How to Use the Internet to Keep in Contact with Your Customers

How to Use the Internet to Keep in Contact with Your Customers

Its easier to retain an existing customer than to attract a new one. Email offers an inexpensive way to keep in contact with your customers and build a relationship with them. A regular email from you will remind your customers about you, build your brand with them, and give them an easy way to contact you for further bookings. Email is also a good way to encourage your customers to use your own booking channels to book further accommodation, and so will help prevent these bookings being made through commission-paying channels such as GDS or intermediaries. And email

Capture the email addresses of as many customers and potential customers as you can - and use them!

is a fast, easy and inexpensive way to tell former guests about special offers, new facilities and other news.

In order to use email to maintain contact with your customers you need their email addresses - at the very least. Customers and potential customers should be able to sign up for a newsletter, details of special offers and other information from your website. Ask customers for their email address when they make a telephone booking or enquiry and when they check in. Remember, its not just the email address of customers who have booked via the Internet that you are looking for, but the email addresses of all customers.

As well as email addresses you should collect the names, addresses, preferences and other details about your customers. A personalised email is much more effective that an obviously mass-distributed email, and the more information you have about your customers, the more personalised your emails to them can be. At the very least though, you should have their name and email address.

You can use the email addresses of your customers in several ways. A good way to start is to email your customers after they check out, thanking them for their visit. Even better is to personalise this email with a sentence or two. A 'generic' paragraph thanking them for their visit followed by a 'personalised' paragraph addressing them directly will go a long way to making them feel appreciated and making them aware of your web and Internet presence. A 'thank you' email can be made a regular part of your check-out procedures.

Other ways to contact your customers include distributing a regular newsletter about your hotel and destination, telling your customers about special offers, new facilities and services and news about your destination. A brief email sent out to your customers once a month or so will do a lot to keep you in their minds. Of course, you should also give people the option to 'opt out' of your customer email list if they do not wish to receive further emails from you.

There are a variety of programs and services to help you to manage your customer email addresses and details and to send out emails to them simply and easily. While setting up such a program will take a bit of time and organisation, once it is set up it will blend in with your hotel routines while improving your marketing, sales and revenue.

1. Give potential customers the opportunity to sign up for a newsletter or 'Special Offer' email list on your website.
2. Ask for and record the email addresses of all of your customers.
3. Email each customer after their stay with a personalised email.
4. Whether through a mass newsletter, a personalised email or otherwise, contact each customer or potential customer on your email list once a month.
5. Engage Hotel Sales Online to install a simple and easy-to-use web-based list manager on your website.