January 21, 2008

Closing The Loyalty Gap

Posted by Madigan Pratt under Direct Marketing, Marketing, Marketing Strategies | Tags: , , , , , , |
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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:

  • In the leisure category, a typical agency probably sees repeat business of around 25%
  • 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.”
  • 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.

 

January 7, 2008

How Important is Word-of-Mouth Advertising

Posted by Madigan Pratt under Internet, Marketing, Marketing Strategies, Public Relations | Tags: , , |
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For luxury hotels the answer is word-of-mouth advertising is critical.  The Nielsen Internet survey released late last year concluded, “Despite the ever expanding array of advertising platforms and sources, consumers around the world place their highest levels of trust in other consumers.”

The #1 most trusted source of information is recommendations from consumers.  What’s really interesting is the #3 most trusted source is consumer opinions posted online!

I will be discussing the implications of this research on luxury hotel marketing in coming posts.  I’ll also discuss how luxury hotels can maximize word-of-mouth advertising – specific strategies are needed. 

If you’re a luxury hotelier I’d be interested in hearing what you think.  Share your ideas with fellow readers.  Here are the “Consumer-Media Trust Rankings”.

Word-of-mouth