Speaking your language
Even with the economy at an all-time low, fortunately the weak pound is still luring overseas visitors to the UK, meaning business is ticking along steadily for a lucky segment of hoteliers. Those with conference and meetings facilities are in a strong position to capture the corporate market, but are language barriers hindering your marketing efforts? Simon George, Director of Thames Translations, explains more
It is inevitable that spend will be down across the board, so by tapping into your key markets and developing relationships with customers that your competitors cannot match, you will be in a far stronger position to ride the economic storm. One of the biggest opportunities for hoteliers to gain valuable ground is by combating the language barriers that typically come with attracting international customers. Those who can accommodate the needs of a diverse customer whilst also effectively managing and motivating a multi-lingual workforce will excel in the current climate.
Adapting to needs of the ‘conference capital’
As the falling pound reveals the UK as an ideal ‘conference capital’ destination, many hoteliers will find that they are ill-prepared for the specific needs of these customers. How many can say that their conference marketing materials and website pages are updated to include language translations for key customer segments.
Cutting corners can be costly
But in the rush to roll out new translations, many may attempt to cut corners by using quick, cheap methods to translate information. In the hospitality industry particularly, poorly translated material does far more damage to the brand than no translation at all and can mean the difference between securing a booking or losing it. I always advise hoteliers to demand their translations are provided by a native translator, so that you can be sure that your translation is adapted to suit the culture and phrases, which can only be known through personal experience. Never use automated translation services or rely on the automatic translations provided by the major search engines. These are rarely accurate!
Customer service from the bottom up
One of the biggest issues that hoteliers face is finding a way of effectively managing an increasingly diverse workforce. Only last weekend, I spoke with a hotelier friend of mine who expressed his frustration that he couldn’t communicate with his staff, so many of whom were now non-English speaking. The hospitality industry in general has a long history of employing foreign staff and with an increasing demand for quality service from the influx of business customers, it is crucial that hoteliers can engage with their staff and encourage them to live and breathe the ‘brand’ rather than the usual clock-in, clock-out mentality associated with this industry.
Communicating while creating new revenue streams
Unlike many industries, hospitality has perhaps the biggest challenge in terms of servicing its customers, due to the sheer diversity of these customers. While it is crucial to ensure that marketing materials, brochures and websites are built to incorporate the most common languages, it may seem an impossible challenge to prepare for every eventuality. But with new developments in language services, the solution to every hotelier is now at the end of a telephone line, with the added value of generating additional revenue too.
Telephone interpreting services are an incredibly popular and long established solution in the public sector, but relatively underdeveloped in the private sector. Not only can this service be used by front of house receptionists to deal with any inbound customer enquiries and to help convey important messages to non-English speaking staff, but more importantly it can be used as a chargeable value-added service for business customers wanting to use the venue for conferences or meetings with multi-lingual attendees. And this is where the real benefits lie for both the customer and the hotel.
Despite your best efforts, there will inevitably be times when you have a customer or a member of staff who needs something translated into a language you haven’t prepared for. Flexible, cost effective solutions that can provide interpretations in a wide range of languages, in an instant, are by the far the most effective way to ensure that you service the needs of an increasingly diverse market, whilst also generating valuable additional revenue streams.
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