Personalization in sales and marketing is vital with today’s hospitality buyers, and the convergence of technology, sales, marketing and customer service has become imperative. Conversational AI is emerging as a powerful tool for hotels to elevate their strategies.
Conversational AI Overview:
Conversational AI epitomizes the fusion of artificial intelligence and natural language processing, empowering machines to comprehend and respond to human language seamlessly. At its essence, Conversational AI leverages advanced algorithms and machine learning techniques to decode user queries and deliver contextually relevant responses in a conversational manner.
The Basic Mechanics Behind Conversational AI:
1. Natural Language Understanding (NLU): By employing sophisticated NLU algorithms, Conversational AI systems decipher the intent and context embedded within user inputs, enabling them to extract pertinent information effectively.
2. Dialogue Management: With adept dialogue management mechanisms in place, Conversational AI orchestrates coherent and contextually aware conversations, ensuring a fluid interaction flow throughout the dialogue.
3. Response Generation: Leveraging various methodologies such as template-based responses or generative models, Conversational AI crafts tailored responses customized to the user’s inquiries or preferences.
4. Natural Language Generation (NLG): NLG serves as the final touchpoint, transmuting machine-generated responses into human-readable text or speech, thereby facilitating a seamless conversational experience.
Tailored Applications in Hotel Sales and Marketing:
Lead Generation and Qualification:
Conversational AI-powered chatbots embedded within hotel websites can engage with potential guests in real-time, capturing leads, and qualifying them based on their preferences, budget, and booking requirements. By offering personalized assistance and relevant recommendations, chatbots nurture leads through the sales funnel, ultimately driving conversions. Read GitGo’s recent case study to see how one hotel company applied chatbots for their new business strategy.
Conversational AI can also be voice! GitGo is currently piloting this technology in live hotel scenarios for outbound prospecting and soon will be testing inbound lead capture and qualification. AI Agents are considered assistants for the property sales teams and area able to call 1,000’s of contacts at once, qualifying their hotel needs and interest for further engagement. This is the first of its kind in hospitality and is being utilized across many industry verticals, as well. Here’s a link to learn more!
Booking Assistance and Upselling:
For example, chatbots powered with Conversational AI can assist guests throughout the booking process, providing information on room availability, rates, and promotions. Furthermore, they can leverage upselling techniques by suggesting room upgrades, add-on amenities, or personalized packages tailored to the guest’s preferences, thereby maximizing revenue opportunities.
We’re talking about more than just chatbots, however! Very soon, there will be conversational AI voice agents for hospitality that can receive inbound calls and converse with a customer through a series of questions to assist them with their needs and upsell. Customers will have the ability to connect with a bot via voice just like you might do with “Alexa” or “Siri”. GitGo is piloting the inbound customer service model which has the ability to live transfer calls, add notes in a CRM or platform, conduct follow-up steps like send a link to an email, etc. The possibilities are endless as the conversational AI technology advances.
Targeted Marketing Campaigns:
Conversational AI enables hotels to deploy targeted marketing campaigns via messaging platforms and social media channels. By engaging with potential guests in a conversational manner, chatbots can disseminate information about special offers, loyalty programs, and exclusive deals, effectively driving awareness and enticing bookings.
Feedback Collection and Reputation Management:
Following a guest’s stay, Conversational AI-powered chatbots can solicit feedback and reviews in a non-intrusive and user-friendly manner. By actively seeking guest input, hotels can gather valuable insights into their experience, address any issues promptly, and bolster their online reputation through positive reviews and testimonials.
What all of these conversational AI opportunities have in common is personalization for customers while respecting the way they prefer to engage while also providing scalability.
Conversational AI emerges as a pivotal asset, but two critical components can potentially derail adoption:
1. Data management & set-up
2. Proper implementation
As your team focuses on building customer relationships and closing business, GitGo can tackle evaluation, design, implementation and managing your conversational AI strategy to ensure a cost-effective and truly useable process your team can embrace to make a difference. Schedule a free strategy/brainstorming session here: https://calendly.com/amyi/30min or feel free to join our AI Think Tank Collaboration Call for hospitality industry leaders.