Avoid collecting reams of data for the sake of filling a database

CRM Special: By EFT Correspondent

Do companies ensure that while obtaining data from customer they provide value in return?

Jon Mamela, director - relationship marketing, Fairmont Hotels says his company always steps back from data collection initiatives and assesses three simple questions.

1.       Why do we want to collect this data?
2.       How will it support in growing our brand and our business?
3.       Will our members see immediate value in sharing this insight?

“If we can’t answer all three then a business shouldn’t be collecting reams of data for the sake of filling a database. We’ve had the best success with online and offline data capture when we can show our members a value proposition that comes to life for them. For instance, collecting room preferences from our members takes time as well as level of trust. They trust us to use this information for their benefit and guest experience. If we don’t deliver consistently amongst their preferences it affects our business and their loyalty to Fairmont,” he says.

Mamela, in an interview with EyeforTravel.com’s Ritesh Gupta, spoke about other considerations and initiatives. Excerpts:

Would it be right to say that marketing is becoming more quantitative and more consumer-centric but there is a long, long way to go in the travel industry. What's your viewpoint on this?

Yes, I would agree with that as technology continues to evolve, while dropping in price, marketing has an opportunity to take advantage of quantitative data. The challenge for the brand is to determine what data to gather, how to gather that data, and how they plan to leverage it to drive the business forward. Having my prior life in the packaged goods world, the travel industry has significantly more opportunities to gather insightful data on their customers. The customer not only interacts with our brand directly through multiple channels (online, call centre, at the property), but their behaviour (spending patterns for instance) can also be tracked and captured.

I don’t feel it’s a case of technology having a long long way to go, but instead companies developing and executing marketing strategies that benefit both the customer and the business. For instance Harrah’s has always been recognised a leader in CRM within the gaming industry. We’ve had great success in data mining our guest datawarehouse to identify trends and the proper target audiences for various initiatives/offers and we’ll continue to build our expertise in this are in 2007 through some enhanced customer modeling.

How do you train your employees to provide a distinct service, in keeping with your brand promise?

First and foremost our colleagues are educated on our brand positioning and our overall brand promise which is to provide our guests with experiences that are authentically local, in hotels and resorts of unrivaled presence with service that is engaging. If we do this well for every guest we’re more than halfway home in being able to deliver personalised stay experiences for Fairmont President’s Club members that results in building loyalty with our brand. Our Marketing, HR, and Operations Teams collaborate on our in-hotel training endeavor for Fairmont President’s Club. This ensure that colleagues understand the big picture of Fairmont President’s Club and how it doesn't deviate from our brand promise but simply supports it for our most loyal guests. In addition, hiring and identifying the best managers to focus on Fairmont President’s Club is key to our success. Colleagues must be pro-active and take it upon themselves to go the extra step for our members as they recognise competition is fierce. We also share information to the field (hotels) on a regular basis regarding our progress on key measures and best practices. We also seek their input on how we can evolve our service strategy as they live the programme day to day on the front lines.

Is Customer Experience Management (CEM) an evolution of CRM or should they be treated as separate and distinct departments?

In my opinion they are closely linked and they shouldn’t be treated as separate distinct departments, at least within the travel industry and specifically in the world of hotels. The ability to deliver a personalised and outstanding experience to our Fairmont President’s Club members is determined by three things.

First, our colleagues. Second, an innovate technology platform that enables customer information to be collected and shared quickly and efficiently. Third, and most importantly, a willingness between our guests and our colleagues to interact and share information with one another. In my opinion, everything that we do and every interaction that we have with our loyal guests is in essence the customer experience and that is ultimately driven by our CRM strategy. If we weren’t linking the two together, we’d fundamentally have a disconnect that our members would immediately recognise and would inform us through actions and words.

With studies showing that requests for personal information deter customers, how can you obtain the greatest amount of CRM data from your online customers?

As our business isn’t solely an online business with online customers, let me answer your question from a different angle.

While we are experiencing tremendous growth in online bookings, and more and more of our members are coming online to manage their Fairmont experience and travel profile, I think the key to obtaining data from them is to ensure that we provide value back to them.

We always step back from our data collection initiatives and ask ourselves three simple questions.

1.       Why do we want to collect this data?
2.       How will it support in growing our brand and our business?
3.       Will our members see immediate value in sharing this insight?

If we can’t answer all three then a business shouldn’t be collecting reams of data for the sake of filling a database. We’ve had the best success with online and offline data capture when we can show our members a value proposition that comes to life for them. For instance, collecting room preferences from our members takes time as well as level of trust. They trust us to use this information for their benefit and guest experience. If we don’t deliver consistently amongst their preferences it affects our business and their loyalty to Fairmont.

How do you think new technology in user profiling and CRM provide travel marketers with greater control and more targeted campaigns? Do you think there is an over-reliance on technology in this area?

First, let me answer your second question. No, I don’t believe their is an over-reliance on this technology in this area but there maybe some misguided investment intentions.

It’s been said and proven by many consulting firms that simply investing in a CRM technology platform doesn’t guarantee success for a brand/organisation. If a travel marketer is committed to understanding their customers, having open dialogues with them across multiple channels, and delivering value to their customers over time; then user profiling etc should only help travel marketers. Organisations can’t become dependent on the technology alone, but they can use it to better understand their customers, as well as deliver the right offer to the right customer at the right time in the right manner. While the technology is a key team player, it takes the organisational brain power to realise true success. Smart marketers and their strategies and decisions drive success, not technology alone.

Is personalization really an effective way of increasing online sales? What are the practical challenges is designing and implementing a more personalized approach?

Fundamentally one would have to believe that the concept of personalising a customer’s online experience should result in increased online sales because the brand is recognising the customer’s unique preferences and needs. This personalised approach should save the customer time, deliver valuable information and offers based upon past experiences with the brand, and hopefully entertain them through the entire process.

Amazon has been an online leader with this approach and we are now seeing more and more hospitality brands enhancing their personalisation strategies online. Recently I saw a hotel brands that is allowing their loyalty club members to block specific rooms online, according to their stay preferences, prior to arrival. This is ultimately taking this responsibility out of the hands of the front office/ reservations dept.

In my opinion the practical challenges of designing and implementing a more personalised approach starts with a strong online strategy. Personalisation should deliver value for the customer and it should be relevant to the overall brand experience. If you can’t present the value proposition immediately by asking for personal information from the customer then don’t spend the investment in this area. Beyond the strategy is the willingness to invest in the technology infrastructure to deliver personalised content, offers, etc. In addition, the organisation has to be committed to constant improvement in personalisation and be willing to have the human infrastructure as well focused on data capture, delivery, content development and customer utilities.

What will also change for our industry in the future is capitalising on the trend of online customer empowerment and enabling the customer to define the relationship on their terms and with them much more in the driver’s seat. I am not sure if anyone in the hospitality industry right now is truly capitalising on this trend.

Suppliers have been developing capabilities that could be useful, but how are you ensuring that you see the return by knowing who should be targeting with what, and what sort of merchandising is going to resonate with that specific consumer?

Our success on this front is determined by a combination of:

i) Understanding what our members want to receive from Fairmont when it comes to offers and information (this captured at time of enrollment into Fairmont President’s Club and over the course of multiple interactions with the brand).
ii) Measuring their behaviour on each marketing campaign.
iii) Implementing predictive modeling techniques to enhance success of future campaigns.

When it comes to building value in Fairmont President’s Club and delivering new benefits, we rely upon a proprietary online research panel which we’ve had in place for three years. This online panel consists of over 6,000 members who’ve opted into doing online research. We evaluate all new benefit ideas to determine business potential as well as rank them versus the existing benefits. This not only enables us to evaluate many ideas, but it enables us to only focus on new benefits that are well received, differentiate our programme, and will continue to build loyalty.