Corporate Process Study Online Reputation Management – ITC Hotels

- Shouvik Dasgupta B 39SIMS Pune

• ITC Hotels is India's second largest hotel chain with over 100 hotels.

• Based in the Hotels Division Headquarters at the ITC Green Centre in Gurgaon, New Delhi, ITC Hotels is also the exclusive franchisee of The Luxury Collection brand of Starwood Hotels and Resorts in India.

• It is part of the ITC Limited group of companies. ITC Hotels is regularly voted amongst the best employers in Asia in the hospitality sector.

Company Profile

• Today’s evolved customer is highly active on online channels & is actively engaging with brands looking for information and seeking assistance & expecting minimal turnaround times.

• With a focussed Digital marketing strategy, ITC Hotels is one of the first Indian hospitality chains to leverage social media for near real time customer service & information dissemination.

• With a dedicated Twitter concierge @ITCHotelsCares which is supported by its corporate social profiles (@ITCHotels).

Background

• Arindam Palit (arindam.palit@itchotels.in)

• Designation – Asst. Marketing Manager (Digital Marketing)

• Profile – Brand manager for Social Media marketing & Online Reputation Management

Custodian - Interviewed

“It has been our continuous endeavour at ITC Hotels to offer our guests a world class luxury experience both offline & online.

Considering the surge in social networking & digital media, we see it as an extremely effective channel for Influencing, Engaging & Servicing our target audience in near real time. We have adapted a focussed approach for merging hotel operations with

our twitter concierge ”

• '@ITCHotelsCares' will revert to all direct brand mentions, queries, requests and feedback between 1.5 - 6 hours depending on the criticality of the tweet. All indirect mentions will be closed within 8 hours.

• The service will be available, during normal working hours, 6 days a week, between 9 AM - 8 PM (IST), excluding public holidays.

• All queries, brand mentions, requests and feedback received outside of this time, will receive a response the next following working day.

Process

• Step 1: The social media agency tracks and monitors all brand mentions & indirect mentions in real-time.

• Step 2: All mentions tracked are then segregated by tonality (positive, negative, neutral, mixed), criticality (C1 to C4) and type of tweet (query, feedback, request, etc).

• Step 3: Based on the criticality & type of tweet, they will be prioritized & sent to unit custodian + concerned personnel via email. Unit custodian will also be informed via a telephone call. Information will reach the hotel in 30 mins from the time it is posted on Twitter.

• Step 4: Basis the tweet, Unit custodians to revert with inputs within the time bracket corresponding to the criticality of the tweet.

• Step 5: On retrieval of response information from the unit custodian, the social media agency will promptly post a response

• Step 6: Once the tweet is responded to, the social media agency will close the loop by sending an email with a screenshot of the entire conversation with timestamps to all stakeholders involved.

Mechanics

• Criticality 1 (C1): A grievance/complaint (negative)/time-bound request which is urgent

• Criticality 2 (C2): A request/query/question

• Criticality 3 (C3): Feedback or suggestion (constructive)

• Criticality 4 (C4): Indirect mention of keywords related to ITC Hotels, its restaurants and services where assistance is proactively offered and/or suggestions to try out other services are provided (using Twitter search for up-selling)

• Escalation Matrix - UNITs • Escalation Point 1: Unit social media custodian as well as Department

Manager / Outlet Manager / Duty Manager (F&B, Spa & Rooms) • Escalation Point 2: Heads of all functions - Front Office, Food &

Beverage (service / production), Sales & Marketing, Housekeeping, and Engineering. • Escalation Point 3: Resident Manager / General Manager

Mechanics