A Personal Service
Another hotel loyalty programme that emphasises the personalised service it can offer through the information it collects is the Shangri-La Golden Circle programme, which was launched in 1997 and now has over 2.3 million members.
Shangri-La vice president of loyalty and partner marketing Wee Kee Ng describes the programme as a way for “Shangri-La to know guests’ preferences and to use their profile to tailor benefits on every stay, and at any Shangri-La hotel or resort.”
“Additionally, it enables our properties to anticipate and deliver truly personalised services to the guest. We can then utilise the relevant demographic and transactional data to send targeted communications to members with exclusive and personalised offers at new hotels, as well as to drive business to hotels during a promotion period,” adds Kee Ng.
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The Golden Circle programme offers Shangri-La’s guests a variety of privileges that increase as each member progresses through the membership tiers of Gold, Jade and Diamond. These benefits can include free room nights, room upgrades and spa vouchers, with Diamond members invited to exclusive members’ only events such as golf tournaments, opera nights and musicals.
“What makes this programme different is our ability to recognise and reward our members every time they stay. Members value the exclusive recognition and benefits that come with the higher membership status and at the same time, they can earn points for a family vacation.
Through recognition and rewards, Golden Circle increases Shangri-La’s engagement with its guests and drives incremental business to the hotels,” adds Kee Ng.
However, Kee Ng is keen to stress that there are also considerable challenges and obstacles that must be overcome before a hotel starts running an effective loyalty scheme that can efficiently identify and utilise guest data.
“For an effective and efficient database system, there must be a seamless integration between the group’s membership, reservation, property management and customer relationship CRM systems. Only this way can the hotel’s marketing be effectively benefitted across multiple communication channels such as social media,” concludes Kee Ng.
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