flavián, Ibáñez-Sánchez and Orús,
2019). Like in the above H & M clothing retail company, there should be trust of customers
towards product of company. If trust will be higher than this will be beneficial for company to
create more loyal customers.
Personalization: The aim of consumer interaction, which may be digital or physical, must be a
carefully constructed system of consumers through various platforms, is to communicate with
them indirectly.
Empathy: Linked to emotional interaction is empathy and effective behavior is capable of
developing for the client. It consists of both pre / post-feedback approaches that organizations
like holiday use to personalize sense of interaction with each and almost every client. To this
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end, the perceptions of a specific customer must be understood while they visit to store of H &
M clothing.
Delivery in less time: The cumulative developments in technology have contributed to the
production of value for the consumer in real time. This ensures that there is a bond that can
quickly be formed with the consumer as soon as they visit a specific company and often even the
entity itself will engage the consumer and take the opportunity to develop a meaningful
partnership with them. Such as H & M clothing retail company is located on both online and
offline platforms. In the case of online way of service providing, they should try to deliver cloths
in less time so that customers can impress with their way of service providing. On the other side,
any delay in service providing may lead to a range of difficulties for above company such as lack
of customer satisfaction.
Engagement: Employee engagement is a very valuable resource for any company, but consumer
engagement has also contributed to the development of a number of social networking and
interactive initiatives that can improve customer interaction. It also allows companies to
associate their consumers so that they can anticipate a strong commitment from their consumers.
Like in the H & M clothing retail company, this is essential for them to make a strong bonding
with the customers. This can be done by help of taking regular feedback from customers. It can
be done by providing facilities to customers of writing feedback on online website of company.
Due to this company can keep themselves in touch with the customers’ need and their demand.
Identify what the brand says about customer service and beliefs and organisational culture
Essential principal of managing customer experience:
Discuss several of the guiding principles which form a part of culture around which
entire customer experience management framework for M&S clothing retail company is
designed (Bueno, Bomfim and Kato, 2019). Besides that, there also other aspects that company
has embraced in order to improve overall consumer experience. The measurements used
by company are described below:
 Ecosystem: This is one most critical aspects of structure and community which is given
to all interested parties involved with the company. This is really useful to be regarded on
M&S and that, without the relevant players and the right structure and place, this could
not be maintained or formed.
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 Delivery: Age associated with the entire process of communication that takes place
throughout the diverse operational departments of the organization. In the event of a
break there is clear communication mechanism to be formed among the functional
division and front office personnel, the front desk clerk is accountable for accepting
orders in good time and the functional department is accountable for ensuring that all is
in position.
 Empathy: That's a place at which customer's experiences are present. This relates to
meeting the client's needs in such a way there's high degree of satisfaction attained by a
specific company. It is quite crucial to take into account the human aspect of customer's
experiences as if these are not taken into account when the consumers' perception
experience will become meaningful.
 Customer touch points- It is defined as a point on which a company meets the
requirement of their customers. This is essential for companies to meet with this point so
that they can attract more number of customers (Goodman, 2019). Like in the above H &
M clothing retail company, this point can be achieved by providing best quality of cloths
to customers. The level of satisfaction of customers can be known by provided feedback
on online sites.
 Pathway: This is defined as overall journey of a customer with company. It starts with
purchasing of a product with customer and ends with the feedback from customer. In the
context of above H & M clothing retail company, the pathway of customers starts with
buying a clothing product from a store and continue till customer use the product. It ends
with the provided feedback by customer on company website.
So these are some key factors which are essential for managing better customer relationship. All
these aspects need to be adopted by company and try to cope up with customers need. It is
important because customer’s relation is a key of success for any kinds of company whether this
is service or product industry.
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Demonstrate that an audit of all the manifestations of customer of the brand has been carried out
It is crucial for H&M company to take correct and accurate customer experience audit in
order to provide better and accurate services to customers. It is important for respective company
to determine as well as analyse the needs and wants of customer in order to offer them products
which is significant for providing high quality services to customers (Homburg, Jozićand
Kuehnl, 2017). Audit of customer experience will support in determining the perception of
targeted customer about the brand. Through this process H&M company will be able to
determine the actual position of company in market area along with the area of development.
There are various approaches and method that could be consider by H&M company is order to
audit customer experiences. It includes google analytical reviews, customer interview, website
conversion review, social media review and many more. This will help H&M company to
determine touchpoints that attract as well as retain customers with in the company. H&M
organisation is considering customer experience map in order to determine requirement of
customers’ form company as well as understanding their experience within respective
organisation. Social media is effective and efficient tool that will help H&M company to
communicate with potential customer in order to determine the views of customers towards
H&M company as well as its offerings.
Critically assessment of these against models and theories set out in the module and teaching
material
In order to audit the customer experience, it is crucial to determine and analyse the model
of customer experience (Cummins, Peltierand Dixon, 2016). This is significant model that will
support H&M company to determine the overall experience of customer with the organisation as
well as determining the journey of customers. Customer experience map is developed with
different touch points which is significant in attracting customer and retaining them with the
organisation. Customer experience map in context of H&M company is mention below in detail. Developing plan – H&M company needs to create and develop an effective and efficient
plan that will support in attracting customers as well as full filling the need and wants of
customers. Plan of H&M organisation includes different strategies that will be consider in
order to increase sales of company as well as developing strong relationship with
potential customers.
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 Determining customer needs – It is essential for organisation to determine and analyse
the need and want of customers in order to provide high quality of products and services.
H&M company needs to conduct a proper market research that assist in collecting
information regarding the customers need and wants. Designing high quality products – H&M company needs to create and develop high
quality products and services which is as per the need and wants of customers (Baker,
2016). H&M company is dealing in retail a sector and providing different types of high
quality products. Attracting customers – There are different promotional tools and approaches that could
be consider by H&M organisation in order to attract customers. Respective company
needs to use both traditional as well as modern promotional approaches for attracting
customers.
 Meeting with customer’s exceptions – The last step of customer experience map is to
meet with the expectation of customers. H&M company is identifying customers’ needs
as well as determining expectation of potential customer. This helps in attracting
customers as well as providing products or services that will lead to meet with the needs
of customers. It will lead to enhance customer engagement practices in organisation and
develop strong relationship with customers.
According to this customer experience map, H&M company will be able to identify different
factors of H&M company for increasing the level of customer experience (Achhra Tsikine and
Paykis, 2019). It is helpful in audit manifestation of H&M company which has been carried out
for attracting customer as well as developing strong relationship with potential customers.
Through this it has been determined that customer experience map is majorly based on
touchpoints. These touchpoints are significant in providing information to customers about the
company as well as its offering to targeted customers. Different touchpoint that is consider by
H&M company is mention below - Website of H&M organisation – This refer as the official website of H&M organisation
that will include detail and information of company. Website of H&M company is 24 *7
available for its customer and it can be considering as the touchpoint that will support in
attracting as well as influencing customers. Customer will be able to gain information
about H&M company offerings to customers.
8

 Customer services – It includes the touchpoint when customer is in the store form
purchasing products of H&M company. Customer services will lead to help in reducing
the issues or problem of customers that is faced while buying products. Effective and
efficient customer services will lead to increase in sales as well as enhancing level of
customer experience with H&M company.
 Social networking site – There are different social networking sites that is significant for
increasing sales as well as experience of customers (Homburg, Schäfer and Schneider,
2012). This includes Facebook, Instagram and many other social networking site for
promoting products and services of H&M company in market area. This touchpoint will
be significant for after sales of H&M and informing customers about the company.
Set out a substantiated set of recommendations to improve aspects of the customer experience for
this brand
There are several recommendations that could be consider by H&M company in order to
enhance customer experience. These recommendations should be considering by manager of
H&M company in order to improve customer experience for respective brand. Recommendation
are mention below in detail.
 It is important for H&M company to identify and determine need and wants of customers
in order to develop products and services. By determining the needs or requirement of
targeted customers, H&M company will be able to design and create products which will
meet with the needs of customers.
 H&M company needs to use new and innovative approaches in its business process in
order to enhance the level of customer experience (Ieva, 2019). There is advance and
updated technology in market area that will assist in effective and efficient functioning of
H&M organisation. Advance technology will help in increasing customer level and
meeting with the needs of potential customers.
 It is essential for H&M company to provide training to its employees with the motive of
increasing their capabilities for successfully enchaining customer experience level.
Effective and efficient training to employees will improve their potential to provide
effective customer services.
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 This organisation needs to use different social media platforms in order to increase
communication level with potential customers. Social media sits will help in encouraging
customer engagement activities and developing strong relational ship with customers.
CONCLUSION
From the above report it can be concluded that it is essential for organisation to use
different and effective approaches in order to increase customer experience level. There are
different principles that will help in providing guidance to organisation for performing different
activities that will lead to enhance customer experience level. Customer experience map will
help in providing support to company as well as determining different touchpoint for attracting
or retaining customers.
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REFERENCES
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hotel chain management, pp.240-250.
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Goodman, J., 2019. Strategic customer service: Managing the customer experience to increase
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AthuluruTlrumala, G. and Attuluru, A.R., Ytrre Inc, 2019. Real-time customer experience
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Fernandes, T. and Pinto, T., 2019. Relationship quality determinants and outcomes in retail
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Dou, X., Zhu, X., Zhang, J.Q. and Wang, J., 2019. Outcomes of entrepreneurship education in
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