Hilton Hotel Differentiation Essay Example for Free

Hilton Hotel Differentiation EssayHilton Hotels is one of the biggest players in the US lodgement industry. It contributes to about 9% of the total rooms in US living accommodations market. It has presence in all over 78 countries with more than 2500 hotels. Lodging industry is super capital intensive industry, so to reduce capital expenditure Hilton Hotels opted for self-owned Hotels as well as franchising model with the real estate owners. One of the key features of lodging industry is low switching costs for nodes. There is very little margin to differentiate from the major competitors in the industry which include Marriott international, IHG, Accor etc. signalize success factor in lodging market is quality of receipts one provides. Hilton Hotels are highly focused about their service level by providing excellent care to the customers.Traditionally, standardization of service delivery operations has been one of the very difficult tasks in the industry as one has to ope rate in different geographies. To resolve this issue and to maintain consistent service delivery across different hotels they installed an integrated technology infrastructure called OnQ. CRM system built over OnQ helped the firm to provide excellent service to the customers and provide competitive advantage over its competitors. OnQ facilitated the firms CRM (Customer Really Matters) initiative at each customer touch point. Reason for successful implementation of CRM* The major organizational factor that facilitated the CRM initiative is that the firm had the same technology platform and distribution footprint throughout the tick off. * Sharing the risk with the hotel owners and avoiding separate technology charges encouraged the owners to adopt the CRM system. * Moreover its focus on delivering efficient service to customers also laid the foundation among the slew for the acceptance of CRM initiative.Issue faced in CRM ImplementationThe major problem during the implementation of CRM initiative was the delivery of consistent work across each brand event after the CRM systems were in place. This was mainly due to the large number of diversified hotels in the chain across the globeIssues resolved by CRM packet* With the help of CRM a ample with recognition of the customer providing personal services was also possible. This helps in tailoring the experience according to customer indispensablenesss and creating a long term relationship. For eg. Rooms can be pre-assigned and prepared according to customer preferences. * It was also possible to classify customers along different levels (Gold, Diamond etc.) and providing them with differential services. tiered system allowed the hotels to prioritize pre-assignment and service delivery by identifying most valuable guests. This results in improving efficiency of service by focusing more on most valuable customers.* To maintain brand name uniform services are to be maintained across the hotel chain. With centraliz ed OnQ infrastructure, it became possible for Hilton Hotels to replicate their services across the various hotels across the globe. * The CRM systems helped the company in differentiating its service as well as optimizing some of the activities which lead to the reduction in operational costs. For eg. OnQ reticence used data from the CRM, allows the agent to access callers personal dossier and update their preferences. This helped in reducing the call time as well as promoted the cross selling.another(prenominal) example is having information prior to arrival of customer helped the firm in maintaining efficiencies especially during later in the evenings when less staff is available. * It also helped in service recovery. If a client had some problem during the last visit, identifying the problem helped in responding better next time. * The SALT (Satisfaction and Loyalty Tracking) survey helped in getting all-important(a) feedback from the customers. * Monitoring of the various bran ds across the chain for quality assurance also became easy. It also enabled the firm to open new hotels at a faster grand and consistently deliver the same service.Summary of AnalysisCRM system implementation at Hilton hotels provided with various benefits in term of ameliorate services, cost reduction improved efficiency. Maintenance cost of CRM system is low as compared to the overall revenue of the firm. Currently Hilton Hostels are able to leverage CRM system better than competitors. They still need to search for further options available in improving service using CRM.