Customer service plays a huge role in the hospitality industry. The hospitality industry won’t be present if there aren’t customers, right?

This industry consists of lodging, event planning, travel and tourism, hotels, motels, resorts, tourism agencies, restaurants, bars, etc. It is indeed a broad industry.

Even though the aforementioned facts are nothing new, these mistakes still occur.

In this blog, you will find out what are the 5 customer service mistakes and how can you avoid them if your business is in the hospitality industry. Let’s get started right away!

 

#5 Treating Employees Badly and Lack of Continuous Training

People are humans, right? They can have some bad days here and there. However, treating them poorly is never a good idea.

Of course, not unless they show a lack of professionalism or simply do not have the right mentality for the job.

You should note that the more your employees are treated nicely, the better their performance is going to be. Hence, providing them the support they need can save you money, or even bring you profit.

On the other hand, the lack of continuous training is a very big problem. Why? Because most employees want to prosper in their careers, not to go stay in a status-quo position.

Poor or lack of training means reduced productivity, increased staff turnover, loss of customers, and the list can go on and on.

So, why lack of continuous training can undoubtedly be seen as a mistake?

Well, your customer support agents may not fully understand and won’t be able to respond adequately to customers` inquiries and issues. Therefore, your company’s support service will become inefficient.

The more time it takes to solve customers` inquiries, the more unsatisfied they will become.

 

#4 Delayed Responses

How long does it take before your customer service department responds to an inquiry? Ages? Centuries? Millennium? Or, as fast as possible?

If it is as fast as possible, then you’re on the right track, if not, then you will have troubles.

According to a study conducted by Statista in 2020, 40% of customers stopped doing business with a company due to poor customer service. This percentage is too big to pass undetected.

So, the biggest mistake a business in the hospitality industry can make is exactly this. That’s why you, always make sure that your customers` issues are resolved properly, and within time.

Customers lose trust once their needs aren’t satisfied. This is completely normal, and that’s why businesses should always focus on this part.

If your customer service has a lot of stuff to handle, your business should still find out ways to respond.

One of them is implementing chatbots, or even hiring outsourcing call center departments as additional support. Just be innovative.

#3 Ignoring Your Customers

Ignoring your customers is never a good idea. Regardless of whether that’s about their inquiry or something else.

Most of the time, businesses in the hospitality industry become unaware that their reputation can decrease over a night. Literally.

To avoid this from happening, always introduce ways to listen to your customers. What do they find interesting about your brand? What do they think about your service?

Is there that should be upgraded to suit more to their preference more? Failing to utilize customers` requests by your brand or customer service can always bring you trouble.

When it comes to interactions, proper customer service should always sit down and listen precisely. Customer agents have to show empathy, curiosity, and willingness to understand the client better.

The reason is pretty simple though. The more your customer service understands the potential or regular client, the better the satisfaction is going to be.

And, yes. Don’t forget to introduce A CSAT survey to keep track of the progress.

#2 Be proactive, not Reactive

Each business, no matter the industry shall always be proactive, especially when it comes to customers. Here you can find out which industries use customer support services the most.

But, what happens in practice is that many businesses fail to utilize the “proactive” part of their daily routine. Unfortunately, the stakes are always high, so, if you don’t do this your competition can do it for their own good.

For instance, your customer service department must identify why some customers are dissatisfied. What’s the percentage of dissatisfaction? In a long term, by being proactive, your brand can prevent the “churn phenomenon”. Click here and you can find out more about why customers churn.

Back to the topic, getting the most accurate results, and putting much effort into analyzing will guarantee you stability and a huge number of loyal customers.

In addition. your customer service can be proactive in various ways. For example, this can include using checklists, setting deadlines, maintaining a high level of professionalism and attitude, reviewing results, etc.

 

#1 Promising… a lot!

Do you remember the time when your hospitality business was flourishing? Like, literally. The number of loyal customers was growing exponentially.

Even though this may not be the fault of your customer service, still, they are the ones responsible for interacting with your customers.

In the beginning, every business regardless of the industry promises less and offers more. Unfortunately, as the business grows, things change.

Always make your customer service aware of the latest offers, and information that should be spread to the customers.

For instance, if there’s a scenario in which some services have to be postponed, or are available at the moment – ensure that your customer support service knows this.

Why? Because they can promise and your business will not deliver. This is exactly how the beginning of the end for your business looks like.

 

Conclusion

By now, we are sure that your business and your customer service are already aware of the mistakes. Since we’ve done our part, now it is up to you to implement innovative tactics to ensure that your customers will always be loyal.

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