Do you know what a hotel’s greatest marketing tool is? Hint: It’s not advertisements. It’s the guests!
Customer satisfaction… or dissatisfaction, can make or break your hotel. Although guest behaviors and preferences change, properties that deliver memorable experiences get positive reviews. Guest satisfaction is the foundation for an amazing property, and without it, you practically have nothing. People put a lot of weight on reviews.
If your hotel is struggling, your first focus should be on ways to increase your guest service scores. Here is what you need to do.
Improve Customer Service at Every Touchpoint
The hotel experience doesn’t begin at the front desk. Guests book online and communicate with a front desk agent before they’ve even arrived. It’s safe to say that online representation often dictates whether the customer books or not.
Do you have multichannel customer support? Relying solely on your desk agents to address complaints isn’t always efficient or effective. Make sure you’re setting up your website, email and social media accounts to prep for guest complaints. Creating a social media playbook can get you ahead of the curve and allow guests to experience a seamless customer experience. Regardless of how your guests choose to interact with you, you’re delivering.
Request Guest Feedback
Don’t just read the reviews you receive online. Go out and solicit reviews! Requesting customer feedback gives guests a platform to air out any grievances. This also allows you to consolidate the relationship and avoid negative public feedback. You can recognize what you’re doing well and what needs improvement. You can do this by traditional feedback cards, personal interactions or online/mobile surveys. A good property creates a culture where employees feel empowered to address customer concerns.
Respond to Reviews
Quickly respond to all your reviews, especially negative ones. According to a StrategyOne study, 93 percent of travelers say their booking decisions are affected by online reviews.
Personalize your responses by directly addressing the guest. An example of a good response is:
Dear [Guest], thanks for sharing your feedback. We’re sorry your experience didn’t match your expectations. We would love to talk to you and figure out what we can do to fix this. You may reach us anytime at [Email Address] or [Phone Number]. Again, thank you!
Your response will be tailored based on the feedback. Remember to leave grateful responses to positive reviews as well! This topic was covered more in-depth in one of our previous articles here.
Track and Implement
Now that you’re tracking and requesting feedback from guests, you can begin finding ways to implement change. While executives are aware of reviews, very few translate that feedback into something meaningful… which can be extremely frustrating for guests that want their guidance to be implemented in future planning. Define your scope so you can get pertinent feedback about specific challenges. There are almost always consistencies in a series of negative reviews. If you are finding that reviewers are consistently upset about the food quality, you know where to invest your time and resources. If you’re finding that reviewers are upset about the quality of service, you’ll know to invest in training. If you can’t find any commonalities, consider it a red herring.
Is your hotel receiving far more negative reviews than positive? Perhaps you need new leaders to change the culture of your hotel but the local talent is not providing you with the leadership you need. If that is the case, give JDI a call. As one of the top hotel recruiters in the country, we work with the top talent in the industry and work hard to ensure the ideal match between candidate and property. For more information about our hospitality recruiting services, please click here.