This is the time where we as Hoteliers need to be bold and innovative with new technology, transactional customer experience and prepare for the next chapter for the Hotel Industry.
Is your Hotel ready to make a blast with new transactional customer experiences?
Being an innovative and creative Hotel brand has been something that required intelligence, foresight, and a little bit of daring to take the necessary moves to achieve a big payout.
And it has not been uncommon that some of the independent Hotels been the pioneers embracing new technology.
Why this is the time to invest in new technology
To succeed in today’s hyper-competitive world, Hotel brands need to solve increasingly complex problems and seize new and exciting opportunities faster than their competitors.
We have for many years seen that Hotel brands focused on service excellence as a critical enabler of their growth strategies.
After studying research, reports, and trends several brands today are now starting to focus on creating compelling customer experiences.
The customer experience, that is, making each of its customers feel special, is increasingly the key factor for a Hotel to stand out from its competitors.
One important factor here to understand is not confusing the concept of customer experience and customer service.
The reality is that the scope of customer experience extends far beyond the traditional definition of customer service that is, the transactional moments when Hotel team members are providing direct service to customers.
Customers believe that Hotel brands have access to their data, the power has shifted to the customer. They expect brands to give them relevant and timely promotions, products, or services based on their personalized data. In other words, customers expect Hotel brands to know them.
Because of mobile technology customers, today want easy access to Hotel Experience Ambassadors 24/7.
It is critical for Hotels that invest in new technologies to look at the big picture. Don’t jump into hypes that don’t add any value either to the Hotel or the customers.
Start hiring the right talent and skillset for your Hotel that will help your Hotel map out a new customer journey.
If you don’t have the right talent and skillset for your Hotels investment in new technology, you are on a fast track having some unpleasant experiences.
Reaching customers throughout important micro-moments
In the Hotel Industry, technology innovations, including Customer Relationship Management (CRM) platforms and point-of-sale (POS) tools, have come a long way. Traditionally the marketing and sales teams would keep journals to track customer activity and acknowledge bookings/reservations through handwritten thank-you notes.
Today cloud technology allows Hotels to developed more innovative customer relationships.
Customer experience tech extends beyond what it used to be. Today’s trends like artificial intelligence and augmented reality are more than just passing hypes they have the potential to scale customer experience like Hotels never seen before.
There is so much of the transactional customer experience that can be automated, which allows Hotels to be more efficient and use their Hotel Experience Ambassadors elsewhere to make real connections with customers.
Instead of contact center agents answering the same questions over and over, Hotels now can take advantage of customer experience tech to have bots answer calls or chat with customers on an app. Those Hotel Experience Ambassadors are then free to expand the customer experience in other ways.
It all starts with transforming important micro-moments that will add value to the Hotel and Customer Experience.
Here are a few simple and effective tips on how your Hotel can start reinventing the way you meet customers’ needs at the moment;
- Personalize the experience
- Give the customer a virtual tour
- Implement innovation and creativity like Kimpton Hotels and Resorts Room 301
- Data learning
- Collect relevant data
- Analyze data in real time
- Storytelling
- Understand the psychology of Storytelling
- Create a compelling story
- Induce Happiness
Value Innovations open new compelling markets – Technology Innovations amplifies the experience
It is important to understand that new technology and transactional customer experience will take Hotels to new levels based on smart team decisions.
Don’t assume that new technology will resolve all challenges your Hotel face. And don’t start a push for products and services that are either too out there, too complicated, or lack the needed talent and skillsets to unlock new markets.
There is no doubt that new technology will grant your Hotel guest new control.
Hotels and hoteliers, at times, have been wary of technology, expressing concern that it might extract the human element from service.
As hoteliers, we need to find a balance and be open to taking new smart and effective risks.
Customers today spend 69 percent of their media time on smartphones.
As customers become more mobile, dreaming about and planning travel can happen anytime, anywhere, whether one is browsing a social media feed or comparing prices of potential Hotel bookings through either through online booking engines or #Directbooking.
The rise in mobile usage means that researching, planning, and booking a Hotel is accessible at one’s fingertips.
For Hotel leaders, anticipating consumer trends and seeking tech innovations that enhance customer experiences are vital exercises that need to be practiced diligently.
Now, more than ever with the coming wave of new disruptive technologies taking these steps helps ensure success tomorrow.
Conclusion
New technology enables guests and customers with an important control element that appeals to their cognitive mindset.
Customers want to escape from their daily routines. Your job is to help them with alternatives that provide both an escape and at the same time allows them to do business.
The new innovative transactional experience allows the guest to be part of a movement that is bigger than themselves and the Hotel.
Guests and customers want Hotels to use technology to add new value to the transactional Customer Experience.
Hotel leaders must both enable themselves and their team members to respond to rising expectations and the speed of new technology.
If you don’t start the journey today, you will be left behind! Today we are just experiencing the tip of the iceberg of disruptions.
Make sure you focus on both value innovation and technology innovation as you prepare your Hotel for the chapter.
New technology is so much more than just the technology itself. It requires new talent and skillset, new infrastructure, humanness, new culture, and innovation.
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 needs 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.
We are in this together!
I need to let you all know that we are in on this together. If you need to vent, talk, cry, or just have some to talk with then I am here listening. Since I am working part-time at the local Kroger, I will to the best of my ability to work it out around my schedule.
But you can reach me here:
Email: hotelblogger@aremorch.com
Also, join us at our Facebook Group – Hotel Social Media Community
We will get through this unprecedented event together! #hotelstrong #hospitalitystrong
For any specific information on COVID-19, I recommend go to CDC, WHO, AHLA, AAHOA, and HSMAI. Also, follow information from your local authorities.
NOTE
We are starting to reopen some hotels again (Yay!!!). Make sure you follow their guidelines and say THANK YOU to those that now show a unique spirit to serve, and helps us all get through this!! #hotelstrong #hospitalitystrong
About Are Morch
Hi, I am Are Morch. Your Digital Marketing Coach and Customer Experience Expert specializes in creating effective digital customer experience offer for hotels while growing and scale customer acquisition and revenue.
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