I have three dogs so I know a little about loyalty, we love our pooches because they love us unconditionally and it doesn’t matter how we treat them, their loyalty is unstinting; 

We humans are different, some of us are more loyal than others and our loyalty is conditional on many factors.

In the workplace, we are loyal to people and it is said that people leave people, not companies.

As travellers though, what are we loyal to? Brand, price or convenience?

Do we abandon brands for a few dollars or because someone makes it so much more convenient for us to do business with them or someone looks after us so much better we’re prepared to pay more for the experience?

I was having this discussion over a dim sum and noodle breakfast at Café Too at Island Shangri-La with Wee Kee Ng, the man who manages the Golden Circle loyalty programme for Shangri-La.

Ng’s been in the role for more than a decade and has seen the concept of travel loyalty programmes evolve from his days in the airline business to hospitality, and so he has a very clear idea of where he wants to the Golden Circle programme to go.

In a nutshell, he wants “personalisation of the customer experience using technology to find the right insights for the right customer to create the right experience”.

Shangri-La’s Golden Circle and Taj Inner Circle combined to become Warmer Welcomes.

“The way we talk and communicate must be so simple and effective,” he says. “We used to say, you will get this if … it was all very conditional.

“Now we want to keep it simple, improve our processes so that members can communicate with us easily and enjoy the benefits as easily.”

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