Mr. Trump Jr.

Guest Service / Customer Experience Mgmt

Valuing Customer Loyalty – The 76% Factor

By Donald Trump Jr., Executive Vice President Development & Acquisition, The Trump Organization

Co-authored by Suzie Mills, General Manager, Trump International Hotel & Tower® New York

A high repeat guest factor is something for which every hotelier strives. But in a competitive hospitality market in which guests have no shortage of options for a fine bed with perfectly plumped pillows on which to rest their heads, enticing them to return to your hotel takes a great deal more than a smile and “we hope to see you again soon” at checkout. Frequent-stay programs, though they might succeed at bringing guests back, don’t necessarily succeed at making them loyal, as customers driven by the promise of discounts can be lured away by a competitor’s better offer. If the repeat guest is valuable, the loyal guest is the Holy Grail.

It’s safe to say that Trump Hotel Collection’s flagship excels on both fronts. Since Trump International Hotel & Tower New York first opened its doors in 1997, it has built a repeat guest factor of 76%. That’s a figure that any hotel would envy, but what makes it even more impressive is that this particular hotel defines a “repeat guest” as someone who has completed at least five stays. A guest who returns five times is a loyal guest.

Get to Know Your Guests

There are lessons in Trump International Hotel & Tower New York’s success for every hotel and, indeed, we’ve taken one of the key programs behind the hotel’s phenomenal repeat guest rate and made it a cornerstone of the Trump Hotel Collection brand: the Trump Attaché. When we began developing our New York hotel, we looked for ways to differentiate it from other luxury products in the city. That led to the creation of a guest preferences program designed to treat every guest like a VIP, with the tenet “No stay feels like the first and no request needs repeating.”

To the guest, the Trump Attaché is marketed as a personal “concierge” assigned to take care of any need he or she might have during a stay, no matter how particular – from personal shopping to printing business cards with the guest’s contact details at the hotel. Driving the program behind the scenes is a database in which we collect and store every request and all the individual preferences our employees observe about each guest. This detailed guest history is the key to our ability to anticipate guests’ needs every time they return, whether it’s reserving a room with their preferred view or stocking the refrigerator with their favorite foods.

There have been lessons learned along the way and we’ve adjusted the program accordingly. While our Attaché team used to routinely call guests prior to arrival, for instance, we have found our guests are far more likely to respond and be candid about their preferences when we contact them by email. Departure calls, on the other hand, have proven very effective, providing valuable information directly from our guests about every aspect of their stay – what they liked and what they disliked, all of which we record in our database for future visits.

Since the launch of Trump Attaché at the New York hotel, the program has been expanded throughout the brand as a signature of the Trump Hotel Collection. This gives us the ability to share guest histories between all six, and soon to be seven, properties, creating a seamless experience for the guest no matter which hotel within the brand they are visiting.

As the Trump Attaché program has grown brand-wide, Trump Hotel Collection has added two complementary programs, Trump Pets and Trump Kids, underscoring to our guests that their travel companions will receive every bit as much attention as they do at our hotels.

A guest who feels recognized is a guest who returns. And therein lies the first secret to inspiring guest loyalty: get to know them.

Inspire Your Employees

To make a program like Trump Attaché work requires the active participation of every associate who comes into contact with your guests, from the doorman to the front desk agent. The key here is to hire employees with a genuine passion for hospitality and keep them inspired. Within Trump Hotel Collection, we hire associates who exhibit the same drive and enthusiasm that we do as company executives, and then we train them to deliver a consistently high level of genuine service.

Every new associate at Trump International Hotel & Tower New York, for instance, receives a two-day orientation by human resources. This is followed by a detailed, 14-day departmental training program before that employee is allowed to be on his or her own with a guest. Feedback sessions ensure that new associates are comfortable with their training and encourage open communication between them and their training manager.

Ongoing training by the Attaché Manager helps our associates learn to anticipate guests’ needs and has increased the number of observations they pass along for inclusion in the guest history database.

Housekeeping teams historically report the most guest preferences, as they are privy to a great deal of information when they clean guests’ rooms. For instance, what bath amenities did a particular guest use and what brand toiletries did they bring of their own? Did they eat only the milk chocolates at turndown and leave the dark untouched? Did they prefer curtains or sheers drawn at night or left open? Did they stock the refrigerator with a particular treat? What magazines did they read?

Front desk agents report if a guest prefers a certain floor or room number, and when a family checks in, it’s up to the front desk agent to find out any information about the children – their names, ages and interests – that we were not able to get pre-arrival. Not surprisingly, the concierge, too, is an attuned observer of guest preferences, noting if a guest always likes to try the newest restaurant that has opened, loves a particular kind of food, or has to see every Broadway show with a particular star.

Each month, the hotel rewards the associate who has contributed the most guest preference observations to the database with a small cash prize. This ongoing incentive program helps keep motivation high and the guest histories filled with quality information.

We also look for creative ways to motivate teams throughout the brand on a larger scale. Last year, a brand-wide “You’re Hired” promotion invited past guests to nominate a Trump Hotel Collection associate who had provided them with exceptional service, and rewarded both the guest whose nomination was chosen, and the associate they singled out for consideration, with weekend stays. What became clear as we reviewed the entries was that the one quality guests valued most in their interactions with hotel employees was to be recognized and greeted by name. The winning associate was a Trump International Hotel & Tower New York doorman, James Opoku, who had impressed the nominating guest by his warm smile and ability to remember each family member every time they walked through the door – to the point that her children keep a framed photo of Opoku in their rooms at home. A guest who keeps a picture of the doorman is a loyal guest.

Opoku has been manning the door of the New York hotel since its opening 14 years ago. And that leads to a final point: Loyal employees create loyal guests. The majority of associates at Trump International Hotel & Tower New York have been employed at the hotel since Day One. This is due, in large part, to a team attitude that starts at the very top.

We are firm believers in the “practice what you preach” approach. If your associates have to punch in and out each day, then make sure you do the same. Show your team that you are willing to quite literally roll up your sleeves and lend a helping hand when the situation requires, even if it means rousing yourself from bed in the middle of the night and going to the hotel to deal with a bad water leak in the housekeeping office (and yes, this is a true-life example from our own experience).

Always remember to thank your team for their hard work. Any associate whose name is mentioned in a letter from a guest always gets a personal thank you note from the general manager, along with a copy of the guest’s letter. Employee birthdays are celebrated with a personal card signed by the executive committee and a Starbucks gift card. Years of service are recognized at the five-year and 10-year marks with a card and special gift from Tiffany & Co.

In an industry that is challenged by one of the highest employee turnover rates, in which a new employee has a 50-percent chance of leaving within the first year, the ability to keep a loyal and highly motivated team in place can make all the difference in creating an environment in which guests feel at home and to which they will want to return.

This article was co-authored by Suzie Mills. Ms. Mills is general manager of Trump International Hotel & Tower New York. She joined the hotel pre-opening in 1996 and, as assistant general manager, supervised renovations of the hotel and spa in 2004 and 2006, respectively. In 2007, Ms. Mills became the youngest woman to be appointed general manager of a luxury New York City hotel. Under her leadership, the property has earned the AAA Five Diamond Award and the Forbes Travel Guide Five Star Award, and Ms. Mills herself was singled out by Crain’s New York Business among the “40 Under Forty” in 2009. A native of the U.K., Ms. Mills grew up in the hospitality industry, working at her parents’ hotel in Wales from the age of 10.

Donald J. Trump Jr. is an innovator and leader in today's young business world. As an Executive Vice President at The Trump Organization, he works in tandem with his siblings Ivanka and Eric to expand the company's real estate, retail, commercial, hotel and golf interests nationally and internationally. His extensive real estate development experience, rigorous education and inherent business sense add a level of detail and depth to the management of all current and future Trump projects. Mr. Trump Jr. can be contacted at 212-832-2000. or donjr@trumphotels.com Extended Bio...

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