Using Intelligence to Build Customer Loyalty

I love reading stories about how various industries are using database management and analytics to keep their customers satisfied, build loyalty and grow profits.

Today's "CRM News" published an article titled: Customer loyalty, profitability drive BI consolidation at Fairmont. It provides a case study on how the Fairmont Hotel chain maximized their marketing database investment by incorporating intelligent analytics and by a stringent data cleansing and maintentance routine.

Additionally, the article talks about how the Fairmont successfully implemented a customer segmentation strategy. "Marketing wanted to be able to enhance the customer experience by segmenting the customer base and ultimately driving behavior and additional revenue based on what it already knows about its guests."

In addition to the heavy reliance on analytics, what I found truly encouraging is how Fairmont solicited sponsorship from all aspects of their organization--from top-level execs, to marketing to IT. I'm sure that this team approach helped ensure a successful project.

From the article, quoting Jeffrey Berry, Director of Database Marketing for the Fairmont: "The biggest thing we've learned -- because there is a heavy technology spin and because the day to day is focused on the minutia of technology -- it's really important to make sure the business objectives are clearly established and outlined and you check against them," Berry said. "You don't want to get mired in the details so you miss the big picture. For me that's the key lesson."

Lesson learned!