How Hotels Can Improve Brand Awareness and Loyalty

The technologies that shape the future of the travel industry will create a world where differentiation, satisfying customers, gaining their loyalty, standing out from the competition will become increasingly difficult for heritage brands long-standing brand heritage. 

Hotel customers expect more and more unique experiences that are specially tailored to them. Besides, as the global hotels that have once built brand awareness are already providing these services, hotel businesses need to find new ways to create a place for themselves in the competition and to improve their brand awareness. 

At this point, technology can play a key role in helping hotels cope with the ever-changing demands of guests. In particular, guest engagement apps have an extremely wide range of benefits and can build high-quality engagements for both customers and their staff. 

With a guest engagement app, hotels can deliver a perfectly organised, branded and strategic omnichannel experience to meet customer demands in real-time. In this way, guests will turn into loyal customers and the hotel staff will become brand representatives, leading to increased brand awareness, loyalty, occupancy, and revenue.

Now, let’s see how you can manage your customers’ demands and hotel staff productivity to grow brand awareness and loyalty with guest engagement apps.

Convert Your Guests Into Loyal Customers

The most important thing today is that consumers become a big part of the business. Hotels should start seeing guests as their partners because they have a very high influence on the public perception of hotels and their services. This is because word-of-mouth is a very powerful tool in influencing other people on decision-making.

Hotels need to find ways to collaborate with guests and one of the best ways to build this collaboration is to engage with them through meaningful and relevant communication strategies. 

According to research, guests demand personalised and contextual experiences across the whole customer journey. In fact, 74% of guests feel frustrated when they come across website content that is not personalised. Today, hotel websites are seen as the new hotel lobby.   

To turn hotel guests into loyal customers and influencers, hotel management teams need to design user-friendly and personalised customer journeys.

How can hotels do this? Here are some useful tips.

Leverage the power of special offers through personalised messages

A surefire way to attract the attention of guests is to personalise their journeys with user data. Branded guest engagement apps can help you capture guest data and to act on it instantly with direct messages or notifications. 

By using these messages, hotel managers can send personalised offers to increase guest satisfaction. For example, if a guest makes a reservation for longer than a week, they may also require dry cleaning services. The hotel manager can then send them a personalised discount after two or three days of their stay, which would lead to the positive guest experience and upselling opportunity.

Send Mid-Stay Surveys & Ask For Feedback

Hotels can send mid-stay surveys to their guests to ask their opinion about their stay. If guests are not happy, hotel managers can offer promotions or personalised services. This is a key factor for hotels to turn their guests into loyal customers before they have even left.

If a guest leaves a hotel with positive feelings, it is more likely they will give positive feedback and recommend the hotel to others.

Create Digital Guidelines to Boost the Guest Experience

Today, no one picks up brochures from the lobby. However, they still need the hotel to guide them on what to see and do in a new city. 

Hotels can create city guides on a branded guest engagement app to help their guests have a better experience. 

Convert Your Staff Into Brand Ambassadors

Hotel staff are the face of the brand. It’s been proven that an actively engaged and cheerful staff member will dramatically improve a guest’s satisfaction during their stay. 

The hospitality industry requires advanced communication skills. Being in constant contact with people is not an easy job. That’s why hotel staff must possess or seek to obtain these skills and hotel managers should lead and support them. 

Hospitality is all about creating a comfortable travel experience, and personal customer service and communication will always be a key skill. Hotels can develop a strong brand image by improving their staff’s interpersonal skills. 

Here are some tips for hotel managers to support their staff’s role as brand ambassadors.

Hold Each Staff Member Accountable

First of all, hotel managers should make sure that each staff member is clear about their individual role. They should understand that they are the representatives of the hotel and are responsible for creating a positive impression on guests.

Sharing both negative and positive feedback can help staff understand the impact of their actions and how they can improve themselves next time. As they gain experience and knowledge, managers should continue investing in their development and role in the business. That will increase their motivation and loyalty in the long-term.  

Train Staff To Use New Technologies

There has been a steady adoption of technology in the hospitality industry in recent years. This is because technology results in more efficient and faster services. 

Thus, while a new generation of services is being established, training your staff on new technological innovation will motivate them and help them stay up-to-date. This is the only way your staff will be able to represent your hotel in the best way and meet customer expectations and the requirements of the day.

Support Responsive and Instant Guest Service

Hotels are now investing in guest engagement apps that connect guests directly to hotel staff. This means hotel staff can communicate with guests and with each other in real-time.

This not only increases the efficiency of internal staff workflow but also helps hotel managers ensure guest satisfaction by responding to their requests instantly. 

In an era where technological devices and digital solutions shape every industry, the only way for hotel business  to stay relevant is to adapt their business to the digital world. Branded guest engagement apps are the most effective solution to improve staff productivity and guest satisfaction in this modern age. 

If you want to increase brand awareness by adapting your hotel business to the digital world and build your own branded app, you can request a demo or contact us for more information. At WeBee, we create branded apps for your hotel to increase guest engagement and staff productivity.