Three ways COVID changed guest expectations forever
Although the pandemic presented significant challenges for the travel industry, it’s not all bad news for hoteliers around the globe. We share three ways customer expectations have changed since the pandemic and how your hotel can stay ahead of the curve.
With numerous social justice movements and a global health crisis of 2020 forever changed the way people travel and experience the world. As COVID-19 spread rapidly across borders, routines and travel plans were thrown into disarray and customer expectations shifted dramatically as a result. Customers now expect greater authenticity, seamless experiences and personalised content from the brands they engage with. From social media posts to ensuring a smooth check-in process, here are three ways customer expectations have changed since the pandemic and how your hotel can adapt:
Guests expect authenticity:
When the Black Lives Matter movement dominated headlines last year, major brands such as Amazon and Facebook were quick to align themselves with the cause. Other businesses and celebrities also posted their support on social media. It was a significant demonstration of brands recognising the need to stay relevant to a new powerful customer group: millennials.
Millennials – born between 1991 and 1996 – hold an estimated US$2.5 trillion worth of purchasing power per year. Their purchasing power is only expected to grow as millennials inherit approximately $68 trillion from their parents in one of the greatest wealth transfers of our times.
Millennials are an important consumer group to consider in the future of your hotel. With savvy social media skills, this emerging group of consumers are demanding greater brand authenticity in the way businesses communicate, operate and promote its services.
Research by the Harvard Business Review demonstrates that customers prefer brands that value openness, relevance and empathy. Today’s customers value brands that are real and organic, over brands that appear perfect and well packaged.
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Brand authenticity is not an add on for hotels and businesses, it’s a core part of your business strategy. Building brand authenticity requires a consistent and honest approach to your content strategy, hiring policies, marketing spend and operations. From the way you promote your hotel to the way you treat your employees, brand authenticity is an important way for your hotel to keep customers satisfied.
How can your hotel build brand authenticity?
Building and maintaining brand authenticity requires a strategic approach. Brand authenticity can involve everything from the signage in your hotel lobby to the email receipts you send your customers. Discover how you can improve your customer’s experience with our free Experience Guest Review Survey.
2. Customers expect seamless experiences:
Digital innovation in the travel industry was underway well before the pandemic, but the recent health crisis accelerated customer expectations for seamless digital experiences.
The pandemic demonstrated our reliance on smartphone technology to conduct contact tracing, stay updated with public health announcements and more. Government Apps have become a part of our everyday lives and this reliance on technology to protect us from viruses and help us stay connected with information has deepened a customer’s expectations for seamless digital experiences.
From acquiring customers to retaining them over time, successful brands focus their efforts on experience-led interactions and journeys. Customers have learned to expect easy sign-up forms and hassle-free payment processes. Gone are the days of lengthy forms and clunky website systems – from online booking forms to a check-in process, today’s customers expect simpler and faster ways of interacting with businesses and have a lower tolerance for disjointed digital experiences.
Does your hotel provide a seamless digital experience?
Are you satisfying your customer’s appetite for a seamless digital booking, check-in and review process? Providing your customers with a well thought out digital experience can go a long way in improving your hotel’s credibility and trustworthiness in a post-pandemic world. Rate your hotel’s digital experience with our free Experience Guest Review Survey.
3. Customers expect personalised content:
With stay-at-home orders and lockdown restrictions, customers have been spending more time indoors than ever before. This shift in lifestyle has also changed the way customers interact with brands and businesses. Many of us are making purchasing decisions in the comfort of our living rooms, kitchens and bedrooms. In this way, some brands have become an intimate part of our lives.
Brands must become better at communicating with customers through personalised and relevant content. According to Search Engine Journal, content that resonates with your customer can be the difference between success or failure.
Personalised, relevant and localised content has become a game changer in light of the pandemic. From food deliveries to household items and hotel bookings, customers are engaging with brands in a variety of ways. Brands that are able to communicate to them in a personal, relevant and localised way will reap the benefits of customer loyalty and engagement.
How effective is your hotel’s content strategy?
With the emergence of sophisticated content marketing tools, there’s unlimited potential to target your customers with personalised content. A personalised content strategy not only improves the overall customer experience with your brand but it helps you acquire new leads in an organic and cost-efficient way.
From brand authenticity to seamless digital experiences and personalised content, seeking to meet customer expectations should be at the forefront of your brand’s business objectives. We’ve a product that helps hotels build better relationships with guests leading to repeat bookings and referrals called Journey Makr.
Journey Makr is an exciting new service which turns every booking into a bespoke experience for your guests by unlocking local knowledge to create a unique ‘Staylist’ for each and every booking. We do this by matching the interests of your guests to relevant, hand-curated stories about a particular area, allowing them to plan their trip like a Local.
Article by Nicole Sideris,
Chief Customer Officer, Hotelr
LinkedIn
https://theconversation.com/why-companies-were-so-quick-to-endorse-black-lives-matter-142532
