How to make the most of Seekom’s enhanced SMS guest messaging
According to global SMS messaging company Modica Group, there are now more than 7 billion phones in the world, 91% of adults keep their phones within arm’s reach at all times, and 98% of SMS messages are opened in the first three minutes.
That’s a whole lot of reasons to consider using more SMS messaging to improve the guest experience and make life easier for staff at your accommodation business.
From before guests arrive to after they leave, our recent Seekom SMS upgrade can help ensure their experience is the very best possible.
Not only that, but it can save staff time and increase your business’ revenue by making guests aware of all the additional free and paid services you can offer.
Here are just a few ways you can harness Seekom’s new SMS messaging at your place.
Before guests arrive
First impressions matter. So why not send guests a friendly “We’re looking forward to having you stay with us” message, accompanied by some of the highlights of your local area, or accommodation, to whet their appetite and get them excited about their upcoming visit
For guests arriving outside of regular hours, automated text messages sent a day or so prior to their arrival can guide them through where to park and after-hours check-in processes, reducing stress and informing them of your normal reception hours.
Additionally, confirming contactless check-in services via text may be convenient for some of your guests, while also reducing reliance on your staff to complete the check-in process.
From an upsell perspective, a day or two before your guests arrive could be the ideal time to dangle the carrot of an enticing room upgrade.
During their visit
Consider continuing the smooth flow of information with a welcome text on the day of arrival coupled with those essential Wi-Fi details to set a positive tone for your guests’ stay and make them feel appreciated.
If there are any ongoing nearby roadworks or impending weather issues, a group SMS to all guests staying with you to pass on helpful logistics or safety information can go a long way. Proactive communication helps guests adjust their plans and avoid potential inconveniences, demonstrating your commitment to their comfort and safety.
You might also take advantage of the new SMS messaging feature to advertise all the upsell options you offer – your guests need to be aware of them to take advantage of them. For example, you might set up an automated text message to all guests staying with you alerting them to gear hire opportunities or offering them the option to extend their stay with a late check-out for an additional fee.
Lastly, informing guests about local attractions, events and seasonal activities is another way you can add value, positioning you as an insider resource for guests looking to get the most out of their stay with you.
After guests leave
When guests check out, it need not be the final goodbye. Why not use Seekom’s text system to request online feedback or a review to gather valuable insights and boost your online reputation? You could also encourage guests to follow your property’s page on social media or share favourite photos from their stay.
A charmingly crafted thank-you text can leave a lasting positive impression that may increase the likelihood of repeat bookings. Additionally, you could boost repeat business by offering a discount on a guest’s next booking to incentivise their return and build loyalty.
These are just a few of the many ways you can make the most of our new SMS functionality to enhance your guests’ experience, drive additional revenue through upselling, and distinguish your property as a customer-centric destination that goes above and beyond to ensure guest satisfaction.
The great thing about text messages is that the vast majority of people receive and read them almost immediately. And once you set the wheels in motion, the automated messaging takes care of itself – saving you time. The power is now in your hands.
How do I start using the new SMS feature in your Seekom account
To start making the most of automated and group SMS messaging, make sure to read our SMS upgrade help guide. Our support team is happy to assist you in getting things set up.
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Seekom's new smart SMS system is here
We’re excited to share Seekom’s upgraded SMS system to help you improve the way you communicate with your customers.
As well as making it easier to build better relationships with your guests, this latest enhancement lets you take advantage of opportunities to upsell and gather guest feedback.
What's changed?
This first phase of our SMS (text) overhaul allows you to message multiple guests at once, receive and manage replies to text messages you send out using the Seekom system, and schedule a series of text messages designed to add value and guide your guests throughout their stay.
Text multiple recipients at once
The ability to text one message to multiple guests at once saves time and effort compared to individual communications.
It can be particularly valuable in instances where you need to communicate unforeseen events, such as an early closure of your office due to a family emergency or a major slip on a nearby road that means guests need to take a different route to reach your property.
Receive and manage replies to one-on-one messages
Previously our system didn’t enable customers to respond to the text messages you sent them. Our SMS upgrade changes this by allowing guests to respond to any one-on-one messages you send them and enter into conversations. Texts from guests will now be linked to their booking, allowing you to see a record of your communications, whether they are requests for upgrades or valuable feedback.
Text scheduling
You can now schedule text messages in advance. This opens the door to being able to set up automated messages to customers at key touchpoints like booking confirmation, check in, or after they check out.
Below is an example of how you might use this to add value and guide guests throughout their stay:
- When they book: Give guests confidence with an instant booking confirmation.
- Pre-arrival: Offer an upgrade – this is a great opportunity to upsell.
- Day of arrival: Provide contactless check in details to make check in a breeze.
- During stay: Text your guests the Wi-Fi password or an offer of optional add-ons.
- Pre-departure: Provide departure information and an upgrade offer for late check out.
- After departure: Thank you message and request for guest to post a review.
Why use SMS?
- There are 7 billion phones in the world.
- 91% of adults keep their phones within arms reach at all times.
- 98% of SMS messages are opened in the first three minutes.
- More phones are set up to receive SMS than email.
* Source: Modica Group.
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Phone (NZ) : +64 4 974 9588
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Support: support@seekom.com
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Copyright 2024 © Seekom Limited (NZ owned)
Seekom and Trees That Count helping NZ accommodation guests to give back
We’ve joined forces with Trees That Count to make it easy for Seekom properties to achieve their sustainability goals by supporting efforts to plant native trees across Aotearoa New Zealand.
Trees That Count is a registered charity in New Zealand that connects donations for native trees with experienced and passionate planting groups across the country. Seekom is supporting the initiative by making it simple for Seekom users and guests at their accommodation to donate to native tree planting if they choose to do so.
“We’re thrilled to champion Trees That Count to our users across the New Zealand accommodation industry,” says Seekom General Manager Nicole Irschick.
“This is a fantastic way for accommodation providers and guests to help offset emissions and contribute to the environment by planting a tree in New Zealand’s big backyard. Over time we’d love to explore similar initiatives overseas for Seekom users in other countries.”
While there are a variety of ways New Zealand Seekom users can support the scheme, one of the easiest and most powerful is accepting optional Trees That Count donations from guests when they make an online accommodation booking or check in at reception.
Seekom has created some easy instructions (see below) for users who want to set up a ‘Trees That Count Donation’ as an optional add-on for guests and staff to select during the booking process.
Once registered with Trees That Count, Seekom users can access supporter graphics to promote their involvement and keep track of the number of trees they and their guests have funded via a leaderboard in the supporters’ section of the Trees That Count website.
Trees That Count has the largest network of planting projects in New Zealand and accommodation providers supporting the initiative can decide which region of the country the trees they and their guests fund are planted in.
Every $10 donated funds planting of a native tree in a restoration project in New Zealand and contributes to the goal of greater biodiversity outcomes, cleaner waterways, habitats for native species, carbon sequestration and stronger, healthier communities.
Trees That Count at a glance:
- Every tree makes a difference: whether you’re funding 10 trees or 10,000, you’ll join the Trees That Count leaderboard and receive a supporter toolkit to help you spread the word about backing New Zealand’s environment. It’s a highly visible way to make a difference.
- Tax deductible: as a registered charitable organisation, all of your donations are tax deductible.
- Mitigate your CO2 emissions: Trees That Count has the latest science to calculate how many carbon emissions you’ll mitigate during the lifetime of your trees growing.
- They’ll do the work for you: Simply donate or gift native trees online, and they’ll get them planted for you by expert planters in a region of your choice.
- Flexible: Donate as you like, facilitate donations from guests using the Seekom online booking screens or when they check in, or set up a monthly donation so you can set and forget. You could even let guests know that if they decide to skip housekeeping for a day, you will make use of the savings on cleaning products and laundry to fund planting of a native tree on their behalf. Get creative!
- Put the tree-planting power in guest’s hands: Giving guests the opportunity to help plant a native tree during their online booking makes it easy for them to make a positive environmental difference during their trip away. Guests love to support accommodation providers that are championing sustainability and regenerative tourism.
- Trusted by tourism businesses: Trees That Count works with Tourism New Zealand and is helping tourism businesses across Aotearoa take action for nature.
Get started today. Sign-up with Trees That Count and find out more on the Trees That Count website.
How to: Adding a ‘Trees That Count donation’ option to your Seekom account
Step 1:
Make sure you are registered as a Trees That Count supporter! Visit the Trees that Count website and sign-up.
Step 2:
Decide how you want to donate. If you want to facilitate donations from guests, either when they book online or arrive at reception, you can do that in Seekom iBex by navigating to ‘Extras’ and selecting ‘Add Extra’. Just add a ‘Trees that Count donation’ option, describe the Trees That Count initiative and set a price of $10 per tree donated, with the option of donating as many trees as a guest wants to add.
Step 3:
Click save and check the add-on option is live and available to guests during the booking process. Example below:
Step 4:
At the end of each month, donate the money your guests have contributed, plus anything else you have pledged, via your account on the Trees That Count website.
General information about creating optional bookable extras for guests staying at your accommodation is available in our help section.
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Contact Us
PO Box 9300, Marion Square, Wellington 6141
Phone (NZ) : +64 4 974 9588
Phone (UK) : +44 20 3835 5939
Support: support@seekom.com
Websites: webhelp@seekom.com
Copyright 2024 © Seekom Limited (NZ owned)
Latest changes improve guest communications, save time and paper
American novelist Mark Twain is famously credited with saying “continuous improvement is better than delayed perfection”.
We wouldn’t claim to be perfect at Seekom, but we do aim to roll out regular enhancements that make our leading property management software that little bit more powerful, easy to use and effective for people running accommodation businesses around the world.
The past few weeks have seen the introduction of three small enhancements to help you improve your guest communications and save staff time (and paper!).
Schedule guest notification emails during event weekends or holidays
You can now set up and schedule emails to be sent to guests during select time periods. This will be useful for those who want to send messages to guests at key times, perhaps to inform them of visitor rules during event weekends or remind them to keep noise down after midnight on New Year’s Eve.
Scheduled emails can be set up in Seekom’s Email Scheduler.
Seekom users can now navigate to the Arrivals & Departures screen and use the Arrivals tab to
tick all vehicle registrations they want printed on a single page.
Multiple vehicle registrations can now be printed on one page, for those who want to save
paper.
Print multiple vehicle registrations on one page to save paper
Seekom includes a time saving feature that allows you to print the vehicle registrations provided by your guests, for display on their vehicle dashboards during check-in. This smooths the check-in process while also making it easy for you to keep track of which vehicles in your carpark belong to paying guests.
We’ve recently made a small enhancement to this feature to make it possible to print multiple vehicle registrations on a single piece of paper. You can still print registrations individually if you prefer, but this enhancement will be helpful for those who want to save paper by printing multiple vehicle registrations on a page before separating them using your cutting implement of choice to give to customers on arrival.
Multiple vehicle registrations can now be printed on one page, for those who want to save
paper.
Plus a small time-saving change on the finance screen
A small change has been introduced on the finance screen to ensure the ‘Paid in by’ field is pre-populated with the name of the lead guest by default. This can still be changed as normal but pre-populating it with the lead guest will save some time in the majority of situations where the guest making the booking is also the person making the payment.
The ‘Paid in by’ field will now have the lead-guest pre-selected on Seekom’s finance screen,
saving staff time when entering payments.
That’s all for now, but we will have some exciting further changes coming up in the months ahead. Stay tuned and we will be sure to let you know as further enhancements are rolled out.
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Contact Us
PO Box 9300, Marion Square, Wellington 6141
Phone (NZ) : +64 4 974 9588
Phone (UK) : +44 20 3835 5939
Support: support@seekom.com
Websites: webhelp@seekom.com
Copyright 2024 © Seekom Limited (NZ owned)
Simplify your accounting with our Xero integration for Seekom
The start of a new financial year is the ideal time to streamline your accounting processes.
If you’re one of our Seekom users who also harnesses Xero accounting software, you can set yourself up for a smooth-sailing tax ride by using our time-saving Xero integration.
This integration can reduce double-handling of invoices at the end of the tax year and simplify accounting reconciliation processes.
Match payments with invoices automatically
One of the beauties of our Xero integration is its ability to take the hassle out of matching payments with invoices.
With the click of a few buttons you can match all reconciled payments in Xero with the relevant invoices in Seekom iBex, giving you a clear idea about which invoices have outstanding fees associated with them.
This will give you full visibility of which invoices have been paid and reconciled in either system – less cross-referencing required.
Invoice and credit note consistency
Want to ensure all your invoices and credit notes display with the same key information in both Seekom and Xero?
When Seekom is synced with Xero you can rapidly create invoices and credit notes and link them to Xero from their Seekom invoice number, pulling across the invoice number, invoice date, due date and booking reference number from Seekom all in one go.
Financial hygiene: confirm your invoices and credit notes are linked
Our Xero integration includes an ‘Invoices report’ to help you ensure all your Seekom invoices have been replicated and linked in Xero. This report highlights the invoices that have not been linked to Xero, giving you a handy to-do list to follow up on.
Xero integration guide for Seekom users
Want to save time with our Xero integration? Find out how by reading our helpful guide on setting up our Xero integration in Seekom.
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Contact Us
PO Box 9300, Marion Square, Wellington 6141
Phone (NZ) : +64 4 974 9588
Phone (UK) : +44 20 3835 5939
Support: support@seekom.com
Websites: webhelp@seekom.com
Copyright 2024 © Seekom Limited (NZ owned)