Voicemail, previously known as an answerphone machine, was developed in the 1930s and was widely adopted by businesses in the 1980s. It’s still a popular feature of modern phone systems, but, today it’s a little different. Voicemail has been improved to deliver more value to businesses and make the overall customer experience better. What are these drastic improvements and how can hotels take advantage of professional voicemail to increase their success? Let’s find out!
What is a Professional Voicemail?
A professional voicemail is an automated answering service that meets the following requirements of businesses:
01. It communicates meaningful and helpful information to customers.
02. It sounds perfect and creates a positive impression of your hotel.
03. The length of ringing before the message is played (and the message itself) is automatically adaptable for different times, days and purposes.
04. Voicemail messages trigger an instant notification (on the handset, PC, or smartphone app) to the hotel and can be accessed and listened to easily and instantly from anywhere in the world.
05. The voicemail system should (if wanted) give hotels the option for customers to “press 1 to be connected to the emergency out of hours service” if one is offered by your hotel.
Top 7 Reasons Why Professional Voicemail is Important for Hotels
01. It helps you provide excellent service to your customers.
02. Its communication leads to more bookings at your hotel.
03. It helps customers get the information they need.
04. A well-thought-out voicemail message gives you another opportunity to make money.
05. It shows customers you care about them.
06. It satisfies customers and builds trust in your hotel.
07. It can create a positive and professional impression in your customer’s mind.
Questions You Should Answer Before Deciding How To Set-Up Your Hotel’s Professional Voicemail:
In this section we’ll look at the different features professional voicemail offers hotels, and discuss the best ways to use them.
How do you Communicate a Meaningful and Useful Message to Customers?
The first thing you should find out is what do your customers want from a voicemail?
Here are some things customers said they want from a hotel’s voicemail:
– To know they’ve called who they intended to.
– The reason why the call wasn’t answered.
– When they can speak to you (opening hours).
– What alternative methods of communication are available.
– What to do if they have an emergency.
– When their call will be returned if they leave a message.
– Guidance on what they should do to speak to you as quickly as possible.
Don’t try to fit all of those points into one message, otherwise, it will be too long. Instead, decide which points are most important for different times of the day and create a message around what is important to you and more importantly your customers.
With the above information, you can start to tailor a meaningful message for your customers (or if you switch to Yo Telecom our talented script writers will do this for you).
Here are two examples of the types of messages we can create for you:
OPEN VOICEMAIL MESSAGE
“Thank you for calling [name of hotel]. We’re sorry we can’t take your call right now, we are currently busy helping other customers. We aim to return all calls within one working hour, so please leave us a message with your name and number and we’ll be in touch shortly.”
CLOSED VOICEMAIL MESSAGE
“Thank you for calling [name of hotel]. We’re sorry we can’t take your call right now, our reception is currently closed. Our opening hours are [insert opening hours]. Please leave us a message after the tone and we’ll give you a call back as soon as our reception is open”
Will Returning Calls Promptly Lead to Happier Customers and More Revenue?
To be perfectly honest with you, yes. But why?
Professor James Oldroyd of MIT discovered that if you call back within 5 minutes of a client’s enquiry, you are 100 times more likely to reach the client as opposed to calling back after 30 minutes.
If you miss a call and take too long to call back, all it takes is for that potential customer to Google other hotels in the area and they have a whole list of your competitors that they can call instead. They will take their custom elsewhere, resulting in a missed opportunity for you and a loss in revenue.
Should we Give Customers the Option to Speak to us Directly out of Hours?
If you offer an ‘out of hours’ service, you want to make it easy for your customers to contact you.
If you don’t offer an out of hours service you may want to consider it for the following reasons:
01. It’s extremely valuable for both customers and your hotel.
02. It differentiates your hotel from the competition.
03. It can be a good (and sometimes untapped) source of new customers.
04. You can be on call for any issues or problems that might arise at your hotel.
However, most hotel owners and managers do not want customers to have their mobile numbers (even if they offer out of hours services), which is understandable. You don’t want a wake-up call when Mrs Smith in room 309 phones to complain about her neighbours making noise in the early hours on Sunday morning.
So what is the solution for this?
Time-specific voicemail messages that will let your customers press 1 to be connected to you in the event of a real emergency. You chose the hours that the messages play (the hours you’re happy to provide out of hours service).
A professional voicemail has many benefits for both customers and hotels.
We suggest booking a free demonstration to find out more about how our hospitality phone systems with professional voicemail, in conjunction with call logging, can help you achieve your business goals…
