Social CRM for Hotels

If we had to define what we mean by Social CRM, and what differentiates it from traditional CRM, we could not do so without referring to Social Media Marketing. Traditional CRM is based on direct contact with the customer and interaction through prospects, proposals, leads and the customer portfolio. Certain platforms, such as Salesforce, Zoho or SugarCRM, offer technological automation tools that allow us to extract, analyse, segment and act in order to maintain customer relationships as effectively as possible. In hospitality, Hotel CRM goes a little further, as one of its key objectives is the repeat guest rate, clearly geared towards customer loyalty. However, given the current hotel market landscape, it is well known that loyalty in hospitality is fairly relative and subject to a considerable number of factors, including price. As hotels become increasingly aware of the importance of customer relationships and interaction with guests, the sector has embraced the need to manage its presence wherever interaction takes place: on social media. Concerns about monitoring reviews and the need to manage a hotel's online reputation have accelerated this process. Indeed, maintaining the essence of traditional CRM while opening up an additional channel for customer interaction is what has led to what we call Social CRM. Ultimately, we could say that the only difference between traditional CRM and Social CRM is precisely its social nature: we have moved from managing data to managing conversations. Unlike traditional CRM, Social CRM recognises that interaction no longer takes place solely between hotels and customers, but also between customers themselves, who share opinions, recommend, suggest—or quite the opposite. Analysing the social profiles of customers who choose one option over another, as well as identifying which profiles ultimately convert into bookings, is an inexhaustible source of information for developing an optimal marketing strategy. This is why there is an increasing number of applications integrated, to a greater or lesser extent, with Facebook or Twitter profiles. Our identity on social media, our habits and the way we use it, are our digital calling card and are subject to analysis by those seeking to make the most of the Internet.