Hotel Chain Uses Data to Pamper Its Guests

(The CRM Loop) What more can a hotel chain do for guests beyond providing them with fabled castles and secluded lodges in 44 locations?

Ask Fairmont Hotels & Resorts. It offers a higher level of personalized service through its Fairmont President’s Club.

The six-year-old club now has roughly 400,000 members, who contribute an ever-increasing share of wallet to the chain.

There are three levels of participation, determined by the number of nights a participant stays at a Fairmont hotel in one year, according to Sean Taggart, Fairmont’s executive director of marketing services.

The first is the President’s Club membership, which open to all guests. It has the bulk of the members.

One tier above that is the Premier level, which has 44,000 members. The requirement is that the member stay at least five nights per year.

Then there’s the Platinum level. Its 12,000 members book at least 10 night stays.

Information is collected in a variety of ways. Some preferences are determined from a standard questionnaire during the enrollment process. Others are gleaned during stays at the properties.

“There are times when a guest will request something such as a coffee maker in their room and we ask if we can add it to their profile for future use so we can be consistent in the delivery of their preferences,” explained Taggart.

In addition, all President’s Club members have access to their profile through the Fairmont Web site, and can make changes and requests when they want.

Fairmont retained Accenture Consulting in 2001 to help it revamp the program. Accenture created a “robust guest data database that looks across our hotels and takes information from all our guest stays,” Taggart said. “It then merges that information into a single profile so we understand our guest history across all our hotels.”

The platform allows all front-desk and call center colleagues to view profiles of Fairmont President’s Club members-all they need is the guest name or club number. The profile includes preferences like choice of newspaper, the option of a hypo allergic pillow, the distance the guest prefers to be from the elevator, and food and beverage choices.

“A lot of companies collect customer information but customer intelligence is being able to take that information and act upon it,” said Taggart. “Without technologies in place, like the interface back to our front line colleagues who interact with our guests daily, it’s just an information database. So we’ve made a lot of strides in helping our colleagues access and act upon the database information.”

To facilitate all that, the firm conducts an internal marketing program that includes annual training sessions for all front-line employees. Staffers learn club particulars and how to use and collect information. Additionally, there is a Fairmont President’s Club Champion in each hotel, who oversees the type of data collected and how it is used.

Guest privileges begin when a person arrives at the hotel. All President’s Club members enjoy expedited check-in, and their subsequent experience depends on their program level.

“If we know a guest enjoys fine wine, we may stock the mini bar with fine wines,” Taggart said. “If we know that they are a golfer we may provide them with information on their bed about available tee times. We try to use information to surprise and delight the guest.”

Taggart stresses that this not a points program. “That’s not what our customers are looking for-they want to be serviced better.”

How does Fairmount know it’s on track? It conducts research, and also maintains an online panel consisting of about 10,000 members from all three levels.

“We talk to the panel once every couple of months,” said Taggart. “We send e-mails with questions asking about their thoughts about the program. Is it meeting their needs? Are they being serviced in a level that meets their expectations? And are there other ways we can earn their loyalty?”

And Fairmont is thinking of adding new partners or benefits, the panel is informed about the value to guests.

One partnership is with Sports Express, which ships golf clubs and skis across North America. Members receive discounts on the service.

“This way our members who travel frequently on business but want to golf can ship their clubs from home and have them delivered to the hotel,” Taggart said.

What’s the return on this investment? Five years ago, when it didn’t have as much guest information as it has today, Fairmount drew a response rate of .5% to its direct mail programs. That meant that only .5% of the people who received golf package offers for example, actually booked a stay at one of the hotels. That percentage is now 2%.

“Because we know their interests, our direct marketing efforts are much more efficient,” Taggart said. “I’m not randomly sending information that may or may not be relevant.”

He adds: “This is the only luxury, loyalty program out there that is all about the guest experience, customization and personalization. We’re convinced that that’s the way to