Author: John Zirkle – Corporate Director of Operations
To understand the WOW factor, we need to understand our guests’ wants and needs. Once we understand our guests’ wants and needs, we can work to exceed those expectations. One of the best ways to understand our guests is by using the Stay Experience Platform for our Hilton properties. Our IHG and Wyndham use Medallia. I will be speaking mainly about the Stay Experience Platform in this article, but Medallia offers many of the same reports and drill downs.
If you haven’t signed up for the Daily Dashboard to be emailed to you daily, you should. This dashboard provides a quick look at where key scores rank (Stay Score, Service, Cleanliness, etc.) as well as providing guest feedback. It even provides your top 5 problem topics. And an even better aspect, it calls out team members that have been positively mentioned in surveys. There was a NOW article about how to sign up for this report, but if you missed it, here is how to sign up:
Go to the Stay Experience app from The Lobby. Once in the Stay Experience Platform, click Check Insights, then click the drop-down menu at the top and select Daily Download. In the top right corner, there is a choice to download the dashboard or email the dashboard. Choose email. From here you can email the dashboard to yourself or set up a recurring email. You can choose monthly, weekly, daily, etc. It even lets you choose the days and time of day to receive the dashboard. This dashboard provides a quick look that you can share at stand-up meetings or with team members as you walk around the hotel.
The more we understand what our guests are telling us, the easier it is to exceed their expectations.Pay close attention to the top 5 problem topics. They are key as this is guests telling you about a problem they experienced. You can drill down further to see the guest reviews, room number, dates of stay, etc. From there we can work with the departments and team members to improve and remove the problem areas. Remember to improve, we must understand where guests see the hotel as below expectations. Work together to find solutions. Remember, it isn’t always about needing to spend money to fix a guest problem, often, it is simply ensuring our team members have the proper training and tools to do their job.
And always remember, it is everyone’s job to exceed our guests’ expectations!
