How Hoteliers Can Use WhatsApp To Modernize The Whole Of Hotel Guest Communication: A Utilitarian Guide
Helping the hoteliers understand the nitty-gritty of communication and marketing via WhatsApp (WhatsApp Business) to enhance the guest journey at every touchpoint by sharing actual value-driven messages, useful information, tips & tricks, and a lot more coupled with some high-end examples, benefits, and insights for adequate clarity on the topic!
*Ping*
“…..140 new messages from 7 chats”
Let’s Get Started With A Tidbit: Why WhatsApp?
There is no denying the fact that WhatsApp has been reigning supreme over the world of communication and marketing. It has revolutionized the whole of the interactive game for businesses. Business communication has not remained untouched by the incantations of WhatsApp! The latter has successfully secured for itself a predominant position in the digital landscape.
Undeniably, WhatsApp is significant when it comes to communicating with clients. Nowadays, hotels can use WhatsApp to accord a smooth online experience to their guests throughout the entire customer journey. In other words, WhatsApp has become an indispensable tool for boosting communication and overall hotel business marketing.
Why WhatsApp For Hotels?
Before diving deep into how hoteliers should be incorporating and maximizing the use of WhatsApp for their hotel business, it’s important to touch upon certain aspects of WhatsApp statistics to know its significance even better. Currently,
“There are more than 2 billion WhatsApp users around the globe and rising (WhatsApp, 2021).”
Again, of all the mobile messaging apps, “WhatsApp is currently the most popular and is leading by quite a stretch, too.” Not just this, but more than an astounding 65 billion messages are being sent daily via this app. Well, this speaks volumes about the importance of its integration to facilitate smooth communication with hotel guests. Again, with a staunch geographic position,
“It is being used as a top messaging app in over 128 countries across the globe!”
Taking a step ahead, back in January 2018, WhatsApp launched its B2B initiative, WhatsApp Business that was instrumental in clocking up more than 5 million business users in just one year. As if the popularity and whooping statistics of WhatsApp were not enough, there is yet another concrete reason for the hoteliers to start including the use of WhatsApp in their overall communication and marketing strategy. Yes, hotels can use WhatsApp as a vital communication tool. People are accustomed to using phones, and a mode of communication that can help you or your customers reach out by using the phone easily will just work wonders!
What is WhatsApp Business?
Launched by Whatsapp Inc. for professionals, WhatsApp Business App is a great platform to exhibit and promote your business. Be it new offers, discounts, packages, promotions, or any initiative undertaken, you can advertise it all through your WhatsApp Business seamlessly. Again, it is an excellent way of keeping in touch with your customer base.
Therefore, for the hotels, WhatsApp Business is a crucial tool for connecting with your potential customers, your guests and marketing the property 24*7.
“Why Can't I Just Use My Personal WhatsApp?”
Personal WhatsApp vs WhatsApp for Business
While you can use personal WhatsApp for connecting with customers, it is far more valuable (and professional) to have a WhatsApp business account that is strictly used for your business/brand communications. Additionally, WhatsApp for business has a lot of features and facilities that its private counterpart might not be able to offer. For instance, it allows a detailed business profile, product catalog, quick replies, Facebook integration, chatbots, click-to-action, automated messages, etc. And which business wouldn’t need these?
Benefits of Using WhatsApp For Hotels
Here are the reasons for which hoteliers can make use of WhatsApp to reap its maximum benefits:
• Wider, global reach: No matter where guests are traveling from, you can communicate with ease. Not to mention, it goes beyond the time-consuming phone calls and widens the communication channel.
• No boundaries: SMS has limitations and may carry charges. But with WhatsApp, guests just need data/WiFi, which means it’s easy for both domestic and international guests.
• Familiarity & Convenience: By having WhatsApp, hotels can differentiate themselves from their competitors and provide a convenient communication channel for guests. Moreover, the guests are already familiar with this platform! Therefore hotels can increase guests’ comfort and make the service even more differentiated, personalized, and convenient.
• Facilitates instant communication: It allows the guests to communicate with ease and make requests very conveniently. With this advantage, hotels can use WhatsApp to build stronger connections with guests and drive guest loyalty. Besides, it helps generate revenue by making it simpler for guests to know on-site options.
For instance,
If a guest is relaxing by the pool and wants a beverage, they can simply WhatsApp the hotel staff. Or if someone wants to dine at the in-house restaurant, they can quickly drop in a WhatsApp message to book a table for them.
The WhatsApp number displayed on the hotel website can help the guests to contact the hotel even at the early stages of the guest journey, let’s say travel research and booking. In other words, this can help generate a potential lead.
Even for the internal operations and monitoring them, properties can create a WhatsApp group. This will help the staff and crew coordinate better, share end-of-the-day reports, address issues that need immediate resolution, and do numerous other official tasks.
Convenient communication helps increase guest satisfaction, and convenient commerce can increase revenue.
Best Practices For WhatsApp Guest Messaging For Hotels
○ Set up a dedicated number: Hoteliers should separate their private number from business WhatsApp number. GuestTouch Messaging handles this on your behalf by making sure that you have a convenient and dedicated WhatsApp business number and it is perfectly streamlined to suit your daily hotel operations. Hence wait no more to empower your hotel with WhatsApp for uninterrupted business.
○ Use it wisely, strategically and value-driven: Surely, the hotel industry is pioneering in how to leverage WhatsApp for business. There are numerous ways of utilizing WhatsApp messaging- pre-arrival, check-in, during the stay, feedback, cross-sell, and much more. However, smart hoteliers will want to identify the high-value touchpoints and limit messaging strategy to only messages that truly add value to their guests. You can map-out the guest journey and identify the right touchpoints for your brand and guests. Hence keeping the messages highly valuable and authentic without overwhelming the guests too much is extremely important. By doing so you can deliver a great experience and increase sales.
○ Respect guests’ privacy: This simply means sending a message to the guests who have opted-in and giving them a chance to opt-out, if they choose not to receive messages. This is how hotels can use WhatsApp carefully and efficiently. It is also about respecting guests’ wishes and being proactive to honor their preferences. The messages that you send out should be prioritized as per the dates on the calendar that serves as a great reminder that you have to broadcast these messages.
○ Make use of WhatsApp templates: Time is the most crucial factor in whatever you do. WhatsApp comes with message templates that can help tackle easy replies without you or your staff having to type it all from scratch while responding to a guest.
○ Streamline your communication channels: Make sure all your vital modes of communication- SMS, WhatsApp, or WebChat are streamlined on a single dashboard for easy monitoring, ensuring that not even a single message from the guests or potential customers goes unnoticed. This will help automate communication and be at the top of your guest experience game.
○ Inform guests that you are on WhatsApp: It is essential to make guests aware that you are available on this platform. If you don’t promote it, nobody is going to know that you are available on WhatsApp. Specify it on your website or use your pre-arrival email as a means of communicating clearly to the guests that they can reach out to you on WhatsApp for quick and effective communication. In fact, this is one of the most remarkable ways in which hotels can use WhatsApp for smooth business.
The WhatsApp link greatly facilitates the first contact. This is when the customer/guest initiates the contact. A specific URL enables customers to click on it, immediately redirects them to your hotel’s WhatsApp to automatically start a conversation with your hotel. There is no need for the customer to add your number. It’s one click and go!
Try it out yourself! The WhatsApp link looks like this: Click here to start the conversation https://api.whatsapp.com/send?phone=+14159152238.
You can also flash your WhatsApp Business Contact on your WiFi landing page, email signature (with an hyperlinked URL as shown above), and so on.
○ Make it known through QR codes: You can also generate QR codes and distribute them on-site to encourage guests to reach out to you via WhatsApp. For instance, some hotels actually print and stick QR codes in the guest rooms asking individuals to scan the code and reach out to the hotel via WhatsApp Messaging.
Best Time to Share Your WhatsApp Contact Information With the Guests
It is quite possible for the guests to miss out on reaching your hotel via the WhatsApp number mentioned already on your landing page. Even after noticing, some guests might choose to overlook that option altogether. But to elevate their level of convenience in the upcoming stages, usually, the pre-arrival stage is looked upon as the best time to share your WhatsApp information with the guests, along with a pre-arrival email. This will enable you to invite them to add your number to their list of contacts. You can share a link to WhatsApp via the phone and start engaging the guests. To further encourage your guests to make use of WhatsApp, you can allow the following options:
- Check-in via WhatsApp
- Sharing an express check-in link via WhatsApp (optional)
- House rules, amenities catalog, and concierge information
- Breakfast, Pool and Gym timings, WiFi password, etc.
- The option to order food to their rooms
- Engaging with the guests post-stay, encouraging them to book directly with your hotel via WhatsApp
WORD OF CAUTION: Things About WhatsApp Business That No One Told You Before
While a WhatsApp Business comes with its own set of benefits, it must be remembered that there are certain policies and regulations centering around it which must be understood clearly before getting started. Here are a few crucial points to keep in mind:
- Only one number is allowed per business account on WhatsApp.
- A WhatsApp Business account cannot really initiate a non-approved conversation with customers/guests. You can only initiate chats in the form of a transactional notification and only via approved Message Templates…
…Wait, what is approval now?
- For you to initiate a conversation with potential customers or guests, your text needs to get approved first. This is to keep the WhatsApp messaging high-value and spam-free for users. You can work with approved WhatsApp partners from its ecosystem of partners like GuestTouch, who can help you do just this with ease. In other words, it can help get your messages approved for you to be able to send a welcome message, check-in, mid-stay, check-out details, etc. things that play a pivotal role in creating a hotel guest journey.
- BUT customers or guests can initiate any conversation (no approval needed there).
- ..and if a customer or guest initiates a conversation with you, you may continue that conversation for up to 24 hours after the last message sent from your end- these messages that you send will not require prior approval.
- Outside of that 24-hour Window, you may only send messages via the approved templates.
Click here to dive deep!
Measuring the Overall Responsiveness Through WhatsApp
Any campaign’s success is measured based on how much is the target audience receptive to that. So here are a few metrics that can help you gauge how your WhatsApp communication is faring. From that viewpoint, it is important to ask yourself these questions while tracking your WhatsApp communication and marketing success rate:
- How many people did your Whatsapp message reach? Did the message get delivered?
- If and when was the sent message read? How many people read the message delivered?
- How many people took some action based on click-to-action?
- How many people signed up for WhatsApp communication?
- How many shares were there using the WhatsApp share button?
- How many conversions based on promotional offers shared through WhatsApp?
Main Blunders In Using WhatsApp Business
When you use an app, it is important to take certain precautions. There can be certain misunderstandings with customers as a result of which some critical situations might crop up. To avoid this, we have listed three major mistakes that you should not be making:
- English Errors
IMAGINNNNNNNNEEEE THISSSS!
Would you like it? Of course, Not!
Hence using Caps Lock and misspellings is a no, no! Again, popular internet abbreviations and slang alongside changing words like “you” to “u” is totally uncool and unacceptable in a professional setting. Remember, you aren’t talking to a friend!
But that being said, we are all humans at the end of the day. Even if these mistakes are highly noticeable and despite our attentiveness towards the same, things can sometimes go awry due to high service demand. After all, an attendant has to take care of a lot of other things simultaneously among which his/her attention is divided. In such cases, it is highly likely to make such unacceptable errors. Hence avoid this error at all costs because it can actually cost you a lot!
2. Employee Lawsuits
In its business version, WhatsApp allows only one profile per number. This implies that only one employee will attend the app at a time. Others can certainly take the shift and work with it throughout the day. But only one person at a time!
Again, there is a condition that needs to be stated clearly in the contract in terms of WhatsApp usage by the employee(s). This is that the attendant responsible for handling the app will do so only via the hotel number and will never do it outside the business hours. If they do it on the hotel’s behalf, this will fall under “overtime” and can also amount to great confusion. Hence care must be taken regarding who is sending the messages, through what number, and whether or not they are strictly within the established business hours.
3. Non-Standard Service
If your hotel has more than one attendant for running the conversation through WhatsApp, chances are that they might be having their unique tone and vocabulary in responding to each of the interactions. Standardization is extremely significant here as it is a vital hallmark of guaranteed quality service. Again, the guests should not feel as if they are talking to too many people who are just incapable of understanding them.
Do you speak English and your customer speaks French?
Afraid that you can’t speak French?
Worried about how and what to reply to your French speaking customer?
With GuestTouch, you can always reply back to your customers in a language that you know which, in turn, gets translated into the language that they know or prefer. For instance, if English is what you speak, you can continue the conversation with the customer in English while we automatically help translate your message in French for the customer/guest receiving your message.
Adopting a new system can be a bit overwhelming, we understand that, and so we will simplify this to help you get started.
Here are the various ways the hotels can use WhatsApp for guest communication by using solutions like Guest Messaging to enhance guest experience across channels like SMS and WhatsApp:
Listed below are the few actual use cases of value-driven WhatsApp messages showing how hotels can use WhatsApp to connect with their guests at vital touchpoints in the customer experience journey:
i. Pre-Arrival Message
“Hi, *Jennifer.* “Thank you for choosing us. We would like to confirm your reservation at *hotel name* between *arrival date* and *departure date*🎫. For more details on your booking and hotel, please visit *the URL.* We hope you will enjoy your stay and we look forward to welcoming you 🏨👋!”
ii. On-Arrival Message
👋 “Hi, *Jennifer.* Welcome to *hotel name.* Your WiFi is *HappyGuest.* Here is a personalized welcome page that has all the relevant details about your stay, right from the shuttle to nearby recommendations Please visit *the URL* Breakfast is served from 6:30 to 9:30 AM🍳 We also have Happy Hours for our guests every day from 5 pm-10 pm🍷 Feel free to text us here if you have any questions. Enjoy your stay”🎉
iii. Mid-Stay Message
👋 “Hi, *Jennifer.* We hope that you are doing well. How is your stay so far? Please let us know if we can assist with anything during your stay. Take care”😄
iv. Post-Stay Message to Get Feedback or Review
👋 “Hi, *Jennifer.* Thank you for choosing to stay with us. We hope you had a wonderful stay. We’d appreciate it if you just take a moment to share your experience with us:* the link.* We look forward to the pleasure of hosting you again. Safe travels✈️🧳 — {Name}, General Manager”
Other Creative Ways In Which the Hotels Can Deploy WhatsApp Messaging:
a. Giving out a special discount
👋 “Hi, Jennifer. Thank you for making a reservation of the Superior Suite for *date*. If you wish to dine at the hotel restaurant, reserve a table today and receive a 15% discount on your bill🍜🍸. Your booking reference ID is *XXXX.* See you!”
b. Offering a special service or upsell for experiences
👋 “Hi, Jennifer. To make your stay extra special, we are giving out 10 percent off on our spa service🧖♀️ If you wish to reserve the service, please click on *the URL* or connect back here and we’ll block the slot for you”💯
c. Making guests’ special occasion…extra special 🎁
Again, hotels can use WhatsApp to reach out to their guests by providing them a special, personalized experience. There is no denying the fact that WhatsApp could revolutionize your guest communication. For instance, if you have a newly-wed or honeymoon couple staying with you, you can send them offers regarding an experience- couple spa, romantic dinner, etc. to help make their stay memorable.
👋 “Hi, *name* We hope that your stay is going well so far. Knowing that your anniversary is right at the door💍, we want to be a part of your special occasion by providing you with a romantic dinner🍝🍾 with your spouse tonight under the stars✨✨✨. This is on the house and we hope that you will enjoy this gift of ours to the fullest🎁🎊. Best wishes. For more details, you can revert to us here.”
Do’s and Don’ts For Using WhatsApp For Hotels
Do’s:
- Map out your guest's journey and find the perfect touchpoints for your brand and guests and keep the messages highly valuable and authentic for your guests.
- Encourage guests to use WhatsApp at every touchpoint in their hotel journey, right from checking in to ordering food, booking amenities, or asking for concierge information.
- Offer real-time customer chat through WhatsApp messages or WhatsApp bots
Don’ts:
- Do not spam your customers with excessive communication (remember to keep it minimal and value-driven for the guests).
- Refrain from setting up too many WhatsApp accounts and groups via the third-party app.
- Avoid using too many templates and canned messages.
Common WhatsApp Errors That You Should Strictly Avoid
- Allowing more than one employee at a time to respond to the messages
- Typographical and grammatical errors
- Responding late to the messages
- Using CapsLock
- Too many variations in the standard of vocabulary used by each of the employees looking after your WhatsApp Interaction
Looking to Take Your WhatsApp Messaging to the Next Level?
With GuestTouch, you can easily communicate with guests and potential customers at all stages of their journey through robust and simple-to-use communication platforms like hotel Guest Messaging, and WebChat enabling personalized guest experiences, operational excellence, and increased revenue. Make your hotel more relevant, engaging, and personable when you integrate guest messaging into your daily operations to conduct smoothly what we all know as WhatsApp Business for hotels.
Your Hotel Needs To Be Where Your Customers Are…
And We, At GuestTouch, Can be Your GPS!
