"Consumers can react aggressively to anything they see as intrusive or obviously promotional"
Published: 28 Jul 2008
Loyalty and CRM Strategies in Travel Special
Travel suppliers have news ways to engage customers and extend their loyalty programmes to channels such as the Internet and mobile phones.
Such tools may lend new meaning to personalisation but the control in the hands of consumers also demands an introspection of action taken by the marketers.
From a car rental company's perspective, David Oliver, head of Marketing Programmes, Hertz Europe Limited, says, "The Internet offers more choice to the customer in how they can engage with us as a business. Customer expectations have changed so that in the last couple of years it's become more of a mainstream channel, with an established array of account servicing options for customers. In this respect, the Internet is becoming 'mainstream' as another channel alongside others. In fact, for emerging businesses it's the channel they start with rather than one they bolt on alongside others - as was the case some years ago."
On successfully extending brand presence into virtual communities, Oliver said it's becoming important to manage recommendation and advocacy systematically - taking control of word of mouth as a channel and actively measuring and managing it.
"For example the last few years have seen the growth of 'net promoter' methodologies through which businesses measure recommendation and advocacy alongside harder measures of sales value and profitability," he says.
"Seeing them as just as meaningful in tracking the health and future prospects of a business. In virtual communities this can mean that your customers quite literally become your strongest advocates, and your best advertisements. For example Primark has a site on Facebook which was set up spontaneously by Primark customers - nothing to do with Primark officially. This unofficial community has over 90,000 members, 300 discussion topics and 350 uploaded photos of real customers modelling real Primark clothing. Primark have been quoted as saying "An independent Facebook group launched by our customers is of far more value than anything we could do"," shared Oliver.
On the usage of mobile phones, he said mobile phones have become very personal character and lifestyle extensions.
"Their use in marketing needs to be planned and thought through carefully - we have research showing that consumers can react aggressively to anything they see as intrusive or obviously promotional in nature," shared Oliver.
According to him, the best use is in operational, service-oriented messaging which supports the delivery of a product or service.
"An obvious example is in roadside assistance to confirm the expected arrival time for a patrol. A less obvious example is at O2, where they have a programme called 'Random acts of kindness' which includes sending 50 free texts to a customer on their birthday, as a gift from O2 so that they can text 'thank you' to friends and family who've given them gifts or sent them cards," said Oliver.
Ritesh Gupta,
EyeforTravel.com
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