Indra helps Meliá Hotels International to broaden its knowledge of its customers and increase loyalty by offering a unique customer service

Indra and Grupo Meliá will present at Dreamforce 2017, the major Salesforce event held in San Francisco (USA) between November 7-9, the digitalization project is has entrusted the technology company for the hotel chain and that has revolutionized its Customer Service system, improving its marketing strategy and contributing toward a unique and differentiated experience for anyone who chooses Meliá hotels for their trips. The technology company has joined its IT and consulting capacities to help Meliá gain a broader vision of its non-business customer, developing tools and optimizing the interactions with this customer type, to adapt its relations to the business needs of the chain itself while, simultaneously, successfully contributing to its progress.

Among the main capacities of this project developed by Indra are worth highlighting the possibility to know the non-business customer over his or her entire trip process (the so-called Customer Journey, affecting Reservations, Pre-stay, In-stay and Post-stay), providing a 360-degree vision of the traveler's characteristics, peculiarities and preferences. Issues such as one's preferences by hotel and trip types, campaigns received, incidents, preferences or requests made during previous stays, one's points or offers applied, are no longer variables left to chance when composing a visitor's profile to improve leisure and rest and, especially, help the hotel chain to offer a customized service, in line with one's unique and personal demands and requirements.

The Meliá client will not only be able to view all of the details of the reservation and accommodation, but will, furthermore, thanks to this technology's implementation, be able to communicate with the hotel for other trip-related support and requests, like obtaining immediate medical attention when needed, accessing a virtual community or conversation between the call center and the hotel, contacting other users, or enjoying bidirectional support via livechat or video. Speed, total visibility and continuous contact with the chain whenever formalizing a complaint or demand are other advantages offered by Indra solutions which, likewise, make available global channels and may be linked with users' social networks. Guided reservation processes, comparisons with other hotels, the possibility of accessing other offers or products associated with one's reservations (through cross-sell and up-sell applications), satisfaction surveys or generating templates for processing reservations or managing the Melia Rewards program's loyalty points, are just some of the other capacities made available through the service, and that transform it into a trailblazing project for its wide range of resources enabled for the end user.

Getting to know the Meliá customer in greater depth

Furthermore, Indra's proposal integrates differential aspects, like an omnichannel strategy for Meliá Hotels International, with its Customer Centric perspective, which is the key of the Meliá strategy, offering the customer a number of digitalized channels, operations and alternatives to know, better and continuously, the customer's preferences, and contributing to these suitably and timely during the trip. This achieves a value-based experience beyond mere accommodation, and contributes to maximizing loyalty toward the chain and increasing future stays. For Jose María Dalmau, Senior Vice-President of Business Development at Meliá: ”At Meliá we have over 60 years of leadership experience, thanks to our capacity for ongoing innovation, and for always positioning the customer at the center of our operations; to this end, solutions like the one developed in collaboration with Indra, represent a clear advance, for us and for our customers alike”.

In the new digital era, technology has become a centerpiece of the hotel business strategy. Digital channels and their proper use in relation to our customers are key for addressing the new needs of the hotel and tourism industry. Our knowledge of the increasingly connected guest has become a critical factor for increasing loyalty and direct sales, and for positioning ourselves in the sector. Currently, technologies like Big Data in real time, guests' consulting trips over the Internet, and the possibility for tracking these to discover their tastes and programmatic marketing are helping, more than ever, to obtain detailed information on customers and travelers, always oriented toward optimizing their experience and satisfaction. Now the challenge is based on knowing at what moment during the trip to use this information (when the traveler makes a reservation, before arriving to the hotel, during the stay, once having checked out from the accommodation and is already thinking about the next trip, etc.), and how the omnichannel experience makes the customer feel. In other words, a service that is personalized over the entire trip and through all channels.

“In addition to capturing new customers, the hotel industry has the possibility of maximizing revenues by improving the experience of repeat travelers. If we don't offer customers a unique and differential experience over all of a trip's stages, this will negatively impact their potential loyalty”, claims Mikel Pérez-Ilzarbe, Tourism Manager at Indra.

About Indra

Indra is one of the world's top consulting and technology companies, the leader in IT in Spain, and the advanced technology partner for core business operations of its customers everywhere. It offers a comprehensive range of proprietary solutions and cutting-edge services with a high added value in technology, which adds to a unique culture that is reliable, flexible and adaptable to its clients’ needs. Indra is a world leader in the development of end-to-end technology solutions in fields such as Defense and Security; Transport and Traffic, Energy and Industry, Telecommunications and Media, Financial Services, Electoral Processes, and Public Administrations and Healthcare. Through its Minsait unit, it addresses the challenges of digital transformation. In 2016 Indra posted revenues of €2,709m and had a workforce of 34,000 professionals, a local presence in 46 countries, and sales operations in more than 140 countries. Following its acquisition of Tecnocom, Indra's combined revenues amounted to more than €3,200m in 2016 with a team of nearly 40,000 professionals.