Hilton Hotels implementation of "ONQ" a new dimension of CRM system for providing the best hospitality services for its customers. What are the competives advantages, the business challenges faced etc.

1. Prashanth.C Sasikumar. S HallinShano Vaidehi. R Anne Helena. D Data Driven Hospitality- Hilton Hotels Corp.

2. Introduction Hilton Hotels Corp. Customers satisfaction - problem is taken care of by hotel staff and the flawless stay. Late 2003, Hilton spent a whooping $50 Million on a customer information system. The customer information system – OnQ. Part of 2 year old customer relationship management strategy. “Reason for being”, “100% percent customer satisfaction” and “Customer really matter” – Hilton Hotels Corp hospitality.

3. OnQ 70% custom coded system. Custom components - Property management system, CRM application and Hotel-owner reporting module. 4 TB of customer profile info managed in IBM’s Informix database. Pegasus Solutions central reservation system. Newmarket International’s Delphi sales force automation tool. Modified Legacy revenue management system PeopleSoft Financial and HR applications. Ecommerce site – Hilton.com

4. Advantages of OnQ Online room reservation through Hilton’s central reservation system. Extra attention to VIP customers – spending increased from 40% to 61%. Tracking fraudulent customers – taking advantage of “100% guest satisfaction”. Hhonors frequent guest program – building customer loyalty. Customer get rooms based on their preferences, meeting their needs and faster service. They can update their frequent flier points for they stay at Hilton. More revenue per visit – sale of restaurant reservation, tee times or concert tickets. Employees - clearer idea about customers and their past Hilton experiences.

5. Future developments OnQ as a decision support tool. Reservations held for Diamond and gold customers. Guests can include what they want in their room – water, extra pillows, treadmill etc. Additional services – golf, spa, theatre packages etc. Building web based connections – corporate travel departments to directly book rooms from its central reservation system. Rolling out portals - booking employee travel, advantage of volume discounts etc. Generating reports on Hilton’s spending.

6. Question 1 What are the benefits and drawbacks of OnQ system at Hilton?

7. Benefits of OnQ Facilitates better service – employees having clearer idea about customer and their previous Hilton experiences. Build customer loyalty – Hhonors frequent guest program. Establishes value of a customer – extra attention to VIP customers increasing their percentage of spending. Identification of rare un-valuable customer – reducing unnecessary cost to Hilton. Faster service times – in hand knowledge about the customer preference enables faster allocation of rooms with specific facilities. Increased revenue generation – sale of restaurant reservations, tee times, concert ticket and so on. Reduction of costs - Central reservation system & online access of Hhonors account for customers – reduced call volumes and hence lesser no.of domestic call centres.

8. Drawbacks of OnQ Presenting deep customer histories to front desk at Hilton. It is very hard to update and keep a track of the preferences of individual customers and the history. Information about customer experiences would become obsolete with time. Customer preference may change at any point of time as they might expect to experience something new. Huge cost involved to satisfy the specific needs of customers. Loss of business as vacant rooms are held for Hilton’s gold and diamond customers.

9. Question 2 What does Hilton have to do create a competitive advantage through OnQ? Provide some specific examples

10. Things to do to gain competitive advantage The OnQ has to be more than just a customer information system. It has to be developed into a decision support system. Hilton must record accurate customer data and be able to have this data presented clearly enough so that it can be used to help make decisions. Effective complaints management system - that helps to resolve dissatisfactions faced by customers and ensuring it wont occur in future stays. Providing new themes in their rooms and enabling guests to experience new themes. Providing room reservations to non Hhonors customers or non Hilton customers inorder to generate more income & expand the customer base. Desk workers should treat the customer as if they are coming into their own house, knowing about their travel itineraries and help them out through auxiliary services like concierge, air tickets, cabs etc.

11. Baker’s Supermarket Uses buying histories and other personal preference data to strategize how to earn additional revenue on the individual customer. Customer loyalty through Baker’s value card – Shopper’s card. Savings on purchase using the Baker’s value card. Holiday sales and holiday offers. Wide range of products including FMCG goods, medicines, fresh vegetables, insurance policies, digital items and so on. Recipe and healthy living modules in its website - http://www.bakersplus.com/Pages/default.aspx Redeemable points on every purchase made by customer – can be used for medicines refilling, save on fuel programs and so on. Online checking of points and account information for the Baker’s plus Shopper’s card.

13. Question 3 Is it possible to have too much information about a customer? Explain.

14. The answer It is possible to have too much information but it is not advisable to have too much customer information. This may become a problem. As too much information is recorded on a customer, it may become more difficult to assimilate through all of the data in order to aide in decision making. Further too much information may lead to ambiguity as more customers may have the same preference or needs. Also customer preference may change with time as they want to experience something new and hence there will be wide variations in preference with time. Having appropriate information and usage of the same would help Hilton to provide a better, faster and diverse service thereby increasing customer satisfaction to the max.

15. Thank You