Monday, 10 September 2012

How can SMS enhance CRM within the Hospitality sector?

Enterprises are now realising the benefits of using SMS for CRM. According to a recent SITA survey almost 9 out of 10 airlines intend to offer flight search, check-in, boarding passes, purchase and status notification as part of their core mobile services offering. Mobile services should be a key consideration for hoteliers and other hospitality providers given that a large proportion of hotel and event guests are often airline passengers enroute.

In the HeBS Digital’s Sixth Annual Benchmark Survey on Hotel Digital Marketing almost one-third of those surveyed intended to spend up to 49% of their advertising and marketing budgets on digital marketing initiatives, although hoteliers only spent about 15.6% on Mobile Marketing. The reason for this is explained quite concisely by Michael Kasavana, NAMA Endowed Professor of Michigan State University's Hospitality Business School, who found that, "When considering mobile technologies, many hospitality managers are not convinced of the potential benefits resulting in enhanced guest engagement, improved customer satisfaction, and increased consumer spending."

Mobile technology, and in particular SMS solutions, can in fact open the door for companies in the hospitality sector to re-market to opted-in consumers by sending them targeted, relevant branded information that adds value by offering incentives for participation and streamlining the guest's overall service experience. There are also a multitude of other ways in which SMS can be used to improve client relations, for instance by encouraging feedback and conversation, updating guests in terms of bookings, service availability and generally ensuring that they have all the sufficient up to date information requested.

Within the hospitality sector there is one group of enterprises who are well aware of the branding and CRM advantages that SMS has to offer. Restaurateurs are already incorporating SMS into their communications strategies to drive consumer loyalty and encourage repeat bookings and visits. The market certainly is more than willing to participate as, according to Pew Research released this year, 30% of smartphone or cell phone owners used their phone to decide whether to visit a business such as a restaurant. SMS therefore offers the diner a quick and instant way to confirm their reservation and when used intelligently will save restaurateurs money, remove the need for unnecessary admin and free-up phones, computers and most importantly staff.

We have been providing highly reliable and effective mobile services to the hospitality sector since 1999 and during this time our clients have benefited from improved efficiency of their communications, reduced administration and marketing costs as well as enhanced the overall customer relationship process by keeping customers informed through SMS and more importantly by listening to their requirements and suggestions.

With our wealth of experience in the hospitality sector we have a range of services that can be tailored to suit a number of differing requirements and solve a number of problems. They range from simple easy to use SMS solutions to fully integrated enterprise packages designed to complement and enhance your existing communication software. To read further examples of how SMS can enhance CRM in your enterprise, please view our Sector Information.

Alternatively, visit us at:

http://www.linkedin.com/company/hay-systems-ltd

follow us on Twitter
@HSLSMS

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605260


or email us at
sales@haysystems.com

Why SMS should be used for emergency communications

There has been much debate lately regarding the suitability of SMS for emergency communications. SMS is now being successfully used by emergency services, councils and also by rescue teams within the UK. Critics would argue that SMS can be subject to external factors and supplier issues such as poor network coverage, low quality supplier routes and low redundancy on the part of your SMS service provider. However recent research from Ofcom shows that SMS remains the most popular form of communication for mobile users in the UK. The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) has additionally stated that there are more mobile phones in the world than there are toothbrushes and as we know SMS messages are normally delivered within a handful of seconds, it is easy to see why SMS should be considered for emergency communications.

Whilst there is not much to be done to avoid external factors such as the mobile handset being switched off, suppliers can at least ensure that the service they offer is of a high quality and therefore eliminate other concerning issues.

As part of our enterprise solutions we offer a critical alerting tool called AlertBroadcast which is ideal for time-sensitive messaging. The technology behind our AlertBroadcast solution is based on our highly capable and resilient SMS delivery infrastructure which includes using established mobile operators alongside our own technology. This enables us to provide enterprises with not only a cost-effective but also a highly robust service, offering 99.9% service availability.

HSL's AlertBroadcast solution is technically sophisticated, but simply put, it provides customers with an easy to manage two-way SMS alert system between a controller and contacts. The controller simply sends an SMS message from their mobile handset to a dedicated mobile number provided by HSL and the message is then forwarded on automatically to the designated group of contacts. The controller and contact lists can be set up remotely and can be quickly amended to ensure that the most up to date contact details are used at all times.

This solution is ideal for using in an emergency situation or when information is needed quickly as it enables customers to quickly and reliably send critical SMS alerts to employees, team members, suppliers or partners. Additionally, the controller can also request a response from the contacts within their broadcast message. By requesting the response and receiving the reply, the controller can be confident that the message has been delivered on time to the contact and interpreted correctly by the recipient (which is crucial if the recipient is acting upon instructions).

AlertBroadcast is an effective tool and is already used by a number of our clients for updating staff with important company information such as alerting mine employees of impending tsunamis and tropical cyclones and also providing time sensitive updates to search and rescue staff in the field.

To read further examples of how HSL's AlertBroadcast solution can be applied in your enterprise and used for emergency communications, please view our AlertBroadcast page.

Alternatively, visit us at:

http://www.linkedin.com/company/hay-systems-ltd

follow us on Twitter
@HSLSMS

or call us on +44 (0)1506 605260


or email us at
sales@haysystems.com