The boostCX Blog

Artificial Intelligence (AI) has had a major impact on how companies in many industries interact with and understand their customers. With the capabilities to analyze massive amounts of customer data and interact with customers in various ways, AI promises to be a valuable asset for businesses like hotels, restaurants, and resorts in the hospitality industry. To illustrate the value and capabilities of AI in customer experience management, we have created this list of the Top 10 Ways to Use AI in the Hospitality Industry.

How To Use AI in Hotels, Resorts, and Restaurants

AI-powered tools are revolutionizing the hospitality sector by automating repetitive day-to-day tasks, providing instant support for guests and customers, and personalizing customer interactions, which all contribute to an improved customer experience. These innovative solutions help businesses better understand customer preferences, allow them to anticipate needs, and deliver services that surpass expectations. This fosters loyalty and drives repeat business in hospitality-based businesses like hotels, resorts, and restaurants.

Here are 10 ways AI can be used to better the customer experience in hospitality:

1. AI Chatbots and Personal Assistants

These AI-powered tools provide instant responses to guest questions, which frees up staff and offers 24/7 support for common questions or requests. They can handle everything from Wi-Fi password requests to local recommendations, ensuring guests receive immediate assistance.

2. AI Phone Systems

AI-driven phone answering systems can intelligently route calls, handle basic queries, and even translate languages. This improves communication efficiency for both guests and staff and ensures that guests' calls are handled quickly and accurately, regardless of any potential language barriers.

3. Customer Self-Service Tools

AI also provides access to intuitive self-service options, allowing guests to manage bookings, check in/out, make reservations, pay bills, customize orders, or make special requests on their own. This gives customers more control and reduces wait times.

4. Automated Booking and Check-Ins

AI streamlines the entire booking process for hotels, resorts and restaurants, offering personalized options and managing reservations with minimal human interaction. Automated check-in kiosks or apps powered by AI can expedite arrival, making the initial guest experience smoother and more efficient.

5. Dynamic Pricing for Customers

AI algorithms analyze real-time demand, competitor pricing, and other factors to optimize room rates or menu prices, offering competitive and attractive deals to customers. This ensures pricing is always responsive to market conditions, benefiting your business and the consumer.

6. Personalized Guest Experiences

AI has the capability to analyze guest data to better understand preferences, allowing hotels and restaurants to offer tailored recommendations for rooms, dining, activities, or amenities. This level of personalization makes guests feel valued and understood.

7. AI Order Recommendations

In restaurants, AI can suggest dishes or drinks based on a customer's past orders, dietary preferences, or popular trends, to enhance their dining experience. This intelligent upselling and cross-selling can also boost revenue for your restaurant.

8. Conversational AI Marketing

AI can engage potential guests through personalized marketing messages, answering questions about facilities or promotions in a more natural (less robotic), conversational manner. This builds rapport with guests and guides customers more effectively through the decision-making process.

9. Implementation of Loyalty Programs

AI can identify high-value customers and predict loyalty trends, which enables businesses to create more effective and personalized loyalty programs with personalized rewards. This helps in retaining valuable customers and encouraging repeat business with newer customers.

10. More Efficient Inventory Management

While not directly customer-facing, AI-driven inventory management ensures that popular items are always in stock and reduces waste, improving the customer experience by guaranteeing product availability. This operational efficiency prevents customer disappointment due to popular items not being available.‍

READ MORE: What Is the Customer Journey in the Hospitality Industry?‍

Integrating AI into customer experience strategies in the hospitality industry is critical for delivering exceptional customer experiences and improving business processes. Are you ready to harness the power of AI to transform your hotel, resort, or restaurant? Contact boostCX today for a demo of our customer experience management platform and find out how we can help you create memorable guest experiences!

Listening to what your customers have to say - whether via online reviews or customer feedback surveys - is critical to improving the customer experience. But is it more important in the finance industry? Recent discussions in the industry have highlighted how it can be a challenge to build empathy with customers in an industry that is traditionally known for putting more focus on the numbers - and omnichannel listening is an important piece of the puzzle. Banks, credit unions, and financial institutions that want to upgrade the employee experience may be asking - why is omnichannel listening important in finance?

Top 4 Reasons Why Omnichannel Listening is Important in Finance

Omnichannel listening is the process of collecting and analyzing customer feedback and interactions from every available channel – whether that be in person, phone calls, emails, social media, online chat, or mobile app interactions. It is about creating a full and complete narrative of the customer journey, rather than just examining key fragments.

This approach is valuable in banking because financial decisions are personally important, and clients expect financial advisors to truly understand their needs and concerns. Real-time statistics can vary, but data by the Aberdeen Group indicates that businesses that implement strong omnichannel strategies typically see 9.5% greater year-over-year revenue growth and 7.5% greater year-over-year decrease in cost per contact compared to those with weaker omnichannel strategies.

1. Ability to Meet Changing Customer Expectations

Modern finance customers expect consistency across all channels, from digital interactions to in-person appointments. Omnichannel listening allows financial institutions to adapt quickly to the changing preferences and expectations, ensuring that services and communications are always valuable and accessible, enhancing the overall customer experience. This responsiveness builds confidence and demonstrates a commitment to client needs.

2. Personalization of the Customer Experience

Financial advice is personal, and clients value guidance tailored to their own personal goals and concerns. Omnichannel listening provides deeper insights to help personalize interactions, anticipate customer needs, and provide relevant solutions across multiple platforms, which strengthens client relationships and builds a foundation of trust in the end. This personalized approach makes clients feel understood and valued.

3. Improves Regulatory Compliance

In a highly-regulated industry like finance, comprehensive record-keeping and clear communication are critical. Omnichannel listening helps financial institutions maintain a complete audit trail of all customer interactions, improve transparency and aid in compliance with industry regulations. By tracking and managing client communications via a central platform, institutions can better monitor feedback and identify potential issues, which reduces compliance risks.

4. Creates a More Proactive Customer Experience

By monitoring customer feedback and interactions across all channels, financial advisors can proactively identify emerging trends, potential issues, or client concerns before they escalate. This more proactive approach allows for timely interventions, personalized outreach, and the ability to anticipate customer needs, leading to a more complete and effective customer journey.

‍READ MORE: How To Grow Your Customer Base with Customer Experience Management‍

Implementing omnichannel listening in finance is more than just a trend. It's a fundamental shift that gives financial institutions the ability to truly connect with their clients, meet evolving expectations, and build lasting trust.

Contact boostCX for a demo of our customer experience management platform today!

In a modern business landscape, planning and delivering an exceptional customer experience (CX) is critical for business success. But what if we told you that the secret to happy, loyal customers often lies with happy employees? The truth is, an exceptional employee experience (EX) is an indicator of a memorable customer experience. When employees are engaged, supported, and happy in their roles, they are more motivated to provide outstanding service at every touchpoint, which leads to happier customers and a more successful business in the end. Knowing how to connect customer experience and employee experience isn't just a good idea - it's an important strategy that leads to long-term prosperity.

5 Ways to Connect the Customer Experience and Employee Experience

It's important to understand why it is so critical to bridge the gap between CX and EX for your business strategies. Employees are the face of your brand with customers - their interactions directly shape the customer experience and customer perceptions. When CX and EX are aligned as part of a comprehensive strategy, it creates a synergy that drives positive outcomes.

Connecting CX and EX as part of your business strategies offers many benefits that include:

• Improved Customer Satisfaction: Happy and engaged employees go the extra mile for customers and lead to improved customer satisfaction KPIs.
• Increased Employee Retention: Employees who feel valued and connected to the customer mission and the brand are more likely to stay.
• Improved Brand Reputation: A positive workplace culture radiates outward and strengthens your brand's image with customers.
• Better Operational Efficiency: Shared goals and improved collaboration streamline processes.
• Revenue Growth: Satisfied customers and motivated employees contribute directly to the higher revenue growth.

Here is a better look at how you can connect CX and EX initiatives as a part of your strategy:

Define Shared CX and EX Goals

The first step you need to take to connect CX and EX is to establish clear, shared objectives that are important to both customer satisfaction and employee well-being. This involves creating a shared vision where employees understand how their daily efforts directly contribute to the overall customer journey and the business's success. Make sure that goals for customer satisfaction and employee engagement support one another.

Breakdown Silos Between Departments to Improve Collaboration

Organizational silos can have a negative impact on both CX and EX. Build a workplace environment where departments collaborate by sharing insights and working together to solve problems that impact both your employees and your customers. Put initiatives in place to encourage cross-functional teams and communication channels that allow for a more complete view of internal and external interactions.

Create an Employee-Focused CX Strategy

Your customer experience strategy should focus on more than just the customer. It must also consider the employees who are in charge of implementing your strategy. Equip your employees with the right tools and training to excel in their roles and give them the power to make the right decisions, ensuring they have the resources and support needed to provide exceptional service. An employee-focused approach recognizes that happy, well-supported employees are the foundation of a positive customer experience.

Combine Employee and Customer Journey Mapping

To better understand how these business elements work together, map both the employee journey and the customer journey side-by-side. Identify key touchpoints where employee experiences directly impact customer experiences, allowing you to identify areas for improvement and opportunities to enhance both. This combined mapping reveals important intersections and potential pain points for employees and customers.

Track and Measure CX and EX Metrics

You can't improve what you don't measure. It is important to track key performance indicators (KPIs) for both customer experience and employee experience to monitor progress and identify areas that need improvement. For CX, important KPIs include Customer Satisfaction (CSAT) scores, Net Promoter Score (NPS), and Customer Effort Score (CES). For EX, consider metrics like Employee Engagement Scores, eNPS (Employee Net Promoter Score), Absenteeism Rates, and Employee Turnover Rate.

READ MORE: How To Find the Right Customer Experience Management Software

Creating a connection between how your employees feel and how your customers experience your brand is essential to long-term success. By aligning CX and EX initiatives and strategies, businesses can improve efficiency, loyalty, and growth. Are you ready to transform your business by enhancing both your customer experience and employee experience?

Contact boostCX today for a demo of the boostCX customer experience management platform!

Businesses that are striving for long-term success need to build a loyal customer base and Customer Retention Rate (CRR) is an important Key Performance Indicator (KPI) that businesses can use to measure their success. Are you looking for ways to improve your customer retention? We may be able to help at boostCX with our list of Top 5 Ways to Boost Customer Retention Rates. 

How To Improve Customer Retention Rates at Your Business

Focusing on keeping your current customers happy can have a major impact on your bottom line. Did you know that increasing customer retention by just 5% can boost profits by an estimated 25% to 95%? In addition - returning customers spend 67% more than new customers, making them an incredibly valuable asset to any business.  By making retention a priority, businesses can build a solid foundation for long-term growth and continued success.

Here are five key strategies to help your business improve its customer retention:

1. Deliver Exceptional Customer Service

The number one thing a business can do to improve customer retention is to deliver impeccable customer service. Providing outstanding customer service is fundamental. When customers feel valued, heard, and supported, they are far more likely to remain loyal to your brand. Ensure your team is trained, responsive, and has the ability to make the right decisions for your customers.

2. Personalize the Customer Experience

Personalizing customer interactions and offers to meet customer preferences makes them feel valued and understood. Use customer feedback and data to remember past purchases, anticipate needs, and provide relevant recommendations or communications that resonate with your customers.

3. Create a Strong Loyalty Program

Incentives for loyal and returning customers is a proven strategy to improve retention. Reward your customers for their continued business with loyalty programs that offer exclusive benefits, discounts, or early access to new products and services. These programs incentivize repeat purchases and build a sense of appreciation.

4. Be Proactive and Act on Feedback

It is important to regularly ask for customer feedback through surveys, reviews, and direct communication - and act on the information you are given. This shows customers that their opinions matter and leads to improvements to the customer journey, which builds trust and demonstrates your commitment to customer satisfaction.

5. Engage with Customers Post-Purchase

Don't let the customer relationship end after the sale. Continue to engage customers with helpful content, follow-up messages, additional offers, and support to ensure they are getting the most out of their purchase and their experience with your business. This sustained engagement keeps your brand top-of-mind and reinforces their decision to choose you.

READ MORE: Best KPIs to Measure Customer Experience ROI

Employing strategies to boost your customer retention rate is important for sustainable business growth and increased profitability. By implementing these key methods, you can transform satisfied customers into loyal brand ambassadors.

‍Contact boostCX for a demo of our customer experience management platform today!