May-2014-issue

T e c h n o l o g yGetting themessageThe all-pervasive power of socialmedia and mobile technology haspermanently altered the hospitalitylandscape. Donald Gasper asks howcustomer relationship managementtechnology can help hotel groupseffectively factor in these developmentsSentimentAnalysis Reportswith Social Feedsfrom ZDirect, IncWhen hotels began rolling outCustomer RelationshipManagement (CRM)solutions in the 1990s,they faced challenges with disparate data,guest interaction channel consistency andestablishing loyalty programmes, says BobDunfee, director of marketing managementsolutions at US software company Infor. Hesays hotel operators that owned multipleproperties also faced the challenge oftrying to keep guests within their property‘ecosystem’.Over time, many of these challengeswere solved by technology and the guestexperience was greatly improved, as was thebottom line. However, over the last nineplusyears, social media use has exploded,resulting in a new set of opportunities thathotels need to be ready for.Social media provides a CRM channelthat allows guests to learn, interact and shareinformation more quickly than ever before.As social media channels are also accessiblevia smartphone and tablet apps, it becomeseven more important for hotels to find aneffective way to manage these interactionsof their ‘always connected’ guests.Power and responsibilityMichael Schaeffner, director of sales andmarketing at Serenata Intraware, based inMunich, Germany, says social media is ahuge opportunity for hoteliers. “Wouldit not be great to use all the valuable andcandid information from social mediachannels to enrich your customer profile andbenefit from the information your guests aresharing in the social web?”His says his own company believessuch an approach is essential for a state ofthe art CRM. Hoteliers are getting moresensitive to the accumulation of differentdata sources and realising the potential ofthe data out there. Ideally, this informationis captured and utilised in a comprehensiveCRM solution, which is becoming essentialfor the hotelier of today.“The question now,” Schaeffner says,“is: do you have fully integrated customerrelationship management in place and doesyour CRM solution allow you to integrateall touch points?“The core values of a CRM suite havenot changed at all,” he says. “Hoteliers arestill seeking as many details as possible toenrich the stay of their guests. Nowadays,however, they have new ways to gainvaluable details about their clients.”Not too long ago, he says, propertymanagement systems (PMS) and centralreservation systems (CRS) were the onlydata sources really looked at.The hoteliersof the 21st century, on the other hand, havea wider variety of options.It was never more challenging thannow, however, to create just one centralprofile, especially when looking at all thedata sources spawned by mobile technologyand social media over the past three years.In addition to targeted and relevantguest communication, today we havemultiple data sources to tap for information,something that could only be dreamed ofjust a few years ago, Schaeffner says. “Thinkabout the information a cashpoint (POS)in a restaurant delivers. Connect yourrestaurant visitors, who are not staying inyour hotel, to your central profile and usetheir food and beverage spending patternsto include them in your promotions andmarketing activities.”The same approach applies to a hotel’sspa outlet, which often lives from out-ofhousetraffic. These clients – potential hotelclients – can now be included in the hotel’smarketing strategy and communicationstandards and be converted from spa visitorsto hotel guests.Ignore at your perilShayne Paddock, CIO of ZDirect, Inc.,a provider of software solutions for thehospitality and resort industry, based inMiami, Florida, says it is obvious hoteliersare paying more attention to the impactmobile and social media is having ontheir brand.“More and more hoteliers are comingto us asking for new mobile solutions andfunctionality in their customer surveyreports that include feedback from socialmedia including Twitter, Facebook andTripAdvisor.”“The customer satisfaction survey thatused to only be seen by the GM is now beingbroadcast on the entire internet for everyoneto see, including prospective guests, so it iscritical hoteliers take action and gather thedata from these sites to help improve theguest experience,” Paddock says.He adds that it is hard to make senseof all this data, so it is the job of CRMproviders to develop new tools or metricswith predictive analysis to help themunderstand what the information means.Features such as sentiment analysis providea simple way to gain an overview of thepositive and negative content being sharedon social sites and on guest feedback22 AHCT May 2014 www.asianhotelandcateringtimes.com