IHG Hotels & Resorts will become the first global hospitality company to standardise on Salesforce Loyalty Management.
Salesforce has announced an expanded relationship with IHG Hotels & Resorts, one of the world’s leading hotel companies with more than 6,000 hotels across 19 global brands, to drive guest loyalty through its IHG One Rewards program and unlock efficiencies, deeper personalisation and faster innovation.
Customer expectations are changing, with 65% of consumers saying they will remain loyal to companies that offer more personalised experiences. To meet these expectations, IHG is standardising its CRM on Salesforce’s Einstein 1 Platform, which brings CRM, AI, data and trust on a single, unified platform to drive customer loyalty, more tailored guest experiences and greater efficiencies.
“As we continue to enhance the IHG One Rewards loyalty program, one of our top priorities is ensuring our guests have a booking and stay experience that is customised to their individual travel needs,” said Heather Balsley, Global Chief Commercial & Marketing Officer at IHG Hotels & Resorts. “Our collaboration with Salesforce will enable us to further enhance the technology, tools, teams and solutions that power our loyalty program, allowing us to provide personalised content and offerings that ultimately drive a deeper connection to our most valued guests.”
“By bringing more data into Salesforce, IHG Hotels & Resorts is able to garner greater insights that will contribute to an unparalleled experience for guests and hotel owners,” said Jeff Amann, EVP & GM, Salesforce Industries. “With the Einstein 1 Platform, IHG is delivering joy for its guests today while setting itself up to leverage new technologies like AI that help optimise guest interactions in the future.”
How IHG Hotels & Resorts is innovating with Saleforce’s Einstein 1 Platform
IHG One Rewards members spend 20% more than non-members and are estimated to be nine times more likely to book directly with IHG’s global websites and the IHG One Rewards mobile app. With the Einstein 1 Platform and its adoption of Loyalty Management, IHG will be able to foster stronger relationships with guests and grow its loyalty membership with predictive AI capabilities. In addition, IHG is leveraging Data Cloud and Service Cloud to accelerate innovation and create more tailored customer service.
- Seamless brand experience for guests: Through the expanded use of Data Cloud, IHG Hotels & Resorts will create a single source of truth for millions of customer profiles, unifying data from multiple external systems, creating seamless guest experiences across the company’s 19 global hotel brands. With Salesforce and other technology partners, IHG is laying the foundation to use Generative AI to help guests to manage their stays more effectively.
- Customer engagement and marketing: When a potential guest visits an IHG Hotels & Resorts booking page but doesn’t complete a booking, a segment is created in Data Cloud and sent to Marketing Cloud for activation to encourage the member to come back and complete the transaction.
- Transforming the approach to guest loyalty: With Service Cloud, IHG Hotels & Resorts will be able to tap into a 360-degree view of their guests, offering more tailored customer service and delivering more accurate, faster resolutions to guest inquiries. Marketing Cloud also helps IHG Hotels & Resorts more effectively reach customers through channels they prefer, whether email, SMS, or push notifications.
