Great customer experience is critical for business growth, with 88% of customers stating that the experience a company provides is just as important as its products or services.
While omnichannel services do help consumers, about 66% of consumers prefer to have a direct link to their customer service representatives. This diligence has helped call centers deal with real and complicated consumer issues while other services such as email, social media, and live chat offer enough help to people stuck with minor and solvable problems.
Hospitality call centers continue to play an incredibly fundamental role in constructing a strong and beneficial clientele. However, it is no easy feat to establish an in-house customer service and call center. It takes a lot of planning, budget delegation, and employee training. Moreover, efficient call centers provide both proactive and reactive services.
Why Is Customer Service an Integral Part of the Hospitality Industry?
Positive customer service is crucial for all businesses, but it's particularly vital in the hospitality industry. Hospitality businesses depend greatly on customer interaction, and a significant portion of their service is focused on ensuring customer satisfaction.
Affects customers' decisions greatly
Businesses that are entirely comprised of providing personal services tend to lose sales and customers in case of dissatisfaction. According to analytics, 70% of the customer’s decisions are directly affected by the customer services for that business. This not only directly affects one specific consumer but also a large percentage of the potential clientele.
Word-of-mouth marketing
Most people are more likely to share a negative experience than a positive one. Even in unfortunate cases of questionable service, if the business provides helpful customer support handled by trained representatives, that bad experience can turn into a good one. When provided with excellent customer support, people will surely talk about their business among their acquaintances and create a successful word-of-mouth marketing channel.
Sets you apart from your competitors
High-functioning hospitality call center services also play a huge role in setting you apart from your competitor. In the experience of Simply Contact’s experts, more people are attracted to rapid responses and great customer support services. This also helps create the typecast, that your customer service is better than other hospitality businesses in your circle.
Minimizes business risks
Having effective customer support services not only helps in retaining loyal customers but also turns them into advocates for your business. Research indicates that poor and unresponsive customer service costs the hospitality industry approximately $1.6 trillion. By maintaining strong and reliable customer support, you significantly reduce the risk of losing customers due to service issues or miscommunication.
Customer Support Call Centers Aren't Enough Anymore
The world is progressing towards virtual interaction at a quick pace. While most people still prefer in-person interaction, it is simply not enough anymore. To create excellent and reliable customer service in the hospitality industry, you need to cover all communication channels and create an omnichannel service for your business.
Simply Contact provides businesses with efficient customer support services that include multiple channels of interaction to help create a feasible support department for customers of all backgrounds and ages. We also ensure that the support representatives are trained and informed about the hospitality industry and can satisfy and help customers accordingly. Omnichannel customer support services include services such as on-call support, emails, live chats, social media interactions, etc.
In the hospitality sector, the nature of services demands diverse channels of communication. For instance, customers often prefer on-call support for immediate assistance or when time is of the essence. Email is typically used for handling more formal issues such as refunds and cancellations, while live chat and social media are ideal for quick inquiries, gathering information, and resolving minor concerns.
Curious about the benefits of omnichannel services? Read our article to learn more.
How to Set Up Your Own Call Center: In-House vs Outsourcing
If you are a hospitality company looking to establish your own call center or omnichannel contact center, you're typically faced with two primary options: setting up an in-house operation or opting for outsourcing. Each approach has its own set of advantages and challenges, and the choice largely depends on your company's specific needs, resources, and strategic goals.
Here, we delve into the pros and cons of both in-house and outsourcing models to help you make an informed decision:
In-House Call Center
Advantages:
Control and customization: Operating an in-house call center gives you direct control over the training, processes, and operations, allowing for a high degree of customization to meet your specific needs.
Brand alignment: In-house agents can become deeply familiar with your brand, culture, and values.
Immediate feedback loop: Being on-site, it's easier to relay feedback and implement changes quickly, ensuring a dynamic response to customer needs.
Disadvantages:
High initial investment: Setting up an in-house call center requires significant upfront costs, including infrastructure, technology, and staffing.
Operational challenges: Managing a call center demands ongoing operational oversight, from staffing to compliance with regulations, which can divert resources from your core business activities.
Scalability issues: Scaling an in-house operation can be challenging and costly, especially during peak seasons or unexpected surges in demand.
Outsourced Call Center
Advantages:
Cost efficiency: Outsourcing can be more cost-effective, eliminating the need for large capital investments and reducing operational costs through economies of scale.
Flexibility and scalability: Outsourced call centers can quickly adjust to changing volumes of calls, providing flexibility and scalability that's hard to achieve in-house.
Access to expertise: Outsourcing companies specialize in customer support, offering access to experienced staff and the latest technologies without the need for extensive training or capital investment.
Focus on core business: By outsourcing, you can focus more on your core hospitality services, leaving the complexities of call center management to the experts.
Disadvantages:
Less control: Outsourcing may result in less direct control over the customer service process and a potential disconnect with your company's culture and values.
Potential quality concerns: Without direct oversight, there may be concerns about the quality of service provided. To prevent this, it's crucial to select a reliable outsourcing partner who can guarantee quality and reliability, and possesses relevant quality certifications.
After evaluating the pros and cons and considering your company's specific needs, you can determine the best call center model— in-house or outsourcing—for your business. The decision should align with your investment capacity, control preferences, scalability requirements, and the role of customer service in your brand strategy.
For companies seeking to guarantee the quality of their customer support, Simply Contact provides customer support quality assessment and control services. This process involves evaluating agent-customer interactions to identify improvement areas, enhancing support quality, and boosting customer satisfaction and operational efficiency.
Key Steps to Set Up Your Own Call Center
If you're still considering establishing your own call center for the hospitality industry, it's crucial to understand the key steps required to ensure its success. Here's a simplified guide to get you started:
Plan your strategy: Define what you want your call center to achieve, who your customers are, and the services you'll offer.
Choose the right technology: Invest in essential technology like phone systems, software for managing calls, and tools for keeping track of customer interactions.
Hire and train staff: Seek out individuals with great communication skills and a service mindset. Provide training on the hospitality industry and how to use your call center's technology.
Follow laws and protect data: Make sure your call center follows legal requirements, especially those about protecting customer information.
Monitor quality: Set up a system to check how well your call center is doing, focusing on customer satisfaction and how quickly and effectively calls are handled or consider reaching out to us for quality assurance consulting.
Plan for emergencies: Have a backup plan for unexpected events to keep your call center running smoothly at all times.
Setting up an in-house call center is a big project that needs detailed planning and careful work. By following these important steps, you can build a call center that fits the special requirements of the hospitality industry and delivers outstanding service to your customers.
Why Companies Choose to Outsource Their Hospitality Call Center?
Every customer interaction must be as positive and productive as possible. Outsourcing is one way to improve your customer service and gain consumer loyalty.
Using a third-party provider to manage your customer service operations can provide you with several significant and long-term benefits, including:
Reducing administrative workload
Early businesses often face a heavy workload with limited space and staff. Many employees may not have the specialized skills for customer support, which can lead to subpar results. Additionally, hiring or training in-house experts adds to the workload and financial strain.
Outsourcing hospitality customer services offers a more efficient and reliable alternative. It reduces the need for additional staff, saves time and space, and alleviates stress. Not only is it practical, but it also allows businesses to focus on their core tasks while ensuring that customers receive professional support.
24/7 regular coverage
Many customers today expect 24/7 customer support. Even more so in the hospitality industry. In this industry, the construction of time is very unreliable and temporary. While the business itself has regular working hours, the customers can be reaching out from all time zones and can often face poor to non-existent customer support. Outsourcing a call center for hospitality can help ensure that trained support reps are always available to your clientele.
Breaking down language barriers
In the hospitality industry, it's common to encounter customers facing language barriers. If your customers might speak languages other than English, like Spanish or Chinese, outsourcing your customer service can give you access to multilingual representatives.
This means your customers will feel more comfortable doing business with you, knowing they can get answers in their own language without any communication issues. Plus, in today's global environment, having a multilingual support team shows your business is forward-thinking and inclusive.
In addition to multilingual support, incorporating AI into your customer service strategy can further elevate customer experiences. AI tools can streamline interactions and enhance efficiency, complementing the human touch.
Want to know how AI can transform your customer service?
One of the most effective ways to ensure customer retention and satisfaction is to provide omnichannel customer support. Not all customers prefer to reach out through email or the same way every time. It's important to be available in different ways, so everyone can find help fast and without hassle.
Having support across various channels also means you can gather better information for customer relationship management, understanding your market, and giving personalized advice. Outsourcing your customer support makes providing these services much simpler than trying to manage them all on your own.
Data-driven business decisions
With your whole clientele’s data in one place and dealt with by professional experts, you will be able to create much more accurate data-driven results when analyzing your business growth.
Conclusion
Efficient customer support is crucial for the growth of a small business, but it's evident that establishing a proficient support system is a complex and long-term endeavor that demands considerable expertise.
If you're looking to expand your business and establish outstanding customer care services, reach out to us. By partnering with us, you'll gain access to top-notch services and a contact-rich call center, ensuring your customer support is both effective and seamless.
Business Tips
Was this article helpful for you? Share it with your friends.
