From Booking to Post Check-out: Navigating Digital Transformation to Address Hotel Pain Points
Pain points are a challenge for many hotels to maneuver around. And in many cases, hotels have developed a block towards these pain points or in some cases become blind towards them.
In many cases, this has resulted in customers becoming numb to these pain points, and everyone has ended up accepting this as a norm.
So how can you identify your customers’ pain points? And how do you know which ones are worth solving?
To answer these questions, I use two different matrixes in context with each other.
Utility Matrix for Hotels
The utility matrix helps hotels identify significant pain points that need to be solved.
This matrix outlines the customer experience cycle. And hotels need to identify the pain points in each stage. Each stage entails very specific experiences.
The insight generated from understanding the pain points within each stage will help hotels identify perceptions that detract customers from value and can be reversed.
And it is essential to collaborate with employees, customers, and the community to get a good perspective of all the pain points of the customers’ experience.
The utility levers will help hotels identify opportunities and possibilities that they can pull.
Productivity, that is, anything to do with efficiency – less time, effort, and/or money – in fulfilling customers’ needs.
Simplicity is anything that eliminates or minimizes complexity or hassle.
Convenience is about when and where you want something, like 24/7, 365 days a year.
Risk reduction might include financial, physical, and reputational risk.
Fun and image are things like the look, feel, and attitude the offering conveys.
Environmental friendliness is about how to green your product or service is, and what this might mean for buyers.
Look at each stage and identify the biggest block for customers, and what are the key reasons for this block.
You might discover that long-held perceptions by your hotel are not what customers are experiencing.
And the first rule is to utilize your hotel employees and the community to better understand what customer experience.
It starts with introducing community days at your hotels where employees visit the local community and experience what it has to offer.
Digital Transformation Matrix for Hotels
The digital transformation matrix helps hotels identify and solve pain points related to employees, customers, and community mindset.
This is a transformation process that will transform pain points into power points.
During this process, you will discover the underlying cause of financial pain points, productivity pain points, process pain points, and service pain points.
Just like with the utility matrix, the perceptions might be quite different from what people experience. With the digital transformation matrix change often triggers pain points that might result in resistance or the worst-case sabotage of a process.
It is also important with the digital transformation matrix for hotels to look at each stage. This will move your hotel closer to power points.
Both the utility matrix and the digital transformation matrix represent a dynamic and flexible process.
Within these two matrixes lays the key for your hotel to unlock a formula that will help you identify alternative solutions to all pain points.
Digital Transformation Framework Partnership for Hotels
Hotels today must invest in people and technology in a context that adds value to everyone involved.
Don’t continue to neglect or take the people's transformation for granted. Technology is a digital tool that will help your hotel when implemented in collaboration with your employees.
Partner with your employees and they will help with retaining and hiring people.
I also invite you to work with me as your hotel partner to help implement a new innovative digital transformation framework that opens the digital gateways to more direct bookings without competing with the OTA.
Through value innovation, I help hotels with cost-effective alternatives that are focused on eliminating and reducing factors the hotel industry competes on. I also help lift employee and customer value by raising and creating elements that hotels never offered before.
Learn more about digital transformation partnerships for hotels...\
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Are Morch is a digital transformation coach helping hotels open their digital front door, reimagine their processes and culture, and transform experiences in a fast-paced world!
