Your website is up the creek

Hands up all hospitality operators who love hotels and hate technology. Is that you? Your establishment might be the classiest on the market, but if your website has major faults, you’ll be losing business. Common mistakes include:

• Failing to optimise your site for mobile use. If your content is hard to read on iPhone and Android devices, potential customers will simply move on to the next mobile-friendly accommodation site. Internet browsing on mobile phones has doubled in Australia over the last four years, so it’s worth getting it right.
• Broken links, garbled text and busy design. People are time poor and will simply try your competitors if they find your site confusing. Go for clean lines, clear headings and space to breathe, with eye-catching images which don’t swamp the text.
• Confusing registration or feedback forms. Keep it simple. People are looking for a holiday, not an exam. People just want to key in information and click a ‘send’ button, so it pays to oblige them.

Your phone is unattended

Your website might be crucial, but plenty of customers still like to pick up the phone and make a call. So are you relying solely on online bookings and ignoring the ringing phone?

• Employ a virtual receptionist. Would you like a truly smart phone to answer your calls 24/7, send voicemails to email, and use Call Distribution and Call Overflow as needed? Ask us for help in maximising your telephone potential, and don’t miss out on vital phone traffic.
• Get professional with a Customised Greeting. A great eVoice call feature is the bespoke, studio-recorded greeting which ensures a friendly and professional first impression any time of night or day. After all, you only get one go to make a first impression. Make it an appealing one!

Your social media marketing is non-existent

Resistance is useless when it comes to employing social media in your marketing campaigns. It’s going to have to happen sooner or later, so why not make it now?

• • Welcome all guest feedback, positive or negative. If you don’t know why your guests are dropping off, you can’t fix the problems which cause it. Make it easy for customers to tell you what they like and don’t like about your website, booking procedure, customer service and establishment.
  • Explore and employ SEO techniques. Search engine optimisation is a means of presenting your website content in a way which gets higher search engine rankings; in simple terms, it makes your company easier to find in web and social media searches.
  • Get your accommodation shared on social media. Ask your guests to tell their friends when they’re happy with their holiday experience, and to tell you when they’re not. Keep the feedback flowing, but help it flow in the right direction. By knowing what your guests are saying, where they’re saying it (which forum) and who they’re saying it to, your chances of increasing bookings are vastly improved.

So don’t go on losing customers – all you need is a little attention to technology, smart telephone operations and digital innovation.