the course is Strategic services marketing.
maxim 1000words.
requirements upload.
carefully read all slides.
Workshop 4:
Towards the Individual Assignment The Hillside Beach Club
24706 Strategic Services Marketing
Tutors: Dr. Alex Belli, Ass. Prof. François Carrillat
Mr Manjunath Padigar
Overview
Overview of Individual Assignment
Case study: the Hillside Beach Club
Question 1
Question 2
Assignment: Reminders & Tips
2
Overview of Individual Assignment
You have been hired as a strategic consultant by Ilkbahar and his team to advise on the best way to transfer HBC success story to the new location in Cyprus.
In other words, they want you to:
Identify what are the key factors that create a unique customer experience at the HBC and why these factors have been so effective to create business performance in Turkey. You will have to precisely define what is unique and positive about the current customer experience and why it has been a source of competitive advantage before you will be able to determine the factors that create it. These factors might be rooted: in the high level and constant standards of service delivery, the culture of service innovation in the name of customer experience, the capacity to adopt the customer viewpoint, the efficiency of the internal processes below the line of visibility in delivering superior experiences, and the design of the servicescape. Consider that it is probably the interrelations between these factors that play the most important role in producing the desired experience. Note that Ilkbahar and his team are less interested in the role of IT, promotion tools, and HR policy as factors of the customer experience; so you should focus on elements of the service scape (15 pts)
Which factors of the customer experience should be adapted to the Cyprus location? Why? To which extent? How? (15 pts)
In-class activity
Question 1
Diagnosis:
What is the signature customer experience at the HBC? (20 mins)
What are the key factors of this experience? (20 mins)
4
Case Study: the Hillside Beach Club
Question 1
A customer signature experience is defined at the intersection of 3 characteristics that should make it unique:
Function: what does the experience do for the customer?
Description: what is the context of the function?
Emotion: how is the function delivered?
The customer experience motto: How to capture the function, description and emotion of the experience in the consumption context with one sentence.
Case Study: the Hillside Beach Club
Question 1
Example
Function: immersion in potential home interiors
Description: for you and your family
Emotion: reassuring
IKEA customer experience motto: imagine the perfect interior for your family home and pick it up on your way
Case Study: the Hillside Beach Club
Question 1
Customer experience component* HBC attributes that tap into this component Is it a source of competitive advantage
Sensorial
Emotional
Cognitive
Pragmatic
Lifestyle
Relational
The key factors of the signature experience
(15 mins thinking time)
*: See definitions in: Gentile, C., and Spiller, N. & Noci, G. (2007). How to sustain the customer experience: An overview of experience component that co-create value with the customer, European Management Journal, 25(5), 395-410.
Case Study: the Hillside Beach Club
Question 2
Perform a SWOT analysis; 4 cells:
Strengths – are positive attributes internal to the organisation or situation that are within your control.
Weaknesses – are also internal factors within your control that may impede your ability to meet your objectives.
Opportunities – are external factors that the organisation or project should (or could) develop.
Threats – are external factors beyond your control that could place the project or organisation at risk.
Case Study: the Hillside Beach Club
Question 2
Perform a SWOT analysis; 4 cells (1 page):
Strengths – internal positive attributes that are controllable
Weaknesses – internal attributes that are obstacles to your objectives
Opportunities – external factors you should take advantage of.
Threats – uncontrollable external factors that can jeopardize the organization’s goal.
Case Study: the Hillside Beach Club
Question 2
Use the SWOT to answer question 2 by determining:
Can your strengths be used to make opportunities work for you?
Can you prevent weaknesses from limiting your ability to take advantage of opportunities?
Can strengths lower the risks from threats?
Can your weaknesses be managed to lower risks from threat?
Assignment: Tips & Reminders
Report content (1000 words max total): refer to the specific guidelines below rather than what is found in the assessments guidelines (they are general).
1) Synthesis and elaboration of in-class discussion (based on question 1): what is the unique customer experience and what are the factors that create it ? (15 points)
2) Which factors should be adapted to the Cyprus location why, to which extent and how? (15 points)
Assignment: Tips & Reminders
Make sure you justify all your answers based on elements from the case and/or concepts and discussion from workshops and lectures up to now and/or your general knowledge of business theory and models and/or your own business experiences (again well justified in how it is relevant for this case). It is fine to look for information outside what is provided in the case but it is expected that everything you need to solve the case is already included or can be found in the subject’s material so far.
Consult rubrics in assessment guidelines
Use Canvas
Due date: 29th of April
Lavf58.20.100
Workshop 4:
Towards the Individual Assignment The Hillside Beach Club
24706 Strategic Services Marketing
Tutors: Dr. Alex Belli, Ass. Prof. François Carrillat
Mr Manjunath Padigar
Overview
Overview of Individual Assignment
Case study: the Hillside Beach Club
Question 1
Question 2
Assignment: Reminders & Tips
2
Overview of Individual Assignment
You have been hired as a strategic consultant by Ilkbahar and his team to advise on the best way to transfer HBC success story to the new location in Cyprus.
In other words, they want you to:
Identify what are the key factors that create a unique customer experience at the HBC and why these factors have been so effective to create business performance in Turkey. You will have to precisely define what is unique and positive about the current customer experience and why it has been a source of competitive advantage before you will be able to determine the factors that create it. These factors might be rooted: in the high level and constant standards of service delivery, the culture of service innovation in the name of customer experience, the capacity to adopt the customer viewpoint, the efficiency of the internal processes below the line of visibility in delivering superior experiences, and the design of the servicescape. Consider that it is probably the interrelations between these factors that play the most important role in producing the desired experience. Note that Ilkbahar and his team are less interested in the role of IT, promotion tools, and HR policy as factors of the customer experience; so you should focus on elements of the service scape (15 pts)
Which factors of the customer experience should be adapted to the Cyprus location? Why? To which extent? How? (15 pts)
In-class activity
Question 1
Diagnosis:
What is the signature customer experience at the HBC? (20 mins)
What are the key factors of this experience? (20 mins)
4
Case Study: the Hillside Beach Club
Question 1
A customer signature experience is defined at the intersection of 3 characteristics that should make it unique:
Function: what does the experience do for the customer?
Description: what is the context of the function?
Emotion: how is the function delivered?
The customer experience motto: How to capture the function, description and emotion of the experience in the consumption context with one sentence.
Case Study: the Hillside Beach Club
Question 1
Example
Function: immersion in potential home interiors
Description: for you and your family
Emotion: reassuring
IKEA customer experience motto: imagine the perfect interior for your family home and pick it up on your way
Case Study: the Hillside Beach Club
Question 1
Customer experience component* HBC attributes that tap into this component Is it a source of competitive advantage
Sensorial
Emotional
Cognitive
Pragmatic
Lifestyle
Relational
The key factors of the signature experience
(15 mins thinking time)
*: See definitions in: Gentile, C., and Spiller, N. & Noci, G. (2007). How to sustain the customer experience: An overview of experience component that co-create value with the customer, European Management Journal, 25(5), 395-410.
Case Study: the Hillside Beach Club
Question 2
Perform a SWOT analysis; 4 cells:
Strengths – are positive attributes internal to the organisation or situation that are within your control.
Weaknesses – are also internal factors within your control that may impede your ability to meet your objectives.
Opportunities – are external factors that the organisation or project should (or could) develop.
Threats – are external factors beyond your control that could place the project or organisation at risk.
Case Study: the Hillside Beach Club
Question 2
Perform a SWOT analysis; 4 cells (1 page):
Strengths – internal positive attributes that are controllable
Weaknesses – internal attributes that are obstacles to your objectives
Opportunities – external factors you should take advantage of.
Threats – uncontrollable external factors that can jeopardize the organization’s goal.
Case Study: the Hillside Beach Club
Question 2
Use the SWOT to answer question 2 by determining:
Can your strengths be used to make opportunities work for you?
Can you prevent weaknesses from limiting your ability to take advantage of opportunities?
Can strengths lower the risks from threats?
Can your weaknesses be managed to lower risks from threat?
Assignment: Tips & Reminders
Report content (1000 words max total): refer to the specific guidelines below rather than what is found in the assessments guidelines (they are general).
1) Synthesis and elaboration of in-class discussion (based on question 1): what is the unique customer experience and what are the factors that create it ? (15 points)
2) Which factors should be adapted to the Cyprus location why, to which extent and how? (15 points)
Assignment: Tips & Reminders
Make sure you justify all your answers based on elements from the case and/or concepts and discussion from workshops and lectures up to now and/or your general knowledge of business theory and models and/or your own business experiences (again well justified in how it is relevant for this case). It is fine to look for information outside what is provided in the case but it is expected that everything you need to solve the case is already included or can be found in the subject’s material so far.
Consult rubrics in assessment guidelines
Use Canvas
Due date: 29th of April
First of all. Please read the slide of workshop 4 carefully and understand it
first part
three aspects
Function: what does the experience do for the customer?
Description: what is the context of the function?
Emotion: how is the function delivered?
It also depends on the specific factors that have been summarized below these points, which factors belong to which point. Textual description
Customer experience component* |
HBC attributes that tap into this component |
Is it a source of competitive advantage |
Sensorial |
||
Emotional |
||
Cognitive |
||
Pragmatic |
||
Lifestyle |
||
Relational |
Second part
swot analysis and then based on the analysis results to determine which previous factors can be used in the Cyprus market.
Can’t write in cooperation with travel agencies
Can’t write Promotion things
Only focus on Service.
The Strategic Case Study of Hillside Beach Club
12161574
Feilu Ding
Executive Summary
The case study is about the Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean. This report evaluates the present environment and future opportunities of HBC for gaining the competitive advantage and high income. The focus of this report is on the identification of key drivers of customer experience and its impact while expanding in the market of Cyprus. The key drivers are based on the emotional and lifestyle components that provide service quality, satisfaction, customer’s choice services and the complete solution to deal with the environmental challenges. The Cyprus tourism industry has growing opportunity for HBC because the competencies of HBC have the power to deal with the threats in Cyprus location. Furthermore, HBC has the satisfactory job in maintaining the customer relationship in turkey and it is supposed to be followed in Cyprus as well.
Introduction
In the case study of Hillside Beach Club, Edip Ilkbahar focuses on expanding the business operations of its club in Cyprus. The CEO of that HBC emphasizes the importance of its strength including the high satisfaction level of the guest, increasing rate of return on investment, and high occupancy. Hence, those strengths help the Hillside Beach Club to face the challenges and competition while expanding its activities in another area of Cyprus. Its main branch is in Fethiye, Turkey that performs effectively in delivering best services to its customers. The main agenda of HBC is to provide solutions not service. In 2011, the management of HBC decided to branch out itself in other locations for building its network with other customers and earning more income. Therefore, the HBC team started evaluating the location of Cyprus for their business. Thus, it evaluates to find out that the location serves their objectives or not. After further evaluation, the team of HBC purchased the seaside plot of 111-acre land in Northern Cyprus (Lal and Yucaoglu, 2016).
This report involves the identification of the key drivers of HBC customer experience that satisfies customers and builds its competitive advantage. It further signifies the competencies of HBC that will help the management to get the high market share in Cyprus. Moreover, the report analyses the threats and opportunities of the Tourism industry in Cyprus that examine the scope of Hillside Beach Club in Cyprus.
1.
This portion identifies the key drivers of the customer experience concerned with the Hillside Beach Club in Fethiye, Turkey. This research helps the HBC’s management to expand in Cyprus for gaining the competitive advantage in the particular area.
· Signature Customer Experience at Hillside Beach Club
The signature customer experience includes the connection between three characteristics; function, description and emotion. The Hillside Beach Club is dealing with the function of customer’s satisfaction and the repeated response of the customers. People are highly satisfied with the services of HBC because it provides the friendly and respectful environment to its customers. The description of its function is that its major objective of the HBC’s management is to make their customers feel good about the available services. The culture of HBC is a balance between the classical and western styles. Therefore, 99% customers are impressed with the club’s services, staff and environment. In addition, 68% of the customers repeatedly visit the club (Kelebek, 2016). According to the case study, it identifies that HBC give high priority to its customers as well its staff for gaining the competitive advantage. It mainly focuses on delivering “the services for the family to satisfy them and make them feel good”. Hence, the satisfaction of their guests is the first priority of HBC rather than perfectionism, price or their convenience (Wrightman, 2016). HBC’s management is concerned with the emotional and lifestyle components through which it largely focuses on the emotions, values, culture and beliefs of their customers (Lal and Yucaoglu, 2016).
· The Key Drivers of the Customer Experience
HBC’s management performs effectively in satisfying the customers and provides them the good experience. The key drivers of the customer’s experience include the attention towards the customer’s priority with the innovative management practices. It also involves providing the research type services in which the HBC’s management concern the customer’s perception.
Furthermore, the club involves in the explicit service promises in which they consider the choice of customers to provide high-quality services with the complete reassurance, empathy, consistency, awareness and tangibles. Additionally, the customer’s experience key drivers lead towards the customer satisfaction and at last in creating the loyal customers (Torres, Fu and Lehto, 2014). The key drivers work as the competitive advantage that enhances the emotional and lifestyle component of the customer experience because the services of the HBC affects the moods, feelings and emotions of the customers as well as it encourages them to affirm their values and beliefs in their lifestyles (Lal and Yucaoglu, 2016).
· Competitive advantages of HBC
Following are some key drivers of the Hillside Beach Club that are part of competitive advantages to compete with other competitors.
1) Innovative Management of the Hillside Beach Club
The management of HBC is highly conscious about the changing needs and wants of the customers that will further help the team in targeting more customers. HBC’s management always preferred the choice of customers when implementing any change for the improvement in club’s services including the entertainment facility, food quality and the room environment. Furthermore, the management encourages their customers to provide feedback (Nieves and Segarra-Ciprés, 2015). With respect to the survey, the management claims changes in the respective service for giving the high priority to their guests. The competitive advantage of the Hillside Beach Club comprises of the HRM policies and procedures to hire the well-trained staff for providing the satisfactory results to their customers and for improving the HBC’s position in the market. It is evaluated in the case study that the management of HBC practices innovative strategies for achieving their objectives in providing the complete solutions that enhance the comfort of their customers (Kelebek, 2016).
2) Promotes Communication
With respect to the hotel industry culture, the Five-Star hotel culture is less involved in the informal gatherings like participation of upper class. However, in Hillside Beach Club, the management promotes events that increase interactions among people to create the friendly culture in the club. This process is further helpful for the management team to discover the diverse nature of services for the customers of different countries (Lal and Yucaoglu, 2016).
3) Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction
According to the Alarko Tourism group, the Hillside Beach Club has the appropriate approach in examining the services and marketing insights. The services provided by the HBC are highly dependent on the choice of the customers because they work on increasing the satisfaction level of customers with the real comfort and feelings. The Hillside Beach Club cares about the feelings of their customers because of the HBC’s mission that relates to the objective to make their customers feel good. Hillside Beach Management is more conscious about service scape. Therefore, it gives value to the staff member, motivates them and provides training and compensation for the better performance. Additionally, they concentrate on the design and culture of the organization because these factors are highly responsible for fulfilling the demand of their customers (Wrightman, 2016).
Furthermore, HBC focuses on developing the innovative strategies like the marketing campaign and social media projects that build its reputation in the respective market of Turkey. Hence, it helps the club to maintain the sustainable environment for reducing the environmental challenges of the tourism industry (Kelebek, 2016).
4) Guest Relationship at HBC
Hillside Beach Club is famous for maintaining its guest’s relationship with the club host, staff and its customers. It is the balance relationship between the respectful and friendly environment. According to the CEO’s point of view, classical way of hospitability is different from the Western way of hospitality. Therefore, the HBC’s owner chooses the combination of both styles in the culture of HBC for impressing the diverse cultural groups. Management of HBC provides impressive services but not like the five-star hotel because the main aim of the Hillside Beach Club is to provide services through which their customers feel satisfied and enjoy the environment like their friend’s home. HBC has its own GR unit that is responsible for handling all the guest relationship activities. In relation with guests, management of HBC gives personal focus on admiring the customers with three important rules including “meet-and-greet, walk-and-talk and kiss-and-miss” (Lal and Yucaoglu, 2016).
2.
This section focuses on adopting the key drivers of customer experience in Cyprus for expanding their business. The identification of threats and opportunities in the Cyprus tourism industry is important for analysing the Cyprus’s location for Hillside Beach Club.
· Drivers to be Adapted for the Cyprus Location
The key drivers of the customer experience are working as the competitive advantage of the HBC because it increases their reputation in the tourism industry. HBC’s management gives high priority to their customer that provides the economic gain to the organization. While expanding in Cyprus tourism industry, HBC needs to identify the opportunities and threats through which it can compete with other hotels and resorts in Cyprus.
Key Driver’s Adaptation to Utilise Opportunities of Cyprus Tourism Industry
According to the forecast of Cyprus Tourism Organization, the tourism industry in Cyprus is the main source of the economy that enhances the scope of resorts and clubs in that region. Many countries have invested in Cyprus for hotel business through the citizenship program that increases the arrivals of the key market in Cyprus. This sector developed after 2013 when Cyprus faced economic crisis (Cyprus Profile, 2017). In 2013, Cyprus had the foreign investment of 2,405 million that rises by the tourist’s arrivals 2% from 2012. Thus, the foreign investors are United Kingdom, Russia, Greece, Germany, Norway and Sweden. In that case, HBC’s management play effective role in formulating the attractive strategies for gaining the customers attention. Thus, the foreign investment will help the HBC to expand in Cyprus by competing other players in the tourism industry. Following chart shows the Cyprus Tourism arrivals from 1995 to 2013 (Ammerman, 2014).
Figure 1: Cyprus Tourism arrivals
From the research of Ammerman (2014), the Cyprus’s tourism industry is highly seasonal. In the month of November to March, the tourism rate is low. Thereby, many hotels and tourist visiting areas close in that time-period. On the other hand, Cyprus tourism season is at its high peak from July to September. There is the best opportunity for the hotels, resorts and clubs to invest in that region. At the time of the low season, the HBC’s management introduces new innovative strategies to attract the customers like cultural festivals, theme parties, etc. These strategies increase the importance of the HBC in the Cyprus region.
According to the recent report of Ministry of Finance (2017), in Cyprus, the tourist arrivals increase by the record of 13.5% from January to Dec (2016 to 2017). It further reported that from March 2016 to March 2017, there is rise of 2.8% in tourist arrivals. It is also shown in the figure that number of arrivals increased from July to September.
Figure 2: Cyprus Tourism Arrivals by Months of 2016-2017
Cyprus Statistical Service claimed in its reports that Cyprus region has high importance in the tourism sector because of its attractive location, hotels and resorts. It is forecasted that in 2014, that region has more scope in the tourism sector. It further boosts in the passing years. Therefore, Hillside Beach Club’s management has the advantage to expand their business in the Cyprus region. It is further reported that the GDP of Cyprus increases by 12% due to the tourism industry. Increasing economy with the advancement in tourism industry enhances the importance of this sector in the world (Ammerman, 2014). Thereby, chances to gain the economic benefits are high for the Hillside Beach Club in Cyprus.
Key Drivers Adaptation to Minimize the Threats of Cyprus Tourism Industry
Key drivers of the customer experience provide advantages to HBC for minimizing the threats of the Cyprus Tourism industry. The industry is facing high challenges in dealing with the threats including the low occupancy, high valuations, high fixed costs, closing season, low flights and high prices competition among hotels and unlicensed accommodation (Ammerman, 2014). Moreover, the Cyprus’s tourism industry is highly affected by the low flights as these airlines have contracts with specific hotels for passenger’s accommodation. Thus, it also affects the demand of other resorts and hotels. Therefore, the HBC’s management will take steps in building good relationship with the airlines by the help of its guest relationship unit for getting the advantage of targeting more customers (Saveriades, 2014).
Furthermore, hotels in Cyprus have low occupancy that demotivates the customer to visit that location. However, the HBC has high occupancy that attracts the customers to visit the club as well as it further provides motivation to high potential customers to make them feel happy with the services (Wrightman, 2016). In addition, the hotels in Cyprus have huge competition due to the high prices and the customers face difficulty in choosing the affordable hotel which provides them satisfaction and comfort. Thus, the key drivers of customer experience will work as the catalyst to increase the competition by providing high quality service in price because the main aim of the HBC is to make their customers satisfied (Ammerman, 2014).
Conclusion
The case study concluded that Hillside Beach Club is running its activities in Turkey with the most significant resources to attract customers. It provides great value to its customers with the quality service, efficient guest relationship, diverse cultural environment, communication opportunity, satisfactory services and the innovative management strategies. The CEO of HBC decided to expand its club operations in Cyprus due to the best tourist attraction place. Cyprus has emerging scope in the tourism industry that directly affects the economic development of the state. However, it also faces threats in the same industry.
HBC has high opportunity to expand its business activities in Cyprus because of its competitive advantage and key drivers of customer experience including the high occupancy, service quality, services according to the customer’s choice and provides the complete solution rather than a particular service.
References
Ammerman, P. 2014, Investment Challenges and Opportunities in the Cyprus Tourism Sector | Navigator Consulting Group. Navigator Consulting. Available at:
Conklin, M., Powaga, K, and Lipovetsky, S., 2004, Customer satisfaction analysis: Identification of key drivers. European journal of operational research, 154(3), pp.819-827.
Cyprus Profile. 2017, Cyprus Tourism Organisation – Cyprus Profile. Available at:
Kelebek, H. 2016, Success story of Hillside Beach Club. Alarko. Available at:
Lal, R. and Yucaoglu, G. 2016, Hillside Beach Club: Delivering the Ultimate Family Vacation in the Mediterranean. Available at:
Ministry of Finance. 2017, TOURIST ARRIVALS: MARCH 2017. Available at:
Nieves, J. and Segarra-Ciprés, M., 2015, Management innovation in the hotel industry. Tourism Management, 46, pp.51-58.
Saveriades, A., 2014, Strategic Planning in National Tourism Organisations: The Case of Cyprus. European Tourism Planning and Organisation Systems: The EU Member States, 61, p.279.
Torres, E.N., Fu, X. and Lehto, X., 2014, Examining key drivers of customer delight in a hotel experience: A cross-cultural perspective. International Journal of Hospitality Management, 36, pp.255-262.
Wrightman, N. 2016, Hillside Beach Club’s Success Story, The Discerning Collection, Boutique Holidays in Turkey, Morocco, Mallorca and Greek Islands. Available at: