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Santa
Fe, NM – September 2021 / Newsmaker Alert / Traditionally, hoteliers
have operated their businesses with departments working separately towards
varying goals. While more reservations and a positive guest experience
have always been the end goal in the hospitality industry, for separate
departments, that’s where the commonalities ended.
In
the past, marketing, distribution departments, revenue optimization divisions,
and digital teams worked diligently to complete complimentary goals within
their department with little thought of working together. To continue revenue
growth, this must change.
In
a post-COVID world, where travel habits are constantly evolving, the need
for increased use of technology and rapid data compilation is driving these
teams together under a single banner of revenue generation.
The Dangers of
the Silo Effect
The
‘Silo
Effect,’ occurs when a team or leadership members do not share common
goals, have aligned strategies, exchange information, or use collaboration
tools. Not only can the Silo Effect hurt employee morale, but it can damage
your bottom line as well.
Traditionally,
marketing, revenue optimization, and digital teams have worked as separate
entities within a hotel’s corporate structure, often with little collective
communication. While each department or individual might think they’re
working to contribute to the common goals of the organization, without
collaboration and communication between departments, they could be working
towards opposing end goals.
Building
a brand and maximizing revenue have been viewed as two distinct, unrelated
goals. This narrow way of thinking harms hotel guests, who ultimately suffer
when departments don’t communicate, and messaging differs across different
divisions.
Why Departments
Need to Work Together Now More than Ever
The
rapid advancement and adoption of technology in the hospitality industry
has increased the importance of cross-division teamwork. Typically, a revenue
professional spends upwards of 40% of their time compiling data. As the
data becomes more readily available, the revenue professional will engage
the Marketing, Digital, and Distribution teams in designing the right strategies
and execution timelines to ensure peak revenue and profit performance.
This can, and ought, to happen from property, regional and corporate levels
to ensure all revenue streams realize their greatest capture.
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According
to Suzanne Swafford, CRME, Managing Partner at Revenue Tree, LLC and Associate
Partner at Strategic Solution Partners, “The hotels that embrace data harvesting
from all revenue streams rolled into quick, informative analysis dashboards
will stay in touch with ever changing trends in the travel landscape. Hotels
that have a clear understanding of the data and the ability to create and
implement data-based strategies across departments will lead their market.”
Now
that technology allows us to instantly capture and evaluate data from past,
prospective, and current guests, all departments must work together to
act on the current data models. The last eighteen months have been dynamic,
to say the least. The need for data compilation has increased multifold
over the last year and a half, as trends no longer follow norms and must
be evaluated and acted upon quickly.
How to maximize
the collaborative effort
Teamwork
between departments cannot happen without clear communication between every
team member involved. In traditional, independent cooperate structures,
communication between departments tends to only occur when something goes
wrong. Communication, however, should be constant between departments during
successes and failures. Through reliable communication, departments can
get on the same page about guests’ needs, which at the end of the day is
the most important.
Patrick
Harrington, CRME, High-Touch Client Advocate for Travel Outlook, says “understanding
the customer and sharing that information across all departments is vital
for a hotel’s success.” To maximize communication between departments,
encourage efficient collaboration.
According
to a collaboration study titled Collaboration
Trends and Technology, researchers found that 98% of connected employees
collaborate, and - 94% say collaboration is important. Additionally, the
study found that 48% of employees preferred collaborative communication
to occur in the morning and 24% preferred the early afternoon.
The
study also found that 83% of surveyed employees use technology to communicate
across departments. To maximize the inter-team effort, make communication
social, foster a collaborative culture, seek input from your employees,
and use the technology that’s available to you and your team.
Collaborative
efforts promote efficiency
Collaborations
between teams and lean, efficient teams that work together towards a common
goal cut through the red tape of typical cross-department efforts. By working
together from the compilation of the data through the implementation of
the data-based strategies, teams invite new structure changes without the
pain of changing the old guard or garnering buy-in as much as pre-COVID.
Doug
Kennedy, President of Kennedy
Training Network and the founding Board Advisor to what is now known
as the HSMAI
Revenue Optimization Advisory Board, has watched the industry change
over the years. He states, “it’s clear that interdepartmental communication
is key to increasing revenue. Messaging must be united through all departments
from marketing, sales, and digital to revenue optimization and distribution.”
Simplify your
team’s collaborative effort by outsourcing your reservation department
With
new, lean efficient teams working together to unify messaging and increase
revenue, reservations must keep up their share of the workload as the final
piece of the puzzle.
Outsourcing
your hotel’s reservation department to an independent
hotel call center will allow other departments to focus their collective
efforts on increasing revenue and ensuring continuity in the brand’s messaging.
Professionally
trained call centers agents will aid your team to work effectively
to increase your hotel’s profitability and overall guest satisfaction.
And they’ll work tirelessly to ensure all call center agents know the ins
and outs of your property and can sell its best features.
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About
Travel Outlook Premium Hotel Call Center
Given
its progressive approach to the voice channel – in terms of performance,
training, transparency, testing and the tools used to measure performance
– Travel Outlook Premium Hotel
Call Center has become the premier voice reservations team in hospitality.
Travel Outlook’s valued client list includes Catalina Island, Columbia
Hospitality, Highgate Hotels, KSL Resorts, Outrigger, Pacific Hospitality
Group, Proper Hospitality Group, The Irvine Company, Viceroy Hotel Group
and many others. Travel Outlook’s team and approach increases sales conversion
and helps to create more effective voice communication between hotels and
their guests, resulting in improved social scores in addition to increased
voice channel revenue. For more information, visit www.TravelOutlook.com.
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Media
Contact:
Raul
Vega
LEVEL
5 Hospitality
www.LEVEL5hospitality.com
Mobile:
954-817-6371
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