Congratulations – your inn, motel or hotel does fairly well throughout the year, and you end up booked 24/7 over the holidays with the phone ringing off the hook! This is a familiar experience for the successful hospitality manager, but it’s not always a dream come true. After all, how do you make time for your current customers while actually answering the phones and not totally overtaxing your staff? With the help of a 24/7 hospitality answering service, you can help your current patrons, while we take care of the new ones!
Focus on Your Current Customers’ Experience
In today’s era of social media and peer review sites, it’s more important than ever before to let your guests truly slow down and have an enjoyable, and memorable stay. No one wants to feel as if the hotel staff is privileging phone calls over real life interactions, but the holidays can be a difficult time to strike that delicate balance. Guests are busy, stressed, and may need additional supports and services to help them meet the demands of holiday travel. Utilizing a hospitality answering service will allow you to focus 100% on your current customers and spend time on the small touches that will make them come back year after year, and tell all their friends to do the same.
Encourage Future Bookings After the Holiday Rush
A hospitality call center will not only help you manage incoming last minute bookings, but it can also help you build your business all year round. Professional call service staff can work with your callers to turn a “Sorry, no vacancy” call into a “We’d love to have you next spring” call. When future guests know that they can always call and get someone on the phone instead of hearing it ring off the hook, they may be more inclined to call while doing research for a future trip. A positive call center experience can help shift that trip from tentative to definite, and earn your establishment another solid booking after the rush of the busy holiday season.
Take the Pressure of In House Hospitality Staff
The holidays can be especially difficult for hospitality staff thanks to increased volume of guests and the need to balance work and life commitments. When hospitality staff has to make the choice between a ringing phone and a current guest with pressing needs, it can be a real challenge to prioritize one over the other without letting someone down. Using a call center during the busy seasons sends a message to your staff that they can calm down and focus in on the task at hand–the current guests who need extra pillows, fresh soap, or ideas on the best place to go caroling with the whole family! The result? A satisfied customer and a staff member who is able to stay calm, cool, and collected, no matter how many calls come in.
For more information on how a hospitality answering service can help keep the holiday rush chugging all year long at your establishment, please contact MAP communications today! We’re a customer focused call service, and we’d be delighted to work on solutions that help you build a sustainable, manageable hospitality business. Contact us today to start your free 7-day trial.
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