#MarketingExcellenceAwards SG 2021 highlight: Aspire Lifestyles takes concierge services to new levels

With COVID-19 hitting especially hard on the international travel industry including flights and hotels, Aspire Lifestyles, a company that services clients in the travel and loyalty space, was not spared. In fact, it saw a 46% decrease in client requests at the height of the Asia Pacific’s border lockdowns. An immediate task force was set to identify opportunities to stay relevant and sustainable amidst such difficult times. 

A new programme called the Relevant Service Offering APAC was created to provide clients in the region with highly personalised services. The new programme, which perfectly showcased Aspire Lifestyles’ dedication to its clients even amidst trying times, impressed the judges and was ranked a finalist in the category of Excellence in Personalisation Marketing at MARKETING INTERACTIVE’s Marketing Excellence Awards Singapore 2021.

Challenge

The pandemic had severely crippled the tourism industry and international travel was brought to a halt. This in turn impacted Aspire Lifestyles whose main clientele were travellers. In April 2020, Aspire Lifestyles saw a 46% drop in client requests and there was no certainty of when the pandemic restrictions would be lifted. Aspire Lifestyles knew that it had to offer services that were relevant in today’s climate to sustain its business. 

Despite the drop in international travellers, many customers were still able to travel domestically. Many South Koreans were still visiting Jeju Island, a popular tourist destination. In Singapore, Singaporeans enjoyed staycations at hotels and explored the island again, especially with the SingapoRediscovers vouchers. Aspire Lifestyles faced the challenge of providing services and guides for locals in their own country. 

The pandemic has also brought about new opportunities. As people stayed indoors more often, there was a demand for category services such as home cleaning and sanitisation, food delivery, massage and home manicure/pedicure services, cooking/wine tasting webinars, as well as virtual tours from the comforts of home. COVID-19 educational guides were also highly sought after especially with ever-changing COVID-19 measures, restrictions and vaccination programmes. Aspire Lifestyles understood that it needed to provide relevant service offerings to take advantage of such new customer demands. 

Aspire Lifestyles also had to ensure that it had permission from customers before sending over any service offerings and that the customers received relevant and tailored offers that they would actually be interested in. 

Strategy

To address these challenges, Aspire Lifestyles created the programme, Relevant Service Offering APAC. that would be championed through its Singapore headquarters. The new programme aimed to generate higher utilisation by clients to reduce the risk of non-renewals, provide better customer experience and engagement, enable their frontline staff to offer relevant solutions services to customers and lastly, create additional sources of revenue. 

Execution

As part of the programme set up, Lifestyle Concierges went through intensive training to be educated on the Relevant Service Offering’s purpose, benefits and processes. This ensured that all staff would be able to address customer needs effectively and offer services that would be helpful. Lifestyle concierges were provided with a trial period of a month and further coaching was given when necessary. 

Clients were then proactively offered additional relevant services to clients based on their previous service requests. For example, a client who called about a dining request will be offered a guide on Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants. Aspire Lifestyles also provided unique solutions for its clients.

Wedding Anniversary

Mr. X contacted the concierge late at night on 23 December to request a wedding anniversary dinner on 31 December at KOMA, a highly sought-after Japanese restaurant in Marina Bay Sands. The initial check online showed it was already fully booked. Despite that, the concierge offered to call the restaurant the following day to check on availability. Initial attempts to reach the restaurant were unsuccessful and while continuing to reach KOMA, the concierge offered alternative Japanese restaurants and potential gifts to his celebration truly special. After many attempts, the concierge managed to get a dinner reservation at KOMA on his preferred date. The client had also proceeded with a gift as part of the Relevant Service Offering.

Lost Camera 

The concierge received a request for help from a customer who left his camera in a rental car during a trip to Japan before the border closure. Due to the pandemic and travel restrictions, the customer was not able to return to Japan to retrieve his camera. The customer requested the concierge to liaise with a Japanese transportation company to extend the safekeeping period of his camera. The concierge contacted the transportation company and successfully extended the period of safekeeping without extra costs. Considering travel restrictions are unlikely to change, the concierge proposed additional relevant services to ship his camera back to Hong Kong. The customer agreed and subsequently received his camera.

At the same time, new relevant services offering guides were also created in accordance with clients’ demand for new services. These included guides for COVID-19 information, restaurants, local tours and delivery services. 

Results

The new programme exceeded expectations. From July 2020 to June 2021, Aspire Lifestyle received a monthly average of 6,927 RSO requests and generated revenue of US$1.4 million. In addition, Aspire Lifestyles also received positive testimonials from grateful, satisfied customers who were delighted with the services provided to them.