It’s funny how one thing can lead to the other. Like people frequently say when they quote Steve Jobs, “you can only connect the dots looking backward.”

With marketing, it’s not quite like that. For example:

1. An simple way to increase lodging revenues is to get guests to stay a little longer
2. If people stay longer at your resort, they have a higher NPS
3. If they have a higher NPS, they are more likely to return

And the circle starts over. Now, that last point is a recent one from the Stash this week. Here’s the chart that illustrates how NPS predicts the likelihood someone will come back for another trip within the next year:

Simple, eh? The longer you can get someone to stay, the better the vacation they’ll have. The better the vacation they have, the more likely they are to return.

What’s the value of helping someone have an experience that leads to an NPS of 10 instead of 5? A doubled likelihood that they’ll be back. Not too bad.

The “1” Opportunity
Now, we haven’t looked at possible reason for why people with an NPS of 1 are more likely to come back that those with 2 or 3, but I’m guessing it has something to do with successfully deployed damage control with guests that have a truly awful time. If someone with a “1” can be made more likely to return, what’s to stop the same from happening with a 2, 3 or even an 8 or 10?

I see that spike at “1” as hope that any of these people can be made more likely to return with just a little TLC and smart marketing or customer service.

Connecting the Dots
So, maybe Steve was right, you can’t connect the dots looking forward in life, but in marketing you can. Simple combinations of guest behavior let you predict what a guest will do in the future and match the marketing message to their needs and likely course of action.

About Gregg & SlopeFillers
I've had more first-time visitors lately, so adding a quick "about" section. I started SlopeFillers in 2010 with the simple goal of sharing great resort marketing strategies. Today I run marketing for resort ecommerce and CRM provider Inntopia, my home mountain is the lovely Nordic Valley, and my favorite marketing campaign remains the Ski Utah TV show that sold me on skiing as a kid in the 90s.