Managing Your Relationship With Your Guest

1. Managing Your Relationship With Your Guest Presented By: Paul Herman, Tom Leddy And Gordon Jones

2. What Is “CRM” • Customer Relationship Management • Becoming a common and important concept in many industries • Beyond mere ‘Contact Management’ • Many industries have CRM software to help sales process, on-going service, and even accounting

3. Value of CRM • Gain more control in interaction with customers • Manage expectations better • Understand what customers really want • Provide products that better serve customers • Increase trust • Competitive advantage

4. A Working Definition… • “The Plan and Practice of managing the lifetime relationship with your customer.” • “The Plan”: Every successful endeavor requires proper planning. Successful CRM rarely happens by chance. Many organizations jump to implementation w/o proper planning.

5. “The Plan and Practice of managing the lifetime relationship with your customer.” • “The Practice”: Systematic implementation of your plans. Should produce measurable results. Should be evaluated and refined over time.

6. A Few Basic CRM Concepts… • Touch Points • Each time your company interacts with a customer is a touch point. • Can we name a few? • Are they planned? Managed? Documented? • Are all “touchers” properly trained? Enroll your complete staff in the vision. • Any way to increase the effectiveness of the touch? • Any way to increase the number of touches?

7. Touch Points:Opportunities for Building Life Long Relationships • Lease. • Six months pre-arrival. • One week pre- arrival. • Post stay thank you. • Newsletters.

8. A Few Basic CRM Concepts… • Market Segmentation • Do you treat all of your customers the same? • Are they? • Consider the difference between a guest that stays once ever in a 2 bedroom cottage and a guest that has stayed each of the last 10 years in a 6 bedroom home • We shouldn’t treat the one-timer badly, they may come back many more times • We should realize that the higher value guest deserves the best that we can offer.

9. Market Segmentation Examples • Saks Fifth Avenue • High value customers ($2000/yr) are routed to special CSR’s. • The calls are routed such that a high value customer is connected to a CSR in one second or less. • Could we coin a new acronym here: • HVG – High Value Guest?

10. Segmentation • Can you use your database to see: • Your most valuable repeat guests? • Those who tend to rent last minute? • Those who look for a deal? • Those who like packages? • Those who rent early? • Those who like new construction? • Do you have a way to monitor preferences?

11. Define Relationship • Relationship: • The state of being related by kindred, affinity, or other alliance. • Webster’s revised unabridged dictionary.

12. How Does CRM Fit in the Vacation Home Rental World • Our industry actually has 2 major customers • Both owners and guests • We some quantity of both to thrive • Customers can choose to go elsewhere • The happier our customers are, the more likely they are to stay or come back

13. How Do You Rank Your Customers? • Is your owner your primary customer • Or • Is your guest your primary customer • You can’t have 2 primary customers

14. Today We’re Talking About Guests • Whether the guest is your primary or secondary customer, he is still you customer and you can manage your relationship with him or her!

15. What Does Your Guest Relationship Include • You manage his vacation experience. • You collect his money. • You are his source for information about the area. • The more you know about him the better he feels about the relationship.

16. Important Relationship Items • Good communication • Regular out-going communication • Easy access to correct people in-coming • Recognition • More is better, not easy for newer staff • Respect • VIP treatment in some fashion • Reasonable deference from all staff • Consistency of actions • Good follow-through on problems or research

17. Why Did He Choose You in the First Place • Most established company • Oldest company • Start-up company with lowest fee structure • Personal relationship or referral • Yellow pages • Saw your sign driving by • Bought the home from you

18. Be a Guerrilla • Strive for and savor long term relationships. • Know the myriad of benefits of long lasting connections. • Do all in your power to establish and nourish them. • Know that it costs you 6 times more to sell to a new customer. • Know how to listen and ask questions about what customers want. • Know their individual likes and dislikes.

19. What Is a Vacation • An experience. • A state of mind. • A chance to exhale. • A time to reconnect. • A break from life. • Little touch of heaven. • Rest of life just in anticipation of next vacation.

20. Manage the Dream • Prior to the vacation • Build the Dream

21. Manage the Dream • Prior to the vacation • Build the Dream • During the vacation • Fulfill the Dream

22. Manage the Dream • Prior to the vacation • Build the Dream • During the vacation • Fulfill the Dream • After the vacation • Relive the Dream

23. Guest Services • Basic maintenance. • Cleaning. • Handling details of reservation. • Activities.

24. All Guests Want • To trust you with his or her vacation. • To receive timely communication. • To call your office, be recognized and treated with respect. • To get quick, accurate answers to his questions. • To arrive for his or her vacation and have it perfect.

25. Remember Horst Shultz from the Ritz? • All customers want: • No defects. • Prompt resolution. • Someone who cares.

26. Ritz-Carlton “The Ritz-Carlton experience enlivens the senses, instills well-being, and fulfills even the unexpressed wishes and needs of our guests.” from the Ritz-Carlton Credo

27. Many Guests Want • To be self-sufficient- left alone. • Have more control. • Recommendations. • Contact throughout the stay. • Planned activities.

28. Tools to Help Manage the Relationship • Property management system. • Current address and contact information. • Current and past guest history. • Take full advantage of capabilities. • Newsletters. • Email or regular mail. • Guest surveys. • Do them, and publish the results. • Web site. • General site containing items of owner interest. • Access to reservation information. • Guest 800 number.

29. Guest Retention • You want to keep your guests returning. • It is always less expensive to do more business with existing customers than to get new customers • You invest in each guest through your web site, photographs, brochures, etc.

30. Do They Really Know Who You Are? • “Who’d you stay with?” • “Uh, I wasn’t the one who made the reservation.”

31. The Other Side of CRM • Some guests should be let go • They are too demanding • Take up too much time and provide too little profit • You can only know this if you measure it

32. Competitive Advantage • The closer your customers feel to you, the better customers they will be. • Better customers spend more money. • Better customers complain less often. • Better customers are more understanding when things go wrong.

33. How to Do It. • Ask your guests. • Differentiate yourself. • Simple and sustainable. • Make it apart of your system. • Monitor and measure.

34. Have Fun!! • Need to take the fear out of it!

35. What Do You Do to Set Yourself Apart? • It’s your turn to talk……