Customer Journey Map (Current)

Customer Journey Map (Current)

Key

Buy/Access

Use/Post-Experience

Search and Evaluate

Marriott customer 'happy'

Online Travel Agency (OTA)

Continued search with OTA

Customer is happy with their stay at the Marriott and as such informs the Marriott of this.

The customer seeks to place their booking through the OTA after evaluation of different methods/sources.

Interact with the business third-party through OTAs such as Booking.com or TripAdvisor.

Purchase via OTA

The booking is made without association to a MB account. The customer remains a 'guest' user.

Touchpoint or point of interaction/sale

Purchase made via the OTA's booking platform which varies based on OTA, merchant, scheme and availability in country.

Guest

Customer completes stay at the Marriott

Marriott Website

Complete payment

Confirmation finalised after purchase using preferred payment method.

Direct engagement through the company website for bookings, information and contact details.

Customer is asked feedback about their stay at the Marriott

Feedback requested from Marriott

Marriott customer 'unhappy'

Customer is asked feedback at specific points during their stay.

Social Media

Consumer proceeds with enquiry

Gainpoint

Find information about Marriott through all major social media platforms, i.e. Facebook, Instagram, and X.

Checkout

Select payment method

Feedback collation

If a customer has identified any issues/complaints with their stay, this information is relayed.

The customer identifies their ideal room, selects their preferences and is yet to purchase their Marriott stay.

Information regarding the customers' stay is collated via feedback survey.

Sign-up

Room selection

The customer further persues their search for a stay with Marriott.

Word of Mouth

The customer identifies their ideal room, selects their preferences and is ready to purchase their stay with Marriott.

Before purchase, the customer identifies merit in signing up for the MB scheme, benefiting from collected rewards/points and wider perks.

Information about the Marriott experience shared by friends, colleagues, etc. who have previously interacted with the business and would recommend it.

The customer identifies their ideal room, selects their preferences and is yet to purchase and finalise their Marriott stay.

OTA survey

Painpoint

Purchase via Marriott

OTA sends survey request to customer post-booking checkout. Typically via e-mail.

Follow up with Marriott customer care staff

Continued search with Marriott

Purchase is to be made using the Marriott booking platform.

Use Marriott Bonvoy points

Referral

Customers kept up to date via alerts

Engage with the business via exisitng customers (typically signed up to MB) who can benefit from shared ammenities.

All customers with registered email address/phone number will receive Marriott alerts.

A Marriott customer may desire to discount their booking using collected MB points prior to completing their purchase.

Opportunity for digital transformation

All customers with a registered email address/phone number will receive tailored Marriott alerts.

The customer seeks a place of stay through the Marriott website directly after evaluation of different methods/sources.

Personalisation

Here we've previously identified that the demand for personalisation is met with rising consumer trends (people seek highly personalised and bespoke holiday experiences). Plugging the gap is a Marriott unique experience centering the hotel around their stay. An opportunity for digital transformation finds itself as part of the AI-powered 'Marriott Hub' app which caters for the prospective consumers' interests, requirements, time constraints and produces a unique itinerary of events which can be customised individually. More information about customer demand for personalisation can be found here:

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Facilitated booking with OTA

The OTA may facilitate the booking with their own integral rewards system/programme.More information about Booking.com's reward programme can be found here: As such, with the room rate guarantee - a booking made through Booking.com will receive their respective rewards (if an account is registered) and as such, a customer may not seek to create a Marriott Bonvoy account for the purposes of having Marriott specific rewards. Particularly if this is their first stay made with Marriott.

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Stay with us again...

After leaving the hotel, it's essential to maintain enhanced and personal rapports with customers. A main method of this is not only collating their feedback after their stay but acting on this in an engaging way.Trialled by Marriott is the guestVoice linked here: But how can we ensure, that is is not a gimmick feedback service - well the implementation of this into the Marriott Hub app - takes this one step further by collation of feedback and preferences before, during and after the stay means data is collected not just as specific points using different services. Where does this data lead? Well we hope that, if you stay with Marriott again, an even more customised and personalised experience is maintained - however this time, we know what you didn't like. This is crucial, as not acting on feedback is one sure way to detract customers to competitors.

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A Digital Concierge

Before completing payment - consumers often have questions regarding their stay. Particularly those fortuante to use the Marriott Hub will want further personalisation or tailoring before purchasing the complete Marriott experience. As such, a digital concierge finds itself best placed before completing payment.Aspects of this digital concierge are designed to book specific ammenities/excursions identified in the earlier Marriott Hub app, utilising and seamlessly integrating the Marriott experience from digital to in-person with dedicated human Marriott staff who can facilitate extra needs/ammendments as required by the consumer. Information about the emergence of Digital Concierges can be found here:

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Booked before?

Marriott has a wealth of customer data regarding visit types, stay lengths, home country, budget, room type, etc.Here the opportunity for digital transformation lies in data patterns and recognition, which identifies that a new customer is also booking from the same country and is looking for a similar room. By utilising patterns and trends from this data, Marriott are able to serve similar customer profiles, and recommend changes/moditifications that have been popular before. Here, a customer forecast can be made to optimise the customer journey process, making it more convenient for customers to make similar bookings. It also means that if in the future, you'd like to book again - we know what you're looking for. Take a look more about data-driven methods for Marriott:

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Check out this video about Marriott Personalisation.

Guest who?

Building a rapport with a customer, means that the relationship between them and MB goes further than that of a one-off typical transaction. Whilst this guest may not want to sign-up for any particular reason - this could limit how MB engages further with the business. If for example, one were to book in-person for a one-night stay. Whilst the time of interaction with the business is limited as compared to an actual holiday - a customer should still be informed fully and be given access to the suite of Marriott services as part of the Marriott Bonvoy scheme.

Booking.com fiasco

What is often found on Booking.com is the reviews of angry customers under anonymised or untraceable profiles. What does this mean for Marriott - well not much given that there's no link to the customers' metadata and as such, no platform to act on this valuable feedback.OTAs are useful for one thing, travellers to share their opinions good or bad but not to improve their hotel experience. Providing data directly to Marriott, through the Marriott Hub, provides this platform to link all feedback across the customer phase journey. Here you can see OTAs such as Booking.com and Expedia Group fighting to maintain feedback integrity.

Time to use your MB membership!

As part of the MB scheme, comes many ammenities, rewards and unique offerings - to those customers who have signed up. Take the example of a guest customer who is, for the first time, looking to stay with Marriott. They find the Marriott Bonvoy scheme, in which there is already an association of extra perks/rewards from signing up. Almost to the extent of an opportunity cost, if customers were to miss out. As a result, there's an assocation of exclusivity and loyalty with customers who then go onto book again - bringing customer acqusition and repeat business for Marriott.

Dear Customer,

Unfortunately,customers often find themselves at the receving end of unpersonalised emails and alerts from numerous travel companies. They promise great deals, but to the wrong customers. The issue here is that lack of personalised data, producing weakly defined customer profiles. Here Marriott finds themself in the beneficial position, where that tailored data collated at multiple touchpoints (primarily in the Marriott Hub) can input the information for the alerts they receive. If they're part of the MB scheme, how great! That customer is further rewarded with points and exclusive rewards when responding to and engaging with Marriott in these tailored alerts/emails/newsletters.

So... how was your stay?

Ensuring customers feel heard and accommodated for is an important part of the Marriott experience. What we find is that this often occurs a little to late for the Marriott staff to act on.As part of the Marriott Hub, why not give feedback on demand catering anything your heart desires. The benefit of the Marriott Hub finds itself as part of digital integration, where feedback is collated 24/7, reducing turnaround times and maintaining the superior service that Marriott strives to give. More information about time-delay in the customer feedback loop can be found here:

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Multiple points of entry

To engage with Marriott Bonvoy (MB), there are multiple ways of interaction which may suit customer preferences, e.g. in-person for those who prefer that experience as opposed to customers who are tech-savy and enjoy the freedom of browsing through Marriott's suite of hotel chains and programmes using their user-friendly website. This is naturally oriented to capture and retain customer attention. Whilst also appearing on OTAs under their booking searches, Marriott has the unique ability to share directly, the types of rooms, offerings, programmes, ammenities that form part of the experience. This can be difficult to communicate as an OTA, compared to the complexity/level of detail that Marriott has on hand. In addition, the benefit of a referral programme is that customers are early introduced to the concept of the MB scheme which can already begin the process of customer acqusition. More information can be found here:

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Price guarantee?

Both the Marriott and Booking.com have a price-backed rate guarantee in which customers effectively have a safety net of paying the lowest rate for their Marriott room regardless of booking method. As such, what incentive is their to book necessarily with Marriott over Booking.com? Information regarding Marriott's Rate Guarantee can be found here: Information regarding Booking.com's Rate Guarantee can be foud here:

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