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Here are 57 ways to boost sales and get more repeat bookings from your existing customers to generate more profit for your hotel
Are you prepared for negative comments or critical reviews online? When they happen, most people go into an offended, helpless rage – it’s not a position of strength!
This video introduces a 3-step strategy to manage your reputation online. It was recorded from the recent webinar ‘Fast-Track Social Media Marketing for Restaurants, Cafes and Bars’.
For more from Ken go to Profitable Hospitality
To what extent have you embraced social media to help market your hotel or restaurant? Are you already a fan of Facebook or do you still think it’s just as fad, or do you fear it.
I have to confess that I’ve been in the last category; I’m fine with LinkedIn and Twitter but up till now just couldn’t get my head round Facebook. Maybe I was a bit sceptical about the value of Facebook as a way to market a hotel or hospitality business.
After attending a webinar earlier this week with Barry Chandler, The Bar Blogger, looking at Facebook specifically for hospitality businesses I’ve been convinced!
Here are just 10 of the tips I picked up on how to use Facebook to help market your hotel or restaurant
Show you appreciate your hotel guests’ custom; a little thank you note of some description goes a long way, even better if it is personalised in some way; hand written better still. This is an ideal time to ask for feedback, testimonials for reviews too.
Keep in touch. Tell your customers what you are doing. What have you done as a result of customer feedback, what’s new, what awards or accolades have you received.
Promote events. Let your customers know what you’ve got coming up in the future. Even if they won’t be there to take advantage of it, it may prompt a return visit or they may pass the details on to others who might be interested in the event.
Help to build rapport by taking the opportunity to meet with your customers or prospects in other environments, too. And remember that a lot of networking is done online today, so consider how to use social media to help you build your relationship with your customers.
Reward loyalty. The very least you can do is to remember your regular customers. Capture their details and preferences – do they like a particular room, prefer a specific table or need a special pillow? Remembering these small details can make your customer feel valued.
Why not help your customers to celebrate? Note their birthdays and anniversaries on your database, and then invite them to the hotel to receive their special gift or offer, e.g. invite wedding couples back for their first (and subsequent) anniversary, invite customers to celebrate their birthday and get a cake or free bottle of bubbly, invite businesses to celebrate any awards, keep a note of special anniversaries for local businesses – their AGM, awards dinners, anniversary of their launch. People don’t normally celebrate alone, so these provide ideal opportunities to bring in new customers.
Make your offers worthwhile to encourage people to bring their friends or colleagues and make up a big party. Receiving a birthday card with a voucher – or an invitation to celebrate a forthcoming anniversary – is a pleasant surprise, and adds a very personal touch. If you can hand write these, even better (it can make a huge difference and really demonstrate your interest in your customer).
Building your customer relationship is an on going process, and there’s no denying it takes a bit of effort, but effort that will reward you with more business, and it’s still one of the simplest ways to market a hotel.
Learn the 7 fatal mistakes hoteliers make in getting more business on this complimentary tele seminar
Making personal contact with your hotel guests builds rapport and trust. This starts with being visible – not just your staff, but some managers’ presence too. But being visible is only half the story. What are you doing to reflect and convey your values and attitude to customers and staff? The way you interact with your staff and participate in the operation gets noticed.
Talking to your customers directly is by far the best way to get feedback. They may tell you things that they wouldn’t feed back to your staff. Get to know your customers personally – their likes and dislikes, their routine, their suggestions, their network – all this not only builds rapport, but makes it a lot easier to upsell and tailor your offers to your market.
Every bit of feedback you get from your customers is valuable to you, whether it’s positive or negative and whether you agree with it or not. Take on board the good and the bad. If you don’t agree with the feedback, find out (tactfully) what has led to their perception, as this may lead to the root of the problem. If you don’t know what disappoints customers, you can’t improve on it, so make sure you are prepared to listen to, and take on board any thoughts on what lets you down, so you can learn from this and address it. Show them that you appreciate the feedback. Then demonstrate you’ve acted on it if relevant.
Be flexible. You can’t bow to every request a customer ever makes. But don’t be so bound by the rules that any request is met with a hostile ‘jobsworth’ attitude!
If you cannot meet your customers’ initial requests, look at offering an alternative. Catering for one off special needs is the sort of attention to detail that builds you loyalty and referrals.
What is there that makes your establishment or offer unique, that they might want to take home or share with others? This shows your appreciation of their business and well as acting as a memento and reinforces your relationship (as well as potentially an opportunity for additional sales). Could you offer any of the following either as a gift or as additional sales? Convert your renowned menu or signature dishes into a recipe book, package your hand-made petit fours into a gift box to take home; offer birthday or celebration cakes for customers celebrating special occasions; offer a hand-tied flower bouquet for anniversaries or special occasions; sell your homemade bread, marmalade or other preserves and chutneys; sell luxurious bathroom accessories, robes with your logo, and toiletries. A win-win, the guest has something special to take home and you get an opportunity to ensure they remember you long after they’ve left (and maybe an upselling opportunity too!)
Tomorrow we’ll discuss how to continue to build the guest relationship even once they’ve left you, to set the wheels in motion for repeat business and referrals – one of the easiest ways to market a hotel.
Learn the 7 fatal mistakes hoteliers make in getting more business on this complimentary tele seminar
I’ve just been reading an email from an entrepreneur recounting her experiences of the lack or personalisation to a complaint she made following a recent visit to a restaurant.
Every bit of feedback you get from your guests is valuable to you, whether it’s positive or negative and whether you agree with it or not. So treat it as such.
Capture the good and the bad. If you don’t agree with the feedback, rather than getting defensive, find out (tactfully) what has led to their perception, as this may lead to the root of the problem. If you don’t know what disappoints guests, you can’t improve on it, so make sure you are prepared to listen to, and take on board any thoughts on what lets you down, so you can learn from this and address it.
Generally your aim is to retain that customer, but be realistic about the likelihood of a return visit. If they live hundreds, or even thousands of miles away this might be unlikely. But think about referrals and whom else they might tell. Whether it’s TripAdvisor, on their blog or just word of mouth, the last thing you want is for a disgruntled customer to tell the world about their misfortunes and lack of response on your part.
So even if a return visit isn’t on the cards the very least you can do is to thank them for telling you, that you value their feedback, and demonstrate that you have taken their comments on board. Personalise your response, using their name, their language and show your concern. And finally reflect on the best outcome for this guest / customer for them to feel that their custom and feedback is valued, and leaving them feeling positive about your and your hotel or restaurant.
This is one of the topics covered in Caroline’s interview series How to Give Your Hotel a Competitive Edge.
It can be easy to get defensive when we receive feedback, particularly when we feel it is not justified or we totally disagree with it. What we need to ask is what led to this customer’s perception. This sometimes involves asking questions in a tactful way.
The key thing is to show some empathy with the customer’s point of view. Even if we disagree, something must have triggered their perception. So listen to what your guest is saying, and aim to turn a negative into a positive. The least you can do is apologise (even if you’re just apologising that they feel that way) and demonstrate what changes you’ve made if appropriate.
Whatever the feedback you receive, listen and learn from it. Keep your objectivity and don’t take things personally. Use the feedback to identify your strengths, so you can capitalise on these. And make sure you share these with your team. Then use the less positive feedback to identify root causes and what changes are needed, and remember to involve your team in the process.
So next time someone wants to give some feedback, look forward to it. It’s the businesses that embrace feedback that will succeed.
Do you look forward to reading your online reviews, or does the very idea that someone has felt compelled to post a review fill you with dread?
Getting feedback from your guests is essential to gauge whether or not what you’re offering is right for your target audience. Whether it’s positive or negative and whether you agree with it or not it is key to your success.
So why is it then that so many businesses seem to ignore this fact?
Maybe part of it (in Britain at least) is that customers are often reserved about giving direct feedback. They take the view that it’s not worth making a fuss, or why should they bother, when they can vote with their feet and just not come back again. Others by pass you, but still want to be heard and post a comment on line.
Unless we get people’s feedback we can’t do anything about it.
Tomorrow we’ll discuss when to ask for feedback, so you get in time to do something about it and before you see it posted online . Or download the full article here (log in or sign up required)
As your Christmas parties get underway, your marketing for next year is probably the last thing on your mind. But now is a great time to be building up material to use for next year. What better way to promote your Christmas parties and packages than to show people having fun, and your hotel or restaurant in all its Christmas splendour?
So at the very least, here are some things to do now.