Why Omnichannel Payments Data is Key to Hospitality Success

In an ideal world, every guest that walks through a restaurant or hotel becomes a returning customer, signs up for the loyalty program, and allows the business to track key information. The business can then use that data to help create a wonderful and personalized experience that increases the bottom line.

But the reality is that many guests won’t bother to sign up for these programs, will opt out of sharing any information, and never return. So there must be another way for restaurants and hotels to identify and drive potential repeat visitors.  

That’s where payments data comes into play. Payments data is an underutilized weapon for merchants to gain deeper insights and analysis into customers, unlocking more revenue and improving experiences. However, merchants often work with payments providers that aren’t equipped to provide this robust data. To do so, they must have access to the entire payments chain.

Omnichannel payments orchestration allows merchants to integrate eCommerce, mobile, and in-store footprints while harmonizing data with multiple processors and third-party service providers. By unifying these channels, restaurants and hotels can gain access to the full breadth of customer data to provide a consistent, convenient customer experience that’s seamless and secure.

Create a Harmonized Experience Across Channels

Guests have come to expect a straightforward process for their hospitality experiences – one that allows them to switch to vacation mode and enjoy their meal or stay with ease. However, the challenge is delivering a consistent experience at every interaction.

Businesses can overcome this hurdle by utilizing omnichannel payments orchestration to create a breadcrumb of data that tracks each interaction they have with a customer, whether it be an in-person interaction, a guest who’s browsing the eCommerce website or someone downloading the hotel app. It’s important that restaurants and hotels have a way to identify repeat visitors consistently across all these different channels. Simplified payments integration allows merchants to identify each customer by card data across a portfolio of establishments, storing related information for a unified and personalized experience.

For example, let’s say a guest stays at a large hotel chain in New York City. He swipes his credit card at checkout and selects to receive his receipt through text message. A few weeks later, he can go to the same chain in Los Angeles and automatically check out online with his phone number without the need to fill out information again. Thus, the hotel can simplify checkout and create a frictionless journey across physical and digital touchpoints using payments data.

Protect and Anonymize Data

To track consumers’ credit cards in an omnichannel environment, restaurants and hotels must be extremely careful about how they store and use that data. Security is crucial in decreasing the risk of loss and increasing customer trust and loyalty. Businesses must put the proper measures in place to make payments as foolproof as possible.

Multi-pay tokenization is a valuable way to reap the benefits of storing credit card information while still putting proper security measures in place. The process involves taking the credit card number and jumbling it into non-sensitive tokens. If someone tries to steal this information, the numbers turn out useless. Each guest is then given a repeatable number that can’t be reverse engineered. Every time a consumer comes in the door, the tokenized number is retrieved. This process is also PCI-compliant, reducing the risk of fraud and ensuring that guests’ data is safe when using payments data.

Delight Guests With Powerful Omnichannel Payments Data

With secure payments data on hand, restaurants and hotels can transform their omnichannel strategy and strengthen the customer experience with ease. These enhanced analytics will be a powerful competitive advantage that will delight guests and foster loyalty.

Having access to the full breadth of customer data will require total control of payments processes and the flexibility to make changes. Restaurants and hotels can tap into an omnichannel payments orchestration strategy to easily recognize guests across all channels and simplify the experience from start to finish.