Based in Northern Ireland we were always eager to fly the rewards flag for the best in the hospitality business. It’s a great privilege to represent Galgorm Collection, providing rewards and recognition for every premier venue.
Our Cardlink system makes points earning a breeze. In the past, we were faced with either processing points on our portal or full integration with the PMS. Advances in tech came a long way and we landed firmly in a frictionless approach. Members of our represented programmes can earn points automatically with their registered bank card/s when they spend at a single venue or across the estate, opening up opportunity for non residential business. Collaboration in innovative tech really advances the customer journey. We hooked up with For-Sight to further harness the loyalty experience and provide greater insights to customer behaviour.
We also hooked up with Net Affinity to make it even easier to redeem a loyalty voucher online, keeping it simple without staff intervention. There’s also opportunity to feature exclusive member rate but that’s a story for another stay.
An advert recently displayed by HSBC quoted “the only thing we have in common is that we’re all different”. That really stood out when thinking about how we thank guests and visitors for their business. Hotels are all enthused to sway guests towards booking direct on their website by offering % off BAR. While that’s a starting point to swing bookings from the high margin OTA, it’s just a discount. What happens next? Where does the recognition and reward come in for the next booking? Or is the proposition just going to be the same, another discount?
Collecting Information
Demonstrating loyalty isn’t discount. Sure, it maybe helped get the direct booking but it’s not enough to make the guest feel unique, valued, recognised and welcomed back. How else could you approach this opportunity for engagement, without complexities? Collecting guest contact information is a good starting point – you’ll get this anyway at guest registration or for visitors, newsletter sign up. Collecting data is about to become more critical in a cookie-less future.
When you have collected the data, recognise them for the trust and value of their data now in your hands by making a high value, low cost proposition. Take it a step further, ask what their interests are, date of birth or special anniversary dates (if not originally collected). You’re building a database as first-party and yours alone.
In a forest of a hundred thousand trees, no two leaves are alike.
And no two journeys along the path are alike.
Paulo Coelho
To know your guests & visitors as individuals you need to segment your data collected so you can personalise and adopt a less generic one for all approach. No need to go overboard but even 3 segments could make a difference: location (they’re not going to travel 100 miles for afternoon tea); purpose of visit and interests so you can tailor your message accordingly. Then create a communications plan (no different to a to do list), keep it simple, keep it consistent. What are you going to send, to who and when? What’s your proposition? Keep it relevant to your audience.
Engage And Reward
To fulfil HSBC’s mantra, you’ll need to go further still. That’s where we come in, serving 50+ clients for 12 years with branded loyalty programmes to reward and recognise guests. We provide a branded loyalty programme so you’re well equipped to collect data across all points of sale and engage through personalised communications. You can plug this in to a CRM, booking engine and PMS as well as our very own CardLink system to award points. That way you’ll collect transactional data (remember RFM-recency, frequency, monetary values?) and be able to reward with a more direct relationship by giving back future experiences based on past behaviour. Providing recognition and rewards, not just discount.