Is the Hotel customer satisfied only because expectations are so low, and no one is doing better?
In today’s markets, it is not enough for Hotels to just satisfy the customer, you have to identify new ways to optimize and think above and beyond customer expectations.
Even if your Hotels is 2-star, 3-star, 4-star or 5-star you have to stretch and search for that little extra that spark new emerging love with your customer.
Here is why Hotels immediately should consider optimize and think above and beyond customer expectations with Social Media Marketing.
Always start with your Hotel first
Maintaining a high level of customer service, customer care, customer satisfaction, and delivering consistent and positive customer experiences is key for any Hotel who wants to succeed and gain a competitive advantage.
Your customer-facing Hotel goals should always be to exceed your customer’s expectations. This is especially relevant for service-oriented industries who communicate with customers across all channels, especially face to face.
With customer service, customer care and customer satisfaction it looks like on the surface that is doing what is required to surprise and delight.
But today the Hotel brand represent so much more than that. It represents brand values, brand culture, brand message, brand mission, brand products, brand relationships, and brand reputation.
These are all elements that will shape the customer views of the totality of your Hotel brand.
It is critical that you understand that the customer’s view and perspectives of your Hotel brand start long before the customer even set their foot at your location.
During the stay, the customer viewpoint can shift depending on their perceptions of deliverables and what your Hotel provide to the best of your abilities.
It is after the stay your Hotel will learn what kind of lasting impression you left in the customer mindset.
Research and data tell us that customer trust and patience is eroded by brands that don’t meet their expectations. And for many Hotel brands, this has made customer acquisition costlier and more difficult.
We have over the years experienced some dramatic shifts with Social Media, and at the moment the giant customer experience snowball continues to roll and grow bigger.
If your Hotel is ready to make a shift, then you need to start to figure out what Hotel wants out of Social Media Marketing.
Customers will share their concerns on TripAdvisor and various Social Media Channels. This is no indication that there is a problem related to TripAdvisor or Social Media.
Get your Hotel team members involved to better understand what is happening and take deep dive into where the real roadblocks are.
Once you decided what your Hotel want, then you must start creating a vision of perfection centered on the customer.
Know your Hotel Customer Expectations
All Hotels today have to understand their customers. But customers don’t always know what they want. The customer’s view will only have meaning in the context of your Hotels vision of perfection.
Accept that there will come times where the customer viewpoint is so different than yours that you have to refer them somewhere else.
Your job is to serve within the window if your Hotels vision. Customers viewpoints might alter your window, but you need to have a good understanding of your limits.
The most effective way to learn more about customer expectations is to ask them.
When Hotels ask the customer today, they have focused on other strategies than the traditional surveys that ask open-ended questions.
Customers typically receive the surveys after their stay in an email with a generic question like “How will you rate your room service experience on a scale between 1-10..”. And the Hotel gets back a 1, 2 or 3 indicating food arrived late, food was cold, or was missing a side.
This is where we today can take advantage of new strategies, new technology, and new tools to get a better understanding of what the customers don’t want.
We can now learn more about what customers expect related to room service, what is the biggest challenges, frustrations, obstacles or hurdles they run into? And follow up with something like what is the single biggest thing you wish could change with room service?
Respond, be proactive, be prepared and take a proper measurement. This is a process where you have to optimize one step at the time.
How can you challenge your Hotel team members today?
What can you learn from today’s experiences or mistakes?
What can you different to make things work better?
Who can you ask today for honest feedback?
Did you ask customers for help if needed it?
Note that when you ask customers it is similar to a signed contract, you now have a responsibility to follow up on and take appropriate actions. Don’t harass or overstep customer boundaries. Violating this trust will backfire.
Make the Customer your Hero
We now know that Hotels can’t exceed customer expectations without a good understanding of what they want, but even more important understanding of what they don’t want.
When your Hotel shift towards a focusing on optimizing and thinking above and beyond customer expectations, it is important not trying to change too much at once. It makes no sense adding new things if you still can’t get the old things right. And it doesn’t do any good either just dropping the old and enforce something new believing it will fix your troubles.
Change, new shifts, or introducing a new culture is a process that is implemented, monitored and measured one small step at a time.
Hotels that want to shift from focusing on what they want towards learning and understanding what customers don’t want, have to start with value innovation. And then learn to communicate with the customer.
Be flexible and identify new ways to make the customer the hero of your Hotels stories.
I have for a long period collaborated with my friends at Founders Media, especially on our Hotel Podcast.
I am now proud to announce that we now officially have expanded our collaborations to include Social Media Management for Hotels.
Founders Media, in collaboration with Are Morch, are the leading providers of Hotel Social Media Management.
With a combined 20+ years’ experience in the Hotel Social Media field, and working with Hotels across the globe, our skills, experience, and expertise ensure we deliver in achieving your Hotel’s marketing goals.
Learn more about what other Hoteliers say.
Is your Hotel struggling with getting started using Social Media marketing to grow your business?
Are you looking for a way to move your Hotels Social Media marketing efforts from good to great?
Do you want some insight into your strategy, content and how to optimize your efforts?
Do you want to learn how Social Media Marketing can help grow your Hotel with increased direct booking?
For a limited time, I offer FREE One-on-One private Social Media Marketing coaching sessions where we cover your Hotels most pressing Social Media Marketing questions.
We will work on whatever you want to help your Hotel succeed with Social Media Marketing.
How can your Hotel take advantage of this limited exclusive offer?
It requires one simple step – join our Facebook Group for Hotels and Hoteliers and you will learn more.
Achieving this requires an investment in human capacity to create adaptive and resilient employees capable of taking on challenges and seeking out different strategies to achieve goals.
To succeed Hotels must build a team’s force that is change ready and a culture where learning is valued and setbacks are viewed as opportunities to grow.
Is your Hotel ready to make a real impact in 2019? Ask me about my Social Media Management for Hotels.
Are you ready for a new journey and learn how you can put your Hotels Conversation Experience Marketing on Autopilot?
FREE Facebook Group for Hotels and Hoteliers to be part of a new journey => Join our FREE Hotel Social Media Community!
And it will help identify micro-moments and recognize pain points and values utilizing Hotel Experience Ambassadors that knows where to look for them.
I have loved with all of my heart and soul serving customers, guests, and Hoteliers. As a Hotel Experience Ambassador, I gained a new passion for being a representative and messenger delivering new profound and delightful experiences.
If your Hotel wants to implement new effective success factors then now is the time to be part of a new initiative.
When your Hotel serves your community they will reward you back with serving you.
From a Hotel and Social Media Consultant’s standpoint, the Social Media Community can offer Hotels a one-stop-shop for managing their Social Media marketing such as the community infrastructure, database, listening functionality, profile management, collaboration, content marketing and management, and of course, the analytics.
A Social Media Community will help your Hotel to grow smarter and faster when you focus on the value proposition and collaborate in effective ways.
If your Hotel need help to put it all together then make sure to let us know.
Today’s Social Media Management tools provide advanced options that will help Hotels with these tasks. If you need a quality team the help your Hotel pulls this off, then get in touch with my partners at Founders Media.
With the right team behind your Social Media efforts, it can become cost-effective and generate a new revenue stream for your Hotel.
Social Media Management for Hotels
Social Media Management for Hotels is NOW Open! Click Here if you are ready to take your Hotel to a new level!
To get your Hotel started here are a few FREE gifts and resources from me and my partners Founders Media.
1. FREE access to my Hotel Social Media Marketing Vault (Click Here to Unlock)
2. FREE 21 Days To Social Media Mastery for Hotels email course (Click Here to Unlock)
3. FREE access to #HotelPodcast – A Podcast about Social Media Mastery for Hotel (Click Here to Unlock)
4. FREE access to our Facebook Group – Hotel Social Media Community (Click Here to Unlock)
5. Sit Down with Are for a FREE One-on-One private Social Media Marketing coaching sessions.
