Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Report
2016 Guest Satisfaction Management Barometer
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Contents
Introduction
The Importance of Guest Intelligence
Key Findings
Methodology
Detailed Results of Study- Guest Satisfaction Management- Guest Survey Solutions- Guest Survey Best Practices
Profile of Respondents
About Us
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Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Introduction
Increasingly, savvy hoteliers are using guest feedback to
make operational and service improvements on property
to deliver better guest experiences. The way hotels gather
feedback is evolving with many choosing to switch to
electronic survey solutions. Analysis of ReviewPro data
suggests that technology is having a strong impact on the
industry, with 60% of hotel survey invite emails being read
on a mobile device and 40% being answered on one.
For the first edition of this industry study, ReviewPro
surveyed 2,877 hospitality professionals across the globe
to gain a better understanding of how hotels manage
guest satisfaction and to identify current trends in the
industry related specifically to guest survey management.
The findings of the report provide valuable insight into the
current landscape of guest satisfaction management. 99%
of hotels claim to be gathering guest feedback in some
way or other but only 51% are using electronic guest
surveys. Fewer hotels still are actually acting on the direct
feedback they receive in a structured and organized way
to drive better results.
How does your hotel compare? Are you a truly guest-
centric organization who knows how to keep guests
happy and loyal? Read on to find out more.
RJ FriedlanderCEO, ReviewPro
“ Guest Intelligence is crucial for hoteliers to determine what guests like and dislike about their stay and to prioritize improvements to exceed expectations. The results of the study indicate that there is huge potential for hotels to further progress in this area and make the most of this valuable opportunity to boost guest satisfaction and revenue.
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RJ FriedlanderCEO, ReviewPro
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
The Importance of Guest Intelligence
4
Guest Intelligence is the in-depth analysis of online
reviews and guest satisfaction survey data, which includes
both during and post-stay surveys, to provide detailed
insight into what guests like and dislike about their stay
and to leverage these signals to exceed expectations.
By collecting and analyzing guest feedback proactively,
hotels can identify what operational and service changes
are necessary and implement them in order to increase
guest satisfaction and attract more bookings.
Hoteliers across the globe leverage ReviewPro Guest
Intelligence data in order to:
• Benchmark themselves against competitors and track
performance at corporate and individual property level.
• Turn insight into action to deliver operational and service
excellence.
• Improve their review ranking on TripAdvisor, other
review sites and OTAs.
• Drive increased guest satisfaction and revenue growth.
The results of the 2016 Guest Satisfaction Management
Barometer indicate that a high proportion of hotels are
already highly active when it comes to managing guest
feedback. However, there is still significant room for
improvement in order for hotels to fully reap the benefits
of Guest Intelligence and avoid pitfalls such as missed
opportunities and negative reviews. By managing and
responding effectively to guest feedback, hotels are able
to deliver quality experiences, drive increased guest
satisfaction and improve their online reputation.
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Key Findings (1/2)
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51%Within today’s ever more complex environment, hotels
are faced with managing guest feedback across multiple
sources online, direct sources and in multiple
languages. Two thirds of hotels find this difficult to
manage, reinforcing the need to have specialized tools
to facilitate guest satisfaction management.
Although 85% of hotels use online reviews to measure
guest satisfaction, only 51% are gathering valuable direct
feedback using email guest surveys, meaning that
almost half of all hotels are missing out on the power of
having all feedback combined in one place.
feel that it is difficult to manage feedback across multiple sources
are using electronic guest surveys to gather direct feedback
41%offer staff incentives / bonuses based on guest satisfaction KPIs
There is discrepancy between what hoteliers feel is
important about guest feedback and what they actually
do. All respondents feel that it is important to measure
guest satisfaction, but only 57% of hotels actually set
and monitor KPIs and only 41% are offering staff
incentives or bonuses based on guest satisfaction KPIs.
are planning to invest the same or more in guest survey management in 201677%
When choosing a guest satisfaction survey solution, the
top 2 factors hotels take into consideration are:
• Reporting that identifies operational & service
improvements easily.
• The ability to integrate guest survey data &
online reputation analytics in one tool.
67%
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Key Findings (2/2)
6
29% 20%Despite 94% of hotels feeling that it is important to be
able to integrate guest survey data with online review
analytics, only 29% are actually doing so. It is much
more powerful to be able to analyze guest feedback as
a whole, whether it be an online review, comment on
social media or a response to a survey question.
Guest profile information gathered from a guest survey
is incredibly rich and therefore valuable for CRM
activities but only 1 in 5 hotels are feeding guest survey
data into a CRM platform. Flexible platforms, such as
ReviewPro, make it easy to integrate guest feedback
data with other software, with remarkable results.
integrate guest survey data with online review analytics
integrate guest survey data with CRM software
33% of electronic guest surveys have 10 questions or less
The figures show a trend towards shorter guest surveys,
which tend to increase survey response rate. The new
generation of online survey solutions, such as that offered
by ReviewPro, provide a “Question Logic” functionality
within the survey design to be able to gather detailed
feedback using as few questions as possible.
Only 51% of hotels use electronic guest surveys to gather direct feedback.
are using the Net Promoter Score® (NPS) when analyzing the results of guest surveys23%
This powerful metric is used across a range of industries
to measure customer satisfaction. With only 23% of
hotels using the NPS® in their guest surveys, there is an
opportunity for improvement as it is a highly valuable
metric that can be benchmarked over time.
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Methodology
7
For this report, we surveyed 2,877 hoteliers worldwide.
All interviews were conducted using an online survey, with
an invitation to participate sent by email. No incentive was
offered to respondents for completing the survey, other
than to receive a copy of the results of the study.
To ensure the accuracy of the data, we excluded 237
respondents who stated that they did not work at a hotel.
All data reported in this study has a base size of more than
1,400 respondents.
Fieldwork was carried out between 10th December 2015 –
10th January 2016.
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Guest Satisfaction
Management
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
How Hotels Measure Guest Satisfaction
9
• 99% of hotels measure guest satisfaction in some way or other, with feedback from online reviews / social media mentions being by far the most popular method.
• The second most common method is post-stay email surveys but only 14% are using in-stay email surveys, which highlights a missed opportunity for hotels. Most relevant for longer stay guests, feedback from in-stay surveys enables hotels to implement a service recovery strategy, reducing negative online reviews.
• For “other”, the majority of respondents mentioned personal communication with guests during their stay or at check-out. Other interesting ideas were Whatsapp/text messages and daily random courtesy calls.
8%
1%
5%
7%
14%
23%
50%
51%
85%
Other (please specify)
Do not measure
Post-stay telephone survey
On-site ipad / kiosk survey
In-stay email survey
Mystery shopping
Printed survey / comment card
Post-stay email survey
Online reviews / social media…
Which of the following methods do you currently use to measureGuest Satisfaction at your establishment? (please select all that apply)
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Who Manages Guest Satisfaction
10
• Not surprisingly, Front Desk is cited most often, as they deal with guest satisfaction on a daily basis. 73% of General Managers are also involved in managing guest satisfaction.
• Interestingly, many of those who selected “other” cited “all departments”, indicating that some organizations have created a guest-centric culture, ensuring that the whole team is focused on improving guest satisfaction. Based on our experience with the hotels we work with, we have seen this to be a highly effective strategy, both for independent hotels and large chains.
10%
23%
53%
53%
56%
60%
73%
81%
Other (please specify)
Revenue & Distribution
Sales & Marketing
Quality & Operations
Food & Beverage
Housekeeping &Maintenance
General Manager
Front Desk
Which departments are involved in Guest Satisfaction managementwithin your organization? (please select all that apply)
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
What Hoteliers Think about Guest Feedback
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• Resoundingly, 96% of respondents completely agree that it is important to measure and monitor guest satisfaction. However, fewer hoteliers sense the importance of acting on this feedback or believe that it can lead to improved guest satisfaction. Again, based on our experience, we have seen that having the right Guest Intelligence insights to enable hoteliers to prioritize operational and service improvements, and implement them, does impact guest satisfaction, and improves a hotel’s online reputation.
• 67% feel that it is difficult to manage feedback across multiple sources. Platforms, such as ReviewPro, that integrate online review analytics (from 175+ review sources) and direct feedback from guest surveys, make it much easier and more efficient to do this.
18%
84%
89%
96%
49%
14%
11%
4%
21% 12%It is difficult to manage guest feedback across multiplesources
Acting on feedback leads to improved guest satisfaction
It is important to act on feedback from guests
It is important to measure and monitor guest satisfaction
Here are some statements about guest satisfaction at hotels. Please indicate your level of agreement with each one.
Completely agree Somewhat agree Somewhat disagree Completely disagree
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
How Guest Feedback Is Used
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• Although all respondents in the previous question feel that is it important to act on guest feedback, only 81% are using feedback to implement improvements. Similarly, all respondents feel that it is important to measure guest satisfaction, but only 57% actually set and monitor KPIs.
• Taking it a step further, 41% of hotels are giving staff incentives or bonuses based on guest satisfaction KPIs. We have seen this strategy used extremely effectively by our clients who have successfully created a guest-centric culture and excel at exceeding guest expectations.
• With only 4 out of 10 hotels currently doing so, there is also a large potential for more hotels to use guest satisfaction data & analytics to improve decision-making in revenue management. For example, Duettointegrates ReviewPro’s GRITM (online reputation management score) into the dashboard of its Revenue Strategy Solutions.
3%
5%
26%
33%
41%
41%
57%
81%
Other (please specify)
We do not formally act on this data
Optimize your distribution strategy
Publish guest feedback on brand.com website
Improve decision-making in revenue management
Give staff incentives / bonuses based on guest satisfaction KPIs
Set and monitor evolution of guest satisfaction KPIs
Implement operation, service & product related improvements
How do you use Guest Satisfaction data within your organization?
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Guest Survey Solutions
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Usage of Guest Survey Solutions
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• 47% of hotels are not using an online guest survey solution to measure guest satisfaction.
• There is an opportunity for hoteliers to benefit from using such a solution to:
– Gather valuable direct feedback to drive operational and service improvements.
– Increase review volume and ranking on TripAdvisor & Google.
– View and manage all guest feedback (direct and online reviews) in one platform and dashboard.
– Send in-stay surveys to allow service recovery and reduce negative online reviews.
– Improve guest satisfaction enabling hotels to increase ADR (average daily rates).
51%
38%
9%
2%
Is your organization currently using anonline guest satisfaction survey
solution?
Yes No No, but we are considering implementing one I don't know
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Important Factors When Choosing a Provider
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• In line with previous findings, reporting that makes it easy to prioritize improvements comes out as the top factor when choosing a provider. ReviewPro’s Advanced Sentiment Analysis as well as customized views, filters, alerts & reporting for different departments help staff focus on the right areas.
• Interestingly, 69% of hotels feel that it is very important to be able to drive online reviews to TripAdvisor and other review sites whereas only 40% think it is very important to be able to publish survey responses on their own website. We have seen many of the hotels we work with achieve positive results by implementing both these strategies. For example, by using the TripAdvisor Review Collection Programme within ReviewPro surveys, hotels can drive both review volume & recency, two important factors impacting your hotel’s ranking on TripAdvisor.
40%
55%
57%
60%
64%
69%
69%
78%
39%
39%
32%
34%
28%
26%
25%
19%
17%
5%
9%
5%
7%
4%
4%
2%
Ability to publish survey responses to brand.com
Price
Ability to be integrated with other systems (CRM, PMS…)
Flexibility in creating & modifying surveys
Surveys optimized for mobile devices
Option to drive online reviews to TripAdvisor and other review sites
Ability to integrate guest survey and online reputation analytics in onedashboard
Reporting that quickly identifies operational & service improvements
How important do you think each of the following criteria listed below are when selecting a provider/solution for Guest Satisfaction Surveys?
Very important Somewhat important Not really important Not at all important
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Survey Data Integration with Other Software
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• Generally speaking, there is very limited integration of guest surveys data with other systems, the most common being email marketing with 35%.
• Only 29% of hotels are combining guest survey data with online review analytics whereas 94% in the previous question felt that it was important to be able to do so. It is crucial to analyze guest feedback as a whole, whether it be an online review, comment on social media or a response to a survey question. Sentiment Analysis becomes much more powerful and relevant when applied across multiple sources of feedback, helping to prioritize where action is required to make improvements.
• Guest profile information gathered from a guest survey is incredibly rich and therefore valuable for CRM activities but only 20% of hotels are feeding guest survey data into a CRM platform. We have seen this to be highly effective. For example, through an integration with ReviewPro, our client Red Lion Hotels synchronizes guest survey data with their CRM system Serenata Intraware.
17%
20%
25%
29%
35%
48%
47%
50%
40%
43%
18%
17%
11%
16%
10%
17%
16%
14%
15%
12%
Business Intelligence
CRM
PMS
Online Reputation Management (ORM)
Email Marketing
Is your guest survey data integrated with other systems or software?
Yes No Don't use this type of system Don't know
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Planned Investment in Guest Survey Management
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• 77% of hotels are planning to invest the same or more in guest survey management in 2016, reinforcing the importance that hoteliers are giving to guest satisfaction.
• Our experience working with forward-thinking hoteliers shows that hotels who dedicate resources to guest satisfaction improvement are seeing a positive impact on results.
• It’s important to note that it is not just about investing in a tool. It’s about creating a guest-centric culture across the entire organization, which entails the following steps:
1. Actionable insight for operational/service improvements
2. Process changes
3. Involving key stakeholders
4. Setting goals
5. Taking action
6. Measuring performance & reporting
25%
52%
4%
19%
Looking at 2016, is your organizationplanning to invest more, about the
same or less in guest surveymanagement than in 2015?
More About the same Less I don’t know
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Guest Survey Best Practices
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Number of Questions per Survey
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• The figures show a trend towards shorter guest surveys, with 64% of surveys having 20 questions or less and only 11% having more than 30 questions.
• Reducing the number of questions tends to increase survey response rate and survey completion rate. This has two advantages:
– More feedback & engagement from guests.
– More opportunities to increase online review volume.
• The new generation of online survey solutions, such as ReviewPro, offer a “Question Logic” functionality within the survey design. Question logic (a combination of scale multiple choice, true/false and text box questions) is critical to gather detailed feedback with as few questions as possible. By using this option, you only need to ask questions that are relevant to each guest and can drill down to truly understand why guests are satisfied or not.
33%
31%
12%
6%
5%
14%
≤10
11-20-
21-30
30-40
>40
I don't know
How many questions do yourguest surveys have?
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Survey Response Rates
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• Only 16% of hotels are achieving a response rate to guest surveys of more than 25%. Furthermore, 28% of hotels have a response rate of 10% or less.
• How can hotels increase survey response rate?– Craft a compelling subject line & personalize your email– Implement an effective survey design strategy– Prioritize mobile– Monitor completion rates and adjust as necessary
• Obtaining the highest percentage of correct email addresses from guests is crucial to maximize the sample size of your guest feedback. This is discussed in more detail on the next slide.
13%
15%
11%
9%
6%
5%
11%
32%
≤ 5%
6 - 10%
11 - 15%
16 - 20%
21 - 25%
26 - 30%
> 30%
I don’t know
What is the average response rate you get to guest surveys by email? (# of responses divided by # of emails successfully delivered)
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Email Collection Rates
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• Only 38% of hotels manage to collect a valid email address for more than half of their guests. As a reference, a number of our clients are successfully collecting more than 70% of non-group email addresses.
• How can hotels improve email collection rate and quality?
– Put in place clear processes and tracking to increase the volume and quality of email addresses that you capture.
– Train your staff to be aware of the importance of collecting correct emails.
– Incentivize them by setting email collection rate objectives with small rewards, making sure you communicate and share the results within your organization in order to build awareness and motivation.
5%
6%
7%
9%
9%
12%
38%
13%
≤ 5%
6% - 10%
11% - 20%
21% - 30%
31% - 40%
41% - 50%
>50%
I don't…
For what percentage of your guests do you manage to collecta valid email address?
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Net Promoter Score® (NPS)
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• The Net Promoter Score® (NPS) is a metric based on one simple question: “How likely are you to recommend this business to a friend or colleague?”. Customers are asked to answer this question on a scale of 0 to 10 in a survey. This powerful metric is used across a range of industries to measure customer satisfaction.
• With only 23% of hotels using the NPS® in their guest surveys, there is an opportunity for improvement as it is a highly valuable metric that can be benchmarked over time.
• With a powerful guest survey solution, it is possible to monitor its evolution and compare guest satisfaction performance of individual properties within a hotel group.
• With survey tools offering a Question Logic functionality, it is possible to drill down to understand why guests would not recommend your hotel and take the necessary follow-up action.
23%
48%
28%
1%
Do you use the Net PromoterScore® (NPS) when analyzing the
results of your guest surveys?
Yes No I don't know Other (please specify)
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
Profile Of Respondents
Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices
12%
41%North America
7%
29%6%
5%
Europe
Middle East
Asia Pacific
Africa
Latin America
In what region are you primarily based?
23%
42%
26%
3%
1%
5%
What is the star rating of your hotel?
Respondent Profile
How many hotels are there in your group?
1 2-5 6-10 11-25 26-50 +50
36% 28% 15% 9% 6% 6%
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Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices25
About Us
ReviewPro is the leading provider of Guest Intelligence
solutions to independent hotel brands worldwide.
The company’s comprehensive suite of cloud-based solutions
includes Online Reputation Management (ORM) and the Guest
Survey Solution (GSS), which enable clients to obtain a deeper
understanding of reputation performance as well as
operational/service strengths and weaknesses. We provide
actionable insight to increase guest satisfaction, rankings on
review sites/OTAs and ultimately revenue.
The company offers the industry-standard Global Review
IndexTM (GRI), an online reputation score, which is used by
thousands of hotels worldwide as a benchmark for reputation
management efforts, based on review data collected from +175
online travel agencies (OTAs) and review sites in more than 45
languages. More than 25,000 hotel brands worldwide are
currently using ReviewPro’s solutions.
Request a Free ReviewPro Demo now
Learn More
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