When travel agents jump on the Customer Relationship bandwagon you know CRM has reached the mainstream.
The cover story in the Jan 14th issue of Travel Weekly is titled, “Closing the Loyalty Gap.” Some of the more interesting quotes from the article include:
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In the leisure category, a typical agency probably sees repeat business of around 25%
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Lalia Rach, dean of NYU Tisch Center for Hospitality and Tourism said , “To date there has been an absence of recognition of the importance of client retention. The focus has been new clients, new clients, new clients.”
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Increasingly, agencies appear to be waking up to the benefits of improving client loyalty, starting with the understanding that far more business typically comes from repeat clients than from new ones.
As a small luxury hotel you no doubt have known the importance of building loyal customer relationships for years now. Your percentage of repeat guests should be significantly higher than the typical travel agent.
Hopefully you are now on to the next level of customer loyalty – creating brand advocates to maximize word-of-mouth advertising.
If you have any questions on the subject, drop me a line.
