The goal of keeping customers happy has always been at the heart of customer care. In the past, it meant giving out smiles and handle occasional phone calls from upset customers. Nowadays, there’s a whole lot more to it than that!
The biggest change in customer care is the ever increasing number of channels through which guests can contact your hotel. Instead of just phone calls and email, they can now reach you by text message, social media, video call and live chat!
Mobile technology has also enabled constant connectivity, giving customers 24/7 access to public forums and social media in which they can talk or complain about you. Only hotels that are willing to adapt and respond to this shift in hotel-guest dynamics will survive. On this post, we will share 5 ways in which customer care will change in the near future — and how it will change your day-to-day work.
A Marriage Between Analytics and Guests
Surprise: data is everywhere! Understanding what makes people happy and comfortable is the hospitality industry’s bread and butter, so the idea of hotel data analytics is an exciting one, no doubt! But, here’s the thing: hotel data analytics doesn’t just apply to potential guests, it’s also useful for existing ones. Understanding what guests do while they’re at a hotel allows you to better target your offers. Some guests spend a fortune on spa treatments and fine dining while others simply check in and check out without buying so much as a bottle of water. Accurately identifying what “kind” of guest a visitor is, helps hotels upsell more effectively. Hotel data analytics has the potential to perfect pricing, boost loyalty programs, improve marketing ROI and so much more.
Chatbots will help professionals, not replace them!
Your staff needs to sleep, but your Chatbot doesn’t! Customers’ needs often arise outside business hours, so they need a way to seek out answers to important questions at times when customers service representatives are unavailable. Chatbots offer guests the opportunity to get answers to their queries at any time, so they don’t have to wait for a response from a voicemail or email message!
Did you know that customer service representatives spend close to 90% of their time repeating the answers to the same questions and helping guests with the same issues over and over again? Bots free up employees from routine tier-1 support requests so they can easily focus on more complex tasks. In the grand scheme of things, when chatbots become a mainstream part of every customer-facing team, leaders will be able to reallocate customer support reps into the customer success organization — because there will be less need for the repetitive answering of questions, and a greater need for helping customers grow and derive value from the products and services they’ve already purchased.
Bye, bye mobile apps! Hello, website widget
Your website is an ideal way to present the hotel and its commodities. But your guests want more than just looking around the website. They want to talk, ask questions and have a solution to their problems. Customers demand immediate service so, the response time of “within 24 hours” is no longer acceptable. With a chat widget right on your website, this problem would be instantly erased!
This is the age of using and collecting data, right? It’s the new key to staying ahead! Use the latest technologies to store and manage guest data efficiently. This will help you find innovative ways to encourage guests to book your hotel property for the next visit. For instance, with a widget you can have access to important KPI’s such as: the volume of most asked questions (FAQs) that provides a great insight meaning you can measure the users’ intentions, see what is not being clearly perceived on your website, what your marketing team is failing to communicate and users’ pain points that you might not even have a clue that existed.
Demand for personalisation continues to rise!
I know everyone is talking about it, but it’s true — personalisation is, indeed, the new buzzword for the hospitality industry. But, what do we mean by personalisation? It means offering a personalized, relevant response to every customer inquiry. Generic replies to guests’ issues are no longer effective because they now expect a more tailored approach. Guests who feel cared for will use your service again and ultimately become advocates, recommending your hotel via word of mouth, both online and in the real world!
Personalisation is not rocket science, it is about treating your customers (past, present, potential) like individuals rather than paychecks. The modern technology used in the hospitality industry has opened the path towards customisation and personalisation that would have been impossible in previous years. Comprehensive customer information databases, CRM software and in-house technology are leading hotels to the next revolution — customisable, personalised guests’ experiences.
All-in-one customer service platform — focus your activity on the guest
Today’s demanding guests expect a seamless, personalized experience from start to finish, from before they step foot in the lobby until after they leave. Guests want to know their needs are understood and taken care of, so they can lose themselves in their vacation without the stress that can often be associated with travel and accommodations. However, many hospitality brands still lack a platform where they can put all customer support interactions in one place, so communication is seamless, personal and efficient.
The best customer service comes from having the clearest understanding and knowing the preferences of your guests. The ideal omnichannel integration is to bring all the information you know about your customers together so that whenever they need you, your support team is fully informed and ready to help. Want to know how you can do it? Let me introduce you to HiJiffy’s console — built to improve your experience and productivity. It aims to focus your activity on the guest, by placing the chat as the central element. Guests expect you to be able to respond on every channel of their choice, with our console you are able to give them faster support on their preferred channels at the moment they need it!
