Nowadays, guests are demanding smoother, easier, faster experiences. How a user (customer, partner or employee) interacts with an organization via digital technologies, is what we refer to as digital experience. To manage the digital experience of users, companies need to make sure the interaction with customers at every touchpoint is seamless. The smartest companies are already moving toward digital experience management tools to align their digital experiences. In this article you will learn how guest messaging can improve the digital experience of your hotel guests.
Why Does Digital Experience Management Matter?
In today’s highly crowded market, it’s becoming more and more difficult for brands to differentiate themselves among competitors. More than 65% of customers said that their experience on the website or app is a “very important” factor in their willingness to recommend a brand. In particular, the hospitality industry provides a similar product – accommodations. To excel other competitors, hoteliers have to create an unique “experience” for guests.
Experience has become the determining factor when guests choose a hotel brand and become loyal to the brand. In fact, experts believe that Customer Experience (CX) will be even more important than price or product quality in differentiating one brand from another.
Manage the Digital Experience
It has been more than twenty years since economists brought up the concept of the experience economy. Experience has evolved and revolutionized greatly, together with the latest development of our society and technology. That leads to where we are today. This has put emphasize on the need to manage the digital experience of your guests.
Use Guest Messaging to Improve Your Guest’s Digital Experience
People are increasingly using multiple channels to connect with each other. Check your phone: Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, SMS, and often they are using all apps at the same time. There are 2.52 billion mobile phone users who use messaging apps to communicate globally (Statista, 2019). Among them, nearly 90% use at least one messaging app (99firms), and 36% of consumers use at least two messenger apps (The Wall Street Journal).
As a result, messaging has also become an important component of hotel-guest interaction during the guest journey. But how do you keep track of all the messaging channels? This is why many hotels turn to a digital experience management platform, like BookBoost. Such a platform provides hotels with the ability to coordinate and manage communication channels, and to improve the guest experience via guest messaging.
3 Practical Guest Messaging Tips
Below you can find 3 practical tops to improve your hotel’s guest messaging by using a digital experience management platform.
1. For More Efficient Operations – Integrate Multiple Channels Into One Platform
As guests are using multiple messaging channels, hotels should also communicate with them through all these channels. But too many channels can be difficult to handle at once, along with the high risk of fragmenting digital experiences.
That’s where a guest messaging platform comes into play. Guest messaging helps to align all channels and to manage inquiries on one platform. More importantly, guest messaging can greatly increase guest engagement. Is was shown that if you reach out to guests by multiple channels, they will increase their level of engagement with 166% compared to using only one channel, and even 642% higher compared to guests who did not receive any messages (Baze)
2. For Smoother Digital Experience – Take Advantage of Mobiles!
Mobile is a popular device for today’s digital experience. The usage of mobile and tablet internet exceeded desktop use in 2016 (Forrester, 2016). 82% of consumers turn to their mobile to help them to make a product decision. Consumers also rely more on digital channels for support and service.
A guest messaging platform makes it possible for hotels to communicate with guests from the website to their mobile app, in front of the computer and more importantly, on-the-go. Guests can choose a preferred channel to continue the conversation, and hotels are ready for service 24/7.
3. For Overall Guest Experience – Fulfil Guest Needs With Personalized Offers
The guest messaging platform connects with the hotel PMS (Property Management System) and extracts detailed guest information. You can create guest segments by using filters and proactively reach out to segmented guests with a personalized message. This allows hotels to anticipate on guest needs based on a specific segment and fulfill the needs even before guests think of them. As a result, guests appreciate the delight and memorable experience that is created for them.
We are all living in the digital era now, thus we need to take a closer look at the digital experience of our guests. The guest messaging platform is a tool designed to help hotels manage guest communication and enhance the guest digital experience.
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