24 Hour Customer Support

Above: The testimonials offered by Hotel Booking Systems are a good example of positive ‘customer support’ feedback.

Customer support: number three on the list

“Customer support – 24 hours” came third on the list of requirements when sixty small-to-medium sized hotel, motel, and guest house owners and GMs were questioned about their hotel booking system requirements. However, when asked about their reasons for swapping their booking software supplier, “Lack of continuing support” was number one on the list. This did not come as a surprise to me.

An effective hotel system must be usable in any country, with any currency, and any tax system. It is for this reason that free fields are required (as opposed to drop downs) and programs must be fully customisable. Most (but certainly not all) companies have realised this and therefore offer full customisation; however, with complicated systems and full customisation, there needs to be an option for twenty-four hour support; something that, yet again, most companies (seem) to realise.

However, I have come to question the support offered by these hotel booking system providers. I have lost count of the number of unanswered calls, week long waits for email replies, and voice mail messages I have left… All to no avail. And once I receive such terrible support once, I no longer have faith in the supplier and no longer recommend their product to my clients. It’s as simple as that! If a customer is promised support as part of their software package, then that promise needs to be fulfilled.

Respondents agree

It seems that my questionnaire respondents agree:

“I have come to trust software providers that request additional payment for support. Any company that has told me they can answer my emails or calls 24 hours for free has let me down one hundred per cent of the time.” – Simon, Hope Hotel, USA

“I’m getting too old to understand the ins and outs of a complicated booking system. I want to be told how to use it and get on with using it from day one. Once something goes wrong, it’s not like I can figure it out for myself; I need help. And if there is no one to help me for over a week, what am I supposed to do meanwhile?” – Anon, UK

“I’d like to send some of these people on a customer support course to teach them how to deal with real people. I sometime wonder whether they know their own software because they certainly don’t know how to explain it to me. I need quick, supportive, answers to my questions.” – Anon, UK

“I don’t mind waiting two days for a reply as long as I know it’s going to be two days! Don’t promise me the earth and give me a ping pong ball, I’ve learnt enough in this industry and won’t be taken for a mug anymore!” – Peter, Swan Inn, Yorkshire, UK

Testimonials

As a consultant within the industry, I have found testimonials mentioning excellent customer service and support are of utmost importance when promoting your software. I expect to see two or three testimonials from establishments of a similar size to the hotel, motel, guest house, or inn, I am consulting for. Excellent testimonials (that can be checked) can make or break my decision to use a system provider and I am sure that this is true of establishments searching for their own booking software.

I wish to also convey the importance of this to the hoteliers reading my blog: ALWAYS ask for testimonials and ALWAYS ask whether you can check their validity. If a supplier cannot provide positive feedback from previous clients and/or seems reluctant for you to contact the person, DO NOT trust the supplier. I learnt my lesson the hard way, there is no reason for you to do the same.

I hope that hoteliers and hotel booking software suppliers have found this, and previous, posts useful. If so, please add your comments to support my ideas, completely disagree with my thoughts, to advertise your own hotel/software, or to ask any questions you have.

Thanks for reading,

Emma

Please contact me on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk for further information or advice.

Empowering Employees

In yesterday’s article I touched on the idea that disempowering employees leads to poor customer service and lack of product / price / service flexibility. I have experienced this phenomenon twice today.

My first experience occurred during my daily visit to Costa Coffee in my home city of Nanjing. I ordered my usual Café Latte and requested a glass of cold water. The look on the cashiers face was priceless. “Cold water?” she asked. “Yes”, I replied, “cold water!” “Do you mean a bottle of water?” “No”, I replied, pointing, “I’d like a glass of cold water from your water machine over there”. The cashier huddled in the corner with her manager for a number of minutes before the manager wandered over to confirm that I was in fact requesting a FREE glass of water to accompany my overpriced coffee. The manager, looking very pleased with himself, ordered the cashier to pour me a glass of water and went back to pretending to look busy. During this process, I was extremely tempted to walk out and never return. The cashier wasn’t even allowed to provide a free glass of water without first checking with her manager!

The second occurrence was later this afternoon when conversing with a client and his employees. I gave a thirty minute presentation to the middle management of a medium-sized Nanjing hotel and after the presentation I asked the staff a number of questions to clarify the message I had delivered. Before any employee answered a question, they would first look at their manager for permission to answer and would never do so until they had received the obligatory nod. In a business where I have been hired to consult on CRM issues the General Manager could not understand how this lack of empowerment was hindering the hotel’s relationship with customers.

I found an interesting article by Mike McDaniel on Ezine discussing this exact problem:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Empower-Employees-to-Keep-Customers-Happy&id=1614535

I’d be interested to hear stories from readers related to hotel staff providing poor service due to lack of empowerment. Especially stories related to hotel booking systems and CRM systems.

A Hotel in Macau (which will remain nameless!)

I spent a very enjoyable week in Macau, the Las Vegas of Asia, a couple of weeks a go and booked my hotel a week in advance via www.asiarooms.com, having read the reviews on the service, the room quality, and the location.

On arrival we checked in with my member’s card and received an upgrade, as I would have expected. The hotel lived up to our expectations and Macau exceeded our expectations. Until our final night in the hotel…

Due to unexpected circumstances I was required to stay in Macau for an extra night, so off I trotted to reception to extend my stay. The price per night for my stay had been 750 HK dollars (this was for both week nights and week days) for a deluxe suite (due to my upgrade). However, when I attempted to downgrade to a standard single room I was quoted 1250 HK dollars and was told this was the cheapest room available.

A long discussion into the logic of this pricing system ensued, and the outcome was that we received the price of 750 due to the room being of deluxe criteria and my membership status. If I wanted to downgrade I had to pay more. To this day I still do not understand the reasoning. However, after a lengthy discussion with the manager, I deduced that if I were to sit in the lobby with my laptop and book online (as any Tom, Dick, or Harry) I would receive a price of 750 HK dollars, but if I were to try to book a room (as a returning customer, having spent a great deal of money in the hotel) face to face I would have to pay 1250 HK dollars.

Another example of customer service gone wrong, and the problems surrounding conventional hotel booking systems, which allow absolutely no flexibility and hinder the empowerment of employees.