In an industry where brand loyalty and customer retention is everything and essential especially under the current economic climate, how can technology be used effectively as a business driver?

Over the last few years, the hospitality industry has seen an explosion of websites and extremely sophisticated graphical emails, specifically designed to improve click-thru rates to entice people to hit a �submit� button and make a hotel reservation. However, with all the razzmatazz, the reality is a bit like the old adage; �You can lead a horse to water, but you can�t make him drink�. One such company who appears to have bucked the trend is Accor, who apparently has scored a resounding success by taking bookings for over one million room-nights in the first half of 2001. It would be intriguing to know if they will be able to repeat this phenomenon in the second half� 

Adopting a helicopter view, the first thing we need to do is to lead the horse to water.  In other words, we need to find a way to drive people to your website. It�s no good to have the sexiest website in the galaxy, if no one knows it�s there. The proliferation of many thousands of search engines is fine for first timers entering un-chartered territory.  But the tricky thing is to keep them interested in the site so browsers log it in their list of Favourites and keep returning for more.  To do this, you need a vehicle that will attract them to your site like ants to a pot of honey and keep them there in the knowledge you have captured their attention because they CHOSE to be there.

One such innovative way to help drive business to your website is through a recently launched product called Vflash � an interactive eMessaging system. Keeping it simple and without using too much techno-babble, Vflash is a small program that needs to be downloaded into the users PC, and after completing a quick and easy installation process, a branded icon will reside in their taskbar � close by the system clock. The branded icon could for example, resemble that of a particular hotel chain, hotel or restaurant � in fact almost anything providing it�s legal. Behind that icon, are a set of preferences that the user would have selected based on his/her particular areas of interest, i.e. food promotions, weekend breaks; bonus point promotion, wedding and bar-mitzvah packages etc. 

Then, when the hotel has a particular marketing campaign, they could flash a message to all registered users, or only to the ones who have checked a specific preference. 

A blinking icon shows the message has arrived, and by clicking on it, opens a small window containing the message, which more often than not, will have a call to action and a hyperlink to a precise level or page in your website. � This we classify as permission based target marketing. 

Unlike regular (spamming) email, messages sent in this manner are directed only to those who have expressed interest to what you have to offer or feel a certain amount of loyalty to your brand. We appropriately refer to this marketing concept as eCRM (electronic customer retention management). 

Assuming you are like me and many others subjected to a daily dose of junk emails, you are likely to have set up an auto-delete rule in your email client so trash can be sorted out and dispensed forthwith. But this is a time consuming exercise and a bore when you have a busy day ahead of you.  Companies who employ marketing agencies in pursuit of some ad hoc eMarketing campaign to promote a product ought to spend time to find out whether their   hard-earned and precious advertising dollars are landing in someone�s auto delete system or trash box. Because most likely it is!! Just think of it, of the many unsolicited e-mails you receive a day selling or promoting a product or service, how many do you actually open and read? 

Enter V-flash. This allows you to directly target messages to a specific focus group, and at a fraction of normal mail costs. It is permission- based marketing at its best! These messages or campaigns can be prepared way in advance, or very quickly transmitted mid-week to hit the weekend breakers when suddenly a group cancels, or to delight foodies with a special treat when the fish market decides it needs to offload an oversupply of lobster at short notice.  By simply using a pre-defined template, and an easy to use HTML generating tool like Microsoft�s Front-Page or Dreamweaver, in a matter minutes you can launch a full scale eMarketing campaign that would otherwise have taken endless hours of creative meetings to produce, lots of story board proofs to review, and then days or weeks to mail out. It also takes the hassle out of worrying whether the campaign has reached your target audience and whether they have bothered reading it.

Why companies, especially high-tech ones still use traditional snail mail campaigns elude me. Why they go to such great lengths of producing environmentally unfriendly 3-pane colour brochures and then placing them into envelopes with sticky labels and a postage stamp really stretches the imagination. Because most likely, these end in someone�s trash can too!!

With a little integration, Vflash can be linked to your own company�s most valuable asset � the customer database thereby helping maximize its value. But, one of the greatest benefits of using such a vehicle is you are able to continuously expand your mailing list without lifting a finger.   Anyone who has not logged previously into your site is automatically added to your list when they download the eMessenger and register�it is a simple as that! Imagine the impact of giving out a small (±US$1) credit-card size CD-Rom to guests upon departure, so that they can load it onto their PC. You can stay in touch with them long after they have gone and advise them on promotions or holiday deals they would not want to miss out on.  And if they were happy with the service they received during their stay, they would want to stay in touch.  Imagine the look on their faces when you express that kind of caring attitude� Would that make the kind of positive lasting impression your customers and you are longing for?

eCRM is the name of the game; it is a philosophy� a way of life, not simply a piece of technology. With people spending so much time in front of their PC�s, the PC desktop is the new market place where it all happens � often referred to as �Internet Real Estate�. What value would your company place on having its flashing logo on the desktops of all your customers and being only a click away? Forget the mouse mats � the acrylic notepads and silkscreen ballpoint pens, they don�t blink in the eyes of your customer, and they certainly don�t help make reservations.

Listen up ad agencies! It�s time to get on the web-wagon, and head out for the new gold rush � the land grad of the 3rd Millennium � called the desktop.

Acknowledgement: The 15 Secrets of Guerrilla Marketing courtesy of Jay Conrad Levinson www.gmarketingcoach.com

Terence Ronson [email protected] http://www.pertlink.net

Terence started his career as a Chef, and acquired his wealth of practical experience and knowledge whilst holding various management positions with Hilton International in Asia and at several prestigious establishments in the U.K. After developing a personal interest in computers and technology some twenty years ago, Terence has turned his attention on to this exciting and rapidly evolving aspect of the business, working with several  prominent IT related companies in the hospitality industry, applying their products and services so as to streamline businesses, improve profitability, and the guest experience.