So what makes us "loyal"? I think loyalty starts with being respected, having a positive experience and convenience. Think about the various products and services you purchase. These three attributes are paramount to your decision making to spend your money for various products. The other attribute is the timeliness to participate in the advantages of being loyal. The grocery industry understood this early in the loyalty business. Sheraton marketing does not understand this. My friends at United do understand this. They provide immediate benefits to members of their loyalty program and offer greater benefits to those that fly with them more than everyone else.
My Sheraton experience got me to think about the "loyalty factor" from buyers of enterprise and business solutions. Now, I know some of you can tell me about the metrics you use to measure customer satisfaction and how the more satisfied you are, the more that these more-satisfied customers will buy over time. Our organization makes the improvement of our overall customer satisfaction a level-one organizational initiative. Improving the experience and loyalty for our customers and our partners around the world is what has helped make our business continue to lead the market forward. Customers who have moved from competitive voice offerings have specifically stated that the reasons were not just product deficiencies. Mostly, they told us it was the inability of these other companies to properly support their products. The scale of a business really has its advantages in building out a world-class customer support team.
One of the key differences between customer satisfaction and loyalty in my mind is the ability to make changes quickly. As an example, if you are “unhappy” about your enterprise product implementation, it’s not possible to decide to replace it quickly... not when the solution has just cost you lots of money and 18 months to implement. You may not be satisfied, but you still will use the product and try to make it better. But, for products that are easy to replace, then that’s a completely different story. Which brings me back to my friends at Sheraton hotels.
While all the hotels have a "loyalty" program, I want to propose a new product to their marketing team. And you airlines, listen up, this applies to you as well. I propose that hotels give me an opportunity to show my loyalty by staying with them, but do not make me “earn my loyalty”, starting with from zero nights. Have I not proven as a Marriott Platinum member my ability to spend an evening in a hotel? I have no problem with having to “prove” my competitive loyalty standing to Sheraton. They would get more nights from me if I was able to participate in the perks of a loyalty program from day one that is “equivalent” to the competitive program that I already participate in. Now, to protect the hotels, so others do not abuse the "access loyalty," I must earn my status with them throughout the year. If I do not meet the night’s stay plateau for my desired loyalty level, they place me at the earned tier. Oh, and Sheraton, I’d call it the "Pay Ahead" Loyalty Program. Market the program around the concept that “I know you are loyal and so are we. Give us a chance to earn your loyalty”.
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