10Year_CelebrationBadge

6 Ways 21st Century Phone Systems Help Hotels Succeed

Ryan Brown

Ryan Brown

Field Sales Manager

We know that running a hotel can be a very stressful job! That’s why we are committed to making things as easy as possible for you with our phone systems. Managing staff, trying to get new customers and making sure everything in the hotel runs smoothly, it’s a lot. One thing we have noticed often gets neglected is communication, which is one of the most crucial things you need to succeed. If you look at any successful organisation, you’ll notice they’re great communicators in one way or another. To guarantee the long-term success of your hotel, it’s important you make great communication a priority. You’ll be glad to hear that the Yo Telecom hotel phone system will help make your communication great and as a result will help you increase the success of your hotel! Here’s how:

1. See all Missed Calls and Call Them Back – Increasing Bookings and Revenue

You may find yourself missing more than just the odd call here and there. This usually happens due to being busy on the phone, helping your customers or because your reception area is closed. Unanswered or missed calls and engaged tones don’t leave the best impressions in a customer’s mind. If that isn’t bad enough, your potential new customers are now just a Google search away from finding other hotels in the area (your competition) if their phone call is unanswered.

Let’s think about it; say you lose one customer a week due to missed calls and you charge £60 per night. This might not sound like a lot if it’s just one customer wanting to stay for the night. However, what if they were wanting to stay for a week – that’s £420. Times that by the amount of weeks in a year and that’s exactly how much profit you could be missing out on – and that’s just from one missed call a week.

However, there’s hope! There is a way for you to see all of your missed calls as they happen – allowing you to call that client back instantly. Returning missed calls shows your customers a high level of customer service. Not only will they be impressed, but they will also be very likely to book a room at our hotel! This feature is called call logging. It logs and displays the phone number (and/or names of customers) along with the time and date they’ve called you. It works exactly like the call log on your mobile phone, alerting you of the missed call, so you can take action and turn a potential missed opportunity into a booking.

2. Improve the Communication Skills of Your Reception Team

When a customer or potential customer calls into your hotel, you need to ensure that the quality of your staff’s communication is very high.

“High quality communication implies a high level of service.” – Journal of Services Marketing.

“70% of people are willing to spend more with a business they believe offers excellent service.” – Survey conducted by American Express.

Imagine a customer is calling to enquire about the availability of rooms in your hotel for the weekend and what the price will be. The client will be expecting to have her questions answered in a friendly and professional manner. If your receptionist is in control of the call and the customer likes what she hears, this will result in the customer making the booking. If your staff’s communication does not meet or exceed the expectation of the customer, (eg. questions not answered correctly, lots of “umming and erring”, or saying “the person you need to speak to isn’t here, can you call back?”) he/she will form an unhelpful impression of your hotel and your potential new customer might be tempted to take their custom elsewhere.

This is where call recording becomes extremely valuable. It enables you to review any interactions your staff have had with customers. You can then use the recordings as part of staff training to help see what the strengths and weaknesses of your staff are and how you can improve communication. Without call recording, you won’t be able to monitor the strengths and weaknesses of your communication, leaving you stuck in the dark and making it harder to improve.

3. Save Time When Existing Customers Phone you With Customer Name Display™

You probably use a booking management software like RoomMaster PMS, eeZe Reservation or Bookwize which contains a database of all your customers. The Yo Telecom phone system has the ability of instantly matching your customer’s phone number to their record in your software which will display their name before you pick up the phone. This will save you having to ask for names, or even spellings. Plus it means you can greet your existing customers by their name which shows them an excellent level of service which they will appreciate.

4. Get More Bookings and Improve Customer Service With a Professional out of Hours Voicemail

A great way to increase your customer service and gain a few more bookings is to start offering an out-of-hours number to your customers. For example, say a potential customer is planning a spontaneous trip and needs a hotel to stay at as soon as possible. She has seen pictures of your hotel online and wants to enquire about making a booking. However, it’s a Saturday evening and all your reception staff have gone home. Often with traditional phone systems you won’t find out until it’s too late and your customer has found somewhere else. But not with a Yo Telecom phone system! Having this feature will also allow you to be on call in case anything happens at your hotel while you and your staff are not there.

With our Professional Out-of-Hours Voicemail, you can:

  1. Instantly get all your voicemail messages emailed to you – enabling you to take action right away.
  2. You can give customers the option to press a button to be connected to the hotel owner, manager. The message would look like:

“Thanks for calling [insert hotel name]. Our reception is now closed. Our regular opening hours are [insert opening hours]. If you would like to speak to the manager, please press 1 now, alternatively leave a message after the tone and we will call you back when the reception opens.”

Overall, this keeps customers happy and helps you service more customers!

5. Promote Services to Customers While They are on Hold

Occasionally, you will need to put customers on hold. It’s best that you keep waiting times to a minimum as it can become frustrating. When your customers are on hold, you should ensure that they don’t have to listen to tedious music or even worse – silence! Over 85% of callers prefer on hold messages over silence. – Cellular Marketing Magazine

Hold times are a great opportunity for you to promote the services that your hotel offers, such as spa treatments, conference rooms and restaurant details . People are more likely to show an interest in a product or service if they know what it’s about and its benefits. Yo Telecom’s on hold marketing messages are tailored to the goals of your hotel and they’re expertly scripted to “hit the spot” to get customers to enquire further.

6. Say Goodbye to the Dreaded Engaged Tone Once and for all

Traditional analogue lines can only make or receive one call at any given time. So when you’re busy on the phone, your line will be engaged. This means customers will be abruptly cut off by an engaged tone. Leaving them with a poor impression of you hotel. Not only is it frustrating for the customer, who is often calling to make a booking, but it’s also frustrating for you as you don’t want to be throwing opportunities in the bin. With the Yo Telecom hotel phone system you can choose the right amount of inbound lines available on your main phone number. For smaller hotels this might be two, but it could be as many as 6+. So instead of your customers hearing engaged tones while you’re busy, they’ll hear a professional message letting them know you’re busy on all your phones and will be with them soon! You can even give customers the option to press 1 and leave a message if they’d prefer.

3 Step Plan to Increase the Success of Your Hotel

1. Book a Demo

Book in for a FREE demo of our phone systems by calling us on 02382 146115.

2. Sign up for the Option that Suits the Needs of Your Hotel

One of our specialist consultants will come to your hotel and discuss all of your options until we have come up with the perfect solution that meets your requirements.

3. Let us Take Care of a Hassle Free Installation & Training

Your delivery and installation date will be booked on a day that suits you. We’ll take care of the whole switch over and will train you to make the most of all of the features on your new phone system!

Conclusion

Investing in great communications leads to greater success and happier customers.

The combined improvements that are a result of just these 6 points can add hundreds of thousands of pounds to the yearly revenue of your hotel. Plus, result in customers that are happier due to simple and helpful communication.

Click below to book a free demonstration of our systems!

Share this post:

Free No Obligation Quote

You will not find us on any comparison website or through a reselling channel. We only work directly with our customers to deliver the best price and service. Complete the form and one of our experts will be in touch with you shortly to discuss your best options.

Join our 2000+ happy customers

More From The Blog...

Email Subscribe form

Ready to get started?

You won’t find us on any comparison websites or reseller channels. This is because we only work directly with our customers. This way we can find out exactly what your business needs and set up a package just for you – so you’re not paying for anything you don’t need!

Complete this quick form and one of our team will be in touch promptly to talk about how we can help increase your businsess sucess. 

Join our 2000+ happy customers!

Main Contact Form - CTA - All Pages