When you travel a lot you see the value of loyalty programs. Very interesting programs for the frequent traveler (but not only…. one can achieve status on some programs without too much effort) as long as they are well understood and well applied.
Understanding how it works is simple. All you have to do is read the explanatory documents and, this is probably the most complicated part, follow the evolution over time.
A loyalty program is only as good as its execution
The execution is the most problematic part. A loyalty program is designed at headquarters and applied in the hotels. Sometimes the hotels are owned by the brand, sometimes operated as a franchise. And in the case of a franchise, brands are very uneven in the way they keep hoteliers in line with the program.
At TravelGuys we are historically suspicious of the Le Club Accorhotel loyalty program. Not because it is bad (but it can do better anyway) but because its implementation in hotels has always been by experience very uneven. Sometimes everything went perfectly, sometimes beyond our expectations, and sometimes we had to cry to get each one of the benefits we were entitled to. It seems that it has improved, we’ll go and check again but in the meantime we didn’t feel like playing Russian roulette or begging for things due.
Conversely, we have always been a fan of SPG (Starwood Prefered Guest), Starwood’s loyalty program. Why ? Firstly because they offer “consistent” benefits from ” achievable” thresholds. Secondly, and most importantly, because its execution was crystal clear to the delight of the loyal customer.
Of course, there are always a few recalcitrant hoteliers who are reluctant to give suites, for example (although this is an explicit benefit from a certain status), but in general the program worked well in 98% of the cases.
And Marriott bought Starwood…
A merger says a lot about business cultures
Initially, the merger of the loyalty programs went very well. Former SPG members were happy not to have their favorite program devalued (which happens in most cases) and former Marriott Rewards members were happy to have a host of benefits landed that they weren’t entitled to before.
It makes sense: by buying Starwood, Marriott wanted to buy more than just hotels. They were buying a marketing and customer experience oriented DNA and a loyalty program adored by its members. When customers call a hotel group not by its name but by the name of its loyalty program it means everything. And just as logically it is the substance of SPG that has prevailed to build the “common program”.
But in practice it has not been so rosy as this article shows. Refusal of upgrades normally required when rooms were available in the categories concerned, refusal to let customers use their points to purchase rooms at certain times….It was clear that some Marriott hotels were not playing the game or, to put it bluntly, were cheating the rules of the program to the detriment of the customer.
Delivering a loyalty program: a matter of culture and training
There are two reasons for this.
The first, in my opinion, is logical. For a hotelier to give the customer more benefits than before is a cost. Of course there are benefits in terms of loyalty, revenue generated by customers who come without any competition and without any marketing effort…But the benefits of a loyalty program for a chain or a group can be appreciated globally (the customer’s engagement benefits everyone) while for the hotelier it is a cost. For him the benefit is diffuse, indirect but the cost is real and direct. But having seen, for a given program, the ratio between the revenues generated by the members of the “top tier” compared to the others, the figures just make you dizzy.
The second point, mentioned in the article, is equally relevant. Following the introduction of the new program, they obviously received no training and very little information on its implementation. You can’t blame someone who has not been informed or trained for not going in the right direction.
This reminds me of the anecdote I heard from a hotelier who once had to manage the transition of a formerly independent hotel to an AccorHotels brand. “Overnight we saw clients coming in and claiming the benefits linked to their status when we had barely had a note on it and no training”.
This was confirmed by a friend who continues to work in the Starwood galaxy..er Marriott…. “SPG’s secret is training...over and over again, to make sure that the program is executed to the letter, with the right attitude and that people acquire the right reflexes.
But as this other article shows, Marriott will still have to police its hotels, starting with its own customer service employees. Policing is good, but it can be avoided if we do a good job of informing and training people beforehand.
If one hotel does not play the game, the image of the entire program and the business of all other hotels suffers.
Because the proper execution of a program is not just giving the client a list of benefits according to his status. It is an attitude and reflexes that allow you to do the right thing at the right time, even in a case not foreseen by the program. It is the construction of a kind of common culture in front of the customer
Back to Marriott
Bonvoy ?
The joint program now has a name: on February 13, Marriott Rewards and SPG will give way to Bonvoy. Ok finding a name instead of letting a unified program exist under two different names made sense and was even necessary. But maybe there was more to it.
I won’t comment on the relevance of the name chosen, I think we’ll have the opportunity to make jokes about it throughout the year. But before investing what I assume to be large sums of money in dubious branding, it would have been good to remember that the best marketing of a loyalty program is the customer experience, i.e. the way the program is executed and the benefits delivered.
Without training there will remain for a long time a gap between the way ex Marriott Rewards and ex SPG hotels will execute the program and if disappointing a customer is unacceptable in a service business, when it comes to a customer who spends 75, 100 or more nights in your hotels is the best way to buy yourself some counter advertising.
In short, the excellence of a loyalty program lies in the DNA and culture of those who execute it. A nice promise without a real experience is worth nothing. Worse, it is deceptive.
Photo : loyalty program by Inspiring via Shutterstock
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