Your guests are your greatest marketing tool. The satisfaction of your customers can make or break your hotel. Although guest behaviors and preferences change, properties that deliver memorable experiences are rewarded with positive reviews. It’s vital to recognize the importance of guest satisfaction and strive for improvement. Here are some tips on ways to increase your guest service scores.
Improve Customer Service at Every Touchpoint
The hotel experience doesn’t just begin when they arrive at the front desk. Guests typically book online, visit the website or speak to a front desk agent over the phone. The online visual appeal often dictates whether the customer books or not.
Do you have multichannel customer support? Relying solely on your front desk agents to resolve complaints isn’t always efficient. Make sure you’re setting up your website, email and social media accounts in preparation for guest complaints. Doing so will put you ahead of the curve and allow guests to experience a seamless customer experience. Regardless of how your guests choose to interact with you, make sure 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 voice any grievances. Negative reviews can be detrimental to your hotel. This also gives you the opportunity 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. If you create a culture where employees feel empowered to address customer concerns, you will be ahead of the game.
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. Make sure to personalize your responses by directly addressing the guest. Excelling in customer service requires personalization and making each customer feel like a priority.
An example of 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 initial review. 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 Feedback
Now that you’re tracking and requesting feedback from guests, you can begin finding ways to implement changes to your hotel. While most companies are aware of feedback, very few translate that feedback into meaning. Most guests want their guidance to be implemented in future planning. Define your scope so you can get pertinent feedback about your specific challenges. 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 where to focus training.
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.