CRM in the Hospitality Industry

What is Hotel CRM?

CRM (or Customer Relationship Management) is a system used by the hospitality industry to foster relationships and improve interactions with guests.

The software allows hotels to collect and store customer information, execute outbound campaigns across various communication channels and optimize work processes, as complete information regarding enquiries, reservations, offers, stays and overall customer service is documented in a single platform.

CRM stores and organizes data about hotel guests, such as preferences and interests, guest history, and communication across channels. It can be effectively used as a tool to provide first class customer service and achieve a high level of satisfaction by getting to know guests in depth and anticipating their needs.

CRM applications for hospitality are diverse, with the most common ones being:

Hotel CRM Functionalities

CRM software solutions for the hospitality industry offer a wide range of opportunities for providing excellent customer service and improving work processes in the hotel complex. It's important to choose a platform that contains the full toolkit of features that suit your needs.

Here are the functionalities you should consider when choosing a CRM system to implement in your hotel or hotel chain.

1. Detailed Customer Files

   The guest files in the CRM system have standard and individually created fields containing data about reservations, offers, sales and other documents. Working with a centralized customer relationship management database provides employees with a comprehensive, 360-degree customer view, which ensures quality and personalized service.

2. Integrations

   Since all hotels operate with their own reservation system, it is extremely important that the CRM system provides the option to integrate seamlessly with yout reservation system. This way, employees have access to information about the status of reservations and information about previous visits in real time. CRM and reservation system work in symbiosis, with all of the data being stored in one place.

3. Mobile Application

   Mobile CRM gives freedom to your employees. Even if at a certain moment they are not in front of their computer in the office or at the hotel’s reception desk, they have constant access to all customer data, offers and reservations, without being dependent on time and place.

4. Integrated Communication

   A key role in an efficient and effective CRM system is played by its ability to integrate the most frequently used communication channels, as customers often use more than one when enquiring, booking and communicating with the hotel in general. Here are the main and most preferred channels by guests to consider:
   

5. Outbound Campaigns

   The CRM solution you choose for your hotel business should have a rich palette of functionalities for running outbound campaigns with a marketing or sales focus.
   
   In addition to these characteristics, the Chosen CRM solution must provide options for monitoring and reporting of campaigns on the relevant channel, as well as the precise determination of target groups based on the filtering of one or more parameters simultaneously.

6. Sales Activities

   Sales processes are an essential part of the hospitality business. The CRM solution brings a number of benefits in this direction as well. Thanks to functionalities such as Lead & Opportunity Management and Sales Dashboards, you manage the entire sales process in the hotel complex or chain - from the generation of a lead, through its qualification into an opportunity, until the successful closing of the deal.

7. Documents, Calendars and Tasks

   CRM systems also have some basic but very useful functionalities for the organization of work and business processes , such as digitizing company documentation and enriching customer files with invoices and offers, using calendars to organize meetings and events, as well as delegation of tasks by managers to employees or between employees themselves. 

8. Monitoring and Reporting

   The software CRM solution gives the option to generate enquiries and reports according to templates based on a combination of different types of data and the possibility of real-time monitoring, through which you have a constant view of the phone and chat conversations between your employees and hotel guests. This way, you effectively analyze business, customer and contact information in detail.

Benefits of CRM Implementation in Hotels

1. Increasing Customer Satisfaction

   Hotels start building relationships with their guests even before they arrive. The CRM system plays a crucial role in the user experience - from the moment the customer visits the hotel's website, to the moment they leave the complex and go home. The centralized database that is stored in each guest's file can serve to personalize their experience in various aspects.
   
   For example, if the guest is family with children, and wants the complex to have a kids center and a program with entertainers, at the next booking, you will already be aware of their preferences and will be able to offer them exactly what they expect, without asking for information.

2. Decisions Based on Customer Data

   Hotels can personalize their guest experience based on the collected customer data. Thanks to documented information, the possibility of realizing future sales increases significantly.
   
   Customer records in CRM contain everything from communication history with the guest and their preferences to the feedback they left and the rating they gave. All this information could be used in the different departments - from marketing and sales, to front desk service, kitchen and housekeeping.  

3. Streamlining Communication with Guests

   Managing communication with hotel guests can be challenging as inquiries and feedback come through different channels. Centralizing all forms of communication can be possible with the implementation of a CRM system. It integrates the most frequently used channels – Phone and Email, as well as chat channels such as Web Chat and Viber. Keeping the complete history of communication in a single platform makes it much easier to track.
   
   Moreover, outbound phone, email or viber campaigns can be run through the CRM system, which could be an effective way to send personalized messages before and during the stay, as well as asking for feedback after visiting the complex. 

4. Workflow Automation

   Integrations play a key role in the automation of work processes in the hotel business. Complex CRM solutions offer the option of integration with external systems, such as reservation software. Thanks to these integrations, the staff has easy and quick access from a single platform to information such as hotel room occupancy, guest preferences, order history, etc.. These integrations save time and effort and minimize the potential for errors and manual information entry. This allows employees to focus on other important tasks.
   
   Hotels can optimize interactions with their guests and improve customer service by automating a number of processes across departments using CRM. 

5. Building Customer Loyalty

   CRM systems bring a number of advantages to hotels, with one of the biggest benefits of their implementation being customer retention. When hotel guests are satisfied with their stay, they are more likely to leave positive feedback and return to the hotel complex. In fact, research shows that 94% of customers would use the services of a business they already know.
   
   CRM solutions allow hotels to create loyalty programs, track guest engagement, and monitor customer behavior and preferences. The availability of all this information plays a crucial role in personalizing the customer experience and encouraging guests to return to the hotel, which in turn reflects positively on user loyalty. 

6. The “Multiplication“ Effect

   The use of a CRM solution brings many benefits to standalone hotels, but its effectiveness increases vastly for hotel chains, thanks to the centralized database of customer data that comes from the various communication channels.
   
   Upon contact with any hotel of the chain and through any communication channel, the guest is recognized by the system by email, phone number or other indicator, which allows a personalized approach to service, since data from previous stays and preferences.
   
   If the chain has more than one hotel at a specific location and the guest makes an inquiry or reservation for a location that is already occupied, you have the option of offering them an alternative in a neighboring hotel of the chain, tailored to their requirements based on the information available in the customer file. This is how you retain the customer and he remains a guest of your chain.

One of the main directions in the use of the InfoServ CRM software solution is the hospitality industry. A number of large hotel chains and complexes, such as "Albena" AD, "Pamporovo" AD, Grand Hotel Resorts by Pulse, Grifid Hotels and Wave Resort, have been taking advantage of the benefits the platform brings for many years, and are successfully developing their business.

The system has all the necessary toolset of functionalities for effective management of business processes and customer service in hotels.

Request a free demo HERE to see for yourself the capabilities of InfoServ CRM.