Analysis of Customer Experience Strategies in Hospitality Sector

This report examines customer experience management within the hospitality sector, specifically using Intercontinental Hotel as a case study. It analyzes the role of digital technologies, such as Zoho CRM and HubSpot CRM, in enhancing customer experience and building customer relationships. The report delves into various customer service strategies, including development and training sessions and the enhancement of emotional intelligence, and how these strategies contribute to customer loyalty and satisfaction. The study emphasizes the importance of adapting to customer needs and preferences through market analysis and the effective use of digital tools. It highlights the significance of staff training and awareness in delivering superior customer service and building a positive brand image. The conclusion underscores the essential nature of managing customer experience to ensure long-term sustainability and competitive advantage in the market.

Managing the
Customer Experience

Table of Contents
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................3
TASK 3............................................................................................................................................3
P5 Analyse how Digital Technology assist in managing Customer Experience. ..................3
TASK 4............................................................................................................................................4
P6 Elaboration of customer service strategies........................................................................4
P7 Customer service strategies builds & develop customer experience................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................6
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................8

INTRODUCTION
The term, managing customer experience can be defined as how a business firm basically
interacts with consumers. In this competitive world, it is important for every organisation to
mange customer experience so that their existence remains in market for longer time period. By
the assistance of this, a company is able to raise their market share and profitability level (Ali,
and et. al., 2018). With this, it helps in gaining competitive advantage and compete with their
rivals effectively. In present report, Intercontinental hotel has been taken into consideration
which is a British multinational hospitality company, dealing within the hospitality sector.
Denham, Buckinghamshire, England is the place where organisation has it's headquarter. In this
report consist of needs and expectations of market segment in the service industry. This report is
going to be enclosed with digital technology builds good customer experience. Including this,
assignment has also given a good discussion in relation to number of customer strategies that has
also enhanced number of elements like profitability level, sales and so on of the organisation.
Later, it covers how service strategies builds customer experience and meet with their
requirements as well.
TASK 3
P5 Analyse how Digital Technology assist in managing Customer Experience.
In order to remain competitive at marketplace or to increase the customer base, it is
essential for an organisation to use innovative technologies at workplace. Adoption of digital
technologies at workplace raise the chance of growth as well as development of company. In
present time, web designing can be considered as an advanced technology which helps a
business organisation to offer good quality services as well as products to customers and this
could effectively aid firm in maintaining sustainability as well (Cetin and Dincer, 2014). With
reference to hospitality (service) sector in which different business organisations like
Intercontinental Hotel is performing to gain competitive advantages then there are number of
customer relationship management system that are available within the market and these are
given underneath :
 Zoho CRM: This type of CRM System, basically aid the whole hospitality (service)
sector in engaging both leads along with the customers as well, which helps in gaining
insights about business and it also helps in building a scalable sales related process, and

grows the business in much more effective and in efficient manner. This is where the
technology which is utilised is directly linked with big data analytics. This specifically
utilised where a process takes place to analyse the complex situations. On the other hand,
it also aid hospitality sector to effectively perform number of operations in an optimised
way.
 HubSpot CRM: This type of software is specifically designed for hospitality (service)
sector where content management, inbound marketing, including search engine
optimization is specifically being performed. Including this, the technology that has been
taken into consideration is Chatbot, which is is being considered as an advanced
technology used by companies to interact with customer by messages, websites and many
more. This technology enhances as well as improve the customer experience (Goodman,
2019). By the assistance of Chatbot Technology, proper guidelines is given to customers
and their issues is solve easily as well as timely. With the help of this, hospitality
(service) sector would become able to deliver the best to the customers and built
appropriate relationship with them and this would aid firms under service sector in
sustaining within the market for a longer period of time.
TASK 4
P6 Elaboration of customer service strategies.
One of the main reason to develop effective strategies is to attract customers and to retain
them for longer time frame. Every company develops strategies with an aim to serve customers
effectively and to achieve their desired goals as well. An organisation sales and the profitability
totally depend on the strategies they build for satisfying and engaging customers. With this, most
of the companies mainly create strategies in order to make loyal customers who did not shift to
other alternative services & product (Hwang and Seo, 2016). In context to hospitality (service)
sector, the higher authorities works on gaining high footfall in the event and to increase their
sales of different services offered by them. For this, they build various strategies which is
mentioned below:
Development & Training sessions: The main feature of this type of strategy is that it helps
in finding out the basic needs of customers and based on that training is being given to staff (9
Characteristics of Top Employee Training Programs, 2019). The products as well as services can

provide effectively when the person serving is trained and have proper knowledge about it. It is
essential for every company within the hospitality (service) sector to provide training sessions to
their subordinates which helps them to evaluate behaviour & attitude of employees and then
improving it. With the help of these training sessions, the overall staff members get to know how to
behave in front of customers and how to solve their issues. With relation to hospitality (service)
sector, the top level management decides to organise training sessions so that workers can give
effective services and handle customer grievances effectively. In addition to this, it will enhance
the productivity of workers which in turns raise their performance level and leads to higher
profits of the whole service sector. In order to build positive image within the market, it is essential
for companies to give preference to customer problems and solve them rapidly. If their grievances is
solve easily it will raise the number of loyal customers which enhance the opportunity to gain
success earlier.
Enhancement of emotional intelligence: This is said to be another strategy that came in
front, which is utilised to attract customers and it consists with ample number of features like it
helps in enhancing the thinking capacity of the staff members and so on. Along with this, the
higher the emotional intelligence, the better hospitality (service) sector be at providing
exceptional customer service. High EQ gives or offers proper understanding and intelligence in
emotions and human psychology. In context to hospitality (service) sector, the management
system ensures that the communication takes place among the staff members and customers
should be effective and in defied manner. In addition to this, they emphasise more on solving
customer issues so that they feel valued and important while taking their services (Jain, Aagja
and Bagdare, 2017). Moreover, this will develops positive word of mouth and builds a good
image in the market.
P7 Customer service strategies builds & develop customer experience.
Basically, every single customer service strategy developed by a business organisation
considering the digital technology whether it is a training programme or an emotional intelligence
related programme. These aid in developing the customer experience and utilising the resources in
an optimised way as well. By the assistance of digital technologies, an organisation can manage
customer experience appropriately. Including this, if it is talked about Intercontinental hotel, the
higher authorities conduct market analysis in order to identify the taste & preferences of
customers so that thy can offer dishes in food event accordingly.

Development & Training sessions: Under this, the specific customer service strategy that
can be utilised by Intercontinental hotel is development & training sessions. With this,
Intercontinental hotel may become able to attract large number of customer and fulfil their needs
in an appropriate manner. This could be understood with a good example where, there is a shift
took place among customer's taste (fusion cooking based food). This is where, considering the
customer relationship management strategy i.e. Development & Training session would help
Intercontinental Hotel in delivering training to chef and subordinates related to fusion cooking so
that customer's needs could effectively be fulfilled within the specified time frame. Furthermore,
the higher authorities monitors and check the activities implement by their staff members with
their set measures so that improvements takes place before initialising of the event (Peppers and
Rogers, 2016). Along with this, it allows them to maintain healthy relationship with customers
and to build customers into the loyal ones.
Educate & Aware staff members: This is being considered as one of the most important
resource which leads an organisation to get success is its workforce or employees. It is also
important for an organisation to aware their subordinates about their operations and activities as it
assist them to serve effectively to the users. Giving them the proper guidelines leads to
improvement in the communication taken place among customers and staff members. With relation
to Intercontinental hotel, acquisition of this strategy generates interest of workers towards the
activities of international food event which directly impacts positively on their sales. With this,
increase in the productivity of staff members enhance the profitability level effectively.
Enhancement of emotional intelligence: Another crucial strategy that can be taken into
consideration by Intercontinental Hotel, where they could relate to number of elements that are
linking with emotions of customers and so on. This could be understood with a good example,
where there is a no pollution campaign is going on within the sector where Intercontinental Hotel is
located. This is where, management could also support through showing customers the way they are
cooking, which is emitting less pollution and so on.
CONCLUSION
From the above study, it has been stated that managing the customer experience is essential
in order to maintain sustainability at marketplace. Customer experience allows company to engage
customer and to build loyal customers which leads to growth as well as development of company
effectively. With this, an organisation must satisfy the requirements of customer as the profitability

and growth depends on them. Including this, considering the different customer strategies like
development & training sessions given to the staff members so that they can resolve the queries
of customers and more could help company in gaining number of competitive advantages within
the market.

REFERENCES
Books & Journals
Ali, F., and et. al., 2018. Make it delightful: Customers' experience, satisfaction and loyalty in
Malaysian theme parks. Journal of Destination Marketing & Management. 7. pp.1-11.
Cetin, G. and Dincer, F. I., 2014. Influence of customer experience on loyalty and word-of-
mouth in hospitality operations. Anatolia. 25(2). pp.181-194.
Goodman, J., 2019. Strategic customer service: Managing the customer experience to increase
positive word of mouth, build loyalty, and maximize profits. Amacom.
Homburg, C., Jozić, D. and Kuehnl, C., 2017. Customer experience management: toward
implementing an evolving marketing concept. Journal of the Academy of Marketing
Science. 45(3). pp.377-401.
Hwang, J. and Seo, S., 2016. A critical review of research on customer experience management:
Theoretical, methodological and cultural perspectives. International Journal of
Contemporary Hospitality Management. 28(10). pp.2218-2246.
Jain, R., Aagja, J. and Bagdare, S., 2017. Customer experience–a review and research
agenda. Journal of Service Theory and Practice.27(3). pp.642-662.
Peppers, D. and Rogers, M., 2016. Managing customer experience and relationships: A strategic
framework. John Wiley & Sons.
Srivastava, M. and Kaul, D., 2016. Exploring the link between customer experience–loyalty–
consumer spend. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services. 31. pp.277-286.
Online
9 Characteristics of Top Employee Training Programs. 2019. [Online]. Available through:
<https://www.bizlibrary.com/article/employee-training-9-characteristics-of-top-
programs/>.