You've just landed at an unfamiliar airport. You're tired, jet-lagged and a little lost. All you know is that you have an early meeting in the morning and if you don't get some sleep now, you're going to have a hard time paying attention tomorrow.
Then your phone buzzes. It's a text message with instructions on how to get to your hotel. You show this to a taxi driver, who whisks you away to the hotel's front door. It's late, but someone is at the desk waiting for you. There's nothing to sign because you've already confirmed your appointment with a text message. You grab your key, take the elevator to your room and you're already asleep by the time your head hits the pillow.
That seamless experience is the ultimate goal of SMS services in the hospitality industry. Keep reading to learn how to easily implement a SMS messaging service at your hotel.
Improving Customer Service Before the Visit
Reservation reminders are one of the best ways to engage guests before they even set foot in your establishment. When a guest books a room, you can give them the option to sign up for text alerts. Since the guest's first impression of your brand usually takes place online, this is where you'll want to begin providing value-added services.
Similarly, your business could use text alerts to provide its address and check-in information on the day of the booking. This is a huge help for guests who are unfamiliar with the area.
Travelers coming in from a long flight often just want to slip out of their shoes and relax on their beds. Arriving at the hotel only to find more paperwork waiting for them is a nuisance. With an SMS service, you can provide guests with information earlier in the booking. Remember, today's travelers are used to checking into flights from their smartphones. They expect the same level of service from hospitality providers.
Improving Customer Service After the Visit
Once guests check out, that's far from the end of the relationship. Today, more than 92 percent of customers read online reviews, according to a BrightLocal survey. Many shoppers make purchasing decisions based off the word of their fellow consumers. This is equally important in the hospitality industry. A few bad reviews on a popular website could seriously harm your business.
By using an SMS service, you can easily send customer satisfaction surveys to guests after their visits. SMS messages have much higher read and response rates compared to emails and postcards. Messages could provide you with invaluable data for improving upon your current customer experience. Plus, they can give you another opportunity to address any problems guests may have experienced at your hotel.
Managing Customer Experience
That covers the pre- and post-stay phases {rephrase}, but how can SMS services improve customer experience during a guest's visit? One way is to speed up the responsiveness of housekeeping staff.
An SMS dispatch service puts management in touch with housekeepers wherever they are. This is especially important for large resorts where walkie-talkie communication is insufficient. Anywhere your housekeepers have a cell signal, they'll be within reach of your dispatcher. From a customer service perspective, this increased level of connectivity means you can solve problems as soon as they appear.
Whether you're operating a small bed-and-breakfast or a major metropolitan hotel, SMS solutions can help you improve customer service and stop problems as they happen.
To learn more about how easy it is to implement an SMS messaging solution at your business, contact the experts at Swift SMS Gateway. We take care of the technical work, so you can focus on growing your business.
