In hotels around the world, Property Management Systems and catering management systems handle everything from controlling hotel inventory to managing housekeeping needs, to processing banquet event orders. But how effective are they at managing pipeline? Or at providing you the metrics and knowledge about your customers necessary to deliver an amazing experience each time they visit?

While these systems are adequate in managing front-of-house and back-of-house operations, they seldom serve the real needs of hospitality professionals the way a highly adaptable, easily accessible cloud-cased customer relationship management (CRM) tool can. In its recent assessment of the future of CRM, leading analyst firm Gartner Inc. names cloud amongst the “main drivers behind the hot topics in CRM.”

Having spent over twenty-five years in sales and operations in the hospitality industry, I have uttered the phrase, “Why can’t the system do this?” more times than I can recall. Fortunately, when I recently spearheaded a Salesforce automation project for a large hotel chain, I was introduced to the world of cloud CRM. Needless to say, it was an eye-opening experience; I had been unaware of how antiquated and inefficient previous management systems were. Hence, I’ve identified the top seven reasons why hospitality professionals need a better CRM — and how a cloud-based solution can deliver it. Over the coming months, I’ll dive deeper into the following areas to help you better understand how to leverage cloud solution platforms to improve productivity, efficiency and profitability.

1. Better Data
   
   How many duplicate accounts do you have? If a contact or account hasn’t been touched in several months or even years, how can you discern that the information is accurate or actionable? With salesforce.com coupled with a data enrichment tool, you can ensure that your data is as clean as possible with real-time accuracy.
2. Mobility
   
   Great sales people are not the ones that you find sitting at their desk every day. They are the ones out touring prospects around the hotel, meeting with clients and their executive teams on the road, and working late into the evening on contracts and proposals. Your technology needs to provide the necessary support to perform their jobs wherever they may be, rather than requiring them to be tethered to a LAN line or logged in through a VPN. Learn more about mobile solutions for improved sales effectiveness in our recent report, The Changing Role of Sales.
3. Collaboration
   
   With global teams of salespeople and leaders working in tandem, your CRM should provide a social platform to enable that collaboration. Whether it’s to close a deal for the brand across three continents, or simply to keep the sales team abreast of important happenings within an account, collaboration is essential for any sales team. Today, collaboration often consists of lengthy strings of emails, sometimes multiple versions of the same thread on an email server, and verbal approvals not captured in writing. Consolidate your communication with one CRM platform that's available for all parties all the time.
4. Document & Content Management
   
   Just imagine: no more calls to your assistant to track down a contract or proposal. No more searching online marketing repositories or shared folders for that menu or special event flyer. Cloud-based solutions ensure that you have all of your contracts, proposals and marketing collateral at your fingertips whenever you need them. 
5. Marketing & Lead Visibility
   
   You rely on marketing to drive new leads through campaigns. But do you have visibility into the leads that are generated, or do you just hope it will generate new business? An effective CRM with accurate data drives more strategic campaigns, delivering better results and immediate lead visibility. This way, you’ll know the moment your hot prospect just opens your email or visits your website.
6. Faster Approvals = Faster Sales Cycles
   
   By building your approval process (including revenue management) directly into Salesforce, your sales teams can focus on upcoming contracts without having to track down their contract or attend meetings to present the business case. Efficiency is key to capitalizing on the greatest number of possible opportunities.
7. Customer Obsession Improves Guest Experience
   
   Success in the hospitality industry is predicated on delivering amazing guest experiences. With a robust CRM that is customized for your business to capture important customer information, you can easily provide better customer experiences each time they stay with you by capturing and building a profile of their stay preferences as well as personal information to ensure that they feel at home. In addition, you will also be providing immediate transparency to your organization when important guests are in-house. For a comprehensive guide to becoming customer obsessed, refer to our guide The Essential Guide to Customer Obsession.

By opting for an effective solution platform with an experienced implementation partner like Bluewolf, you'll begin to transform your technology to fit the processes that work best for your business — as opposed to fitting your processes to the one-size-fits-all technology that has been the norm for decades. To discover how leading companies are innovating on the Salesforce platform, download our annual review, The State of Salesforce.