Hospitality CRM

Benefits of CRM in hospitality, and why your hospitality business needs one

Hospitality CRM is the technology used to manage interactions with customers during every stage of the customer journey with your hospitality business.

Our article compiles the benefits of using a hospitality CRM, and why your hospitality business needs one.

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What is a CRM in the hospitality industry?

CRM or customer relationship management is the technology used to manage interactions with customers during every stage of the customer journey.

In hospitality, the CRM software might deal with communications to encourage return visits, pre-visit booking enquiries, booking reminders, to encourage pre-ordering and follow up communications post-visit.

How can a CRM benefit my hospitality business?

A fantastic guest experience starts before your guests enter the building and should continue long after the bill is paid.

To build a loyal customer base that will return time and again, you need to extend the guest experience outside of a single visit and CRM software for hospitality will help you gather and maintain the information you need to deliver a tailored experience to each and every guest.

Promotes customer loyalty

On average, 70% of a restaurant’s database^[1]consists of customers who have only visited once. With so many options available to them, you need to give your customers a reason to revisit that resonates with them.

You can use your hospitality CRM software to send ongoing communication and engage your customers in your loyalty schemes, offer discounts for return visits and promote new seasonal menus – all of which will help encourage return visits.

And with a CRM tool that captures data from any source to create a Single Customer View, you can tailor communications to your guests’ individual needs. For example, you might want to promote the new meat-free menu items to your vegetarian guests or promote your kids eat free offer to families at half term.

Enhanced customer service

Customer service is at the core of delivering an exceptional guest experience and the best way to ensure you are continuously delivering the best service possible is by gathering feedback from your customers.

One of the most important uses of your hospitality CRM software is to gather this feedback post-visit. 53% of customers^[2] would be prompted to leave a review after receiving a post-visit email or notification.

Not only do online reviews help encourage other potential customers to choose your venue, but you can gather this feedback and gain useful insights into how you can improve your service.

Ease of use for staff

With all your customer data in one place your teams will be able to easily manage customer relationships, respond to social posts, reviews and send personalised communications to drive visits.

With a customer relationship management solution that connects to all your software your staff are able to utilise customer data more efficiently and increase revenue to your operation.

Better campaign management

With comprehensive guest data at the touch of a button, you can optimise communications and take advantage of every marketing opportunity.

Easily segment your marketing campaigns so you can tailor your messaging to the right group.

Automation means you can target your messaging at the right time, such as sending birthday messages.

With more in-depth data you can personalise your communications to send messages that resonate with your guests and tap into their specific interests and values.

And you can track the effectiveness of your marketing campaigns by measuring clicks and email opens, learn what works and what doesn’t and tweak your campaigns to increase conversions.

Be competitive

Your competitors are also reaching out to their customers and driving revenue through customer relationship management, and you can’t afford to be left behind. The average person is exposed to 130+ promotional messages a day^[3] – so the best chance you have to ensure your communications resonate with and engage your audience is by utilising data to personalise, optimise timing, and use the right channels.

What is the importance of CRM in hospitality industry?

More than ever before, customers expect technology to play a role in their experiences and interactions with businesses. A hospitality operator that asks their customers for feedback is seen as more engaged with their customer base. An operator that rewards customer loyalty with special offers, promotions and discounts is seen as valuing their customer base.

Hospitality CRM software allows you to build an ongoing relationship with your customers that will build customer loyalty and retention.

When surveyed, hospitality customers rated the ways in which they would engage with a business after a visit to a venue if they were sent an email or notification.

53% said they would be prompted to leave a review
37% would take part in a competition
25% reported that they would be encouraged to share the venue’s details with a family member or friend
23% would consider pre-booking their next visit [4]

As you can see, customers are willing to engage with communications from the venues they visit, and by using customer data to personalise and tailor your messaging, you can increase the effectiveness of your post-visit communications through your hospitality CRM software.