How CPaaS can transform omnichannel hospitality marketing in the APAC region
The post-pandemic travel boom is here, and APAC is probably having it better than anywhere else! According to a study covering data from over 2,000 travel partners in 50 countries, accounting for over 2 billion annual bookings, hotel and air bookings in the APAC region have exceeded the pre-pandemic high watermark. In fact, the region is seeing a 377% increase in air bookings and 235% increase in airline site traffic.
Data from Criteo’s Travel Commerce Insights Report also highlights how important the multichannel game is for the region, with 78% of APAC travelers saying they begin their travel searches on websites accessed via mobile devices, while 63% said they were likely to complete their bookings on mobile apps. 54% percent are likely to complete bookings on desktop, and 34% on tablets, further highlighting the crucial need for a multichannel strategy, complemented by an omnichannel approach.
Additionally, according to IFCA, 89% of travelers plan their travel activities influenced by the online content posted by their peers. This statistic alone should underscore the importance of customer experience, particularly in an industry where so much of buying activity is emotionally- and experience-driven. In fact, 50% of Twitter users in the region expect a response when they contact a brand, and that number rises to 75% when that communication has to do with a complaint.
The only way travel and hospitality players can effectively compete in this market is through an omnichannel, experiential marketing and customer service strategy. That means being present across digital and traditional channels, and ensuring a seamless and consistent “flavor” of customer experience across all channels, which then extends to the actual product or service as well.
Doing this effectively can be challenging, but this is where a good CPaaS solution can come in handy.
What Is CPaaS?
Communications Platforms as a Service (CPaaS) seamlessly bring all of your communications channels onto a single, seamless platform at the backend. This makes it easier for you and your people to execute, manage, monitor and oversee your multichannel comms strategy.
Powered by cloud technology, CPaaS can competitively, economically and accessibly deliver services to businesses of all sizes, providing them with the agility they need to develop and integrate communications channels and features, without the need for dedicated tech and tailor-made apps.
Snyiverse CPaaS concierge is one such cloud-based omnichannel messaging platform that employs APIs for convenient integration of diverse communication channels such as SMS, MMS, Voice and Audio, Push Notifications, Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, WeChat, RCS and many more into a seamless, integrated, single platform, making it incredibly easy to maintain a true omnichannel presence. One where your communications may start and end on very different channels, but which can all be controlled and handled in one place.
The Many Benefits of CPaaS-Driven Omnichannel Approaches
Particularly for brands in the travel and hospitality industry, CPaaS can help transform your customer experience. In fact, The Contentsquare’s 2022 Travel Digital Experience Benchmark Report states that a leading hotelier in the region increased annual revenues by USD 95,000, by leveraging customer experience insights to optimize its mobile booking journey. The report also highlighted the need to reduce the Bounce Rate and increase Conversion Rates for the sector, with 47% of visitors to travel websites quitting after only one page.
The importance of data-driven personalization and customer experience is further underscored by the fact that 94% of customers in the APAC region are generally willing to pay more for brands that personalize the customer service experience. Thus, an effective CPaaS solution can help you gain insights into your customers’ behaviors and needs so you can personalize experiences for them, among the many other benefits listed below:
Provide Instant Access to Information – CpaaS will provide chatbot features and even AI powered services, which can provide customers with instant access to information with zero to near zero wait times, both during the conversion phase, and during their stay or use of your services.
Easy, Convenient and Economical Scalability & Automation with a Human Touch – Any veteran of the hospitality and travel industry knows and understands that demand comes in waves, with a certain seasonality. Often, as these waves peak, businesses run out of human resources to respond to requests and inquiries, losing out on potential leads.
Being a cloud-based solution CPaaS is easily and quickly scalable, affordably. Plus, it brings large swathes of automation with it, which can help you manage your human resources better during these waves of demand, allocating real human interaction where it can add most value, while allowing automation to handle the rest. As CPaaS allows live agents to work alongside digital engagement tools and conversational assistants, it lets your business confidently walk the fine line between automated assistance and real human attention.
Multiple Comms Channels, One Seamless Interface – Probably the biggest advantage of CPaaS is that it brings all your comms channels into one seamless interface that can integrate with your existing systems. This empowers your agents to provide consistent experiences across multiple channels with ease, and while using various modes including voice, video, text and any combination of these.
Increased Efficiency, Reduced Expenses, Higher Revenues – CPaaS solutions can help your employees be more efficient by having access to all information in one place. It is even possible for these solutions to integrate with your partners, such as airlines, hotels, transport and other service providers, to quickly and easily provide an exceptional customer experience.
As CPaaS are cloud-based, there is no need to invest in new infrastructure to add services, or additional people to manage them. A wide range of tools and solutions can be easily added and removed at will. This reduces your costs. Plus, because it is so easy to add and remove services and features, you can quickly adapt to changing market environments and cheaply and effectively experiment with innovative ideas. All while increasing revenues, as a result of increased customer engagement and improved customer experience, which can increase your retention and conversion rates.
How to Choose the Best CPaaS for Hospitality and Travel
The best CPaaS solutions will be ready-to-use and empower your business with quick deployment that requires no overhaul or intrusive interference with your existing systems. They will ensure that your backend has a unified, single view of all your customer communications and interactions, while being easily integrated into existing applications, allowing you to create meaningful workflows. Customizability is another important feature that your CPaaS should have, along with it being responsive to new technologies and emerging trends, to ensure that your business is future-ready.
Syniverse CPaaS Concierge ticks all of these boxes and has already proven itself, having enhanced engagement by up to 40%, increased revenue for a single mobile marketing campaign by over USD 1.2 million and helped a specialty retail chain achieve 34X ROI on a single SMS campaign.
Using Syniverse CPaaS Concierge, you can take your omnichannel hospitality marketing and guest experience to the next level, and transform your omnichannel approach into one that is agile, responsive and always adapting to your customers.
In a nutshell, a good CPaaS, will provide your backend people and your business with the same benefits that your customers enjoy through an omnichannel approach; the ability to be comfortable and consistent across multiple channels of communication, while always having the information you need instantly accessible.
To learn more about CPaaS, or just to talk to us about how we can address your individual business needs, feel free contact us anytime.
Contact us
