There’s a reason why it’s called the “hospitality” industry. In today’s competitive landscape, guests aren’t booking your hotel solely for a place to sleep while travelling. Hotel customer service is the key to success in any type of accommodation. You can’t pick where your hotel is located, what amenities it has, or how much you can price a room, but you do have ultimate control over the level of customer service you can offer to guests.
The data is compelling. 93% of customers are likely to make repeat purchases with companies who offer excellent customer service. Hotel customer service should be a top priority and strategy when it comes to building your brand development, reputation, and customer retention. Investing in acquiring new customers is 5-25 times more expensive than retaining an existing customer.
With purchasing behaviours of guests shifting rapidly, people are now looking to forums for reviews as a top criteria to their purchasing decision. 90% of Americans use customer service as a factor in deciding whether or not to do business with a company and it takes 12 positive customer experiences to make up for one negative experience.
Now that we understand how good or bad hotel customer service can impact your business. Let’s define what good customer service is. It’s easy to offer a decent experience over and over again by standardizing processes and getting an average to good rating on your customer service. What’s difficult is getting that good to great rating, making yourself stand out against the rest and going above and beyond. That lies within the following 3 pillars.
The 3 pillars to hotel customer service
Detail: Attention to detail is something you either have or don’t and it takes a lot of training and practice to train the eyes of another. It can, however, be inspired by a great working environment and the motivation and desire to want to help guests.
Personalization: Anniversaries and birthdays are common ways for a hotel to customize a guest’s visit and offer that personal touch. There are more ways than just special occasions to be able to personalize a visit - it’s in the details.
Creativity: Customers have expectations about a standard level of service that a hotel will give based on their past stays at similar accommodations. Identify opportunities to impress, and then go above and beyond. Don’t be afraid to get creative. A small gesture can be an interesting and delightful way to make a memorable experience.
Whenever facing a customer service opportunity at your hotel, just refer to these 3 principles when formulating your action. Analyze your entire customer journey and see what touch points you can incorporate any of these pillars into. It’s also important to note to stay on top of what’s being said about your hotel in online reviews. Your management team can use it as a tool to identify top feedback you’re getting and identify customer service opportunities to improve on.
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