If you want to learn the strategies and techniques you can apply on a day-to-day basis to drive up your guest spend per head and get your guests coming back time and again download my free report today
Here are 57 ways to boost sales and get more repeat bookings from your existing customers to generate more profit for your hotel
Are you prepared for negative comments or critical reviews online? When they happen, most people go into an offended, helpless rage – it’s not a position of strength!
This video introduces a 3-step strategy to manage your reputation online. It was recorded from the recent webinar ‘Fast-Track Social Media Marketing for Restaurants, Cafes and Bars’.
For more from Ken go to Profitable Hospitality
Making personal contact with your hotel guests builds rapport and trust. This starts with being visible – not just your staff, but some managers’ presence too. But being visible is only half the story. What are you doing to reflect and convey your values and attitude to customers and staff? The way you interact with your staff and participate in the operation gets noticed.
Talking to your customers directly is by far the best way to get feedback. They may tell you things that they wouldn’t feed back to your staff. Get to know your customers personally – their likes and dislikes, their routine, their suggestions, their network – all this not only builds rapport, but makes it a lot easier to upsell and tailor your offers to your market.
Every bit of feedback you get from your customers is valuable to you, whether it’s positive or negative and whether you agree with it or not. Take on board the good and the bad. If you don’t agree with the feedback, find out (tactfully) what has led to their perception, as this may lead to the root of the problem. If you don’t know what disappoints customers, you can’t improve on it, so make sure you are prepared to listen to, and take on board any thoughts on what lets you down, so you can learn from this and address it. Show them that you appreciate the feedback. Then demonstrate you’ve acted on it if relevant.
Be flexible. You can’t bow to every request a customer ever makes. But don’t be so bound by the rules that any request is met with a hostile ‘jobsworth’ attitude!
If you cannot meet your customers’ initial requests, look at offering an alternative. Catering for one off special needs is the sort of attention to detail that builds you loyalty and referrals.
What is there that makes your establishment or offer unique, that they might want to take home or share with others? This shows your appreciation of their business and well as acting as a memento and reinforces your relationship (as well as potentially an opportunity for additional sales). Could you offer any of the following either as a gift or as additional sales? Convert your renowned menu or signature dishes into a recipe book, package your hand-made petit fours into a gift box to take home; offer birthday or celebration cakes for customers celebrating special occasions; offer a hand-tied flower bouquet for anniversaries or special occasions; sell your homemade bread, marmalade or other preserves and chutneys; sell luxurious bathroom accessories, robes with your logo, and toiletries. A win-win, the guest has something special to take home and you get an opportunity to ensure they remember you long after they’ve left (and maybe an upselling opportunity too!)
Tomorrow we’ll discuss how to continue to build the guest relationship even once they’ve left you, to set the wheels in motion for repeat business and referrals – one of the easiest ways to market a hotel.
Learn the 7 fatal mistakes hoteliers make in getting more business on this complimentary tele seminar
Whenever I visit a hotel or B&B I like to take a business card – well, I do if I think I will want to remember the place.
But I sometimes wonder why people bother with business cards. I mean, why have them if they are tucked away, where guests can’t see them?
Let me give you a couple of recent examples. One B&B I visited recently had cards for local businesses neatly displayed, and I picked one up, thinking it was for the B&B itself. (This is what happens as you get older and your eye sight goes – if I have not got my glasses on I never quite know what I’m reading!) When I asked for the right card, the owner could not even remember where she had left them!
Then at another a few days later I simply forgot to ask, as they weren’t visible. The chances are I’ll have forgotten the name of the place by next week.
And worse still at one hotel where we dined last week and had a fantastic meal with excellent service, the cards were kept in a locked drawer!
Do any of these ring true for you?
So what’s the point of a business card?
Use your business cards to help build and maintain that connection with your guests. They are part of your marketing and PR armory. You’ve gone to all the trouble and expense of getting them printed, now make sure you are getting a return on that investment.
Hear it from the experts. Join me on my regular FREE interviews when I talk to hospitality experts and specialists and ask them to share their insights, strategies and secrets that can help to give your hotel a competitive edge. In my next interview I’ll be talking to Petra Clayton of Custard Communications, PR for hospitality businesses. Find out more and register here.
Yesterday I ran a workshop at a hotel. This was for a third party, so I had not been involved with the booking, but had the conference organiser’s name. Ironically the word “Welcome” was in the title of the workshop….
On arrival there was just one person at reception at the normally busy checkout time. She happened to be dealing with a guest’s bill, which one might expect at this time of day. But, I received absolutely no eye contact or acknowledgement that I had even been seen. I decided to try and locate another member of staff, or at least the meeting room where the workshop would be run. Any signs? No.
I came back to reception, laden with my bags, reluctant to leave my laptop unattended. By which time of course the lone receptionist was deep in the transaction of the next guest.
I waited.
Finally I had her attention and asked for my contact. “That’s me” she says, without a hint of apology for keeping me waiting.
So she finally comes out from behind the typical unwelcoming barrier of the reception desk, to appear in the most inappropriate dress I think I’ve even seen on a receptionist! (Leggings, low cut smock top, bare ankles). Mmm, not a good first impression……
Did they redeem themselves? Well, they could have done.
But, when it was time to leave, I passed 3 members of staff on the way out. Not one of them offered to help with my bags, not one of them thanked me for my custom, and not one or asked for any feedback. Not only did I not feel valued as a customer; what a wasted opportunity to get some feedback. Although I was not paying the bill, I’m sure that one booking earned the hotel considerably more revenue than any single accommodation bookings that day. And they certainly weren’t so busy that they could not have taken 2 minutes to ask me.
What seemed to be lacking was any hotel management, training or systems. Did anyone recognise the importance of first impressions?
The thing is, what was delivered in between was actually quite good. But it’s what your guests see first and last that leaves the greatest impression. And it’s that impression I’ll be thinking of when my client asks for feedback on the venue.
Caroline Cooper
The welcome is just one of the topics discussed by my guests on the tele seminar series “How to Give Your Hotel a Competitive Edge”
Love them or hate them, online reviews do get read and will influence prospective customers. Sadly statistically people are more likely to be prompted to post a review if they’ve a bad experience than when they’ve had a good one. So aim to redress this balance, by encouraging as many of your guests as possible to post reviews, so you get the good ones as well as (hopefully only occasional) bad ones.
Display your confidence by encouraging your guests and website visitors to link to TripAdvisor. One of the easiest things you could do is to put a link from your website, and on your post stay e-mails, and prompt people who have enjoyed their stay to post a review.
It’s considered unethical to offer incentives, such as room discounts, in exchange for positive reviews. But the least you can do is show people you appreciate the feedback (good or bad) by responding quickly to the feedback you receive. Register with TripAdvisor so that you can monitor your reviews by receiving notification. A quick thank you in acknowledgement might be all you need for a positive review or feedback.
With negative feedback it’s important to show that you have looked into the situation and taken things on board. Feedback that you feel is unjustified can be frustrating, but the way in which you handle this will reflect on your professionalism and reputation, so deal with it in a constructive way. By asking them to phone you provides an opportunity for you to get more detail and having a better chance of resolving the situation.
Don’t be too concerned about the occasional negative comment. This demonstrates authenticity of the content and in some cases can actually help to highlight the type of hotel you are. For example, if you have a comment that the hotel is not child friendly, this may be seen as a positive for some potential guests.
Watch out too for feedback through Facebook, Twitter and other social media sites so you can respond accordingly.
Caroline Cooper
Download the full article on Making the Most of your Feedback and Reviews and other free articles
Simply relying on questionnaires or a visitor’s book when your guests leave is not only impersonal, but is leaving it a bit too late to get feedback if things weren’t perfect. You need to talk to your guests throughout their stay.
Face-to-face feedback will always be the most effective and ideally we need to get feedback before it’s too late to do something about it. If what you have provided fails to meet expectations you’d rather know about it before the guest leaves so you can resolve it, rather than waiting for them to put their comments on TripAdvisor.
As well is asking at the end of each course, the meal or their stay, be observant and look out for signs that things aren’t right or that someone wants to get your attention. For example if a diner has hardly touched their steak but eaten everything else that might suggest there was a problem with the steak. Or you hear a guest complaining about the temperature of their room to others in their party; this probably suggests something that needs investigating.
Being visible in your hotel or restaurant, and making contact with your guests builds rapport and trust. Once you’ve gained this you’re in a far better position to gain valuable feedback first hand. The same goes for your staff too, so encourage them to talk to your guests. Give them the appropriate training to ask for feedback in the knowledge that they are confidence to deal with feedback – good or bad – in a positive way.
Bare in mind your guests will tell you things that they wouldn’t feedback to your staff, and vice versa. So ask your staff what feedback they have received, and listen to their ideas on how to make improvements and how to capitalise on positive feedback and your strengths.
Tomorrow we’ll discuss how to ask for feedback. Or download the full article here (log in or sign up required)
Do you look forward to reading your online reviews, or does the very idea that someone has felt compelled to post a review fill you with dread?
Getting feedback from your guests is essential to gauge whether or not what you’re offering is right for your target audience. Whether it’s positive or negative and whether you agree with it or not it is key to your success.
So why is it then that so many businesses seem to ignore this fact?
Maybe part of it (in Britain at least) is that customers are often reserved about giving direct feedback. They take the view that it’s not worth making a fuss, or why should they bother, when they can vote with their feet and just not come back again. Others by pass you, but still want to be heard and post a comment on line.
Unless we get people’s feedback we can’t do anything about it.
Tomorrow we’ll discuss when to ask for feedback, so you get in time to do something about it and before you see it posted online . Or download the full article here (log in or sign up required)
As your Christmas parties get underway, your marketing for next year is probably the last thing on your mind. But now is a great time to be building up material to use for next year. What better way to promote your Christmas parties and packages than to show people having fun, and your hotel or restaurant in all its Christmas splendour?
So at the very least, here are some things to do now.