Over Spring Break, I had the pleasure of vacationing at Paradisus La Perla. Nowhere else have I experienced such luxury and such great service (and this is by no means my first all-inclusive vacation). The hotel brand, though, obviously puts a great deal of emphasis on service. For example, if I overestimated my plate and cup carrying capabilities, there was always a waiter to rush to my aid and to suggest that they take one of my delicious freshly squeezed fruit smoothies to my table. At the beach, there was always a waiter walking around to take your food or drink order and just in general, you would always be greeted by any staff that you walked by.
So why invest so much in customer service? Besides getting positive reviews, Paradisus wants you to share your pictures of you having a good time to your entire social network. The hotel brand is aware that word-of-mouth is the strongest driver of purchase intent. Having vacationers share their experiences with their social network can have a greater impact than sharing your opinion about the resort with a group of strangers. While sharing on TripAdvisor is of course great for the company, it’s not very personal. It’s mostly rather objective descriptions of the facilities and the service. On the other hand, social media posts focus on the great time that a group has had at their vacation destination. It shows the values of family and togetherness or of partying and having fun, depending on your vacation intentions. More importantly, it signals to your association group that they should maybe also invest in a similar vacation if they want to have similar great experiences and if they want to maintain their social status in the group.
Paradisus encourages visitors to post their experiences by reminding them that they are having a good time and that their friends should be jealous of them. This plays to the ego need from the Maslow hierarchy of needs. This is a smart need to engage give that if they are at the resort, they are probably providing for their basic needs (physiological and safety) very well and they are likely on vacation with friends or family so they have fulfilled their need for love and belonging. The next one on the pyramid is esteem, i.e. ego. The best part of this word-of-mouth strategy is that it simply involves having great customer services (which all luxury companies should have anyway) and pasting a couple stickers in optimal locations.
What I found particularly interesting though is that the stickers urge vacationers to use the hashtag #whereyouwanttobeseen instead of using the company name. This is a risky pan because users could share their great experiences and use the hashtag but then not use the name of the hotel. This might as a result limit the brand exposure. Yet, it increases the likelihood that vacationers will comply with the call to action because it is specifically talking to them (“you”) and because it is answering the question “why?” You’re not posting to help the company; you are posting to make your friends jealous. In the end, doing a quick scan of various social media platforms shows that vacationers who use the hash tag also mention the company brand name so it seems like the strategy worked.
Have you ever gone on vacation or made a purchase because one of your friends posted something on social media?