FORT WORTH, Texas, June
16, 2003 -- Digital Alchemy, the leading provider of email-based CRM solutions
for hotel management companies, today announced a major addition to its
popular Data2Gold e-Relationship ManagerSM email
product that gives hoteliers a powerful tool for enhancing their brand,
inspiring guest loyalty, and driving repeat business. The new Online
Comment Card module in Data2Gold e-Relationship Manager provides an online,
automated mechanism for sending email thank-you notes with click-open comment
cards to guests immediately after their departure. This allows guests
to clearly and candidly express their views while a hotel�s staff or amenities
and services are still fresh in their minds, and enables management to
gain invaluable insights for creating strategies to maximize guest satisfaction.
| �The Online
Comment Cards we get back from our guests are a rich source of information
for refining our operations, improving guest offerings, and creating on-target
promotions for our properties,� said Ted Bogan, director of revenue at
the upscale Le Pavillon in New Orleans. In addition to 219 guest
rooms, the �Belle of New Orleans� also has seven themed suites including
a plantation home and medieval castle. �Before we started using the
Online Comment Cards four months ago, we received 10 hardcopy comment cards
a week. Now we�re averaging 80 e-comment cards a week. |
Le Pavillon
833 Poydras Street
New Orleans, Louisiana |
Guests are more comfortable replying, whether it�s
criticism or praise, when they�re in the comfort of their own home.
They sometimes write five or six paragraph responses, and we read each
one in a weekly managers� meeting. We regard the Online Comment Cards
as a reliable indicator of our performance in meeting and surpassing guests�
expectations.�
According to Digital Alchemy president Don Hay,
�Our new Online Comment Card module is at the heart of what Data2Gold e-Relationship
Manager is all about � hoteliers using technology to solidify customer
relationships and forge guest loyalty. Providing guests the ability
to conveniently give feedback and �have their say� within 24 hours after
checkout is critical in enabling hotels to make more personal contact with
guests, and win the repeat business essential for success in the highly
competitive lodging marketplace.�
Hay noted that the new Online Comment Card module
marks an important extension to Data2Gold e-Relationship ManagerSM
by providing:
-
Guest feedback in an email reply that goes directly
to a designated manager for immediate response to guest suggestions, and
a timely reply to each guest;
-
Monthly management reports summarizing, categorizing
and analyzing guest comments, and assigning scores based on favorable and
unfavorable comments;
-
Instant access to individual guest responses with
their stay information, providing the ability to take immediate action
as appropriate.
-
A dramatic increase in guest responses over traditional
paper comment cards with a 25% completion rate being commonplace.
Email Product Suite With Five Modules Helps Build
Occupancy During Non-Peak Seasons
The Online Comment Card module augments the wide
range of guest relationship-building capabilities already available in
the suite�s core e-Relationship Manager and its other specialty function
modules -- Full HouseSM, QuickSilver Data
WizardSM, and E-Blast ManagerSM.
Data2Gold e-Relationship ManagerSM
enables hotel management companies and individual hotels to propel their
customer relationship management initiatives by using graphical Web page-like
(HTML format) emails to affordably establish one-on-one personalized relationships
with guests. Emails may include attractive pictures, links to on-property
activities and location-specific events, maps, and weather information
-- all of which serve to reinforce a guest�s property decision, enhance
the hotel�s brand recognition, and generate revenue. Automatically
sent emails include:
-
Reservation confirmations sent minutes after guests
books their hotel room;
-
Pre-stay marketing email that arrives 7 to 10 days
before the guest stay, to highlight and promote on-property amenities;
-
Cancellation notice that invites price shoppers to
call back;
-
Thank you notes sent immediately after departure.
The Full HouseSM
module helps hotels build occupancy by sending targeted email marketing
messages to previous guests at the times they are most likely to be interested
in receiving them. Digital Alchemy�s software uses guest information
from a hotel�s Property Management System (PMS), such as how far in advance
guests booked their previous visits, how much they paid, days of the week
they traveled and stayed, etc. This information helps determine the
best offer to send and when to send it. Unlike email �spam,� Full
House sends emails infrequently and only when guests are likely to be most
receptive. All communication with guests is first approved by hotel
personnel, and consistent with existing marketing efforts. A key
benefit of Full House is an increase in occupancy during non-peak seasons.
The QuickSilver Data WizardSM
extracts valuable guest information from a PMS, generates reports and delivers
them immediately by email to a hotel�s management team. Specialized
reports include: guest demographics, guest email addresses, accurate
Average Daily Rate (ADR), VIP and frequent-stay demographics, arriving/departing
VIP, travel agent performance, plus other standard and customized reports.
Digital Alchemy�s E-Blast ManagerSM
enables hotel management to precisely control email marketing distribution.
The E-Blast module uses email addresses extracted from the PMS and other
sources to keep guests informed about hotel activities and invite them
back to the property. Email promotions can be targeted based on geographic
and demographic characteristics, known guest preferences, and other specialized
criteria.
Pricing and availability
The Online Comment Card module is already in use
at prominent full-service business properties and resorts. For pricing
information on the entire Data2Gold e-Relationship ManagerSM
product suite contact Kathryn McGrath at (817) 249-0757 or via e-mail:
[email protected].
About Digital Alchemy®
 Digital
Alchemy�s team of experts has extensive experience in the hospitality industry,
and understands the need of hotel management companies and independent
hotels for software solutions that affordably increase customer loyalty
and repeat business; stimulate higher on-property spending; and improve
guest service and operational efficiency. The company�s Data2Gold
e-Relationship ManagerSM product, with
four additional modules, provides an unmatched range of advanced email-based
CRM capabilities that increase the effectiveness of hoteliers� marketing
programs. Digital Alchemy�s rapidly expanding customer base includes
widely known independent hotels and resorts as well as many Holiday Inn,
Radisson, Embassy Suites, Sheraton, Westin, Doubletree, Ramada Inn, Travelodge
and Sheraton Four Points hotels. Digital Alchemy is on the Internet
at http://www.Data2Gold.com, and
Data2Gold e-Relationship ManagerSM email
samples may be viewed at http://Data2Gold.com/samples.
For further information contact Don Hay at (817) 249-0757 or via e-mail:
[email protected].
At HITEC call Don at (817) 300-2536.
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