REPORT FROM THE U.S.—When Dan Moriarty is at the train station, he looks to see what other passengers are doing on their phones.
“The two that jumped out, that seemed to be more frequent are (Facebook) Messenger and Snapchat,” he said. “It doesn’t matter where you are, you’re seeing that so much. The question is, how do we as a brand react to that?”
Moriarty, Hyatt Hotels Corporation’s director for social strategy and activation, uses his observations to see what Hyatt should investigate when it comes to communicating with guests.
He said Messenger is in the segment of platforms Hyatt needs to figure out because it’s only going to grow. Though it’s too early to say if Facebook Messenger will be a different channel of communication than others, Moriarty believes that, long term, Messenger users will turn out to be different types of guests. They’re more comfortable publicly tweeting on Twitter, he added.
At the time of the interview, Hyatt had only been using Messenger for two weeks, Moriarty said. Hyatt was the first travel brand to talk to its guests through Messenger, he said, adding it’s been cool to be on the cutting edge of it. A team of Hyatt employees monitor all social media interactions with the company and respond accordingly to guests by answering their questions, listening to complaints and helping fulfill requests at the property level.
Guests have been testing it, seeing if Hyatt employees will respond and timing how long it takes to get an answer. Sometimes people just say “hi,” to which Hyatt employees respond with a smiley face emoticon and ask how they can help. Moriarty said that most of the time guests just wanted to see if the messaging actually works.
“We’ve had all sorts of conversations (with guests),” he said. “My favorite is someone saying they will be late in arriving, and they let the hotel know they won’t be there till 9 o’clock. They hear it will be cold, so they request an extra warm blanket waiting in their room.”
Embracing emojis
The Aloft Manhattan Downtown - Financial District in New York City is pioneering the brand’s Text It Get It, or TiGi, emoji roomservice program in which guests can send a set of emojis to the front desk to request certain amenity packages. Aloft markets to the tech-savvy demographic, said Kevin Fenton, GM of the property. That demographic, he said, at this point is everyone from age 8 to 80 because everyone texts.
With a front desk run by employees in their mid-20s, the Aloft Manhattan’s staff didn’t need much training to implement the TiGi roomservice program, Fenton said.
“They’re all well versed in the process of it,” he said. “At this point, they made it foolproof.”
The front-desk staff constantly checks the phone that receives the emoji requests, Fenton said.
“When one comes through, they actually get excited,” he said.
Fenton said about five of the emoji roomservice packages are sold per week, which is more than he expected for the new program. There are a lot of people who browse and ask how it works, he said. The hangover package, which includes vitamin water, ibuprofen and two bananas for $10, continues to be the most popular option that guests typically order on Saturday and Sunday mornings, Fenton said. The other popular items are the snack and phone charger options.
Every one of the requests has come through a texted emoji, according to Fenton. The front desk would oblige if a guest made a request in person or over the phone, he said, but that hasn’t happened yet.
“Everyone has texted,” Fenton said. “I think it’s because of the accessibility. Everyone has it. Everyone does it.”
The new Holiday Inn Express BREAKFA-moji keyboard, a collection of breakfast-inspired emojis, is a way for anyone to have fun and share them across social devices, said Jennifer Gribble, VP of the Americas Holiday Inn Express brand at InterContinental Hotels Group. The company explored the new emojis because, in part, there was a need for breakfast emojis.
“People want them,” Gribble said. “They’re hot, and people use them. We’ve seen studies where 92% of the online population uses them.”
From a brand perspective, the BREAKFA-mojis help continue the dialogue about breakfast and create further engagement with guests, Gribble said. People can download the emoji keyboard for their smartphones and use the breakfast-styled characters when they text. Although it doesn’t require direct communication with the Holiday Inn Express, it builds engagement between the brand and the public.
“When they use them, we can spend more time with guests and improve our relationships with them,” she said.
Positive results
Guest response has been upbeat to emoji roomservice, Fenton said. He was initially leery of the program, and he was worried guests would say it didn’t meet their expectations.
“I’ve had not one complaint about the emoji program,” Fenton said. “Not one person has been unhappy.”
It’s a simple program that hasn’t caused any problems and costs almost nothing in labor, he said, and it makes his guests happy.
“I had walk-ins come to the hotel just so they could try out the program,” he said.
From its launch in late November to mid-December, the BREAKFA-moji keyboard has been downloaded more than 116,000 times, Gribble said. The emojis have more than 154 million total impressions, which includes each time the stickers are used and viewed by a recipient, she said, and they have been shared more than 1.6 million times.
Holiday Inn Express is still collecting the first wave of feedback, Gribble said, but they’re pleased with the social media response already.
“It’s been fun to see that sentiment come across so quickly,” she said.