ONYX Hospitality Group: eInsight CRM & eNgage success story

THE CHALLENGE

ONYX Hospitality Group faces various challenges as their portfolio is represented across some of Asia’s most dynamic travel markets, from Thailand and Sri Lanka to China and Hong Kong. “With travelers spoilt for choice when considering hotels at these locations, we saw value in enhancing personalization as a significant way of cutting through the market clutter and delivering communication, both online and offline, that is able to resonate more effectively with their target guests,” said Chetan Patel, VP Digital & CRM at ONYX Hospitality Group.

“Guest expectations are also challenging, as they are always shifting. Consumers now get such a fantastic experience from brands like Amazon and Netflix, and most local e-commerce platforms where personalization and ease-of-use is built into what they do. This has really shifted the expectations of our guests and travelers. As hoteliers are not specialists in [these] fields, they find it quite difficult to offer this type of digital experience. Delivering that personalization at scale at our hotels was also a challenge.”

THE SOLUTION

“We use multiple technology systems across the group to ensure that we can deliver a great personalized communication/ digital experience throughout the entire guest journey from inducing travel inspirations, providing a seamless booking experience, personalizing a memorable stay and engagement after their trips. We use Cendyn’s eInsight CRM to deliver personalized emails, surveys, in-stay and post-stay emails, and also send follow-up communication and recommendations to guests to encourage them to consider our hotels, book again, book direct and join our loyalty program.”

Chetan Patel continues, “We also continue to enhance their experience on the ground with Cendyn using their eNgage platform. eNgage allows for our front office staff to look up a guest and, using prompts delivered from eInsight CRM, communicate with the guests using the most up to date, relevant data.

For example – a loyalty program member will receive relevant communication based on their loyalty status, whereas a first-time guest will receive different communication, welcoming them to the property for the first time. We can also use eNgage to recognize important occasions like birthdays, anniversaries and more. Because all this data lives within the guest profile, and is constantly updated, the experience and recognition a guest receives is consistent across all hotels within ONYX Hospitality Group. Which is very powerful from a loyalty perspective.”

“We needed the functionality to merge all our data and have one central profile for every guest. Cendyn were the only ones who could provide that to us along with tools to enhance our electronic guests communications and have effective face-to-face conversations with them at our properties.”

With Cendyn, ONYX Hospitality Group is able to deliver a more efficient, personalized communication to their guests which in turn has increased guest satisfaction and improved the experience across all touchpoints.

We needed the functionality to merge all our data and have one central profile for every guest. Cendyn were the only ones who could provide that for us along with tools to enhance our electronic guest communications and have effective face-to-face conversations with them on the ground.

Chetan Patel VP of Digital and CRM

TOP FEATURES

Better feedback, better experience

“We have seen so far with eNgage that nearly all the feedback from our guests has been positive. They like being recognized as a member of our loyalty program, they like being recognized as a repeat guest at the property and even across properties from within the group. These small touches go a long way in converting them to a loyalty program member and returning when they are traveling to destinations where we have presence.”

Automation

“We always want the process to be as automated yet personalized as possible.” Patel explains how Cendyn offers automation across systems, utilizing all data points, rather than separate systems. “This kind of efficiency relieves some of the earlier challenges we experienced at ONYX Hospitality Group, and allow our teams to deliver even more appropriate service to surprise and delight.”

Cohesiveness across platforms

“It has now become a culture within ONYX Hospitality Group to use technology to fine tune what we are able to deliver and how we connect our processes. We use many technology platforms and Cendyn sits right in the center of that. We expect our technology systems to be more efficient and effective and give the best experience to our guests.”

Efficiencies

“To minimize distribution costs, you have to go the extra mile and get more savvy – ‘how can you deliver a great experience across all touchpoints’? CRM fits right into the same strategy. We use technology to do our work more effectively, more efficiently, and deliver a great experience to the guests.”

Personalization

“The idea is that we are able to deliver to the guests what they want, when they want it, and consistently across all touchpoints. This is what we try to deliver to all our guests and in turn, this gives them an elevated and more personalized experience.”

BOTTOM LINE RESULTS

“Our scores for loyalty member recognition increased significantly from 36% to 85% since implementing eNgage. This recognition goes a long way and has a positive impact with our guests.”

“We also track our guest satisfaction and within a short period of time we are already seeing an increase in our Net Promoter Score (NPS) and Guest Satisfaction Score (GSS). So, we can see it’s already working well across the board.”

Chetan Patel,
VP of Digital & CRM, ONYX Hospitality Group