Challenge

During the past decade Premier Inn has grown rapidly to a position of market dominance in the UK, in parallel it has established a widely recognised reputation for consistency, quality of sleep and outstanding customer service. However to the uninitiated it is often perceived as indistinct from category competitors and lacking the contemporary appeal of newer entrants such as Airbnb and Citizen M.

A modernised positioning for the brand needed to bedefined and translated into a distinct guest experience every department of the business could consistently work towards. With consultancy support from Engine Service Design we launched a co-design project bringing together executives from across the business. Through an intensive day long co-design workshop we developed an updated framework of core values.

Approach

The workshop focused on collaborative development of an Experience Framework based on the brand’s revived vision to be ‘with guests every step of the way.’ The vision reached beyond established expertise in comfort to wider aspects of the guest experience it could define and differentiate through. The framework linked together overarching principles with Promises made to guests, Experience Principles guiding the future guest experience, and indicative service features which embody them.

Outcome

Two further project outputs were produced; a Concept of Experience representing the brand’s end to end customer experience today and tomorrow and a Target Customer Journey visualising the desired future experience for frequent business guests. These assets created greater cohesion between respective branches of the business and are now in daily use by the brand, marketing and user experience teams to guide development of new products.