Guest Relations WhatsApp communication SOP
WhatsApp is used by most Hosteeva departments, and each department has its dedicated WhatsApp chats, along with general chats.
In this article, we will discuss our WhatsApp communication and monitoring process, opening up in detail the cases in which the WhatsApp platform is in use for the Guest Relations Department specifically.
For the Guest Relations department, WhatsApp is used for two main purposes:
- Communication with and escalation to the dedicated local area teams,
- Tracking and monitoring of useful information regarding our cases
Before getting into more detail regarding the above-mentioned 2 main usages for WhatsApp, let's disclose the list of Guest Relations dedicated WhatsApp chats:
The Guest Relations dedicated WhatsApp chats are easily distinguishable by their names, which contain either the words "Reviews" or "Reputation".
- The chats labeled as "Reviews [location]" are for keeping contact with the local teams of said areas to discuss anything ranging from reviews, surveys, cases, tasks, special projects, monthly meetings, etc.
See below:
- The "Clockin/out reputation" chat is a technical chat between the Guest Relations representatives and the Head of Human Resources, used to document the beginning and end of our shifts each day. We simply write "Started" when starting our shift, and likewise, "Finished" when finishing the shift.
- The "International Reputation" chat is an internal chat between the Guest Relations representatives and the General Manager, used to share ideas, have various work-related discussions, and share updates.
- The "Reputation⭐Onboarding" chat is shared between the Guest Relations representatives and the Onboarding team representatives to share/discuss anything that concerns both of the departments.
- The "Hosteeva Reputation team" chat is shared between the Guest Relations representatives, Upper Management, HR, and some IT representatives, to share and discuss ideas regarding the reputation of the company. This chat is currently less frequently used, due to the existence of other dedicated chats.
See below:
*Aside from the aforementioned specialized group chats, Guest Relations representatives are also present in most of the other (roughly 130) chats, which are mainly for the daily operations of the Customer Support team, but can also be utilized for the GR team, especially when retrieving information and background about existing cases that were forwarded to our department.
Another example of highly useful chats for our team, as well as other teams, is the "Hosteeva IT NON-Emergency" and "Hosteeva IT Emergency" chats, the names of which are self-explanatory. The purpose of these two chats is to facilitate and fasten contact with the IT Department of Hosteeva in case of IT emergencies, as well as IT-related concerns/questions/inquiries that are not necessarily classified as an emergency or a blocker for the time being.
See below:
Regardless of the context and purpose of the chat, it is always highly advised to write a polite greeting before proceeding with our request or question and keeping it professional.
It is also important to note that the company is currently working towards the direction of minimizing the daily usage of WhatsApp communication by automizing the system and making the communication and follow-up processes between all departments more seamless.