How to Make a Positive Impact on the Guest Experience in 2022

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Tripleseat News February 28, 2022

According to Bain and Company, businesses with a customer experience mindset drive revenue 4-8 percent higher than the rest of their industries. In addition, brands with superior customer experience bring in 5.7 times more revenue than competitors that lag in customer experience.

From improving revenue to generating reviews and creating greater guest loyalty, a positive guest experience can take your hotel to new heights.

And, as experience continues to shape the world of hospitality, it becomes critical to understand how you can make a positive impact at your hotel.

In this blog, we break down the top ways you can start making a positive impact on your guests to drive loyalty and maximize revenue.

Understanding the guest experience

Before improving the guest experience, it’s important to note that an understanding of your current performance is critical. This includes capturing your customer journey, key touchpoints, popular channels, employee performance, tools and resources you currently use, and so on.

Having an understanding of the current landscape can help you get clear on what areas need improvement and which of the opportunities below can help you excel.

How to make a positive impact on the guest experience

Reach out pre-arrival

A great first impression begins well before the guest arrives.

It involves taking initiative and starting the conversation on the guest’s preferred channel. This can include messaging the guest with options for check-in, sending recommendations of nearby attractions, or offering a free itinerary to streamline packing.

Regardless of how you choose to reach out, your message should add value and relay a personable tone.

Pro Tip: If you don’t have the capacity to reach out to each customer, you can also encourage customers to start the conversation through an up-to-date website, engaging social accounts, and offering a variety of on-brand channels.

Be available in real-time on your guest’s preferred channel

A great way to initiate a positive guest experience is by being readily available on the guest’s preferred channel.

This means offering an array of channels, being timely in responses, and taking action in real-time. In almost every instance your guest will have preferred channels that they use regularly. Your objective is to understand what those channels are and how you can leverage them for success.

When considering what channels to incorporate, keep the following statistics top of mind:

Statistics like these can be easy to dig up online and reference. To get the most out of the channels you adopt and ensure guest satisfaction, take a look at how your guests try to communicate with you and observe the channels your target audience gravitates towards.

Ensure requests are met in a timely fashion

The expectations of guests today have become demanding on businesses as a whole. With the immediacy of digital transformation, comes an expectation that guest requests are met in real-time.

To ensure a positive experience, set an average time to review and respond to requests. For instance, a 10-minute maximum to acknowledge a guest request can encourage teams to readily check their devices and ensure guests aren’t waiting.

If you’re still feeling inundated with requests and finding responding promptly difficult, a great way to meet expectations is to leverage an automated solution. The Loop Experience Platform, as an example, consolidates all customer requests into a single inbox. It tags each request by the department it is associated with, so the right team member can respond.

Cheval Collection, which has leveraged Loop since 2018, highlights this as Robert Speirs, Marketing Manager said, “It’s an amazing way to plug into actual guest conversations. Since I’m not on-site or on the property, it’s a great way to flag regular concerns.”

Be personable at every touchpoint

Employee attitude plays a huge role in guest satisfaction, after all, they interact with your guests on a regular basis.

Train employees to be attentive and personable throughout the entire journey. Encourage employees to get into the habit of using guest names, referencing past visits, asking probing questions, and making note of preferences to better suit the guest in the future.

Collect feedback at key touchpoints

Feedback is an integral part of improving the experience, it allows you to understand how your operations impact your customer and how you can better tailor the experience to suit their needs.

Collect feedback from customers

Customers are your most valuable source of learning. By regularly surveying them, you can collect insight into your performance and understand trends in hospitality.

When drafting your survey, incorporate a range of question types to gather the most insight. Include pillar questions like Net Promoter Score (NPS), Customer Satisfaction (CSAT), and Customer Effort Scores (CES), in addition to more specific, department-oriented, questions.

Collect feedback from employees

When it comes to operational improvement, your employees know your business best. Connecting one on one with your customer, they can provide information on what tools they prefer and how to adjust services.

To collect employee feedback, hold regular team meetings or implement quarterly one-on-one meetings.

Follow up post-stay

Lastly, post-stay surveys are a great tactic to leave a lasting, positive, impression and encourage loyalty.

Offer a “next-stay” promotion and don’t forget to add a personal touch. Whether you do so on the guest’s preferred channel or in person, thank the guest for their stay and their choice in selecting your hotel. A survey at the end of their stay is a great way to understand your experience and enhance it for the future.

Editor’s note: This post was written by Sandra Holland, Marketing Manager for Benbria. Learn more about Benbria on Tripleseat’s Marketplace.