Located next to the University Circle cultural and arts district of Cleveland, Ohio, InterContinental Hotel Cleveland offers guests a true experience of Ohio with historical buildings, parks, and museums all nearby, IHG Cleveland aims to extend that authentic local experience for their guests in a personalized way.
Let’s meet Roland Ivy, a seasoned PBX/Instant Service Manager at InterContinental Hotel Cleveland.
As an experienced hospitality professional, Roland understands the importance of speed and efficiency when it comes to delivering a great guest experience, so he knew he needed a tool that will enable his team to enhance the guest experience by reducing lines at the front desk and inbound calls from guests by utilizing Zingle to handle guest questions and requests via text messaging.
Let’s hear what Roland has to say about his Zingle guest messaging experience!
Zingle: What was your goal for using a guest text messaging software?
Roland: The main thing would be providing our guests with a quick and easy way to communicate with staff. Utilizing a product like Zingle provides our guests the convenience they need when it comes to requesting things they need without waiting on the phone or in line, which saves both our staff and guests time.
Also, Zingle’s instant translation feature enables our staff to respond to international guests where English is not their first language. If a guest texts us in Spanish, our staff sees it in English, and vice versa, which is great because we can communicate with guests in any language they choose.
How is Zingle being utilized at IHG Cleveland?
R: All of our guest-facing departments including Service Center, Front Office & Guest Relations teams all use Zingle to communicate with guests on a daily basis.
We promote Zingle to our guests by sending them welcome messages when they check in, letting them know they can text us for any request including room service, housekeeping, maintenance and even for valet car pickup.
Do you have Zingle integrated into your property management system (PMS) or other internal systems?
R: Yes, definitely. We have integrated our Oracle Opera PMS and our ticketing system Amadeus HotSOS into Zingle. The integration provided us with guest data and streamlined processes that enable us to provide a quicker and more efficient service.
The great thing about integrating Zingle into our Opera PMS and HotSOS is that it removes several steps within the service process that could not be done with any other systems.
For example, instead of our front desk having to write down every guest request, and then input it into the ticketing system, all requests are taken care of with Zingle. When our guest sends a text message request via Zingle, the message gets automatically sent to the right department and the HotSOS service ticket is created seamlessly.
Our staff just loves the ability to improve their efficiency with Zingle and make every guest happy.
What types of feedback or results have you seen after employing Zingle?
R: From a guest experience and satisfaction standpoint, Zingle has helped increase our overall satisfaction scores with our guests. Our guests really appreciate being able to use this service and even communicate with us after they have departed.
What makes me happy the most is the fact that guests actually write about it on TripAdvisor, which shows that when we take care of our guests, they do notice it and are proud to share it.
You May Also Like: How Hotels Use Text Messaging to Improve TripAdvisor Ratings
