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How to improve customer experience in hospitality industry?

Customer experience in hospitality has evolved into one of the most critical battlegrounds for hotels and other companies. Those who excel in this area will almost certainly have a major competitive advantage over their competitors.

With that in mind, in this blog, we’ll walk you through the five most effective ways to improve customer experience in hospitality.

5 ways to improve customer experience in hospitality 

In the following paragraphs, we will discuss the ways to improve customer experience in hospitality, so let's get started right away!

1. Customer service training for employees is a priority

When it comes to hotel customer service, your first responsibility is to make customers feel unique. From the moment they walk into the lobby until the moment they leave their rooms. However, even if you have the perfect vision for your customers, it is up to your employees to make it a reality. To create a pleasant customer service experience your hotel staff must be properly trained.

Employee handbooks aren't the only source of successful training. Every day, your employees will most likely be learning from practical examples. They will experience new challenges that will teach them more than any training session could ever teach them. As a result, it's critical to invest in your people for a great outcome.

In addition to a job shadowing period where new hires work with experienced staff members to learn how to address unanticipated challenges. At that point encourage your employees to come up with their own innovative solutions.

Enabling your staff to handle a guest's request whatever they see fit, as long as it keeps within a budget, is one example. This not only empowers your workers to give outstanding customer experience in hospitality but also allows you to learn from their innovative solutions and incorporate them into your training.


2. Provide options for omnichannel communication

Customers nowadays expect to be able to reach out to you at any time. As a result, providing convenient ways for your hotel guests to contact you can be a big help in terms of customer experience in hospitality.

You may streamline your customer conversations by providing Facebook Business Messages and Viber as options for engagement. While also making it easier for your customers to schedule bookings, ask inquiries, and learn more about your company.

If a guest wants to rent a room or a house, for example, they can reach out to your company via chatbot at any time. Simple questions about availability, pricing, special events, and other topics can be answered by a chatbot. 

An omnichannel platform that combines texting, chatbots, and other messaging channels allows you to have an employee reply to more sophisticated questions. 

According to Merkle's report, 86% are likely to enjoy personalized offers based on their interests and browsing or purchase history. You can save a guest's preferences and previous experiences with your business to their CRM profile. An omnichannel communication strategy is ideal for this, allowing you to give a more tailored customer experience in hospitality hereafter. The Live platform offers proactively managing alerts and communicating with the customers over multiple channels like mobile, SMS, or social. Those channels will help you improve personalized booking and the overall customer experience in hospitality.


CRM solution - Live by ASEE

3. Surveying customers is a good idea

One of the most important customer service strategies for hospitality is to collect feedback from your guests. Knowing how your guests feel — and, more importantly, whether or not they will return — is critical to your business's success.

Customer feedback can be obtained in a variety of methods, but customer surveys are the most successful.

An after-stay survey is a great way to obtain feedback on their customer experience with your hospitality business. Offer unique bargains or exclusive incentives, to attract your guests to fill out these surveys.

This not only encourages guests to complete your survey but also tells them that their input is important.

A written survey is only one part of the feedback process. Remember to gather feedback throughout the customer experience, even during the checkout process.

Consider asking more specific questions in these situations, as they are more likely to elicit helpful responses. Rather than merely asking, "How was your stay?" inquire about:

  • What were your expectations when you arrived at our hotel?
  • Would you consider booking with us in the future?
  • When reserving a hotel, what is one thing you check for?
  • Have you got any suggestions for us?

Following the collection of customer survey responses, you will be able to analyze the data. As a result, you'll have a better idea of what your customers really want and how your company should adapt to meet their requirements.


4. Customers should be segmented

Because no two guests have the same experience, you shouldn't connect with them in the same way. Customer segmentation is a crucial part of any marketing strategy, particularly in the hospitality industry.

You can deliver customized offers and other information to your subscribers by dividing them into customer groups. Generic marketing campaigns distributed to everyone on your subscriber list have a significantly lower chance of engagement and conversion than tailored communications.

Integrating your CRM software with your customer service platform allows you to categorize your subscribers. You can do that based on location, booking history, guest preferences, and more. Our Live platform harnesses the power of predictive analytics to collect and process customer history and booking experiences in order to develop persona-based bundles. Being able to upsell and cross-sell at any time will boost your revenue.

Consider asking your guests to give extra information to form even more specific groups. This is one way to get them to sign up for emails and SMS communications from your company. Another way is to collect information from customers during the feedback process.


5. Send special offers through SMS

According to Vermont State Highway Safety Office statistics, over 6 billion texts are sent every day. When it comes to communicating with your hospitality consumers, texting provides a direct line of communication that feels nice and casual while also getting results.

According to the Yotpo survey, 72.4% look at their phone between 25-100 times a day, which is one of the most significant advantages of SMS marketing.

Furthermore, sending unique offers (such as discounted rooms, spa packages, and other activities) by SMS increases the chances that your subscribers will receive your message. This will help your customers to engage with the offer and contact you if they have any issues.

Conclusion

For many in the hospitality industry, improving the customer experience is a top priority.  Improving the customer experience in hospitality is one of the most successful ways to compete with other hotels or businesses. You should be able to excel in this area by focusing on the five areas stated in this blog and providing the type of memorable experience that boosts your reputation.


Find out more information on how Live product family can support and enhance your CX strategy.

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