Have a look at the infographic:
On the left we have the ‘known channels’ the blue blocked heading: all the areas that a hotel would manage. By manage I mean respond, answer, interact, and converse with guests (past or potential). Most of our efforts are going into the contact points or channels that deliver business or leads into a hotel (or hospitality establishment)
Even on a good day we don’t really get to all these sources of business 100% . But that’s another discussion.
The problem is: these are outdated, yes sure they still work but people have or are busy moving away.
But to where?
On the right you will see a red blocked heading with a list of sources of business. Yet many of these have been around for some time, and we would create some content and post but: most properties are not fully exploiting these. Let me explain, Covid pushed us ahead, people are more on mobile now than ever before (just look around you, anywhere – bus/ restaurant/ shopping centers/ shops / the gym / the car : EVERYone is looking down – not sad – no: they are on their mobiles.
Now take for example you posted a deal on social media as usual: you get say: 25 likes, 15 shares and maybe 4 comments – month end comes around, and we take these stats, compare it the previous post and say: ‘mmh yes, it worked’ – we had more (or less) engagement… ‘good job’ says the GM/Manager, and we move to the next one post.
Now what? Let me tell you: have you been in touch with, conversed, or contacted anyone that had any engagement? no most probably not: and herein lies the problem, that person who engaged showed interest: and what is interest? Its a lead ladies and gents! How many leads have you dropped because of this?
The same goes for reviews, sms’, DM’s, Whatsapp etc, we simply do not fully explore and ‘back-engage’ those contacts, we answer them or like (because they liked!?) but that’s it! Nothing else.
To our knowledge there aren’t any apps or software that can manage all the possible ‘unmanaged’ red heading channels listed above, but my aim is to make you aware of them. Yes its a mammoth task but try and approach 80/20 rule, go through all, see where the most action is and manage those well, review quarterly and adjust. You might be very surprised as some of our clients were with Instagram DM’s and after placing a whatsapp button on the the website (and mobi site of course)
Happy selling!
