It feels good when someone tells you they like you. But when you're a hotel, someone telling you they like you can impact your bottom line. According to TripAdvisor, 83% of travelers rely on ratings when choosing a hotel, and a study by Harvard Business School found that a 1-star increase in ratings equals a 5-9% increase in revenue. Given that reviews play such an important role in the life of your hotel, it's only natural that you should be thinking about ways to provide the best possible guest experience to ensure that they leave positive reviews.

Sounds simple enough, right? Well, expectations are high and good reviews don't necessarily come easy. Guests expect high quality service from hotels, which often equates to quick processes and convenient ways to get what they need.

Case in point: 68% of guests want to speed up the check-in process by using their smartphones. If the only way for guests to reach customer service is through the in-room phone or by physically visiting customer service at the front desk, then hotels are actually just serving guests the way they want to – not the way guests want to be served.

Luckily, technology can provide hotels with a solution. By integrating tools to implement streamlined processes, hotels can better serve guests throughout their entire stay regardless of whether they are in their room, or even in the hotel at all.

After all, hotels are not the end destination for guests. They're there to enjoy some of the amenities like the pool or restaurants, or they're out sightseeing and visiting attractions. Providing customer service to guests no matter where they are is a key factor in improving guest satisfaction – and one easy way to do that? Through text messaging.

Text messaging is one of the most convenient and low effort communication methods, especially given that essentially every phone (regardless of how "smart" it is) can accommodate it. For guests, text enables guests to engage with the hotel anywhere they are – on a tour, lounging on the beach, in-between business meetings, you name it.

For staff, enabling customer service via text messaging and automation frees them from a desk phone, speeds up processes, and allows them to serve guests quickly and successfully throughout their entire trip.

Here are some of the ways that hotel service teams can automate guest requests through texting to provide a more enjoyable stay:

  • During check-in: Everyone loves skipping a long line. Let your guests check-in via text and help them get settled into their room faster so they can get started on their vacation. By integrating texting with your check-in system, hotels can automatically send alerts to guests when their room is ready. Some hotels even offer a mobile room key so guests can enter their room via a smartphone.
  • Room service/housekeeping: Maximize guest comfort by letting them text you to arrange for fresh towels or order room service. This process can be easily streamined by integrating a texting software with the hotel's ticketing system. For example, as soon as a guest sends a text request for those fries, the message can automatically get sent to the kitchen without the need for manual routing.
  • Concierge services: Help your guests navigate the city they're visiting, provide recommendations on the spot, arrange a pick-up from wherever they are, and offer suggestions while t making decisions in-real time. If you know your guests' interests, this is the perfect time to serve up some recommendations to guests via text message and get them booked for a tour or activity.
  • Dining reservations: As soon as a guest knows they want to go out for a meal, allow them to text you so you can arrange reservations for them. Using a time-based automation, hotels can send coupons via text for onsite restaurants and bars to entice guests to stay and enjoy a meal or a few drinks, thus helping drive incremental revenue.
  • Valet car pick-up: No more waiting outside while the valet brings the car around. Guests can feel like a VIP by walking right out the door and into their car by texting the valet before heading down to the lobby. Once a guest texts the valet for car pickup, the request can automatically get routed to the valet team for faster service.
  • Feedback surveys: We live busy and often chaotic lives and the last thing we want to do is take the extra time to provide feedback. This is why traditional feedback survey response rates hover around 2%. With text's 98% vs email's 20% open rate, text messaging provides an easier and more effective way to unlock insight into how to improve your guest experience. Some business text messaging providers offer a direct integration with TripAdvisor so guests get prompted to leave a review after providing positive feedback. If the feedback is negative, hotel staff gets immediately alerted so they can resolve the issue before it makes it onto a public review site.

There are many different ways that hotel customer service can use text messaging to automate and streamline the most common requests while also providing a more personalized experience. With teams freed up from the manual processing and managing requests, they'll be able to focus on delivering great service and building strong and lasting relationships with guests.

For a passport to quicker and more personalized customer service, hotels need to look no further than the devices we already have in our hands. Not only will automated customer service enable you to provide a stellar stay during their trips, but it could also help make your hotel the destination.

John Eidson
Partner
Zingle