Chasing loyalty... away
Loyalty programmes; some hotels get it…some don’t.
The Century Dictionary of 1897 defined loyalty as: “a strong feeling of support or allegiance. Allegiance is a matter of principle, and applies especially to conduct; the oath of allegiance covers conduct only. Loyalty is a matter of principle and sentiment, conduct and feeling; it implies enthusiasm and devotion.”
Hotel and restaurant operators have opportunities to increase revenue by focusing on core guest expectations, premium upsells and loyalty enrollment. Hotels that offer value-for-money food do not strictly need a complex, point-based loyalty programme, but they benefit greatly from a lightweight, repeat-customer incentive system.
Loyalty programmes create opportunities to give diners a reason to choose your restaurant and to bring them back, provided the property does a few things right, most importantly of all…make guests happy. This is a story about a loyalty enrollment that ‘went south.’
I love affordable good food and eat out often. Together with my wife, son, daughter-in-law and their two kids, we went to this family-owned 4-star city hotel in Colombo 3, in July this year. Things went well, and at the end of the meal, our server inquired about our experience. When my son confirmed that it had been good, the server requested him (short of pleading), to write a review on TripAdvisor, and even to include the staff names. Sensing that the server was required to ask satisfied guests to do it, my son did just that to escape an awkward moment.
But that’s not the main story here
During their meal, the hotel manager, whom I happened to know, came by. Whilst exchanging courtesies, he asked me, “Did you know we have a loyalty card for our hotel guests? Our loyalty card is our way of saying thank you and every time you dine with us, you’ll receive a 10% discount on the bill. Overall, it’s a breeze to enroll. Simply furnish your name, email and postal address and your date of birth to the hostess over there, and she would have your card processed at the earliest. And so, at the conclusion of our meal, I went over to the hostess who was standing at the entrance and provided her with the necessary details, which the hostess duly recorded in a book.
Now comes the interesting part.
During around the third week of September, I contacted this hotel’s manager to make an enquiry about an event scheduled for early October. In the course of the conversation, I casually mentioned that I was still awaiting news / receipt of my loyalty card, where the hotel had not reached out to me about it at all.
It gets even more interesting
With nary any word of apology, and totally ‘missing the moment’, the hotel manager replied that he would check on that…and here’s where it got bizarre… he requested me to drop him a reminder via WhatsApp! Inwardly, I said to myself “Heck no, I ain’t gonna do that”. Anyways, we are now in October and I guess the hotel manager is still frantically checking on my missing loyalty card. What a lark!
In closing….
Shafeek Wahab - Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Trainer, Motivational Speaker, Mystery Guest Auditor, Ex-Hotelier
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