There are great articles out there talking about customer service during the stay. But they failed to address the customer service provided before potential customers turn into guests. Without perfect customer service at that stage, your chances of getting more reservations decrease significantly.
NB: This is an article from Asksuite
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Keep in mind that every new guest creates expectations around the services of your brand and takes past experiences into consideration.
If you aren’t sure how to start or where you could improve, we listed 9 useful tips to elevate your game and help you convert more reservations.
1. Be available on the main digital channels
We’ve mentioned before that it is important to be available on the main digital channels as travelers tend to contact hotels directly on their channel of choice. This means sending DMs (direct messages) to hotels on social media, for example.
Nothing frustrates a customer more than:
- Sending a message and being asked to call or send an email instead
- Getting in touch by any channel (email, social media, chat) and having to wait for a long time for an answer
If any of these situations happen, the most likely result is that they will give up on you and move on to another hotel.
Here is an important factor that you should have in mind when building or optimizing your customer service. According to our data from 23+ million chats, over 54% of the chats take place outside business hours and weekends are important as any other day:
Ignoring the data means losing opportunities to increase revenue. We all know how expensive it is to have a team working 24/7. This is one of the reasons why more businesses are adopting self-service and digital assistance.
Poor customer service costs you money
Most travelers check out your hotel website before booking a room and usually, they have questions about your facilities, payment conditions, rates, and more. Be sure that your website is easy to navigate and that users can find how to contact you.
The ideal scenario is to offer not only relevant content or FAQ on your website but also provide digital assistance so you can grab the online visitor on the spot. There are many tools to help you here, such as a LiveChat or a chatbot, or even both.
One great advantage of adopting automated service in different channels of communication, such as social media, is that the hotel increases the number of chats and interactions and decreases the work overload.
