Improving the customer experience is a critical piece of staying ahead in today’s highly competitive landscape, especially in the hospitality industry. Superb guest experience (GX) isn't just a nice-to-have, but a must-have. In fact, studies show that companies who successfully implement a customer experience strategy achieve higher customer satisfaction rates, reduced customer churn and increased revenue.
Deloitte wrote in a recent analysis: “Gathering guest information, interpreting it, sharing it with the right people at the right time, and intelligently utilizing it to create a GX that is meaningful and different is what has and will continue to differentiate hotels from the masses.”
Knowing and understanding your guests is the key to providing the next-generation experiences that guests now expect. However, creating and providing these experiences is easier said than done. One way that hospitality companies can provide a better GX is by leveraging location intelligence and incorporating those insights into their business strategy. Here’s how:
Understand Foot Traffic Patterns and Behaviors
A study by American Express found that 85% of respondents thought that customized trip itineraries were much more desirable than general, mass-market offerings. It’s crucial that hotel chains understand their customers’ patterns of behavior when they stay at their hotel so that they cater to guests’ individual needs and preferences during their stay. Foot traffic analysis can provide that insight.
For example, if a hotel knows that certain guests are fitness enthusiasts, the hotel can send an alert via their app to those guests when they arrive for their stay providing the location of the hotel fitness center, or with a link to a running/walking trails map of the surrounding area.
Foot traffic analysis can also help hotels to segment their guests into audience groups based on patterns of behavior. For example, it can help identify which guests typically prefer to stay on site for their dining experiences versus those guests who choose to go offsite to eat. With that information, a hotel can determine which segment would be receptive to recommendations or discount offers for the hotel restaurants versus other guests for whom highlighting nearby restaurants would be more welcome.
Deloitte said in the same study, “what are personalized moments that matter? It’s a brand interaction in the digital or physical realm that demonstrates the willingness of a business to go above and beyond to provide their customers with experiences and services tailored to individual needs and preferences.” By identifying these patterns of behavior, hospitality brands can create an even more personalized experience -- going above and beyond to provide guests with another reason to make a return visit.
Discover Mutually Beneficial Partnerships
Location intelligence can also allow hospitality brands to identify other brands or venues that your guests visit or shop with so you can establish partnerships to which your guests can relate. For example, if data suggests that some guests visit a specific big box retailer at least twice a month, a brand might explore ways to partner with that retailer so that guests can earn their rewards when they stay at the hotel, or earn your rewards whenever they shop at the big box retailer.
Similarly, if you discover that a majority of your loyalty members visit a certain coffee shop most often, it might suggest that it makes sense to partner with that chain to provide offers or rewards that they can only get through your hotel. For example, you can offer a free cup of Starbucks coffee through your mobile app when guests are staying with you. Or you can take it a step further and have that chain be the coffee shop within your hotel.
The Bottom Line
Personalization is key to providing an unmatched GX. With the increasingly high customer acquisition cost in hospitality, hotel brands need to delight their existing and loyal guests to retain them and stay ahead of the competition. By leveraging real-world insights about the behaviors and intents of guests, location intelligence is at the core of enabling hotel brands to provide these desired experiences.
Contact us today if you want to enhance your guest experience using Location Intelligence.
