Ritz-Carlton Hotel: A Customer Experience Management Case Study

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Planning for Customer Experience Management

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List of Figures
Figure 1 needs, wants and preferences of customer.....................................................................5
Figure 2 Customer Engagement Model.........................................................................................7
Figure 3 guests Journey touch points.......................................................................................... 13
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INTRODUCTION
The success and growth of any hospitality organization largely depend on the level of the
experience gained by the customers as a happy customer is more likely to revisit the
organization than an unhappy customer. Customers become the most important factors for the
success and survival of the hospitality organizations in terms of profit, revenues, sales and
expansion and so on (Ren et al., 2016). Customer experience is nothing but the perception of
the guests towards the way in which a brand or business handles their needs, wants and
expectations. A major focus of the hospitality organizations nowadays is on positive and better
customer experiences so as to outperform their competitors, improve brand preference,
achieve higher economic growth and also increase customer retention rate.
This assignment takes into consideration of the Ritz Carlton hotel in order to comprehend the
management of customer experience in the hospitality sector. This assignment presents the
explanation on the needs as well as expectations of the selected market segment at Ritz Carlton
hotel. Also, a customer experience map is explored in order to identify or generate
opportunities and serve the customers better by optimising the touch points. This assignment
also includes the exploration related to the influences of digital technology in managing the
customer relationship within Ritz Carlton hotel. At last, strategies or approach is applied for
effectively handling the customer experience within Ritz Carlton hotel in order to captalise the
customer engagement.
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TASK 1
P1
TARGET MARKET- DEFINITION
A company aims to sell its products and services to the group of potential customers who are
referred to as a target market. The target market is some portion of the total market for goods
or services. It is essential for any organization to identify its target market to effectively develop
a marketing plan and direct their marketing efforts (Carrasco et al., 2017).
Effective efforts are contributed by the Ritz Carlton hotel for offering memorable, personal and
unique experiences to its every guest so as to ensure its comfortable stay. The target segments
of the hotel are leisure travellers, business executives, corporates and families for both upper
and upper-middle class section of the society (Ren et al., 2018). For example, the shelter is the
basic need which can be provided by any hospitality organization also well-furnished rooms are
the wants of the customers and the demands of the customer may be luxuriously furnished
rooms which can be fulfilled by the Ritz Carlton hotel.
Figure 1 needs, wants and preferences of the customer
Source: Sharma and Rather, 2015
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Customers
Needs
DemandsWants

VALUE AND IMPORTANCE OF UNDERSTANDING THE WANTS, NEEDS AND PREFERENCES OF
THE TARGET CUSTOMERS FOR RITZ CARLTON HOTEL
Wants, needs and desires are the 3 basic terms to understand the target market by Ritz Carlton
hotel. The needs want as well as demands of the customers care interrelated and are usually
based on requirements, ability and willingness depending on the demographic aspects, income
levels and socio-cultural aspects (Sharma and Rather, 2015).
The understanding of the wants, needs and demands of the guests at Ritz Carlton are:
1. Understanding the basic requirements of the customers will help in defining the menu
and basic requirements for stay such as bedding, water, food and safety to serve its
customers (Wan, 2015).
2. Understanding the wants of the customers that are different from the needs such as the
view from the room, concierge services, and spa and sauna facilities, proactive services
and so on.
3. Understanding the demands of the customers such as luxury, exotic, stylish rooms and
multi-cuisines in menu, exotic and creative ambience, special dietary requirements,
flexible check-ins and checkouts and so on (Wan, 2015).
The marketing and other management of the Ritz Carlton hotel must understand and fulfil the
specific requirements of the customers such as their wants, needs and demands and increase
their level of satisfaction (Wan, 2015). It also allows them to develop a robust relationship with
the large customer base and improve their experiences getting an advantage over the
customers.
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P2
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT MODEL
Customer engagement is referred to as the emotional connection formed between the
customer and the brand. Effective customer engagement strategy helps Ritz Carlton hotel to
provide high-quality customer experiences (Lee, 2016). The stages of the customer engagement
include unawareness, discovery, consideration, conversion and growth through value creation
however there are differences in the experiences of the customers while interacting with the
brand.
Figure 2 Customer Engagement Model
Source: Ren et al., 2018
On-boarding and retaining must be included in each customer engagement model. It must be
flexible enough to effectively fit in the entire customer journey and must focus on value
creation and analysis for enhancing the customer experience (Lee, 2016).
CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT MODEL FOR RITZ CARLTON HOTEL
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Outreach Acquire Get in
touch Maintain
Grow
and
nurture

Every business has different goals and objectives. The Ritz Carlton hotel like other hospitality
business is focused on this model to develop and maintain engagement level with its customers
(Lee, 2016). The stages of the model are:
Outreach: this is the first stage when the hotel is focused on understanding the needs of
potential customers. Here campaigns are created and implemented by identifying the outreach
methods for a potential market. Surveys can be used by Ritz Carlton hotel to identify their
needs and engage them on social media.
Acquisition: in this stage, the major focus is on why the customer would want to engage with
the hotel. Here the content and other marketing materials such as audio-visual and social
networking sites can be used to answer this question (Kandampully et al., 2018).
Get in touch: this is the most crucial stage when the marketing team of the Ritz Carlton hotel is
focused on the entire process of interaction in order to convert lead and effectively engage with
the customers.
Maintain: here the Ritz Carlton hotel focuses on maintaining the relationship with the
customers and aim to maintain the same (Kandampully et al., 2018).
Grow and nurture: the Ritz Carlton hotel must focus on growing and nurturing the relationship
between them and the customers through emails, loyalty offers and discount, and other
engagement schemes.
DIFFERENT FACTORS DRIVING OR INFLUENCING THE CUSTOMER ENGAGEMENT OF TARGET
CUSTOMER GROUPS OF RITZ CARLTON HOTEL
Organizational, technological and personal are the factors that influence or drives the customer
engagement of different target groups of customers of Ritz Carlton hotel:
Organizational Factors: The business practices and policy of the Ritz Carlton hotel, its
leadership, transparency, the core value, level and type of communication are some of the
organizational factors that influence the target customers group (Batra, 2017). Business
customers are more likely to influenced by these factors as compared to non-business
customers.
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Personal Factors: personal factors such as discount, offers and benefits to the customers affect
the customer engagement level in all the categories of the customers (Ali, 2016). Additionally,
motivations, social benefits, personal loyalty and brand resonance are other factors that
influence customer engagement.
Technological Factors: websites and other digital media platforms such as social networking
sites, emails and so on attract the customers and provide them with the volume of information
regarding the products and services to build an effective relationship with the customers (Ali,
2016).
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M1
Customer onboarding strategies allow the business organization to create an excellent and
effective welcoming experience among the customers and helps in retaining them for a long
time period (Batra, 2017). The on-boarding strategies serve two purposes that are ensuring that
the customers adopt products and services of the Ritz Carlton hotel and also position them as a
partner in ensuring the hotel's progress.
The factors of customer engagement help in determining the on-boarding strategies for the
different target groups of customers in the Ritz Carlton hotel. The on-boarding strategies
include the organization factors of engagement such as publishing the information of business
activities for business people and social activities done by the hotel for society and environment
to increase the engagement level of the customers.
The on-boarding strategies consider the technological factors of customer engagement to
provide speedy services and cost saving to the customers such as youths and upper-class price
oriented customer segment (Li et al., 2015). Personal factors of customer engagement include
the individual needs and expectation of the prospective guests is considered to attract all target
groups of the customers. Thus the needs and requirement of the different target groups of
customers are different which can be targeted on the basis of the above-given factors
influences their level of engagement with the Ritz Carlton hotel.
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TASK 2
P3
The brand Ritz Carlton is one of the first as well as most famous brands that effectively used the
data to customise the journey that is the stay of the customers by enhancing their service and
customer experiences (Hargreaves, 2015). Cloud-based relationship management system is
used by the Ritz hotel to store the information of the prospects or existing customer checks
share the information. The system is effective to cross-reference their data profile while
returning to the hotel or logging into the online account and thereby tailoring the guest's
journey of the customers as per their preferences and history (Ritz-Carlton, 2019). The hotel
Ritz Carlton is famous for using data to personalise the guest journey and make them feel
valued and be a part of the hotel.
The customer journey mapped for Ritz Carlton hotel is:
Desir
e
researc
h
planni
ng
booking arrivin
g
accomm
odation
nutritio
n
Using
servic
es
leavin
g
feedb
ack
Comi
ng
back
Needs of
the guests
Celeb
rating
birthd
ay
Destina
tions to
celebrat
e a
birthday
Travel
to
France
Book
hotel for
2 nights
Greete
d and
wished
by
hotel
staff
Décor
with the
personal
ised
theme
with a
calm
and
friendly
environ
ment
Low-
calorie
Cakes,
and
food
and
beverag
e
services
Laundr
y, Wi-
Fi,
valet
parkin
g,
room
service
s
A
memo
rable
experi
ence
and
high
custo
mer
satisfa
ction
A
satisfa
ctory
and
memo
rable
experi
ence
Repe
ated
trips
Goals of
the guests
Stayin
g and
celebr
ating
Looking
for all
the
availabl
Ritz
Carlton
hotel
To
celebrat
e a
birthday
Accom
panied
to the
booked
Get the
luxuriou
s
experien
get
dietary
food
Luxuri
ous
staying
experi
High
experi
ence
and
Overal
l value
for
mone
Visiti
ng
the
same
10

a
birthd
ay at
the
hotel
e hotels
at a
particul
ar
destina
tion
and
avoid
inconve
nience
room ce ence satisfa
ction
level.
y
servic
e
bran
d
Touchpoin
ts
hotels Website
s
Compa
ny
websit
e
Online
app
Recepti
onists
staff staff Cal
service
s
websit
e
Websi
te and
online
review
s
Call
centr
es
and
webs
ites
S
toryboar
d
guest
experien
ce
The employees at Ritz Carlton hotel are provided with some level of autonomy in order to
deliver the platinum level of services and create the outstanding customer experience. $2,000
per customer is offered to the staff for solving complaints and ensuring that the customer
leaves happy. This approach at Ritz Carlton hotel is effective in changing the perception of the
employees towards their customers (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). The employee becomes more
open and develops a warm connection with the customers by doing their best to resolve an
issue if arises.
Amazing customer experience can be created by effective management as it considers the
lifetime value of customers critical. This result the employees at Ritz Carlton hotel are focused
on delighting its customers and not just satisfy them (Lemon and Verhoef, 2016). Standards
guide its employees and they can autonomously apply those standards to achieve exceptional
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