Digital guest loyalty: Successful customer and employee loyalty in Schladming-Dachstein
In the highly competitive tourism environment, many destinations invest heavily in marketing strategies and often overlook the enormous potential of customer loyalty. Effective guest retention not only strengthens the loyalty of existing customers, but also attracts new guests through positive recommendations. The Styrian Schladming-Dachstein Adventure Region has recognized this gap and has introduced a digital bonus program since the 2022/2023 winter season, which serves as a strategic customer loyalty program.
Effective with Strong Partners
In a showcase project for the region, we at incert worked together with the full-service digital agency elements (valantic Austria) to intelligently expand the login area of the existing customer platform into a professional tool for guest loyalty. We developed the logic and functions for the loyalty system, while elements (valantic Austria) took care of the complete integration into Pimcore, including the necessary interfaces to our systems and those of Feratel/Deskline. As a result, the customer loyalty program became an integral part of the tourism portal and fits seamlessly into the Schladming-Dachstein booking platform, including a connection to the Schladming-Dachstein app.
Exclusive Benefits for Members of the Loyalty Program
The Schladming-Dachstein Customer Club now has 45,000 members, two thirds of whom are already actively collecting points for various activities and redeeming them for special rewards. In addition to attractive rewards, the club also offers personal watch lists and vacation memories, which encourages users to collect experiences and share them with friends. The highlight of the project: Bonus Club members can collect points through various activities in the region and redeem them for rewards, some of which are exclusively available in the Bonus World. Members earn points through actions such as registering, entering profile data and interests, purchasing vouchers and tickets, booking accommodation or inviting friends. The bonus points collected can be redeemed for merchandise items, special offers or services from partners.
More Than Just a Loyalty Program
The customer club offers even more: points can be redeemed for merchandising products in the bonus world. Check-in challenges and virtual experiences via the app offer additional added value. The effect: users become part of an active online community and enjoy benefits that are not available to everyone. The customer loyalty program is also linked to the ticketing system so that guests can receive tickets in advance for particularly popular events. In addition, exclusive prices can be set for club members and points can be deducted when purchasing tickets.
Future Employee Retention Through the Loyalty Program
The rewards program initially makes it possible to automatically distribute incentives and bookable activities to guests. In a second step, we are working with elements (valantic Austria) to further develop the concept in order to make the loyalty programavailable to employees in the region. They will receive additional benefits. Our ticket and reservation system will be used to offer events, further training and team events that employees can book directly. This project, which is currently being implemented, is intended to bind important employees to the destination in future and thus bring benefits for companies, guests and the entire region.
Conclusion
The digital customer loyalty program in Schladming-Dachstein impressively demonstrates how an innovative and well-integrated solution can retain both customers and employees. The combination of attractive rewards, exclusive benefits and seamless integration into existing systems not only increases guest satisfaction, but also creates a strong, loyal community. This project provides a model for other destinations looking to take their customer loyalty to the next level.