Loyalty Program Hospitality Industry

HOTEL LOYALTY
Hotels get nearly half of their revenues from the small segment of travelers who spend about a month each year on the road: frequent visitors make up only 10 percent of all hotel guests but account for 44 percent of
hotel nights . In the early 1980s, hotel chains began to recognize the value of such customers by introducing loyalty programs patterned on the airlines’ frequent-flier model. These programs have succeeded in maintaining the loyalty of people who travel moderately often but are not as effective as they might be with other segments, our research suggests.

The frequent-traveler segment represents $40 billion to $50 billion in revenues each year. These guests spend some of that money in their preferred hotel chains, but their wandering ways leave $22 billion to $27 billion in play. Persuading such people to narrow the field from three or more chains to their favorite two could add seven to ten nights at the chain they prefer. To capture this opportunity, hotel executives must ask, “What do you get the person who has everythingor at least more points than he or she can use?”
Part of the answer might involve changing the way points are redeemed. Even for elite-status members of a loyalty program, redeeming them for free hotel rooms can be cumbersome at popular times and destinations.

2.Loyalty Club Members Habitat
The percentage of all guests who indicated club membership is “very important” when selecting their most
recent hotel stay increased steadily throughout 2003 with a 25-percent annual increase.
Frequent travelers are four times more likely to consider club
membership very important when selecting a hotel.
Among frequent travelers, club members have considerably higher incomes, pay slightly more per room
night, stay more nights per year in hotels and are more tolerant of price increases compared with
nonmember hotel guests
The average profile of a frequent traveler who joins a loyalty program is a 47-year-old male traveling on
business. He stays 31 nights per year in hotels, is very brand loyal, pays an average of $103 per night and has an annual income of $104,000

E-CRM IN HOSPITALITY TODAY

Electronic customer relationship management (e-CRM), in the context of the exploding Internet distribution and marketing in hospitality, is a business strategy supported by Web technologies, allowing hoteliers to engage
customers in strong, personalized and mutually beneficial interactive relationships, increase conversions and sell more efficiently.

e-CRM cannot exist in isolation
Today’s multi-channel marketing model requires a single brand image to be communicated across all channels. In the same time it requires interactive customer relationships to be established and maintained across all
channels.

Anytime an Internet user lands on a hotel website, a branding interaction occurs. This branding interaction can
be positive or negative . Unfortunately for some hoteliers on many occasions a
visit to the hotel website turns out to be the last point of contact with this particular customer.
Two key questions are facing hoteliers today:
Who owns the customer in this new online environment? The online intermediary, which made the
booking, or the hotel where the guest stayed?
How can hoteliers establish mutually beneficial interactive relationships with the customers in order
to increase repeat business, boost revenues, and retain loyalty?
Here are the main aspects in e-CRM in hospitality:
1. Know Your Customer
2. Customer Service
3. Personalization
4. More Efficient Marketing
5.Building Customer Loyalty

1. KNOW YOUR CUSTOMER
Knowing your website visitors is an extremely important consideration when conceptualizing and designing your hotel website and your e-CRM strategy. After all, addressing your key audiences and providing them with relevant information is one of the key aspects of any hospitality site. Different customer segments should easily identify areas on the site that speak to them. Internet users visit a hotel website not as John Smith or Jane Smith, but as a Business Traveler, Meeting Planner, Special Event Planner, Family Traveler, Spa Services
Seeker, Golf Outing Seeker, Vacation Planner, Convention Attendee, Wedding Planner, etc.

Case Study: Who Are Your Online Customers?
The 2004 RUSH Report, a joint effort by Hospitality eBusiness Strategies and iPerceptions, based on nearly
40,000 customer survey respondents on 30 major brand hospitality websites, shows that 56 % of all visitors on
hotel branded websites are Leisure Travelers and 32% are Business Travelers. The benefits are obvious:
Identify your most valuable customers with best lifetime value perspective
Allows guest-centric data mining: guest history, guest profiles, past bookings, preferences, etc.
Enables informed decisions in real time
Allows fast response times
Real-time Guest Lifetime Value
Deliver business insight to executives, marketers, sales
2. PERSONALIZATION Personalization is more than providing the right information to the right person at the
right time. Personalizing the customer experience on the hotel website is a powerful conversion and retention
tool. Customizing your interaction with your most valuable customers will provide significant long-term rewards.
Adopt a policy on how to address your guests via email Addressing the customer segmentation issues on the property website is a logicalnext step. Creating a targeted email marketing campaign is another good step.

For the major hotel brands, the personalization efforts are much more complex and expensive. Customization tools used by some major brands and airlines allow website users to actively personalize their website experiences using over 250 criteria. Here are some of the efforts by the major travel and hospitality companies to make the user experience more personable:
Personalization agents using a variety of customization applications, capable of creating Behavioral
Profiles and a Real-time profile for each customer
Collaborative filtering: Using preference matrix and artificial intelligence to capture and predict
customer interests
Decision-support applications utilizing various applications for Behavioral Profiling, Predictive Modeling, Collaborative Filtering and Click-Stream Analysis, capable to sense the purchasing behavior and patterns of the user. By providing a customized booking experience these applications can boost the conversion rates.
2. CUSTOMER SUPPORT
It is important to understand that customer service is only one aspect of e-CRM and is primarily a reactive function aiming to improve performance and efficiency, while e-CRM as a whole is a proactive long-term strategy.
On the Internet the customer support aspect of e-CRM is an extremely important trust building and customer retention tool. A well positioned Contact Us or Help button or Push-to-talk feature speaks volumes about the
hotel brand and builds trust. 57% of online shoppers actively seek sites with good customer service

Case Study: e-CRM Comp Analysis of 9 major upscale hotel brands.
HeBS uses its proprietary CyberScore system to evaluate various aspects of 9 upscale hotel brands. HeBS addresses e-CRM features and functionalities considered essential for optimum customer experience, such as customer support, ease of use and visibility of customer support throughout the site, customer support by phone and email, personalization, “Self-service” Customer Service Tools , “Live” Customer Service Tools, corporate and property level help desks and contact info. Evaluated were a total of 9 e-CRM features. The maximum score is 90

Live Service Tools: Push-to-talk functionality and real-time interaction with live agent; instant messaging and chat-room type of assistance; Voice-over-Internet Protocols (VOIP) applications; automation to pre-screen live
support (selective approach) E-Mal Service Tools: Inbound e-mail management; automated e-mail response systems, capable of
automating 80%-90% of e-mail volume with 98% accuracy, and dramatically improving service and reducing support staff by up to 40%.

4. MORE EFFICIENT MARKETING
eMarketing plays a crucial role in establishing interactive relationships with your customers. eMarketing is a
marketing strategy that uses the Internet as its medium.
The main issues facing eMarketers in hospitality today are:
Guest profiling and one-to-one marketing.
Accurate segmentation: focused segmentation equals higher response rates
Create narrow-focused marketing campaigns
Utilizing lifestyle data and personal preferences in the marketing
Building opt-in email lists and precision e-Mail marketing (fivefold higher response rates)
Internal benchmark of customer lifetime value
Cross-selling opportunities
Campaign tracking and ROI analysis
Developing a robust and effective eMarketing strategy requires not only an extensive knowledge of your
customers and precise customer segmentation, shifting marketing finds from offline to online channels, but
deciding what your marketing objectives are.
Display Ads (e.g. Traditional Banners): Steady decline: 2003: 21% (as percentage of total online
advertising spend); 2002: 29%; 2001: 36%; 2000:50% (PWC/IAB). Click-through rate 0.83% in
Feb 2003 (eMarketer)
Keyword Search (e.g. PPC, paid-inclusion, etc): Steady increase: 2003: 35%; 2002: 15%; 2001:
4%; 2000: 1%.

Classifieds: increased usage of this format: 2003: 17%; 2002: 15%; 2001: 16%; 2000:7%.
e-Mail Marketing: Currently between 3%-4% of total spend; Jupiter Research reports that US email
marketing spending will rise from $2.1 billion in 2003 to $6.1 billion in 2008.

Overall Site Satisfaction: How would you rate your website experience overall?
Excellent 18.80%
Very good 35.73%
Good 28.94%
Fair 12.22%
Poor 4.31%
Total: 100%
Different customer segments perceive the hotel website differently. While not dramatically different, Business Travelers appeared slightly more critical than other user groups. Even when they felt satisfied, Business Travelers
appeared more critical: 54.57% found the site to be Very good or excellent compared to 55.14% for LeisureTravelers.

Conclusion: e-CRM is an integral part of online distribution and marketing in hospitality. The Internet provides the best direct means to reach existing and potential customers. Establishing interactive relationships with your
customers, which is the essence of e-CRM, will help you retain your customers, increase revenues, and build brand loyalty.

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Imperative Concerns In The Hair Salon Industry

Vital issues in the hair salon industry contain a number of factors such as the types of services that a beauty salon may offer to its clientele. Beauty services can include everything from cuts, to styling, to coloring, to extensions, just to name a few. The more services a salon is able to offer, the more marketable it will make itself to the public.

In order to be able to bring in as many customers as possible and to be able to connect with as many members of the community as possible it is recommended to hire a staff that can cater to the needs of people of all different ethnic backgrounds. Different ethnic groups have different needs when it comes to beauty services, and this should always be considered when new staff members are being interviewed and hired.

Suburban and urban locations are generally much better places to promote a beauty shop, and this also makes it much easier to stay aware of the latest trends in the business. It is also important to remember that the business itself should be easily found within the local area. Many clients may shy away from visiting a business that is difficult for them to find.

An additional way to stay informed of the latest and best products is to make sure that at least a couple of staff members are able to attend promotional events or conventions at least every other month or so. These conventions give people in the industry an opportunity to sample and learn about the newest products on the market.

It is also important to make sure that the prices that clients are being charged for a different beauty services fall within a reasonable price range for the industry. Even though it is everyone’s goal to make money and turn a profit, it is still important to remember that customers may feel tempted to seek services at a different business if they feel that they are being overcharged. A simple way to prevent this may be to research the prices of beauty shops located around the local area.

All employees that are hired to work in the hair world should be qualified with the latest credentials. It is a matter of safety and quality to make sure that all employees are highly qualified to perform the services that they claim to be able to perform.

One of the latest, easiest, and most cost-efficient ways to promote a business in this industry is through the use of social media and social networking sites. It usually costs nothing to establish these sites, and they can be updated multiple times per hour if someone would choose to do so. No business in this industry should also be operating without a well organized web page on the Internet.

Vital issues in the hair salon industry also include making sure to offer services using hypoallergenic products for customers who may need them. In today’s age of allergies and allergic reactions this is an easy way to maximize the potential for one’s business. Advertising the use of hypoallergenic products is an easy way to draw in extra customers that may otherwise not feel inclined to make use of someone’s business.

Freight Shipping Industry Concerns

The freight shipping industry has been on a fantastic ride for the last few years. The volume of shipments has increased exponentially and the number of freight forwarders and shipping providers has increased dramatically in order to keep up with demand. Although the freight shipping industry was impacted by the global recession in 2008 with many companies facing bankruptcy or going into receivership, overall the industry has remained bullish. The reason for the strength of the industry is simple businesses and individuals will always need to have their goods and products shipped to their customers.

Since the global marketplace has opened up drastically worldwide, it is now possible for consumers to shop twenty-four hours a day and for e-tailers to remain open in order to meet that demand. Naturally, with constant business being transacted, it means that freight shipping providers will always have work. The biggest problem currently facing the freight forwarders of the world is how to sustain the level of growth that they have been experiencing. It may not seem like a very complex issue, but it is, in fact, one of the most important that the shipping industry must resolve. The worlds shipping needs are currently being met because the infrastructure needed to sustain it is already in place. The problem arises from the fact that the current infrastructure is being used almost to capacity. If the freight shipping industry wants to continue expanding, it will have to begin creating new infrastructure to support the increase.

Now, creating the infrastructure requires financing something that the freight shipping companies may lack, and governments might not see the need to invest in building new ports, airports, railways and highways if they cannot see an immediate financial return from doing so. However, even if the governments from around the world were able to commit to building the needed infrastructure to allow the freight shipping industry to continue expanding, the creation of these new ports and airports will take time. The time needed to build the necessary infrastructure will, inevitably, have an impact on the speed of growth that the freight shipping industry is experiencing.

So, while it is true that the freight shipping sector can continue to expand for the foreseeable future, the long range forecast is far from clear. What is definitely clear is that the industry will have to begin investing in its future and also in finding ways to mitigate the eventual slowdown that all industry analysts know is coming.

The other very important point of consideration when it comes to the freight shipping industry is its negative environmental footprint. Engineers working for the shipping industry have been working on creating more powerful, more efficient engines for their sea and air carriers and they have also been working on ways of eliminating waste from their business model. However, the progress in this area is limited and still needs a lot of research and development to produce significant results. At least the reduction of the freight shipping industry footprint is on the agenda and being worked on diligently.

Information Technology In Hospitality Industry

Traditionally, hotels were largely dependent on cards and paperwork at the front desk to keep in touch with old and current customers. They were largely at the mercy of the desires of vacationers to arrive, and on their own efforts and staff to be ready for potential surges or long droughts of occupancy. Luckily, such inconvenience and old-fashioned methods are long since past, thanks to advances in information technology.

The first area in which information technology became important was in regards to billing. Old-fashioned paper-based book-keeping was time consuming and inefficient, and was not able to quickly tell a hotel owner what the situation of their hotel was. Luckily, advances in modern record keeping allow for a hotel owner to keep track of what they have on hand, how much of it they have, and how much it costs. Accounting is complicated, but advanced accounting software, especially that tailored to the unique needs of the hospitality industry, helps to enable hotel owners to make smart decisions. Services and products that are no longer used can be quickly cut off to save money, while those who show demand can be increased in quantity or modified so as to reduce the heavy usage.

Most hotels are familiar with booking rooms and reservations over the phone, but information technology has expanded well beyond that. Hotels can now work with various online travel companies and booking services to have their rooms booked online, with no need to employ expensive staff. This also allows a hotel to advertise their open rooms and special deals directly to persons who would be most likely to purchase them, instead of wasting lots of money advertising in an unfocused manner. High quality information technology thus allows for better arrangement and management of bookings in order to allow a hotel to better maximize occupancy, and to know in advance when large groups or lean times are approaching. This allows a hotel manager to make plans regarding temporary staff, good times to renovate or expand, or other concerns, because he/she can determine the state of their hotel currently and for the next few months with only a few clicks on the computer.

The advances in information technology extend well beyond booking, however. The internet is essential for vacationers who wish to contact those back home, and for those traveling on business to get in touch with the office. Therefore, wireless internet has become a very common and very useful service for hotels to provide. Many business minded persons even require that a hotel offer internet services so that they can keep working while on the road. Luckily, such services are easy to provide, as all that is required is a wireless router and various devices to ensure the entire hotel is filled with the network. Modern advances in wireless internet also allow for the wireless internet provided for hotel visitors to be used to network the hotel itself. Security cameras, door locks, and other devices essential to hotel security and safety can be wired into the network, so that staff are alerted whenever a door is propped open, a fire alarm goes off or suspicious activity occurs. Though the hotel guests are wholly unaware of it, this sort of added safety and security keeps them safe, and in the event of a problem they will most certainly appreciate the benefits of such a system.

As advanced as it is, information technology in the hospitality industry is still going forward. Intelligent booking systems enable rapid and efficient guest feedback, along with the ability to predict who is likely to use the hotel again and inform them via e-mail or text messages when good deals arrive. Hotels with room service or other guest services can offer their menus online, allowing for quick updates, high-quality photos, and other ways to allow guests to see and order services before they even arrive. There are also advances in terms of payroll and inventory which make information technology a valuable asset for saving money and maximizing profits. The unique nature of the hospitality industry makes it a great place for new and emerging information technology, and forward-thinking hotel owners and managers are always looking for smart equipment and software to invest in.

The Specialization Of The Construction Industry

Today’s Construction industry has become quite competitive. Contractors are required to me efficient, cheap, and punctual. For either a new construction project, or a remodel, contractors have the challenging task of assigning the exact price for the completed work. In addition to the obvious cost calculations for the material costs such as foundation materials, lumber, roofing, doors and windows, cabinets, carpet, paint, appliances, plumbing, electrical wiring, landscaping, and many other things, they also have to calculate the time for each task to be completed and determine the labor costs for the construction project. In the past, one contractors quote may have varied greatly from the next, simply because of the many variables involved. Construction time was usually the target that was missed the most.

Computers and software developed for contractors has enabled contractors to work more efficiently. With the use of specialized software, contractors are able to provide more accurate quotes, and determine these figures in a much shorter amount of time. The quotes provided are usually more uniform depending on the contractors own markup.

The construction industry has become so refined, that many teams of workers are assigned to their specific task. When that task is completed, their job is done, and in comes the next team. For example, once the foundation had been built, the framing team needs to come in, followed by the plumbing team and electrical team. Next is the drywall team, the carpet team, the paint team, etc. What is impressive is that each team has specific estimating software for their stage of the construction process. T

When the electrical contractor has the plans for the building, including all the square footage figures, and all the plans and electrical needs, he can simple input all that information into his electrical estimating software, including the pricing of specific electrical fixtures and the current costs of wiring, etc., and the software will calculate the final costs, including labor. Each subcontractor has a similar process and when all taken in sync, the contractor is able to provide a total estimate for the construction project.

All of this specification results in a very efficient construction industry. Of course, you can still hire a jack of all trades builder, they still exist. Just understand that it is impossible for one person to be an expert in every process, as well as being an expert in the use of all the software available. His estimates will be more variable. Either way, the numbers should make sense to you, and everything, including the time table, needs to be put into writing.