Understanding The Needs And Expectations Of Market Segments For The Service Industry: A Case Study Of Calridge's Hotel

Explain the needs and expectations of market segments for the service industry. 
Explore the customer experience map to create business opportunities and optimise customer touch points.

For the chosen hotel as specified above, you are required to prepare an essay to be communicated to senior management within the firm to be considered in the customer service policy development for the firm. Within the essay you are required to include the following: 
Part one: 
Provide an explanation to the value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preferences of target customer groups for a service sector industry. Ensure to see that this is reflected to the selected hotel and can include the customer profile and the characteristics of the targeted audience through market segmentation such as age, gender and income. Relevant examples should be included to enhance the quality of the answer. 
Explore the different factors that drive and influence customer engagement of different target customer groups for the selected hotel.

Further ensure to see that the essay includes a review of how customer engagement factors determining onboarding strategies for different target customer groups with reference to the chosen hotel.
Global applied knowledge
Now evaluate a broad range of different target group needs and expectations in terms of customer engagement for the selected hotel within the service sector. 
Part two: 
For the selected chosen Hotel, you are now required to create a customer experience map within the service sector. 
Continue the essay by discussing how the customer touch-points throughout the customer experience within the hotel create business opportunities. 
Now ensure to see that the customer experience map is detailed, capturing the customer journey model and examine the activities and actions taken at each customer touch point and draw conclusions as to how the organisation can optimise to create business opportunities for the chosen hotel .

Customer Profiling and Factors Driving Customer Engagement

With the growing demand for attractive tourist sites in UK it becomes a pertinent factor to understand the role and characteristics of hospitality service industries in UK. It is also resembled with the growing rate in GDP that can be predicted to touch the increasing rate of 1.6% in 2019 (claridges.co.uk 2018). Based on this understanding, this essay is going to take a great deal of survey among the UK hospitality sector and tries to find out the possible factors that drives the customers and tourists to shift their interests randomly. In course of the discussion, the famous Calridge’s hotel of London has been taken into consideration with the purpose to understand the customer values and importance in the hostel and on the basis of that understanding create a customer experience map.

For a reputed hotel organisation, it is important to have an in-depth understanding regarding the customers’ specifications and requirements. It becomes more of a significant factor for the reputed hotels because they have a prolong reputation for providing quality services to the customers. However, Barrett et al. (2015) asserted that with the growing demand for technological advancement and digitisation, the direct service is no longer the only factor behind an effective customer service preference. The situation becomes more complex and dynamic enough to ensure the satisfaction of the clients and visitors. In this context, Moreno-Munoz et al. (2016) asserted that putting emphasis on the customer values has a market orientation. In the intense competitive market most of the service related business industries irrespective of different sectors try to retain their market and expand it more exquisitely in order to continue the business operation and safeguard the business in future. Therefore, von Nitzsch, Braun, and Bons (2017) asserted that in the UK hotel business sector it becomes an important aspect to consider the customer values as an important aspect for the benefit of the hotels because it helps the hotels to transform and develop its services with the change of time. As a matter of fact, hotels like the Calridge’s have more specific and rich clients who expect more luxurious and smooth services that have a professional attitude with fulfilling all the requirements that they seek. It can be argued that the customer segmentation of Calridge’s hotel is generally based on the income scale as the services they provide is high class and sophisticated enough that cost heavily. Mainly the top business profiles and the celebrities are the main customers of Calridge’s hotel that is the reason why the hotel tries to adapt the new techniques and process to provide the best quality service to the clients.

Creating Business Opportunities through Customer Experience Mapping

In response to this, Daugherty, Bolumole and Grawe (2018) pointed out service quality as one of the most important aspect that can create a differentiation of customer attraction. It can be considered that the general impression of a high profile or 5 star hotel is resembled with the purpose to maximize its customers by providing quality services. Henceforth, it can be stated that the quality of service identifies the superiority or inferiority of a hotel. On the other hand, Fitzgerald et al. (2014) asserted that brand image is also played a significant role that attracts the customers extensively. It can be argued that the image of the brand or the organisation shows a great deal of the excellence that the organisation is known for. Therefore, it can be identified a strategic measure for the organisation to develop effective market capitalisation. For an instance, the luxurious brand value of Calridge’s hotel makes it different from other hotels in order to make an own image and help to make its own establishment. Besides this, public relation also creates enough success to the establishment of a hospitality service base organisation. According to Westerman and Bonnet (2015) the motive of public relation is to identify, establish and maintain a mutually beneficial relationship with the target customers through various public communication strategies directly or indirectly. As a matter of fact, it can be stated that the success or failure of a company depends on the public relation partially. In case of the Calridge’s hotel public relation is considered to be a part of their communication with the clients. As most of the Calridge customers are high profile therefore it is so important for the organisation to maintain a healthy public relation framework. In addition to this, the trustworthiness of the consumers on the services and products of the company is also referred as a significant aspect that can contribute to the customer engagement in a robust manner. In the research of Nylén and Holmström (2015) it can be argued that trustworthiness can bring more effectiveness into the maximisation of customers in an organisation. However, the process of trustworthiness is associated with both the brand image and public relation measures. In this context, the professional attitude and working efficiency of Calridge’s hotel is the main factor that can create better marketization for the organisation.

From that broad perspective on the customer engagement factors it can be stated that Calridge’s hotel tries to set its target customers in terms of the high profile visitors. Moreover, the business personalities and high profile business associates are also the frequent visitors of the hotel. The reason behind Calridge’s hotel’s success has its legacy since the royal visit in 1860 when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert came to the hotel. As a result of that it became a luxurious hotspot for the royal families and high profile individuals. For an example, during the Second World War Calridge’s hotel became a hub for the exiled kings and rulers like the kings of Greece, Norway and Yugoslavia. These incidents increased the image and brand value of Calridge’s hotel in a rapid manner. Celebrities like renowned fashion model Kate Moss celebrated her 30^th birthday here. Moreover, famous fashion designers like Lulu Guinness and Jade Jagger described this hotel as the ultimate space to get luxury. Therefore, it becomes an important aspect for Calridge’s hotel to maintain its high quality hospitality services and putting a great concern regarding other facilities so that the popularity and brand image will be retained.

From the above customer experience map it can be stated that there are some clear understanding and user friendly framework that the organisation is practiced in order to satisfy the customers and clients. In this regard, luxury attraction, post-travel experience, personal service quality and the ambience are the primary touch points of Calridge’s hotel that can help the organisation to maximise its customers to a great extent. For an instance, the luxury products and the services provided by Calridge’s hotel are one of the best in the world. There is no match of the quality of luxury that the hotel is provided. Moreover, its uniqueness is also considered to be an important aspect that differentiate the organisation from rest of its competitions. On the other hand, Post-travel experience is also played a significant part in evaluating the positive satisfaction of the clients. It is resembled with the overall experience of the hospitality that the Calridge’s hotel provides. From the menu of the hotel to its luxury suits all are so exquisite and best fitted with the aspirations of the customers that can facilitate an unique and clear brand image of the hotel. In this regard, the quality of personal service is considered to be the special services that only the Calridge’s hotel has provided. It means the professionalism of the housekeeping and cognate facilities that the organisation implements in order to maximise the quality of hospitality is surely an epic and beyond the world standard. Legacy with the British Royal family further revamps image of the hotel and the service people are also get adequate training to make their clients happy and satisfied. In addition to this, the ambience is of world class where renowned fashion designers and architects spent their productive time in order to establish better ambience for the hotel. It helps to attract celebrity customers in a robust manner.

It can be concluded that understanding the target group is considered to be one of the major aspect on which every hotel company has to keep its focus. In this context, the hotel industry in UK is highly competitive and has dynamic approaches that are resembled with providing quality service to the customers and clients. From that above discussion, it can be argued that the essay is highly relevant and pragmatic enough to retain business in a competitive market.

Technological advancement has increased the vitality and relevance of the incorporation of digital technology in the luxury hotels as a tool to develop better customer satisfaction. For an instance, the smart and exquisite use of technology will foster a better customer satisfaction experience for Calridge’s hotel in UK. In this context, the purpose of this report is to identify and highlight the digital technologies that the organisation is used in order to maximise its customer satisfaction framework. Moreover, the discussion also evaluated an alternative digital technology method that will provide additional efficacy into the customer satisfaction framework.

The self-service technology has enormous functionality that coincided with the purpose of the hotels. According to Fu et al. (2015) the role of the self-service technology is considered to be one of the most effective measure in order to meet the satisfaction of the customers digitally. In this regard, Lee, Verma and Roth (2015) asserted that there are four types of self-service technology interfaces in terms of telephone based technologies or interactive voice response system, interactive kiosks, technology based on internet connection and the image and video based technology. In course of identifying the purpose of the self-service technology Lu et al. (2015) stated that procuring effective customer service framework this technology has played a significant role in the leading luxury hotels across the world. Moreover, having in-depth understanding on the specifications and actions of the technology and related skills are also important for the employees or hostel staffs. Kitsios et al. (2015) pointed out some advantages in this regard that are coincided with the purpose to install the self-service technology in luxurious hotels. For an instance, the self-service technology is responsible to reduce the unnecessary costs like employing huge number of employees and giving them monthly wages. The self-service technology is considered to be a onetime investment mechanism and for a quarterly or half-yearly maintenance the hotels have to bear not so high expenses. Besides this, the self-service technology also facilitates operational efficiency and making favourable conditions for the luxury hotels in order to retain their images and quality of customer services to a great extent.

In this context, Calridge’s hotel is always looking for better technologies and mechanisms that can make them unique in the high competitive hotel industry in UK. The objective of the hotel is to ensure the safety, security and service of the clients and customers to the far extent so that they can enjoy all the luxuries and fun uninterruptedly. Moreover, the brand image is also played significantly that pushed Calridge’s hotel to implement such model that is resembled with its unique customer delivery services. Based on this understanding, the hotel executives and board members follow the Technology Acceptance Model. According to Xiang, Schwartz and Uysal (2015) the technology acceptance model is a by-product of the theory of reasoned action. The model is associated with the motive to predict the acceptability of information system. In this regard, the acceptability of the tools and the modifications related to the technology is highly important. According to Lee, Verma and Roth (2015) the technology acceptance model reflects the role of the behavioural intention behind using a digital information system. The primary purpose for implementing technology within the customer service process is to deliver better quality and efficient services to the customers blended with less error causing measures and more of a user-friendly. In this regard, the technology acceptance model directly links with the perceived usefulness and the perceived ease of use. As a result of that it becomes easier for the users to use such framework and get more efficient outcome in terms of enhancing the customer satisfaction.

In this context, it can be argued that the Calridge’s hotel puts emphasis on developing more efficient customer satisfaction measures in order to deal with the effective Customer Relationship Management. There are proper training and induction process for the staffs who are entitled to provide professional level of services to the high profile customers. It is important to know that most of the Calridge customers are rich and high profile celebrities so that it is essential to deliver the best possible customer services to the visitors. Emotional attachment is also played a significant role in order to illustrate the relationship between the hotel personnel and the clients. Therefore, creating a better CRM framework will deliver Calridge’s hotel the advantage to procure strong and professional mechanism in its customer service process.

Advantages

• It curtails the unnecessary costs by implementing the self-service technologies (González-Rodríguez et al. 2018).
• Enhance the operational efficiency to a great extent.
• Facilitates the sustainable development by adapting advance technologies (Du et al. 2016).

• The implementation cost is too high for the introduction of technology in the customer service paradigm (Rahimi and Kozak 2017).
• It can cause problem for further employment for the employees in hotel industries.
• The technological skills and knowledge is so high that most of the employees do not have the ability to learn it.
• Moreover, for further training additional expenses will be required.

According to Rahimi (2017) it can be argued that the analytical strategy is considered to be an important tool to facilitate better customer services in hotel industries. It comprises the analysis of the customer behaviour with implementing the business intelligence technologies so that the hotel company can generate so much information regarding the intention and purposes of the customers. In this regard, the job of analytical strategy is related to accumulate data from various sources that are resembled with the quotient of customer satisfaction. Moreover, it can be argued that the online analytical processing is one of the most popular type of decision-support analysis that allows business person to explore data online and investigating the lower level of data hierarchy (Enz and Way 2016). As a matter of fact, the online analytical processing is one of the most popular type that coincided with the data driven analysis. Besides this, the data mining process is also considered to be one of the major aspect that the Online Analytical Processing provides in order to bring more information and details of the customers so that the hotel company can get a clear picture and deep insights into the customer details (Wang, Miao and Mattila 2015). Prediction, sequence and association are the main factors regarding this data mining process that facilitate a great deal of importance and efficiency on generating the customer satisfaction. On the contrary, customer relationship can be developed with the help of the innovation in the hotel service facility. From that point of view Kasiri et al. (2017) opined that with the growing competition in the hotel service industries globally it became an important aspect for the hotel companies to initiate and looking for innovative and alternative measures that can be dealt with the retention of the business by the hotel companies firmly and successfully.

From the above point of view, it can be argued that the role of the customer service in Calridge’s hotel follows the self-service technology coordinated with the advanced digitisation. However, there are other customer relationship mechanism that can create better service framework regarding the quality of service and communication with the customers. As a matter of fact, the purpose of the CRM in Calridge’s hotel is associated with not only providing better service experience to the customers but also prepare a better environment for the company also to get adequate data regarding the details of the clients and visitors. In this regard, there are some recommendations that will foster better occupational framework within the Calridge’s hotel and ensure the service quality strategically.

• At first, it is important to ensure the safety and security of the employees. Stressing more on the role of digitisation in the customer satisfaction and services. Nowadays it becomes an emerging threat for the employees to keep their job intact. Artificial intelligence as a replacement seems to have more efficiency so that it reduces the job opportunity for fresh and experienced well skilled employees as well.
• Besides this, less complexities within the self-service technology will facilitate a better and easy-to-handle process so that the customers will access the services easily.
• Moreover, the induction and training program for the employees will foster an in-depth understanding of various steps of the self-service technology and helping them to keep the maintenance in process.

Conclusion

From the above point of view, it can be argued that the role of the customer satisfaction is considered to be one of the most important aspect that can facilitate better framework for any luxury hotel business company. In this regard, this report tries to find out the customer satisfaction elements and preferences set out by Calridge’s hotel. As a matter of fact, the intervention of digitisation is also pertinent in order to establish quality service and this discussion is also encapsulate this perception quite effectively. It can be argued that the role of the digitation and cutting edge technology is not the ultimate measure to usher more efficacy into the quality service process. It requires precision and proper implementation lingering with a recommendation part that this report clearly have mentioned. Henceforth, choosing the right communication and service strategy is also considered to be a strategic measure that can facilitate advantages to the future business expansion for the hotels. From that point of view, this report is relevant and pragmatic enough to understand the importance of customer satisfaction in a luxury hotel like Calridge’s hotel.

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