Hotels Still Using Form Fills For Wedding Bookings are Leaving Money on the Table
Every person dreams of the perfect venue for their wedding reception. They spend countless hours searching for just the right place that matches their vision, accommodates their guest list and suits their budget.
For most people, the search for just the right venue begins online. They visit websites, poring over photos, reviews, menus and maps. If they find something with potential, they’ll book a site tour, fill out a basic contact form and arrange to see it in person.
For most hotels with wedding and banquet facilities, these forms require all the pertinent information: name, email, phone number, dates, guests and other information.
And for most hotels, that information has to be manually processed. A member of the sales or marketing team then has to sort through and contact prospects to determine if they’re a qualified lead. What’s their budget? Are they flexible on dates? How many rooms do they expect to need?
Only by answering those questions can the sales team determine if a prospect is a qualified lead. It’s a tedious and inefficient process.
But a hotel website with conversational marketing technology can qualify leads with every question a prospect asks on the platform. Let’s look at how your property can find new efficiencies and boost revenue with a conversational marketing platform.
Conversational Marketing Makes Conventional Forms Obsolete
Today’s modern wedding customers expect technology that lets them do their research on their own schedules. They’re busy people who want answers quickly.
For hotels with a conversational marketing platform on their website, the process is completely streamlined and automated. Prospects can have their questions answered immediately, 24 hours a day.
At every step of the way, your prospect is being qualified in real-time. They can even book a site visit directly through the tool. No outreach required.
And because there is no sales staff involvement required, your staff can work on other initiatives, creating an immediate and measurable return on investment.
Download a Visual Comparison of Traditional Lead Qualification v. Conversational Marketing
This side-by-side comparison demonstrates how conversational marketing can more quickly qualify your leads using a typical wedding booking as an example.
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Answer Questions and Qualify Leads Without Staff Involvement
Most wedding venues are so accustomed to their process of vetting prospects through form fills that they can’t conceive of another way.
Conversational marketing is a transformative technology because there are no limits to the number of potential bookings other than your capacity to conduct in-person site visits.
You can test the inefficiencies of conventional form fills by visiting hotel websites and completing forms. Even before fielding a single phone call from a real person to verify our information, you will likely receive printed brochures and marketing materials.
That’s a considerable investment of time and money before establishing a prospect’s potential. And if that prospect never converts to a guest, you won’t recover a single dollar from that investment.
Conversational marketing verifies a qualified prospect without any need for your team’s involvement.
Here’s How Conversational Marketing Interacts With Users
It’s called conversational marketing for a reason. This platform is designed to engage users as though a real person was communicating with them.
A prospective guest lands on the wedding page of a hotel’s website and a conversation window appears. It asks a series of questions, “How did you hear about us?” or “What date is your wedding?” “How many guests do you have?”
As they provide answers, the system is evaluating whether they’re qualified. If they are, an estimate can be presented to them right there, allowing them to decide whether to proceed.
If they’re qualified, they can be converted on the spot. A calendar drops into the conversation, and the user can select a date and time for a site tour.
Meanwhile, that entire conversation has been logged so that before a site tour occurs, the salesperson has all the relevant information. With the dates and estimate in hand they can prepare a proposal so when the site tour happens, everyone is on the same page.
Conversational Marketing Is a Transformational Tool
Most sales and marketing directors we’ve worked with say if they can book a site tour, they expect to close around 50 percent of them. With conversational marketing, we expect that percentage to increase significantly.
It will increase because every timeline with conversational marketing is shortened when compared with conventional form fills. It creates efficiencies that allow your sales staff to put together proposals in advance and focus on getting the deal done.
Prospects arrive on site already armed with some of the most important information. All that’s left is to tour the facility and go through the details of the proposal.
The conversational marketing platform is also entirely customizable. You get to determine the script, the pricing calculations and even seasonal adjustments. It can be set up however you prefer and refined as necessary.
You can go online right now and figure out the price of a car and buy it online. So why can’t you do that with a wedding? If you can break down that barrier, qualify your prospects and get them in the door, you have much higher odds of presenting them with a proposal that appeals to them.
Get a Jump on the Competition With Conversational Marketing
The hospitality industry can sometimes be slow to embrace change, and the same is true with new technology. But competition for guests has never been more intense, so it’s crucial to use every tool at your disposal.
Conversational marketing has the potential to reach and convert an entirely new generation of guests who have grown up with this technology. They have come to expect and appreciate its ability to get them the answers they need when they need them.
The return on investment in conversational marketing is substantial, but the costs of not taking advantage of the technology before your competitors is incalculable.
If you’re ready to see what conversational marketing can do for your business, please contact us to arrange a demonstration.