Traditional Travel Companies: How to Build a Membership Marketing SCRM System from Scratch?

### Project Background

A certain international travel agency group co., ltd. (referred to as the "Travel Group") was established in the 1990s. Adhering to the business philosophy of "sincerity and friendliness, customer first, reputation first, mutual benefit," the group has long provided high-quality travel experience services to a wide range of customers. Currently, the travel group has developed a networked and scaled development pattern, owning multiple travel agencies and 14 branches and subsidiaries, including those in Shanghai, Jinan, Chengdu, and Fuzhou. Additionally, it has liaison offices in many cities such as Beijing, Tianjin, Nanjing, Guangzhou, and Shenzhen, making it a large comprehensive travel service enterprise.

In the traditional travel industry, on the one hand, the existing customer data of the travel group is scattered across online and offline channels and various systems. The granularity of the information varies greatly, the data quality is poor, and precise customer information is held by sales personnel, making centralized management difficult and posing a high risk of data loss.

On the other hand, under the trends of mobile internet, data utilization, and new marketing transformations, the travel group also faces external competitive pressures. Therefore, it urgently needs a complete SCRM membership marketing system to centrally manage data, integrate online and offline services, understand customer needs in a timely manner, and improve response speed. This would enable rapid and personalized marketing, customer care services, and ultimately enhance customer satisfaction and loyalty.

[Business Pain Points]

With the rapid development of the travel market and the clear trend towards digital transformation, the travel group seeks to upgrade and transform its traditional marketing operations through its forward-looking vision. However, it also faces the following challenges:

1. The travel industry supply chain involves numerous participants and has a long chain, with a low degree of informatization and outdated business closed-loop information systems. The overall level of digitization in the industry is relatively low.
2. The travel group itself does not have a centralized database; user data is scattered across offline channels (stores, ground promotions, etc.), online channels (brand official website, third-party platforms, EPR), sales personnel, and customer service personnel, making it difficult to integrate data sources.
3. Customers have numerous demands and high expectations for the project. They require the integration of online and offline channels to establish a unified and complete SCRM membership center. Additionally, the system needs to fully meet their actual membership operation needs in B2B, B2C, and specific travel business scenarios. This places higher demands on the system planning and technical implementation capabilities of the service provider and the project team.
4. The travel industry experiences high user attrition, and users lack subsequent maintenance and management. The newly developed system and features need to enhance the travel group's overall level of membership marketing, improve its continuous operation capabilities for members, increase sales conversion rates, and provide a competitive advantage that leads the industry.

### Project Goals

1. Integrate existing data to build a foundational membership data platform, achieving unified data management.
2. Build a complete user journey from the front end to the back end, collect multidimensional tags, enrich user profiles, and establish a more comprehensive view of the user to achieve more personalized marketing.
3. Integrate online and offline channels to optimize the seamless member experience across both, providing a better membership experience and enhancing the efficiency and results of membership marketing.
4. Plan the membership lifecycle and cultivate member loyalty to enhance sales conversion and purchase rates among members.
5. Conduct omnichannel integration based on SCRM, elevating membership marketing to a higher level.

[Challenges Faced by the Project]

1. Data is scattered across online and offline channels, fragmented in various forms and structures, involving multiple data sources and suppliers. This makes internal and external coordination and collaboration extremely challenging.
2. Planning and development need to cater to the specific characteristics of the travel industry and address real-world service issues. At the same time, it should lay the groundwork for achieving a more advanced membership center and membership marketing in the future. This requires a high level of comprehensive planning and development capabilities, as well as a broad, strategic vision.

### Strategy and Execution

After discussing with the client's current needs and project vision, combined with Webpower Dmartech's standard version features, Webpower technical experts planned and customized the development of a whole set of membership marketing system based on the needs of this tourism group, integrating online and offline channels, and opening up the online and offline joint marketing scenarios. At the same time, it optimizes the entire membership marketing chain from front-end user contact to back-end user operation, and achieves the goals of customer information collection, unified data management, and personalized member marketing.

1. Integrate customers from the front end and create a centralized membership pool

The travel group wants to centralize the maintenance of travel terminal customers collected from various endpoints and establish its own membership center pool. Webpower begins with the two main user contact points (official website and WeChat) to build a membership center and points mall system, achieving the objectives of attracting member registrations and retaining users.

1. Establish a membership center on both PC and WeChat platforms to achieve basic membership management.

Whether users come from the official website on PC or from WeChat, they can easily register to become members. The membership center page is equipped with comprehensive basic membership management functions such as a travel mall, points mall, my orders, points orders, membership benefits, online customer service, and others. It displays all basic membership information, points records, points orders, grade change records, and other details. Based on the membership center page, the travel group can gradually gather previously scattered users into the membership center and complete centralized online management of the members.

In the mall, the backend can implement functions including basic configuration, product management, order management, customer service management, mall advertisements, and promotional articles. This allows for one-stop operational management from product display to order placement, purchase, and logistics delivery. Additionally, strict and clear permissions management is set up, where admin accounts can view all data and perform configurations, while stores can only see and configure their own data specific to themselves.

2. A flexible points mall system attracts users to register and maintains member engagement.

Building the membership center is just a tool; the key lies in attracting users to the membership center and converting them into members. Webpower developed a points mall for both PC and mobile WeChat H5 channels for the travel group. Based on a flexible points mechanism, this helps to continuously segment, engage, and retain members, thus maintaining their activity levels.

When members click the points mall button to enter the page, they can use the filtering options on the page to select their desired products. By clicking on a product, they enter the product details page, where they can choose to redeem products based on their available points. The system then configures the corresponding shipping address information to generate an order.

On the one hand, different points rewards are assigned based on various channels and user behaviors, such as earning points for member registration, following the account, making purchases, and receiving birthday rewards. Meanwhile, reasonable logic for points calculation and redemption is set up. For instance, if a user registers as a member and makes a purchase on their birthday, the system will record only the highest points earned among these actions, helping the company control costs.

On the other hand, according to the specific marketing needs of the travel industry, the system allows the company to flexibly adjust and allocate points rules. For example, during the off-peak season of tourism, to encourage users to register and make purchases, users can be awarded both registration points and purchase points. The company can adjust the points rules flexibly based on their business situation.

Two, Dig into wechat features and further membership operation

In the membership center system, not only can we complete basic operations on the WeChat platform such as mass messaging, auto-replies, custom menus, message management, content management, and template management, but we also further deepen the operation of the WeChat channel.

1. Set Different Tags for Users through the WeChat Entry Point. When users follow the official account by scanning the QR code, they are tagged differently based on their actions: if they bind their phone number, they become members; if not, they are considered fans. This tagging facilitates personalized marketing and management of users in the future.

2. Distinguishing Between Regular Users and Employee Permissions on WeChat. In the WeChat H5 membership center, we have set up different permissions for regular users and employees in the travel group's membership system. Employees can complete the authentication process on WeChat to enter the employee center and gain special permissions.

3. Create Single or Batch Parameterized QR Codes. After downloading and placing them in the appropriate channels, these QR codes facilitate user channel promotion analysis, integration of fan and member data, and binding to various marketing scenarios. The scan data for each QR code can be tracked and analyzed. Additionally, after setting up fan and member tags, scanned fans will be tagged accordingly, making it easier to personalize their management.

4. Achieve Interactive Linkage Between Subscription Accounts and Service Accounts. Compared to the functional limitations of subscription accounts, service accounts have better customization capabilities and greater potential for future expansion. By linking the process of transitioning from a subscription account to a service account, this allows the travel group to gradually funnel followers from the subscription account to the service account, where they can enjoy the same level of service.

5. Continuously Improve and Enrich User Personal Information. When users enter the H5 membership center through the travel group's WeChat sub-menu or by scanning a QR code, new users will be prompted to bind their phone numbers first. During subsequent processes such as in the points mall, my orders, WeChat card package, and points redemption, pop-ups will also prompt users to bind their phone numbers. This helps the company collect and enrich member data profiles as much as possible.

3. Empower Company Stores with Personalized Permissions to Standardize Internal Management

The travel group's business operations rely on the participation of various stores and different types of users. Setting up reasonable permissions management for the membership system and assigning appropriate permissions to different entities and personnel can both ensure the security of membership information and achieve efficient utilization of member data. In the travel group's membership center system, permissions management for different levels and role types can be carried out, including role management, user management, company management, and store management. This allows for the assignment of corresponding platform permissions to various sub-accounts within the organization, enabling clear management of responsibilities and authorities.

4. Develop Customized Solutions Aligned with the Actual Business Scenarios in Tourism

In the WeChat H5 membership center, we have set up different permissions for regular users and employee users in the travel group's membership system. To better align with the actual needs of the travel business, employee users are given two exclusive functions compared to regular users: QR code posters and surveys.

1. QR Code Posters for Stores: Incentivize Employees and Users to Continuously Attract New Members for Stores

Employees follow the official account, and when they bind their phone numbers in the official account, the phone number will be matched with the backend. Once employee authentication is completed, the phone number will be linked with the OpenID, allowing the employee to enter the employee center and generate a store QR code. Employees can share the QR code with users on the QR code poster page, or share it on their Moments to attract more users to scan and register as members. Additionally, when binding members, if another user recommends the follow, they can enter the recommender's phone number. Upon successful verification, the recommender will receive a notification for the points earned.

Based on the unique characteristics of the tourism industry, tour guides can choose to share surveys with users and view the results. For example, in the past, tour guides had to constantly urge tourists to fill out surveys. With this online survey function in WeChat, points can be used as an incentive to easily guide tourists to complete the survey. After completion, an SMS will notify the tourists of the points they have earned. Additionally, tour guides can view the submitted data and progress, making it easier to communicate with tourists in a timely manner. This feature helps the travel group and other tourism enterprises to more effectively enhance the efficiency of tourist feedback.

2. Customize and assign customer service representatives to users who scan and follow the store's QR code, making the service more personalized.

As mentioned earlier, users follow the public account by scanning the store's QR code or through other channels. This travel group will have different stores, and users who scan from different stores will be correspondingly assigned to the customer service of that store. If the customer service of that store is fully occupied, customers will be assigned a default customer service representative. Based on this allocation logic, customer service can provide more personalized services.

### Highlights and Innovations

1. The system architecture of this travel group includes core modules of the membership center such as membership cards, points mall, personal homepage, product details, points management, order management, ordering process, points record, employee center, and membership level changes. It achieves a breakthrough in establishing the membership center database from scratch in an efficient and convenient manner. Subsequently, it will further enable multi-channel interactive personalized marketing based on a more comprehensive user profile targeting the membership lifecycle.

2. Integrate with customer business scenarios using the Webpower Dmartech platform, such as store employee QR code promotional posters, online surveys, etc., to incentivize employees and users to continuously engage in "viral" customer acquisition for the store. This increases membership registration rates and enhances operational efficiency in real-world travel business scenarios.

3. From the front-end membership center, such as the PC membership center and the WeChat H5 membership center, to the back-end management and development, such as data permissions and points rules, it showcases Webpower's global system planning and comprehensive development capabilities. On the WeChat H5 side, the points mall and membership center are integrated based on whether the phone number is linked or not. After linking, users will receive points; if not, they continue as fans, with further browsing and interactions encouraging phone number linkage. These strategies greatly increase registration rates and help the travel group reduce user attrition.

4. Implement flexible points rules for the travel group. After interacting within the membership center or purchasing products, consumers will receive different points coefficients based on membership level, benefits, and payment methods. Points accumulation and membership level upgrade and downgrade management can all be flexibly configured. This not only facilitates the enterprise's control over the overall points system of the brand and directly implements points strategy adjustments but also saves additional development costs.

5. Travel enterprises typically have multiple subsidiaries and stores in different regions. The membership system of this travel group achieves coordinated management across organizational structures in terms of functionality. Additionally, it establishes interaction and linkage between the subscription accounts of various subsidiaries and the service account of the head office, realizing traffic aggregation and data integration from subscription accounts to the service account, thereby enhancing the operational efficiency of the public account matrix.

【Project Outcomes】

The booming trend in the travel industry is unstoppable, and the growing demand for travel directly drives the rapid development of the tourism sector. However, the traditional extensive operational and marketing methods in the travel industry have long significantly impacted the efficiency of customer response and service levels.

For travel agencies, keeping up with the times, integrating multi-channel data sources, and building their own SCRM data center to provide high-quality membership services and personalized marketing through a unified membership center window can better meet the expectations and needs of travel customers, opening new horizons for the enterprise. This travel group, by being customer-centric and daring to innovate, started from scratch to establish a membership data center, laying the foundation for future data-based omnichannel personalized marketing and securing a leading edge in its future development.

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