Travelodge: Customer Profiling, Engagement and Experience Report

This report delves into Travelodge's customer experience, examining various facets of its operations. It begins by providing background information on the company and then summarizes the report's key areas, including market segmentation and customer profiling activities, which are crucial for understanding customer needs, wants, and expectations within the budget hotel sector. The report explores different customer profiling methods, such as affinity, demographic, psychographic, and lifestyle analysis, and discusses how these methods help tailor products and services to meet customer demands. Furthermore, it analyzes the drivers of customer engagement, including social media, website design, email marketing, rewards programs, and additional hospitality facilities, as well as the impact of digital technology. The report also outlines strategies for onboarding diverse customers, such as optimizing orientation, showcasing success stories, offering assistance, and providing personalized welcomes. The conclusion summarizes the key findings and the importance of customer experience in driving business success, referencing relevant academic literature to support its arguments.

Hotel Chain Recruitment for
Skills

TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION...........................................................................................................................1
Background of the company...................................................................................................1
SUMMARY OF THE REPORT......................................................................................................1
Market Segmentation and customer profiling activities.........................................................1
Different ways of customer profiling and target markets wants, needs and expectations helps
in driving the product and services of the organization.........................................................3
Drivers of Customer Engagement..........................................................................................4
Different strategies for on boarding the diverse customers....................................................5
Customer experience map......................................................................................................5
CONCLUSION................................................................................................................................8
REFERENCES................................................................................................................................9

INTRODUCTION
Customers experience is defined as the customer's perception about the product or a
brand. Customer’s perception related to the brand or a product determines the customers
experience about the product or a brand, their perception is the reality of the brand regardless
how well an organization is delivering to customer in order to satisfy the customers. Experience
has become very important for the companies in today's competitive world and now
organizations are working out different ways to improve the experience (Alt and Iversen, 2017).
Perception has become most valuable aspect for the companies and in order to manage those
perceptions is the top priority of the organizations for improving the experience.
Background of the company
Travelodge is the UK based private hospitality company that is deals in hotels and
hospitality industry. It is the second largest budgeted hotel sector and has the third hotel chain in
UK. It is headquartered at Thames, England, UK and was founded in 1985. It is large and has
over 500 hotels in UK and has hotels in Ireland and also has 5 hotels in Spain. Total number of
employees working in Travelodge is 11,000 in number.
SUMMARY OF THE REPORT
The current report will be covering many points like that of importance of value, need
and want of target customer for Travelodge hotel. Then it will be covering drivers and
influencing factors for customer engagement of different target customer. Further it will creating
customer experience map for company and discussing the customer touch point throughout the
customer experience in creating business opportunities. Towards the end report will discuss
about impact of digital technology in employing and managing customer experience into sector.
Market Segmentation and customer profiling activities
Market segmentation is the process of dividing the entire market into various groups or
various segments based on the different characteristics. Through market segmentation an
organization divides broad business market or broad consumers into sub groups of consumers
which are sharing same characteristics. Market segmentation is important for Travelodge
because it allows to target different customer groups based on their behavior to meet their needs,
wants and preference within a budgeted level (Chen and et.al., 2014). Market segmentation helps
the Travelodge hotel to divide its functions into various portions which allows the organization
to perform complex activities and use these segments to perform various functions.
1

This will increase the customers’ satisfaction, through effective market segmentation
strategies will help the Travelodge hotel to increase its profitability. Market segmentation will
allow the Travelodge hotel to collect the information about its customers and make use of that
information to improve customer’s experience (Cho, Bonn and Brymer, 2017). Market
segmentation help Travelodge to find the new opportunities in the market and will help the
organization to establish close relationships with the group of buyers. Market segmentation
provide information to the organization about the demographic factors like age, gender,
geographic location, religion, race and income. It also provides the information about the
psychographic factors like personality, social status, and life style. It also provides the
information about the behavioral factors of the people like consumer preferences and their levels
of satisfaction.
Market segmentation allow the Travelodge hotel to know about the customers and also
facilitates the suitable marketing mix for understanding the needs of the customers and their
expectations from the hospitality industry. Market segmentation will facilitate the Travelodge
hotel in introduction of effective product or service strategies because due to market
segmentation product or service development becomes compatible with the consumer needs as
segmentation results in the effective information of the specific needs of the customers need and
expectations. Market segmentation provides proper direction of marketing efforts, due to market
segmentation a company can avoid those markets which are not profitable for the organization
and avoid those markets which are irrelevant for the marketing efforts of an organization, thus
due to market segmentation it provides the organization a definite direction of marketing to
attract right customers (Dolnicar and Leisch., 2017).
Customer profiling activities allow Travelodge to set a clear message for the specific
group of customers and also will improve the customer’s experience. It increases the efficiency
and effectiveness of the organization in serving the customers. Through customer profiling
activities and organization allows formulates the short questionnaire, through this questionnaire
an organization will get information about the customers like age, gender, religion etc which will
help the organization in improving the customers experience and also focus on the specific target
groups.
2

Different ways of customer profiling and target markets wants, needs and expectations helps in
driving the product and services of the organization.
Customer profiling is the type of marketing tool of the business which helps to
understand the customer needs and helps the organization in taking better business decisions.
Different ways of customer profiling are as follows:
 Affinity profiling: This method helps Travelodge in studying the buying habits of the
customers i.e. what type of services and products a particular customer will require.
 Demographic Profiling: This method emphasis on the demographic profiles of the
customers and helps to understand the kind of products and services to be delivered to the
customer. All the experts in business need to emphasize on demographic details of
customer so that they could understanding what type of product will be given to which
customer. Like Travelodge hotel could attract children and kids by providing them play
area in hotel or something which is suited to them.
 Psychographic Profiling: This method help Travelodge by providing information
about the persons and helps to understand the psychological motivations of the customers
which is the best way of meeting needs and expectation.
 Lifestyle analysis: This method helps Travelodge in understanding the lifestyle of the
customers by observing hobbies and buying habits of the customers.
 Cluster coding: Cluster coding helps Hospitality Company in understanding the class of
the group of guest and it effect on individual the lifestyle of the customers.
Customer’s needs, wants and expectations helps in deriving the effectiveness of product
and services of the organization (Dolnicar, Grün and Leisch., 2018). When an organization will
focus on the customers’ needs which important for the customers and the needs cannot be
ignored at any cost, organization has to fulfil their customer needs. The basic needs of the
customer like food, water, rooms are the basic needs of the customer which will help in deriving
these products and services to the customers. Wants are more powerful than the need therefore
Travelodge focus on understanding customer wants and analysis of their wants help in deriving
the services and products satisfaction of the organization.
By fulfilling the wants of the customers it will brings more satisfaction to the customer.
Thus helping Travelodge in providing the correct type of goods and service to the customer this
will be helpful for them in fulfilling the need and want. Customers’ expectations also helps in
3

deriving the product and services of the hotel because customers expect more from the
hospitality industry and they want to gain the positive experience form the hotel industry and in
order to meet these expectations a company has to deliver certain quality of goods and services
to the customers to increase their satisfaction level. It becomes very much essential that
Travelodge is knowing about all sort of need and want which is related so that their goals could
be achieved in long and short run as well.
Drivers of Customer Engagement
Social media: This driver is the best way to attract different guest groups of Travelodge
in its target markets. Travelodge has to make use of different social media apps like Facebook,
Twitter, Instagram, etc to attract the customers, by posting their advertisements on these social
media apps to attract the customers of different target groups because most customers group
make use of these apps in day today lives (Du and et.al., 2018).
Build better company website: Focus of Travelodge is on building attractive and
interactive website to attract the customers. Company’s website different offers for different
sectors to attract them accordingly this will act as tool of customer engagement.
Email marketing: Email marketing \is a digital tool of customer engagement with the
help of which Travelodge make list of active customers and keep on mailing the customers about
the offers and rates of the product and services to the customers which helps in customer
engagement and boost demand for the hospitality services of an organization..
Rewards: This is something that every customer group wants and is the best way of
engaging the customers with services of hospitality firm. If the customer gets something in return
from their actions like providing discounts, late check outs and early check in(Murray, Agard
and Barajas, 2017).
Additional hospitality Facilities: A company provide the unique facilities to the various
customers groups like executive lounge for the business class, gaming zones for the youngsters,
pubs and clubs for the friends and families, etc. This act as a driver of the customer’s
engagement for different target customer groups.
E- Marketing: Company use multiple channels of marketing in order to catch the
customers at right time. As the customers does not use single channel when they are engaged
with the business, they would be browsing companies website, checking on social media or they
will be receiving the notification through other medias and these multiple levels of marketing
4

will help the organization to catch them at the right time so this is also the driver of the customer
engagement.
Different strategies for on boarding the diverse customers
The different strategies that the organization formulates to attract diverse customers are
as follows:
1. Optimize Orientation: A company should not try to attract every one, a company should
determine the customers which are fit and capable for using company’s services and products. A
company’s efforts should be on the specific group of people in order to attract them. A company
should offer offers and promotions for addressing the special needs of the guests. A company
should speak to the guests directly in order to attract them directly through company’s website,
emails and also through popular social media apps (Weinstein and Cahill, 2014).
2. Showcase success stories: Uploading the Companies photos on the websites and on social
media will provide the company’s physical evidence to the customers and they will make the
guest confident, ready and also excited to book a room in the hotel. A company should not hide
the photos of lobbies, rest rooms, pools and the neighboring areas, more the company’s visual
information easier will be attract the customers for the organization. It is important that
companies are showing their success stories to customers which will be helpful for them to
notice all success criteria for Travelodge.
3. Offer assistance: Do not hide anything from the companies potential customers show the
customers have nothing to hide (Venter, Wright and Dibb, 2015). A company should send links
of the website to the third party review of the hotel, and this helps in making easier for the
customers to learn about the property of hotel and help them took book in confidence. If the
company is offering assistance and help to their clients then it will be possible for them to on
board the more number of customers.
4. Personalized welcome : A company should offer free stuff to attract the customers like room
up-gradation, a wine hour, minibar snacks, soaps, tooth pastes, etc. this will also help in
attracting the customers for the organization. Personalized welcome will be attracting most of the
customers towards what hotel is offering them so that they could be having good experience.
Customer experience map
Customers experience mapping is that process that will help the company to discover the
potential customers as they engage with the company’s products and services (Wang and et.al.,
5

2016). It provides the key insights to the company to focus on the customer’s experience and
helps in driving the results of the company’s business. It is the tool for determining where a
company is standing and also identifies the opportunities and shortcomings of the business
Exploring
facilities
Booking Pre hospitality During
hospitality
Post
hospitality
Customer Experience
Touch points Provide
details of
stay
packages
according to
Enabling
official
application
of
Travelodge
Tickets details
page and tour
detail pages
Tour guide Photo
album
6
Figure 1: Customer experience map
[Source: Customer Journey Map, 2018]

different
customer
requirements
Providing
sales support
to make
booking
simpler
Feelings and
thoughts
Comparing
travel
package of
competitors
of
hospitality
industry
Complex
process of
pre
booking
No direct way for
printing tickets
Lack of
recommendations
that aids the
preparation
Unhappy due
to being
persuade to
buy expensive
souvenir
Delighted
when
receiving
album
Suggestion for improvement
Recommendation Guest
support on
booking and
stay
packages
can be
enhanced by
improving
contact via
WhatsApp.
Making
booking
process
simpler via
official
website.
Enabling
support
from sales
team of
Travelodge
Support a direct
print function for
tickets
Train the tour
guide for better
communication
Easy
album
sharing
Define the objective: An organization should work out what the organization wants to
achieve before starting the mapping. Set the objective of mapping the customers experience i.e.
to. To be more specific the objective will be to reduce the customer’s complaints.
Gather information: To gather the information about the customers experience a
company has to do surveys or studies, market research, analysis of the website, focus groups and
other source sources of data which will provide information to the organization.
7

Identifying customers touch points: As customers keep on interacting with the
organization through different touch-points or the channels they use to get engaged with the
organization (Vidden, Vriens and Chen., 2016). These touch-points includes online browsing,
telephonic calls, blogs etc so the organization should find the customers touch-points as the
customers uses these touch-points to access the information about the hotel.
Outline what are the key stages of customer’s experience: The knowledge gathered in
the step 2 helps to identify the steps that a customers is taking while interacting with the hotel.
These steps will help the company to identify the services or a product which the customer wants
from the company.
Define how digital advancement is employed in managing customer experience within the
service sector with specific example of customer relationship management.
The term digital transformation is the integration of technological advance in all areas of
business. It is one of fundamental change in terms that how business is need to operate so that
better and effective value can deliver to customers. In addition to it, technical advancement has
big impact and with help of it there can be possibility to reach the customer and helps to take the
feedback of customers. Thus, customer service standards has risen to great things with help of
technology. Digital techniques has transferred the experience of customers. Furthermore, it can
be said that managing the customer experience and optimizing it will helps to lead clear and
tangible result for business. The technical advancement has empowered customers to get what
they want, when they want and how they want it. With the approach as CRM, there can be better
analysis and study of customer related data that can be based on customer previous interaction
with the company. This kind of data will be used in order to create highly targeted message to
match customers about the individual preference. It results in personalized experience.
For example- Munchery is a small business that works as to provide a delicious
alternative to standard food delivery. In this, high quality food will be prepared by and that
directly deliver to customer home, office and any other location. Furthermore, the Muchery take
the use of CRM to monitor performance, measure satisfaction of customers and have proper
tracking on ordering process and also share feedback with chefs.
8

CONCLUSION
It is concluded from the report that the market segmentation is of great importance for the
organization. Market segmentation divides the entire market in different customer’s groups and
helps the organization to focus on the different groups independently. It is also concluded from
the report that there are various drivers of customer’s engagement which help in attracting the
customers for the organization and also organization formulates various strategies for on
boarding the diverse customers. It is also concluded the customers experience mapping is also
essential to analyze the current perception of the customers towards the organization.
9

REFERENCES
Books and Journals
Alt, J. and Iversen, T., 2017. Inequality, labor market segmentation, and preferences for
redistribution. American Journal of Political Science. 61(1). pp.21-36.
Chen, Z and et.atal., 2014. Rating-based investment practices and bond market segmentation.
The Review of Asset Pricing Studies. 4(2). pp.162-205.
Cho, M., Bonn, M. A. and Brymer, R. A., 2017. A constraint-based approach to wine tourism
market segmentation. Journal of Hospitality & Tourism Research. 41(4). pp.415-444.
Dolnicar, S. and Leisch, F., 2017. Using segment level stability to select target segments in data-
driven market segmentation studies. Marketing Letters. 28(3), pp.423-436.
Dolnicar, S., Grün, B. and Leisch, F., 2018. Market Segmentation. In Market Segmentation
Analysis. (pp. 3-9). Springer, Singapore.
Du, S and et.atal., 2018. Sell to whom? Firm’s green production in competition facing market
segmentation. Annals of Operations Research. 270(1-2). pp.125-154.
Murray, P. W., Agard, B. and Barajas, M. A., 2017. Market segmentation through data mining: A
method to extract behaviors from a noisy data set. Computers & Industrial Engineering.
109. pp.233-252.
Venter, P., Wright, A. and Dibb, S., 2015. Performing market segmentation: a performative
perspective. Journal of Marketing Management. 31(1-2). pp.62-83.
Vidden, C., Vriens, M. and Chen, S., 2016. Comparing clustering methods for market
segmentation: A simulation study. Applied Marketing Analytics. 2(3). pp.225-238.
Wang, B and et.al., 2016. A biclustering-based method for market segmentation using customer
pain points. Engineering Applications of Artificial Intelligence. 47.pp.101-109.
Weinstein, A. and Cahill, D.J., 2014. Lifestyle market segmentation. Routledge.
Online:
Customer Journey Map. 2018. [Online]. Accessed through:
<https://www.visual-paradigm.com/guide/customer-experience/what-is-customer-
journey-mapping/>.
10