Does your Hotel find that Digital Engagement Ain’t Easy? Here are predictions for Hotel and Social Media Marketing Trends in 2019 that will help get a better grip on this challenge.
In the next couple of years Hotels is facing some major shifts, and also start to prepare for the next disruption.
The trends that will impact Hotels will cover three primary areas;
- Operation
- Security
- Platform
Hire for Attitude – Train for Skills
Many Hotels have it backward today. They hire the right skill set but miss out on the right mindset.
Hotels are all about people, so it is no doubt that talent is important.
We have for years experienced the effects of the digital disruptions. The digital disruption reflects the change that occurs when new digital technologies and business models affect how an organization creates and retains value.
For many Hotels, this value has been seen as the digital ecosystem shifts from translating data into insights, to leveraging data to drive actions. Hotels have been disrupted by Big Data, the Internet of Things (IoT), machine learning, the blockchain, analytics, and digital intelligence.
The digital disruption is a term that been around for a while, it just became more hyped up with introductions of services like Uber, Netflix, Airbnb, Mobile apps, Social Media Marketing, etc.
We are now looking for some important cultural shifts where Hotels will be required to put a focus on mindset.
The next disruptions will be the Human-to-Human collaboration driven by Artificial Intelligence.
We are at a point where Hotels can leverage real-time data. By 2020 the Customer Experience will overtake price as the most important direct booking trigger point.
The skillset is still important, and Hotels want to make sure they hire a person that has training and talent necessary to perform the job they are looking for them to do.
However, there is a critical element that Hotels need to consider that require innovation. This relates to the mindset your Hotels team members bring aboard.
Focus on an innovative mindset that can adapt, use intuition, recover from setbacks and able to deal with the ‘unknown’. Combine this with a service mindset that is focused on creating customer value, loyalty, and trust.
Humanness, Transparency, and Connectivity
Today customers are making it a point to know more about the brands they do business with.
One major impact of rapid growth in new technology is the usage of smartphones. This has evolved at the same time as Social Media has grown. As a result of this humans are today more connected with their extended network than at any time in history?
Humans are now putting more trust in people they are connected with and trust. TripAdvisor’s new look is not a coincidence. Their sole purpose is to model human behavior today.
Reviews have for years been an important way for customers to evaluate Hotels beyond traditional ratings.
AAA ratings were for years the most important indicators for customers to rely on when they looking to book a Hotel. Reviews provided a new dimension to ratings that were representing how the customers defined the overall service, location and all the important Hotel attributes provided.
With the help of TripAdvisor and Social Media reviews are today playing an important role in the customer’s decision process?
Today reputation management represents the business function concerned with influencing, often through diverse communication practices, stakeholders’ perceptions and estimation of a Hotel brands economic, social and Social Media practices.
Reputation is frequently described and valued in terms of a Hotel brands visibility and its capacity to be seen to be doing good through various media including corporate responsibility reports, speeches, and presentations, news media reports, Social Media, new media, reviews, and ratings.
Reputation Management represents the fundamentals of reserve engineer micro-moments that represent the total customer experience.
Humanness, transparency, and connectivity is a key trend that Hotels need to understand to grow and also leverage new uncontested markets.
Security and Privacy
Start to address the elephant in the room!!
Don’t think it won’t happen to you.
The Marriott Data breach gave us all valuable lesson showing how vulnerable we still are today.
Of course, Marriott has to take ownership and resolve this challenge, but this does not leave the rest of us without any responsibility take notes and learn from this.
This is one important sector where Hotels will need a really good combination of the right mindset and skill set.
On May 25th, 2018, the European Union General Data Protection Regulation – GDRP was put into effect.
With GDPRs right to be informed obligate organizations to state clearly how they plan to use personal customer data. They must communicate that information in a way that is:
- concise, transparent, intelligible and easily accessible
- written in clear and plain language
- free of charge
Hotels will have to clearly explain to guests what data they are capturing, why they are capturing it, and who will have access to it.
Data captured in this context includes booking systems and revenue management software.
Today several Hotels uses cloud-based systems for relevant consumer transactions.
Hotels will be required to communicate these processes and make sure that technological and organizational measurement it took to meet GDRP requirements.
The key point here is that now is NOT the time to start worrying about capturing relevant data for your Hotel.
Start being transparent about why you are collecting the data, and help your customers understand the value proposition of why you are collecting it.
Hotels need to take proactive actions to show customers they are not taking data breaches lightly.
The #PanicButton
Addressing harassment and improving safety for Hotel workers has been an important topic for many years. There have been countless complaints of Hotel workers experiences sexual harassment, and after the #metoo movement, we are now seeing some real actions here.
One of the measurements several Hotels already started to implement is a portable panic button.
U.S Hotels are aiming to implement panic buttons within 20000 Hotels by 2020.
This is something I support with my whole heart. I want everyone that choose to dedicate themselves to work in the Hotel Industry to feel safe and not be exposed to unwanted behavior.
Hotel Experience Ambassadors
Hotel Experience Ambassador will engage with the customer throughout their journey and help identify the important micro-moments that drive actions.
Trends we see represent for Hotels a cultural shift. We have already embraced a new mindset.
Make sure you provide the tools and arena that allows them to tap into new uncontested markets.
Service automation and technology
Today, customers can browse product and service options on the go through their smartphones, chat with a live human, resolve issues through service automation in chatbots and collaborate with peers to review options in Social Media channels, negotiate and making purchases, and even have items delivered directly to their doorstep.
Social Media marketing 2.0 represent contextual, intuitive and experimental customer engagement across multiple micro-moments.
Customers are getting savvier and expect service on-the-go.
What we see with new innovative service options for Facebook and Google now provide Hotels now have a unique opportunity to keep customers in dedicated Built-In Experience Loops.
With the Built-In Experience Loop, Hotels give customers and new uncontested market leads the opportunity to share their opinions at every interaction.
Service Automation allows for real-time engagement with the Hotel customers. This provides your team with proactive opportunities to get valuable feedback insight before concerns turn into negative reviews, and also celebrate when they express delightful and surprising experiences.
Thanks to the rise of intelligent chatbots, anytime a potential customer asks a question, your Hotel can now be there to provide a real-time response 24/7, 365. Same goes for if a potential customer wants to a book a room. A Hotel experience chatbot can take care of scheduling that anytime, day or night.
Today the real-time engagement and contextual conversations are critical for building and retaining customer loyalty.
The collaboration will help overcome biases and behaviors
For many years one of the key drivers for me has been happiness. Happiness is a critical factor in delivering exceptional customer service.
One really exciting trend that appeals to me is that more humans now is seeking to collaborate during their traveling journeys.
This is something that Hotels that embrace and create Hotel Experience Ambassador will benefit from.
And research has shown us that team members and human, in general, is more happy and productive collaborating outside the ‘office space’ at least once or twice a week.
For 2019 I foresee Collaboration as a critical trend that I am implementing in my Social Media Marketing Frameworks for Hotels.
We will take advantage of new data points that protect both the end-users and the Hotels.
New data points are bringing us all closer together. But we also have to learn where to draw the line in the sand, so we don’t overstep each other’s boundaries.
Understanding how the European Union General Data Protection Regulation – GDRP and #PanicButton are critical measurements that will help us all move in the right direction.
The collaboration will require trigger points within the Social Media Marketing Framework. Effective collaboration requires participant capability, commitment, and continuity.
Is your Hotel ready to make a real impact in 2019? Ask me about my Social Media Marketing Frameworks for Hotels.
Are you ready for a new journey and learn how you can put your Hotels Conversation Experience Marketing on Autopilot?
Join our FREE Facebook Group for Hotels and Hoteliers to be part of a new journey => Start your Hotel Social Revolution!
And it will help identify micro-moments and recognize pain points and values utilizing Hotel Experience Ambassadors that knows where to look for them.
I have loved with all of my heart and soul serving customers, guests, and Hoteliers. As a Hotel Experience Ambassador, I gained a new passion for being a representative and messenger delivering new profound and delightful experiences.
If your Hotel wants to implement new effective success factors then now is the time to be part of a new initiative.
When your Hotel serves your community they will reward you back with serving you.
From a Hotel and Social Media Consultant’s standpoint, the Social Media Community can offer Hotels a one-stop-shop for managing their Social Media marketing such as the community infrastructure, database, listening functionality, profile management, collaboration, content marketing and management, and of course, the analytics.
A Social Media Community will help your Hotel to grow smarter and faster when you focus on the value proposition and collaborate in effective ways.
If your Hotel need help to put it all together then make sure to let us know.
With the right team behind your Social Media efforts, it can become cost-effective and generate a new revenue stream for your Hotel.
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Our Social Media Management team has refined these processes to help Hotels. Contact us today to learn more.
Join our Free Hotel Social Media Community on Facebook for more in-depth insight.
Try something new it will magnetize your Hotel!
Be flexible and identify new ways to make guests happy.
As guest behavior and pattern continues to evolve, expectations will continue to rise. Navigating these changes can be challenging. Learn more about how we can help your Hotel.
About the author
Are Morch is the founder and owner of Are Morch – Hotel Marketing Coach. Get more from Are on Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Pinterest | Instagram| Podcast
