Customer experience is crucial in any type of business, especially those focused on leisure and wellness such as hotels and restaurants. In the first case, it is what makes people remember your hotel and plays an important role in determining whether a guest will stay with you again. This is something that can be improved without a large monetary investment or requiring excessive time commitment. Indeed, there are a number of very effective techniques for improving guests’ perception of your hotel. To apply them, all you need to do is build on your current service and make a few creative tweaks. In this article we want to share with you some tips to improve the customer experience through small actions.
Why is the customer experience so important?
The visitor experience is of paramount importance. It is the main factor that determines whether a visitor will return or become a prescriber.
The experience begins with the visitor’s first contact with your hotel. Many people believe that only the hotel stay has to be excellent (and it is), but the other stages of the customer journey are equally important.
Visitor experiences can be divided into three categories: before, during and after the stay. Anything you can do before the guest checks in is called before, or pre-arrival. What you can do when the visitor is staying with you is in the second group. The final group deals with what you can do after the visitor has left (and how to get them to come back again).
Before: How to influence the pre-arrival experience.
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Pre-arrival contact
Today’s visitors can contact your hotel in a variety of ways. They can contact you through your social media profiles, your website, live chat feature, chatbot, email or the more traditional method, the phone.
Timeliness and consistency are the best ways to improve the first point of contact. To ensure a great guest experience, every channel must be taken care of. The tone of voice should be friendly and consistent across all channels, and responses should be prompt.
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Excellent website usability
To create a positive guest experience, the booking procedure must be simple. This means your website must be easy to use, up-to-date and load quickly. It must also function smoothly on a mobile device. Mobile accounted for a considerable portion of e-commerce growth as a digital sector in 2021. In fact, according to eMarketer, smartphones accounted for nearly 73% of all ecommerce purchases in 2021.
Both your desktop and mobile websites must work seamlessly for a smooth and enjoyable online booking experience for your guests.
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A personalized online experience
Personalized guest experiences are the best. Indeed, through personalization, you can tailor your website to the demands of your visitors and ensure a wonderful user experience.
Modern technology allows you to add personalized touches even before the guest checks in, which is a great added value. Today your website can be as distinctive and personalized as you want it to be. A customized website can better express your brand image and give you an edge over rival businesses.
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Helps your visitors’ travel planning
Your hotel guests will learn about places to visit and things to do in the area prior to their visit. Send them proactive emails with travel tips, insider blogs and local guides. Giving visitors insider information is a good way to establish a strong relationship.
Prior to their arrival, you can provide them with information that will help them learn more about the area and your hotel. A good way to add culture and style to your service is to include the history of your hotel. In addition, you can take the opportunity to specify what additional services are available and how your hotel can help in their organization. This is the right time to indicate if your hotel has a spa, a gym or any other remarkable service, as well as information about the latter.
During: How to influence the customer experience during their stay
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Amaze and delight visitors
There’s nothing more enjoyable than encountering something you didn’t expect. Give each of your visitors a fantastic experience by surprising them. It’s not always about making grand gestures in this situation. For a guest to have a wonderful experience, small details can be enough.
Look for opportunities to excite your customers. It can be a random action such as placing a small piece of chocolate, craft or other detail on the pillow in each room; along with a note detailing the history of the pastry chef, artisan, etc.
On the other hand, you can include in the pre-information with information about the area excursions or visits to small local businesses or stores. The goal is to excite them by making them feel part of the locality and sharing with them the history of the city. In addition, you will be helping local businesses at the same time.
If you know that some guests are celebrating a birthday you can take the opportunity to give them a small gift or add a personalized message in their room or dessert in case they eat or dine in your restaurant.
Any situation is good to surprise and any action can be effective. Never let an idea go to waste; no concept is too small to be noticeable or to enhance the visitor’s experience.
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Emphasize teamwork and customer service.
To ensure a positive guest experience, it is critical that the entire team is properly trained. For a consistent guest experience, all team members must be on the same page.
Unfortunately, a customer’s impression can be ruined in a matter of seconds. One small mistake or misunderstanding is all it takes for visitors to get a bad impression. This is not always the case, of course. Visitors may overlook some problems and be forgiving, but commonly a mistake will make their experience less than positive.
It’s best to regularly train staff and have management present so they can intervene if something goes wrong. The key to a great guest experience is to provide excellent customer service.
After: How to influence customer experience after your visit
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Reward repeat visitors.
You should reward repeat customers who have fallen in love with your establishment. For visitors who make multiple bookings with you throughout the year, you can offer discounted rates or fees. For frequent visitors, your hotel can offer additional perks. Among them, you can give them a free massage each time they make a reservation with you, offer early access to the fitness center, provide them with more regular room service, let them join you for free on a day trip the hotel has planned for your guests, or any extra services your hotel can provide.
In case you don’t have the opportunity to be able to offer anything particular for whatever reason, some detail such as a bottle of wine in their room will suffice once again.
You can also think about and implement a loyalty system that rewards those regular customers while helping to boost the recurrence of new customers.
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Gather testimonials and respond to feedback.
It’s one thing to implement smart ideas and include them in your guests’ experience. It’s another to pay attention when your visitors give you constructive criticism. Both are equally important.
Knowing what needs to be improved is the best way to improve the visitor experience. This can be done through a form they fill out at the hotel, an email you send them after they check out, or a form they fill out online.
Take advantage of any criticism or feedback and view it as an opportunity to improve.
It is essential to take the initiative and respond to criticism. You can show visitors that you value their feedback by asking them to post evaluations. You will be able to pinpoint exactly what aspects of your offering need to be improved if you are aware of what people really think.
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Thank you by e-mail
Sending a “Thank you for staying with us” card to your visitors can be a great finishing touch. Guests will appreciate receiving a message from the staff expressing how much they enjoyed having you as a guest and how much they look forward to seeing you again soon.
This is a very simple task to set up with a smart approach and can have several benefits. The guest will be able to anticipate their subsequent visit to your hotel by reading this email, in which you can include upcoming promotions that will be offered, providing an incentive to book with you again in the future.
A comfortable and well decorated accommodation is as important as the treatment of the guests in order to provide a good customer experience. At Simex we have a wide variety of products in terms of hotel equipment, to take care of the design and provide quality accommodation.
From minibars to safes, luggage racks, kettles or bathroom equipment, we have everything a good hotel room needs. Check our products HERE.