Is Hospitality Moving Towards Zero-Touch With Service Automation?
Alan E. Young | December 12, 2022
The Travel Surge Highlights the Need for Great Prearrival Communication
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | August 31, 2022
Guest Experience
Third-Party Hotel Management Companies Facing Higher Guest Expectations as Room Rates Increase, J.D. Power Finds
J.D. Power | September 15, 2022
Davidson Hospitality Group Ranks Highest in Guest Satisfaction TROY, Mich.: 15 Sept. 2022 — With average daily room rates at hotels in North America now averaging nearly $150—roughly 15% higher than pre-pandemic levels,1—hotel guests have become more critical than ever of the décor, amenities and food and beverage options provided by the world’s largest third-party hotel management companies. According to the J.D. Power 2022 North America Third-Party Hotel Management Guest Satisfaction Benchmark,SM released today, customer satisfaction declines 4 points (on a 1,000-point scale) this year, as higher prices drive increased scruti...
The Hotel Caribe by Faranda Is Optimizing Service With Guesthub
GuestHub | September 13, 2022
Five-star luxury hotel is leveraging the task-based guest-management solution to streamline guest requests, facilitate roomservice, and perfect guest package tracking Miami Springs, Fla. — September 13, 2022 — For five-star Hotel Caribe by Faranda Grand in Cartagena, Colombia, a member of Radisson Individuals, achieving 100% guest satisfaction through service excellence is a top priority. To reach this goal, management turned to Guesthub, a web-based guest experience management solution that facilitates everything guests may need along their journey — from reservation to review™ — and without the need to download an app. “...
How to Improve Your Existing Customer Service Experience in 7 Steps
EHL Insights | September 9, 2022
Research shows that if customers receive a good service experience, they will tell two or three people. But if they experience poor service, they will tell around ten to twelve others! Customers are the core of every business and, thus, should always be your leading priority. And since online and word-of-mouth recommendations and referrals are often top drivers of new business, companies should strive for consistently high service levels. Happy customers can help you build brand credibility and drive more business. According to research, 77% of customers will likely recommend a company if they have a positive experience. An investment in...
This Is How to Communicate With Customers
Shep Hyken | September 7, 2022
In our customer service workshops, we do an exercise in which we ask participants what their favorite companies are to do business with and why. We almost always get Amazon as an answer. One of its success traits is communication. When a customer places an order, he or she is immediately notified by email. Another email is sent once the order ships with tracking information. And another is sent to inform the customer the package has arrived. Frequent communication is one of the reasons customers have so much confidence in Amazon. One of our clients sells to businesses (B2B). When one of the employees shared that Amazon was his favorite ...
Customer Feedback on Hospitality Experiences: 5 Best Practices
Dr Matthias Fuchs | September 1, 2022
By Dr. Matthias Fuchs Why is asking for customer feedback so important and how can it be done to enhance the customer journey? The findings of a recent research project answer these questions that are vital to the success of any business, especially one based on hedonic experiences like the hospitality sector. This article summarizes five best practices grounded in consumer psychology research that businesses should consider when inviting customers to leave feedback on hospitality experiences. Collecting customer feedback is important Asking for guest feedback has become the norm in the hospitality industry. According to the travel websi...
When Pigs Fly
Shep Hyken | August 31, 2022
By Shep Hyken “When pigs fly” is an idiomatic expression, which according to Wikipedia, refers to something that is so hyperbolic that it describes an impossibility. It’s typically a sarcastic remark. For example, American author John Steinbeck was told by his professor that he would be an author when pigs flew. When he eventually became a famous novelist, he printed the insignia “ad Astra per alas porci” on every book he wrote, which loosely translated means, “to the stars on the wings of a pig.” In addition, in some of his books, he added the image of a flying pig, which he called “Pigasus.” Get it? Pegasus is ...
The Travel Surge Highlights the Need for Great Prearrival Communication
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | August 31, 2022
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky Picture yourself going through this small, yet frustrating, scenario as a business guest. During some free time between meetings, you decide to use the hotel’s fitness center. You head up to your room, change into your gear, then walk over to the gym. The entrance is unlocked via keycard, though, and yours somehow doesn’t work. Confused, the nearby receptionist tells you that gym access is an additional $10 per day. While not extortive, it’s nonetheless a shock because there was no prior mention of this fee. This is in fact a real situation that we’ve experienced firsthand, and it highlights the impo...
Customer Experience Quality Assessment – the Essential Experiences
Ryan Laver | August 25, 2022
By Ryan Laver, Dr Alessandro Inversini, Dr Matthias Fuchs The essential experiences Customer experience is increasing in importance due to multiple reasons: ever-changing customer channels with high digitization acceleration, increasing demand for personalized interactions, personal choices and customer journey increasing complexity. These are just some of the many challenges managers face. It is true – especially in services – where the highly intangible defines customer experience through the deeply embedded emotional and relational aspects. In fact, a lived experience is by nature relational; it is the self in relation to somethi...
Be a “Vibe Flipper”: Blast Out 5G Positivity When You Encounter Negative Personalities
Kennedy Training Network | August 25, 2022
By Doug Kennedy For as long as I can remember, it has been common to refer to people as having a particular type of “energy” such as by saying, “Oh, she has such good energy!” or “He is such a negative person.” Yet after three decades of presenting hospitality training workshops, I have come to understand and refer to this concept in a new way: a human “vibe.” I’m not sure where my inspiration came from. Perhaps it was conversations with my Gen Z son who loves the word “vibe,” or maybe it was from my love of reggae, where musicians often sing of “good vibes.” These days, during our KTN hospitality training w...
Lessons for All From a Five-Star Travel Recovery Trip
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | August 24, 2022
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky With the pandemic over, everyone has been clamoring to get out and explore the world once more. In fact, we’d argue, in a take-a-candy-from-a-baby-then-it-cries sort of way, people are even more enthused about travel than they were in 2019, and we foresee this mindset persisting well into the decade ahead. While Adam (one of the writers here) anticipated the nightmare that this pent-up demand would cause at airports and opted to stay home during the current travel recovery summer, Larry (other coauthor) chose to brave the skies with his wife – cancellations, flight delays, lost bags and all. Good thing h...
Three Simple Ways to Get Customers to Trust You
Shep Hyken | August 24, 2022
Shep Hyken Think of the brands or companies you enjoy doing business with the most. What is it that makes you want to come back? Here are a few possible reasons: The product does what it is supposed to do. They have great customer service. They provide a great overall customer experience. You like the employees. The salesperson is knowledgeable and helpful. The website is easy to use. They always get back to you and are quick to respond. They are convenient. The experience is consistent. Every time it is great. There could be many others, but they all feed into one important reason. You t...
Personalized Guest Experiences Will Define the New Era of Travel
Shiji Group | August 18, 2022
A Special Report By Shiji Group & AWS What’s next in personalizing guest experiences? Hoteliers are re-envisioning the entire welcoming experience and moving as many touchpoints with the guest into a digital environment. This presents an incredible opportunity to learn about the guest, collect data on their preferences and begin to offer them a better guest experience. The role of data is essential: It requires monitoring an increasingly higher number of touchpoints throughout the guest journey. Modern, cloud-based software and storage allows hotel companies to harness data in privacy-compliant, secure, flexible, scalable and c...
What Mixed Signals Do You Send Your Customers?
Shep Hyken | August 17, 2022
By Shep Hyken I read Jan Carlzon’s book, Moments of Truth, many years ago. It was one of the most powerful customer service and experience books at the time, and the content aligned perfectly with my idea of creating Moments of Magic for our customers. Carlzon’s definition of the Moment of Truth was: Anytime a customer comes into contact with a business, however remote, they have an opportunity to form an impression. At the time the book was published more than 30 years ago, Carlzon’s wisdom was timely. And it turns out his wisdom is actually timeless, and I predict that 30 years from now, the Moments of Truth con...
Ten Hotel Possibilities for the Metaverse
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | August 10, 2022
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky Now that the current ‘crypto winter’ is weeding out all the cryptocurrency Ponzi schemes with no real applications or utility, it’s time to put on your futurist cap and ponder some actual use cases for what this coming technology will offer to hotels. For background on blockchain, cryptocurrencies, non-fungible tokens (NFTs), web3 and all the basics related to how those work, there are lots of great resources out there, and explaining it all would make this article way too long for a casual read. On that note, here are ten possibilities to consider. 1. An Extension of the Experience Economy. We’re b...
Press One to Do This, Two to Do That … Phone Tree Abuse!
Shep Hyken | August 10, 2022
By Shep Hyken We’ve all experienced it. We’ve called the customer support line, and a pre-recorded message answers stating, “Press one for this, two for that, etc., etc. Well, it happened to me again – the third time this week – and this is how it went down. I listened to the prompts. I was at number four, thinking this one might be it, but I wasn’t 100% sure, so I kept listening. I got to number six when the recording said that I could listen to the options again. I did, and even then, I wasn’t sure which option to choose. I tried pushing “0,” and nothing happened, so I chose number four, thinking that it was th...
Skye Virtual Agent Eases Front Desk Pressure, Improves Hotel Guest Experience
Tyme Global | August 9, 2022
Tyme Global’s AI-powered virtual agent provides guest services without human interaction. New York, NY – Tyme Global today announced the launch of its virtual agent, Skye, an addition to its menu of remote staffing services. Skye uses Artificial Intelligence (AI) to understand conversational language and recognize intent. As a result, guests can interact naturally with Skye as if speaking with a human operator. Calls, texts, and emails are answered immediately with no wait time. Skye fields frequently asked questions and basic requests so that on-site staff can focus on in-person interactions. For example, if a caller needs the c...
Studies Show That the Guest Self-Service Era Has Officially Begun
Venkatesh Sakamuri | August 2, 2022
By Venkat Sakamuri, CEO and Co-Founder, Stayflexi Decades ago, self-service was largely defined by one, often lackluster offering: vending machines. We would carefully feed a bill into the designated slot, punch in the code for our desired drink or snack, watch the machine whirred to life and push our selection forward, and then often watch in dismay as it got stuck against the glass on its journey down to the basket for retrieval. In this sense, vending machines were hardly a luxury offering. Instead, they served a distinct (and limited) purpose and were often reserved for moments in which we had no other food or beverage options to exp...
Special Needs or Common Requests: How Virtual Queuing Improves the Guest Experience
Eldar Erlich | August 2, 2022
By Eldar Erlich, Associate Product Manager, Qtrac by Lavi Industries Hotels go to great lengths to accommodate guests with special needs. During the reservation process, guests are asked about concerns such as wheelchair accessibility or a crib so that people have the amenities they need when they arrive. A quality hotel will do everything it can to ensure these guests’ additional needs are met. However, there’s often a gap in this commitment to service: check-in. If a guest with special needs encounters a long wait when arriving at the hotel, the customer experience may immediately deteriorate. Someone struggling with a medical con...
Community-Focused Prairie Meadows Casino, Racetrack and Hotel Expands Technology with Agilysys to Elevate Staff Productivity and Transform Guest Exper...
Prairie Meadows | August 1, 2022
Eight Agilysys solutions work together to maximize Return on Experience across casino, racetrack and hotel operations ALPHARETTA, GA — August 1, 2022 — As the hospitality industry recovers, properties are facing the compounding challenge of guest expectations and staff shortages reaching record-high levels. In an American Hotel and Lodging Association (AHLA) survey published in June 2022, 97 percent of respondents indicated staff shortages and 49 percent characterized them as “severe.” At the same time, the American Express Travel 2022 Global Travel Trends Report shows travelers expect higher-level returns than simple relaxation fr...
Virdee Releases Web-Based Check-In Functionality
Virdee | July 19, 2022
Adding even more flexibility and increased engagement to its industry leading solution, users can now access and input pre-arrival check-in features via web browser AUSTIN, Texas – July 19 – Virdee, a SaaS company delivering digital check-in and virtual concierge services to the hospitality industry, has released a web-based extension of its industry leading contactless check-in software. Users can now access and input pre-arrival check-in information into the system via the web and in some cases receive a web-based secure digital room key. Other experiences require an app for mobile keyless entry or obtaining a physical key from a kio...
How Hotels Can Cater to Guest Preferences Through Self-Service Technologies
Austen Asadorian | July 14, 2022
By Austen Asadorian Contactless services have become a part of everyday life over the past two years and, as travel begins to surge again, they are continuing to pick up steam in the hospitality world. So much so that, according to a recent study, 73% of travelers want to use their mobile device to manage their hotel experience. Hotel guests now increasingly expect their experience to include contactless solutions that can uplevel their experience. By taking advantage of on-premises reservation capabilities from QR codes to the aggregation of guest data, hotel operators can successfully cater to the new guest of 2022. Streamlined Onl...
North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Declines as Travel Volume, Room Rates Rise, J.D. Power Finds
J.D. Power | July 13, 2022
Rise in Demand and Room Rates Puts Pressure on Guest Satisfaction as Hotels Manage Delicate Balance Between Recovery and Guest Experience Hotel occupancy rates are on track to approach pre-pandemic levels this year[1] as travelers get back on the road and in the air to make up for two-plus years of deferred vacation plans. However, according to the J.D. Power 2022 North America Hotel Guest Satisfaction Index (NAGSI) Study,SM released today, the surge in deman and steadily climbing prices have not been met with a corresponding improvement in amenities or services. As a result, overall hotel guest satisfaction declines 8 points (on a 1,000...
Hotel Guests Getting Used to Changes in Service, Technology
Bob Rauch | July 7, 2022
By Bob Rauch Hotel fundamentals are on an upward trajectory, but several macroeconomic elements are a risk to owners and operators including inflation, higher oil prices, geopolitical tensions, rising interest rates and broader economic growth concerns. A recession would clearly affect near-term hotel stock price performance and sentiment as well as net income; however, hotel industry fundamentals remain solid, midweek business travel is recovering nicely, and groups are coming back. Was COVID-19 good for the industry? No, but much of the technology that was implemented during the pandemic will stay. Contactless check-in and touch...
When Your Company Becomes a Verb
Shep Hyken | July 6, 2022
By Shep Hyken In our customer service training workshops, we have an exercise that introduces a concept called The Five Levels of Service. The levels advance from Unacceptable to Basic to Good to World Class to Trademark. Any company should be happy with World Class, which is when the company is consistently and predictably delivering a level of service that gets customers to come back. Very few companies can get to Trademark levels of service. This happens when a company or brand is referred to in a way that positions them as one of the best at what they do. Most often, it is a comparison. For example, people might say, ...
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