Munich, July 2020 – the successful battle for the customer and his loyalty, manifested in his booking behaviour, depends on the guest’s data. Those who know their guests well, enjoy their trust and can encourage them to book directly in the current uncertain travel situation, will find their way out of the crisis more easily. Especially during this time, it has become even more important to minimize the dependency on OTAs and to keep sales and administration costs as low as possible.
CRM is especially important in times of crisis!
CRM in the hotel industry has developed into a dead end in many places. The reason for it simply is the wrong strategy. While CRM in the hotel industry is primarily about marketing and therefore represents just another silo system, the focus should rather be on a central guest data management. It is all about using data profitably while CRM (marketing) is only a small, but still important part of it.
The goal is to set the focus of the entire company on the customer, tailoring its services to its own core target group and individualising service and communication. Everything that refers to a mass of customers should be replaced by individuality. Some might say “that’s exactly what CRM is”, but I can only agree if the “M” stands for a management solution rather than marketing.
Central Data Management (CDM) is the next evolutionary step in marketing and CRM. The 7 P’s of service marketing (Product, Price, Place, Promotion, People, Processes, Physical Evidence) must be put into practice and modern data management is the way to get there.
“At the heart of modern data management you find a central guest profile”
It is not enough to cleanse and merge PMS and e-mail data. Other essential data sources are the POS systems, the table reservation system, the feedback management, the hotel website and last but not least the WiFi. dailypoint™ offers a unique data cleansing process in over 350 steps with the Data Laundry, which automatically cleanses data from any number of sources. Only those who are able to merge their data sources into a central guest profile can subsequently build up comprehensive guest knowledge using AI (artificial intelligence). For this purpose, dailypoint™ provides the profile engine which automatically converts data into guest knowledge through machine learning.
Hotels today have about 30 profiles along the customer journey for one and the same guest. This makes an intelligent use of data impossible and prevents the hotel industry from benefiting sustainably from digitalization and Big Data. With CDM, the central and above all complete guest profile is available in one place.
“CDM is the leading system, all other systems should be subordinated!”
Over the last few years, dailypoint™ has developed what is probably the most comprehensive platform for Central Data Management. It is an open platform, also available as middleware, which connects and integrates systems. The own modules are complemented by a growing marketplace with 130 best-of-breed solutions, which also want to use the central guest profile for their applications. Any system can be connected quickly and easily via the open interface.
If you want to know how you can use your data profitably, let’s get in touch! We’re happy to help!