A Q&A with NAVIS’ chief revenue officer on breaking down the barriers between hospitality marketing and revenue management.
In our continued fight against longstanding hotel data and departmental silos, IDeaS considers NAVIS a key ally in uniting revenue management and marketing. We recently spoke with Mark Bartlett, chief revenue officer for NAVIS, to talk about our newly expanded partnership and to pull back the curtain on all the great work going on at NAVIS.
Can you tell us what makes NAVIS unique in the CRM market?
Mark Bartlett (MB): NAVIS is the only solution for hotels, management companies and vacation rentals that combines a sophisticated, revenue-generating voice channel with all the other essential elements of a great CRM. We also boast an NPS score of 65 for both software and service—something we’re extremely proud of and that points to the continued value and success our clients experience working with NAVIS year after year.
What do you believe is the importance of hotel marketing and revenue management teams working together?
MB: Often, these teams work in silos. These data and functional silos, combined with disconnected decision-making, are costly and curb efforts to drive, capture, and convert direct business, clouding the needed focus on delivering united best-in-class hospitality. By aligning marketing, sales, and revenue leaders, hotels, management companies and vacation rental teams can work in harmony toward shared revenue and guest-satisfaction goals.
Which functions of the hotel business can be best served by the products you offer?
MB: We see functions across hotels, management companies and vacation rentals using NAVIS’ products, including general managers, marketing, revenue management and reservation sales teams. The analytics, clarity and coaching offered by our technology and experts guide decision-making across the organization, serving as a united force to hospitality teams hitting their goals.
What’s one of the biggest misconceptions you face regarding customer relationship software?
MB: That it’s just an email marketing tool. It’s so much more than that—your CRM should be the central hub for all guest data, uniting systems and teams as they activate programs, campaigns and make pricing decisions.
Another misconception is the belief that a hospitality CRM doesn’t need telephony. In fact, at NAVIS, our client data shows the voice channel outperforms digital on bookings, with the offline voice channel generating $3 in revenue for every $1 of online revenue. Now, especially in the COVID-19 landscape, people often want to speak to an actual human before booking, so a nuanced and strategic telephony component of a CRM is more important than ever.
What exciting innovations are you bringing to the marketplace that will help hoteliers now and in the future?
MB: Our strengthened partnership with IDeaS continues to help us find ways to improve the hospitality game and deliver more value to our mutual clients. I’m also extremely excited about our next-generation marketing suite, which brings forward next-level functionality and a Tesla-like elegance to our UX, as well as the upcoming launch of our API marketplace, which will make it easier than ever to connect additional third-party systems to NAVIS.
To read more about IDeaS’ growing partnership with NAVIS, check out this press release.