Leveraging Hotel CRM Software

Irrespective of industry, customers are key to business success. Every company needs to maintain a healthy and robust relationship with its new and existing customers. While startups and small companies can manually maintain one-to-one relationships with their customers, it is an impossible task for large-sized companies and MNCs. CRM tools can help in cementing long-term customer relationships. Be it retail, banking, or hospitality, CRM can serve the needs of companies in all these industries. Service-based industries have a higher need for CRM, as these industries basically run on customer satisfaction and feedback. This has resulted in an increasing need for hotel CRM software.

CRM Software for Hotels

CRM Software for Hotels

Here, the question arises, what is hotel CRM? Hotel CRM is nothing but specialized CRM software that has been customized to be unique to and effective for the hotel and hospitality industry. One of the chief parameters of a good hotel is customer service. Hotels that can provide superior and consistent customer service always come out as the leaders in the industry. CRM software for hotels ensures that every customer gets personal attention. The main objective of this type of customer relationship management tool is to meet and stay ahead of customer expectations.

Why do hotels need CRM? Here are some of the ways in which hotel CRM is helpful.

Personalization

Personalization

Providing unique and personalized service is one of the key tenets of premium hotels. Customers visiting hotels have a need to feel valued. Hotels need to set themselves apart via the service that they offer. Giving generic service will not make the customer remember your hotel long after they have left. A hotel sales lead management software will track the history and preferences of all your existing and prospective customers. Based on this, you can customize your interactions with a particular customer. For example, if a customer requires a premium and luxurious service, then you can personalize their stay by offering little extras like a free spa voucher or a bottle of champagne on their arrival. While keeping track of such information is impossible manually, CRM software can do it for you without any issues.

Customer Retention

Customer Retention

Why is customer retention important? Businesses lose $1.6 trillion dollars per year when customers move away from them. Customer retention is vital for any organization, including hotels. As a hotel owner, you would want your customers to keep coming back to you as well as refer their friends and family members to you. The only way to retain your customers over a long time is to provide them with a service that they cannot forget easily. CRM allows hotels to capture customer feedback, understand the gaps, and provide an improved service. Hotel CRM software can also be used to create a database of past customers, gather their feedback, and retarget them with attractive offers. Sales and marketing executives can use CRM to identify those customers who offer the maximum value. Based on this, they can design campaigns and offers to attract them. This will ensure that your happy customers keep coming back to you.

Automated Service

Automated Service

As mentioned earlier, customer service is one of the primary pillars of the hospitality industry. Your customer service executives play a pivotal role in defining your reputation amongst customers. Up to a certain point, just having executives to answer customer queries is enough. But as you start expanding and your customer base increases in size, technology becomes necessary to keep track of the high influx of queries and complaints. A reputable CRM software for hotels can help by automating the service function. In other words, you can use the multiple capabilities present in CRM tools to automate and keep track of all customer interactions. While your human staff can make mistakes if overloaded with work, there is no scope for errors with CRM. You can use chatbots and instant messaging technology to respond to customer queries 24/7 and within a short span of time. CRM software ensures that you do not miss out on any complaint or feedback, thereby enabling you to provide better service.

Centralization

Centralization

When you run a large chain of hotels, it is important to have all information related to customers in one place, where it can be accessed by all concerned parties. A CRM platform serves as a centralized database that can store all relevant details of customers. This is helpful for hotel staff because they can access and use this information as and when required, without any delays. For instance, say you own hotels across all the metro cities in India and a customer checks-in at your Bangalore hotel. If he/she has previously stayed with you at any of your hotels, all his/her information, preferences, and feedback will be available within your CRM database. Based on this, you can provide the customer with everything they like and want in their accommodation.

Lead Generation

Lead Generation

While retaining existing customers is extremely important, so is having a steady flow of incoming customers. Many businesses, including hotels, face issues with generating adequate leads. A hotel sales lead management software can help in lead generation. Most CRM tools come with lead generation capabilities. Hotel owners can use CRM to find new markets and customers. Once a database of potential customers is created, they can be segmented into homogeneous categories. Post this, personalized marketing communication, emails, offers, etc. can be sent out to coax them and convert them into customers. In addition to lead generation, lead nurturing and lead scoring capabilities can also help in identifying possible customers and marketing to them.

Over the last few months, the hospitality industry has taken a big hit due to the pandemic situation throughout the world. Several hotels are closing down due to lack of customers and income. To ensure profits, hotels need to think differently. Apart from maintaining strict hygiene and safety protocols, technology must be used to find new marketers, attract new customers, and retarget existing ones. Hotel CRM software can optimize functions, especially the customer service operations. However, to be completely effective, hotels need to start expanding the usage of CRM beyond customer service. Having a holistic approach towards customer relationship management can enhance revenue figures. Hotels should integrate CRM throughout their business model and ensure that all employees can use the tool in an efficient manner. By taking advantage of the multiple capabilities present in CRM tools, hotels can boost their profits and grow, even during times of crisis.

At Talisma, we have years of experience in working with the hospitality industry to bring about business transformation. We have used our CRM software for hotels to help big players like ITC Hotels and more to improve the guest experience and resolve customer queries within a short time. If you are a hotel owner facing impending losses due to the worldwide crisis, our CRM platform can help you find new customers and attract a steady flow of income. Get in touch with us to know more.

2020-06-17T09:35:52+05:30June 16th, 2020|

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