Assessment 2: Customer Experience and Digital Technology at Ritz Hotel

This report analyzes the customer experience at the Ritz Hotel, a luxury hotel in London, focusing on market segmentation, consumer behavior, and the impact of digital technology. It explores how the hotel employs digital tools for customer relationship management (CRM), including online marketing, smartphone applications, and CRM systems to manage customer interactions, track leads, and automate sales. The report details specific customer service strategies in the hospitality sector, such as employee training in customer empathy and building interactive infrastructure. It examines the importance of addressing customer issues promptly and delivering on promises to build trust and loyalty. The report also covers the application of digital technology, including social media marketing, email marketing, and pay-per-click advertising, to increase productivity and profitability. Additionally, it addresses the critical role of assessing market needs and adapting services to meet customer expectations, emphasizing the importance of providing a unique customer experience.

Assessment 2

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
LO1 .................................................................................................................................................1
P1 Needs, wants and preference of target group customer..........................................................1
P2 factors that affect engagement of customer............................................................................1
LO2 .................................................................................................................................................1
P3 Customer experience map ......................................................................................................1
P4 Touchpoints that is needed to improve customer experience.................................................1
LO3 .................................................................................................................................................1
P5 Discuss that how digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience
within the Ritz hotel and providing the example of customer relationship management............1
LO4..................................................................................................................................................3
P6 Describe the specific example of customer service strategies in the hospitality sector.........3
P7 Describe that how the customer service strategies develop as per the experience in such
way to meet the need and requirement of customer or its standards. .........................................4
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................5
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................6

INTRODUCTION
Market segmentation refers to the approach in which market is divided into different
segments based on the taste and preference of the customer that shared same characteristics. This
approach help in identifying the needs and wants of the customer. Different group of market
requires different program based on price, place, product and promotion of the product.
Present study is based on Ritz Hotel, London. It is a 5-star hotel that provide luxury
services to high society people and the best known hotel in the country.
This report focuses on needs and expectations of market segment, attitude and consumer
behaviour towards the brand loyalty and trust. It also includes customer experience that will help
in creating opportunities for the future. Furthermore, it will include impact of digital technology
on the customer relationship management and its types. It also includes effective customer
experience management that helps in maximising customer engagement.
LO1
P1 Needs, wants and preference of target group customer
Covered in ppt
P2 factors that affect engagement of customer
Covered in ppt
LO2
P3 Customer experience map
Covered in ppt
P4 Touchpoints that is needed to improve customer experience
Covered in ppt
LO3
P5 Discuss that how digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience within
the Ritz hotel and providing the example of customer relationship management.
Digital technology is a concept that essential for organization to that deals with the creation
and practical use of digital or computerised devices. In Ritz Hotel, Consumer interaction is the
forefront technology as e-commerce and advanced method to make purchasing easier through
website. Nowadays, many online purchases can be made from the smartphones because customer
easily compare the price, find proper location and other outlets (Ardolino and et.al., 2018).
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Online marketing is also another concept for business to build strong image of brand in
marketplace. Technology has evolved the better quality of product and services. In this way,
digital technology has a big impact on the Ritz Hotel to increase the popularity and many
customers can reach anywhere by using application.
It has increased the standard of customer service through digital technology, enterprise
can instantly response to the people request such as refunds, confirm booking, product inquiry
and so on. Ritz hotel no has smartphone application for customer that can properly manage their
facilities and services but also put the direct communication with some at the business assistance.
Digital transformation is important need of Ritz hotel that offers to enhance the consumer
experience but it enables them to increase more revenue in global marketplace. Even through
digital technology generally take place to include customer experience, operational process and
business model etc. They are mainly focused on enhancement of customer experience. In this
way, digital technology is created the customer experience rather than enhance the better way to
deliver the goods and services. Ritz Hotel is mainly engaged with the potential customer to
improve the relationship between them (Bocken and et.al., 2016). For Example- The blend use of
technology to deliver improved the consumer experience. The primary goal of Ritz hotel to
interact with the people through online medium and develop loyalty between them. Digital
technologies have come in global market to make it easy for enterprise in terms of customer
services.
Customer relationship management is an advancement of new technology that help to
store and collect the information of consumers. It covers the set of applications that designed to
help the Ritz Hotel for managing and controlling the business process in proper manner. It is
performing the different task such as customer interaction, track leads, automated sale and
customer supports etc. These are main important operations performed by customer relationship
management to identify the necessary details. For Example- In Wells Fargo, it can be used the
CRM system to keep track all the information of money in proper manner. As per firm,
Customer service is going to the most important part of business for managing their experience
related services.
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There are different types of Customer relationship management system such as operational,
analytical and collaborative etc.
 Operational – it generally refers to the service that can allows the business to understand
the need and requirement of customer. It provides the support the overall business
operations and functions.
 Analytical- it is basically systematic process that analyse the information of consumers
such as contact number, behaviour of online and offline etc.
 Collaborative- it has been collaborated with the other department such as technical
support, marketing etc. it helps to interact with the consumers to provide information of
product.
Features of CRM system
 Customer need – it is the most common features where they can store all information
about the products and its services. They can provide the details on the basis of their
interest.
 Customer service- it is the provision of service to the client during the purchased. It is
successful perception of interact with the employees.
 Customer response- they are responding on particular services by organization to identify
the queries and activities of client.
 Customer retention- it help to the business when retain as many clients as soon possible
and also maintain the brand loyalty or trust.
Digital technology:
Digital technology is important part for building an effective relationship with the client
because it helps to direct coordinate and find out their specific need through Email, messages,
website and other platform. Digital technology will help to share the information and offers
variety of product details to the consumers.
a) Customer relationship management is based on the digital technology that can easily
maintain and control the information of consumers. They also providing the positive and
negative feedback of client as per their experience.
b) CRM system can help for building the strong relation with the customer and also identify
their need and requirements.
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c) CRM system will give the opportunities for customer when they can easily access the
information through website. In this way, CRM system will record all their positive and
negative review towards the products.
d) CRM system will beneficial for sending message to the customer through digital
technology because there are various types of distributed channel that help for promoting
their services and products. It helps for targeting the potential consumer to give the
information about new products.
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Social media platform
 Email Marketing- it is performed the operations to send the commercial based messages
to the group of people by using email. It is also considered as email marketing to promote
their products and services.
 Pay per clicking- it is also another advertising model that can use to drive the traffic on
website. It is typically useful for advertise their website through one click.
 Social media marketing- It is the form of internet marketing that support to create and
share the content by using social media.
 Display advertising- It is a type of advertisement platform that help for promoting the
services by using display images, audio, video and other types of messages.
Factors:
Digital technology is mainly impacts on the business to increase the productivity and
profitability.
 It is also important concept to maintain the speed and consistency of business to generate
more leads that directly impact on growth and development.
Digital content and speed impact on business
 Generate lead: A digital content must be increased the speed and efficiency of business
because there are large number of people attracted towards their interactive contents.
 There are many people use the online method for seeing the adverstiment of product and
services. It is the most efficient for easily access the information and check all details.
Many people prefer to buy the product through online website. In this way, it directly
impacts on the business of increasing productivity and profitability in marketplace.
 It also useful for boosting the sales due to online advertisement.
 Digital content has providing the faster services and information about the particular item
those who will be launching in marketplace.
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LO4
P6 Describe the specific example of customer service strategies in the hospitality sector.
A customer service strategies are based on the planning phase where the enterprise relies
on the consumer satisfaction. It helps to build an effective relationship between the customer and
employers. Ritz hotel is making an effective customer services strategies that support the entire
business operations and functions (Cheung and Baum, 2018).
To improve the customer experience which need to be created an effective team that
perform the specific role and providing the better quality of services according to their needs.
There are some common strategies required that can implement in the Ritz Hotel.
Training to employee in the customer empathy
Training is also essential for employee where they can improve the quality of skill and
easily understand the need or requirement of customers. In Ritz hotel, Staff members are
interacted with the customer to exchange the information about the hotel and their services. In
this way, it has required to improve the skill of employee so that they can share details and try to
reduce the frustration level of consumer. This type of strategy applicable in the hospitality sector
because many peoples are demanding a lot of new things so that this strategy will help for
employee understand their requirement and provide facilities as per needs.
Build infrastructure that support customer service
It is main part of Ritz hotel to build the interactive infrastructure so that customer feels
free to understand the policies and procedures (Don and Sivakumar, 2017). In Ritz Hotel,
Manager is planning to make strategy for incorporating the support ticket software that help to
understand the base knowledge of website. Many peoples are looking up to track the number and
frequently ask the question related services. In this way, this type of strategy will help to provide
facility where customer was putting less efforts to select the customer care centre.
Solve the issues of customer
Ritz Hotel is identifying the issue and problem of customer regarding the hotel services,
online booking, discounts and so on. In this way, the hotel is planning strategy for improve the
contact resolution between management and people. It ensures that handles call take full
responsibility to resolve problem. It is also offering the live chat option on the website that allow
to develop collaboration between them (Labenz, 2019). In case, experience agent can effectively
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give the answer of people and also ensure to review the history of customer with the hotel in past
calls, issues.
Deliver the promises
It is the most important for Ritz hotel to check the availability of package that arrive on
time and works as the intended reinforces of consumer trust. Customer do not want promise but
they also want better facilities according to their expectation.
 Assessing Market needs- The size of market must be finds the overall market potential
that can multiply with the number of target consumer through the rate of penetration. It
must be identifying the requirement which always checking after adding some related
needs of services. Urgency has been required for market need because it should be
analysed the overall market size and provide the services as per their demand. The
product must unique if they are demanding towards the customers. Market speed depends
on the customer experience because many client has changing their choices.
 Experience Mapping- it is basically generalised the concept of client journey which
across the type of users and its demands. It can be visualised the end to end experience
that can form in the generic ways. It is an essential for business to understand the market
target group because it supports the overall production and sales. In this way, it has
required to capture the demand of customers.
 Touch point analysis- This type of approach will help for organization to improve the
customer experience in different the business process. It must be conducting the
consumer satisfaction which are not enough. Pre purchase is the important to understand
the product quality before purchasing in global marketplace. In Ritz hotel, customer
always check the services and products quality before stay in the hotel. They also check
the experience of other people those who has shown their own review through online
platform and website. In this way, touch point analysis is an essential for customer to
analyse all the things before purchase and select the best services.
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P7 Describe that how the customer service strategies develop as per the experience in such way
to meet the need and requirement of customer or its standards.
Customer service strategies are developed to meet the specific requirement and standards
of consumers. Sometimes, it is very difficult task to meet all criteria so that it has required to
coordinate and interact with the people by using different online platform or tools. Many
consumers are constantly move across the various type of platform (Mak and Chang, 2019). For
Example- As per survey, it has found that 80 percent people want to switch between online
search and other video for identifying the product quality. In Ritz Hotel, Employee should
incorporate the expectation of consumer with the specific goals. Services strategies are those
who incorporate into the team goals to ensure the business reach at destination. To meet the real
consumer expectations when brand has been created seamless past experience across the
different distributed channels. There are different ways to develop the customer service strategies
to meet the requirement of customer standards.
Create a customer service Vision
This is considered as the initial step to build strategy for customer service that encourage
communicate by reaching the expectations and preferences of the customer. Here the Ritz hotel
management focused on keeping the hygiene and reception aspects proper by giving training to
enhance the reputation.
Assess the customer needs
Here, the organization are sometimes unable to evaluate all the essential resources and
fail in gaining insights about creating valuable services in accordance to the customers' needs and
requirements (Pansari and Kumar, 2017). For instance, the Ritz hotel gives feedback forms and
ask reviews regarding the services to improve and maintain the value and brand image in the
marketplaces.
Hire the right employees
Hiring is another process of Ritz Hotel to identify the efficient people so that they can
easily handle the business complication in proper manner (Shan, 2017). It is based on the HR
understanding about customer service strategy to ensure recruiting skilled employee to support
the environment of consumer service in global marketplace.
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Set goals for customer service
Setting goals assist in reaching the customer expectations to measure the requirement to
set up the and specific goals and objectives of the organization. It helps the business to achieve
the consumer satisfaction in effective manner. For e.g. Ritz Hotel has organised regular weekly
meetings to take feedback for better interaction and transparency among staff. For this, the Staff
member need to understand that what is targeted and how can implement new idea for achieving
the corporate goals.
Train on service skills
The negative touchdown is the customer satisfaction which shed light on the overall
productivity and must be achievable by giving proper services. For this, the Ritz hotel employees
must be given training and orientation programs on regular basis to avoid any mis-
communication and confusion while giving services to their guests and customers.
Attend to negative reviews
This part is integral for knowing the weaknesses and other challenges while handling the
consumers of the chosen hotel, Ritz Hotel. Negative comments are constructive in overcoming
the flaws and improve the existing system to gain the attention of the customers.
CONCLUSION
As per discussion, it concluded that Market segmentation is based on the approach in
market that can divide into different manner according to the preferences of customers. This
report is mainly focused on the expectation of market segments, consumer behaviour and attitude
towards the brand. It also builds the effective relationship within organization. Furthermore, it
summarised that the customer experience always develops opportunities for future enhancement.
Moreover, Digital technology plays important role that impact on the customer experience and
management system. It helps to increase the customer engagement between management system
of business. it is developing the customer service strategies that support to fulfil the need and
requirement of customer.
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REFERENCES
Book and Journals
Ardolino, M. and et.al., 2018. The role of digital technologies for the service transformation of
industrial companies. International Journal of Production Research. 56(6). pp.2116-
2132.
Bocken, N.M. and et.al., 2016. Product design and business model strategies for a circular
economy. Journal of Industrial and Production Engineering. 33(5). pp.308-320.
Cheung, C. and Baum, T., 2018. How to develop hotel brand internalization among hotel
employees. In Handbook of Human Resource Management in the Tourism and
Hospitality Industries. Edward Elgar Publishing.
Dong, B. and Sivakumar, K., 2017. Customer participation in services: domain, scope, and
boundaries. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 45(6). pp.944-965.
Labenz, F., 2019. How to create successful customer experiences?: an empirical investigation of
drivers and outcomes and the development of a practical-oriented measurement
concept (Doctoral dissertation, Hannover: Institutionelles Repositorium der Leibniz
Universität Hannover).
Mak, A.H. and Chang, R.C., 2019. The driving and restraining forces for environmental strategy
adoption in the hotel Industry: A force field analysis approach. Tourism Management, 73,
pp.48-60.
Pansari, A. and Kumar, V., 2017. Customer engagement: the construct, antecedents, and
consequences. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. 45(3). pp.294-311.
Shan, H., 2017. A consumer-based brand equity model for the luxury and upscale hotel sector.
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