My groups selected product/service is Hilton Hotels. Hilton does not supply a product. Instead their business is focused on supplying a service/experience. The service that Hilton supplies is multifaceted and involves a number of different elements that must collaborate to provide a good experience for their consumer. Since there are so many levels to the experience Hilton supplies, I will simply focus on one of them to keep this blog entry concise.
The first element of Hilton’s experience is the initial interaction Hilton has with its consumer. This first interaction has the potential to be optimized in a number of ways. The primary means of optimization is implementing a user-friendly convenient medium to make reservations. Perhaps the most obvious platform to achieve this is a mobile phone application in addition to the supplementary option of calling the hotel and speaking to a representative.
A small but effective addition to this already widely utilized strategy would be to have some sort of customer profile that all Hilton locations could access. The profile would have payment information and a caller ID so that the customer would simply give their intended reservation dates and perhaps a password when making a reservation over the phone or through the mobile application. This way the customer would not have to provide credit card information and a name every time they want to make a reservation at a Hilton establishment. This would expedite and simplify the reservation process, but it could also have a psychological impact on the customer who might feel more loyalty to Hilton because of their account. In addition to basic payment and biographical information the profile could be expanded to include preferences for a customer. These could include favorite food/drinks, allergies, prefered toiletries, number of pillows/towels, etc.