Introduction
Customer Service Management of Premier Inn will be evaluated in this report in which readers will know how it can manage its customer. Customer experience refers to how customers perceive their experience, and the care companies ensure to make customers engaged and satisfied. As the definition implies, customer experience is highly important for any industry; it is more important in hospitality than other industries because of its service-oriented nature. This report is on managing customer experience and will be divided into four segments. The report will critically analyze and evaluate the importance of customer experience in the service industry, strategies to optimize service experience and how companies can improve service experience. All these issues of customer experience will be applied to a hospitality company named The Premier Inn which is owned by Whitbread Plc. Premier Inn is a chain of hotel and hospitality industry having hotels, restaurants and hospitality services worldwide; mentionable: China, United Arab Emirates (UAE), India, Ireland, Russia, UK and a number of countries in the EU (Whitbread PLC., 2019). Premier Inn is a leading UK-based hotel and hospitality brand which has more than 800 hotels with 72,000 rooms in a variety of locations (Whitbread PLC., 2019).
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Defining Target Market:
The target market refers to the specific customer segment of the market that a company targets and makes products and services to meet their specific demand and needs (Šerić, Gil-Saura, and Ruiz-Molina, 2014). The world has hundreds of thousands of types of customers and needs, this looks completely illogical to serve the whole market; rather, a company needs to segment the market of its industry and then target a segment to serve its specific needs and demand. Targeting the correctly-defined target market and compiling strategies to meet them makes the difference between a failed company and a successful company (Kotler et al., 2017). Without a target market, a company is without objectives, and without objectives, no company can sustain itself in the business. Premier Inn is a company which also has a target market. The hotel chain targets premier-class tourists and business visitors making visit the areas near the hotel locations.
Importance of understanding the needs and preferences of target customer:
The hospitality industry is huge, it is impossible for a hospitality company to effectively serve the customers without properly understanding the needs, wants and preferences of the target customer segments (Bowie et al., 2016).
Barrows, Powers, and Reynolds (2012) argued that clear knowledge of target customers’ needs, wants and preferences help the hospitality industry to offer less effective choices to customers. As a result, it is convenient both for the company and for the customers to complete the deal in less time because hospitality companies spend less time offering because they know customers’ needs.
Buttle, and Maklan (2019) noted that understanding customers’ needs, wants, and preferences help a hospitality company to offer new product or services faster than compatriots do it. This will also help the company to offer an effective solution to customers’ needs and preferences. Thus, the company will get a first mover advantage and thus a competitive advantage. This will help the company to better position itself in the market and in customer perception.
Goodman (2019) revealed that keeping regular track of customers’ needs and preferences will help the hospitality industry to know the changing nature of their perceptions and attitude. Such understanding will also help the industry to compile social media and communication policies which should be according to their changing nature. Therefore, knowing customers’ needs wants and preferences help a company better compile the social media campaign programs and understand their changing nature.
The above analysis clearly shows that keeping clear knowledge and understanding of customers’ needs, wants, and preferences can play a great role in the hospitality industry in terms of product offering and communication.
Defining Customer engagement:
Gronroos (2016) defined customer experience as the extent and depth of the relationship between target customers and a brand’s running communication, services and products offered by the brand and received by the target customers. High customer engagement implies that customers are interested bout the products and services, it also means that communication strategies adopted by the brand are successful. Positively engaged customers are likely to make further purchases and they have generally retained customers of the company.
Factors affecting customer engagement in Premier Inn:
Premier Inn or hospitality companies are generally service and quality-dominated organizations where the quality of services, amenities and customer satisfaction play the greatest role. In the below section, factors that play an important role in customer engagement in Premier Inn are critically reviewed.
Kandampully, Zhang, and Bilgihan (2015) argued that the location of the service centre, the types of amenities offered and the extent of facilities demonstrated to play the greatest role in customer engagement in the hospitality industry. The location should be as per the convenience of the target market. For example, Premier Inn targets business visitors and tourists; thus, the company has established most of the hotels in commercial urban areas and in famous tourist spots such as the London Eye, Chester Zoo, Eden Project etc. (Premier Inn Hotels Ltd., 2020). Such varieties of locations imply that Premier Inn emphasizes customers’ convenience in terms of locations. As a result, the brand is famous among tourists and visitors through high customer engagement.
Accordingly, facilities and amenities should also be designed to serve the purpose of customers (Ong, 2012). For example, Premier Inn has facilitated 24/7 free WiFi, luxury Hypnos beds, monsoon showers, and free tea and coffee 24/7 in every room (Premier Inn Hotels Ltd.-1, 2020). This also means that a hospitality company should design the amenities based on the expectations and demand of the target market. Thus, customers will be satisfied, and they will be closely engaged with Premier Inn enhancing future possibilities of growth.
Kang (2011) stated that quality and cleanliness play essential roles in enhancing customer satisfaction in the hospitality industry. Such customer satisfaction results in customer engagement because satisfied customers will make more interactions with the company and its offers. Premier Inn ensures that the products and services have high quality and state-of-art design. High quality and cleanliness create a good impression among the perception of customers and enhances customer engagement.
Customer relationship management implies how the employees and assigned CRM managers interact with customers (Tresidder and Hirst, 2012). As the definition suggests, they play a big role in Premier Inn because customers count how employees of Premier Inn behave with them. Excellent CRM leads to higher customer engagement.
Apart from the above, brand marketing strategies, social marketing campaigns, and engagement also play a role in enhancing customer engagement (Meghna, and Gaur, 2012). Attractive and timely brand marketing strategies and customer engaging content in social media positively affect customers to be more engaged with Premier Inn.
Customer experience map for a tourism sector organization:
A customer experience map outlines a customer’s overall experience with the services of a company which the customer goes through and has certain experiences of satisfaction or dissatisfaction (Barrows, Powers, and Reynolds, 2012). This map can play a significant role in understanding a particular problem of a brand or overall service experience by the customers. This is even more important for Premier Inn. In this section, the customer experience map for Premier Inn is outlined through the application of Customer journey mapping.
Declaring the objective: Barrows, Powers, and Reynolds (2012) stated that a hospitality company should first outline the objectives of the customer experience map. The objective of mapping experience can be as broad as evaluating the company-wide (of Premier Inn) experience of different services; the objective can also be as narrower as evaluating a specific service of Premier Inn, such as restaurant service customer experience. Declaring the objectives helps to define the touch points through which a customer makes the journey. The objective of this customer experience mapping is to evaluate the company-wide customer experience.
Defining Premier Inn’s customer touch-points: Goodman (2019) defined customer touch-points as the areas where a customer gets close while making interactions or transactions with a company. The customer touch-points at Premier Inn are outlined below:
| Customer Touch-Points of Premier Inn |
| Digital media (Facebook, twitter, YouTube etc.) |
| Traditionally digital media (Television and radio) |
| Physical features and attributes |
| E-mail, phone calls, messages |
| In-Store (at Premier Inn destinations) |
| CRM’s demo |
| Online Presence |
| Word of mouth |
The touch-point areas illustrated in the above table show that all aspects of the touch points of Premier Inn have been considered. Premier Inn should keep a strong focus on all the touch-point areas.
Demonstrating customer experience at Premier Inn: Riasi, and Pourmiri (2015) revealed that customer experience could be of two types: positive customer experience and negative customer experience. How they take place is demonstrated below:
Figure 2 clearly demonstrates that the customer was satisfied with the services at the touch points at Premier Inn and as a result, Premier Inn was positively reviewed and shared with customers’ friend and families.
On the very contrary, figure 3 clearly demonstrates that the customer was dissatisfied with the services at the touch points at Premier Inn, and as a result, Premier Inn was negatively reviewed and shared with customers’ friends and families.
Customer experience mapping for Premier Inn
While reading above table, numerical sequences should follow. Based on customers’ experience at the touch points, customers are either satisfied or dissatisfied. Above experience mapping will help Premier Inn to look into the areas which require attention
How Premier Inn can enhance the customer experience
Bharwani, and Jauhari (2013) pointed out that physical features and CRM’s attitude and behaviour with customers play the greatest role in the hospitality industry because it is dominated by luxury, cleanliness and hospitality of the employees. The definition implies that every aspect, even the smallest features such as the design of the bed-sheet or table at Premier Inn, make difference between Premier Inn and competitors towards the perception of customers.
Touch-points start with digital media (such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc.) because of the widespread use of the channels (Naderian, and Baharun, 2015). Premier Inn should ensure that adverts and brand messages on this channel should have a touch of passion and care. Additionally, it should keep the focus on customer-engaging content and issues so that customers observe the content and build a positive attitude towards Premier Inn. A positive attitude is the starting point for a positive customer experience.
Traditionally digital media (Television and radio) can also play a good role to build customer experience (Yoo, and Bai, 2013). Premier Inn should air adverts on community radio channels to target a specific group of customers. Again, a touch of care and passion should be ensured in messages.
Greater plosive attitude and care can be demonstrated in e-mails, phone replies and messages (Line, and Runyan, 2012). Premier should draft messages professionally and completely; CRM should reply to phone calls with gratitude and respect and talk nicely. These approaches will significantly affect customers to build a positive concept about Premier Inn. As a result, the business will grow with a positive customer experience.
Physical features, cleanliness, attributes, staff behaviour, designs, and locations of Premier Inn play the greatest role, among all touch-points, in affecting customer experience. Premier Inn should ensure attractive features, excellent record of cleanliness, state-of-art attributes and designs that will positively impact customers to make an outstanding customer experience. Thus, customers will share positive word of mouth with others, and market share and revenue will further increase for Premier Inn.
Impact of digital technologies on Customer Relation Management (CRM)
CRM refers to every interaction customers make with a company and vice versa (Legrand, Sloan, and Chen, 2016). With the advancement of technologies and communication mediums, companies are widely adopting digital CRM approaches. As a result, traditional CRM approaches are being declined.
Digital CRM: primary communication: The use of technologies for primary communication between customers and companies has replaced the old use of mobile phones (Brotherton, 2012). Hospitality companies have an interactive website where detailed information is clearly given. Therefore, customers can find the required information on the website. Even websites can help with instant communication. For example, Chatbot is a web-enabled feature where customers can instantly send queries and get instant replies from Hospitality Companies. This helps Premier Inn to retain customers by providing information quickly and helping them make a quick decisions.
Digital CRM: Confirmation and payment system: Web-based booking and payment through e-commerce have changed the old practice of phone-based booking and cash payment in CRM (Zaibaf, Taherikia, and Fakharian, 2013). Customers can now check room availability and expenses online and can book instantly. Even they can make an online payment. This has enhanced customer management efficiency, and now companies can concentrate on other areas, such as quality and service development. As a result, customers get excellent customer journeys and experiences from Premier Inn.
Digital CRM: customized communication and data-driven decision: Omnichannel feature of CRM and data-driver communication has enabled companies to apply tailored and customer-oriented marketing strategies, enhancing further possibilities of customer satisfaction (Dzhandzhugazova et al., 2016). For example, Omni-channel marketing communication enables Premier Inn to make customized messages and communication based on progress made by other forms of communication channels. This is an application of artificial Intelligence (AI). As a result, customers receive consistent information, which makes them confident about Premier Inn. Confident customers are sustainable and retained.
Digital CRM: Cookies, big data and analytics: The use of cookies, big data, cookies and analytics help a company make better decisions about customer engagement and communication (Christou, 2011). For example, big data will enable Premier Inn to collect a large volume of data about customers, and the data will be individually customized. Therefore, companies can target customers wise online adverts. This will engage customers to a huge extent.
Customer experience management in the tourism sector
Premier Inn is a hospitality industry, and thus strategies of this company should evolve around higher class services and qualities.
Personalization of marketing communication: Withiam (2011) stated that personalization of marketing plays a big role in customer services by providing tailored marketing communications through Omnichannel marketing. Premier Inn can preserve personal information, usages of devices, needs and preferences of individual customers; accordingly, the company can tailor the marketing and branding message to the customers.
Such a personalization strategy will help Premier Inn in two ways: firstly, the company can clearly track the needs, wants, and preferences of the customers. As a result, Premier Inn can further better compile marketing strategies for those customers. Secondly, customers will get a coherent message from Premier Inn. This will increase a sense of confidence among customers and will make purchase decisions for Premier Inn. Both of these ways will play a greater role in engaging customers and making them retained, which will pave the way for sustainable growth of Premier Inn. Therefore, it is highly recommended that Premier Inn should personalize the marketing, it can be through an Omni-channel marketing approach.
Smart home elements: Jakada, and Gambo (2014) argued that the use of advanced technologies such as virtual reality, smart home devices (such as Alexa for Hospitality: a smart speaker), chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI) would pave the way of the sustainable customer relationship. Premier Inn can use virtual reality to assist customers in having an excellent customer experience during their stay, use smart home devices to help customers easily use home appliances, use web-enabled chatbots to help customers quickly get information.
All the above-mentioned smart strategies will be highly customer focused in this age of technological advancement. Customers will have a happy time. Moreover, they will certainly go through excellent customer experience, which will lead to superior customer experience. Therefore, it is strongly recommended that Premier Inn should enable virtual reality, smart home devices (such as Alexa for Hospitality: a smart speaker), chatbots and artificial intelligence (AI) in all of its destinations.
Horner, and Swarbrooke (2012) revealed that employee attitude and behaviour, cleanliness, and care in every touch point play a greater role in the hospitality industry to enhance customer service excellence. Premier Inn should ensure a touch of care at every service point, employees should be friendly and cooperative with customers.
The above strategies of employees attitude and behaviour, cleanliness, and care in every touch point will deliver a message to customers that Premier Inn cares for them. It will enhance a sense of positive attitude among customers towards Premier Inn. As a result, they will be retained customers because of enhanced customer experience.
Apart from the above strategies, Premier Inn should regularly publish customer-engaging content and adverts on social media; should make an attractive and interactive online presence; should create a large number of user-generated content on famous travel-related sites such as Trip Advisor or others. All of the above strategies will help premier Inn to create a better customer experience and thus will help the company to retain existing customers and to get new ones.
Conclusion:
The hospitality industry is purely a service-oriented industry. Thus, companies working in this industry should make their strategies considering customers in the middle. Companies should first consider understanding the needs, wants and preferences of the customers; it will help companies to better offer products and services than competitors can. Services, marketing strategies, and customer engagement approach the quality of services matters in customer engagement. An undemanding customer experience map and customer journey map can play a big role in understanding the key touch-points that a company should consider to improve and work on. Premier Inn should deploy digital technologies and AI in marketing and branding communications to enhance customer engagement.
References
Bowie, D., Buttle, F., Brookes, M. and Mariussen, A., 2016. Hospitality marketing. Taylor & Francis.
Christou, E., 2011. Exploring online sales promotions in the hospitality industry. Journal of Hospitality Marketing & Management, 20(7), pp.814-829.
Premier Inn Hotels Ltd., 2020. Hotels wherever you want to stay. Retrieved from: https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/why/locations.html [Assessed on 31 May 2020]
Premier Inn Hotels Ltd.-1, 2020. Hotels wherever you want to stay. Retrieved from: https://www.premierinn.com/gb/en/hub.html [Assessed on 31 May 2020]
Whitbread PLC., 2019. Annual Report & Accounts 2018/19. Retrieved from: https://www.whitbread.co.uk/~/media/Files/W/Whitbread/report-and%20presentations/2019/Whitbread_18-19%20Full%20Report_Final_Final.pdf [Assessed on 30 May 2020]