The Future of CRM, AI and machine learning for hotel marketing – Part 2

Marketing and customer engagement remain high-touch endeavors. Too often, useful customer information is scattered across tools, vendors, and databases, without a roll-up view that can be accessed by your full operation and staff.

To be most effective, CRM data must be accurate and up-to-date. For example, a guest’s request for a foam pillow may be duly noted in a guest messaging platform without ever making it to the guest’s profile. AI-enhanced chatbots could both fulfill the request while also updating the guest profile accordingly. AI makes it possible to have robust guest profiles that are always improving — without the tedium of manual entry.

Harnessing a centralized data platform for AI input & output

Data isolation means that marketing must rely on outdated or incomplete guest profiles that lack relevancy and context. Next-gen CRM eliminates these frustrations by harnessing the power of AI to continuously update customer profiles with the most relevant information. For example, there’s a trove of information to be gleaned from emerging ways that guests interact with hotels, such as voice and chatbots. With 75% of respondents comfortable using chatbots, there are many interactions that traditional CRM fails to capture. Without a centralized approach to pull these pieces of information together, CRMs can never truly deliver on the value of a centralized global guest profile.

Improved guest scoring

The most effective hotel marketing and sales managers use sophisticated lead scoring to carefully prioritize their work. Whether it’s deciding which RFPs to tackle first, or evaluating the performance of guest segments, smart lead scoring maximizes productivity and sales effectiveness.

With AI, guest scoring is more accurate and can more accurately trace sales back to the originating marketing campaigns and sales strategies. AI-integrated CRM can also be a sales coach, analyzing customer accounts, profile information, and property sales targets to guide strategy and process. It can even identify roadblocks early and help tailor messages for more engaging follow-ups. Sales intelligence improves conversions and creates a better sales experience for customers.

Armed with this data-rich CRM, marketers can identify similar customer profiles to predict ideal segments. As teams strain to get more done with less, AI-enhanced CRM helps them assign real values to their Marketing Qualified Leads (MQLs) and Sales Qualified Leads (SQL). With improved resource allocation, hotels can earn more business and maintain long-term relationships with the highest value customers.

Stay tuned for Part 3 in our series. This article originally appeared in the “Hotel Yearbook 2020 – Digital Marketing” edition.

Interested in learning more about hotel CRM? Contact us today for a demo.