October 3, 2016
In the ever growing online presence of the hospitality industry, if there’s anything that can give your hotel an edge over your competitors it’s LIVE CHAT! The Hotel industry has seen a boost in the number of guests researching, planning and booking online, however, a major issue that guests face while booking online is a lack of assistance for real time queries. That’s where Live chat plays a pivotal role.
Live chat is an adaptive and simple way to help your potential guests that in turn boosts your bookings. In our article today, we are going to show you how live chats are beneficial to the hotel business, enabling hoteliers to get the most out of it.
- Adds a personal touch when communicating with customers
The worst case scenario for any hotel manager is – guests welcomed by an empty reception desk and no employees to greet them or help them get settled. This could potentially damage a hotel’s reputation and is something all hoteliers would want to avoid. But, this is how guests are welcomed on most hotel websites -without any assistance or guidance. Most hotels forget that a website is often the first point of contact for guests and should provide a friendly and welcoming experience – A problem that can be solved by using LIVE CHAT!
- Answers all queries about a stay
A website on its own cannot give detailed responses to a potential customer. By using live chat, hotels can overcome that shortcoming. It allows potential customers to get answers to their specific questions. Live chat also allows hotels to tend to each potential customer’s query and take bookings specifically, as per their requests. Additionally, it allows the hotel to make personal recommendations and provide important information, which a general website cannot provide.
- Records a database and knows your customers
Live chat allows you to record all the transcripts including details about the customer, their reactions, time spent on live chat, etc. This helps the hotel management to attend to the customer accordingly, especially when they arrive at the hotel to check-in. This helps in providing an excellent customer service.
On the other hand, the hotel management gets to collect data from all the live chats and send weekly updates to customers or send discount vouchers to both those who haven’t responded after the first chat and to the customers who have responded, thus keeping them happy.
- Allows you to easily customise your bookings
Imagine this scenario – a guest books a room in your hotel and while booking their stay they input a certain date. The booking is confirmed and the guest gets an email notification. A couple of days later the guest wants to change the date of their stay, but doing it via the conventional method includes writing an email and getting an acknowledgement from the hotel management. Live chat eliminates this problem and allows guests to customise their bookings by providing real-time support.
- Satisfies customer needs and improves your results
A happy customer is the greatest advertisement! Live chat helps to satisfy customer needs within a matter of minutes. It may be a personalised request, for booking a stay or to make special requests for food,
- Efficiently increases online direct sales
A major issue that guests face while booking online is a disconnect from someone who can answer queries in real-time. The website’s FAQ’s feature fails to deliver the results that a live chat yields.Using live chat, hotels can tend to personalised requests, queries, etc. giving it a human touch, which in turn depending on the demographics of the guests, can efficiently increase online direct sales.
Conclusion
Live chat can drastically improve results in your booking process and your customer satisfaction. Integrating a live chat service like CommVersion into your hotel marketing will give you an edge over your competitors and keep your customers satisfied.
Click here to request a demo today and see how CommVersion Live Chat can help you with increasing lead conversions on your website.
