Accor Redefining Loyalty from Transactional to Experiential

At Accor “It’s all about ALL” and Charline Boccara, Vice President Digital, Distribution & Loyalty, Southeast Asia, Japan & South Korea does not shy away from loyalty being the front and centre of their strategy. The efforts Accor has taken to expand the digital journey and leverage technology to cater to their guests’ needs and expectations, has led to expanding their services pre and post stay to establish a long-lasting bond with their guests.

COVID has undoubtedly brought many changes to the travel industry and the way in which we work, yet in hospitality the very essence of the business is interacting with customers, creating real live connections and Accor is definitely upping the game by enhancing personalization and enriching their members.

Boccara was excited to finally be reuniting and connecting with peers from the industry and have rich exchanges about the post-pandemic trends and upcoming opportunities at the recent Digital Travel APAC Summit. Meanwhile, catch this exclusive fireside chat where she shares more on key differentiators and game changing strategies of their loyalty programme to stay relevant.

Can you give a short introduction of yourself?

In a few worlds- I am a passionate, team and result orientated individual.

My career in the hospitality industry has taken me across the world covering a variety of positions in different countries over the past 15 years. This includes the US, UK, Asia Pacific as well as our global Head Office in Paris with experience in Sales, eCommerce, Digital Marketing and Distribution.

Originally from Alsace in France, I’m happy to call Singapore “home” since January 2020 as I’ve moved here just before the pandemic and finally starting to travel across this beautiful region again. In my current role I am responsible of the overall E-Commerce strategy, digital performance and loyalty activation for 12 markets and 400+ hotels across South East Asia, Japan and South Korea.

How should retailers rethink their loyalty strategies in the Post-pandemic environment?

First, we need to make sure that loyalty is (still) at the centre of everything we do, or like we say internally at Accor “It’s all about ALL” (Accor Live Limitless, our global lifestyle loyalty programme).

I would say that the main objective for any retailers is to create an emotional connection with their customers, while driving repeat engagement.

What has not changed in the Post-pandemic environment is that one needs to ensure that the customer understands your brand(s) and sees the value in it. However, COVID-19 has changed a lot when it comes to interactions and touch points between customers and brands – especially in the hospitality industry where guests were not able to come and stay in our hotels for 2 years. Experience and personalization will be key to drive loyalty moving forward, not only in-house but also across the overall research and booking process.

Launch of the ALL app in Vietnamese Language

Can you share what a successful loyalty programme consists of and how you define success?

Of course, there are KPIs to measure the success of a loyalty programme such as the size of your database and the engagement of your members (active ratio, frequency, customer lifetime value…).

Besides these KPIs, it is important to remember that your loyalty programme is a brand in its own right and thus to be successful, you need to create an emotional connection with the customers, you want them to feel close to your brand. This connection needs to be built at every steps of the way: of course in the hotels but also digitally pre / post stay and during the online booking process. Finally yet importantly, a successful loyalty programme is programme where the members feel they are being rewarded for their loyalty with exclusive rewards and I cannot insist enough on the word “exclusive”.

What are the biggest lessons you’ve learnt from the pandemic and what initiatives have you implemented as a result?

From a business standpoint, it was a strong reminder of the importance of the domestic business, especially in our region where historically we have been heavily reliant on international flows. As a result, we have launched new initiatives to ensure that while we focus on driving international tourists back to Asia, we remain locally relevant.

One example is the recent launch of our Accor Live Limitless app in Vietnamese Language. This is a key milestone in our joined objective to continue to be a leader in innovation & local relevance, and in bringing value to our guests & members. Another example would be the launch of our new F&B platform – ALL Restaurants & Bars – in Singapore giving our customers the opportunity to book our venues across the city and enjoy exclusive member’s benefits while browsing our chef profile and recipes.

From on human standpoint, it was an amazing revelation on people resilience and capacity to adapt.

What loyalty trends are you observing in travel and what will you be prioritising over the next five years?

Personalization and experiences are definitely at the centre of our digital roadmap. When it comes to loyalty, the idea is to multiply the touchpoints and the relationship between the guest and Accor by expanding the number of services through our ALL loyalty card.

With personalization, the objective is to leverage data and customer insights to deliver personalized messages. We are in the process of launching new digital tools as part of an ambitious plan to customize our CRM strategy, propose specific offer to specific guests based on their preference and strengthen our digital marketing omni-channel approach.

With experiences, the objective is to offer new experiences for members around their key passions: food, music, sport and entertainment.

"Discover Asia Like Never Before” marketing campaign to drive guests back to Asia

‘Digital transformation’ is a term used frequently to describe the process of using digital technologies to create new processes, culture, and customer experiences to meet changing customer needs and market requirements. Can you tell us about the digital tools you’ve implemented in response to the changes in the ways customer interact with the brand?

Digital Transformation means finding the best ways to provide a frictionless and personalized digital experience to our guests, across all touchpoints and platforms.

Back in May 2021, Accor has launched the Digital Factory with the primordial role of creating a powerful digital ecosystem to support the group's business objectives. The Digital Factory concretely it means over 600 talents who are dedicated to creating the best digital experience through the development of our products and services.

Among the new product we have recently released is a new digitized member benefits called “Suite Night Upgrade”. This benefit available for our highest tiers members and enabling them to access a guaranteed room upgrade to a Suite is now redeemable online within the digital booking journey.