Hyatt Offers Random Lesson in Loyalty Building

At the recent Loyalty Expo in Orlando, speaker after speaker talked about improving the customer experience and the value that loyalty programs bring to that effort.

In a session moderated by rDialogue CEO Phil Rubin (a RetailWire BrainTrust panelist), for example, Kathy Turley of The Palm Restaurant Group talked about how the company compares visit data of loyalty program members to non-members. The Palm tracks the incremental spend that members make on visits when redeeming loyalty points and finds that loyalty program members are a little more forgiving when they experience a problem.

In another session moderated by another BrainTrust member Bill Hanifin, managing director, Hanifin Loyalty LLC, Jackie Reid of the Visa Luxury Hotel Collection mentioned that 0.4 percent of their customers drive more than 25 percent of their revenue, so they have a VIP program for them, naturally.

Yet, with all the talk of targeting and measuring ("That which gets measured gets done"), I was in for a very pleasant, apparently random surprise when I checked into the conference hotel, the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress, Orlando.

What happened? Arriving at the Hyatt before noon last Monday, I expected to have to check my bags and get into a room later. Henry, the front-desk associate, asked if two double beds would be okay. I replied that any room would be fine, just wanting to drop my bags and get to the conference. After a wait of several minutes, during which time I heard another potential guest turned away nicely because the hotel was sold out that night, I was informed that Henry was "looking for a really nice room." And, indeed he found one! As I was handed my room key, Henry informed me that my room was a "bi-level" and that he had made me the "guest of the day."

Long story short: I was upgraded from a $189 standard room to the Grand Cypress Suite on the 17th and 18th floors of the hotel, which had a living room, sitting room, mini-kitchen, huge outdoor patio, a large master bath plus a guest bath, two large HD TVs, etc. Maximum nightly charge according to the door posting: $5800.

All in all, it was a great customer experience, albeit not a targeted one. Upon checking out, I asked another associate why I had been selected for this upgrade. She said they select one person at random per day for their "guest of the day" program and that it is at the discretion of front desk personnel. It's not a national Hyatt program, but just something this hotel does.

This got me thinking about whether retailers and brands should measure and target all aspects of their customer loyalty programs or if fun surprises like this might do more for customer loyalty than targeted efforts. At first I thought I might have been selected for this upgrade because I have a lot of Hilton points, figuring they might be trying to convert me, but that apparently was not the case. In many years of travel, accumulating well over a million American Aadvantage miles, for example, I've never experienced anything like this. And, of course, the first thing I did following this experience was tell family and friends about it.

For more images of the Hyatt Regency Grand Cypress Suite, see RetailWire's Facebook page.