Smart Concierge: Contactless Guest Engagement Platform
COVID19 has challenged the hospitality & travel industry to innovate. Mass cancellations of events and individual guest bookings means hotels have to find cost-effective and efficient ways to recapture that business.
Customers will make travel decisions based on the steps a venue is taking to comply with CDC and WHO recommendations, the plans to reintroduce venue services, and most importantly, the latest details that will make them comfortable re-booking.
Technology solutions like the automated, real-time Smart Concierge are affordable and scalable. It allows end-users to interact naturally and without contact through text messages, WhatsApp, and Facebook messenger for instant answers and support. Its application during this pandemic is especially valuable to meeting planners and between group booking agents and guests or staff, and from hotels directly to guests.
Let’s dive into these examples.
Communicate with Meeting Planners
Example: A large accounting conference was scheduled at your hotel for May 2020. But large gatherings are prohibited in your state for the foreseeable future, so the conference was canceled. You want to maintain a strong relationship the meeting planner. So, you send a welcome message and share the system they can use to communicate with their attendees, the Smart Concierge.
The meeting planner will be grateful for this tool as they have been inundated with cancellations over the past couple of months. They will find Smart Concierge easy to use at scale and in turn, they’ll also build a stronger relationship with their attendees/invited guests.
Meeting Planner Communication to Guests and Staff
Example: A meeting planner had an event with 1000+ people being held at your hotel and casino later this summer. It has now been moved back to October. The booking agent has been made aware of the Smart Concierge and is ready to utilize it. He uploads his list and is ready to send out messages to the attendees and staff. This strengthens the relationship when they are ready to book again. And the real-time responses are directed to a chatbot instead of the agent, saving the agent hours of back and forth.
Communicate Directly with Guests at Scale
Example: Over the past two months you’ve had guests cancel their stays March through June. More guests will continue to do so as long as shelter in place and travel restrictions are in effect. You have guest contact information so now is the perfect time to reach out and entice them with special offers to book their stay later in the year. With Smart Concierge you can compile two lists, one for those who have canceled (with proactive messaging), and one for those likely to cancel (with reactive messaging).
For guests who have canceled, you can send out hundreds of messages at once through SMS, WhatsApp, and Facebook Messenger. Let them know they can ask questions and get answers in real-time, and keep them up to date on hotel booking policies. Guests will be grateful for the information, you won’t have to spend the time doing this manually, and they will be more likely to book with you at a later time. For those that eventually cancel, you can do the same thing, but create a rule for Smart Concierge and send out reactive messages right away, connecting as soon as the booking is removed.
Smart Concierge is one of the features available to you through VenueLytics. Interested in learning how you can implement real-time messages & concierge services at scale? Contact us for a free demo.