Copper Staff
Contributors from members of the Copper team
As a dedicated hospitality professional with a specialization in IT, Amanda Stein knows a thing or two about implementing effective systems, strategies, training, and processes to improve organizational performance.
Among the multiple properties that she works with, operations at Antrim 1844 are by far the most complex. With 60 to 80 staff members and 40 guest rooms, the Antrim team is also responsible for managing a restaurant—and hundreds of weddings and special events each year.
Moving from Outlook to G Suite
In order to maintain operational efficiency, Amanda relies on a specific set of tools.
“I’ve always been a believer that technology can reduce your time spent,” she says. “Our very first big jump was going from Outlook to G Suite. There was a bit of training involved, but the outcome was really significant.”
Along with moving all documentation into the cloud, G Suite has allowed the salaried employees on their team to work from home if needed. “Our sales staff can be just as responsive as if they were in the office,” she adds.
The Only CRM That Made Sense for a Team on G Suite
However, moving everything over to G Suite wasn’t quite enough for the property’s growing sales team. In addition to organizing leads and ensuring the sales team was following up appropriately, they were looking to measure close rate percentages and find the ROI in advertising spend with a hospitality CRM.
“We came across Copper by way of Google. As soon as we learned it was the very first CRM recommended by Google, we were interested,” she recalls.
More Accountability, More Visibility
“Before Copper, we had no hospitality CRM in place. It was difficult to hold our staff accountable,” she says. “In this industry, one of your greatest weaknesses is relying on your staff to respond quickly and have effective organizational practices."
"Accidentally deleting or misplacing an email in a cluttered inbox are downfalls that happen easily. Implementing Copper as a hospitality CRM was a way to refine the sales process."
"Supervisors can simply log in and examine how their teams are following up and provide feedback to ensure the staff is confident in their approach and responses.”
In terms of strengthening customer relationships (more tips on how to do that here), “Copper offers great background information on every client,” Amanda says. “You can see who they’ve talked to in the past, and we offer a unique consistency in our approach that we wouldn’t otherwise have.”
For business owners, Amanda sees the value in the visibility Copper provides. “Because you can see what’s going on at any time, anyone with a business has full control over what they want to be emulated as brand identity and what is portrayed by sales staff on phone.”
In Copper, everyone on the team can see detailed background information on every client.
At the same time, “Teams can edit processes together and always stay on the same page. For sales staff, Copper is an exciting platform that provides a way to share reports and quantifiable results for their hard work.”
Pipelines and Integrations Tailored for Hospitality
Because Copper's pipelines are totally customizable, Amanda’s team can keep track of opportunities with a variety of pipelines that are tailored to the hospitality sector.
“We have pipelines for wedding sales, the restaurant, corporate events, special events, and overnight accommodations,” she says. “Any new rep is immediately added to the appropriate pipelines. And we use Teams to ensure the appropriate permission settings are in place.”
The names of each stage can be edited, and it's easy to drag and drop opportunities and deals as they move along the pipeline.
Their team is also heavily reliant on integrations. Along with using MailChimp for email automation, Amanda is a huge fan of Zapier.
“It automates everything and takes out all of the grunt work. I actually have a lot of fun with it,” she says. “For boutique hotels and other independently owned accommodations, the ability to have so many things work together at such a low expense is phenomenal.”
As Amanda and the team at Antrim 1844 continue to expand their operations, we're excited to see how they use Copper along the way!
