Analyzing Customer Experience and Digital Technology in Hospitality

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of customer experience management within the context of Hilton Hotels. It begins by emphasizing the value of understanding customer needs, preferences, and wants, utilizing STP analysis to segment and target customer groups effectively. The report investigates the impact of digital technology on customer relationship management (CRM), exploring different CRM systems and their features, including operational, analytical, and collaborative approaches. It examines the role of digital technology in building customer relationships, such as in customer service management, identifying beneficial segments, attracting new customers, and providing customized offers. Furthermore, the report delves into customer experience mapping, identifying touchpoints that influence customer interactions before, during, and after their stay. It discusses effective customer experience management strategies, including the use of media platforms for creating awareness of products and services. The report also covers strategies to improve customer engagement, discusses how customer service strategies meet customer and business standards, and evaluates the use of digital technologies in managing customers, concluding with recommendations for enhancing customer experience.

Managing customer experience

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
MAIN BODY...................................................................................................................................4
Explain the value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preference of target
customer groups...........................................................................................................................4
Investigate the impacts of digital technology in customer relationship management.................6
Discussing effective customer experience management strategies that businesses use..............9
Explaining customer service management strategies in order to improve the customer
engagement................................................................................................................................11
Explaining how customer service strategies meet the needs of the customers and business
standards....................................................................................................................................12
Evaluating how digital technologies employed in managing the customer...............................14
Reviewing the application of customer service strategies along with recommendations..........15
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................15
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................1

INTRODUCTION
Customer experience that is also termed as CX is the perspective of the buyers of the
products and services of a business that depicts their holistic perception after availing the
offerings of the business. It is essential for business to focus of improvement of customer
experience in order to maintain their retention rate. Every aspect of the business impacts the
experience of the customer both directly and indirectly. Ability of a business to provide good
experience to the customer helps in improving the goodwill of the firm.
Hilton Hotel Metropole located in Edgware road, London operates in the hospitality
sector by providing the customers with accommodation, food and travel facilities. These offering
of the business along with other activities influence the experience of the visitors availing them.
Methods of catering the customers have a significant impact on their experience and it is highly
focused by the firm. There are many other aspects such as hygiene, view, ambience, facilities etc.
which plays a key role in the experience of the guests.
Thus, the report will be highlighting every aspect related to the experience of the
customers of Hilton. STP analysis will be applied on the customer base to evaluate the ability of
the to satisfy their needs. Therefore, different dynamics of the customers will be analysed as
well. Moreover, customer relationship management system (CRM) will be enlightened which
will be connected to the role of digital technology. Well-articulated strategies will be formulated
for enhancing the customer experience which will be discussed with assessment of different
influential dynamics of the markets.

MAIN BODY
Explain the value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preference of target
customer groups
STP analysis
 Segmentation: The customer base of the organization is diversified and it is not specified
to a niche segment which helps the firm to gain high profits by fulfilling the different
preferences. Target market group Hilton is segmented on the four basis that is
geographic, demographic, psycho-graphic and benefits segments.
 Targetting- As per the division of the customer base into four segmented groups,
operations are aligned in such a manner that it can effectively full-fill the demands of
each divided group. Geographical segmentation is targetted by the location of the hotel
that experience high tourism rate (Al-Gasawneh and et.al., 2021). Targetted customers of
the demographic segment are the ones which falls in line senior and middle-aged
professionals that have high earning capacity and majorly prefers the luxury
accommodation. Psycho-graphic customer segment includes the individuals with which
are ambitious and prefers five star hotels to maintain their high standards which is offered
in the accommodation of Hilton. Benefits segmentation aims at targeting the customer
which obtain higher value products and service to satisfy their demands.
 Positioning: Alignment of strategies and resources in accordance with the customer
preference which belong to different segments is highly necessary to provide them a good
experience while they avail the offerings of the firm. To target the geographic segment
Hilton has positioned in the London where high tourism is notices during the whole year.
Luxurious facilities are positioned within the hotel to comply with the needs of
demographic segment. Moreover, customers who have high status in the society are
provided with the premium facilities such as terrace pools, spa, private lounges etc.
products and services of the hotels are of very high standards which helps them to inflate
the prices that results in attracting the customers of benefit segment.
Factors that influence the customer engagement
Factors that influence customer engagement: there are many factors that influence the
mindset of the customers of the organization which impacts their engagement with the business.

Some of these factors are age, income, lifestyle and personality which depicts the segmentation
of the customer base of Hilton. Lifestyle of the customers influence their preference for the
hotels whether it matches their standards of living or not. Ambitious people look for premium
quality products and services that plays in vital role in their decision to opt for Hilton. Age factor
is also a necessary aspect as the age group of middle to senior citizen is targeted by the
organization and it influences their decision to choose the offering of the firm. Moreover, income
of the segmented customer is highly necessary as it depicts the ability of the customer to buy the
services.
Colin Shaw Emotional Chart
This chart has four clusters in which the emotions of the customers falls while interacting with
the business. There are many factors that drive the experience of the customers and generate
emotions. Four clusters of the chart are:
 Destroying cluster: Here the customer is neglected, irritated, hurried etc. this is basically
the initial stage of the interaction between the buyer and seller. There are various factors
that influence the customers on this stage such as preference for other brand that leads to
negligence of choosing new one.
 Attention cluster: in this cluster a customer may feel a bit interested in testing the services
offered by the organization (Al-Gasawneh and et.al., 2021). Here the organization can
have a significant impression on the customer.
 Recommendation cluster: coming to this stage a customer feels related to the organization
which depicts the feeling of belongingness. Loyalty of the customers is focused on this
stage to make them permanent.
 Advocacy cluster: this is a final stage where the customer has experienced every aspect f
the services and feels happy.
Customer experience map
Experience of the customer while interacting with the service provider is depicted in the
customer experience map. From the beginning to the end every aspect which effects the
customer experience is covered in this map with the help of touchpoints.
Prior to stay: These are the touchpoint which impacts the customer before their stay in the hotel.

 Positive- calls made by the hotel to the customer before one week of their stay to
acknowledge their preferences. Negative- Improper functioning of the website of hotel is the factor that negatively
impacts the customers experience prior to their stay.
During the stay: These are the touchpoints which is experienced by the customer while receiving
the services of the hotel when they are staying there.
 Positive- ambience of the hotel is the positive touch point which is also enhanced with a
scenery view. Negative: location of the hotel which is far from the main city is the negative point as the
customers have to travel to the markets and other places which may frustrate them
(Kumar and Reinartz, 2018).
After the stay: Touchpoints which impacts the customers that are experienced by them after their
departure from the organization.
 Positive: fast, efficient and friendly checkout facility is the plus point which enhances the
customer experience. The organization is enabled with such system which helps in
providing this facility to the customers.
 Negative: lack of communication between the organization and the customers after their
stay is the factor that act as a negative touchpoint. No promotions and offers are provided
to the regular customers after their stay.
Investigate the impacts of digital technology in customer relationship management
Types of CRM systems
 Operational customer relationship management system: this CRM system contour the
process of business which covers automation of sales, marketing and services.
Generations of the leads is the central aim of the operational CRM system from which the
contacts are converted. Moreover, all the information regarding the customer life cycle is
depicted by this system which helps in providing better services to them.
 Analytical customer relationship management system: this system provide aid to the
management, marketing and sales team to acknowledge the best way of catering the
customers. Analytics of the information in the form of data is the basic function of this
CRM system. For better understanding of position of the organization, this system

evaluates the data that is gathered from various touch points that gives insights on the
experience of the customers. Marketing, sales, and support executives of the business
gets a proper idea about the methods they need to adopt for performing their job roles
effectively so that the customers are satisfied.
 Collaborative customer relationship management system: it is often known as strategic
CRM which direct the organization to share the data collected by a specific department to
other department as it may contain useful information that can help in effective
functioning of some other department. Usually business units doesn't share the
information which others which results in less collaboration and effects the operations of
the firm.
Features of CRM systems
 Operational CRM: basic feature of this CRM is its focus on marketing, sales and services
which impacts the experience of the customers. This system connects the functioning of
these three departments which results in getting better results of business commencement
(Dewnarain and et.al., 2019). It is one of the perfect system that enhancing the functions
of the business which directly faces the customers such as sales department where the
sales executive interacts with the customers directly.
 Analytical CRM: main feature of this CRM system is that it analyse the data gathered
from different sources. Analytical system properly arranges the data which makes its
interpretation easier. Well structured data that regards to the customer help in accurate
interpretation which gives perfect information to the management. Methodologies formed
by the business are supported by this interpreted data that helps in improvement of
customer relations.
 Collaborative CRM: it provides the information to multiple teams in the organization
which may provide inputs to them for improving its functioning. Collaboration among
different units of the organization is achieved by this system which strengthen the overall
business. This leads the firm towards achievement of better relations with the customers.
Moreover, this customer relation management system enables a customer centric culture
in the firm.

Role of digital technology in building customer relationships
 Customer service management: usage of digital technology in the organization can help
in managing the records that contains the information regarding the consumer behaviour.
The digital technology can availed to acknowledge the preference of the customer for the
services of the organization.
 Identification of the beneficial segment: digital methods of evaluating different dynamics
of the customer base can help the organization to determine the customer group which
gives high profitability than others (Yerpude and Singhal, 2018). Management can filter
the customer base and can focus on the ones that are highly profitable in order to
integrate a process which puts the priority customer above from others.
 Attracting new customers: Customer relationship management system which is enabled
with the digital technology can help the management top evaluate the behaviour of the
customers and their purchasing pattern. This can help in formulation of the strategies by
which the organization can attract new customers by targetting their needs.
 Providing customized offers: through the digital channels the organization can give offers
and discount to the customers on their preferred services (Gil-Gomez and et.al., 2020).
These channels can be used to communicate the offers and discount to the customers
which increases the chances of them availing the services of Hilton.
Role of media platform in creating awareness for products and services
There are different media platforms which are used by a business to continuously market the
product and services to the customers. These channels create awareness about the services
offered by the firm and helps in attracting them. Media platforms helps the organization to reach
the customers that are residing far from the location of the hotels very easily (Soltani and et.al.,
2018). Some media platforms that helps in creating the awareness are explained below:
 Email marketing: this is one of the perfect channel for marketing the services of Hilton to
its customers residing in different parts of the world. This is a direct marketing channel
from which the awareness regarding the offerings of the firm.
 Social media marketing (SMM): for reaching the customers and prospects this is the
channel availed by business. It is one of the most viable platform by which the

information regarding the services of the organization can be conveyed easily to a large
scale.
 Affiliate marketing: this is a type of advertising model where an organization ties up with
third party dealers to generate leads or create a traffic that can increase the awareness for
the products and services of the organization (Meena and Sahu, 2021). Involvement of
third party dealers connects the services of the firm with large chain of customers.
Impact of digital content, speed and consistency on business
Digitalization in the industry provided a boost to the marketing departments which increased the
effeminacy of the business operation in many ways. Use of such technologies help organization
to maintain consistent interaction with the prospects and customers that helps in acquiring more
customer loyalty. Some impacting factors of digital content, speed and consistency on Hilton is
discussed below:
 Generate leads: there are large number of people which uses the digital platforms
regularly. This makes these platforms more viable in extracting the information regarding
the preference of the customers. Such platforms can be used by the organization to
acknowledge the potential customers which could be targetted. This helps in generating
the leads for the growth of sales.
 Boost sales: due to the wider reach of the digital platforms it communicates the
information regarding the services of the firm to a larger aspect. This helps the
organization to focus on increasing the sales.
 Everyone’s online, so more people are seeing advertisement: internet usage is increasing
day by day, where everyone is somehow connected to the online platforms where the
organization can advertise its products and services (Juanamasta and et.al., 2019). It
provides a stage where the business can represent its offering effectively and attract the
customers.
Discussing effective customer experience management strategies that businesses use
Customer managing experience is the process of understanding the needs of the
customers and managing the plans to make the strategies that would further enable functional
efforts and maintain the culture that is customer oriented. It is practised to improve the

satisfaction, advocacy and loyalty among the customers (Manthiou, A. and Klaus,2022). The
main aim of managing the customer experience is to improve the experience of the customers
and their interaction with the brand.
There re different strategies that can be used in order to make the customer experience
effective. Following are the three strategies that are used by the business to enhance their
customer's experience:
Assessing the Market Needs Urgency – Urgency is used to evaluate the market to know how badly the customers are
in need of the services offered by the business. The need of the customers for hotels
during the holidays can be termed as urgency. Market size – it is termed as the number of people actively participating in acquiring the
services offered by the hotel. This is defined as the size of the market and can be used to
assess the market need. Cost of customer acquisition – it is the process which is defined as the ease to acquire a
new customer for the business. In order to attract new customer segment, cost to generate
sales and increase the profits should be evaluated. Uniqueness of the services – the uniqueness of the services offered by the hotel to
maintain the competitive edge can be used to assess the market needs. Further, the ease of
the competitors to copy the services can be discussed here.
 Speed of the market – The amount of time taken to start a business and help it develops
comes under this head. Time taken to increase the sales of the services by the hotel
business is taken into consideration to assess the needs of the market.
Experience Mapping Target market groups – The hotel businesses needs to understand the market that they
have to target in order to earn more profits. The needs of the audience need to be properly
assessed and can cater to their needs by carefully targeting the particular segment of the
consumers. Interview the best group – In order to get a proper feedback, the business should
interview their best customer group and get their feedbacks. This can help the business to
overcome any kind of deviations that hinders the way for its growth. It can also help to
take decisions in the future and improve its past mistakes (Torlak and et.al. 2019).

 Customer consideration – The main criteria here is to consider the customer needs and
addressing their key points. Some considerations are there about the customers which are
needed to be captured and take further actions.
 Details of every touch point – Touch point is considered as all the experiences which the
customers have with the brand from the starting to the very end. It is important to map I
order knowing exact experience of the customers and their satisfaction (Yang and et.al.
2020).
Touch point Analysis Pre stay – Pre stay can be considered as the time before the acquisition of the service by
the customers. It is not calculated in date or time but still considered important for the
business. During the stay – This is the time when the customer is currently acquiring the service
and using it. It is important to know this in order to manage the experience of the
customers.
 After stay – After stay is used by the business to know the experience of the customers.
The feedbacks derived by the customers can be considered over here and further the used
as an insight to offer a better experience for them in the future.
Explaining customer service management strategies in order to improve the customer
engagement
Customer service is termed as all the services offered to the customers to make their experience
better and good. It is important for the business to enhance their service providing techniques so
that customer satisfaction can be achieved. Following are the six customer service management
strategies that hotel business should use to improve customer engagement: Create a customer service vision – A customer service vision can be defined as the type
of service that the employees in the business are expecting to provide. The vision should
be clearly defined so that they get aware about the path they choose in order to achieve
the desired objective (Lee, 2020). Assess the customer needs – The business should know what the customer needs and
then plan the goals accordingly. They should target particular segment of groups and then
cater to the needs of the customers. This will help the business to grow as more and more
customers will get attracted and acquire its services.

 Hire the right employees – The employees who know how to achieve the goals of the
organization by working in their maximum efficiency are the greatest assets. It is
important for the business to hire such talents as the services provided by the employees
will result in the overall productivity of the business and ultimately increase the profits
and improve customer management as well. Set goals – The goals are needed to be set before planning for customer service
management. The goals should be pre determined as need to be clearly defined to the
employees which will provide them the idea about the task they need to perform. It helps
the management to calculate any kind of deviations in the business and further improve
the mistakes that has occurred throughout the process. Train on service skills - In order to provide the customers with the services needed to
increase the profits in the business, the employees need to be properly trained. It is not
easy to manage the customer service as it is requires a proper kind of talent which should
be developed among the existing employees. These skills can be developed among the
employees by organizing training programmes and make them understand the importance
of the customer service management in the organization (Ardito and et.al. 2018).
 Attend to negative reviews – Business should ask for feedbacks from the customers. The
feedbacks can be positive and negative. Positive feedbacks can be used as a motivation
for the business and further use them for future operations. However, the feedbacks can
be negatively which are important to be assessed by the business. They need to be
attended by the management as soon as possible because if avoided they can land the
business into serious trouble.
Explaining how customer service strategies meet the needs of the customers and business
standards
The business work in order to achieve the goals of the organization and earn enough
profits. Customers play an integral part in any business and it is important that their needs are
fulfilled. Businesses make certain standards which are important to be achieved and if any
deviations are found in that proper strategies are made to overcome those deviations. Certain
customer service strategies are made by the hospitality business to meet the needs of the
customers and the standards of the business. Some of them are setting goals, attending to