1. Introduction of the company
Hilton Hotels & Resorts are one of the most familiar names in the hospitality industry, in the view of the modish, forward thinking worldwide spearhead in the hotel business. From opening ceremonies and Hollywood award celebrations to commercial occasions and days to remember, Hilton is where the world makes history, and stages all.
The leading brand of Hilton Global continues to grow upon its legacy of modernization by implementing products and services to meet the essentials of future’s savvy international travelers with around 144,000 employees provide experiences in which every visitor feels be concerned for, respected and valued (HILTON.COM). Hilton Hotels & Resorts group consist of around 540 hotels in 78 countries and this brand remains synonymous with “hotel”. Over 94 years, Hilton International has been offering corporate and vacation travelers the luxury in accommodations, service, amenities and value (Hilton Hotels & Resorts).
2. Introduction of OnQ and CRM
The Hilton Hotel’s CRM strategy is integrated IT technology called OnQ and found in 2004 (Hilton Worldwide, 2004), which is a system helps in supporting the hotel reservation, guest service and business intelligence. OnQ also helps in providing guest information on demand to the team members to help to act “on cue” to the guest preference. It helps in giving alerts by delighting the guest and which helps building relationship and loyalty with Hilton hotel group. The word “Cue” is mean for the hotel operators to work decisively with the current market condition with the help of historical data and many other things which in combined is called “OnQTM”.
The main function of this CRM is,
1) Customer Satisfaction
2) Customer Retention
3) Customer Reference
The main feature of this software is to make strategic performance management system which includes customer satisfaction, external customer’s data as well as partners data, customer loyalty etc.,
The CRM helps in the following,
1) Up gradation of hotels: It helps in up gradation of hotels by making excellence in accommodation and ambience; 2) Satisfaction guarantee: To make complete satisfaction for the guests.
The graph below shows how CRM and OnQ works together in Hilton hotel,
(Longa, Newman, & Nye, 2012)
3. Strengths of CRM (OnQ)
1) It is compatible with lots of different client;
2) Web-Based Check-In Provides Greater Convenience (Hilton Worldwide, 2004);
3) It helps in reducing cost;
4) It can help in following up and updating of customer information;
5) OnQ can help in frequent guest programs for the loyal customers to make more fun and pleasurable services.
4. Disadvantages of CRM (OnQ)
1) The front desk computers have too much information related to customers history;
2) There is a loss in business in terms of gold or diamond customers;
3) It ignores the specificity of each hotel client.
4) The security of customers’ personal information is one of the biggest concerns.
5. Information Security Management
In April 2011, customer names and email addresses, and other information of Hilton Honours Program, were compromised because of Epsilon, the World’s Largest Permission Based Email Marketing Services Company. They deal with tons of customer personal data for the smooth and efficient transactions to make better services (Lennon, 2011).
Information damage from theft or leaks, denial of service attacks, Man-in-the-Browser attacks – all these threats steered to the development of number of security policies. The security solutions of data center and HTTPS safeguard customer personal data against security issues on the server side but for in-transit data, this is not the case for businesses which makes substantial perils to important information. Hackers and advanced malware can steal information from web sessions after the data is decrypted, stealing login information when they enter information, redirecting users to hostile sites and pulling out the session data. This information will be available in the browser cache, authentication cache and susceptible to theft (Quarri Technologies, Inc, 2013).
Privacy and information security is foremost emphasis for the Hilton. To achieve this they are emphasizing on three things; 1) Making policies about their usage of customer information;
2) Shield from outside intrusion
3) The encryption of information to protect from hackers attacks passwords to encryption technology and they are continued to invest for the future to protect systems on their network to keep people from getting access to information. And they are successful up to now (Shein, 2003).
6. Functions in Strategic Planning and Strategic Leadership
Vision, Mission, Values and Main Strategy are provided as shown below (Hilton Worldwide).
1) Vision
To fill the earth with the light and warmth of hospitality.
2) Mission
To be the preeminent global hospitality company – the first choice of guests, team members, and owners alike.
3) Values
HOSPITALITY: We’re passionate about delivering exceptional guest experiences. INTEGRITY: We do the right thing, all the time. LEADERSHIP: We’re leaders in our industry and in our communities. TEAMWORK: We’re team players in everything we do. OWNERSHIP: We’re the owners of our actions and decisions. NOW: We operate with a sense of urgency and discipline.
4) Strategies
Customer Really Matters’ (CRM) strategy (Hilton Worldwide, 2004)
Manifestly, OnQ facilitates the hospitality providing by increasing convenience, flexibility and efficiency for customers. Hilton, seen as the leading company in the hotel industry, developed the most advanced aggregated information system – OnQ, and is also the first hotel company to launch the online check-in system which is a part of OnQ platform. Overall, OnQ is a customer-oriented integrated platform across all brands of Hilton to provide as better services as they can to furthest align with their strategic planning.
7. Conclusion
Undoubtedly, OnQ is a revolutionary information system for the hotel industry that it’s not only an information conveyer but a decision-support tool (Kontzer, 2004), although, there are some concerns regarding the information security issue. That is, once again, Hilton proves its leadership in the industry by leading in the Management Information System development to offer better experiences to its customers. Just as said by CIO Tim Harvey “We are passionate that our brand is only as good as our customers think we are” (Kontzer, 2004).
Reference
Hilton Hotels & Resorts. (n.d.). About Hilton. Retrieved 12 7, 2013, from
Hilton Hotels
& Resorts: http://www3.hilton.com/en/about/hilton/index.html
Hilton Worldwide. (2004, 8 31). Hilton’s Customer-information System, Called OnQ,Rolling Out Across 8 Hotel Brands; Seeking Guest Loyalty and Competitive Advantage with Proprietary Technology. Retrieved 12 7, 2013, from Hotel Online: http://www.hotel-online.com/News/PR2004_3rd/Aug04_OnQ.html Hilton Worldwide. (n.d.). Discover our vision, mission, and values. Retrieved 12 6, 2013, from Hilton Worldwide: http://www.hiltonworldwide.com/about/mission/ HILTON.COM. (n.d.). BECOMING A HILTON HOTEL. Retrieved 12 6, 2013, from
HiltonWorldwide: http://hiltonworldwide.com/assets/pdfs/brands/Hilton_BecomingAHilton.pdf Kontzer, T. (2004, 8 2). Data Driven Hospitality. InformationWeek.
Lennon, M. (2011, 4 2). Massive Breach at Epsilon Compromises Customer Lists of Major Brands. Retrieved 12 9, 2013, from SecurityWeek: http://www.securityweek.com/massive-breach-epsilon-compromises-customer-list s-major-brands Longa, J., Newman, T., & Nye, D. (2012, 12 4). Hilton Hotels. Retrieved 12 7, 2013, from Prezi: http://prezi.com/l3lidbsfwd1_/hilton-hotels/ Quarri Technologies, Inc. (2013, 6 26). WEBINAR: Web Browsers – Your New Security Perimeter.Retrieved129,2013,fromQuarri: https://www.quarri.com/news/webinar_web_browsers_your_new_security_perim eter
Shein, E. (2003, 7 15). Hilton Hotels CIO Talks ‘OnQ’. Retrieved 12 8, 2013, from CIO Update: http://www.cioupdate.com/insights/article.php/2235231/Hilton-Hotels-CIO-Talks- OnQ.htm
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