Elevate Customer Loyalty Through Tailored Experiences

Customized customer experiences can lead to heightened satisfaction and loyalty.

Imagine walking into a hotel room and discovering a personalized note next to a plate of your favorite food. Opening the note reveals information about hotel amenities and recommendations for local attractions aligned with your interests. It sounds like a dream scenario, doesn’t it?

Personalization plays a crucial role in various industries, particularly in hospitality. But how can we apply this idea to all businesses, especially at the local level?

Understanding personalization in the hospitality industry

Personalization stands out as a growing trend in multiple sectors, with statistics revealing a significant uptick in its adoption. This helps greatly in enhancing customer experiences and fostering loyalty.

Does McDonald's have the best food? I am going on a limb here and say no, they don't. But they prioritize customer service, giving great attention to the buyer. So that's step one. How can we take it to the next level? The personalization level.

As usual, we need data to do this, the hospitality industry collects three types of data:

1. Customer interaction: Data related to reservations, special requests or other interactions are valuable for the hospitality business.
2. Product or service ratings: Beyond traditional reviews, tracking activity is crucial for personalization efforts.
3. Customer demographics: Information like age group, location or preferred communication channel is the foundation for personalization marketing systems.

Personalization is not a new concept, it dates back to the 1990s. Let's see if this is something you can do and beat big business at their game 💪

Strategies to personalize touchpoints

After gathering the necessary data, by hand, software or any way you can, the next step involves developing profiles to gain insights into individual preferences, behaviors and their relationship with your business.

Yes, the above will take some time. But think about the vast advantage you can have after collecting data for a few months. How is the rest of the year going to improve in sales?

Utilize customer preferences to suggest personalized options, activities or experiences. The collected data can also inform the design of marketing campaigns aligned with individual customer profiles. Or the design of your store out office for customer preferences, making them feel when they visit you.

Personal example: A few months ago I went to a car shop where the waiting area was cleaner than some restaurants, great decoration and ambiance, a movie playing at a not very loud level (yes, a racing movie), with free WiFi. And now they know I love cars and soccer (let's see if they remember my favorite team next time). My waiting experience was way better than any I can remember. I am coming back to them.

And your communication should not end when your customer leaves. Remind customers of your services and regularly update customer profiles to ensure ongoing customization.

Do you currently do surveys to get customer satisfaction and preferences? You might want to consider it.

Takeaways

In today’s dynamic landscape, personalized experiences can elevate a good customer interaction to a great one. More and more consumers appreciate it when businesses understand their preferences and be thoughtful. Tailoring services and creating the ideal experience are key ingredients in increasing customer loyalty. 

Customer loyalty means they buy more and more often from you, and they tell all their friends, especially when they say "oh this place knows exactly what I like". We all want things easier.

Let's find ideas to implement personalization in your local business, yes it takes a little work upfront but the benefits can be substantial. Why do you think the big guys do it?

Don't think this applies to you? Think again, see my car shop experience above.

You can do this if you are a local restaurant or bakery, a local CPA or financial advisor, a local dentist or chiropractor, a local florist, plumber or landscaper, a local IT or software company. You get the idea.

Just takes a little effort, that your competition may not be willing to take, for you beat them.