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In a context in which hoteliers compete with large OTAs to attract the customer, loyalty programs become indispensable for a good direct sales strategy. This is confirmed by the latest figures published by Roiback, a company based in Palma de Mallorca (Spain) and specialist and leader in the management of hotel direct sales.
The Mallorcan tech company has stated that loyal customers spend on average 22.4% more than sporadic customers and have longer stays (almost 30%). In addition, the customer’s expenditure level grows progressively year after year and their frequency of purchase increases: a loyal customer will buy 10 times more during their life cycle than a new customer. Thus, a repetition rate of 5% can triple the annual growth of a company and its profits up to 25% per year.
“To get a new client is increasingly expensive and, for this reason, a regular and loyal customer is much more profitable. But the client is usually not faithful and there is currently a struggle by the OTAs and the large hotel chains to get to him. The key issue is to offer direct benefits to loyalty program’s customers that favor direct sales, in comparison with other channels, and then build communication strategies focused on strengthen loyalty and to make the client repeat”, commented Rebeca Gonzalez, Managing Director of Roiback.
According to Roiback, a loyalty program has to be simple, it must add value, satisfy and surprise the consumer and, above all, it has to be personalized for each client. The company analysed the market and saw that very few medium-sized hotel chains and almost no independent hotels had this type of program and, for that reason, they decided to launch Loyalty Pro, a loyalty solution that makes it easier for hotels to integrate this strategy into their direct channel to strengthen the customer relationship in the long term. The solution was very well received among Roiback customers.
“Our main goal with Loyalty Pro is to design a solution that allows to have a loyalty program within the direct channel, offering advantages and benefits to customers. Afterwards, we have incorporated the integration of different CRMs that complement our solution and that allow to continue with the communications and loyalty strategy with the client. The CRM direct integration included in our solution allows us to implement the forementioned strategy, centralizing customer information and launching segmented, personalized and automated communication campaigns that help to improve the repetition rate and to increase consumption. In addition, we have recently incorporated the possibility of capturing customer data through the hotel’s wifi, which multiplies the program possibilities and enhances the loyalty strategy”, highlighted Gonzalez.
Additionally, Roiback underlined the potential offered by loyalty programs when making real reservations through voice searches, which is one of the great challenges for this 2019, and that the company highlighted in the last edition of FITUR through a prototype of real booking. In fact, currently, 20% of the searches through mobile devices come through voice controls and it is expected that, by 2020, this percentage will reach 50% in the United States.
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