The hotel industry is so wide and competitive. The industry basically involves serving other people. Dealing with clients who have different backgrounds, personalities and tastes can be a bit hard. But as an investor in such an industry, you have to try your best and satisfy all of them. You can start by doing simple things like keeping your hotel clean and attractive.
Retaining a loyal customer is cheaper and easy than acquiring a new one. A customer who is used to your services is likely to spend more cash in your hotel than a new one who is trying out the services. Being a good service provider is one of the ways hoteliers win customers. A good service provider should be 3ps, persuasive, polite, and patient. Here is a list of things you can try out to improve your customer’s experience.
1. Giving Your Customers discounts and free rides
You can choose to offer new customers discounts on their first meals or bookings. This will make them feel welcomed and encouraged to come back. As a hotelier, you can also reward loyal customers with free rides to their homes or free tours around beautiful places. Happy and satisfied clients are more likely to bring along new customers the next time they visit, and that is a plus for the company. Discounted services and items sell more, an increase in sales is also beneficial to the hotel.
2. Understand Your Customers
Knowing your customers is important for any business to succeed. You can only serve a person well when you understand their taste and preference. Knowing answers to questions like how often your customers need the services you provide? What are the peak hours for your business? Will help you structure how to provide your services effectively.
Know your clients deeper than just their names and behavior. Getting to understand their interests, hobbies, special occasions, their taste and preferences and much more information that they can allow you to know is key. Just make sure you don’t invade their privacy. Understanding them will also make it possible to customize your customer’s experience to create loyalty and improve your business as well.
3. Responding to your customer’s feedback
Many service providers have a tendency of asking clients for feedback then they fail to act on them. Doing that cannot help your hotel business grow. The feedback should be looked into and acted upon. Feedbacks will guide the hotel owner on what to maintain and what to improve. Feedbacks measure customer satisfaction.
The feedback doesn’t have to be given one on one, you can give them a specific contact where they can reach out. You may also give them forms that they can feel in their own free time and bring them back the next time they visit. Reviews posted on your competitor’s site can also give you ideas that can improve your services. Positive feedback will definitely build your brand name.
4. Offering Self Service Options
The rate at which the world is growing and with the COVID-19 pandemic around, self-service is the way to go. The few hotels that are still offering face-to-face services have to strictly follow the guidelines set aside to control the virus from spreading. The service providers have to be masked up the whole time they take care of clients, hand sanitizers have to be placed in strategic places in the hotel for instance in the entrance and social distancing rules have to be adhered to.
All that can be so tiring and boring, imagine having to put on a mask on your way to dinner. The perfect makeup you did cannot be seen and appreciated. It is so exciting and at the same time fulfilling to book yourself a hotel room or a dinner for two settings through simple taps on your laptop or smartphone. Using mobile apps serves many clients at a time. You don’t have to line up and wait for a ticket to get in, or even to wait for your order.
5. Provide Extra Services for your customers.
With such an innovative and fast-growing world, some people work even when on holiday. Installing free wifi in hotel rooms is a good way to attract them. The wifi should be free, fast, and reliable. You can choose to provide instructions on how they can connect to that wifi in different strategic places. For instance, you can choose to indicate wifi passwords on hotel room keys.
Free massages can also do. People go for vacations to relax and feel good after long periods of working or schooling. Massage means a lot to such people, it passes a message of concern and kindness. You can also make the hotel rooms more conducive by installing air purifiers. If the customers get satisfied with the services, they will definitely come back.
6. Market Your Business
People like associating themselves with beautiful things. A hotel that has bigger and breathtaking setups is likely to attract a lot of customers compared to a squeezed and boring one. Decorating your hotel rooms and entrance with unique pieces and providing enough parking is one of the ways you can attract more clientele.
You can also attend trade shows where people get to showcase the kind of services they provide and where they can be found. We even have food festivals where people celebrate different kinds of food. Take advantage of such a day, set up a portable Aplus 10×10 truss booth where together with your group you can showcase the kind of food and drinks your restaurant offers and share your business card. You will end up fishing more customers than you thought.
7. Build A Good Relationship With Your Local Community
Most of your customers will be people who stay around your business premises. They are also the ones to refer more customers to you. Make sure they get the best services in your hotel. You can also buy food products straight from their farms or shops, or even prioritize them when looking for workers. Most of the members of that community will probably use your hotel as a landmark when giving people direction, that is definitely a plus for your business.
Conclusion
Customer’s experience starts way before the customer comes in and it does not end when they leave. A bad experience will not send away that one customer, but it will tarnish your whole brand. Negative feedback from people will definitely affect your hotel business. The first impression you create will always matter. Customer’s check-in experiences should be perfect. A simple smile or welcoming customers with refreshments like juice or even water will make them feel loved and appreciated.