The battle for loyalty is strong

L-R: Takashi Yokaichiya, Rakuten Travel; Aya Aso,, Agora Hospitalities Group; Steve Hui, iFLYFlat; Louise Daley, Accor Advantage Plus

At the recently concluded WIT Conference 2014 key players in the hospitality industry shared their experiences and offer suggestions on how to win the loyalty battle.

Acquiring new customers is becoming an increasingly intensive battle with owning and keeping them loyal becoming the obessesion of major brands. 

At the recently concluded WIT Conference 2014 key players in the hospitality industry shared their experiences and offered suggestions on how to win the loyalty battle.

Referral programmes play a big part in retaining customers, is the view of Louise Daley, CEO, Accor Advantage Plus. “Answering what customers want and delivering what you promise” also help.

Steve Hui, CEO of iFLYFlat, a professional points management consultancy, suggests that age plays a role in the loyalty game. “When you’re young you don’t care a lot about loyalty as there are unlimited choices. It’s people in the older age bracket who are more selective with brands.”

He suggested coming up with strategies to catch the young segment, and one way is to go to the parents and persuade them to join as a family. “It’s a good way to capture the Millennial market.”

In agreement is Takashi Yokaichiya, manager, membership marketing & traffic acquisition for Rakuten Travel, who said it was important to catch them young. Remarking that hotels my not have many young people in their loyalty programmes, the segment is growing in the bususiness services sector.

Aya Aso, CEO of Agora Hospitalities Group in Japan, believes that if a company can instill confidence in its customers of being a friend it may increase its loyalty programme.

As for creating a new index for loyalty Aso said this does not really matter in Japan as the customers are polite and usually grade hotels 3 out of a range of 1-5.