Customers have expectations and it is a bare minimum to meet those expectations, and a goal to exceed them, according to Kristi Gole, Director of Loyalty Marketing, Global Hotel Alliance (GHA). Meeting and exceeding those expectations is a constant for GHA as it fosters its deep commitment to customer experience, customer engagement, and customer loyalty.
“It has been refreshing to see that our customers are forgiving of mistakes as we launched our new program a few years back and were learning along the way that they are eager to share their opinions, and that they embrace what we are all about: Unforgettable travel, which has allowed us to develop a marketing program suited to their needs,” Gole told Loyalty360.
Global Hotel Alliance, which took home two silver awards at the inaugural Loyalty360 CX Awards at the 4th Annual Loyalty360 Engagement & Experience Expo, views Customer Experience as the path of a hotel guest from the travel inspiration phase, to trip planning, to making a reservation, to the hotel stay and member recognition/benefit delivery (front desk/during the stay/check-out), to reward redemption, to post-stay interaction, to account updates and stay credits, to customer service contact response and claim resolution, to maintaining the relationship through email marketing, and to inspiring another trip.
“It involves every touch point with a member,” Gole said. “It is the foundation of our business and our success. If we can deliver a positive 
and memorable customer experience, we will see results.”
GHA’s Customer Insights strategy has been, from program launch to present, to ask its members what they want from the program and to adjust in response to their feedback and/or their behavior.
“We modify program basics such as awards, tier qualification criteria, and benefits as well as our marketing communication frequency, design, and content all based on their responses,” Gole explained. “Both collection of customer insights and a focus on customer experience are incorporated in the strategies of each department (Marketing/ Ecommerce/ Operations/ Technology).”
GHA offers a monthly survey through its Account Summary e-newsletter, asking members for feedback while offering a weekend getaway sweepstakes to interested participants.
“We also track customer contact center feedback and share internally across departments on a monthly basis,” Gole said. “And we openly receive suggestions and feedback from our hotel staff through a co-creation community, based on their direct experience with guests. We also employ an ongoing mystery shopper series which provides a full evaluation of and scoring of the customer experience at the call centers and hotels across our portfolio. Our brands and their hotel General Managers have now incorporated mystery shop scores in their annual reviews and actively pursue improving their scores.”
Gole said GHA closely monitors email engagement metrics (opens, clicks, opt-outs) and conversion (bookings) and test frequency, timing, design & layout, and content to see what members respond to best, then tailor their future communications accordingly.
“We track these metrics on a weekly basis and shift direction as quickly as the following week, if needed,” she added. “For testing, we test the same elements two to three times before making conclusions.”