Every guest is unique and has their own diverse set of needs. To provide great experiences, your staff needs to be in sync and working together to ensure every guest is happy.
But with tens or even hundreds of rooms, you and your staff can’t be everywhere at once. To resolve issues quickly and provide those little extras that will get you a five-star rating, it’s imperative for your all of your teams to be seamlessly connected.
At Eko, we’ve worked with companies like yours to help to improve their hotel operations and efficiency. Like our friends at U Sathorn in Bangkok, Thailand who found it difficult to communicate effectively across various teams, resolve customer complaints quickly and track tasks. But regardless of whether or not you use Eko, here are a few things you should consider when looking to improve your hotel operations.
Instant, cross-functional communication
Every team in every company has their own preferred way to communicate with each other. Your housekeeping staff may use walkie-talkies, your front desk may use a computer-based instant messaging platform, or your management team may call each other on company issued mobile phones.
When collaborating with your team to resolve issues, it’s crucial to be on the same platform to have instant access to everyone, without having to search a directory for numbers. Or you may not know exactly who to ask so you need to reach a department using a broader method.
Using a mobile-first approach, you can keep all team up-to-date on important information as it happens. Whether it’s a housekeeper informing the entire staff that an elevator is down or messaging the front desk that a room is ready for check-in early to more serious concerns such as a safety hazard in a stairwell.
Fix customers complaints, now
Every guest will get frustrated when speaking to staff in a hotel and being told they need to speak with the front desk, only to arrive at the front desk and have to explain the entire issue from the beginning.
By connecting all of your employees your staff will be able to keep customers in the loop or even resolve an issue before the guests reaches the lobby from the elevator while making their way to the front desk.
Good communication practices mean happy guests who feel that their concerns are being listened to, evaluated and met. And good communication means empowering your staff to help resolves issues making them feel more fulfilled in their work.
Track requests in real-time
More visibility means more information and a sense that your team is on the top of their game. Mobile technologies now allow us to know the precise moment a task is completed, whether it’s when each of your guest’s check into their reservation, housekeeping finishes a room, an elevator repair is completed, or any number of issues.
Getting to a computer to update tasks or simply not tracking daily or impromptu task isn’t an option in our modern, connected world. Mobile technologies allow this communication to happen instantly and passively, without interrupting our workflows to provide top of the line experiences to guests.
U Sathorn has found using mobile-technology is a great way to keep employees updated, create accountability and decrease organization barriers for their hotel allowing them to live up to their five-star rating.
