With more than 47 million people in the UK receiving at least one dose of the coronavirus vaccine,* confidence in returning to ‘normality’ has increased, with 53% of UK holiday and leisure bookings now being made for 2023.± While this means that uptake for the remainder of 2022 is only tiny, people are making enquiries and bookings in large numbers for next season.
*Source: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/health-55274833
±Source: https://www.itv.com/news/2021-06-24/is-it-worth-travelling-abroad-in-2021-new-figures-show-what-brits-are-thinking
Increased enquiries are the perfect opportunity for airlines, hotels, and other hospitality businesses to re-engage with customers. Still, in the post-pandemic world, this poses problems, particularly for those businesses that downsized their workforces.
Frontline staff are crucial to customer satisfaction, but with fewer teams, customer waiting times can be much longer, and customer service standards can easily slip.
Here are 3 simple steps to keep customer satisfaction at the forefront during 2023.
1. Inspire Customer Confidence
Those planning holidays, days out, and attending events are looking at many firsts since the pandemic began, first inside dining, first flights, first stays away from home, and first crowds.
With all these firsts, people also have a higher level of expectation regarding personal space, courtesy, health and safety, sanitation, and health checks.
Earning customer trust starts with showing that your business is sensitive to their concerns, wants, and needs.
The pandemic has created a unique opportunity for hospitality businesses to make a great second impression based on respect and care.
Businesses that commit to high standards of customer care are far more likely to gain long-term customers with a more profound sense of loyalty.
2. Entice New Staff with a Superior Employee Experience
The best way to handle an influx of new customer enquiries is with more staff, which is difficult with skills shortages and hospitality staff having left to retrain in other fields.
Finding talented staff and retaining them is key to keeping operations running smoothly and customer satisfaction high; if your staff are happy, they will provide better service.
Streamlined inductions, prioritising the well-being and safety of staff, offering benefits and incentives, and addressing any concerns upfront are all excellent ways to keep employees happy and maintain a quality talent pool for your business.
3. Leverage Automation to Fill Gaps
Even if it isn’t possible to have human agents handle every customer request, customers still need to feel heard. Automation technology can fill holes in your marketing, sales, and service, ensuring a seamless customer experience.
For example, chatbots can allow customers to engage with your business from anywhere and anytime, offsetting the long wait times that frustrate even the most patient.
Chatbots can answer common questions and identify the urgency and complexity of requests and complaints, allowing your human agents to prioritise and work more efficiently. At the same time, the chatbot handles the more frequent and straightforward interactions.
UX-Digital’s ‘Digital Concierge’ is designed specifically for the hospitality industry. Available in various languages with the ability to score requests, answer free-form questions, share resources, send email alerts, upsell and most importantly, learn from its interactions.
Interested in learning more about the Digital Concierge?
Investing in automation technology now will nurture and encourage future bookings.
In Summary
Finding your footing again while mapping an interconnected, multi-channel customer journey is no simple feat. To succeed, hospitality businesses cannot attempt to continue operating as they did in the pre-pandemic world. Instead, they must adapt to support customers at the point they are at right now, even if that means adopting non-traditional processes. It might be a big challenge, but it is also an opportunity to attract new and existing customers in entirely new and exciting ways.
