11 customer loyalty trends for 2011

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" In today's crowded marketplace, creating loyal, engaged customers is more important - and challenging- than ever."

Challenging : to me this is a key word of the article. How to create this feeling of allegience in the guests' mind, at a time when they have the power to have at their disposal all the hotels, description, prices... and, most important, they can put them together into competition to find what corresponds them more ? And after staying somewhere, if the guest is not happy, he can change ! Our generation does not behave the same way as our parents, who, once they found a place they liked, came back each year for the hollidays. With tools such as internet, we have the choice, and it make us want to change and try different things.

That's why to me it becomes crucial to create a feeling of uniqueness to the guests. The 3 first trends of the article ( Loyalty is not a program, Loyalty will focus more on emotion than on rational, and Customer engagement and employee engagement work together) stands that the guest experience is a key part for loyalty today, and i will focus on them today.

Nowadays, guests are no longer looking for just a comfortable place to stay, but for a place that offers them a unique experience  which will make them feel like they want to come back as soon as they leave the hotel.   That's why loyalty is no longer a program with a loyalty card that can for instance offer you a free night for 10 nights you spent at the hotel.
The reason why you will want to return is because you experience a unique moment, emotionaly speaking. Thanks to a warm welcome, recognition from the employees, a personalized service, and people who anticipate your needs and create a WOW effect, the guest will be emotionaly engaged. He will not consider the hotel like a place to sleep, but for a place where he is unique, nearly as in his own house. And to engage emotionaly a guest, employees mus be involved too. It is them who will create this unique feeling to the guests thanks to kind gestures and actions.
It is easy today to have a beautiful product, but what is more difficult and makes the difference, is the quality of service. Between two similar products, the guest will choose the one in which he feels like he's home, with people treating him like a unique person, with his habbits and tastes remembered by the employees when he comes back! This will make one want to come regularly in the same place.

This quality of service makes the difference today, and it will last in the future. For example, in the next two years, the parisian market will welcome new hotels that will position themselves on the top luxury level ( rencently opened Royal Monceau, on December 17th the Shangri-la, and soon the Mandarin and Peninsula and in a few years, la Samaritaine ).  What will make the customers choose one of them,  will be the experience they will offer, since the quality of the product will be similar, even if they have their own personality.

If the guests feel cherished in the hotel they stay now, they will stay loyal to them and will not want to try a new place, becase they will be emotionaly engaged to this place.