Observe consumer behaviour and transactions wherever possible and act on…
Business recovery in 2020 was heavily relying on consumption behaviour data and how the companies were able to leverage this.
Since hospitality industry has been one of the first ones hit by the pandemic, what are the lessons learned you have implemented?
Well, the lessons learned were quite different. The first is that often in the hospitality, we were all offering the same type of product and communicating in the same way. With the pandemic situation, people started looking for very different things in hospitality. Customer expectations changed a lot and the traditional chains found it more difficult to move in that direction. The first lesson has to do with product differentiation and personalisation…..
Then there was the question of internal markets. All countries rely heavily on foreign markets and foreign visitors. There are a few markets that really focus on domestic tourists because they have big markets – like the US and Brazil. In Europe especially, we were all very aware of who was visiting us. And in that sense, it was necessary to look again at the internal market more calmly, to get to know our client better and better and to start developing even more differentiated communication.
What strategies have been proven to be successful in gaining the trust of customers in the times of uncertainty and fear? How have you approached customer retention?
Loyal customers are the ones who respond best in crisis situations and for that reason, brands need to give even more importance to those who really matter (the most relevant and frequent customers). In this case, targeted campaigns, based on customer consumption behaviour, were crucial for the recovery in 2020.
What are the best channels to reach customers and how has this changed in the past year?
The channels have been changing over the years. At the moment, direct channels, but with segmented and personalised communication are the ones that stand out the most in terms of results. Opening newsletters, push notifications, outbound offers, are campaigns that we can and should run with loyal customers.
Gilda GRANJA LUIS is a Marketing, CRM & Loyalty Director at Pestana Hotel Group with an academic degrees in Marketing, Communication and Management and over 12 years’ experience in Marketing and Brand Management, Customer Loyalty, Media Relations, Internal Communication and Content Production, in the Air Transport and Hotel sectors in Portugal, in companies with an international presence.
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