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| Guest History Data Warehouse |
A powerful customer profiling, cross-selling and prospecting tool that massively increased mailing responses.
THOR Guest History Data Warehouse
Providing a single point of capture for all guest-related information and used extensively to source targets for marketing campaigns, this solution has greatly improved the accuracy and quality of data across the organisation and significantly increased mailing responses.
A demanding requirement
The Client wanted the ability to individually profile customers' transaction histories, cross-link individuals for de-duplication, capture information wherever it was generated and store it in a unified format for future sales and marketing operations.
Design excellence
KB Logic analysed the existing legacy systems and defined a single set of codes with mappings to each system. A THOR Compiler Technology was developed to enhance the cleanliness, accuracy and structure of imported data and to ensure cross-linking of all personal data.
Versatile and powerful
The solution, which replaced a variety of disparate and un-linked local and central systems, allows in-house IT staff to program their own interfaces, greatly facilitates cross selling across the organisation and has delivered a 400% increase in mailing responses.
"The data warehouse enabled us to segment our data and create a relevant marketing communication with customers based on their own behaviour. As a result of this we were then able to devise a 'Customer Activation' plan which enabled us to convert the 2.5million individuals on the data base to 400k email addresses which in turn generated incremental bookings of last minute tactical rates.”
- Jonathon Royle - Marketing Analyst De Vere.
Details:
THOR Guest History Data Warehouse
Developed for De Vere Hotels & Leisure to capture and profile leisure-stay guests at all their De Vere and Village Hotels, THOR is now The Client's key point of capture for all guest-related information and is used extensively to source targets for campaigns to the leisure break market.
The Client
The Client operates the De Vere Hotels and Village Hotels brands, which cater to the corporate hospitality and leisure break markets, in which the De Vere Hotels brand runs a Club De Vere Membership/Loyalty scheme having 35000+ members. The Client also owns the Village and Greens branded Leisure Clubs, and offers golf membership facilities at hotels with golf courses.
The Problem
The Client was recording customer and membership information in a number of legacy database systems at each site and a Guest History database at Central Office, but these were not interlinked and made use of disparate coding systems.
They wanted the ability to profile each customers' transaction histories individually, and in particular to cross-link individuals on guest history data alone; to recognise for example, that a guest who stays at Hotel A is the same guest who stayed at Hotel B six months previously.
In addition, The Client wanted to be able to capture customer information wherever it was generated and store it in a unified format within a centralised customer database that would form the cornerstone to their sales and marketing operations for the next 5-10 years. The Solution The unified format meant that a large analysis exercise was undertaken to examine exactly how customer information was being coded in each of the main data capture systems. This was followed up by defining a single set of codes with mappings to each of the data-capture systems. The system – codenamed THOR – was designed around a COM component-based, multi-tier architecture using MS-SQL-ServerTM for data storage and retrieval.
To enhance the cleanliness, accuracy and structure of imported data, and to ensure that cross-linking was performed on all personal information, a THOR Compiler Technology was developed. This middle-tier technology makes use of QAS (Quick Address System) utilities for data cleansing and also adding generic customer-profiling information such as MOSAIC coding; Financial MOSAIC profiling and local TV/Radio stations.
The THOR-Compiler is effectively a component-based portal that enables data to get into the database and be re-used by each of the import systems; guest history import from hotels running the HIS Paragon PMS on AS/400; guest history information from hotels running the Fidelio PMS; and web-based online Club De Vere applications submission. Further import systems are being written to import data from the site-based membership databases.
The Features
- Interfaces to both Fidelio Guest History and to HIS/Paragon Guest History.
- Queries on core data can be made using English language.
- MOSAIC profiling, Financial MOSAIC profiling.
- UK addresses cleaned to Post Office Address File (PAF) standard and names verified against the Electoral Roll.
- The Fidelio guest-history interface is able to distinguish ‘payers' and ‘consumers' separately. Using a reverse-engineered technique, the Fidelio-extractor rebuilds split-bills and ‘routed payments' to determine exactly who received and who paid for each item. This provides far greater accuracy than relying on the ‘Revenue Bucket' SCENARIO.
The Benefits
ActiveX component-based design allows the customer's in-house IT staff to program their own interfaces to the system when required, using any ActiveX® enabled client such as Visual Basic, VBA or ASP.
Ability to cross-sell between Leisure, Corporate and Leisure Club customers.
‘Payers and consumers' technique allows users to review Per Capita revenue in the context of either; Actual Amount Spent or Value of Items Consumed in cases where others have paid.
The greatly enhanced accuracy of data into the system and the exclusion of poor quality data has delivered an increase in response rate to promotional mailings and a decrease in the volume of returned mail. Recent statistics show a 400% increase in response.
Sub-Projects to THOR
Club De Vere Membership Solution
Developed to administer 25,000 memberships and part of the centralisation and profiling of all customer/guest-related information. Contains features to input, de-duplicate and consolidate memberships; set up membership schemes; issue mailers and handle mailing returns. Also enables hotel guests to check members' details via a special Intranet site.
Customer Comment Card Integration
Enables customer's IT department to develop their own custom web pages for a range of questionnaires, so that remote staff can input details from comment cards and information collected at site. Integrates with THOR data warehouse to collect an individual's response against any historic records they have.
THOR GB information integration
Enables export of guest data packages from the Leisure Breakers' CRM data warehouse to an Alterian Campaign Management solution hosted by GB Information Systems, and also to receive regular updates to the data warehouse and additional marketing information from GB Information Systems including ‘National Change of Address' ‘Mailing Preference Service' etc. This exercise required us to consult with GB and to develop the necessary programs, interfaces and protocols to implement the integration.
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