Customer Service in 2016
We’re not competitor-obsessed, we’re customer-obsessed. We start with what the customer needs and we work backwards.—Jeff Bezos, CEO, Amazon.com Bezos got it right. Corporations have an obligation to invest substantial resources not simply for their own benefit, but for the benefit of their customers. In this way, they are always working [...]
Employee Retention: Using Active Planning to Boost Staff Success
Diane Bowen, Director of Services, SkyTouch Technology Let me start out with what I find to be a startling fact: According to the Bureau of Labor Statistics, the average turnover rate for the hospitality industry in 2014 was 66.3%. Considering that the national average for all other private industries was [...]
Customer Surveys: The Value of Finding a PMS Provider that Listens
How often in the business world do we have the opportunity to receive honest feedback from others—feedback that might prompt us to make the necessary changes to improve our businesses? For the hotelier, guests, staff, and peers are often crucial to providing useful input that can point to where things are [...]
Call Me: 24-Hour Support for Your 24-Hour Hotel
In today’s ultra-competitive hotel market, it has become more important than ever to get the help you need right when you need it. If something goes wrong, you need to know that you can get in touch with someone quickly. Questions arise from time to time, and you may have [...]
Between Shifts: Using Your PMS to Help Smooth Communications
Your hotel business runs non-stop on a 24/7, 365-day schedule. Round-the-clock operations often add a layer of complication to working in teams. Therefore, communication failures between the teams that provide coverage on different shifts can be problematic, and it can be common to run into problems between shifts. Hearing comments from [...]
Get Full, Stay Full: Optimizing the OTA-Hotel Software Combo
With tablet and smartphone use exploding in the past decade, tech smart consumers are no longer the exception, but have quickly become the rule in the hospitality market. In a similar fashion, Online Travel Agencies (OTAs), once dismissed by many hoteliers as merely a necessary annoyance, have matured to become [...]
We Hear You: 4 Ways Hotel Software can Help You Listen
Being in a business actually called hospitality, you are likely to feel that you are already very good at listening to your guests. But do you truly hear what they are saying? With front desks buzzing from reservations, phones ringing, check-ins, and chatter, what your customers are really asking for, [...]
Customer Delight in 2016
The subject of Customer Delight is often like the weather; to paraphrase Mark Twain: “Everybody talks about it, but nobody does anything about it.” At SkyTouch Technology, we’re doing something about it. We started by using an outside-in approach. Rather than looking at things solely from our point of view, [...]
Remote Housekeeping: A Mobile Solution for Your Mobile Staff
Housekeepers are always on the move in a hotel, and traditionally have long relied on pre-printed reports from their property management system (PMS) to help them keep track of which rooms to clean and what type of service to provide. The problem with these housekeeping reports is that they are [...]
Mobile Guest Engagement: Building Loyalty and Your Bottom Line
Pleasing today’s tech-savvy guests with meaningful mobility is a perfect opportunity to get in front of them in real-time. Learn how this kind of engagement can provide real value to them and to your business.
Remote Hotel Operations: How Mobile Technology in the Cloud can Set You Free
Today, we use our mobile phones and tablets to do our shopping, conduct our banking, stay connected with friends, keep up with current events, listen to music, and watch our favorite TV shows. We depend on mobile devices for so much in our personal lives, it’s hard to imagine life [...]
The Remote Front Desk: Breaking down Barriers with Mobile Guest Delight
Since Apple first introduced the iPhone in 2007, the world has seen massive expansion in the use of smartphones and tablets, with an estimated four billion of these devices currently in use globally. They have become a huge part of our lives, and for many people, a sense of security, [...]
Touch Points, Technology, and Hotel Management Systems
Hoteliers already realize that competition in the hospitality industry has never been keener. So, it’s crucial for owners and managers to creatively consider how they can distinguish themselves from the crowd, while improving guest satisfaction, encouraging repeat stays, and generating a positive reputation. However, if you are still using an Excel [...]
The “Win-Win” of Today’s Hotel Lost and Found Technology
The number of items lost by hotel guests each month and the time hotel staff spend looking for and returning them can be staggering—and expensive. According to the recent "Motel 6 Left behind Survey" conducted by Kelton Global, over 54 percent of travelers report that they have left something behind [...]
Your Room is Waiting: The Value of Mobile Guest Engagement
Imagine guests walking into your hotel and stopping at the front desk not to check-in and pick out a room, but just to chat about their trip, get their keys, and go. As increasingly tech-smart guests, often referred to as the Digital Elite, manage most aspects of their lives and [...]