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In any business, effective communication is necessary for a smooth operation.
Strong communication can cement or disrupt an organization. It’s no wonder why one of the prerequisites of business management education is learning how to communicate.
One recent report found that 97% of employees believe communication impacts their task efficacy daily.
While according to a McKinsey report, well-connected teams see a productivity increase of 20-25%.
Effective communication facilitates trust, boosts employee retention, and increases productivity across the board.
This couldn’t be more true for the hotel industry. No matter the size of the hotel, there needs to be clear communication between staff and guests and a hotel communication system in place.
The communication system you put in place greatly impacts your long-term success.
As with any other customer-facing hospitality business, the whole operation of a hotel depends on the loyalty of its guests. Excellent communication skills can enhance a guest’s experience as it shows that you are listening to them, valuing their feedback, and conveying clear messages.
Moreover, having a good communication system in place behind the scenes, for internal messaging and dialogue, is an absolute must for running a smooth operation.
Stressed and frazzled hotel staff leads to unhappy guests –– no one wants to be faced with a concierge who is out of the loop, or a housekeeper who missed your room on their daily cleaning schedule.
Thankfully, technology can play a huge part in elevating a hotel’s communication systems. Ditch the walkie-talkies and hand-written notes, and move on to something a bit more sophisticated that’ll make internal and external communications smooth as butter.
Let’s dive into some ways hotel operators can refresh communication strategies.
No one will understand the pain points of your current communications process more than the staff who use it every day. Reach out to the employees in your hotel and find out what would work best for them.
Remember that successful communication is a two-way street. Management needs to periodically check in with and listen to employees. Not only does this lead to great ideas and innovations, but also ensures that the staff feel like their concern is being heard.
Hotel staff are the ones interacting with guests daily, so they’re probably a wealth of ideas for improving customer service or hotel functions.
It’s likely that your hotel staff already have plenty of experience with customer service. But it could be helpful to get everyone on the same page with a communication training session.
Learning how to communicate effectively with guests in crucial circumstances like dealing with complaints, coordination between departments, or attending to guests at the front desk is essential for every team member –– even if they’re not in a public-facing role. You never know what situation is going to come up!
These sessions should also be used to ensure that everyone understands the correct protocols for internal communications, to keep things running smoothly.
On average, frontline employees spend three hours a week simply searching for the information they need. That’s a lot of wasted time! By funneling all your important information –– calendars, room assignments, housekeeping management, staff memos –– into one centralized place, you’ll instantly cut down on the amount of time your employees waste finding information.
Adopting a digital platform, like HelloShift, which can be accessed from mobile devices and computers, can empower your staff to work more effectively and productively. It allows employees to find information at a moment’s notice, from any location, for any guest.
There’s no point sending out an important all-staff memo on a busy Friday afternoon, or trying to communicate with housekeeping staff in the hours between check-out and check-in.
Advanced communication platforms let you optimize when messages are sent to different staff members to ensure they get read. Analyze your data and you might discover that, for example, Tuesdays are usually the slowest day in hotels, while leisure travelers tend to visit on the weekends and business travelers check-in on Mondays. You can then schedule announcements in advance to be sent at this time.
No one wants to have to scroll through information and click on a bunch of links to send a simple message. It’s a real turn-off! Keep your guests happy by making it super easy for them to get in contact with you –– before, during, and after their stay.
A guest messaging tool is a great way to have open and direct communication with your guests, which all staff can access and respond to immediately. HelloShift’s guest messaging app even lets you pre-schedule messages in the lead-up to a guest’s visit, to share info like check-in time or WiFi passwords.
This opens up the communication thread, which then guests can reply to at any time during their stay with questions –– saving them from visiting the front desk in person. Easy!
In the hotel industry, success is driven by happy, loyal guests, which is achieved through exceeding customer expectations.
Sounds easy, but without an easy-to-use hotel communication system available to staff, it can be pretty tricky to deliver the high level of service guests may expect from you.
A staff collaboration tool can empower hotel workers to fulfill –– and exceed –– their job requirements.
HelloShift is a cloud-based digital hotel app —- guests can text hotel, checkin on their mobile device, scan and upload documents, digitally sign hotel registration cards, receive mobile keys, and have access to all hotel amenities through a guidebook that is customized with the hotel brand.
Go digital with Guest Messaging, Contactless Checkin, Website Chat, Staff Collaboration, Housekeeping Management and more.
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