Imagine My Surprise and Delight …
Dear Business Builder,
Happy Friday and welcome back to In the ‘Net Trenches.
What a fantastic vacation we had last week in St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. St. John is the smallest of the U.S. Virgin Islands (about the size of Manhattan) and the Virgin Islands National Park covers nearly three-quarters of the island.
The Island has some of the most beautiful white sand beaches and crystal clear blue water I’ve ever seen. And incredible reefs right off the beach for really easy snorkeling.
And my kids had a blast. In one of my past issues, I’d written how my daughter was apprehensive about taking a vacation on an island … especially one you could only get to by ferry boat. Well, I’m happy to say the closer we got to the vacation the more excited she got. By the time we got to the ferry part of our trip she was so distracted playing with a little boy she met on the dock … she might as well have been traveling by car.
In fact, I’m the one that actually got sea sick! The trip over from St. Thomas to St. John takes about 45 minutes and the seas were quite a bit rougher than I expected. By the time we pulled into the dock at the Westin Resort, I was one step away from turning a lovely shade of lime green.
A Marketing Lesson Where
You Least Expect It!
The Westin on St. John is a fantastic resort. An incredible quarter acre pool … tennis courts … a nice little beach … great food … workout room … kids club … you name it, the Westin has it going on. And, it has fantastic hillside villas overlooking the bay that we stayed in.
We met quite a few people on our trip from all over the States and many of them choose to come back to the Westin St. John over and over again. I even overhead one woman saying that she and her husband spend three weeks a year there and would never go anywhere else!
That’s customer loyalty at its finest and I have no doubt the Westin’s hospitality program has a lot to do with it.
One of the hardest yet most important things to do is retain customers … no matter whether you’re marketing an online or offline business. Today’s consumer is extremely price conscious and the Internet makes comparison shopping as easy as pressing a few keys.
It’s very expensive to get a new customer, but once you have them … you need to do whatever it takes to keep them because selling to your back end is where the real revenue comes from.
But what can you do to ensure your customers don’t head on over to another site selling similar wares or drive across town for a better bargain?
Let’s take a closer look at what the Westin St. John is doing and maybe it’ll spark some ideas …
Surprise and Delights
Around Every Corner!
The surprise and delights started the minute we got to baggage claim in St. Thomas. Now, I don’t know how much time you’ve spent in Caribbean Island airports, but they aren’t exactly like in the States.
They’re teeny little airports and once you hit the baggage claim you’re basically outside and it’s time to sweat buckets. They’re cramped and there are usually just one or two baggage conveyors so multiple flights’ luggage is mixed together with several hundred people all trying to claim the same damn red suitcase (my husband’s words).
So imagine our delight – as we come off the plane and head down to the sweltering hot baggage claim with two hungry and cranky kids – to find a small air conditioned, nicely decorated lounge with comfy couches, a refrigerator full of free water, a basket full of toys and a shelf full of books for the kids, all for guests staying at the Westin.
Once everyone had gathered and was ready to go, we boarded an open air shuttle bus that took us to the dock to catch the ferry. As we boarded the ferry boat a nice young man handed everyone another free bottle of Westin labeled water … surprise! A little delight, but thoughtful and memorable which is most important.
Once the ferry hit the Westin dock, the surprises picked up. As you exit the ferry boat, you look straight ahead to what appears to be the lobby … and let me tell you after a two hour wait in an airport … a nearly three hour flight … and a 45 minute ferry ride, I’m thinking to myself “you’ve got to be kidding me!” I’m not walking another mile to the lobby and waiting behind a hundred people that just got off the ferry!
Well surprise! We didn’t have to. The Westin had a little check in table at the end of the dock where all you had to do was give them your name and pick up your room keys. And to top it off, they handed you a free rum runner at the same time!
Hmm, I’m starting to like this place. No wonder people come back here over and over again.
Turning a Surprise and Delight
into an Opportunity to Sell!
After we hit our room, I’m thinking “ahhh sweet relaxation.” But then the phone rings and I think “what the hell! Dear god something’s happened at home and they’ve tracked us down here because my cell phone’s not getting a signal!”
To my surprise it was the concierge desk welcoming us to the Westin St. John and telling us that we have a little gift that we can pick up in the lobby. Oh, and by the way can we make you a reservation in the hotel’s finest restaurant?
So, the next day we mosey on over to the lobby to pick up our little gift which was actually a book of coupons for many of the island’s attractions and restaurants … which we didn’t use. But, it got us to the concierge desk and it gave her an opportunity to ask us if we would be interested in attending a presentation of vacation ownership.
Then later in the week, the phone rang again and this time they were inviting us to a cocktail party … then a free breakfast … and then a free wine tasting.
But, each time they called and offered up another surprise and delight they asked the questions … Can I make you a restaurant reservation? … Can I hook you up with some snorkeling equipment from our dive shop? … Would you like to rent a boat from our marina? … Have you thought any more about attending a vacation ownership presentation?
So you can see how the Westin creates these little surprises that delight their guests and bonds them to the resort so they come back over and over again.
Then they use telling you about them as an opportunity to telemarket you on your vacation … and you know what, you’re so pleased to be offered the surprises you don’t even care about the intrusion.
This is customer retention and
house file marketing at its finest!
Now, I know most of you are not running multi-national hotel chains, but challenge yourself to find little ways to bond with your customers. Come up with a retention marketing plan and think through what happens after you get a new customer. Get creative and brainstorm ways to offer little surprises and delights to your existing customers yet use the opportunity to promote another product in the process.
By not maximizing the opportunity to promote other products you’re leaving a tremendous amount of money on the table. If you understand the value of each new customer (or lead) on your file, you’ll be that much more confident in your ability to afford a few little extras that may just keep many of your customers from going anywhere else.
Hope that helped!
Let us know how you’re using surprise and delights in your own marketing efforts! Share your comments below …
Until next week,
Julie McManus
Editor, In the ‘Net Trenches
THE TOTAL PACKAGE
And Web Media Goddess
P.S. Are you in the ‘net trenches? Do you need help? Send
me an e-mail to AskJulie@MakepeaceTotalPackage.com and
I just might answer your question in an upcoming issue.
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