Four Mobile Messaging Tips for Hotel Managers
Tourism is one of the most competitive sectors out there. If you own or work in a hotel, you already know this. Any edge you can get over your competition can become a huge advantage in the long run.
The recent rise in mobile messaging offers an incredible opportunity for any business owner to tap into a new and vibrant market. The hotel industry is no exception, and in this article, we are going to go over four very simple ways you can use mobile messaging to offer an incredible experience to your hotel's clientele.
1. Customer support via mobile messages
The first and most obvious way of leveraging mobile messages is to use it for customer support.
Setup time: less than 30 minutes.
The idea is simple: create a business account on the most popular messaging app(s) in your location, connect them all to ubisend, and offer your potential clients the option to message you through these, instead of sending an email or a phone call.
Setting yourself up for success with ubisend in this particular instance is easy. All you need are the messaging accounts and a ubisend account.
Why should you do it?
Consumers are ready to interact with businesses via messaging apps. In fact, a recent Facebook study has shown they are expecting it to happen more and more in the future. We've done our own research and the data we've gathered from it seems to validate that point.
2. Active survey and feedback collection
Ask your customers what they thought of their stay at your hotel and collect their feedback seamlessly through mobile messaging.
Setup time: less than 2 hours.
Timely and accurate customer feedback is treasured. It is one of the best ways businesses have to monitor how well they are doing and what they could be doing better.
Unfortunately, collecting customer feedback is not always easy. Most hotels still offer a survey in paper form on checkout. Instead, this is what you could do with mobile messaging:
An example of a survey message set up in the ubisend platform.
Why should you do it?
Gathering feedback is valuable for your business and shows you care about the quality of your service. Doing it through a messaging application your customers use every day reduces friction and encourages your customers to participate.
3. Re-engaging previous customers
Bring back customers to your hotel through mobile message updates and exclusive promotions.
Setup time: about 1 hour.
Acquiring new customers is expensive. Retaining a customer is more efficient and cheaper.
A scary statistic for you.
The cost of acquiring a new customer can be as high as five times the cost of retaining an existing one (source: Invesp).
Safe to say, there is always something to be done to make sure you keep your customers coming back!
Re-engaging existing customers using mobile messaging is powerful for one simple reason: people read the messages.
The idea of re-engaging customers is not new. In fact, it is one of the oldest marketing strategies in the book. Up until now, though, the problem has been making sure your customers read the re-engagement messages you are sending out.
With the slow (but imminent) death of e-mail, hotel owners are left with no real channel of communication to their customers. If no one reads your emails, how can you re-engage them?
Thankfully, mobile messages are read. A study showed that close to 97% of mobile messages are open, and read, within 3 minutes of being delivered. Sounds good, doesn’t it?
Using the ubisend platform, you can create a list of previous customers. Every so often, send an ubiquitous message to your entire list with an offer they cannot refuse, regardless of the messaging application they used to subscribe.
With mobile messaging, you can send out your survey straight to your customers’ favourite messaging applications, ask your questions and collect the feedback, all on autopilot.
In the ubisend platform, set up a conversation with a quick reply message to be sent to your customers on the day after they checked out of your hotel.
Two examples that you can implement today are, to send a customer a series of open-ended questions, or, questions that are answered with a grade (from 1 to 5).
All replies are stored in your ubisend account and can be accessed at a later date, once it is time to review performance.
Why should you do it?
As we have seen earlier, acquiring new customers is extremely expensive. By sending a couple of re-engaging messages every once in a while to your entire database of previous customers, you are potentially bringing business back at virtually no cost.
4. Offer a customer experience they cannot forget
Show your customers the best tourist sights around your area via mobile messages and rich media.
Setup time: about 2 hours.
Your customers are, most likely, there for a reason: to see the local area. What better way to welcome them to your neck of the woods than offering fantastic sightseeing tips?
Thanks to messaging applications, you can send your customers tips on what they should see, what they cannot miss, what they should eat, and so on.
Although it is not directly related to your actual business, and won’t immediately increase your revenue, offering this type of experience to your customers might turn them into lifelong fans.
In your ubisend account, setup a simple campaign that spans over 4 to 5 days. For each day, write a few words on a nearby site to visit or a local place to eat. Spur things up with rich media such as images, website links or even videos.
Whenever a new customer settles in your hotel, offer them the option to opt-in. Your campaign will deliver the messages on auto-pilot and last for the duration of their stay.
Why should you do it?
Offering an amazing experience to your customers ensures they remember you. Once they are fans, your re-engagement messages will help you strike gold again and again.
BONUS: Partner with local businesses and include them in your messaging campaign. Exchange promotional messages to send traffic their way, and they may send traffic yours. Build a mutually beneficial relationship with influencers in your area.
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