Strategic Growth: Harnessing Technology for Longevity

And our next session is a discussion on the most effective ways to leverage technology for sustainable growth while overcoming challenges such as economic uncertainty, evolving customer behavior, and an ever-expanding area of marketing tools to choose from. On this panel, we have Avery Tang, Regional Vice President of Customer Success at Omnichat. Skilled in Digital Transformation, Marketing, Cloud, eCommerce, digital solutions and business development, Avery is an experienced leader with a demonstrated history of success in IT and services industry. We also have Jodi Wong, Group Manager, Digital Marketing at Regal Hotels. Jodi brings a proven track record of setting into action digital marketing and content strategies that set themselves apart from competitors while successfully navigating the new era. Joining Avery and Jodi is Matthew Lim, Director of Marketing, Digital at Swire Hotels, a business minded marketing professional with a broad consumer marketing background. Matthew's interest lies at the intersection of consumer tech, retail, and hospitality. And leading this session is Carole Martin, Senior Vice President of Service, APAC at Emarsysw. Let's welcome our panelists on stage. Good afternoon, everyone. We're pleased and pleased to be here in Hong Kong. I can feel the energy of the city. It's really a delight to be here and to be on this exceptional panel today with our very distinguished speakers. So I'm really honored to welcome Matthew and Jodi from prominent hotel groups in Hong Kong, as we've mentioned, and Avery, expert and leader in omnichannel conversational commerce. So thank you. And today we'll be talking about the strategic growth and how do we harness technology in the long term. Mainly, I think we'll really dive into the importance of integrating data, customer centricity to really look at driving top line growth, building relevant customer experiences. So we've got 35 minutes. So with no further ado, let's jump right in. And I'd like to start with a quick run of introductions. If you could tell us about your role, what your responsibilities are. Maybe we'll start with you, Matthew. Hi, everyone. My name is Matthew Lam. I'm the director of marketing at Swire Hotels. So for some of you who doesn't know about Swire Hotels, we have two brands, the House Collective, which is a premium luxury brand. And also we have EAST Hotels, which is our alternative luxury lifestyle brand. So in Hong Kong, we have Upper House and we have Upper House in multi and we also have EAST Hong Kong at Taikoo. Along with my team, our main responsibility is to drive all digital data and loyalty experience projects for the group. I personally come from a retail marketing background. It's my first year working in hospitality. So don't be too hard on me. That's it. Thank you. Thank you, Matthew. And hello, everyone. So my name is Jodi. As the digital marketing manager of our group, Regal Hotels International, we also have like three brands under the group, namely East Regal Hotels, Bigelow Hotels, and also iclub hotels. Just like Matthew, I am also the first year working in the hotel industry. There's lots of things to learned. So as for my traditional roles and responsibilities is resolve around like ensuring all digital initiative aligned with our business needs, of course. This encompasses site overseeing email marketing, enhancing website customer experience and journey, managing social media, digital advertising, and optimizing the business process for better effectiveness and efficiency. And of course my key KPI is to be im fact in the revenue growth. Right? So today is my pleasure to learn from both experts to see how to make our business to be elevated. Thank you. Thank you Jodi. My name is Avery. I'm been in marketing technology for last 14 years. I'm very passionate to talk to customers about digital transformation, how things work, how to change your digital, well, how to make your business better. Ominchat is mainly about digital channels like WhatsApp, Line, Facebook IG, inboxes. How to use the conversation messaging to discuss and communicate with client. We not only working with hospitality, we work in different kind of industry. Basically, if you think about all your day-to-day life, who is answering your WhatsApp? Which business is using WhatsApp? That was where we could help you. We could do retail, commerce with whole, travels, all different kind of industry. So hope that we'll have a very interesting discussion later on. Thank you, Avery. Thank you, Jodi and Matthew. So let's start a little bit by looking into the business outlook. I think we are all aware that, you know, businesses in Hong Kong and globally are navigating economic headwinds. But with the reopening of borders, where we're seeing steady recovery, and when it comes to hospitality, there's a gradual, gradual return of leisure and business travel. So in that context, maybe we can start with you, Jodi. How do you perceive the current state of the hospitality markets in your region? And, you know, what's your perspective on those trends specifically? Thank you, Carole. So as we know, the tourism growth in Hong Kong for 2024 has not met the expected levels, despite the days like significant increase in the visitor arrival, particularly for mainland China. But the overall growth rate has been lower than expected. So far, we welcome like 21 million visitors, which about like 64% of the growth from last year. But as Carole said is not fully recover. But from our perspective, we are still quite optimistic because there are like more and more cities in China, they are joining the individual travel scheme, and with this opportunities, we are also leveraging the China social media to capture the surging demands to the tourism to Hong Kong and also to convert them to stay with our hotels. Yeah. Thank you, Jodi. Matthew, how are you also looking into, you know, opportunities for growth in the current context? Like since the beginning of the year, the pacing is definitely has been very slow compared to last year. And I think, well, from a group level, we think that it's indicative that we are not able to bring alone the long haul high spending travelers from US and Europe into Hong Kong and could be reasons around air capacity. But also I think we have become more expensive, like Hong Kong in general has become more expensive. Hotel rates has been higher. So it makes the city becomes more expensive. And for the industry is good, for the hotel owners is good, but for the customers are not amazing because they have to pay a premium to fly over to Hong Kong. So as a leisure market for long haul travelers, Hong Kong is not a value option yet, but same as Jodi. We have to stay optimistic. Who doesn't? And we right now see that, you know, Hong Kong like 60% recovered. So there's opportunity for growth. And I think it takes the, not just the government but brands collectively across industries to work together to accelerate that growth. Yeah. Absolutely. So I think you said it, marketing investment are under tight scrutiny. There was a Gartner report in 2023 on CMO on surveying CMOs stating that, you know, 73% of CMO are really under the pressure, state that they're under pressure of doing more, doing less, more with less while maintaining growth. So from being in, operating in that context, how have your business priorities shifted, and where are you really driving your attention and your focus when it comes to driving revenue? Maybe, Jodi, if you want to jump on. Yeah, sure. So this is a question also for my boss as well. Yeah. So in hotel industry, even though I am quite new, but back in to a decade ago, I work in travel agency, and the first time I faced digital transformation for the travel agency is the popularity of travelers using OTA, online travel agency. Now I'm working in the hotel industry. I'm also facing the the same dilemma is like how can I shift my focus from finding our customer from the online travel agency to the, to our direct booking channels, which help us to gather like the sufficient customer base to offer personalized offers and also to get more chance to get them to upsell and cross-sell our products in so that we can do less and then we can generate more revenue. This is our first priority, and I think we can discuss more about like later, like how our lockstep on this priority. Yeah. Absolutely. Thank you. Thank you, Jodi. So, Matthew, can you tell us a little bit, obviously you've been in hospitality for a year now, but you've also been in other, quite a few industries, fashion, lifestyle, sports industry. So from your perspective over the years, like how have you also shifted your priorities on what's making an impact? I think in Hong Kong in general, we um, just my personal view, we over rely on Chinese mainland visitors. But from a group level, we believe this is a strength for the market. Looking in the future, there's a prediction that seeing 80% of the luxury travelers will come from China. So there's a huge opportunity for, to exploit and to grow. But at the same point we are looking at to expand our international travel segment because there's a value of Hong Kong of bringing international travelers. So we're exploring markets like South Korea, Middle East, even Malaysia. There we see a lot of high spending travelers coming to Hong Kong. But looking at back to hotels, looking at our portfolio, occupancy rate has room for improvement. But we see the luxury average daily rate has been up since 2018 for like around 10%. So focusing on the rate will be our focus, will basically be more important than the occupancy because we see ample space for growth. Yes. Okay. Thank you, Matthew. Avery, curious as well on that topic. You know, with brands that you partner, leading brands that you partner with, what's your perspective as well on capturing these opportunities as well for growth? Yeah. I think you're right at the very beginning that there are lot of CMO have been very challenging like with less budget but higher target every year. And I think that was a pain for everyone here. But when we look into the transformation or actually how they looking into priority, they changing some of the business focus and business direction, especially when it comes to customer support. So I think in the old days, a lot of customer support were relying on phone call and call center, which, I mean, if everyone in Hong Kong, you know that like we now actually prefer more on chat. So I don't need to keep on the phone, listening to the awful music, pressing 1 and two and three and then another awful music, which the chat actually controlling your pace to talk to your customer and your customer controlling the pace to answer you as well. So when it come to that where, I mean, because of the nature of my business, right. So we talk a lot like, okay, not only because of supporting the chat have to be improved, is also how to convert a non-revenue generator chat support to something more revenue generated. Instead of the KPI is to closing the case so that you go away, the KPI is how can I drive you to the footfall? So that's where that the company looking into transforming something that existing running but make it more useful, driving extra revenue as a new channel or as a new way to engaging the channel. Thank you, Avery. So key topics here. Obviously it's all around, you know, how we are looking at delivering, enhancing the experiences for our customers, for our guests in the industry. Yet, you know, I think earlier we heard about innovating with with more or less investments. But it's all about also really understanding how each, you know, in the context of hospitality, each guest is unique, understanding their preferences and being able to act on that and personalize. So let's move on a little bit to the topic of, you know, integrating tech and data. And I'd be keen to sort of look into diving into how you'd leverage, you know, technology and data analytics really to inform your brand strategy and really to craft these unique experiences for your customers. So maybe we can start with you, Matthew, on this one. I think the transformation takes place from the increasing the demand level of customer experience and also operational efficiency. From a brand perspective, we obviously utilize a lot of consumer data to drive preferences and understand preferences. Our hotels, as I mentioned, one of our brand, our House Collective, very focus on personalized services, from F&B preferences, in-room service preferences. And we also get to a point that this is a story that I heard. I'm not sure if it's true, but… We would know which side of the bed that the that the guests would get off, and we would prepare a pair of slippers before they check in, on that side. So this data is not just used from a marketing perspective, but guest experiences. Even sales team would use our contextual and demographic data to create offers and packages. So I think it goes beyond just brand strategy. But I think it's a company level that if we look at the customer journey, how they, before they come into that hotel entrance, we started to engage with them from digital to in-room and then to post-day engagement. Thank you, Matthew. And Jodi, tell us more as well from how you are leveraging data-driven insights as well to really craft and design, you know, the end-to-end customer experience as well. We kind of like, to leveraging the data by the pre-trip experience. We more focus on that. Yeah, because like for in-room we have another another mechanism, but as a digital marketing manager. So we leverage the data like we collect from the advertising and also collect from the email marketing and also collect from the social media ecosystem to get, to crunch the data, to set the different profile for customer so that we are delivering the personalized offer or the message to the segment they are really interested in. For example, last month we have the first pilot for the dynamic content optimization with Google. So we have create like using the artificial intelligence solution to generate almost like more than like 1,000 creative assets across different segments, for example, business traveler, family travelers, and also like the leisure travelers, and also like the concert goers. Even as small as this kind of statement to have different creative assets to reach out to them to ensure that our offer is really tied with the customer list. And at the next stage for the seamless customer journey, then we also leverage the automation of our email marketing. So we try to like the, to, we target them with our email, with automation. That's for example, if you ever engage with our spa offers advertisement, then we will send you promotion email to try to convert you and also to make you like to re-engage with us in the website. Yeah. This kind of automation and the data we are using to enhance the conversion. Yeah. Can I just just add a comment? Yeah, of course. I think in general companies they don't have a good grasp of what an exceptional experience means to a customer. Not that the customers are subpar, I would say, but it just not remarkable because we have been talking about experience a lot, and the value of experience has become very commoditized. And I think we have, as a brand, have to try to elevate that the customer's sense of self instead of elevating customers' perception of how our product and services are. And I think that technology and data comes into to the game because while our customers are craving an understanding of themselves, we as brands have to understand them better and faster and they understand themselves. I think that's the, that will be the key point. Yeah. Absolutely. So it's really that, you know, shift from product to customer-centricity and really putting that front and center from a business perspective and really focusing on value and what does it mean from a different business perspective. And, Avery, what trends are you seeing in this area? I think when it comes to data, one thing is very obvious is when someone reach out to you in a conversation channel like Messenger, WhatsApp, they don't come to you for no reason. You can receive an email, but then you interact, you don't interact, you open, you click or not, it shows some interest. But the conversational part actually make a big difference. They come to ask you a question that means they are interested into one thing: either something that they want to buy or something that they want to get an answer. So we work with a lot of like CDP marketing automations to like Emarsys. How do we using first-party data from CDP as well as how we pushing back the conversation with data back to them? They ask a question, it's a very strong interest on particular items, particular categories. How that information back to CDP and driving all the conversation afterwards. In the conversation part, it also like depends on who is managing the discussion or the chat, right? If it's the salesperson talking to you like, "Hey, customer asked, what's this cloth make of," then a basic simple CS answer is like cotton. If it's a sales guy, then they would naturally answer like, "Hey, it's actually a very breathable cotton, is feeling nice, really smooth. Come down to the shop and try to touch it." All right. So this is where the difference that the conversation will be and all those data how to get in and out between the conversation channel, CDP, the rest of the world, how that become a meaningful insight engagement, then that's where that we talk a lot like okay, where are they going back? I want this data back. I want this conversation inside go back, and then this where we work with Emarsys on the CDP, the marketing automation part of it. Yeah. Thank you, Avery. So we talked through the importance, obviously, of, you know, unleashing the power of data, but and using technology and cutting-edge technology, for that matter, to really drive that forward. But I think companies, when it comes to, you know, a big word, which is digital transformation, I think everyone speaking to its top of mind about digital transformation. But businesses are at really different stages when it comes to, you know, looking at digital transformation. And there's different stages in this process. So I'm, you know, pragmatically also when it comes, when we talk about digital transformation, you know, in your in your area, like what are the key…? What are you really prioritizing? Because it's a journey. It's not something that happens, you know, overnight. And there's, it's a whole process. So what are your priorities in that domain? Well, mainly driven by, you know, customer experience and operational efficiency. And I think what we are currently doing right now is exploring technologies like auto check-in, check-out systems, keyless entry systems. And most recently, we have a big project that we're exploring is our guest experience on mobile apps. We're building a WeChat mini program, don't tell anyone, that will integrate guest experience features in it. Are you going to copy it? Just kidding. And then from a marketing perspective, obviously we have talked about it already, we're using data to do a lot of deep customer analysis for personalized recommendations. Broadly, we're also looking at AI and chat bots. But because our brand is not, it's not very relevant to our brand because we have this human touch element in our brand. So but that can obviously ease the efficiency in operations in our workload. Yeah. Thank you, Matthew. Jodi, I think when we were speaking about, you know, digital automation, you were really referring to like how you really see it as a key stone, you know. So tell us more. Speaking of the WeChat mini program, Matthew. So I can share some experience with you because we already are there. Yeah. So basically, I think hotel is quite complicated in terms of operations. I think, Matthew, you agree with me because like, we not only have to do with like the how do you say, revenue management. We have to deal with different business units like operations like F&B and also the front office. Recently, we are working on the WeChat mini program, which has really helped me to understand the whole hotel operation in two months. Yeah. It's like working in the hotel for ten years. Because when we are working in this kind of like let the customer to check in in the mini program, to check out in the mini program, and also to order the in-room service in the mini program, we have to be, we know how to influence our team to get to embrace the technology to be digitalization. In this regard, so I'm not trying to say like how to implement the tech aspect because there is an expert here, but from the, how do you say, how the state stakeholder management, I would say this is really important to share the understanding of the digital methodology because I see from the, for the digital transformation without the common ground, we are going to miscommunication and failing to tailor our services and product to meet the customer needs. As I said, when we when we try to think about the seamless customer journey, they are like many story behind operations. So we have to communicate with them to share the digital knowledge form step by step. For example, like we have to let them know, like the China social media ecosystem, how the travelers from mainland China, they get used to have their room service in China. And then we tell them like, what's the best practice across this kind of latest implementation? Yeah. So I would say the digital transformation begins with each one of us. And we have to make the one small step to make a lift in the future to drive significant result. Yeah. Thank you, Jodi. And Avery, to tech experts for it, said, what challenges and are you working partnering with the key brands when it comes to really helping them navigate digital transformation? Maybe I call a little bit. I feel like talking about in-stay experience. Recently we were talking to a lot of hotel groups on how to changing the in-stay experience to more digital and actually drive revenue as well. So one other thing is that we talk about is set of you have a very big book, the folder in the room having multiple pages talking about this is the F&B, this is the dine-in restaurant, and this is the in-room dining. How can we change that to a digitalized versions? So at the moment, you know, you check in or maybe you go into the room, you see the TV, there is a QR there that you can scan the whole booklet is actually within the WhatsApp already. Then the benefit of it is like, okay, actually I can directly click there to say, "Do you still have sit in your dine-in restaurant?" I can actually directly click on the F&B menu and see I know what is there. The idea is not only transforming the engagement digitally, it's also capturing the behavior. You click on a F&B restaurant. I know that you must be, haven't planned your dinner yet. That means I can have a time to cross-upsell you. For example, we know that like maybe the F&B, we are running low of booking, then all this information will become your first-party data to say, okay, let's find out this group of people, let's give them a discount, let's give them digital voucher. Come to join a buffet right now. Then these all become a meaningful and immediate in-stay experience data. The idea of the whole thing behind this digital transformation is like, how do they interact a book? You don't know. How do they interacting with WhatsApp? We can all capture, and therefore these data become your selling too. For example, they call, in the past, let's say if they call about, "I want to book a spa," I have to think about my time yet. I think in a prospective you don't dare to call them, "Hey, you still want to join, or are you still coming?" Right? But in a WhatsApp you could actually like, "Hey, we are running out of seats. We still have one slot. Do you want to take it?" And it's less intrusive. So the whole idea is how to converting that experience into more digitized, more data driven, more easy to follow up based on data. Thanks, Avery. So I'd like to speak a bit about how we're taking on new trends that are emerging, obviously without without drilling into the topic of AI. But just talking about Gen Z. You know, it's really the first digital native generation, and it's really forcing brands to really revolutionize, you know, their strategies. But how are you like generally approaching new trends in social media like TikTok to really prepare in advance, you know, for new channels and technology adoption without without really feeling overwhelmed, right, by what's coming our way. So, could you tell us a bit more on this, Matthew? First of all, God, Gen Z. If you understand it works for the business from work because it works for the customer, you won't feel overwhelmed. I think that's first of all, the main point. And I think looking at technology and how trends are evolving, I think in the beginning introduction, talking about being customer centric is already a very important aspect. And I personally, and I strongly believe is we always have to look at that whole customer journey. And I think in the opening speech, it talks about traditional, tradition versus transformation. And I think it's a key point because I come from retail marketing background and I think hospitality market, it's. Let's keep it with ourselves. It's very still very old school. I would say. Retail marketing is very fast paced, and it's really on trend. And I think when we look at traditional hospitality marketing, we always think that they the experience start after they arrive at the entrance of the hotel. But now, because of the customer journey, moving on to digital, we have to start looking at where they start doing the research, OTA platforms, social media, and we actually looking at that booking journey, that booking window, it becomes longer and longer because they have so much information to consume. So I think the key is to look at that whole customer journey and seeing how we can engage with them in each of the touchpoints. Be creative, attract, engage, retain them. I think that's a basic marketing tactic. But really, look at that whole customer journey. And I think that will apply not only to the Gen Z and to whatever generation as well. Yeah. Thank you. And yourself, Jodi, how are you looking into those shifted customer expectations? Yep. So basically, like Matthew already like talk about social media because once they said the Gen Z, they won't do any, like, information searching in the search engine anymore set to Google and Bing. So they'd start their search out the trip planning in the social media, like Xiaohongshu, TikTok, Instagram, and also YouTube videos. I'm not going to say too much because I think like Matthew already touched it, but I would like to say like one special trend for them is quite related to our hotel as well. So basically the Gen Z is quite different with other generation. Their purchasing decisions are increasing influenced by the brand's ethical consideration. So they prioritize brands that demonstrate environmental friendliness, responsibility, and other ethical consideration, just like what we heard in the fire chat that they care about, like what kind of content they are using, right? So in hotel as well. So basically we also try to focus on the importance of the ESG matrix and commit to like reduce our carbon footprint and minimizing the wastage across the properties. So in this regard, for example, one of our brands, iclub hotels, is the first basically the first carbon neutral hotel, which means that we basically calculate all the consumption of our electricity, water, and so on. And now we also pushing like some sustainability products and service to target the Gen Z, for example, the green dining menu, the green meeting packages, and also the ocean friendly menu, which mean, we don't offer like any soft things now to our like wedding banquet guests. Yeah. I think like, we're not doing this to just to align with their expectation, but it's more about like how we as a hotel to contribute, to make a positive impact to the planet and also to society as a whole. Yeah. So I think like the brand value is equally important. Yeah. For the charity. Yeah Thank you, Jodi. So I think we'll wrap a little bit around, obviously, we've touched the topic of sustainability, which is a key one, as we discussed as well. I like, we can wrap a little bit maybe if you have some key highlights that you like to put, you know, on the importance of the topic as well. And when we speak about longevity and how it's important to also integrate that into our marketing strategies. You spoke about it, Jodi. We'll maybe wrap as well. Maybe each one of you on what are the key highlights, key takeaways that you'd have for the audience today from this conversation? So thank you again, like, for having me here. And so for this panel discussion, basically we have like different expert from different area, and we have of like trying to or leveraging the advanced technology and the data because data is the new oil, to really understand our customer better and to promote like our our products in a more engaging way just like we use in conversation and hopefully we can start, re-start our conversation of liberation. Yeah. And also I learned from like Matthew like how the hotel operation can become like one of the experiences that provides seamless, personalized experience to elevate the whole customer journey. Yeah. And of course we will keep on advancing the technology to help to not only promote our hotel, but to promote our city to be a top destination for no matter the scope of traveler or try to up travelers to come to visit. Yeah. My personal motto is always, "Do what is right, not what is easy." Getting on the new trends is very easy. Using technology is going to be very, very easy. But I think we as brands, what is going to remain, and it's going to be very important and very challenging, is to remain customer centric. So that's my note. I think we can have long conversations and a number of conversations about technology and AI, but what works for the customers on this should be the most important question to answering. I think today I heard from Matthew, Jodi talk about in-stay experience actually I would also mention about how to create value when you're reaching out. Right? I think the experience is a very big keyword. Today I heard of multiple times like how your end customer experiencing your brand experience and your communication with AI, with marketing, automation, with conversation. I think that's where that like today I heard a lot, and I hope that these conversations continue after it that are how do we see experience enhancement from a end customer perspective.