INTRODUCTION
Customers are primary requirement of any organisation without customer a firm cannot run its functional activities. If customers are not happy with the services they will not visit in the hospitality industry again which brings a negative impact on the brand image of hotel (Amin, Yahya and et. al., 2013). The company is taken for this assignment is Hilton Hotel which is a five star hotel located in London it has a huge market presence in the hospitality sector. This report will discuss about the importance of needs and factors which gave affect on the customer needs. For creating new opportunities in the hospitality sector a customer map will also discussed in this report which provide assistance to management in getting growth and sustainability.
TASK 1
Induction training pack
Timeline | Activities | Sources |
Day 1 | Induction program overview Introducing with existing colleagues and workplace | By HR manager |
Day 2 | Explaining about their job roles and responsibilities. | By Human resource manager or through offer letter document |
Day 3 | Defining about the importance and understanding of customer expectations. | https://www.qualtrics.com/blog/customer-expectations/ |
Day 4 | Familiarising with company's networking related to IT. | Through superior guidelines and on the job training |
Day 5 | Advising ways for customer engagement | https://buildfire.com/customer-engagement-strategies/ |
Day 6 | Introduction of rules and regulations followed | Company policy document |
Day 7 | Ways to enhance customer services map | https://www.comm100.com/blog/customer-experience-mapping.html |
Day 8 | Explaining about the touch points that support in improving customer experience | https://www.mycustomer.com/experience/engagement/mapping-your-customer-journeys-across-touchpoints-examples-and-techniques |
P1 Value and importance of understanding the needs, wants and preference of target customer groups
The targetted customers for the Hilton hotel are the Upper class individuals, business men and newly married couples. Therefore, they have their own preference with different requirements which can be further stood through as following:
Needs are the elementary demand of an individualist to fulfil itself. The needs of newly married couples are local food and comfortable living rooms which can fulfilled by the Hilton hotel. The characteristics of these couples are very simple as they are newly married they wants entertaining environment in the hotel along with a tasty food if they are not satisfied or their needs are not fulfilled by the services they will not come to the Hilton Hotel again. So that, customer satisfaction is the basic need for taking growth and sustainability. When customer is getting satisfied from the hotel services then the time starts for wants. Wants can be defined as a choice of individual which is created from needs. The newly married couples are emphasizes on comfort environment so that, their wants would be a better living room, tasty food etc. as their wants will be filled the time starts for knowing their preferences. The newly married couple wants a proper silence in the environment so staff members of Hilton should be maintain their services to fulfil needs and wants of the newly married couples (Carreira, Patrício and et. al., 2014).
Higher income earning individuals are the customers who wants lavish life style they are more focus on the quality in services instead of its cost. These are the customers who wants better quality services at the time of their stay. The characteristics of Higher income earning individuals are they want a healthy environment in the hotel as they are belong to Higher income earning customers therefore, they believe in quality not in cost of the quality. Their needs are hygienic food and with a proper quality in it. The wants of this type customers can be the facilities such as swimming pool, bar, spa and gym. The preference of these customers would be the car parking facility and proper security at the time of their stay. So that, Hilton hotel should manage their facilities thus, they will easily get satisfaction from this type of customers.
Business men are the persons who have less time because of their busy schedule they have also some needs wants and preference. As they are following a tight procedures so that their needs and wants are also differs from other customers. This type of customers wants a proper location where they perform their business activities in well manner this includes a proper food and meeting lounge. Their wants should be internet connection and electric supply at the meeting lounge so they can easily organise their meetings in effective manner. After satisfaction of wants they have prefer meeting rooms in their priority. These are the need, want and preference of business persons and it can be fulfilled by the Hilton Hotel which will increase their number of customers.
Hilton hotel have to maintain their services so that, they will meet with the requirements of their targetted customers. It will helps in maintaining new relationship with customers and sales will also increased. It will provide a brand image to the customers as they fulfils the requirement of their customers they will again visit in Hilton hotel (Demirkan, 2015).
P2 Different factors which drive and influence customers engagement of different target customer group.
There are several elements which affects the customer engagement in Hospitality industry. Hilton Hotel focuses on these factors therefore, they will able in improving the customers experience. There are some elements of targeted customers that are as following:
Newly married couples who wants to enjoy their stay so that, they requires an entertaining atmosphere in Hotel due to this, they can easily spend their time. Management of Hilton hotel should focuses on this element because it affects the customer engagement. On the other hand, if Hotel staff will not providing them proper services it will brings dissatisfaction in the customers (Tseng and Wu, 2014).
Higher Income-earning individuals are the second targeted customers, who wants a proper environment along with facilities in it. Their primary requirement is to get quality services instead of cost due to which they prefer to stay in such kind of hotel. Their requirements are different from other customers such as a proper parking facility, hygiene food quality, disco, swimming pool etc. which can be easily available and provided by Hilton Hotel. Therefore, Hotel should provide facilities to their customer for getting satisfaction from them.
Business men are also included in targeted customers who wants to organise a business meeting in the hotel. For this, they wants a peaceful atmosphere due to which they can easily perform their functions in effective manner. Whereas, there are other elements in which management of Hilton have to focus such as electric supply in the meeting lounge, proper internet facilities and many more due to this, Business persons will easily conduct their meeting programmes. Quality in food is also a crucial element which is to provided them after the business meeting. Therefore, management of Hilton have to consider this elements in order to increasing attractiveness of the customers.
With consideration of above elements HR department can take feedbacks from the customers about the facilities which are offered to them. It will help them in improvement in services and they can easily identify their weak areas. Due to which, they can increase their number of customers (Kandampully, Juwaheer and Hu, 2011).
TASK 3
P3 Customer service map for Hilton Hotel
There are various factors which is considered at the time of creating customer service map they are as following:
- Website- it is the first element by which customer interacts with the hotel at first time. So, the website should be maintained properly which facilitate their targetted customers to get relevant information about their products and services along with their prices and benefits. No blur images will be shown on website. The photos of facilities which are provided in the hotel would be real and also clicked by the photographers who have a large experience in this field. On the other hand, website should be maintained on the regular basis by the IT department of Hotel therefore customers will attract towards hotel services in a single visit at the website (Koelliker, 2017).
- Review sites – After visited on website, customers will examine the reviews of Hotel to check the experience of current visited visitors. As reviews gave positive and negative experience of their customers therefore, Hilton have to maintain reviews on their website it can be possible through providing effective services to their customers. So that, they gave their positive feedbacks about the quality services of hotel. Through checking reviews customers will build a positive image of the hotel in their mind which improves the brand image of Hotel.
- Telephone – It is an essential aspect in creating customer service map in it an individual can make a call to know more information abut the hotel services. It is the aspect when the customer is attracted towards hotel's quality services and it is come after examining reviews of the hotel facilities (Lee and Park, 2014). In this information may includes various factors such as price of the different services, availability of rooms and many more. In this aspect receptionist of Hilton hotel have to play a crucial role because they need to provide all the information which is required by the customers. And the conversations should contains politeness due to which the customers will attract towards the atmosphere of Hilton.
- Hotel staff – When guests entered in the atmosphere of Hilton. The employees of Hotel have to understand their roles and behave with the customers gently. It is the important part of customer experience map. So, staff members should deal with the guests in humble nature. The staff of the Hotel are knowledgeable and well experienced therefore they can easily deals with the customers and get satisfaction from them. Quality in behaviour of employees create the huge satisfaction of customers and a relationship is maintained therefore, employee's behaviour plays an crucial role in customer service map (Nusair and Parsa, 2011).
P4 Discuss how the touch points throughout the customer experience create business opportunities for a selected service sector organisation.
Touch point is defined as a way in which consumer interacts with an organisation. It may be on the basis of person to person, through website of firm or any way that is a part of communication. In addition to this, these are essential in managing the customer experience. There are various touch points of Hilton hotel in which the experience of customer get influenced they are further explained as below:
- Website – It is the first part of touchpoint in it customers will know about the facilties that are provided by the hotel to its guests. Whole details about the Hotel are shown on website should be clear and proper so that, a great impact on the customer experience can be created. Whereas, if the photos and details are not clear they will not visited in the premise of Hilton. So management of Hilton have to maintain the website for getting positive feedbacks from the customers.
- Telephone- It is also an important aspect of touch-point in it customer can feels the service quality of hotel. In this part, customer makes a call to the hotel for getting information about the facilities of hotel. If customer will not satisfied from the details it will not visit at the hotel. Therefore, receptionist have to behave with customers on phone calls as they have responsibility to represent hotel facility in front of them. Which will bring effectiveness in quality and also increases the number of customers in the atmosphere of Hilton (Peña and et. al., 2013).
- Hotel staff - It is also an essential factor of touch-point in this, when customers are entered in the environment of Hilton employees have to behave properly with them. They can ask from them about their requirements which brings a great impact in the services. If the staff member will behave rudely to customers it will increase their dissatisfaction about the services of hotel. Therefore, management of Hilton have to emphasizes on the increasing skills and strength of the employees so they get effective outcomes in future time.
- Hotel management – the management have to focus on the requirement of customers and taking reviews of customers about the services of hotel. It will provide satisfaction in the customers. Management of Hilton have responsibility to provide services to their customers in time so that, a healthy relationship will be build between the management and customers.
Customer journey map:-
It refers to a procedure through which a company map its interaction with organisation for enhancing the customer experience. Hilton hotel can use customer experience map for improving their services and maintaining customer base effectively. Following are the steps that are involve in it:
Research and planning:- This step depict about the research that a customer make for finding the right hotel for their accommodation as per requirement (Zhang, Lu and et. al., 2014). It generally involve deciding travel dates, visiting websites and other source of information for selecting the best alternative. So for enhancing the customer experience, Hilton hotel must try to manage or improve their websites by providing adequate information in a coincide and appropriate manner.
Shopping: According to this stage, customer's might shop various services with the help of one click. In case of Hilton hotel, management team of the company must provide various facilities and options to their customers.
Booking:- Under this stages customer book hotels on the bases of services available, visiting purpose and online reviews regarding the services of hotel. Hilton must try to simplify the process of booking for its customer in order to provide them better service experience.
Pre travel:- This is the most crucial stage which includes the interaction of a customer in order to stay in a hotel and avail its services. Hilton hotel must provide proper training sessions to their staff members so that they will be able to provide satisfactory services to its customer while welcoming them (Demirkan, 2015).
Travel: It is essential to have websites and pages of the company in order to ask any kind of query and issues related to the hotel. In context of Hilton hotel, marketing team need to examine and answer all the questions which is related with the travel and stay, so that large number of customers might be attracted towards the company.
Post travel: Hilton hotel can improve customer relation by enhancing their experience through customer mapping process. This can be done by simplifying their checkout services and regularly interacting with them by providing information regarding the offers and personalised services to customer for their next visit.
CONCLUSION
It has been concluded from the above report that customer's experience can be improved on the daily basis in the Hospitality sector. The Hilton Hotel's staff are providing quality services to their customers in order to build healthy relations with them. For this, HR department of Hilton provide training facilities to their staff members so that, their skills and ability are increased. Various needs and demands of different targetted customers are discussed which increases the opportunities for the Hilton hotel. Customer touch point is also optimized for bringing effectiveness in services of Hotel. They have created quality services in order to taking positive feedbacks from their customers.