Your property management system (PMS) is the digital command center of your lodging business, enabling you to streamline reservations, housekeeping, accounting, guest communications, and much more. However, for your PMS to be most effective, it should integrate with your other software to maximize efficiency and the power of your data. Point of sale (POS), online travel agency (OTA), revenue management, and guest messaging systems are all types of software that your PMS can connect with. 

Your PMS can also (and should) integrate with your customer relationship management system (CRM). A CRM is exactly what it sounds like, a technological tool that allows you to nurture profitable relationships with guests. Not only is it a place to collect and analyze guest data, but it allows you to communicate with guests effectively, targeting the right messages and offers to the right person. This in turn leads to satisfied, loyal guests and increased revenue.

Together, your PMS and CRM are a dream team. Here is how an automated integration between the two systems improves the guest experience and your bottom line.

Stronger Data

When integrated, your PMS and your CRM exchange guest data and build upon it. This ensures that there are no discrepancies between the two systems, expands the amount of information available, and empowers you to act on that information, for instance, by creating targeted email campaigns based on profile and/or reservation data. 

Without this integration, data has to be transferred manually from one system to the other. This is not only a drain on your staff time but can cause errors and lead to siloed data. Both systems are sources of truth and should be utilized as such!

However, your PMS isn’t the only place a CRM can draw data from. Other sources include website interactions, social media, feedback surveys, campaign results, past communications, and more. A CRM collates data from the PMS and these other external sources to create rich guest profiles and provide data-driven insights into guest preferences and behavior. 

Guest Personalization

With this detailed data, you can create comprehensive profiles and use them to personalize the experience for each guest. Personalization in marketing is no longer optional. Seventy-six percent of consumers become frustrated when their interactions with companies are not individualized.

Individualization is especially important for upsells and offers. You can’t sell effectively if you’re not sure what to sell. The right offer will ingratiate, but the wrong one will irritate.  

The marketing and sales departments aren’t the only ones who can use this wealth of data. With it, onsite staff can tailor each interaction with the guest, from the initial greeting to offering recommendations. 

Profile data also enables staff to spot VIPs and repeat guests so that they receive red carpet treatment. If a guest loved your Italian restaurant last time they stayed, staff can ask if they’d like to make a reservation when they check in. It means more revenue for the hotel and a better experience for the guest. 

Guest Segmentation

In addition to surprising and delighting individual guests, a good CRM can be used to group guests into segments so that they’re sent the appropriate campaigns. Guest segments are groups of guests that share particular characteristics, for example, business travelers or vacationing couples. Marketing to guest segments rather than the masses is much more effective.

The data and functionality contained in your CRM makes creating and managing segments easy. A guest can be assigned to multiple segments, which include demographic (such as age, gender, interests, and income), geographic, psychographic (personality and attitude), and behavioral characteristics (what, how, and why guests purchase). Reservation data from your PMS is crucial to determining where and how guests fit.

For example, if a guest booked your Valentine’s Day special, they may want to hear about your other romantic packages and should be placed in that segment. They don’t, however, need to hear about your fall conference discounts for business travelers. Sending relevant campaigns is key to driving engagement and revenue; too many irrelevant emails, and guests stop opening them all together. 

Automated Messaging

Sending out messages takes time, and time is at a premium for hoteliers. A CRM integration makes operations more efficient by automating campaigns based on guest and reservation data, such as stay dates, preferences, etc., so that staff don’t have to go in and click a button every time one needs to go out. Follow-up communications and upsells can be triggered automatically whenever the recipient performs a certain action.  

Analysis

Your CRM also includes analytical and reporting capabilities that show how your guest communications perform, what’s working, and what isn’t. At the very least, your CRM should be able to tell you who and how many people opened your campaign, what links they clicked, and how your campaigns compare to one another. However, you can get more accurate, real-time data if you leverage your connection with your PMS. For instance, your booking data (see above) tells you how many prospects you reached out to actually converted. 

Know what key performance indicators you would like to track before choosing a CRM and make your decision with that in mind. What do your marketing and revenue teams want to know that they don’t already? 

Analytics are important for revealing where you can improve. In addition to any adjustments you make based on direct feedback, you can course correct using the knowledge of which campaigns and promotions worked well and which didn’t. Did your Easter brunch email have a lackluster open rate? Maybe a spring spa package would be better. 

Connecting your CRM to your PMS enables you to harness your data to improve the guest experience, win loyal guests, and increase revenue. WebRezPro integrates with leading hospitality CRM solutions, including Cendyn and Revinate. You can explore these or ask about a new connection with your preferred software; we’re always happy to reach out to other providers and get the ball rolling.