3 Ways to Cultivate Psychological Ownership in Your Guests
Deepening bonds that drive repeat business.
Is there a place or resort you love and that feels like it’s “yours,” where you feel you belong and is your “happy place”?
As brands, we are all trying to move beyond a transactional relationship with our customers and cultivate loyalty, but there’s a type of loyalty called psychological ownership, which is even more powerful in driving repeat business.
Psychological ownership is a behavioral concept where customers feel a sense of possession or “mineness” over a product, service, or even a destination. Despite a lack of tangible or legal ownership, research shows this feeling can change behavior, making a traveler more likely to:
- Rate her stay higher
- Return repeatedly
- Pay more
- Recommend it to others more often
- Invest in it emotionally and financially
- Exhibit more eco-friendly behavior
3 WAYS TO CULTIVATE PSYCHOLOGICAL OWNERSHIP
To better understand how to cultivate a sense of psychological ownership, let’s look at examples from brands that have done this extremely well like Canyon Ranch, Modern Elder Academ y, and Six Senses. These brands have generated such a strong sense of ownership that people even want to purchase branded residences to literally own the experience.
Investing in Your Stay at Canyon Ranch
How does your customer participate in co-creating value in her stay? Investing time, energy, effort, and money, creates connection. You want to make your guest experience easy and delightful, but you also want them to invest in it by giving them a role in designing their experience, so it feels like “theirs”.
Canyon Ranch offers Pathway Programs where a guest can design a stay that perfectly aligns with her health goals, giving her a sense of agency and investment. Wellness Guides reach out pre-arrival and act as consultants, with questions designed to tease out intentions and unexpressed needs. The result: my stay, my way.
TIP: When you look at the various touch points on your guest’s journey, are there times when you can ask questions or give choices that can help guests feel more in control? What are interesting ways you can help your guests get involved in their stay design?
Belongingness at Modern Elder Academy
Humans are social animals and crave a sense of connectedness with others. Creating a community or tribe around your resort can help create a sense of belonging which deepens loyalty.
Modern Elder Academy is both a gorgeous resort in Baja and a place where you can go in mid-life to find your tribe. Helping their guests “find their way” during an important life stage creates deep bonds not only among guests, who connect in programs and at group meals but also with the brand.
TIP: What kind of special group activities can you create that leverage the unique qualities of your resort or location or the unique needs of your guests? Are your staff mindful that facilitating connection is as important as sharing information?
Shared Values at Six Senses
There’s a psychological term called “self-object continuity,” which is when a product’s attributes match the user’s self-concept. Although this term is not often used in hospitality circles, it is being leveraged every time a resort offers a sustainability initiative.
Many resorts are now becoming responsible stewards of their environments, using biophilic design and going plastic-free. As a result, they are attracting guests who also care about the environment.
But that’s not enough. Actively including guests in sustainability projects where they can care for and feel responsible for the property, builds bonds.
For example, at Six Senses Earth Labs, guests are invited to get their hands dirty by making do-it-yourself compost and chemical-free detergent. For an unconventional souvenir, Earth Labs have seed banks that guests can tap into so they can grow organic produce back home, reminding them of their stay with every bite.
By participating in these initiatives, guests feel a sense of responsibility for the environment and the property and affirmed in their shared values.
TIP: What is your sustainability initiative? How do you enable your guests to participate in it?
In Conclusion
In the luxury tier, we always try and wow our guests with incredible dining, views, and over-the-top experiences. But this puts us on a hamster wheel of always trying to one-up ourselves and other brands. Creating connection is a stronger strategy.
Our customers are obviously people, and for people to bond with anyone or anything, they need to invest effort, feel like they belong, and share values. These are some of the cornerstones of any strong relationship, whether it’s between two people or between your brand and your customer.
When you construct your experiences so guests feel a bond, the result is that they are more likely to become loyal customers, ambassadors, and advocates for your brand.
However, creating psychological ownership is a complex process that requires a thoughtful, strategic approach and dedication to consistency in cultivating such an experience.
Have you tried to create an emotional bond between your property and your guests? If so, what did you do, and how did it work?
