Guest experience matters

The hospitality sector is very competitive and it’s guest experience that can make the vital difference, not just to attract guests but to keep them coming back to your business for another meal or another stay.

Guest expectations are rising too. They expect good service and reasonable prices, but they want more and their own experience of technology during the pandemic means that they will take the availability and use of technology into account when planning their next visit. This is particularly true of the younger generation of guests – the digital natives.

How easy is it to book or check-in? Is venue information available online? What facilities are available on your site – guest WiFi at a minimum? Getting the technology right can make a big difference in the reviews you receive and that can help other guests make favorable decisions your way.

Managing the business effectively

As well as getting the guest experience right, you need to manage your business effectively and keep costs under control so you can recover from the impact of the pandemic and start making profits again to invest in the future.

With the right technology in place, you can streamline booking processes, simplify communications on site, offer more guest services and make more efficient use of your staff.

Cloud migration

To introduce those technology changes, you need to have the right infrastructure in place and today that means migrating your applications and services to the cloud. You won’t just have access to the latest software and services, you’ll reduce technology acquisition costs, eliminate maintenance costs, free space for expansion and have the scalability to grow your business without disruption.

Cloud phone system

A cloud business phone system, for example, eliminates the need to have infrastructure on the premises and gives you access to advanced call handling features that give your team the tools to offer an improved customer service. The scalability of a cloud phone system means that you can easily scale up or down to deal with seasonal variations or periods of peak demand in your business.

Cloud contact centre

If your business operates across multiple locations or provides a food delivery service, for example, you’ll find a contact centre invaluable for handling and routing a high volume of calls efficiently. By setting up a remote contact centre, you can free your staff on site from call handling so they can focus on more important guest services.

A cloud contact centre provides you with a fully featured solution that requires no infrastructure or management on site. It can be operational in days instead of months, and gives you all the features you need to provide guests with an informed personal response across all channels.

Managed network services

The network is an essential element in the infrastructure you need to support your technology initiatives. Restaurants and food outlets, for example, need a network that can support food delivery apps, digital signage, loyalty programs, digital payments, secure guest Wi-Fi, tableside ordering and more.

The increased reliance on digital systems makes a responsive, agile and secure network essential. To meet those requirements, hospitality businesses are turning to managed network services. Instead of managing your network with an internal team, a service provider takes responsibility for managing, maintaining and updating your network.

Managed network service providers incorporate highly-resilient technologies and 24-hour monitoring process in their networks, so you can be confident of having a network with the highest levels of uptime with automatic failover and optimized application performance.

Managed guest Wi-Fi

With the right infrastructure and network in place, you can start to deploy other digital applications and service. Guest Wi-Fi, for example, is a good starting point. Guests expect a reliable Wi-Fi service when they’re eating out or staying in hotels, particularly if they’re travelling on business. It’s an important element in building customer loyalty and repeat business.

With a guest Wi-Fi system managed by a service provider, you can be confident that the system is reliable and secure — and you’ll have access to rich analytics that you can integrate with other visit data to measure the success of the guest Wi-Fi system.

Business technology lounges

If your hotel attracts a high proportion of business travelers or has the facilities to host conferences or other large business meetings, you can use your guest Wi-Fi system to create business lounges.

These are small areas where business guests can leave their rooms or their meetings to relax, but continue working. Using your guest Wi-Fi system, they can place calls, access the Internet on their laptops or hold informal meetings and collaborate with remote colleagues.

Guest applications

Your technology-savvy guests see apps on their smartphones as the natural, convenient way to obtain information or request services, so it’s important to provide them with the same level of convenience when they try to contact your hospitality business

You can offer mobile apps that simplify online ordering or booking. Tableside ordering and contactless mobile payment will remain important in the ‘new normal’ in restaurants. In hotels, guests can use mobile apps to order a range of services without having to visit the front desk.

Applications like this don’t just improve convenience, they can provide valuable information on guests’ requirements and preferences – data that you can use to develop services that are highly personalized.

Networked digital signage

Digital signage can improve the guest experience and increase revenue. In fast-food outlets, for example, digital menus simplify ordering and offer customers more options, which can increase the value of the meal. In hotels, digital signage offers guests useful wayfinding information in addition to information on special hotel events or services.

With a networked digital signage system, you can easily update information or customize announcements for groups of guests, creating a more personalized experience.

Unified communications

With a unified communications solution as part of a cloud phone system, you can provide guests and staff with the ability to communicate by any channel they prefer – voice, text, instant message, email, video conference or chat. Deploying unified communications on room phones, for example, improves the guest experience, while front-desk staff can handle bookings, requests or inquiries on the channels customers prefer.

Hotels and restaurants also need constant internal communication between back and front of house staff, kitchen staff, event staff, housekeeping, cleaners and maintenance teams, managers and more. A mobile app, coupled with a cloud phone system, will help you keep your staff connected no matter what their role or where they happen to be working.

Analytics

As we indicated in some of the earlier sections, introducing technology to improve the guest experience has the additional benefit of providing valuable data on the way guests interact with staff and the facilities in your business.

How many guests are using Wi-Fi and does that represent a good return on investment? Have the number of calls to the front desk fallen since the introduction of the guest smartphone app? Which room services are proving most popular?

Data like this can help you make adjustments to your services and increase the level of personalization in the way your staff interact with guests. That can make a big difference to your business becoming first choice as the place to eat or stay and one that features well in the review sites.

GoCo can help

To find out how GoCo communications and networking technologies can help you transform your guest experience and your operational efficiency, please get in touch to speak to an expert with experience in the hospitality sector. You’ll get professional help and advice on network planning and implementation and technology integration services.