The WhatsApp Business API is transforming the travel and hospitality industries. Effective communication strategies revolve around real-time conversations, rich multimedia features, and personalized, convenient, and secure interactions.

Improve customer loyalty

The WhatsApp Business API is ideal for travel and hospitality and integrates with back-end systems and customer relationship systems. Its end-to-end encryption provides secure and private communication and can deliver rich media such as booking confirmations and boarding passes.

Here are some examples of customer service applications:

• pre-order room service even before arriving at the hotel
• reserve a table for dinner as a surprise for your spouse, or
• ask for room cleaning or a wake-up call.

Travel and hospitality is a 24/7 operation – and WhatsApp Business API automation means you can offer support at a lower cost, as message templates and chatbots take the strain off the human staff.

Seamless customer experiences

Imagine being able to inform customers, according to their profile (professional or personal), about relevant services. Being proactive is a key way to make a good impression, and autoresponders take care of that for you.

It is possible to provide a service by asking customers if they need anything. For example, following up with guests after check-in is one way to ensure a smooth arrival process. You can also include emojis to make your texting more fun!

Salvation [GUESTNAME], did you get into your room? Please let us know if there is anything we can help you with during your stay.

Automatique. Staff. Relevant

1. Post templates

Message templates are pre-approved messages that can be sent in inbound and outbound communications with your customers.

This is a perfect way to notify customers of dinner specials, or perhaps a change in the entertainment schedule via real-time alerts. Using message templates helps you have an authentic dialogue with your customers and conversations are relevant and personalized using merge tags.

2. Merge Tags

Regardless of the use cases, messages should be informative and relevant. Merge tags provide customization options with variables (or placeholders), used with unique values, such as:

• First name
• customer number or
• order number.

For example:

Salvation [1]. Thanks for booking with us. Your reservation of [2] is now confirmed at a cost of [3] and with an expected arrival date of [4]. Check the status of your reservation on [5].

Individuals are encouraged to learn more about how the Whatsapp Business API is transforming the travel and hospital industries here.

For more information, visit www.channelmobile.co.za. You can also follow Channel Mobile on Facebook Or on Twitter.