ASSIGNMENT SUBMISSION

COVER SHEET

Higher National Diploma in

HOSPITALITY MANAGEMENT

Unit / Module

SUBMITTED BY

Student Name: Type Your Name.

Student ID : Type YourStudent ID.
Submission Date: Type Date DD / MM / YYYY.
Lecturer’s Name: Type Your Name.

1
Managing Customer
Experience

2
Contents
Abstract:...........................................................................................................................................4

Introduction:....................................................................................................................................5

P1 Explain the value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target
customer groups for a service sector industry.................................................................................6

P2 Explore the different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target
customer groups within a service sector organization.....................................................................8

P3 Create a customer experience map for a selected service sector organization.........................11

P4 discuss how the customer touch-points throughout the customer experience create business
opportunities for a selected service sector organization................................................................13

P5 Examine how digital technology is employed in managing the customer experience within the
service sector, providing specific examples of customer relationship management (CRM)
systems...........................................................................................................................................15

P6 Illustrate customer service strategies in a specific service sector context................................16

P7 Demonstrate how customer service strategies create and develop the customer experience in a
way that meets the needs of the customer and required business standards..................................17

Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................22

Bibliography..................................................................................................................................23

3
Abstract:
Every business operates in order to create and deliver something of value to customers and
receive something in return as profits. This requires intense interaction with customers, building
a relation between the business organization and the customer. These relations can be extremely
profitable depending on how business organizations can hold onto them positively.
Understanding the customers will enable the business organizations to treat them the way they
want to be treated, provide the products that they want the most. The finer the customer
experience, the likelier it is for them to be loyal toward the organization. Loyal customers will
bring significantly more profits than the irregular customers. Therefore, it is of the utmost
importance for business organizations to manage their customer experience and ensure that the
experiences the customers receive are top-notch. Regardless of the type of business, profits
depend on the customers and customers won’t mind making the organization profitable as long
as their experiences are favorable.

4
Introduction:
Managing the customer experience lays out the procedures of defining and designing a positive
customer experience that is distinctive, steady and remarkable. Consumers will adopt to the
brand that is delivering these experiences and pledge their loyalty to the organization
[ CITATION Sha02 \l 1033 ]. In this era of competition between organizations, there is no
question about the importance of satisfying the customers in order to survive and prosper.
Organizations operate by offering products or services to the customers. Now, the quality of
these products and services influence the experience of customers heavily. If they aren’t up to the
mark or standard, customers will be dissatisfied. If that happens, they’ll simply look for a
different brand and get loyal to that brand if they can deliver favorable experience. Providing a
good experience isn’t really that difficult of a task if customers are understood. Standard quality
products or services lead to a decent experience, resulting in the buildup of profitable customer
relationship. So, organizations must monitor their customers and create products and services
that would fit directly into the needs, wants and tastes of the customers.

5
P1 Explain the value and importance of understanding the needs,
wants and preferences of target customer groups for a service sector
industry
Business organizations must provide standard quality of products or services to the customers in
order to earn profits. Understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target customers allows
organizations to take strategic decisions. These are actually the most basic terms in marketing
[ CITATION Suj17 \l 1033 ]. Utilizing these terms will enable an organization to identify the
target market, to set up their products and services in a way that makes them more favourable for
the customers, improving overall experience for customers.

Before understanding the value and importance of understanding these three terms, it’s required
to have a grasp on their meaning beforehand.

Needs: Need is the state of felt deprivation of some basic satisfaction [ CITATION Phi17 \l 1033
]. It can be physical, social, psychological and cultural. It arises when an individual feel deprived
of something and the individual is urged to mitigate this deprivation. Business organizations
produce products and services to help the consumer to satisfy their needs. If these needs were
non-existent, customers would have never needed to purchase products or services from
organizations. For example, a business person needs internet connection to stay connected with
his clients and colleagues.

Wants: Wants are actually the shapes needs take as they are backed by individual taste, culture
and other influences. For example, a person definitely needs foods to survive. But he has a
choice of foods that he can take in order to fulfil his hunger. This choice can be different and this
is what exactly what want is. To cite an example, a college student needs pens to write with but
even though any pen will allow him to write, he might want to use a pen of a particular brand.

Preferences: Consumer preference is the individual taste of consumers [ CITATION Dav18 \l

1033 ]. After tasting a certain product, the consumer can grow a liking for that product and might
want to go for the same product again from a choice of similar products.

6
Demands: Demands are wants backed by buying power, as defined by Kotler in his Principles of
Marketing book. Which means, when someone wants something and he has the ability to
purchase that product, demand for the said product is thus created. In the absence of buying
power, demand cannot be created. So, if a person wants to buy a Ferrari but he doesn’t have the
budget, he cannot create demand for that Ferrari. A mother with a baby would seek out the best
stroller for her baby with the most advanced features but the demand for that particular stroller
will only increase if the mother can afford it.

Customer’s decision to buy or choose certain product or service is heavily influenced by their
needs, wants, preferences and demands. So, understanding these terms has great importance.

The fact that organizations can achieve their long-sought success by analysing the needs, wants
and demands. This can be explained further using an example of an UK based hotel, “The
Kennard”.

The Kennard is a hotel that provides services to the customers. They service is based on
customer’s needs of places to stay. So, when customers need somewhere to spend the night or a
couple of days, they can go to Kennard hotel and rent a room. Now, there are tons of hotels
available in UK. Then, why should customers choose this particular hotel? Obviously, any hotel
is capable of meeting customers’ needs of roof over their head, Kennard hotel is the one that
customers want. That’s because the hotel offers relaxing and beautiful decoration along with
extremely comfortable beds. The hotel offers a mesmerizing experience right from the moment a
customer sets foot into the hotel and continues until the moment they leave. The customer
services just add to the experience. This satisfaction makes the customers “want” the hotel
should they ever need a place to stay again. Besides, they create demand for their services using
various promotional means.

It is quite clear that Kennard hotel utilizes the understanding of its target customers’ needs, wants
and preferences.

7
8
P2 Explore the different factors that drive and influence customer
engagement of different target customer groups within a service
sector organization

A business person is quite the busy man as he has got tons of workloads in his brains to complete
in short time. So, he wants everything to be organized and neat. He often has to travel around for
business purposes so he wants a nice and cosy hotel to spend the nights that offers beautiful
decoration, relaxing experience and top-notch customer services. He might want to cool his head
off by spending some time in the pool so the availability of pools in hotels would be appreciated
by this business person. When the business person is away from his business, he isn’t really out
of reach. He has to be in constant connection with his peers so he wants the availability of
internet at all times. He might use multiple devices like laptops and mobile phones, so charging
ports must be available wherever he goes. In restaurants, he would prefer to get the healthy foods
that are quick and easy to digest because he cannot afford to lose time trying to heal food poison.

9
College students are always on tight schedules. They have to get to college premises in time so
they want their transports to arrive and take them to their destination quickly and smoothly.
Studies are their top priority so they spend a lot of time on libraries. They want to have as much
books as possible in the libraries they frequent because it’s quite the hassle to go to another
library just because one book isn’t available in their favourite library. College students also
spend their days on tight budgets so they want cheap quick but healthy foods to eat in restaurants
or dining places. To relax comfortably every now and then, they prefer to have nice places to sit
in restaurants, libraries or even classrooms. Their study materials must be available at all times.
Whenever they run out of pen or papers, they want to buy new ones as quickly as possible from
their favourite stationaries and expect quality. The availability of Wi-Fi is favoured by college
students because it helps them in gathering knowledge from the internet.

10
A mother with her baby is always concerned about the effect of the surroundings on her baby.
She hates polluted places filled with bad smells and garbage. She loves parks with decent
environment that offers seating benches and natural beauty where she can relax. The park must
offer roads for strolling baby-strollers on so that the mother can easily move her baby around. In
any service industry she visits, be it a hotel, restaurant or park, she wants the availability of
diaper changes, toys and decorations fit for babies, the availability of baby foods and feeders
along with feeding zones. She highly prefers cleanliness because she understands the bad effect
of unhygienic areas on her baby.

11
P3 Create a customer experience map for a selected service sector
organization
A customer experience map is the visual identification and recording of every counter a customer
has with a company or brand where the encounters are regarded as touchpoints [ CITATION
Jen11 \l 1033 ].

For better understanding, here is an example of a customer experience map of a restaurant.

Website: Website is the online identification of restaurant. It contains all the information about
the restaurant that is available for anyone surfing the sea of internet. Some restaurants even allow
home delivery services. So, websites increase the communication between customers and the
restaurant. From smaller to bigger restaurants, menus can be found in their websites
[ CITATION Piz19 \l 1033 ].

Review Sites: Review sites are where customers can get honest reviews about the foods that are
sold in restaurants [ CITATION Yel19 \l 1033 ]. So, this can be both a positive or negative thing
for the restaurant. If the reviews are negative, customers will avoid the restaurant. Customers
will be attracted if the reviews are positive.

Text Messages: Text messages can be utilized to let customers know about new arrivals,
discounts or mostly run promotional activities by the restaurant.

Emails: Emails are another great way of forming communication with customers. Besides
helping in promotional activities, emails can be used to take orders, accept customer complaints
or suggestions or answer questions asked by the customers. It can also be used to receive general
feedbacks [ CITATION McD191 \l 1033 ].

Paper Mail: Paper mails can be used for communication as well. Newsletters or discounts can
be sent through paper mails to the customers’ doorsteps.

Telephone: Communication is made easier with telephones and mobile phones where verbal
communication is made possible from long distance. Restaurants can also take orders or listen to
customers’ feedbacks.

12
Restaurant Environment: A welcoming environment of a restaurant can draw customers in.
Hygienic restaurants with no room for dirtiness are favoured by customers. Unhygienic
environment oozes sickness and fends customers away [ CITATION Ary19 \l 1033 ].

Restaurant Staff: Well-mannered, neatly dressed, skilled staff of a restaurant can contribute in
getting loyal customers for the restaurant.

Restaurant Management: The management of the restaurant must be efficient in handling

everything, from maintaining the staff to managing customer relations. Management must make
use of all the available resources with a capable hand.

13
P4 discuss how the customer touch-points throughout the customer
experience create business opportunities for a selected service sector
organization
Here is a roleplay situation of a customer ordering a parcel food from a restaurant to show how a
customer experience creates business opportunities.
Roleplay:
Waiter: Welcome, what would you like to order?
Customer: I’d like two of those juicy looking double cheeseburgers.
Waiter: Sure thing, Sir. What would like on your burgers? We have a wide selection of extra
cheese, extra patties and onion rings.
Customer: I’d like to have everything on them. Really craving a good burger, you see.
Waiter: *Chuckles* Then a great burger you will have. Can I interest you on some fries and soda
to go with your burger? They have great synergy.
Customer: Ummm… I guess they’d go well with the burgers. So, yeah, I want them as well.
Waiter: Great! Your order is on the way. Please give us 5 minutes.
Customer: Sure.
(After 7/8 minutes)
Waiter: Here is your order, Sir. It’d be 9 pounds.
Customer: Thank you very much. Here you go.
Waiter: You’re welcome. Next time you are here, be sure to try out our signature beef cheese
delight if you crave good burgers again.
Customer: *Nodding* Looking forward to it!

Now, in this roleplay scenario, the customer only wanted burgers. The waiter used this
opportunity to sell off some extra burger sides along with soda and fries. Customer might not
have bought them if these weren’t offered. Besides, the waiter successfully made sure that the
customer comes back for more burgers. If the burger the customer bought manages to provide
satisfaction, he is bound to come back for more.
The touchpoints mentioned earlier can create business opportunities by being more open and
providing more options for customer interactions. The business place alone can only reach so
many customers. A website, a telephone, email, text message, review sites etc. allows the

14
organization to reach more customers. These interactions allow perfect understanding of the
customers, resulting in creation of more business opportunities.

15
P5 Examine how digital technology is employed in managing the
customer experience within the service sector, providing specific
examples of customer relationship management (CRM) systems
Amazon, an online retailer company, utilizes digital technology in its CRM system to manage
customer experience the following ways:

Adjusted Offers and Promotions: Amazon tracks your orders and the products you frequently
visit to bring you offers and promotions on the products you like and are most likely to purchase.

Customer Support: Amazon’s customer support is known to be first-rate. Customers can

receive lightning fast supports right off their website thanks to their innovatively designed
support system filled with skilled tech wizards.

Analysis of Customer Interaction: Amazon stays connected with the customer at all times
through the means of its specially designed giant of a website, handy mobile apps and software,
social media etc. This way, customers can communicate with amazon with superior convenience.

Artificial Intelligence: Using A.I, Amazon revolutionized their customer support by being quick
to respond and provide helps to those who seeks help.

16
P6 Illustrate customer service strategies in a specific service sector
context
Customers are the most importance asset of any company. They will stay as the asset as long as
they are provided high quality services. That’s why organizations are constantly in the process of
improving these services for the customers.

A restaurant falls under a service sector that provides food services to its customers. The
customers decide whether the restaurant would be successful or not. Their decision depends on
the services provided by the restaurants. Therefore, the restaurant must form working strategies
for providing excellent customer services.

Customers expect delicious and healthy foods from the restaurants. So, the restaurant must make
sure to hire the best chefs to cook the delicious foods. Customers prefer to eat in comfortable
environment with beautiful decorations. Restaurant must ensure that the environment remains
favourable at all times. Hygienic environment with clean foods will attract customers. The
behaviour and manners of the staff must be that of top grade. The restaurant must be open to
criticisms and complaints.

17
P7 Demonstrate how customer service strategies create and develop
the customer experience in a way that meets the needs of the
customer and required business standards
Customer experiences can be elevated by resorting to various customer service strategies. They
are briefly discussed below:

 Clear Understanding of Customers: Before an organization figures out how to treat its
customers, it must invest time and money in understanding the customers first. Their
nature, culture, behaviour, traits, needs, wants etc. must be understood properly.

 Training the Staff: Staff training can result in producing a number of skilled manpower
who are more capable of providing services than before. Their skills will definitely
increase customer experience.

 Listening to Customers: A lot of information can be gained just by listening to what the
customers have to say. Customers are able to notice a lot of things business organizations
can’t. So, it is essential to get feedbacks from them. The organization can shape itself
according to those feedbacks. Listening to customers will give the customer a sense of
attachment with the business [ CITATION Mar19 \l 1033 ].

 Making Use of Technology: Resorting to the use of technology will not only take the
organization to an advanced position, it will also improve customer experience.
Everything will be faster and smarter will lesser room for errors. It will increase
communication and options for promotion. This will definitely improve customer
experience.

18
Customer Audit Trail, Critical Observations

Name of hospitality business visited: The Fat Duck Restaurant in Bray

Date and time of visit: 16th November, 2019

19
20
21
22
Conclusion:
Customers’ preferences and taste are ever changing. Organizations are required to stay up to date
with the changing trends. If they fail to manage the customer experiences and be constant in
improving these experiences, they are bound to fail right on their tracks. After all, customers are
to be regarded with the most importance.

23
Bibliography
Ary News, 2019. Hotel sealed over poor hygiene conditions in Karachi. [Online]
Available at: https://arynews.tv/en/hotel-sealed-poor-hygiene-conditions-karachi/
[Accessed 17 11 2019].

Juetten, M., 2019. Best Company Traits: Listening To Customers. [Online]

Available at: https://www.forbes.com/sites/maryjuetten/2019/11/07/best-company-traits-
listening-to-customers/#4c92b9605603
[Accessed 17 11 2019].

Kotler, P., 2017. Principles of Marketing. 17th ed. s.l.:Pearson.

Kramp, J., 2011. What is a Customer Experience Map?. [Online]

Available at: https://touchpointdashboard.com/2011/08/what-is-a-customer-touchpoint-or-
journey-map/
[Accessed 17 11 2019].

McDonald's, 2019. Restaurant Feedback. [Online]

Available at: https://www.mcdonalds.com/us/en-us/contact-us/restaurant-feedback.html
[Accessed 17 11 2019].

Pizza Hut, 2019. Menu. [Online]

Available at: https://www.pizzahut.co.uk/restaurants/food/
[Accessed 17 11 2019].

Trivikram, S., 2017. Customer Needs, Wants, and Demands & Strategic Decision Making.
[Online]
Available at: https://myventurepad.com/customer-needs-wants-demands-strategic-decision-
making/
[Accessed 16 11 2019].

Weedmark, D., 2018. Definition of Consumer Preference. [Online]

Available at: https://bizfluent.com/info-8698883-definition-consumer-preference.html
[Accessed 16 11 2019].

24
Wheeler, S. S. &. J., 2002. Managing The Customers Experience: Turning Customers into
Advocates. 1st ed. s.l.:Pearson FT Press.

Yelp, 2019. The Best 10 Restaurants in San Francisco, CA. [Online]

Available at: https://www.yelp.com/search?cflt=restaurants&find_loc=San+Francisco%2C+CA
[Accessed 17 11 2019].

25
26