iKnow Groups

The world’s first online reader board tool

View group and event details for the current and past weeks

In our efforts to constantly add client value, we made Readers the first reader board service to offer online field research and the first to offer free access to historical data. After logging into Readers on our website, you can see the events held at each of your comp set hotels for the current week. This calendar view also allows you to go back in time to see past events. You can choose to see as many or as few of your comp set hotels at a time as you wish as well as what information you would like displayed for each event including group names, event names, and assigned users. Also available for each event is a raw data link that shows you the actual reader board photo.

Want more information on the event or group? Simply click the group name to see a detailed profile. This profile includes an overview of the group’s contact information including phone numbers, addresses, and contacts. Easily identify what information has been verified by our team most recently by the darker color grey. The group profile also has a Request Verification link allowing you to send a request to our telesales team to gather more information about the event from the group’s event planner. These are what we call “Glengarry leads” and more information on this remarkable tool is available on the Glengarry leads pages.

You may also choose to have our telesales team Book this Group or Schedule a Sales Appointment. If you find a group that is perfect for your property and would like to set up an appointment with their event planner, select Schedule a Sales Appointment. Or if you don’t have the time or manpower, let us do all the work by selecting Book this Group. Our team will then contact the group’s event planner as your property’s representative and convince them why their next event should be held at your hotel. For more information on this service, see the EBC Integration page.

Create personalized reports that give an inside look at the group activity in your area

Stored in Knowland’s ever-growing nationwide database is information on over a quarter of a million events held by more than 100,00 organizations at over 2000 hotels. In order for our clients to make the best use out of all this data, we have created numerous different types of reports that can be personalized for any property. Instead of forcing clients to pay more money each and every time they need more information, the Knowland Group makes all of these reports available upon request at no additional cost.

Reports include the Knowland Consolidated Report, which combines the event and group details in an expandable/collapsible format for quicker viewing. Also available is the Knowland Most Active Reports designed to show the most active groups for the previous week and the Knowland Monthly Download Report, which provides an Excel spreadsheet with info on all the events from the past month. We also have sophisticated search parameters that allow you to narrow the data by everything from group name to industry segment to assigned user.

Build lists compiling the information you want to know

Every hotel sales team has different priorities for their group sales. That’s why we created list builder, giving clients the chance to make their own list of whatever data they might need compiled. Following our step by step instructions, create the list you want quickly and easily. You set the parameters, choose the information you want included and in what order. Once you name your list you can save it for later use or set it up to be delivered to you and your sales team on a daily, semiweekly or weekly basis.

The possibilities are endless. Make a list of groups with less than 75 average attendees that meet on Tuesdays in your region. Or events that were held at your brand hotel by government groups during the month of December. If you can think it, you make a list about it.

Get the support you need to master Readers quickly

One of our core values is the belief that business technology should be easy to use and even a little bit fun. When software products take weeks of training and levels upon levels of certification, their value is limited. That’s why we’ve worked to ensure our clients can take advantage of all Readers has to offer from the beginning. We want you help you explore, collect, and organize all the data Readers contains and lend a helping hand when you need it.

As part of that effort, we offer an exhaustive help section and user guide with articles on every aspect of Readers. This section includes an index and search engine so you can quickly find the answers you are looking for. Want to talk to a real person? Online chat support is only a click away. Whatever you’re trying to do, simply click the Live Support Icon and our highly-trained and easygoing professionals will answer questions and walk you through anything you need. Or call into our office and your assigned client care technician will work directly with you to make sure you get the most out of our service. Still need a little more help? We have also created numerous how to videos that will show you step by step how to do everything from running a Knowland Reader Board Report to using the online reader board to its full potential to adding or editing users on your account. You shouldn’t have to spend half of your time trying to figure out how something works before you can reap the benefits. And with Readers, you never will.

Configure settings and account information to better meet your specific needs

Readers gives you powerful administration abilities. Account information settings allow you the opportunity to:

• Select as many or as few days of the week as you want to receive your 8 am comp set report
• View information on your comp set hotels, including name, address, and average number of events held per year (?)
• Look at details on other nearby hotels you may want to choose for your comp set, including average square feet of events and average number of events per day at the hotel
• Add or delete hotels from your comp set
• Edit is your status descriptions. Want to be able to mark a group as needs follow up? Simple add “follow up” to your list of status choices, save your changes, and “follow up” will be available to you as an option from then on.

The more preferences you set, the more personalized your Readers experience becomes. The edit users section allows you to:

• Edit each user’s account by changing their information, deactivating their account, making them an administrator, or allowing them to receive 8 am comp set reports and event assignment notifications.
• Choose which 8 am comp set report you wish to receive and what to include in each report
• Set up productivity tools to receive a monthly download report, a director of sales productivity report, or individualized 8 am comp set reports for each user based on their assignments
• Configure your sales managers areas of responsibilities from industry segment to geographically region to estimated group size