2009

TAJ HOTELS – Insights into CRM

Presented By:
Prachee Sehgal - 067
Ravindra Choudhary – 085
Safia H. Roohani - 091
Shipra Jaipuria - 097
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ABOUT THE COMPANY

The Indian Hotels Company Limited (IHCL) and its subsidiaries are collectively known as Taj Hotels
Resorts and Palaces and is recognised as one of Asia's largest and finest hotel company.
Incorporated by the founder of the Tata Group, Mr. Jamsetji N. Tata, the company opened its first
property, The Taj Mahal Palace Hotel, Bombay in 1903. The Taj, a symbol of Indian hospitality,
completed its centenary year in 2003.

Taj Hotels Resort and Palaces comprises more than 60 hotels in 45 locations across India with an
additional 15 international hotels in the Malaysia, United Kingdom, United States of America,
Bhutan, Sri Lanka, Africa, the Middle East and Australia.

Spanning the length and breadth of the country, gracing important industrial towns and cities,
beaches, hill stations, historical and pilgrim centres and wildlife destinations, each Taj hotel offers
the luxury of service, the apogee of Indian hospitality, vantage locations, modern amenities and
business facilities.

IHCL operate in the luxury, premium, mid-market and value segments of the market through the
following:

Taj (luxury full-service hotels, resorts and palaces) is our flagship brand for the world’s most
discerning travellers seeking authentic experiences given that luxury is a way of life to which they are
accustomed. Spanning world-renowned landmarks, modern business hotels, idyllic beach resorts,
authentic Rajput palaces and rustic safari lodges, each Taj hotel reinterprets the tradition of
hospitality in a refreshingly modern way to create unique experiences and lifelong memories.

Taj also encompasses a unique set of iconic properties rooted in history and tradition that deliver
truly unforgettable experiences. A collection of outstanding properties with strong heritage as hotels
or palaces which offer something more than great physical product and exceptional service. This
group is defined by the emotional and unique equity of its iconic properties that are authentic, non-
replicable with great potential to create memories and stories.

Taj Exotica is our resort and spa brand found in the most exotic and relaxing locales of the world.
The properties are defined by the privacy and intimacy they provide. The hotels are clearly
differentiated by their product philosophy and service design. They are cantered around high end
accommodation, intimacy and an environment that allows its guest unrivalled comfort and privacy.
They are defined by a sensibility of intimate design and by their varied and eclectic culinary
experiences, impeccable service and authentic Indian Spa sanctuaries.

Taj Safaris are wildlife lodges that allow travellers to experience the unparalleled beauty of the
Indian jungle amidst luxurious surroundings. They offer India’s first and only wildlife luxury lodge
circuit. Taj Safaris provide guests with the ultimate, interpretive, wild life experience based on a
proven sustainable ecotourism model.

Upper Upscale Hotels (full-service hotels and resorts) provide a new generation of travellers a
contemporary and creative hospitality experience that matches their work-hard play-hard lifestyles.
Stylish interiors, innovative cuisine, hip bars, and a focus on technology set these properties apart.

The Gateway Hotel (upscale/mid-market full service hotels and resorts) is a pan-India network of
hotels and resorts that offers business and leisure travellers a hotel designed, keeping the modern
nomad in mind. At the Gateway Hotel, we believe in keeping things simple. This is why, our hotels

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are divided into 7 simple zones- Stay, Hangout, Meet, Work, Workout, Unwind and Explore.

As travel often means more hassle than harmony, more stress than satisfaction, modern travellers
are looking for smarter choices. Driven by our passion for perfection, we welcome our customers to
a refreshingly enjoyable and hassle-free experience, anytime, everywhere. Offering the highest
consistency in quality, service and style we set new standards and take the unwanted surprises out
of travelling. Our warm welcomes make our guests feel at home, away from home and our crisp and
courteous service empowers them to get more done with greater effectiveness and control. And
through our unrivalled network we provide service that is effortless, simple, never overwhelming,
and always warm.

Ginger (economy hotels) is IHCL’s revolutionary concept in hospitality for the value segment.
Intelligently designed facilities, consistency and affordability are hallmarks of this brand targeted at
travellers who value simplicity and self-service.

Throughout the Company’s expansion, its mandate has been twofold: to infuse a sense of Indian
heritage and culture within each diverse property, while also anticipating the needs and desires of
the sophisticated traveller. Over the years, the Taj has won international acclaim for its quality
hotels and its excellence in business facilities, services, cuisine and interiors.

Out of the various offerings of TAJ in luxury, premium, mid-market and value segments of
the market, we have chosen Taj (luxury full-service hotels, resorts and palaces) for our
analysis of the CRM practices being followed by them.

INTRODUCTION TO CRM IN LUXURY HOTELS

Up to now, CRM programs in the hotel industry have mainly focused on trying to stimulate loyalty by
means of offering different levels of service, information, rewards and attention (mostly in the form
of electronic communication) to specific categories of guests. Most A-level or 1st tier hotels do have
loyalty card programs and exchange guest information between departments and units. In fact, a
number of them have installed sophisticated account management planning and database
marketing systems. However, this means that the bulk of CRM efforts focus on trying to develop
relations with the guests within the context of loyalty programs and focus on increased guest
satisfaction through “personalisation and customisation” of services and experiences. Overall, the
hotel industry, so far, has focused its attention on optimal segmentation, testing of policies
(influencing the drivers of loyalty) and forecasting. Within such a context, CRM does not address the
key concepts from relationship marketing mentioned above: trust, mutuality, promise keeping and
dialogue.

In fact, one could argue that many hotels are not avoiding the four perils of CRM: (1) Implementing
CRM without a clear customer strategy, (2) rolling our CRM before changing the organisation to
match the program, (3) assuming that more CRM technology is better, and (4) stalking, not
wooing, customers.

For an industry such as the hotel industry, maybe even more so than for other industries, successful
CRM programs are those that enable “rich communication and facilitating appropriate responses
that emerge from that communication” Offering the right services and experiences without that
type of communication is virtually impossible. Even though the hotel industry might not be the most
advanced CRM industry at this point in time, it is definitely an industry in which the process of CRM
and day-to-day activities are very much intertwined. The hotel industry is all about offering
hospitality and the most important means to do so are the people that offer it. It is, probably more

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than any other business, a people business. It all boils down to managing the relationships between
your staff and your guests, the end consumers.

“Rich communication” within this context means that these relationships need to be build/based on
a meaningful dialogue between the staff and guests. This is to ensure that the hospitality solutions
that are offered are solutions “precisely tailored to the customers’ and vendors’ needs” Therefore, a
focus shift is needed. A focus shift is required away from only offering personalised and customised
services and experiences, the traditional reference points for CRM within the hotel industry, and
towards establishing meaningful dialogues with guests, and the resulting relationships, as one of the
leading objectives of CRM programs/efforts.

CRM MODEL IMPLEMENTED IN LUXURY HOTELS

The CRM-7-18 team members need to fulfil the 7 roles that are associated with these answers:
(1) Relationship management
(2) Content management
(3) Information and communication technology management
(4) Change management
(5) Performance management
(6) Privacy management
(7) Strategic Management

The 18 management steps

Once the CRM-7-18 team has been formed, the following 18 steps can be used to assist the
participants towards building and maintaining the relationship with the guest and addressing CRM as
a philosophy.
Step 1 through 6 are referred to as the investment or content oriented phase, with a focus on
creating relationships with guests on a (business) unit level and based on pro-activity from the
organisation.
(1) The nature of relationships; Creating a common language and understanding with respect to
service level/quality, staging experiences and building relationships (the three focus points for CRM;
also see e.g. the work by Rust et al. 2004; Bell et al. 2002).

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(2) The organisation’s CRM profile; Creating an overview and understanding of perceptions of staff
and management on current and desirable relationships practices.
(3) CRM program management; Designing a CRM (program) organisation and planning.
(4) The guest transition matrix; Allocating relationship resources to guest VIP classes in the customer
base and setting up a rules repository that regulates when guests change VIP class.
(5) Guest profile management; Collecting and updating policies regarding guest profile information
in the various VIP classes in order to allow for planning of individualised dispatching of available
content.
(6) Content management; Defining content categories and designing an ongoing content retrieval
and customisation system (internal and external sources), combined with content pricing and a VIP
classification system.
Steps 7 through 12 are referred to as the growth or market oriented phase, with a focus on defining
the business contribution of relationship development on a regional group level.
(7) Customer equity management; Executing a critical attributes analysis among existing and new
customer segments with the objective to determine the right mix of service, branding/experience
and relationship efforts.
(8) Revenue management; Investigating revenue issues in guest relationship development. This
analysis focuses, per VIP group, season and product, on: contract rates, lowest rates, maximum
rates, guaranteed availability, volume discounts, commissions for bookers and referrals.
(9) Integrated performance management; Designing relationship enabling business processes,
including quality management and creating functional linkages between success factors in the four
traditional strategic results areas (analogous to the balanced score card): (1) relationship operations,
(2) relationship perceptions, (3) financial performance, and (4) relationship management innovation.
(10) Win-win management; Approving/adopting the balanced score card by the whole organisation,
not just the CRM-7-18 team, materialising all possible short-term relationship wins and acquiring the
consent of the main VIP guests to engage in a long-term commitment.
(11) Integrated system and data management; Extending and centralising guest profile information
required to develop and maintain relationships, upgrading PMS technology with interactive
communication technology, and establishing policies on data quality within this new context.
(12) Loyalty program management; Designing possible formal benefit and reward systems for
different levels of guests, travel professionals and intermediaries.
Steps 13 through 18 are referred to as the maturity or corporate strategy phase, with a focus on
optimising return on relationship expertise beyond the boundaries of functional management. As
such, this phase is typically most relevant/ applicable for globally operating chains.
(13) Helpdesk and knowledge management; Managing an increasing number of complex demands
and requests from loyal guests, sharing best practices across the chain/whole organisation, and
sharing best practices across the guest segments.
(14) Tri-angle relationship management; Managing alliances (third party databases), bookers,
owners of referred guests, referrals by guests (word-of-mouth), and cross-recommendations
between organisations that belong
to the same group/chain.
(15) Non-core service management; Expanding the set of services offered in order to support
building and maintaining relationships and/or to stage seamless travel/tourism experiences.
(16) Marketing management; researching ways to have guest relationship development make a
contribution to other marketing/sales efforts/areas.
(17) Business development; Expanding the group/chain’s product portfolio based on requests,
preferences and pre-commitment of the existing customer base.
(18) Intangible asset management; Valuating, transferring and trading of goodwill of the guest
relation base, guest facing staff and relationship competencies/capabilities of the organisation.

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CRM TOOLS USED IN TAJ

• Guest preference sheet

At the time of the reservation a preference sheet is sent across to the guest along with the
reservation conformation mail. This is primarily to capture the various preferences of the
customer such as food habits (Diabetic/ Low fat etc.), Special needs etc. It also asks if the
customer is coming on a special occasion or not and arrangements are made accordingly
made on the visit. E.g. If the guest is coming on a honeymoon or anniversary the room is
decorated accordingly, cake is placed in the room etc

• CRM Software
This is another important tool in improving the service of the hotel and to capture guest
complaints. If a complaint is registered by a customer it is updated on the software.
Gradually as the time lapses the status displayed turn from green to yellow and ultimately
red. This status can be seen by any of the managers as the software is connected to the
central server. A daily Action Taken Report is generated which is signed by the operational
head.

• Fidelio
Fidelio is the property management system used by Indian Hotels Company Limited.
Although it is used for various functions but it also plays an important role in the CRM
processes of the hotel. It is used for saving the profile, preferences and special information
(Anniversary, Birthday, allergies etc.) related to the guest on a central server. This
information is accessible to all the Taj properties; therefore, whenever there is a repeat
customer the hotel staff already has all the necessary information enabling them to delight
the customer by personalized service.

• Wow card
This is a special instrument used by personal butlers for recording guest preferences & other
important information related to the guest. This is a small booklet which is carried by the
staff at all times and whenever they get any information which can be useful in the future to
please the customer, they simple record it here. This information is further uploaded on the
PMS making it accessible to all.

• GRE Courtesy call

Once the guest is in the hotel and stayed for sometime ( a day or two) a courtesy call is
made by the guest relationship executive during the evening hours. This is just to know
about the guest’s experience and how can it be improved in case there is some difficulty
being faced by him/her. In case there is a complaint it is uploaded on the CRM software and
further processes are followed as mentioned above.

• Room Feedback form

During the evening service/ Turn- down service a feedback form is placed on the bed to
know about the customer experiences.

• GSTS (Guest Satisfaction Tracking system)

Post departure an automated mail from the central server is sent to the guest requesting to
fill up a feedback form. There are various heads covering the various stations of experiences
which are scored on a Likert Scale. This information is quantified to highlight the areas of
concern. This score is also used as a measure of performance of a hotel unit.
There are few loopholes in the system such as:

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• Email ids not updated which automatically stops the guest from giving the feedback.
• Guest profile not saved intentionally.

STATIONS OF EXPERIENCE

Pre-Arrival

• Reservations: During the reservation a preference sheet is mailed to capture the details and
to enhance the stay experience.
• Airport pick-up: An airport representative is sent along with a chauffeur holding a placard
with just the hotel’s name to maintain guest privacy. A personalised message is sent to the
guest mobile just before the landing assuring him that the hotel has taken care of his travel
arrangements. Amenities such as cold towel, Mineral water are offered upon arrival.

Arrival

• Welcome at the lobby: Royal welcome by the guards in typical Rajasthani Attire.
• Royal Welcome for Groups: Special arrangements for groups are made. A huge caravan of
Elephants, camels , horses along with a professional band is called for the reception of the
group.
• ATG( Aarti, Tiki and Garlanding): This is just to give a traditional touch to the welcome and
give a feel of Indian hospitality.
• Welcome Drinks upon arrival

Check-in

• Escorting
It is an opportunity for the escort to create the excitement within the guest about how
splendid his experience is going to be. A touch of history along with the necessary
information about the various facilities is given.
• Welcome Letter: A personalized welcome letter signed by the General manager himself is
presented to the guest during the time of the check-in
• Room Orientation: This is another important aspect of the check-in process. The guest is
educated about the various facilities available to him in the room.

Experience during Stay

• Champagne Walk (Heritage Tour): This is one of the special attractions of Rambagh Palace.
The entire history of the palace is explained to the group of customers. This is done along
with a trip to various parts of the palace. The trip ends in the Polo Bar where the guests are
offered complimentary champagne.
• Special Occasions celebration: Special occasions such as honeymoon and anniversaries are
very important occasions for a guest. The hotel staff takes it as an opportunity to leave a
long lasting imprint on the heart of the guests by making it an experience of a lifetime for
the customer.

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• City Tour by Vintage cars: Staying in a real palace in itself is a special experience and this
experience is further complimented by travelling in a vintage. A tour in a vintage is
something many people dream of and the guests who stay in Rambagh are actually able to
live this moment and cherish it for a lifetime.
• Cultural Dances: Traditional Rajasthani dances are organized every evening in the center of
the garden restaurant.
• Royal Carriage: It is another way of taking the customer closer to the royalty in which the
kings of ancient India used to live.
• Cultural Music: Behind the spa, every evening there is a special musical performance which
is well appreciated by almost every guest.
• Unique Dining experience: This is a special dining arrangement made for small groups in few
surprisingly beautiful parts of the palace.
• Grand Weddings: Foreigners who visit the country are often amazed with the grandeur of
Indian weddings. Taj enables them to live this moment by organizing a royal wedding on
request of a guest.
• Other Facilities
o Swarna Mahal: The Indian restaurant of Rambagh palace which has gold plated
cutlery and crockery.
o Rajput Room: The multi-cuisine restaurant of the property
o Verandah Café: It is the garden cafe in the hotel.
o Polo Bar: The main bar which has an unmatched collection of wines.
o Jiva Spa
o Oriental Room: A conference room with Chinese decor.
o Old Wing: The oldest part of the palace which has the view of the Moti Doongri
Palace of the Rajmata.
o Indoor Swimming pool: Built in the past to maintain the privacy of the royal ladies.
o Outdoor Swimming pool: Built by Rajamata on request of a customer.
o Steam Lounge: The modern day sitting lounge cum bar.
o Royal Gardens
o Royal Suites (Prince’s suite, Princess’s suite, Peacock Suite) : The most elegant
rooms of the palace which were ones occupied by the descendents of the royal
family of Jaipur.

CHECK OUT

• Feedback Form at time of Turn Down

• Souvenir: A fragrant incense stick wrapped in a satin cloth is gifted to the customers as a
souvenir.

NEGATIVE EXPERIENCES

• Gujarati NRI Case: An NRI lady who was taking a property round along with her daughter
and her daughter’s friend who was a British. When they entered the recreation center the
trainer over there was entertaining the British more, even though she was being

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accompanied by an elderly lady. The elderly lady took the incidence as a racial discrimination
which was correct to an extent.
• In an attempt to increase sales of restaurants, discomfort caused to in-house guests:
During festival season the restaurant is occupied by non-residents causing inconvenience to
the resident guests.
• Captain - Selling of sub-standard luxury rooms: A 17 year old customer of Taj was allotted a
room which was sub-standard and in no way was in accordance to the standards of a Luxury
room maintained by Taj, thus was simply being overcharged for a sub-standard room being
sold in the name of a Luxury room. This represents a very negative example of CRM -
maintaining long-term relations with our loyal customers.
• Palace rooms sold in the name of Suites (Group check-ins): In an attempt to close a deal of
group bookings when the required categories of rooms are not available, a lower category of
room is sold as a suite which is unethical.

RECOMMENDATIONS

• Strict compliance to the SOPs

• Improvement in knowledge & skill set of employees
• Customer centric vis-à-vis profit centric approach

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