How to use the WhatsApp Business Solution in the Hotel industry

Lodging sector: WhatsApp Business Solution for hotels, hostels and B&B's

Whether your guests are couples or families on a relaxing getaway, or busy business people looking for a stress-free stay after a day of meetings. Whatever your target audience is, an important factor in customer experience is your service. A positive experience is among the key drivers that influence brand loyalty and what will set you apart from your competitors.

Starting where the guest already is: WhatsApp

What could that service look like? How about pre-ordering room service even before arriving at the hotel for when you’re checking in late after meetings? Or how about silently booking a table for dinner as a surprise for your spouse? Or being able to request room cleaning or a wake-up call with just one word? Omnipresent means providing access to services right from the mobile phone, whenever and wherever.

With the WhatsApp Business Solution, consumers worldwide are familiar with WhatsApp. Many of them even prefer WhatsApp to communicate with companies. Still, even at this time, many hotels still require travelers to walk to reception or use the old-fashioned telephone in the hotel room. This means your receptionist needs to be able to handle incoming requests at the exact time of the request. For foreigners, calling may even be a threshold due to a language barrier. The WhatsApp Business solution is the solution to this problem, with communication from the consumer’s favorite communication channel, at the time that suits them.

How to: WhatsApp Business solution for guest experience

Proactive service is the best way to make a good impression. Why not inform your customer, targeted to the customer profile (business or holiday), about the possible services? The WhatsApp Business solution allows you to offer low threshold customer care at any time of day. And this won’t require you to react immediately. Auto-replies will take care of this for you. How?

After making a reservation, ask your visitor to opt in to receive notifications via WhatsApp. On the day of the reservation, send them their booking confirmation with a notification that their room (‘number X’) will be ready at ‘Y’ time. Let the customer know he can request several services via this same WhatsApp channel.

Automated personal and relevant communication

Message Templates

Using message templates in automatic replies allows you to have a natural conversation with your guests, making your services accessible at any time. Through the use of merge tags and combining your messaging channels to your customer data platform, all conversations will be personal and relevant.

What are Message Templates you ask? Message Templates are pre-approved messages that can be sent in both inbound and outbound communication with your customers. These messages can be used to send notifications to those customers with an active opt-in to receive the timely notification from your business, or to help you send quick replies whenever a consumer contact your support desk via WhatsApp.

Merge tags

Whatever the use case, your messages need to be valuable, informative, and relevant. This means personalization is key. To personalize the message, you can use merge tags. Each of those placeholders can be filled with letters, digits, special characters, and spaces. By using Message Templates and merge tags, you can easily request and send all necessary information in an automated flow. Immediate service, targeted at the guests' needs.

Start the conversation

The above was just one example of how you can use the WhatsApp Business API Message Templates to actively inform guests for an improved customer experience. Important to note is that for outbound use of these Templates, you will need an active opt-in from your customer to receive the specified information. Otherwise, they may be used only in the customer care window, initiated by the customer.

With WhatsApp Business you can - of course - also have a spontaneous chat, where you can send messages, enriched with media, in response to a customer-initiated conversation. Long story short, the possibilities of WhatsApp Business for personal and relevant interaction with your customers are practically limitless. What will your use case be?

Get started with the WhatsApp Business solution

Are you ready to take your customer experience to the next level? Request a WhatsApp Business account today and explore the many other possibilities it holds for your business.