In the hotel industry, maximising customer engagement often involves using several CRM tools to cover all aspects of customer management and relations. While commercial CRM and hotel CRM have their own specificities, combining them can offer optimum synergy for engaging customers and improving operations. This article explores how integrating these two types of CRM can transform your customer strategy.
1. Understanding the role of a commercial CRM
Definition and functions of a commercial CRM
A commercial CRM is designed to manage a company’s relationships with its customers, prospects and partners at a global level. It includes essential functions such as invoice generation, workflow management and sales opportunity tracking. These tools help to optimise the sales cycle by strengthening communication and customer relationship management.
The importance of sales CRM for engagement
In a sales approach, a sales CRM makes it easier to track customer interactions across various sales channels. It enables proactive management of leads, ensures personalised sales proposals and optimises invoicing and after-sales service operations. It is an essential tool for any company seeking to formalise its sales processes.
2. The advantages of a hotel CRM like Experience CRM
Focused on the customer experience
Experience CRM is specifically designed for the hospitality sector, focusing on the customer experience. By centralising customer data, it provides a unified view of preferences and interactions, making it easier to personalise services and anticipate customer needs.
Automation and personalisation to build loyalty
By automating communications, Experience CRM simplifies day-to-day tasks while personalising the customer experience. Possibilities include sending emails before, during and after the stay, as well as adapting communications according to interactions, increasing satisfaction and loyalty while ensuring the right message is sent to the right person at the right time.
3. An integrated solution for optimal customer engagement
Complementarity between sales CRM and hotel CRM
By combining a sales CRM with Experience CRM, hotels can benefit from complete coverage of customer needs. While the commercial CRM effectively manages sales and administrative processes, the hotel CRM focuses on delivering an exceptional, personalised customer experience throughout the entire journey.
Strategies for maximising impact
Integrating a commercial and hotel CRM starts with a strategic alignment of objectives. Data from both systems can be cross-referenced to enrich customer understanding and refine marketing actions. This synergy optimises internal processes and improves the value proposition for customers.
4. Synergies between commercial CRM and hotel CRM
Integrating a sales CRM with a hotel CRM creates a virtuous circle that maximises engagement and operational efficiency. Let’s take the example of a hotel that uses Experience CRM to manage its customer relations, while its sales CRM works upstream to convert prospects. The sales CRM enables a sales funnel to be structured, with automated follow-ups, tracking of sales proposals and a return of data to Experience CRM once the customer has booked a room.
The primary trigger for Experience CRM is the customer’s first booking, which then triggers the start of monitoring throughout the customer journey: before, during and after the stay. Numerous connections can be envisaged to optimise the use of the two CRMs. For example, Experience CRM can establish a connection to Salesforce, Pipedrive or Hubspot enabling seamless transmission of data and improved customer relationship management. It is possible to send ‘business rate’ requests that have been identified during the pre-stay to a sales funnel in the sales CRM. These requests can be sent automatically. These possibilities guarantee a consistent and optimised customer experience, while facilitating commercial and operational management.
Conclusion
The integration of commercial and hotel CRM is a strategic choice for any company in the sector looking to maximise customer engagement. Experience CRM, as a complement to commercial CRM, offers a robust and consistent solution for effectively managing both sales operations and the customer journey. This dual approach ensures greater harmonisation of processes and increased satisfaction, enabling hotels to maintain quality relationships with their customers.
