The case 'Taj Hotels: Using Technology to Offer Personalized Services' describes the various technology-based initiatives taken by Tai Hotels Palaces Resorts Safaris (Taj Hotels) to offer personalized services to its guests in India and abroad. The brand's unwavering commitment to offering customer-centric services resulted in its being listed by Brand Finance, a London-based brand valuation consultancy, as the strongest Indian brand in June 2020. It was also considered as a leader in the Customer Experience Excellence metric in a survey by KPMG, a global business consultancy in 2018. The case study discusses the various digital and non-digital strategies adopted by Taj Hotels at individual properties as well as across its chain to provide personalized services and experiences to millennials. Taj Hotels also altered its properties to cater to the needs of millennials, the largest consumer group in India. In 2018, Taj Hotels launched Taj.Live, a digital media monitoring and response system, to listen, interact, engage, respond, and delight consumers across all digital media channels, including social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, YouTube, and Instagram. This feature increased the direct sales of Taj Hotels by INR1.7 million (USD23,050 within the first three months of the system's installation. 

The response rate to customer queries also increased from 39% to 85% while the response time went down from 24 hours to less than 15 minutes. The system captured conversations about the Taj Hotels brand on different digital platforms and used analytics to help Taj Hotel employees answer queries, delight consumers, and monitor compliments and complaints.

Thus, this digital system enabled Taj Hotels to personalize services across its chain. The case details how the brand leveraged state-of-the-art digital technologies to customize its newsletter, Taj Spice. Taj Hotels partnered with Netcore Solutions, a Mumbai-based provider of an Artificial Intelligence-powered growth marketing platform, to consolidate its legacy data and deliver an exceptional customer experience using data driven marketing automation.

The case study goes on to describe how Taj Hotels selected the Oracle Sales Automation cloud in 2017 to bring together various aspects of the hotel chain together. It also launched a mobile application Proxce that featured an easy-to-use user interface which offered several functionalities, including booking of rooms across any of the brand's properties across the world, booking of safaris, paperless check-in to properties, keyless access to rooms, and access to the brand's customer loyalty program, 'Taj inner Circle. The case ends with a brief note on the 'Zero-Touch Service Transformation' created and implemented by the brand to ensure business continuity during the COVID-19 pandemic and Taj Hotels' future plans to adopt high-end technology like loT tools to create a more hyper-personalized environment for Quests over the next 10 vears while retaining the human touch or 'Taj-ness' of the brand.

Technology Initiatives to Offer Customized Services

Taj Hotels implemented several strategies at individual properties as well as across its chain to offer personalized services and experiences to guests. With advances in computing technology, the brand leveraged insights drawn from consumer behavior data to offer personalized as well as captivating experiences to consumers. It shifted its focus from what it can offer' to 'what consumers want at its properties.' The brand also updated its properties to appeal to the tastes of millennials who accounted for the largest consumer group in India in the 21st century...

Road ahead

Following the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, the hotel group adopted and enhanced its services in accordance with the norms of the World Health Organization (WHO), Food Safety and Standards Authority of India (FSSAI, and the Government of India. It partnered with organizations specializing in safety and hygiene, and sourced high-grade protective equipment and disinfectants for use at its hotels. IHCL created and implemented •Zero-Touch Service Transformation', a range of digital solutions across the Taj Hotels properties that ensured social distancing through zero-touch check-ins and check-outs, online payments, digital invoicing, and digital menus.

Answer the following based on the case

1. Critically discuss how digital technologies like contextual mobile marketing technology enable brands to offer personalized services.

2. Hotel industries must decide how much to adapt their marketing strategy to local conditions. Identify how the hotel industry will use the advantages of Digital Marketing to promote itself.

Answer rating: 100% (QA)

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