Being hospitable is supposed to be a trademark of every hotel. For Bill Linehan, Chief Marketing Officer for Red Lion Hotels Corporation (RLHC), he has a lofty goal: He wants employees to know the names of every customer who walks through their doors.
“We saw an opportunity to bring hospitality back to loyalty programs by being very hospitable, which is what we’re supposed to be doing best,” Linehan told Loyalty360. “Instead of building volume of business to be recognized due to that volume, which we think flies in the face of loyalty, we’re building 1-to-1 relationships with our customers. That became our goal.”
RLHC’s new loyalty program is called Hello Rewards.
“It’s an opportunity to transition from our former points-based Red Lion R&R Club loyalty program to Hello Rewards,” Linehan explained. “We believe it’s a competitive differentiation in the marketplace.”
RLHC wants to shift the paradigm on loyalty as it rolls out its Hello Rewards loyalty program−set to be fully implemented in October. Hello Rewards is about recognizing and rewarding members for doing things they already love to do.
“We want to recognize members for who they are,” Linehan said. “Our intent is to bring hospitality right back to hospitality. We want to keep existing customers, but also try and attract the emerging Millennials who want more instant gratification, and want to be personally recognized rather than through stratas and tiers. They want to experience their surroundings and their own passions.”
By having a recognition-based program in lieu of a points-based program, as well as non-published tiers, Linehan said RLHC is taking a retail approach toward its rewards and recognition program.
A key component of Hello Rewards will be Surprise & Delight.
“We expect the program will help increase bookings, reduce cost-of-sale per bookings, and add significant member benefits that will help modify their behaviors to seek us out,” Linehan said. “We expect to grow market share through improved customer service and accentuate brand positioning. We’re instilling a lot of Surprise & Delight and personalized perks as members achieve different milestones in the program.”
To create more relevance, RLHC wanted to look at improving guest experiences all the way through their journeys, not just receiving points for their journeys.
“If a traveler is an infrequent traveler, but loyally stays with your brand, why are they meant to feel inferior?” Linehan said.
Linehan said Hello Rewards was modeled after very successful retail chains and benchmarked against some hotel chains.
“We look at many benchmarks within the industry, and the broader travel industry, and also within retail,” he explained. “We started to see clear differentiation on how these things can work, and what technologies help fulfill those objectives. Typical loyalty programs are motivated by point accumulation and tier escalation. Ours is through 1-to-1 customer relationships, and by recognizing differences and behaviors. We aim to customize member experiences. Our previous loyalty program was handicapped by larger points-based programs.”