From front desk staff dressed in hand woven sarees to a new app and easily redeemable points, an Indian hospitality chain is hoping to attract more travellers into its ‘inner circle’

Banking on the growing popularity of responsible tourism in Asia Pacific and a bid stay relevant to global trends in hospitality, Asia’s Taj Hotels Resorts and Palaces recently revamped its Taj InnerCircle members’ programme, which has not changed much since 1999.

The idea is that members will be able to give back to society by donating points to worthy initiatives. Partnerships with Women’s India Trust and bee-keeping social enterprise Under the Mango tree are two examples that allow members to make a contribution to the education of local women.

But there are also business goals and the revamp involved gathering feedback from members and making several tweaks to the programme in the name of a seamless and simple user experience.

The result is:

• A new website and app
• No point expiry dates for active members
• No blackout dates
• An easy point redemption process
• An improved online portal where members can access a calendar of partner events, gift certificates and inspiration for point redemptions

Price, location and loyalty

While the primary requirements of a stay for any traveller includes a hotel that is well-priced and in a good location, the choice of booking is also influenced by the benefits of a hotel’s existing loyalty programme. It’s often argued that a high incidence of repeat purchases are linked to a highly beneficial loyalty programme. So at atime when travellers are spoilt for choice, Taj believes that a strong loyalty programme is a business imperative. Reasons for this include:

• Driving repeat footfalls
• Customer retention
• Boosting profits

Loyalty is good for business and leisure travel

For frequent business travellers, and in particular the millennial generation, there is a growing trend towards tagging a leisure trip onto a business trip. A strong hotel loyalty programme allows a business traveller to accumulate points which can later be redeemed for special benefits during leisure travels.

Responsible loyalty  

A lofty claim of the Tata Group, which owns Taj, is that it aims to help improve the lives of people in the communities it serves. “The Tata Group cannot function in isolation and  the group’s growth is inherently linked to the well-being of its larger community,” says a spokesperson for the company.

Through skill-building, education and support the Taj Group sees itself as a custodian of Indian tradition providing opportunities for artisans and weavers by promoting their craftsmanship.

As an example, hand-woven Banarasi sarees by weavers from Benares are now used as uniforms across its various brands. The group commissioned and began working with weavers from the holy city of Benares to create uniforms for front office staff of their luxury hotels. As a result of its efforts, the sarees have become popular with regular Taj patrons who are able to shop  ‘Taj Khazana’, a chain of luxury lifestyle stores. The Taj Group also hosts a number of initiatives such as training of unemployed youth, skill building and providing employment after completion of successful training. Health and nutrition for underprivileged children is another focus for the Inner Circle programme.

Loyalty is the differentior

If a customer has a loyalty programme this can be the deciding factor for repeat travel. To understand what consumers want, the Taj Group undertook focused group discussions with frequent travellers to better understand their requirements. They also drilled down into data gathered from loyalty members over the years to develop new membership tiers and benefits and considered feedback from the customer care centre and website. This was used to help design the renewed programme with augmented features and enhancements, allowing members to benefit from a number of unique experiences. One important development is that travellers and now easily redeem points, something that many programmes have come under fire for.

So in summary the key performance indicators of the new InnerCircle loyalty programme are to:

• provide guests with seamless and hassle free transactions and an unforgettable experience
• encourage repeat visits while promoting customer advocacy and supporting and improving the customer lifetime value