Mandarin Oriental is Brand that Delivers Best Customer Experience
Luxury Institute Survey
NEW YORK, NY, January 18, 2006. A new Luxury Customer Experience Index survey (LCEI), from New York-based Luxury Institute, finds the Mandarin Oriental earning top honors as the luxury hotel brand that delivers "the best customer experience" as rated by their own wealthy customers. Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons tied for second; St. Regis was a close third.
Wealthy customers rated 11 leading Luxury Hotels based on their individual experiences. These included (alphabetically): Fairmont, Four Seasons, Inter-Continental, Leading Hotels, Le Meridien, Loews, Mandarin Oriental, Park Hyatt, Ritz-Carlton, St. Regis, and W Hotels.
"Ritz-Carlton had the highest number of wealthy consumers reporting stays in the past 18 months (26.9%), with Four Seasons second (21.6 %). However, Mandarin Oriental, with only 5.1% reported stays, received the highest Customer Experience Index score, 89, edging out Ritz-Carlton and Four Seasons, both at 87," said Milton Pedraza, CEO, the Luxury Institute.
Mandarin Oriental achieved the highest scores in Brand Effectiveness, Brand Attitude, Brand Environment, Price Worthiness, and in the important Customer Retention and Customer Referral Indexes. Four Seasons had a near-perfect score in the Problem-Resolution index, thanks to a very low incidence of problems encountered by guests.
The Luxury Customer Experience Index (LCEI), creates a set of measures that captures critical drivers for Customer Experience, as rated by brand customers, going beyond traditional customer satisfaction measures. LCEI delivers metrics based on four "pillars" of Customer's Experience: Experience Drivers, Price Worthiness, Customer Retention and Customer Referral. The Experience Drivers includes brand effectiveness, brand attitude, brand environment, and a brand problem resolution index.
"Luxury CEOs need to know how the target market perceives their brand's reputation and that of their competitors' (LBSI), and how customers rate their brand experience and competitors' experiences (LCEI)," said Pedraza.
The Luxury Institute surveyed a nationally representative statistical sample of over 2,100 households with a minimum of $200,000 gross annual income and minimum net worth of $750,000 (including home equity).
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