Whenever a loyalty marketer can fashion personalized and effective customer engagement campaigns, success usually follows for that brand. At Red Roof Inn, that is the course taken to impact customer loyalty.
Loyalty360 caught up with Red Roof Inn CMO Marina MacDonald to discuss this vital customer strategy.
Can you give is a high level overview of your customer philosophy and share how this perspective helps drive more effective engagement and, therefore, better marketing outcomes?
Our customer philosophy is the customer comes first. We can’t tell them how they are feeling. They have to tell us themselves. That's why the TripAdvisor reviews have been so successful for us. It allows our customers anonymity, which then propels them to be honest and direct. Our marketing program benefits from this because, as a result of effective customer engagement, we are able to develop a range of marketing campaigns that speak directly to the guest.
Simplicity was one of the major themes at our Loyalty Expo in April in Orlando. How does Red Roof Inns simplify its relationships with customers that, ultimately, lead to brand loyalty?
Our customers’ ability to directly communicate with us via the TripAdvisor review tool on our website is one of the simplest ways they have to relate their experiences. They know we hear them loud and clear by the extensive changes we've made to our properties over the last few years. From NextGen to Plus+, we’ve upgraded and renovated, incorporating much of the feedback we’ve received. Our guests matter greatly to us and we foster brand loyalty by always listening to them and implementing their needs and wants.
Marketers are tasked to be more data-centric that ever before, yet the challenge of creating actionable insight from data is more challenging than before. What is your advice for marketers?
My advice would be to make data collection clear and simple. It allows you to pull exact and detailed information that translates into quick actionable steps that benefits the company and the customer.
In the move toward customer-centricity, if you could give one piece of advice to a brand to help them increase loyalty and engagement with their customers, what would it be?
Don’t take your customer for granted. Find the right program that engages them and allows them to engage with you, with the ability to be honest, straightforward, and real. They will appreciate your open mind and courage in taking criticism, knowing you hear them when they see how you use that feedback to make real world change.