Loyalty360 learned how The James Hotel uses data to build customer loyalty and what perks loyal guests can expect. Loyalty360 spoke with Lisa Zandee, Senior Vice President of Brand Management for Denihan Hospitality, about these compelling topics.
The James Hotel launched in 2006, and has hotels in Chicago and New York, but you’re expanding, correct?
Zandee: Yes, we’re working on a West Hollywood property which will open next year. We focused equally on design and service. We are a leader in creating design and guest centric service. Both of them are extremely important. It’s about the form and function. It has to work and look good.
Listening to your customers is very important. Can you describe the process?
Zandee: It’s made easier these days with all the channels. And especially on the hospitality side, where you have channels like Trip Advisor and Expedia, where people are very passionate about where they stay. Their choice of hotel is still more of an emotional decision. Obviously, location and price come into it. When we create new hotels like with West Hollywood, one of the first things that we create is what we call our guest journey. It’s basically what is the customer experience going to be from a customer perspective, from when they made a reservation to when they leave a hotel. And a lot of that vision and that customer journey is what drives what we look to in design and technology.
Has the customer journey changed when you look at creating loyal customers?
Zandee: It’s definitely changed. There are a lot more options. For example, if we’re offering to let someone check in online, it’s not as if we’re taking away the warm hospitality that we need to offer when they walk in the door and if they want to check in that way. What I have found is that the art of hospitality is still built on the same fundamentals, but there are now many more options.
Attracting loyal customers is what every business wants. How do you do that and does The James offer a rewards program?
Zandee: We’ve adopted policies that reflect how a loyal repeat customer is treated. One of the things we’re going to be rolling out is our Friend of James, which is for our repeat and loyal guests. And that’s what we’re offering, not a loyalty program, but a guest recognition initiative. It gives us the opportunity to have such elements as upgrades and amenities and preferred offerings that people don’t have to earn that they’re getting on the spot because they’ve been recognized as a Friend of James. We feel that’s an expectation of a loyal customer. It gives us an opportunity as a smaller brand to be able to reward on the spot versus having to build up your miles.
What is your customer philosophy and how does that drive better engagement?
Zandee: It starts at a high level, how we recruit, how we train all of our team members and that great service is a given. Like a bed, you expect it in a hotel. But, we all know it’s not easy for it to happen consistently in a way that’s natural and authentic, rather than too scripted, but still professional. For us, the customer service is our people, who at the end of the day are making the guest talk about us, tweet about us, or come back.
As a marketer, what is your biggest challenge or what keeps you up at night?
Zandee: Just making sure we are resonating with the customers. There’s so much noise. In the hospitality industry there are so many options. I look at it and think we’re sounding alike, which is OK if that’s what the customer wants. But there are also differences. With my marketing team, it’s a lot at what they look at, that’s when the data helps you look back at your CRM efforts and social media and you can start to see if you’re communicating too much. It’s about when to communicate and how much.
There’s so much data available out there, but how do you make sure you’re using the right data to serve loyal customers?
Zandee: From a hospitality perspective, we have access to so much data about the customer now that the information gets to a level that it isn’t telling you what to do, but you’re almost relying on it. So the data is going to tell me this. It can be a trend and it’s OK if it’s a trend, but I find a lot of my team is using the data for the answer. Sometimes it supports it, but not necessarily. And especially in our business it is about how customers are interacting in the hotel and how they’re interacting with our website. I find that the more and more data we get, sometimes the further away we’re getting from some of the best ideas. Because if you don’t have your ROI up front, you’re almost not taking a risk with some of these things. From my experience, some of the programs we’ve offered haven’t been completely built on data. The data has supported them afterward. Customers have responded and are engaged, but it wasn’t born or bred from the data.
About the Author: Mark Johnson
Mark is CEO & CMO of Loyalty360. He has significant experience in selling, designing and administering prepaid, loyalty/CRM programs, as well as data-driven marketing communication programs.