Is the Hotel customer satisfied only because expectations are so low, and no one is doing better?
In today’s markets, it is not enough for Hotels to just satisfy the customer, you have to identify new ways to optimize and think above and beyond customer expectations.
Even if your Hotels is 2-star, 3-star, 4-star or 5-star you have to stretch and search for that little extra that spark new emerging love with your customer.
Here is why Hotels immediately should consider optimize and think above and beyond customer expectations with Social Media Marketing.
Always start with your Hotel first
Maintaining a high level of customer service, customer care, customer satisfaction, and delivering consistent and positive customer experiences is key for any Hotel who wants to succeed and gain a competitive advantage.
Your customer-facing Hotel goals should always be to exceed your customer’s expectations. This is especially relevant for service-oriented industries who communicate with customers across all channels, especially face to face.
With customer service, customer care and customer satisfaction it looks like on the surface that is doing what is required to surprise and delight.
But today the Hotel brand represents so much more than that. It represents brand values, brand culture, brand message, brand mission, brand products, brand relationships, and brand reputation.
These are all elements that will shape the customer views of the totality of your Hotel brand.
It is critical that you understand that the customer’s view and perspectives of your Hotel brand start long before the customer even set their foot at your location.
During the stay, the customer viewpoint can shift depending on their perceptions of deliverables and what your Hotel provide to the best of your abilities.
It is after the stay your Hotel will learn what kind of lasting impression you left in the customer mindset.
Research and data tell us that customer trust and patience is eroded by brands that don’t meet their expectations. And for many Hotel brands, this has made customer acquisition costlier and more difficult.
We have over the years experienced some dramatic shifts with Social Media, and at the moment the giant customer experience snowball continues to roll and grow bigger.
If your Hotel is ready to make a shift, then you need to start to figure out what Hotel wants out of Social Media Marketing.
Customers will share their concerns on TripAdvisor and various Social Media Channels. This is no indication that there is a problem related to TripAdvisor or Social Media.
Get your Hotel team members involved to better understand what is happening and take deep dive into where the real roadblocks are.
Once you decided what your Hotel want, then you must start creating a vision of perfection centered on the customer.
Know your Hotel Customer Expectations
All Hotels today have to understand their customers. But customers don’t always know what they want. The customer’s view will only have meaning in the context of your Hotels vision of perfection.
Accept that there will come times where the customer viewpoint is so different than yours that you have to refer them somewhere else.
Your job is to serve within the window if your Hotels vision. Customers viewpoints might alter your window, but you need to have a good understanding of your limits.
The most effective way to learn more about customer expectations is to ask them.
When Hotels ask the customer today, they have focused on other strategies than the traditional surveys that ask open-ended questions.
Customers typically receive the surveys after their stay in an email with a generic question like “How will you rate your room service experience on a scale between 1-10..”. And the Hotel gets back a 1, 2 or 3 indicating food arrived late, food was cold, or was missing a side.
This is where we today can take advantage of new strategies, new technology, and new tools to get a better understanding of what the customers don’t want.
We can now learn more about what customers expect related to room service, what is the biggest challenges, frustrations, obstacles or hurdles they run into? And follow up with something like what is the single biggest thing you wish could change with room service?
Respond, be proactive, be prepared and take a proper measurement. This is a process where you have to optimize one step at the time.
How can you challenge your Hotel team members today?
What can you learn from today’s experiences or mistakes?
What can you different to make things work better?
Who can you ask today for honest feedback?
Did you ask customers for help if needed it?
Note that when you ask customers it is similar to a signed contract, you now have a responsibility to follow up on and take appropriate actions. Don’t harass or overstep customer boundaries. Violating this trust will backfire.
Make the Customer your Hero
We now know that Hotels can’t exceed customer expectations without a good understanding of what they want, but even more important understanding of what they don’t want.
When your Hotel shift towards a focusing on optimizing and thinking above and beyond customer expectations, it is important not trying to change too much at once. It makes no sense adding new things if you still can’t get the old things right. And it doesn’t do any good either just dropping the old and enforce something new believing it will fix your troubles.
Change, new shifts, or introducing a new culture is a process that is implemented, monitored and measured one small step at a time.
Hotels that want to shift from focusing on what they want towards learning and understanding what customers don’t want, have to start with value innovation. And then learn to communicate with the customer.
- Choose the right place to start
- Get clear about the current state of your Hotel and Social Media Marketing
- Uncover the limitations of your Hotel and imagine where you could be
- Systematically start reconstructing your Hotels market boundaries and develop alternative solutions
- Select your moves, conduct rapid market tests and launch new effect frameworks
Be flexible and identify new ways to make the customer the hero of your Hotels stories.
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Our Social Media Management team has refined these processes to help Hotels. Contact us today to learn more.
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Try something new it will magnetize your Hotel!
Be flexible and identify new ways to make guests happy.
As guest behavior and pattern continues to evolve, expectations will continue to rise. Navigating these changes can be challenging. Learn more about how we can help your Hotel.
About the author
Are Morch is the founder and owner of Are Morch – Hotel Marketing Coach. Get more from Are on Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Pinterest | Instagram| Podcast
