Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys in the Age of Social Media

Lorine BenintendiMBA 2A Mrs Craig

Introduction

42% say that guest satisfaction surveys are still important

58% think that guest satisfaction surveys are even more important than ever

This is therefore extremely vital for hotelier or any kind of service business to manage guest satisfaction surveys

Why is it important? To understand consumers’ needs, hotels’ strenghts and areas you need to

improve To engage guests, create dialogue and relationships that lead to direct

bookings To enhance loyalty, therefore revenue

To be effective as possible you need to implement systems to collect and analyze feedback

Take action on feedback

Positive impact on loyalty, advocacy

Increasing direct bookings

Virtuous circle of guest feedback

Collecting guest feedback

Online reviews (85%): Comments from travelers to share tips

Guest Surveys: Travelers write to the hotels

The 2 most common ways to collect feedback are:

Response:

Via an internediary like TripAdvisor Direct answer face to face

Guest Surveys

Ultimate question: How likely is it you recommend the company to a friend or a colleague?

Grading is done via a scale of numbers

Net Promoter Score (NPS): Key performance indicator of consumer satisfaction

Best practices in designing guest surveys (1)

3 main indicators are showing the performance of the hotel: Global Review Index Overall Score Net Promoter Score

The effectiveness of a survey relies on the questions asked and who answers. There are two ways designing it:

Exploratory qualitative research about customers’ experience Quantitave survey

It has to be designed in a new and more interesting way

Make it uniquely yours and do not forget HUMOR!

Best practices in designing guest surveys (2)

Be clear on your goals Do not audit guests but understand their experience Focus on guest experience + Follow up Ask if the guest used a specific facility before asking a

question dealing with this particular place Use filters to show or hide questions accoding to facilities or

guest profile

GOOOO Mobile, mobile, mobile…

Increasing answer rates Greater involvement of customers Instant commentaries Improvement of client satisfaction To be relevant with your guests

Analyzing and acting on feedback

Recognizing the positive feedback Coaching correctively on the negative feedback Immediate tactical adjustments such as quick wins, red-alerts Revenue interlocks, including actions that impact revenue Game-changing ideas and suggestions for the long term

Responding to guest surveys

Prioritize your answers Direct responses: help to build trust and relationships with your

guests Thank, apologize, say you are going to follow-up and invite BACK

The way hoteliers reponding is extremely

important as the reputation of the business is in the

hand of the customer that complained