3 Ways chat apps can improve CRM in travel and hospitality industries

Best travel & hospitality crm systems

What are some of your biggest annoyances while traveling? Very likely something to do with needing information at a specific time and not being able to find answers. These problems pop up when you’re wondering about flight times, boarding gates, and baggage allowance. These might seem like small questions, but when catching a flight, the answers could make the difference between sitting on the plane in your seat and frantically running only to see the gates slammed closed. And it’s finding answers to these questions that make the difference between effective and non-existent customer relationship management (CRM). All of these questions can be answered by AI chat apps. And there are many more of these questions that you’ll be asking once you’ve arrived at your holiday destination. Chatbots and customer service go hand in hand in solving queries efficiently, saving human cost, and giving customers a pleasant experience. So, here are some examples of travel and hospitality companies getting this right.

Chatbots and restaurants

Okay, so maybe ‘restaurants’ isn’t the best way to describe these takeaway joints. But they are pioneering the chatbot and food ordering sector. Burger King, Pizza Hut, and Taco Bell have all implemented these bots to improve customer service and CRM. Customers are able to place their order, choose if they want a delivery, or to pick up and pay for their order. The best of all? These bots can remember what you ordered last time, making regular and repeat ordering easy. Basically, you’ll never have to eat anything other than burgers, pizza, and tacos ever again.

Chat apps for hotel CRM

Travel companies like Expedia.com, Kayak, and Skyscanner have launched bots which help travelers book into hotels. And travel related companies like Hyatt Hotels, Booking.com, Uber, and more have integrated with Facebook Messenger to allow customers to chat with them. The LINQ Hotel & Casino in Las Vegas recently partnered with WeChat. It allows visitors to the hotel to use their smartphones as a remote to gain access to the room's functions. Think dimming the lights, closing the blinds, and locking the doors, all by using your smartphone.

Research has found that the majority of people prefer to communicate with businesses using chat apps in some way or form. And it's not only about the customer, hotels can benefit from adopting this smartphone-centric approach. These chat apps enable one hotel staff member to interact with multiple guests at the same time. The benefits for hotels are numerous: freeing up staff, taking bookings, and gaining new revenue, for example by having the bot encourage guests to book a session at the hotel spa or dine at the lobby restaurant.

Chatbots and flights

As previously mentioned, there are many moments while traveling that are stressful, not much more so than catching flights. The questions you could ask a bot in these moments are almost too many to mention. Some of them include:

• What time is my flight?

• What's the baggage allowance?

• What's the boarding gate for my flight?

• How long will it take me to get to the airport?

• What time do I need to be at the airport?

Aside from answering these questions, a flight bot should also be able to anticipate the needs of travelers. It should notify users about flight delays and gate changes, it should let them know what time to check out of their hotel and give suggestions on how to fill the time before their evening flight. That's what good CRM is all about.

If you’re in the travel or hospitality industry and want to implement chatbots to improve your CRM, have a look at Clickatell Touch. Our recent article on the solution explains why it’s a breath of fresh air in the customer service game. It explores why Clickatell Touch is the perfect option for working alongside current infrastructures like CRM and enterprise resource planning systems.