Destination Guam: Meeting the demand for personalized service

By Jeffrey Tomas Marchesseault

Today’s lightning-fast online technology makes it easier than ever for consumers to customize travel plans. Likewise, service providers at every link in the hospitality chain can use corresponding digital assistants to exceed customer expectations in advance or on the go. But the chasm between what the world wants and what it gets reveals the white space of opportunity for Destination Guam.

If you’re from Guam and ever take a trip off island, you may have noticed the intertwining factors energizing the trend toward satisfying choosy travelers. Ease of selection, instant booking and prepayments, and competition for arrivals are driving travel-oriented businesses to differentiate themselves. And, depending on where you visit, you may have been delighted to find that certain providers seem to know what you want before you do.

Maybe you filled in an online survey before you arrived at your Airbnb and discovered the room temperature and pillows to your liking and a handwritten note with your favorite dessert on the kitchen table. Enterprising hosts know it’s the little things that build customer confidence in their travel brands. And the results speak for themselves in positive social media reviews, successful referrals, and repeat business.  

As far back as November 2021, the research firm McKinsey & Company was reporting, “companies that excel at personalization generate 40 percent more revenue from those activities compared to average players.” 

From traditional tab-keeping systems to “bleeding-edge” data-profiling software that monitors consumer behavior in real time—today’s airlines, resorts, retailers, and tour operators are challenged and empowered as never before to offer individualized experiences to nearly any sincere seeker of preferred services.

Yet the market gap is wide. There’s a void to fill. Penetration is not yet where it should be.

According to Contentful.com:

  • “While 85 percent of companies believe they provide personalized experiences, only 60 percent of customers agree (Segment).”

  • “Over two-thirds (63 percent) of digital marketing executives struggle with providing tailored customer experiences (Gartner).”

    • Customers increasingly feel disconnected – 61 percent believe they’re often treated like numbers rather than individuals (Salesforce).”

Destination Guam’s mix of travelers, itinerant students, migrant workers, servicemembers and military dependents, plus long-time resident customers are increasingly aware of the level of personalization possible because they experience automated value-added bonuses in patches, but far from universally.

Think about it. How many retailers in Guam ask you to key in your phone number before you swipe your credit card at the checkout counter, so they can at least greet you by name, track your purchases, reward you with points, and customize discounts that fit your preferences? We can count these businesses on one hand.

Automated concierge-level service hasn’t reached ubiquity yet. But consumer demand is growing, and the first destinations to get it right across the board and deliver on the expectations of visitors and residents consistently will win big on the customer loyalty scoreboard.

  What Guam can do: Systematize it.

  Data-fed automation now actually makes it possible for quality-conscious hosts to add at least some level of personalized value to almost any budget. Now that details matter more than ever to cosmopolitan globetrotters and are raising the expectations of local consumers too, it comes as little surprise that demand for exceptional one-to-one guest conveniences is the incoming wave of customer care.

True enough, some high-traffic tourism destinations are more adept than others at giving guests exactly what they want when they want it. But even in the midst of our visitor industry’s recovery, Guam enjoys several advantages that can help tourism-oriented businesses get ahead of the micro-hospitality curve. Capitalizing on our island’s natural strengths will keep us in step with the times.

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From trainable staff to deluxe accommodation; from steadily building arrivals to the availability of affordable automated franchising systems; and from our unique mix of Americana and warm, welcoming CHamoru culture to our destination’s status as an accessible stretch of tropical island adventure, Guam already has much of what it takes to become a tailor-made paradise for any explorer with a heart for adventure, an open mind, and the decisiveness to ask for what they want. 

Planning for tourism recovery is one thing. But action is where the landing gear meets the runway. The growing demand for personalized tour-and-travel experiences challenges Destination Guam to offer more customization of visitor experiences as soon as possible. 

The ever-improving sophistication of user-friendly browsing tools is an efficient place to start. By allowing your guests to menu-select from a variety of options while they book their itineraries and by following up through every point in the value chain, your business will be doing its part to help 21st century Guam attain the next level of precision marketing.

Somewhere between satisfying the hyper-personalized deluxe expectations of big-spending VIP guests and simply being a little extra considerate to any customer who just wants decent service, Destination Guam can find its place in the expanding world market for making people feel like they belong.

Jeff Marchesseault is a lifelong multimedia careerist and former real estate broker and property manager. He now serves as a researcher, publicist and management analyst for the president and CEO of Guam Visitors Bureau. You can reach Jeff at mediamaxguam@gmail.com. 

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