Customer relationship management is commonly used to learn more about customers’ needs and behavioral characteristics to develop strong relationships.
The most important feature of CRM is to bring together all the information, not only about customers but also about sales, marketing effectiveness, and trends.
CRM also emphasizes making a good relationship with channel partners, employees, and stakeholders.
In today’s time, attracting a customer is not only based on price and product differentiation.
The market is mature now, so do customers, and the introduction of globalization is increasing the trade among customers and companies on the international level.
Well-organized and manufacturing and the inclusion of the Internet have completely changed the competitive scenario.
From a customers’ point of view, it all started with price only and product only differentiation. They want extra benefits.
Nowadays what they are getting with that product as value-added is the deciding factor for the customer to purchase a product.
Presently, CRM is the most promising factor for the simple reason that the relationship is in the prime position in the competitive area.
After implementing CRM, an organization should target an absolute win-win situation for customers, stakeholders, and employees.
These situations also exist in the hospitality sector.
The hospitality sector also includes Hotels, cruise liners, Resorts, Health Spas, and clubs.
The marketing expertise of large firms has created a competitive environment with this top-notch competition.
Most of the big players are taking a step further.
In today’s time, a customer is not happy with a normal product. Companies need to go beyond the expectations of the customers.
Companies have to increase the value of products along with the value-added services.
There was a time when companies used to be property-centric, but now they are moving towards customer-centric strategies. The hotel industry is fast adopting the latest technologies.
Old Scenario:
In the past, if anyone wanted to succeed, it was considered that all they needed was a perfect location and good cuisine.
But in today’s competitive environment, a mistake as small as not taking the greeting the customers can prove to be very catastrophic.
There were very few options left with customers, so they had to choose between one or two hotels where they were the regular visitors.
Now things are completely changed. Whereas with international hotels, the number of travelers was increasing at a steady leading to all the establishments under the hospitality industry being filled.
Why do Most of us love to book the hotel beforehand instead of having alternative options of the hotel offering almost the same facilities?
I think customer relationship practices of the hotels should get the due credit.
Hotels with high customer loyalty grow almost twice as fast as those who are not practicing CRM, and it is cost-effective as well.
The reason behind this loyal customer base is that they are willing to spend more, easy to serve, and attract other customers too with the power of word of mouth.
All the leaders setting their game on loyalty are above their competitors in terms of growth and profitability.
Companies that can understand the importance of CRM have adopted it.
The services these hotels offer are based on different parameters: The primary goods/services offered.
The price/total cost of ownership or customer experience.
Things are pretty evident, Customers will assure with theirs.
A presence that they will not move to your competitor if you reward them with an efficient service.
In short, customer satisfaction and good quality services lead to the loyalty of the customer.
With each passing time these services are becoming more expected by the customers, so invitation with their
product or services is the key to retaining their loyal customer base.
But things are not as simple as they look the customer is keen on trying a new food or enjoying new services, so they can easily switch to others without any hesitation.
At times, customers like the product of your competitor more than what you are offering.
So the organizations need to segment their target audience.
Sometimes it is ok to segment your audience according to your product and potential customers.
Organizations need to measure the ROI on the CRM for a better view of CRM and the behavioral aspects of their customers.
Today’s Scenario:
In today’s time, organizations have to be two steps further from their customers to gain their confidence in their organizations because of some disastrous incidence.
Some companies found that security is the prominent aspect for their customers with up-to-date database and identification of their regular customer accounts.
With the help of CRM, companies could increase customers’ satisfaction levels which can lead to an increase in their loyalty towards the organization.
CRM can also increase the accuracy of hotels that were not that accurate.
One of the significant issues identified by organizations was that continuous, organization-wide competencies are required to increase the ambitious position of an organization and achieve an upper hand over the competitors.
Hospitality industries also found that the business process in the organization must also be simplified and combined well across the organization to enhance its alertness in responding to the changing customer demands.
Customer Relationship Management is the key to all these dynamic changes and a powerful tool over competitors.
With the availability of technology around the globe, CRM is playing a significant role in all big chains in India and abroad.
At present, every big hotel chain is making an effort by investing in its comprehensive system that stores complete profiles of their customers.
The moment a person checks in, that customer has to fill a form indicating various preferences, likings, and dislikings.
If the person is a regular client, the hotel knows about what they like and then acts accordingly to serve that customer.
Almost every hotel heavily depends upon its regular customers in terms of revenue. Hotels that identify this have settled Customer Information System to service the customer more comfortably.
A CIS helps the hotel maintain a complete record of the customer and keep an eye on its customer’s preferences during their visits. CIS creates a guest-centric environment that is essential for CRM.
The same database is prominent to offer loyalty programs to the customers.
Nowadays, hotels provide different customers different services as per their profile. In the earlier times, this method was done manually with no prior knowledge about customers’ preferences.
Now, the company is fully aware of the history of customers.
The hotel can serve a customer more effectively and efficiently. Some hotels take this process to a whole different level by providing a unique identification numbers to enable them to check their loyalty points, which they can use afterward.
E-CRM in Hospitality Industry:
Electronic-Customer Relationship Management, with the arrival of internet distribution and marketing in hospitality, is a big business strategy E-CRM allows hoteliers to engage their customers.
Today’s multi-channel needs a single image for all the channels.
At the same time, it requires a great customer relation should be established between customers and organization across all the means.
Each hotel have their own set of targeted audience.
Travelers for exploring purposes look for attractive areas and accommodation for their families.
Business travelers look for directions and high-speed Internet. Meeting planners look for function room floor plans.
Whenever a customer, first-time searches for their sites, a branding appears in front of them, branding interaction can be positive and negative most of the time for some hoteliers on many events visiting the website becomes the last chance of contact with these potential customers.
Issues Involved in Implementing Customer Relationship Management:
Yes, there is the importance of CRM, and many hotels are implementing it.
There are still many issues that are involved in implementing CRM in the hospitality industry. And it should be addressed.
❖ IT industry is not completely aligned with business strategy: most of the big names in the industry understand the concept of CRM, yet it is typical to implement because it is not that smooth, and at some point, incomplete and unsuccessful.
❖ Roadmap from property-centric to customer-centric:
Before the implementation of CRM, companies built on a patchwork of proprietary IT systems, which makes it difficult for hotels to obtain customers’ data from their profiles. Even though they work under a large corporate house and most of the properties are owned by locals, it is tough to convince them to invest in more compatible technology.
❖ Structure of the industry: Hospitality corporations don’t own and operate most of their operations. Most properties are locally owned and operated with a right to use the brand name. They have implemented their technology as per their wants.
Conclusion:
Now, some of the most important questions arise,
Who are your website visitors?
How are they finding your website?
Why are they visiting your site?
How often do they visit your site?
Do they find what they are looking for?
The answer to all these questions is in how effectively one organization operate their CRM.
Hotels providing Internet and online reservation system with other services give themselves a slight edge.
In conclusion, it is safe to say that CRM would act as a soul for an organization finding it tough to sustain itself in the market and putting you ahead of your competition with the retention of your loyal customer base.
It’s up to the organization how it looks at CRM? the one it looks, with strategic importance, will rule the market, and those who look at it as technology will have great success.
