Optimal customer experience through enhanced incident insight

citizenM

  • Customer case
  • Research
  • Data consultancy
Handing over the keys at a hotel
citizenM
Zev-business-manager
Zev Posma
Business Manager
3 min
07 May 2024

citizenM aims to prevent, reduce, and resolve incidents in its hotels more efficiently. They established an Incident Management Product Team to consolidate scattered initiatives and make the working method scalable and future-proof. They asked us to examine the current process and map the desired situation.

Incidents can range from a broken lamp and a leaking shower to issues with the reservation system and a malfunctioning lift. citizenM aims to resolve these tasks quickly and effectively to maintain room availability and provide guests with an optimal experience.

Approach

Within the Incident Management Product Team, we began by mapping out the KPIs. We developed a suitable strategy and monitored dashboards with weekly analyses. We also assessed the current quality of incoming data and dashboards. An important question was: Which incidents consume the most time and are there specific trends?

To improve the process, it was crucial to map the current situation. We achieved this by:

  • Mapping all customer feedback (Voice of the Customer)
  • Visiting the workplace and making observations (Gemba Walks)
  • Conducting a baseline measurement to identify bottlenecks and optimisation opportunities (Value Stream Map)

For the Value Stream Map, we brought together various teams including housekeeping, hotel support, and maintenance. We discussed the incident process and lead times, identifying bottlenecks, systems in use, and associated roles. We then compared these findings with hotels in Asia and America, considering local differences to determine the scope of the problems.

Ultimately, we identified various opportunities and challenges related to automation and internal collaboration. Together with citizenM stakeholders, we held a brainstorming session on the optimal approach and future state of the incident management process. Additionally, we formulated various hypotheses and solution directions, linking these to KPIs to make improvements measurable.

Some examples of solution directions include:

  • Simplifying logging through digital touchpoints to facilitate incident reporting and resolution.
  • Reviewing SLAs and promoting collaboration through a data-driven feedback loop, conducting thorough research into problems.
  • Standardisation via e.g. templates and the addition of subject labels.
  • Training hotel teams in dashboard usage and reporting for better transparency and efficiency.

Outcome

The low hanging fruits have already been implemented. Additionally, several projects have been initiated, such as:

  • Establishing a data-driven feedback loop.
  • Investigating further causes of incidents (Root Cause Analysis).
  • Improving logging quality and implementing a new front-end for incident reporting to ensure users always have a single source of truth. This ensures that employees can log an incident within 1 minute, all tickets contain the required information and, as a result, 80% less handling time.
  • Automating incident reporting and directing them to the appropriate teams.

Through the setup of the Incident Management Team, citizenM has gained greater insight into incidents and can resolve them more efficiently. This will reduce the number of rooms out of service, shorten incident resolution times, and enhance the overall guest and employee experience.

The experience of the client

Want to know more?

Do you also have a research problem that needs to be solved quickly and pragmatically? Zev would be happy to assist you.

Receive data insights, use cases and behind-the-scenes peeks once a month?


Sign up for our email list and stay 'up to data':

You might find this interesting too:

banking app optimisation ux research picture of a smartphone

UX research for the expansion and optimisation of a banking app

A bank wanted to know whether it was desirable to add a new functionality to their app. This functionality already existed as a separate app from the bank app. Would merging the two apps bring extra value to users? Our researchers explored this via qualitative desirability study.

Read more
doctor with stethoscope

Target group research for new website

The organisation Doctors of the World offers medical assistance to people in a vulnerable position. They often do not know how to find their way in the Dutch healthcare system. Doctors of the World helps them with this. One of the channels to get informed about the work of Doctors of the World is the website, which will be redesigned.

Read more
ux research for KWF header image

Optimal user experience for Memoriam Platform

KWF is a Dutch charity dedicated to fighting cancer. The organisation was working on the development of a Memoriam Platform. This is a new initiative to create personalised memorial pages for the deceased. On these pages, donations can be made to KWF.

Read more
dutch cyclist

Better public services based on a research cycle

Dutch citizens living, working or studying abroad must also take care of things like renewing their passports, arranging tax issues and pension with the Dutch government. This can be something of a challenge by being far away from the Netherlands, due to fragmentation of services, time difference and different situations. In a project which lasted from 2018-2022, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs therefore worked together with 12 implementing organisations (e.g. Tax and Customs Administration and RDW) on government-wide access to public services. The service is called Netherlands Worldwide (NWW). NWW is accessible 24/7 on the website, and direct customer contact channels such as telephone, WhatsApp and email.

Read more
ux research for website optimisation header image

Evaluating brand alignment website with user perception

In October 2022 we launched our new website, in a fresh design style. We asked our partner Kaliber to update our branding and website with a design that fits our brand values. After the website went live, we wanted to know if they succeeded at this. Therefore, our own research consultants designed and conducted a research study to evaluate the effectiveness of the new design in conveying our intended brand values and message.

Read more
een magazine lezen op een ipad

A comprehensive understanding of the customer journey with Google Analytics and R

ONE Business websites allow users to buy subscriptions to various magazines. The online sales funnel can hereby be dynamically divided for each offer. For example, it is possible to give users free term choices or to limit them to a specific offer. Because the sales funnel is dynamic, it is impossible with the standard Google Analytics implementation to gain good insight into the customer journey. ONE Business asked us to provide insight into where people opt out and why. This will enable them to optimise the funnel for more online conversions.

Read more
young person filling in a survey

Rapid analysis of a survey with both closed and open-ended questions

Nationale Jeugdraad is an umbrella organisation for 37 Dutch youth organisations. To gain a thorough understanding of youth behavior and opinions, they conducted a survey among a large group of young people. As they did not have the appropriate personnel available themselves, they enlisted our assistance.

Read more

Make better decisions knowing your users' needs and desires

Use data-driven UX research to gain valuable customer insights. Solve identified problems, and create products that that are intuitive, effective, and user-friendly.

Read more
research consultants talking to each other

Your research partner

Gain in-depth insight into your target audiences and make more insight-driven decisions. Increase your impact with effective solutions, processes, and services that cater to their specific needs.

Read more
human versus ai

Replacing qualitative researchers with AI, a good decision?

Artificial Intelligence seems capable of everything, and sometimes even better and faster than what we can do ourselves. Analysing qualitative data is a time-consuming task, and as researchers, we are curious if it can be done faster and easier. Does AI offer a solution for this? Our researchers investigated.

Read more
website optimisation based on ux research

Stop unnecessary investments in website optimisation

You strongly feel that your website or a particular page no longer meets your customer needs or brand identity: time for an update! Will you immediately invest in developing something new or will you first invest in research? In this blog, we explain why research prior to website optimisation can save you a lot of unnecessary costs and problems.

Read more