4 Steps Hotels Must Follow to Achieve Growth, Loyalty and Success
We all want people to start populating hotels and searching for new experiences again, but their requirements throughout the enquiry, booking journey and beyond are going to be very different from our pre-pandemic experience. There will be new preferred destinations, new types of travel coming into play and new booking processes. For hoteliers, now is the time for a critical reset to address their crucial role in the overall customer experience. Central to this will be the development of a ‘customer for life’ strategy and a ‘whole experience’ approach.
There are four important steps that Hotels will need to follow to deliver growth, loyalty and continued success.
- A meticulous knowledge and understanding of customers
- Delivery of a genuinely personalised customer experience.
- Establishing a supporting technology platform and data infrastructure
- Exceptional service and communication throughout the whole experience
Travelers will be acutely aware of the experience and service they receive from the businesses they depend upon. The hospitality industry will need to build additional trust by creating a customer experience across each touch point that is prompt, consistent, relevant and delivered with empathy.
Only by meeting these requirements will businesses earn the customer loyalty they need to succeed and begin to create a ‘customer for life’ environment. To achieve such loyalty, hospitality will need to deliver transcendent experiences across all channels: apps, websites, live support, inbound and outbound mail, calls and SMS. Alternative payments such as bank transfers, local card schemes, cryptocurrency and the most common and fastest-growing model: e-wallets all provide the convenience and security travelers now expect.
This technology is already being introduced by travel businesses, so expect a big shift in processes and procedures when the industry restarts. These tech changes will need to work with other critical agency operations like booking engines, itinerary builders and commission tracking. There are advanced CRM platforms, like ours, that have been designed to fulfil these experiences and deliver applications that support the administrative and data requirements to do so.
The service must be seamless and positive with the underlying purpose of keeping customers informed and updated throughout, whilst maintaining a deep understanding of individual preferences.
Customer travel habits and patterns will be different…at least for the foreseeable future. Government regulations, health awareness and the attitude effects of a global pandemic will mean changes to the way your hotel may operate. Hoteliers will need to design itineraries that are sensitive to this changing landscape of safe distancing and other expanded health considerations.
In a recent report from Skyscanner, new consumer trends emerging include one-way travel, WFHotel and alternative accommodation types (often with a business workspace, combining work and travel) and last-minute bookings, as consumers navigate around cancelled flights and hotel reservations.
Now is the time to adapt and innovate
Hotels that thrive will be those that deliver on the customer experiences emerging as the ones most important. This requires an understanding of the shifts in dynamics, the problems customers may be facing and the ability to move quickly to address them.
Other sectors have been highly successful at delivering profiling, relevant marketing, user friendly applications and exceptional service. CRM systems provide hotels with the opportunity to deliver the same exceptional customer experience needed to succeed, and deliver a differentiated approach that enhances service, creates loyalty and builds trust.
About Tony Evans
Tony is the CEO of TProfile which provides CRM systems for the travel industry. Tony is highly experienced in travel technology and delivering SAAS solutions for hotels, airlines and agencies. Outside of travel tech, Tony’s other great passion is sailing.