Holiday Inn Club Vacations - Demand Generation Program of the Year

Company: Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Orlando, FL
Company Description: Orange Lake Resorts, a leader within the vacation ownership industry with more than three decades of proven success, operates Holiday Inn Club®. The Holiday Inn Club Vacations® brand was created in 2008 through a strategic alliance with IHG® (InterContinental Hotels Group), one of the world’s leading hotel companies. The Holiday Inn Club Vacations flagship property in Orlando, Fl.
Nomination Category: Sales Awards Achievement Categories
Nomination Sub Category: Demand Generation Program of the Year

Nomination Title: Post Package Purchase Program

Tell the story about your organization's demand generation program since the beginning of July 2017 (up to 650 words). Focus on specific accomplishments, and relate these accomplishments to past performance or industry norms. Be sure to mention obstacles overcome, innovations or discoveries made, and outcomes:

Holiday Inn Club Vacations® resorts, is a leading timeshare brand dedicated to creating unforgettable experiences with a sense of fun and family. Timeshare sales organizations rely on their Corporate Marketing Contact Centers to generate a steady flow of new owner prospects willing to attend a timeshare tour or presentation. At Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Corporate Marketing Contact Centers generate hundreds of thousands of prospect tours by offering highly discounted mini-vacation packages to guests willing to attend these tours while visiting one of 14 exciting vacation destinations. These mini-vacation packages are sold without specific dates or destinations, allowing the flexibility to take up to one year to travel.

On average, only half of those who purchase a mini-vacation package use it. As the intent of the package is to give guests the opportunity to discover the Holiday Inn Club Vacations brand and become new owners, marketing is challenged with efficiently converting open dated packages into more arrivals and consequently more qualified tours.

As a result, in 2017 the entire post package purchase guest journey was studied and the Post Package Purchase Program was overhauled with focus on enhancing the overall guest experience.

• To be informative: to guide our guests seamlessly from the time they make their package purchase to arrival at our tour reception desk.
• To be complete: Answer all their questions during the process, to eliminate the need for unnecessary service calls positively impacting their experience while allowing for a staff reduction. Digital communications included live links hotel, dining and entertainment pages, full map and calendar integration, click to dial to Central Reservations, Hotel Front Desk and Tour Reception.
• To be on demand: Focus on Digital Mobile friendly communications to accommodate new customer behaviors with expanded Inbound and Outbound program support.
• To be enticing and relevant: Targeting guests at the right time with the right message with compelling call to actions and desirable offers fitted to their needs.

The Program’s primary focus is to maintain an ongoing relevant conversation with the guest guiding them through the booking process. One Voice, One Conversation became the Holiday Inn Club Vacation motto. To maintain this special dialogue, all post package purchase communications were designed following a defined customer journey while Outbound and Inbound agent scripts were synced with all other post purchase communications.

The journey was designed to support the dialogue for 14 months if the guest does not complete a book prior. The monthly communications start with delivering the guest’s selected destination highlights, followed by reminders on the importance of vacations, destination events by season, and other destination options. Inbound and Outbound guests are able to access the most recent communications and continue the same dialogue once the guest is on the phone. In addition, relationship building communications are delivered on holidays and special occasions, just as a reminder that we are here and we do care. As time progresses, guests that do not book receive urgent driven reminders with a call to action to book or extend the package. Since the strategy is targeted and customized versus blanket generic marketing, the number of communications needed to generate a booking has decreased.

Since its implementation and inception in September 2017, the program showed the following improvements:

• Higher guest engagement with less email saturation (less sends, lower unsubscribe rates)
• Higher response to the emails (more calls) due to more relevant content
• Higher customer service due to answering more incoming calls

Since on-boarding the Post Package Purchase program, the Corporate Marketing Contact Center team has continued to increase guest engagement and customer service leading a stronger, engaged pipeline.