It's no secret that today's consumers are more demanding and selective than ever. Not only does yesterday's approach of one-off direct mail pieces and random emails no longer work, it can be enough to turn off your customer or prospect for good. With today's economic climate showing limited signs of improvement, it is critical that travel organizations and destinations leverage "intelligent," triggered communications approaches. So how do you utilize choreography to break through that clutter? Marketers are turning to four key elements that enable them to deliver automated, highly-customized marketing campaigns that respond to customers in a way that increases the bottom line. READ MORE

How much does it cost you to take a reservation by phone? How does that compare to the costs if your guest does the booking entirely online? If you consider the staff time involved in the first case, I'll bet that you save a lot of money by having your guests book themselves completely online. So it is in your interest to make that process as easy as possible. Next question: How many people visit your site, explore it a bit, but don't end up booking a stay with you? Any idea why they don't? Obviously some of them will conclude that your hotel isn't right for them. But there's a good chance that a significant number of them are giving up because they found the process of booking online frustrating. Often those frustrations don't hit until they are in the middle of filling out the needed forms to book their stay. What sorts of things upset them, and how can you prevent those irritants? READ MORE

What is trust? According to Dictionary.com it is "reliance on the integrity, strength, ability, surety, etc., of a person or thing; confidence". For me, it was always about the three R's of modern day; respect, relevance and reward. So what does this tell us when we attempt to tackle the subject of building customer relationships through trust? Quite simply, that the definition of trust is dependent upon one's frame of reference and personal needs at the time that 'trust' is required. If only it was that simple; new technology has dramatically complicated the equation. READ MORE

In the old days of the Internet (10 years ago), the first generation of hotel Web sites were a passive medium for presenting a colorful hotel brochure, hence were dubbed brochureware. Those Web sites were one-dimensional and provided your brand a destination on the World Wide Web. The second generation of hotel Web sites, now commonplace on the Web, was all about being able to conduct commerce online: searching a directory of hotels and making reservations, as well as extending, canceling and confirming reservations. Now arrives the newest generation of hotel Web sites: interactive spaces that stand to replace paid advertising and public relations as the strongest means for hotels to drive brand loyalty and competitive differentiation. READ MORE

Twenty years after hanging out our shingle, my partner and I have built a business that has grown from its roots providing quality assurance audit programs to the hotel industry, to a consultancy supporting a variety of industries in a niche that we have helped define - Customer Experience Management, or CEM. One of the foremost elements of our point of view on the customer experience is that in any organization, people, process and technology must be aligned around a shared vision and delivery of the optimal customer experience. With this message as a linchpin, we've secured clients in financial services, healthcare, manufacturing and a number of other different industries where the proper way of making the "Heavenly Bed" is hardly relevant. READ MORE