Planning Customer Experience Management: A Report for Expat Explore

This report provides a comprehensive analysis of customer experience management (CEM), focusing on Expat Explore Travel. It begins by highlighting the importance of understanding customer needs, preferences, and wants within the tourism industry, emphasizing how companies can foster customer loyalty, build trust, gain a competitive edge, and attract new customers. The report then explores factors that drive and influence customer engagement, such as privacy concerns, technological issues, and personal factors. A customer experience map is developed to visualize the customer journey, identifying touchpoints and opportunities for improvement. The role of digital technology, particularly Customer Relationship Management (CRM) systems, in managing customer experience is examined. Finally, the report outlines customer service strategies designed to meet customer needs and align with business standards within the travel sector, providing insights into how Expat Explore can enhance its service offerings and customer satisfaction. The report also discusses the role of digital technology in enhancing the customer experience.

PLANNING FOR
CUSTOMER EXPERIENCE
MANAGEMENT

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1..................................................................................................................................................1
P1 The value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target
customer groups...........................................................................................................................1
P2 The different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target
customer groups...........................................................................................................................2
LO2..................................................................................................................................................3
P3 A customer experience map for a selected service sector organisation..................................3
P4 The touch points create such opportunities throughout the customer experience..................5
LO3..................................................................................................................................................6
P5 Digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience within the service
sector organisation.......................................................................................................................6
LO4..................................................................................................................................................7
P6 Customer service strategies in a specific service sector context............................................7
P7 Customer service strategies create and develop the customer experience in a way that meet
the needs of the customer and the required business standards...................................................8
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................9
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................11

INTRODUCTION
Planning for consumer experience and management is related with plan for the
interaction between consumer and organisation over a period of time. The relationship between
them will determine experience of customer with particular business entity (Slack and Brandon-
Jones, 2018). Here in this assessment the Expat Explore travel will be taken for better understand
of this topic. This assessment will lay emphasis on importance of understanding needs,
preferences and wants of customer groups. Also, the drivers and influencers will be highlighted
for engagement of customers of different group of customers. Customer experiencing map for
identifying journey of customers will also be disclosed in this assessment. Also, the touch point
such opportunities will also be explain in the assessment for better understanding of customer's
journey. Customer Relationship Management system will also be explained along with critical
evaluation will be done for the company Expat Explore Travel. Customer service strategies will
also be highlighted in this report to develop and create experience of customers and to mitigate
needs of customers.
LO1
P1 The value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target
customer groups
In tourism industry, it is very important to track the needs, preferences and wants of
customer groups. As the industry renders services to various sets of customers. Therefore, it is
important for the service or tourism sector to be in line with the wants and needs of target
customer group.
The companies such as Expat Explore travel participates to know needs and wants of
customer groups by tracking likes and dislikes of guests arrived at their place. Also, they track
record of past hotel activities to give them experience of comfort.
It is important and valuable for companies in tourism industry to deal with wants,
preferences and needs of target customer group for many reasons, They are :
 To create loyalty among customers – The loyalty of customer could be attain by
gaining knowledge of wants, needs and preferences of customers arrived at hotel to stay
or to experience services (Hollebeek, Srivastavaand and Chen, 2019). By experiencing
comfort and excellent facilities consumers stay loyal to their brand which they like to
prevail in tourism industry.
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 To gain trust in Customers – The company which is prevailing in this industry build
trust among them as they feel safe and be in comfort zone by the services rendered to
them at Hotel. The trust will able to measure by customer repeat arrivals and also this
will enhance value of their brand by their word of mouth.
 To attain competitive advantage among rivalry – The companies in tourism industry
in order to gain competitive advantage among other rivalries enhance their activity for
gaining knowledge of consumer preferences and needs. Also, by gaining competitive
advantage they may able to create brand value to attract customers.
 To build strong relationship with customers – The customers build a strong
relationship with customers by gaining knowledge of personal needs and preferences of
every customers that arrive their hotel (Zheng, Xu, and Xie, 2019). The companies by
rendering personalized services create a strong relationship with their customers.
 To attract new set of customers – The attitude of customers towards hotel with best
personalized services increases with repeat arrival at their place. Also, customers shares
their experiences with peers, friends and family which attract new customers for the
tourism companies.
 To increase brand value in user generated content – The user generated contents are
in trend which attracts and enhance customers by creating excellent rating by
experiencing services through their blogs, videos and photos. This helps companies to
increase brand value among not only existing customers but also interested customers.
P2 The different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target
customer groups
Customer engagement is a communication between business entity with external
stakeholders by various correspondence channels. The consumers gets highly engaged buy and
promote more and also demonstrate loyalty up to highest. Consumer provide review and
feedback for contribution towards business entity (Udunuwara, Sanders, and Wilkins, 2016).
Different factors which influence or drive customer engagement Concern for privacy – The consumer engagement drives their concern for privacy. The
online behavior of consumers is analysed by marketers. Companies analyse the data by
contact with different centers for customer engagement data. They capture by emails,
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calls and even texts to train customer service. Therefore, the sensitivity of leaking data
hinders customers for engagement in Expat explore travel (Lee, Choy, and Leung, 2018). Issues related to technology – Technologies such as automated response technique
hinders consumer engagement toward business because the automated response does not
attract customers towards engagement in Expat explore travel which manual response
from agent of customer service does (Meyer, Helmholz, and Robra-Bissantz, 2018).
 Personal factors – These factors includes occupation, personality, age, etc affects
consumer engagement. Consumers who are interested in frequent traveling may only
contribute towards the businesses. Also, the old age people with not show their
engagement towards business of travel and tourism such as for Expat explore travel.
LO2
P3 A customer experience map for a selected service sector organisation
Customer experience map organizes and identifies encounter customers with brand and
the company. These interactions with customers are referred as touch points (Varajão, Colomo-
Palacios and Silva, 2017). This is one of the best method for analysing and understanding
interaction of customers with company and also identifies opportunities for improvement by
experience of customer's. This map provides framework which can set on a path to increase
satisfaction among customer's, retention, loyalty and increase in profit.
By this map, interaction of customer with the company and uncover opportunities will be
evaluated. The touch points in this map will be disclosed after this relationship point will be
disclosed by gathering, selecting and considering all the related data available for touch points.
After this reason for touch points will be discussed like lack of knowledge, receive payment, etc
(Meyer, Helmholz, and Robra-Bissantz, 2018). Then comes impact of customers which
measures by loyalty, repeat arrivals, etc. After that person responsible for touch point will
highlighted. After this, effectiveness and measures to overcome these touch points will be
addressed.
Step 1 Defining the personally
The Persona helps in understanding and analysing and determining the actual targeted and
potential customers of the company.
Step 2 Defining customers phases
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It refers to analysing and evaluating the specific stage of journey at which the customers are
actually experiencing the services of customers (Udunuwara, Sanders, and Wilkins, 2016). With
the help of it, the Expat Explore travel shall be able to develop effective strategies through
which it can improve the experience of its customers.
Step 3 Tour detail
The customers were not informed in detail about the guidelines of the service as well as the
terms and conditions of the package. The customers were also not given the information
regarding the prices of the packages as well.
Step 4 Research on customer experience
The research was based on the reviews posted by the customers online and also through the
feedback form and customer complaints.
Step 5 Points of friction
After making complete analysis it can be understood that the customers were unsatisfied due to
lack of details provided to them and also they were unaware about various terms and conditions
of the package (Hollebeek, Srivastavaand and Chen, 2019).
Step 6 Resolution
The problem was resolved by explaining the customer about the travel packages and various
other services. The detailed information on websites and also through the emails will be provided
to the customers during the purchase of the package.
Step 1 Step 2 Step 3 Step 4 Step 5
Feelin
g
No way of
comparison
Complicated
process of
booking
A planning
check list
Unhappy by
the being
persuaded by
expensive
purchasing
Feeling of
delight when
receive album
Touch
point
Tour detail
Tour booking
page
Booking page of
tour
Company apps
Detail page of
ticket
Detail page of
tour
Tour guide Album of
photos
Action With the help The reviews Full Complete The
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of customer
journey map,
the Expat
Explore travel
shall be able
to analyse the
needs of
customers and
develop
company's
goals,
motivation
and major
tasks of the
company so
as to improve
the experience
of customers.
posted by the
customers
online and also
through the
feedback form
and customer
complaints.
information
regarding
package and
tour destination
to be covered in
the time frame
to customers.
analysis it can
be understood
that the
customers were
unsatisfied due
to lack of
details
provided to
them and also
they were
unaware about
various terms
and conditions
explanation to
the customer
about the
travel
packages and
various other
services.
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P4 The touch points create such opportunities throughout the customer experience
The opportunity for Expat Explore travel is that they could access their customers by
availing them facility of flight booking and make them alert so that they could not able to miss it
(Rather, Sharma, and Itoo, 2018). The company make plan for whole journey and whole set of
detail expose to them for better and strong interaction as stated in one of the touch points of
customer experiencing map that they are facing lack of detailed plans while their journey
(Hollebeek, Srivastavaand and Chen, 2019).
This is also an opportunity for the company Expat Explore travel that they could able to
avail facilities of good internet connection with their customer's so that they can able to use their
social media account and can access facility of internet anytime they want. This is a touch point
of company that their customer's are not found socially active during their journey (Venkatesan,
Petersen, and Guissoni, 2018). The experience of journey along with social networking sites will
be find very enjoyable for the customers. Also, this will increase their customer attraction. In
addition to, customer's also able to execute user generated content which enhance brand
reputation of the tourism company that is Expat Explore travel (Rahimi, Møller, and Hvam,
2016).
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Figure 1 : Customer experience map
(Source : Customer experience map, 2018)

LO3
P5 Digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience within the service
sector organisation
Customer relationship management system is an application which helps an organisation
to determine the preferences and needs of customers by organising, managing, storing and
tracking all interaction with customers (Wang, So and Sparks, 2017).
Customer relationship management uses advance technology which replaces the hand
written and manual preparation of documentation that is used in past. This system allows the
users to make document of almost everything which begins from simple information of contract
to important conversations with consumers.
The system of consumer relationship management is important as well as valuable
because information they provide could aid towards businesses of Expat Explore travel in
achieving their business goals (Sørensen, and Jensen, 2015). This system provides central
documentation location for the company such as, Expat Explore travel by allowing employees
across various departments can access to same information.
There are many software for customer relationship management which can be use by
Expat Explore travel in managing their business operations and to enhance the relationship
quality between business and customer. Software like Zoho Customer Relationship Management
can be used by Expat Explore travel for gathering and generate insights (Hollebeek,
Srivastavaand and Chen, 2019). Also, by using this software the company may able to stay in
touch with seamless experience of customer. HubSpot Customer Relationship Management is
also used by the company Expat Explore travel to inbound sales and marketing. This software
aims for search engine optimization, content management and social media marketing (Slack
and Brandon-Jones, 2018). The use of these software may able to conduct functions effectively
and efficiently.
The customer relationship management system is beneficial for the companies. The benefits of
this system will be expressed as :
 This software manages contact information with customers. Also, organizes interaction
with customers in central location for the company (Hollebeek, Srivastavaand and Chen,
2019).
 This system provides instant metric and manage service requests of customers.
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 Also, the system is able to track trends of tourism and travel industry. This system is able
to track habbit of customers, preferences as well as actions.
 This system is able to make experiences of customer by personalized it.
However the costumer relationship management has certain disadvantages too. These limitations
will be highlighted as :
 The companies use remote connections of internet to save records of customers. This is a
limitation for the company by using Customer relationship management system that it
does not have any control on data and company is not able to retrieve record.
 The another limitation of using Customer Relationship Management system is the cost of
overhead is associated with running software. The company Expat Explore travel need to
pay system administrators, software developers and people who maintains which keep the
software running.
 The use of this Customer Relationship Management system will increase issue of
training. The company need to train or hire professionals who are already trained to use
this system. This needs time and cost to attain a long term productivity (Meyer,
Helmholz, and Robra-Bissantz, 2018).
For Expat Explore travel the system of Customer Relationship Management can be use
by the company to build strong relationship with their customers to retain them with the
company. Therefore, by looking at pros and cons of the Customer Relationship Management it
has been analysed that the company should use this system to build strong relationship with their
customers.
LO4
P6 Customer service strategies in a specific service sector context Seek to customer feedback – The company use strategy of feedback from customers.
Consumers can avail feedback for Expat Explore Travel through telephone survey, email
and user – generated content, etc. The customer let the company know about their
experience by these sources (Kandampully, Zhang and Bilgihan, 2015). Also, they avail
certain suggestion regarding improvement for the company Expat Explore travel. By
using strategy of feedback in travel and tourism company like Expat Explore travel. The
company able to establish trust and prevent the company to resolve issues.
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 Strengthen customer service team – The customer service build strong relationship with
customers. Therefore, the company Expat Explore Travel hire people and train them with
appropriate set of skills. They train them with good communication skills to attract
customers. The representatives of customer service have knowledge of services rendered
by their company in order to clarify customers arrive for the services of Expat Explore
travel (Acosta, and Gujarathi, Citrix Systems Inc, 2019). Use Customer Relationship Management – Businesses can use the strategy of Customer
Relationship Management system to build strong relationship with customers of Expat
Explore Travel. HubSpot Customer Relationship Management software and Zoho
Customer Relationship Management software can be used as a tool for effective customer
relationship management in the company (Meyer, Helmholz, and Robra-Bissantz, 2018).
The Customer Relationship Management system is useful for proper interaction with
customers and to improve customer satisfaction. Also, this system enables the company
to access their customers from the place of their comfort. Leverage Multi – channel Servicing – The Expat Explore Travel manage multi channel
to render service to customers to boost reputation and credibility of brand. Strategy of
multi channel servicing is done for customers so that they can access through their mobile
devices, official site of the company or by social media channel (Aldaihani and Ali,
2018). The company is able to develop their brand reputation by encouraging this service
of multi channel servicing to their customers. This strategy is beneficial for the company
to gain competitive advantage among other rivalry.
P7 Customer service strategies create and develop the customer experience in a way that meet
the needs of the customer and the required business standards
The company Expat Explore Travel use many strategies to develop experience of their
customers in order to meed their expectation and business standards. The Expat Explore Travel
attract numerous customers towards them by application of these strategies efficiently. Also, the
company uses these strategies to attain competitive advantage and to retain existing customers
(Kandampully, Zhang and Bilgihan, 2015). The company analyse the requirements, needs, wants
and preferences of the customers arrive to experience their services. They also offer them
personalized services in order to attain growth and attraction of more customers towards them.
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The Expat Explore Travel their strengthen customer service team to motivate and train
the representatives of customer service regarding their activities to perform efficiently and
effectively. The company also renders them service of development program to enhance their
knowledge so that they may able to present well in front of customers. Also, the company Expat
Explore Travel manages to improve communication skills to attract customers.
The company also seek towards the feedback of the customers through emails, user
generated content and on phone calls (Kannan, Singh and SRI, 7 Customer Inc, 2016). The Expat
Explore Travel using these strategy able to make improvement by considering to
recommendations of customers.
Strategy of multi channel servicing is also adopted by the company Expat Explore
Travel. The company is managing different channels such as through mobile phone, official site,
etc. Also, Expat Explore Travel is gaining success by adopting to this strategy.
The CRM tool use by Expat Explore Travel for creating a strong relationship with
customers. Also, the company is able to attain competitive advantage which helps them to gain
an identical position in front of their rivalries (Meyer, Helmholz, and Robra-Bissantz, 2018).
Recommendation
The company Expat Explore Travel can analyse needs of their customers by making
research of their past records. This strategy help them in improving relationship with customers.
Also, they can search for the factors which can affect expectations of customers in order
to enhance customer satisfaction (Hollebeek, Srivastavaand and Chen, 2019).
The company Expat Explore Travel can avail a handling mechanism of services for
readdress grievance of customers. By setting of this mechanism the company may able to
generate satisfaction among customers.
CONCLUSION
This assessment was all about planning for consumer experience and management. It has
been covered in this assessment about importance of needs and expectation of customers for
tourism and travel industry. Also, the engagement of customers for the company was also
explained in this assessment along with the driving forces of the customer engagement was
covered. The customer experience map was disclosed in this report along with touch points of
such opportunities which prevails in this assessment. This assessment also consist of evaluation
of Customer Relationship Management system and pros and cons of Customer Relationship
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