proving me wrong, proving me right

There was an interesting post today on HOTELS that is a good follow up to my post what technology do you expect from your hotel?. Hotel Sax Chicago, apparently dubbed "Hotel Microsoft" (who knew?), has unveiled some current and future technologies from Xbox ready rooms to an entertainment lounge to in-room touch screens that control lighting and temperature.

As I was reading the article I was rethinking my statement that hotels cannot expect to implement better technology than the customer has at home. After all, I don't have an Xbox (or any other video game unit) and most of the frequent travelers I know don't either. I also don't have touch screens to control my home amenities and probably won't for a foreseeable future. Hotel Sax Chicago will most likely have better technology than almost any guest, and their point is they will draw guests because of it (or they hope).

But the reality is the in-room touch screens are only in the presidential suites and more of the hotel's rooms have normal technology for a starting rate of $450/night.When at some point in the future the cost of the "marketing technology" becomes affordable enough to retrofit into every hotel room it will be affordable enough that the clients that pay to stay at Hotel Sax will have it in their own house.

Really what Hotel Sax is doing is marketing. Having these rooms is a marketing technique, and a good one, but really is not an initiative to provide every customer with a technology experience they cannot get at home. And in proving me right the Chicago Tribune said, "...that's why Microsoft is in Hotel Sax -- to let people live with and get used to unfamiliar technology so that they'll want it in their homes."

This post is one of many about the technology at Hotel Sax. If you read the ones from hospitality sites you will find a regular comment....customers want basic amenities and service delivered very well before they want touch screens in the room.

hotel crm part II and permission marketing

There is a great article on the relationship between hotel CRM, web 2.0/social networking, and permission marketing on eye for travel's website today. It is an interesting follow-up to my post when crm will acheive its potential as it talks directly to the danger of what type of data hotels are collecting, the validity of the data, and which preferences a hotel can and cannot use to market to customers.

This quote by Diane DeWindt, Director of Customer Insight, Starwood I think says it best, “Sending marketing communications based on guests personal preferences expressed during a stay is potentially dangerous – if a guest expresses a preference on-property, you must get that guest's permission to store those data, and for what use. The best thing to do both from a data privacy perspective and from a customer-service perspective is to give the guest a channel to explicitly tell you what they want, where, and how, and deliver for just that instance.”

The reality of a "customer opt-in" approach to hotel CRM (and many other markets) will completely change the way hotels market to their customers.

You can read the article here.

when crm will achieve its potential

I was in the audience of a CIO panel discussion and finally heard a hotel CIO (Scott Gibson of Best Western) give the real truth on hotel CRM. It cannot currently be as useful as promised...at least not with current technology. I was disappointingly not able to get his exact words, but I believe that is what he meant.

Hotel CRM is valuable, desirable, and a reality. But the pie-in-the-sky story often told is not a reality under the current operational requirements for acquiring the data. Talk to any person responsible for aggregating all that data and doing something meaningful with it and the first thing they will tell you is how inaccurate it is (with the possible exception of CRM and BI vendors). Preferences are missing or based on what the system "thinks" preferences are. I heard a story from a Marriott GM where a guest asked why he kept getting a refrigerator in his room. It was because he ordered a refrigerator twice in one month while traveling with his family. Based on those two stays the CRM system updated his profile with refrigerator as a preference.                                                                                                                                        image courtesy of Fergus McIver
A good portion of the guests address, phone, and email data is missing or inaccurate. If a guest does not want the hotel to have information then they don't give it or they provide bogus information. I won't go down the road of the calls hotels receive when an irate guest calls about an email receipt from his hotel stay sent to the email account he and his wife share (I hope you get the picture). Once a hotel does have the information it becomes the responsibility of the front desk staff to ensure it is accurate when a guest checks in, which has proven to be a generally unreliable method for collecting and perfecting data. There is also the problem of all the profiles that frequent travelers have to maintain and the multiple reservation mechanisms that exist (hotel's website, Orbitz, Hotwire, etc.). It's just not realistic to expect every brand and every venue to obtain and update this information accurately. CRM will continue to be at the top of the technology list for hotel executives, but it will continue to be a solution that has great potential.

As a side note I had a mentor that said, "Potential is just a French word for that's too bad". Rather CRM has opportunity which can be achieved when it gathers data based on a "customer opt-in approach". Dream with me for a moment...

What if when I arrive at the hotel my preferences are sent from my mobile device (let's say an iPhone just for fun) to the hotel PMS. Before arriving I tell my iPhone what information I want to share with the hotel. As I arrive I have the option to check into my room from my iPhone (or kiosk or front desk) and receive a message giving me my room number and directions on how to get to my room. I also receive "something" (barcode, security number, insert new technology) that allows me to use my iPhone to access my room. I'm offered a quick preferences and services review which I can bypass or complete. I go to my room where the temperature is preset (technology exists to set my home thermostat from my phone now) and my visual preferences (curtains open or curtains closed) and physical preferences (number of blankets, towels, and pillows) have been taken care of based on my reservation (remember I had the option to change those preferences at check in). If I'm traveling with my family I have the option to add mobile numbers that will also receive the "something" to access the room.

The "something" sent to my iPhone also allows me to pay for items at the restaurant, gift shop, and vending machines for the duration of my stay. If I add other mobile numbers I have the option to activate or reject charge privileges when I provide those number.

From this first interaction the hotel knows what time I entered the hotel, what time I got to the room, if I purchased something before I went to the room and possibly what transpired between all those times (if hotels want to activate elevator and hallway access with the "something" the guests travel path is also tracked). I told the hotel what information I wanted to share (name, phone number, email, address) which is always accurate because it's on my iPhone. There are probably some operational gaps in this scenario and the technology is further out than I would like, but CRM will only leave potential behind and grasp opportunity when data integrity it is driven directly by the "customer opt-in approach".

Kudos to Scott Gibson for having the vision and tenacity to tell it like it is at a technology conference.

compelling rhetoric about your resume

A few months back I wrote a post about resume writing called care enough to be different. Today I read a post by Seth Godin that moves the ability to be unique and remarkable in your resume to a whole new level. His opinion is to be so bold as to not even have a resume.

Read his post here. It is worth your time to think about his thoughts.

remember the names

I'm terrible at it. Absolutely horrible. When I meet someone it is almost for certain that 10 seconds later I can't remember their name. I know it is one of my worst traits and I hate it about myself.

Image provided by ArstySF

It is important to remember someone's name for many reasons, but I think the most important is because it shows you care.

As I was trying to find a parking place at Church today I saw my new friend Dave. I rolled the window down to say hello. He came over and said, "Hey Kevin," and then looked in the back and said "Hey Brody, gimme five." Dave had never met my son Brody. He had heard about him during a recent ski trip we both went on, but never met him. He cared enough to not only remember my name but to remember Brody's name. He knew Brody was really important to me and it showed that he cared about that. I immediately felt like I was important to Dave...which made me feel great.

Caring like this translates well into the world of consulting. Consultants are contracted based on experience, knowledge, and skills. But most likely your experience, knowledge, and skills are not completely unique. The client can hire someone else. If experience, knowledge, and skills are equal then what makes you different?

Caring about the success of the project is paramount. But when the project is finished and over, I think it is caring about the people you interacted with that brings additional projects to the table.