This Is How Catherine Uses GuestTouch Messaging At Pre-Arrival To Provide A Delightful Experience, Stay On Top Of Potential Cancellations, And Prioritize Housekeeping Operations

Learn how Catherine, the general manager at this amazing lakeside boutique property uses GuestTouch Messaging to connect with guests at the pre-arrival stage which brings her business and fantastic operational results during the whole of the hotel guest journey!

SYNOPSIS

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Providing its guests with an experience that is differentiated, exquisite, modern and personalized is the dream of every property out there. While some aspects of the guest experience are timeless, and are provided by almost every property, an accommodation must stand out by doing something unique and special for its guests. It's almost like reading your guests' minds and fulfilling their requests even before they ask for it. Enhancing the guest experience never goes out of trend and it never will! To aid hoteliers in this mission, technology and right tools have left no stone unturned when it comes to providing a top-notch hotel guest experience. Looking for some inspiration and guidance in this sector was Catherine, the General Manager

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CATHERINE'S VISION OF HER PROPERTY

The idea that her property should keep up with the task of providing impeccable customer service ranks topmost on Catherine’s list.Realizing that communicating with the guests, especially when they need you the most is a key towards not just providing a fabulous guest experience, but also in gearing up your crew better to expedite processes the moment you realize that a guest is about to arrive at your doorstep, motivated her!Catherine’s excellent management of her property attains another level by bringing in digital innovation with the application of GuestTouch Messaging at pre-arrival. Her vision entails watching her guests thrive, check-out the property with broad smiles on their faces, and connect with her with just one simple tap or message through an easy-to-use messaging solution.

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Nestled alongside a tranquil lake, catch a glimpse of Catherine's beautiful lakeside boutique property in all its serenity and glory...

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"GuestTouch Messaging has changed the way we prioritize customer service. Its ease of use has received an overwhelming response from our guests. Both the mobile and desktop apps are simple to use, give us instant access to our guests with two-way communication. All of which is allowing us to provide a new level of guest experience." -Catherine, General Manager at the Lakeside Boutique Property

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PROBLEM & FOCUS AREAS

Catherine shares her experience in detail, shedding light on some of the problems that she had to deal with before she started using the pre-arrival messaging:

‣ The Taxing Manual Effort

Before leveraging the GuestTouch messaging at pre-arrival, the hotel team had to undergo a strenuous effort of communicating with the guests with absolutely no automation facility in the picture. "We used to call up every reservation ahead of time to confirm their booking and arrival. This process can take between 30-40 minutes and normally results in many unanswered and unreachable calls. In addition, there would be around 20-30 phone calls on a daily basis, regarding the reservations and other pre-booking queries.”This naturally decreased the expected productivity level, led to lapses due to the limited human capacity, and made even the smallest of tasks time-consuming, thereby taking the focus away from the core operations and more vital areas.

‣ Divided Attention & Delayed Communication

As a manager, Catherine has many responsibilities. The constant juggling between handling the hotel operations, pre-arrival communication and guests' calls was just in-efficient and time-consuming in many ways. “Given how busy we can be at peak times, it’s difficult to carry on with pre-arrival phone calls to check-in with arriving guests and confirming the timings with every guest.” All in all, this decreased their operational efficiency.

But With GuestTouch, Everything Changed Instantly…

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Doing her own research and realizing it’s high time for automation to come to the forefront to bid goodbye to all the operational tribulations, Catherine resorted to GuestTouch Messaging at pre-arrival for smoothening out the communication process and a lot more with her guests:

“We are now using the automated pre-arrival messages that we customize and schedule for all pre-arrivals a few days before guests’ check-in dates. We do not need to remember to do this, it is now handled automatically, our response rate is tremendous because guests prefer text messaging and they can connect back with a simple text or with an update on their plan whenever it is convenient for them.” — Catherine

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SOLUTION

‣ Catherine Uses GuestTouch’s Pre-Arrival Messaging In Her Style

→ Few days before guests’ arrival, she sends an easilycustomizable andautomated pre-arrival message:

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A use case example of pre-arrival messaging shared by Catherine and her team

→ Additionally, she can use GuestTouch’s messaging at pre-arrival to schedule a message to be sent on the day of arrival: 

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Another use case example of pre-arrival messaging shared by Catherine and her team

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‣ Pre-Arrival Messaging Alerts Her About Cancellations In Advance And Helps Fill Those Rooms With New Reservations

There can be last-minute cancellations. But thanks to pre-arrival messaging that alerts Catherine instantly and in advance about such situations:

"We typically have some surprise cancellations. Connecting with guests few days before their arrival allows us to provide high-touch customer service, anticipate their needs, and also understand if there are any changes of plans. This, in turn, allows us to fill those rooms with new reservations”

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‣ Pre-Arrival Messaging Helps PrioritizeHousekeeping And Other Operations

Getting a heads-up from guests’ end and gaining an insight into their travel logistics and estimated arrival time through GuestTouch messaging at pre-arrival, Catherine can now prepare herself and the team better to keep the rooms ready, set the stage for check-in, and make further provisions:

"It allows us to prioritize rooms and housekeeping operations, and anticipate service needed. Sometimes guests would reply back with their arrival time, like “we will be arriving at 10:30 PM” This way we’d know that our staff at the front desk is present and the guest is welcomed and checked-in fast”

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‣ Killing Two Birds With A Single Stone: Enhancing The Experience At Both The Pre-Arrival & Check-In Through Pre-Arrival Messaging

What starts at pre-arrival continues through the stages that follow thereafter. For instance, the insights gained through using messaging at pre-arrival helps Catherine and the staff to make all the preparations for a warm welcome. Since the arrival time of the guest is on the tip of their tongues, check-in formalities and the process is expedited, waiting time for the guests is considerably reduced or becomes almost nil, and the room is all set to receive the guests with open arms.

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RESULTS

What started as a mere effort to bring automation in the loop culminated into the most reliable tool for boosting operational efficiency and providing a seamless guest experience. Using GuestTouch messaging at pre-arrival, Catherine and the team could witness significant results in the following areas:

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‣ Elimination Of The Strenuous Manual Effort

With pre-arrival messaging, the staff could easily put the burden of remembering every small detail off their shoulders, right from reminding the guests about their upcoming reservations to following up with the latter regarding their check-in and plausible modifications in the plan. Now that everything could be put on automation, the staff instead started investing their time in preparing for the next stages of the guest journey.

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‣ Reduction In The Number Of Inquiry & Pre-Arrival Phone Calls

With GuestTouch’s pre-arrival messaging, the hotel communicated important details to guests automatically in the medium guests love, text messaging. The amount of phone calls considerably reduced. On a more personalized level, the property enlarged its efforts to acquaint its guests with the idea of using the messaging platform for communication and encouraged more and more people to connect with them through this medium- throughout their journey. This invariably decreased the number of phone calls and the hassle of responding to these calls for resolving the queries to a greater extent.

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‣ Improved Operational Efficiency

Catherine made the most of every beneficial aspect of GuestTouch messaging at pre-arrival to connect with her guests. Her communication skills and impressive message drafting paved the way for insights into the expected arrival time, the state of the guests’ travel logistics, what kind of services they’re expecting, etc.Paying extreme attention to such minute details, she would brief her team to do their respective parts in accordance with the guests’ expectations- preparing the room in advance in the case of early check-in, letting in new reservations in the cases of cancellations, keeping the front desk on standby for an expedited and hassle-free check-in, etc.

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‣ Enhanced Customer Service And Guest Experience

Pre-arrival is the first impression of your property on the guests and how you handle it speaks volumes about your brand’s reputation as a whole. Deploying GuestTouch messaging at pre-arrival and setting the itinerary or the plan for the succeeding stages in place, Catherine found a perfect way to enhance the overall guest experience. By accommodating the guests’ requests and allowing them the leeway to connect through a simple messaging platform, Catherine was able to change the whole face of the guest experience at her property.

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‣ Enhanced Brand Reputation

With Catherine’s expertise in handling GuestTouch messaging at pre-arrival, the property’s overall brand reputation was enhanced in no time. The team noticed an overall 70% increase in reviews and more importantly, most of these were on the positive side. Catherine and the team could trace the progress in concrete terms. The analysis of guest sentiment in the reviews hinted at the overall increase with an average ratings of 5-stars.While a lot of hotels tend to focus on the larger picture, just the “stay,” Catherine’s approach teaches the need to start from the basics, and repair the ‘A’ in the A-Z range first before making the forward leap. Catherine and the team continue to use pre-arrival messaging to provide another level of guest experience to each of their guests.

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