Planning for Customer Experience Management: Whitbread PLC Case Study

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Planning for Customer Experience Management
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Table of Contents
Introduction....................................................................................................................................3
LO1................................................................................................................................................4
LO2................................................................................................................................................8
LO3..............................................................................................................................................12
LO4..............................................................................................................................................13
Conclusion...................................................................................................................................14
Reference List..............................................................................................................................15
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Introduction
Customer experiences and the management of the same is one among the vital aspects that
are required significantly considered by every travel and tourism organisation within the
common business of hospitality. Managing and supporting the respective purposes of customer
journey allows the organisations to know needs and preferences of their target customer that
shall in turn aid profitability within their respective businesses. The particular study shall
undertake aspects that will explain and evaluate possible requirements for customer experience
management in context to Whitbread PLC, UK.
Whitbread PLC, UK was founded in the year 1742 that depicts the organisation has immense
amount of experience in travel and tourism business and currently competes with other high
standards hotel service organisation in UK (whitbread.co.uk, 2019). It was founded by Samuel
Whitbread, which is currently being operated under the supervision of Richard Baker and Alison
Brittain.
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LO1
P1 Explain the value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences
of target customer groups for the hospitality industry
Target customer groups that are attracted by the travel and tourism organisations within the
hospitality industry are the tourists. Travel and tourism is one of the major sectors within the
particular industry that exists in the UK. There are various types and categories of tourists all
across the globe that have one common attribute, which is to roam in various regions away from
their home nations to other national and international destinations. It is their respective purposes
that differentiate and divides the entire set of target set of customers for the hospitality industry.
In order to understand the needs and preferences of target customers of hospitality industry of
the UK, separate evaluation of needs and preferences as well as value and significance of each
of the categories of tourists need to be depicted. The travel and tourism sector within the
national boundaries of UK includes majorly the listed categories of target customers:
Solo Travellers
These types of travellers are often categorised to have wanderlust intentions to travel paces and
destinations. One among the major attributes of solo travellers is to explore new things and
scenic elements in destinations that they have witnessed or rather plan to do. The particular
target customer group certainly has much value and significance in travel and tourism sector in
the UK as compared to others (Banerjee and Chua, 2016). The organisations within the
hospitality industry of UK requires to prioritise their need to travel and explore things in solitude,
as they plan their purpose and timeframe of tourism in particular seasons and other profitable
schedules for tourism industry of the UK.
Business Travellers
The particular customer groups within the hospitality industry within UK have their unique
attribute that differentiates the same from others. The purpose of the particular set of tourists is
to roam to attractive places rather formal destinations to undertake business meetings and
foundations. These types of tourists are in large quantities all across the globe, as the particular
era belongs more towards entrepreneurship (Boniface et al., 2016). This depicts that these
customer segments within the travel and tourism industry of the UK certainly have much of
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significance that shall become the endeavouring reason for profitability in respective businesses
within hospitality industry.
Educational tourists
The particular target customer segment includes students, teachers, and other educational
professionals that roam within various destinations to seek knowledge and paramount the same
in their educational careers. In order to meet with the demands and preferences of the same,
the travel and tourism sector requires providing specific offers upon various facilities available in
destinations such as museums, libraries and others. The particular tourist segments certainly
have immense importance within the hospitality sector throughout every season, as schools,
institutions, and universities forecast their educational responsibilities for the enrichment of
knowledge through extra curriculum leisure activities (Prebežac et al., 2016).
Couples and married travellers
These tourists are among those target customer segments within the travel and tourism sector
that demands to witness exotic destinations in order to spent and record some beautiful
moments of their lives within their partners. Successfully Meeting with their demands and
preferences shall provide any of the organisations within the hospitality industry to reach a
recognisable position in terms of popularity and profitability (Rojas-de-Gracia et al., 2018). Thus,
the value and importance of the demands of married people or rather couples travelling together
in destinations is unique on its own and achievable on satisfying the needs and preferences of
the same.
Culture and heritage travellers
There are numerous amounts of cultural and heritage destinations all across the globe that are
frequently visited by tourists at the seasonality as well as throughout the year. Target customer
groups respect prioritises rich cultural and ethnicity of those destinations, which is their sole
purpose to visit the same. The organisations within the hospitality sector of UK requires to
research upon cultural and heritage implications of target population, so that the destinations
are shaped as per the requirements of services required at the time and place of their arrival.
The particular activity shall generate valuable services with which the travel and tourism
organisation shall be able to meet their significant purpose of customer’s satisfaction for
increasing the scope of the profitability within respective businesses (McCormick, 2016).
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P2 Explore the different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of
different target customer groups within a service sector organisation
Customer engagement within the travel and tourism sector of UK and specifically within
Whitbread PLC, UK is determined to be the reason for bringing in the aspects with which the
same shall be able to provide excellent and satisfactory services to the target customer groups
and promote effective tourism within the UK. Customer engagement allows the organisation to
understand the implications of the tourists and tools for doing the same provide effective
handling of services that develop effective organisational productivity. Some of the major factors
that influence customer engagement, in context to Whitbread PLC, UK are specified as follows:
Global Economy
The national GDP of UK is said to be backed with high and medium income group populations.
Tourism within the national premises of UK is thus considered leisurely aspects where the target
customers are able to relax and entertain themselves effectively due to the presence of high
global economy (Pansari and Kumar, 2017). Therefore, it can be said that monthly expenditure
and savings of an individual drives or rather influences the same towards booking services for
respective purpose of travelling.
Social Media and Internet tools
With the course of time and the particular era of modernisation, communication and interactions
among human being around the globe has become more diversified with the introduction of
social media platforms and applications. Nowadays tourists prefer searching in social media
networks about various destinations that they wish to visit rather reading the same in printed
articles and newspapers. Posts uploaded in social media networks includes more amount of
information that are far more easy to access and review the same thus, influencing them to
engage with the tour operators for their journeys (de Oliveira et al., 2016).
Cravings to roam and relax
There are people within the national premises of the UK that are surrounded with busy work
schedules in their respective daily lives. They seek to travel destinations, so that relaxation
allows them to feel fresh and ready for their daily careers and activities. The urge to relax and
take a time away from their busy hectic schedules are also considered to be one of the major
aspects that drives in customer engagement for the travel and tourism organisations within UK.
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Individual purposes of tourism
It is obvious that tourists have their personal reasons for travelling to specific destinations.
Travelling around the destinations includes reasons and those are different in case of different
target customer groups as discussed in the above section of the study (Ashley and Tuten,
2015). The travel and tourism organisations such as Whitbread PLC do engage customers for
their respective products and services through analysing their needs and preferences to travel.
According to the target researches, they frame offers and incentives in order to increase the
scope of profitability by engaging maximum of customer segments.
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LO2
P3 Create a customer experience map for a selected service sector organisation
Every travel and tourism organisations within the national premises of UK has their individual
way to track and commence customer’s journey that differs in different destinations within the
nation. Whitbread PLC being one among the major hospitality organisation prioritises
customer’s needs and preferences that they target for their respective service deliveries. The
purpose of making customer journey maps is to gather every detail of tourists, so that the
particular organisation is able to understand what the major requirements of the customers are
during their individual journey or when they travel in groups (Rosenbaum et al., 2017). In order
to understand the relevant events during a particular customer journey, a customer experience
map is developed below in context to service deliveries of Whitbread PLC:
Figure 1: Customer experience map
(Source: created by the learner)
Customer journey in hospitality industry begin at the time when a particular tourist starts its
research the destinations that they same wishes to travel as per its requirements and purposes.
In the modern era, Social media networks are the major constraints that help tourists all across
the globe to view and collect information of various destinations to visit. The particular stage of
customer journey is regarded as Awareness where organisations such as Whitbread PLC
provides millions of explicit data and information regarding various attractive destinations within
UK in terms of locations, features of destinations, uniqueness and others. The particular
organisation either provide reliable information about attractive destinations in social media
networks or within its official websites that are again linked with social media platforms (Dove et
al., 2016). The second stage of customer experience for travel and tourism is Consideration
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where the tourists are bound to take decisions. This only happens if they are willing to visit
particular destination after they have made their minds and set aside prominent reasons to
travel. In the particular stage, Whitbread PLC often enhances their promotional activities, so that
they are able to reduce the aspects of customer retention, as they might be circumstances of
omitting the services of it.
The third stage of customer journey is Purchase where the tourists are found book
accommodation services and other necessities that they will be requiring at the time of their
journey. In order to hold the customer interests, Whitbread PLC often consider to provide
brochures about their offers and booking activities, so that the customers are attracted towards
genuine and productive brand image of the organisation. After the execution of the particular
stage, the journey begins where the target customer groups starts travelling to destinations for
which they have booked services from the particular company. During their journeys, they might
face difficulties, and here the fourth stage Retention, begins where the Whitbread PLC appoints
efficient business professionals that ensures the security of the target customers and high level
of satisfaction upon the services provided to them.
The business professionals in service take feedback from the customers regarding the quality
and convenience of services offered to them at time of their journeys, so that they are
accumulate large customer bases for their further journeys in that seasons as well as in the
future. This stage is the final step in making effective customer experiences and is termed as
Advocacy where the organisation with the help of managers and departmental staffs ensures
that the same as well as other new customer groups are able to book accommodation, food and
other hospitality services with least scope of turnover in the future.
P4 Discuss how the touch points create such opportunities throughout the customer
experience in your hospitality organisation
Touch points within the hospitality industry of UK includes areas that ensures organisations
such as Whitbread PLC to ensure effective customer retention and perseverance thought their
experiences in destinations where they have travelled to or shall do the same in the future. The
significance of customer touch points for the particular organisation is to provide a scope with
which they are able to make their service deliveries more effective and prominent (McColl-
Kennedy et al., 2015). Additionally, it can be said touch points allows increasing the
expectations of higher profitability within the business of the same, which is indeed a set of
opportunities that can aid their brand image within the hospitality market of UK.
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Figure 2: Customer touch points for Whitbread PLC, UK
(Source: Created by the learner)
Some of the major touch points for the travel and tourisms business for particular organisation
are listed as follows:
Email and phone calls: the particular activity undertaken by the organisation allows the same
to gather information associated with interests and preferences of the customers that are
looking forward to book services from the premises of Whitbread PLC.
Social media: the particular touch point allows the organisation to take explicit data regarding
the customer behaviours that aids the same to frame effective strategies for their service
deliveries. Communication through social media networks is more prominent and thus, is the
best touch points for the Whitbread PLC to gather enough opportunities to target customers in
huge amounts all across the globe (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016).
Interactive websites: Whitbread PLC has their own interactive website where they allow the
customers to book accommodation services and other as well that are in boundaries of the
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organisations. Interaction with the customers through websites generates opportunities to
increase the popularity of the brands of the organisation.
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LO3
P5 Examine how digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience
within the service sector organisation, providing specific examples of customer-
relationship management systems
Digital technologies and their deployment within the service sectors organisation has become a
trend with which the organisations are able to make their service offering more productive that
aids profits in their respective business. Travel and tourism organisations are equipping digital
technologies, so that they are able to engage customer with more effective means in order to
increase scope of profitability in their businesses. Customer relationship management is one
among the major innovative technology that is being widely used within the hospitality industry
all across the globe. Whitbread PLC, UK has the option to implement the same within its
organisational premises, which shall further allow the organisation to set up effective relations
with the target customers during the seasons of tourism within the national premises (Benthaus
et al., 2016). In order to implement CRM tools managing effective customer experiences of the
particular organisations, following steps and stages are required to be followed:
 One of the major functionalities of CRM tools and systems is to provide an effective
platform to the particular organisation to communicate effectively with each of the target
customer groups.
 The choice of CRM tools and systems are made within the organisational premises of
Whitbread PLC in context to reliability and security purposes, so that their approaches to
target customer groups are not kept explicit to other travel and tourism organisations that
are in competitive hospitality industry.
 The implementation of CRM tools and systems begins with the selection of customer
groups, setting up of priorities, tracking customer’s behaviours, continuous synchronising
with recorded data and final evaluation of effective customer relations that has been
achieved so far (Willemsen et al., 2015).
 Additionally, the particular organisation can manage effective customer relations by
deploying new changes and effective systems upgrades, as the CRM tools and systems
are upgraded at times with new features that shall aid the same in long run.
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