Summer is here! And for Cape Codders, so is the seasonal business surge.
Your main goal is to delight your customers with an exceptional experience. But, in the age of online self-service, it can be a struggle to provide that human touch of customer service. For travel & hospitality, customer service shouldn’t feel transactional. A dream honeymoon shouldn’t feel the same as buying shoes online or transferring money. Just because your customers want the immediate gratification of booking online when it is convenient for them, they also still want to feel that sense of personal service.
You have the opportunity to stand out with a winning combination of automated, outsourced, and direct customer service. Go beyond offering convenient browsing and online booking, and elevate your customers’ experience with a degree of added guidance and personal care.
- Start with Customer Feedback. You would be surprised how few businesses actively seek customer feedback. What did they love? What could you do better? Your customers will be happy to hand you the keys to what will move your business from good to exceptional. You can set up a free survey at Survey Monkey to get a baseline and then track how your customer service is doing.
- Proactively check in on guests and travelers, before, during, and after their stay, making their lives a little easier and enhancing their experience.
- Respond to feedback and reviews – the customer experience is shared through reviews and referrals – ensure that positive reviews are acknowledged and shared, and negative reviews are acknowledged and resolved.
- Increase your positive reviews by checking off other items on this list!
2. Add Automation so you can be there 24/7. Customer queries come in at all times of the day and night, but with the help of automation, a chatbot for example, you could solve many inquiries even during off hours. Most importantly, this will:
- Save time and money by automating routine actions to be executed in common support scenarios.
- It’s easy to add live-chat or chatbot to your website. HubSpot offers a free solution for around-the-clock automated support to ensure that your customers’ needs are met!
3. Select and train your team for excellent customer service.
- Train your customer service team to ensure they respond with timeliness, kindness, and empathy, all while being personable and professional.
- Hire a student to keep your social media fresh – Cape Cod has an influx of students during the summer months who are naturals with social media.
- Provide sales training as well so agents can identify cross-selling opportunities and deliver personalized recommendations that convert into bookings.
The main takeaway is that automation is expected, but where other businesses stop at automation, you have the opportunity to elevate your customers’ in-person interactions and experience by maximizing the benefits and insights automation offers.
Maureen Hogan is founder of Scout+, a Hyannis-based customer service outsourcing firm delivering a human customer experience and content moderation to modern brands, 24/7/365. Learn more at scoutplus.com.
