This puts the heavy lifting squarely on the shoulders of Operations, right? Ah…not so fast! A consumer’s online experience has become as important as the on-site experience. At the very least, the online experience creates an expectation of on-site service delivery.
Delivering an exceptional, share-worthy experience on-site both fulfills and perpetuates the brand promise. And an exemplary UX (User eXperience) online leads to more conversions/bookings, revenue and profit.
Be mindful today’s consumer has multiple touchpoints, both online and off, along the path-to-purchase. Sometimes ROI is directly attributable to a specific tactic (think paid search, metasearch and Email marketing). However, in our digital world attribution is more often omni-channel…making ROI difficult to attribute to a particular initiative or channel. But at the same time, this reinforces the need to anticipate and satisfy a consumer’s needs, wants and expectations at each of those critical touchpoints.
Knowing how to do this is part art and part science. That means Marketing/Ecommerce, Revenue Management and Sales working in harmony with Operations. Marriott’s mission describes it perfectly: ‘Win the Booking.’ and ‘Win the Stay.’
