What do you think Hilton leadership should do

after the Blackstone acquisition? Should they

further invest in CRM or simply maintain the
status quo? What aspects of Hiltons CRM
should be strengthened if any, and how?

The Blackstone acquisition offered the opportunity to think further about the
success of CRM. Different questions came up.

Whether there has been significant savings through improved efficiency of

call center operations as claimed by executives or not?
Does the implementation of OnQ help the brand to differentiate from their
rivals?
Whether to continue with this or is it waste of money?

 Technology Cost Management

OnQ Stage 1 Investment: $93 million

OnQ Stage 2 Investment: $102 million
Information System Funding :$240 million
CRM installation :$0.65 million
CRM maintenance cost : $1 /year

Since the investment in the technology is quite large, hence judicious

decision regarding the applicability of CRM & effective data mining of
customer profitability is expected. Maximizing the marginal utility of
the technological cost by implementing the economy of scope is
evident in the case. Devising measures like technological cost/room,
technological cost/customer/year etc.

 In hospitality Industry CRM is not an alternative but an imperative. A

brand is differentiated in the hospitality industry when the brand exceeds
customers expectation.
CRM is not recommended for a company which needs to achieve quick
revenue. CRM should be implemented only with a long term prospective
CRM technologies have lot to do in building a direct relation to customers.
CRM returns are not only limited to increase in revenue. Savings can be in
the form of reduced use of time to manage customers and customer
transactions.
Additional revenue can also be in the form of lead generation.
Revenue increases as the customer loyalty increases.
With the help of OnQ they can analyze different touch points of Customers
like how long did they stayed on company web page, how they reached
the page etc. The details of caller can be directly entered to data base so
proper back up can be provided by the company.
There is opportunity of re-purchase or recommendations from each
customer in this industry.

 Solutions for the problems included, Hilton OnQ,

CRM, Using Call Centers to optimize the CRM
concept, Best
Guest Arrival Reports, and The
Satisfaction and Loyalty Tracking
(SALT). In
hopes that Hilton Hotels would continue in their
growth via the use of technology, my
recommendations were also centered around
technology. I recommend the expansion of the
OnQ and CRM
technologies, as well as
the implementation of free internet access for
guests at all properties.

Solutions to Problems
Hilton OnQ this IT Infrastructure created by the Hilton gave their
firm a nervous system. This allowed customers to have a one-stop
shopping of an integrated solution, and also allowed employees to
provide excellent customer service on cue. The system was able
to support the property-level operations of every Hilton Hotel,
regardless of its size or segment. OnQ is a competitive advantage
and, it helped Hilton to
aggressively expand at a quicker
and more consistent pace.
CRM CRM was an addition made to the OnQ infrastructure. It
utilized technology to give Hilton a solidified relationship with its
premier customers. CRM added a holistic view to excellent
service, and it allowed Hilton to foster a closer
relationship
with the Best Guests throughout their life cycle of interactions with
the Hilton Family Brands.

More Solutions to Problem

Using Call Centers to optimize the CRM concept The Hilton Hotels wanted to
optimize the new CRM portion of the OnQ system, so they utilized the call
centers to gather more information about their customers during the
reservation process. OnQ Reservation allows the agents to access callers
personal dossiers and update their preferences. This information shortens the
time on the phone and it enables better cross-selling.
Best Guest Arrival Report This was a useful tool, because it allowed the
property to prepare for receiving guests. This report was useful to the
property because it listed and ranked all expected guests that had a profile in
OnQ and formatted relevant information from their dossier in an easily s
canned format. This allowed the property to pre-assign guests to a
room
that was prepared according to their preferences. This helped the firm to
become more efficient in the services they provided to their valued guests.
The Satisfaction and Loyalty Tracking (SALT) SALT was a survey that a sample of
departing guests were asked to complete. This survey was an important
measuring tool because it assessed whether the CRM initiative was truly working
and how it could be tweaked.

Recommendations
I would recommend that Hilton expands their OnQ and CRM
technology to include all of the properties that they own.
Meaning, whether a customer stays at an Hilton Hotel, a
Homewood Suites, or a Waldorf-Astoria, their preferences
would still be available at the various properties.
With the growing need for technology for most consumers
even when they are away from their homes and offices.
Therefore, it would be beneficial to Hilton Hotels to be the
first hospitality firm to offer FREE unlimited internet service
to all hotel guests. It can be up to the firm to decide whether
the free internet should be wireless or via Ethernet. By
adding this feature to all of their hotels, Hilton Hotels will
attract many new customers that will become faithful
customers due to the free access to the internet.