In an era of relationships and personalisation, a Customer Relationship Management system (CRM) has become the king. And especially for hospitality, this type of software is turning into a key element of every hotel’s tech stack.
Why? Because it is helping brands to create a relationship with guests, to communicate better, in a more personalised and timely manner, and of course, to keep things organised, which is key in a hotel environment (that sometimes can get a little messy).
However, there is a key difference to keep in mind when discussing a hospitality CRM system, and this is whether it is focused on B2B (business to business) or B2B (business to consumer). In hospitality brands, sometimes both are needed, although each system has different characteristics. Why? Keep reading to find out.
Understanding B2B and B2C interactions in hospitality
The first thing to keep in mind is who are we referring to when mentioning the B2B segment in hospitality. It means corporate clients, such as travel agencies, healthcare sector, educational institutions, big companies or organisations, and more.
Here you won’t be handling a 1-to-1 reservation but on the contrary, it is all about bulk bookings, tailored packages, frequent stays, contractual agreements, event planning, and more.
On the other hand, when discussing the B2C focus of hotels, we are referring to the regular business of shorter sales cycles, individual decision-making and the relationship between the hotel and a single guest. For hotels specifically, it could be referred to as B2G (business to guest).
Building relationships: B2B vs. B2C hotel CRM
CRM systems are all about managing the relationship between a business and its customers (as stated in the name), but the nature of the relationship will vary depending on whether it is a B2B or a B2C customer.
For a B2B client, there will be a long-term relationship building. Why? Because it normally involves larger deals instead of individual or group bookings. It also involves account management and personalised service, where packages and offers can be highly customisable depending on the size of the sale.
In the case of a B2C client, although the sales cycle is shorter, there is a need to offer personalised experiences, loyalty programs and keep in mind individual preferences. At the same time, for this client reviews and social proof are highly important.
Each segment has different needs, therefore, the hotel CRM system you choose will be designed to cater to a specific segment and provide the features you need to build those specific relationships.
Different marketing strategies for each segment
A hotel CRM designed for the B2B segment will allow you to develop Account Based Marketing activities (ABM), targeted campaigns and the nurture of leads through multiple touchpoints. It will also help you to keep track of a clean and organised sales pipeline.
On the other hand, a CRM designed for the B2C segment, the most common approach, focuses on the guest relationship management, the creation of guest journeys, multi-channel campaigns, email marketing, personalisation and automation, and leveraging data analytics to predict guest preferences.
Get inspired: A complete guide for implementing a CRM in your hotel for the first time
What are the key metrics for B2B and B2C hotel CRMs?
It doesn’t matter if your hotel CRM is for B2B or for B2C, either way it will have to give you the right metrics. Of course, they will be different in any case.
For B2B, tracking key account metrics is fundamental. In addition, other metrics that are important are client retention rates and sales pipeline efficiency.
On othe other hand, the metrics from a B2C CRM focus more on the individual guest, for example, measuring open rate of marketing campaigns across channel, campaign effectiveness, ROI per guest, returning guests or repeat bookings rate, online check-in rates, and more.
A CRM for B2C will also integrate with different systems providing you with even more metrics. For example, guest review management systems that will give metrics about guest satisfaction and feedback.
If you are looking for a B2C hotel CRM, meaning, a CRM to communicate with your guests, read this to find out about the features you should be on look out for.
Bookboost, a B2C CRM software designed for hospitality
Bookboost CRM belongs to the B2C space and designed specifically for hospitality, meaning that it focuses on the 1-to-1 relationship with the guest, with shorter sales cycles and a big focus on satisfaction and loyalty.
Bookboost CRM helps hotels to manage all the aspects of the relationship with the guest, allowing hoteliers to create guest journeys from scratch and personalise their communications as much as they want. They will use their data to create unlimited segmentations, being able to reach guests with messages that resonate with their particular needs.
It also has a big focus on team efficiency, which is why the CRM offers many automation features so campaigns can run on its own and hotel staff can reduce the amount of manual work and repetitive tasks.
The results hotels using Bookboost CRM can expect are related to the time saved in their guest communication, an increase in campaign conversion, guest satisfaction, guest loyalty and repeat business.
Bookboost helps hotels send the right message, at the right time, on the right channel and to the right guest.
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