Useful Recommendations for Creating an Excellent Strategy to Provide a Memorable Experience to Guests, Helping Improve Their Satisfaction, Increase Their Loyalty, and Boost Revenues.
What is guest experience?
The guest experience is defined by the interactions and experiences guests have with your location throughout their stay, from the first contact until they become satisfied and loyal.
Isn't guest experience the same as guest service?
No. And here's why:
In most cases, the first point of contact a guest has with a hotel is usually through interaction with an employee. This offers your hotel the opportunity to provide excellent guest services. However, guest service is just one aspect of the overall guest experience.
For instance, if you book a vacation over the phone and the person you speak to is friendly and helpful, that's good guest service. But if your tickets arrive early and the hotel upgrades your room, that's an excellent guest experience!
That's the difference!
How important is guest experience?
A hotel cannot exist without its guests, which is why hotels focus on improving their products and services and, more importantly, retaining existing guests.
Some of the most common causes of negative guest experiences include:
- A cumbersome booking process that lacks clarity and forces the guest to ask more questions to get the needed information.
- The attitude of staff when interacting with guests, either over the phone or in person.
- Poor organization during peak times at the front desk for arrivals/departures, delays in addressing guest requests, quality and variety of breakfast offerings, and the lack of alternatives to avoid long waiting times for guests.
- A lack of response from the hotel to expressed guest opinions, whether positive or especially negative.
- The general aged and worn condition of the location, the appearance of employees, and the cleanliness of public spaces and rooms.
So, the question remains: how can your hotel create an excellent guest experience strategy?
Here are 7 actions you can take:
- Develop a clear vision of the guest experience.
The first step in your guest experience strategy is to have a clear, guest-oriented vision that you can communicate to your team. The easiest way to define this vision is to create a set of statements that act as guiding principles.
For example, a hotel in the United States utilizes core values that are incorporated into their culture, which includes creating "wow" moments in service, being friendly, and embracing change.
Once these principles are internalized by team members, they will guide behavior towards guests. Every member of your team should know these principles by heart and they should be incorporated into all training and development areas.
2. Understand who your guests are.
The next step in building a guest experience, based on these principles, is to identify the different guest segments your hotel caters to. If your team truly understands the needs and desires of your guests, they will be able to connect and empathize with the situations your guests face.
By clearly segmenting guests based on preferences, needs, and purchasing behavior, your team can better recognize and understand them. This is also a crucial step in becoming truly guest-centric.
3. Create an emotional connection with your guests.
Have you ever heard the phrase, "it's not what you say, but how you say it"?
The best guest experiences happen when a member of your team creates an emotional bond with the guests.
Statistically, over 50% of an experience is based on emotion, as emotions shape the attitudes that drive decisions.
Guests become loyal because they have an emotional attachment and remember how they felt when using a product or service. A hotel that consistently creates an emotional connection with their guests outperforms competitors by 85% in sales growth.
And as a result, emotionally engaged guests are:
- At least three times more likely to recommend the hotel.
- Three times (!) more likely to return.
- Much less sensitive to service rates.
4. Capture guest feedback in real-time.
How can you know if you're providing a WOW experience?
You have to ask!
Ideally, do this by capturing feedback in real time. Use communication tools to request their opinions on their experience and respond to everyone with a short thank-you note, regardless of whether the feedback is positive or negative.
5. Use a quality standard to develop your team.
Following the above steps, you now know how guests feel about the quality of your service compared to the guest experience principles you've defined. The next step is identifying and evaluating training needs for each team member.
A quality standard takes this evaluation a step further, scheduling and monitoring your team's development by providing guidance, training, and potentially substituting work experience by providing the necessary knowledge for efficient, quality guest services.
6. Act on regular employee feedback.
Most organizations have an annual survey process where they capture general feedback from your team: how engaged they are and their ability to provide exceptional service.
But what happens in the 11 months between these survey periods?
Usually, nothing. That's where continuous employee feedback can play a role.
Use technology solutions that encourage and allow staff to share guest experience enhancement ideas and for managers to understand the general sentiment among their teams.
7. Measure the ROI of providing an excellent guest experience.
You're probably thinking: "How do we know if our efforts to improve guest experience are paying off?"
The answer is simple: through measuring business results.
Do this by:
- Comparing your NPS scores (or any other satisfaction metrics) before and after implementing your guest experience strategy.
- Also, ask your guests: "Would you recommend our hotel to a friend or family member?"
Conclusion
Guest expectations are evolving, and their opinions spread rapidly. The guest experience requires constant attention and care.
But with a structured approach to guest experience strategy, as suggested above, you can make a real difference to your guest loyalty and revenue growth.
Ask yourself this: do you know what your guests are saying about their experience at your hotel? What do you need to change to ensure you remain the top choice when guests are looking for a place to stay in your area?
If you need assistance in this area, we're here to help. Just be open, transparent, and contact us to set up a conversation with our experts.
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