Get Personal with Your Customers!
Posted by Jared Zech | Filed under Advertising, Media, Tips and Trends Series
Is your data being used to its fullest capacity?
If you don’t know who your best customers are, where they come from, their average spend and during which season they travel, then you are not using your data effectively.
Many hotels and resorts simply take the information in their PMS and dump it into some simple reporting spreadsheets. However, there is much more that can and should be done.
The first step is to take the data and clean it. Remove bad addresses—both email and direct mail. Run a National Change of Address (NCOA) search on it to be sure you have your customers’ most current mailing addresses. Remove duplicate addresses and consolidate guest information into one household. Add variables and append the data to fill in as many of those variables as possible, including first-time stay flags, repeat-guest flags, length of stay, lead time, recency and frequency codes.
Psychographic analysis can then be used on the data to classify the best guests and find more potential customers just like them.
The goal is not to just send out offers, but also to send very specific offers to the right people at the right time. Doing so will improve conversion rates and minimize waste. In addition, it allows you to target your prospecting because you’ll know which kinds of customers respond to which kinds of offers.
So, are you spraying and praying? Or are you really targeting your customers? Let Dana help you pinpoint success. Contact jzech@danacommunications.com.
