Solution

Hilton is committed to providing a superior guest experience day or night and for any location. In order to achieve this goal they chose to use two listening tools to help them become more effective in both responding to guest inquiries over social media as well as providing travel suggestions to a global audience.

Hilton uses Expion as a listening tool for its global guest service management on social.

“We took a different approach than a lot of companies. We want to help our guests no matter how they come to us. No matter how they want help — in app, at the front desk, or on Twitter. We are there where they want us,” Vanessa Sain-Dieguez, ‎Social Business Lead & Strategist for Hilton Worldwide notes.

Hilton’s guest service center is housed within their call center. Their social team monitors all Twitter mentions around the clock and aims to engage with guests within 30 minutes of a tweet being sent.

Hilton monitors all its brands and hotel level Twitter accounts and looks for what is being said and when to engage. Even if a guest tweets about Hilton, but doesn’t identify them by their handle, Hilton will pick up on the tweet and respond.

“Our guests don’t get a quicker response tweeting to our Hilton Help (@hiltonhelp) Twitter account. We want to be available to the customer wherever they are. It just comes down to customer preference — and monitoring it all,” remarks Sain-Dieguez.

From first response, Hilton aims to resolve all issues within 12 hours, which is an incredibly robust resolution timeframe given that Hilton’s customer service has to communicate with hotels around the globe.

Whether it’s a big or small issue, Hilton is committed to providing guests with a great experience.

“We recently had a guest who arrived in her hotel room and tweeted a picture of her closet that was not a standard size. Her dress was pooling on the ground, and she wanted it to remain wrinkle free for her meeting the following day. We saw that tweet come through, and within an hour had her in a new room with a full size closet,” Sain-Dieguez explains.

With all the listening that Hilton does over social, they ensure that the guest experience gets turned into actionable insight. All guest comments become part of their reporting. That feedback is then bubbled up to the brands who use it in their strategic planning.

Hilton also wants to be seen as a trusted resource for travellers looking to experience the most out of their destination. They created Hilton Suggests (@HiltonSuggests) as a friendly, proactive concierge in market.They use Lithium’s listening software to help power Hilton Suggests. For example, if someone in Chicago tweets, “Where’s the best deep dish?”, Lithium enables Hilton Suggests to surface these tweets, whether or not they mention a Hilton brand. Hilton Suggests offers a local perspective, with experts from these markets responding with their personal suggestions. It’s proven a great way to build brand recognition.

Hilton wants to be seen as a resource for all travellers. Thanks to their commitment to providing a great guest experience, Hilton is proactively engaging with its guests wherever they are. Twitter has enabled Hilton to provide a whole new level of customer service.

“Customer service is another form of hospitality. Twitter is a huge shift in the importance of social as a democratized community,” Joshua Sloser, Vice President of Digital Product and Innovation at Hilton Worldwide remarks.