Understanding guest feelings is good for business.

While much time is focused on knowing our product features and benefits and memorizing pricing strategies, the decision to stay at our hotel, choose us as an event destination or house a group at our venue is often the result of a more emotional connection. How guests feel about us and our services is driving business and we need to take the wheel and manage the relationship, demonstrating care and consideration of the guest.

According to Forrester research, only 10 percent of businesses surveyed strongly agreed that business results anticipated from implementing CRM were met or exceeded. Now why would that be the case? Perhaps the answer lies in what we cannot convey in the steps of our CRM program. That missing link is the ability of our team to not only execute the Program but also to form a connection with the guest. Sometimes the connection which creates a friendship (which is what it’s all about, right?) comes in the form of the “big moment” or moment of truth when we are working with a guest to solve a problem. More often though, it’s in the more quiet moments of guest interactions that common ground is recognized and the seeds of friendship are planted. Friends look out for each other and while price is always a consideration, it’s not the primary concern when friends are working together. Let’s strive to get to that.

At High Impact2, we work with clients to instill an understanding that what is required is more than the completion of enrollment steps. Once this is accomplished, they can begin to know their guests and uncover how they really feel about responsiveness to needs, pricing and performance versus the competition. Armed with that information, good decisions and more sales can be made.

1.William Bard, Jessica Harrington, Erin Kinikin, and John Ragsdale, Evaluation of Top Enterprise CRM Software Vendors Across 177 Criteria, Forrester Research, 2005.