Panelists
• Maria Taylor, Vice President, Loyalty & Direct Sales, Asia Pacific, Accor Hospitality
• Kartikeya Tripathi, Regional Director, Hotel Distribution, Amadeus Asia Pacific
• Paul Kerr, CEO, Small Luxury Hotels of The World
• Maunik Thacker, Vice President-Revenue Optimisation, Marina Bay Sands, Singapore
• Arthur Kiong, Senior Vice President/Managing Director, Sales & Marketing, Banyan Tree Hotels & Resorts
Moderators: Grahame Tate, Managing Director, IDeaS Asia Pacific & Morris Sim, CEO, Circos Brand Karma

So, after a great intro video based on the film with a similar name, Grahame gets us started by saying that he’s heard (as we all have) a lot over the last couple of days about Facebook and Twitter but, he asks, “what do they actually mean in terms of value?

“Is someone who tweets a lot more valuable than someone who spends a lot of money? How do we price for these people and how do we market to them?” he adds. He asks the panelists to consider a specific scenario with a hotel having only one room left and there being a choice to make between two potential customers – the one who may spend a significant amount of money over and above the room cost and the other who won’t but is someone who tweets a lot and has a large following on Facebook.

Paul Kerr (left) is first to answer and he opts for the Tweeter and the rest of the panel are quick to agree with him. Morris adds that he is surprised to hear the consensus and wonders how much more the non-Tweeter would have to spend before he or she becomes the more valuable customer.

Maria says there are some factors that would impact on that decisions – where you are in the marketing cycle, for instance – whereas Paul is more pragmatic suggesting the calculation is hard to evaluate and he’d just go with the Social Media customer for now.

Kartikeya (below) is asked what Amadeus is doing to assist with the process of understanding when these ‘social media active’ customers arrive at the desk. He has no doubt that social media is a very powerful tool but he adds that hotels (and other brands) need to be clear on what they want to achieve, “are they looking for a click through to a sale or is it more about social media being used for communication and spreading the word of the brand?”

Maunik sees it as a 200-dollar investment in marketing.

Arthur is asked how these social media customers might fit with a loyalty programme and he replies by saying that most brands do not want to have loyalty programmes but they have them because their competitors do. There is some discussion around loyalty programmes with Paul saying that the programme allows his company to profile their offers and make them more relevant to individuals.

Arthur adds that ‘points’ are not why his customers come back and says that although they do not have a loyalty programme, they do ‘recognize’ repeat patronage.

Maunik talks about his rewarding the customer so that they ‘swipe their card’ so that he knows where and when they are spending money, which gives him the opportunity to react to those customers sometimes in, near real-time.

A question comes in from the audience: “How often do the individual panelists themselves send a message via Twitter?”

Maria doesn’t use Twitter but she’s constantly on Facebook and LinkedIn. Paul, Arthur and Maunik are also not Twitter users.

The panelists’ organizations do, however, have Facebook pages with thousands of fans. Maunik’s strategy is to take his company’s social media strategy slowly and get it right. Maria says that her company’s strategy is to go the more conversational route rather than transactional. Paul’s strategy is to try different things.

Grahame asks how we can make real sense and get better understanding of the power of social media moving forward. 

Maria (right) imagines a ‘technology’ that combines all the various aspects of the business with that of the power of social media – a technology that then makes all the business decisions. 

Morris goes on to ask the panel if their Facebook fan page demographics mirror those of their ‘actual’ customers. Maunik says that there are some ‘actual’ customers (mostly casino customers) that he does not see on Facebook but there is some broad correlation. Arthur adds that they are learning a lot about the customers on Facebook and it shows Banyan Tree that they are ‘opening up to a broader audience and they are extremely knowledgeable about the product.

Maria says that Indonesia is unusual, “They are fans of everything!” she says. Paul says that he has found a huge surge in the Indian market. Kartikeya says that following a recent regional marketing survey, they identified that the real ‘hook’ for the customer was the property location with brand loyalty fourth in the list. To cement his point he adds that he has six loyalty cards!

“Is loyalty outdated”, Grahame asks. Paul describes a loyalty card as being more like a ‘disloyal’ card – “it’s about getting things cheap. It’s the experience that really matters”.

Maria thinks loyalty still does exist especially with airlines. She doesn’t fly one of the airlines she is a (loyalty) member of because she has reached top status and there’s “nothing else to gain.” But she concedes that she would if the experience was the best.

Morris brings the panel to a close by asking them how they might define the best customer, bearing in mind their possible spend pattern and their potential to evangelize the brand.

Maunik (right) is looking for a person who both spends and shares feedback.

Kartikeya thinks we should look at ourselves through the customers’ eyes as a way of understanding what really matters to the new ever-discerning customer.

Arthur’s good customer is someone whose expectations are met – where his brand aligns with the customer. He is looking for balance.

Maria’s good customer gives up a lot of information and then promotes the hotel.

Paul wants his hotel customers to deliver great experiences and, as far as the traveling customers go, he’s looking for customers who visit many SLH hotels.

How would the panel justify their wanting the tweeter as their preferred customer over and above the one who would spend 200 dollars more?

Maria: It would cost me more than 200 dollars to buy a database of 10K customers.

Maunik agrees but we should beware of who those 10K people are.

Grahame concludes summing up that ‘the conversation has changed”.

Featured image credit (touch- tablet in hands Business man): Ockra/iStock

touch- tablet in hands Business man