2016 Guest Satisfaction Management Barometer

Transcription

1 2016 Guest Satisfaction Management Barometer Report Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

2 Contents Introduction The Importance of Guest Intelligence Key Findings Methodology Detailed Results of Study - Guest Satisfaction Management - Guest Survey Solutions - Guest Survey Best Practices Profile of Respondents About Us Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

3 Introduction Increasingly, savvy hoteliers are using guest feedback to make operational and service improvements on property to deliver better guest experiences. The way hotels gather feedback is evolving with many choosing to switch to electronic survey solutions. Analysis of ReviewPro data suggests that technology is having a strong impact on the industry, with 60% of hotel survey invite s being read on a mobile device and 40% being answered on one. For the first edition of this industry study, ReviewPro surveyed 2,877 hospitality professionals across the globe to gain a better understanding of how hotels manage guest satisfaction and to identify current trends in the industry related specifically to guest survey management. surveys. Fewer hotels still are actually acting on the direct feedback they receive in a structured and organized way to drive better results. How does your hotel compare? Are you a truly guestcentric organization who knows how to keep guests happy and loyal? Read on to find out more. Guest Intelligence is crucial for hoteliers to determine what guests like and dislike about their stay and to prioritize improvements to exceed expectations. The results of the study indicate that there is huge potential for hotels to further progress in this area and make the most of this valuable opportunity to boost RJ Friedlander guest satisfaction and revenue. CEO, ReviewPro The findings of the report provide valuable insight into the current landscape of guest satisfaction management. 99% of hotels claim to be gathering guest feedback in some way or other but only 51% are using electronic guest RJ Friedlander CEO, ReviewPro Managing Guest Satisfaction 3 Surveys: Best Practices

4 The Importance of Guest Intelligence Guest Intelligence is the in-depth analysis of online reviews and guest satisfaction survey data, which includes both during and post-stay surveys, to provide detailed insight into what guests like and dislike about their stay and to leverage these signals to exceed expectations. By collecting and analyzing guest feedback proactively, hotels can identify what operational and service changes are necessary and implement them in order to increase guest satisfaction and attract more bookings. Hoteliers across the globe leverage ReviewPro Guest Intelligence data in order to: Benchmark themselves against competitors and track performance at corporate and individual property level. Improve their review ranking on TripAdvisor, other review sites and OTAs. Drive increased guest satisfaction and revenue growth. The results of the 2016 Guest Satisfaction Management Barometer indicate that a high proportion of hotels are already highly active when it comes to managing guest feedback. However, there is still significant room for improvement in order for hotels to fully reap the benefits of Guest Intelligence and avoid pitfalls such as missed opportunities and negative reviews. By managing and responding effectively to guest feedback, hotels are able to deliver quality experiences, drive increased guest satisfaction and improve their online reputation. Turn insight into action to deliver operational and service excellence. Managing Guest Satisfaction 4 Surveys: Best Practices

5 Key Findings (1/2) 67% feel that it is difficult to manage feedback across multiple sources 51% are using electronic guest surveys to gather direct feedback Within today s ever more complex environment, hotels are faced with managing guest feedback across multiple sources online, direct sources and in multiple languages. Two thirds of hotels find this difficult to manage, reinforcing the need to have specialized tools to facilitate guest satisfaction management. 41% offer staff incentives / bonuses based on guest satisfaction KPIs Although 85% of hotels use online reviews to measure guest satisfaction, only 51% are gathering valuable direct feedback using guest surveys, meaning that almost half of all hotels are missing out on the power of having all feedback combined in one place. are planning to invest the same or more in guest survey 77% management in 2016 There is discrepancy between what hoteliers feel is When choosing a guest satisfaction survey solution, the important about guest feedback and what they actually top 2 factors hotels take into consideration are: do. All respondents feel that it is important to measure Reporting that identifies operational & service guest satisfaction, but only 57% of hotels actually set improvements easily. and monitor KPIs and only 41% are offering staff The ability to integrate guest survey data & incentives or bonuses based on guest satisfaction KPIs. online reputation analytics in one tool. Managing Guest Satisfaction 5 Surveys: Best Practices

6 Key Findings (2/2) 29% integrate guest survey data 20% with online review analytics integrate guest survey data with CRM software Despite 94% of hotels feeling that it is important to be able to integrate guest survey data with online review analytics, only 29% are actually doing so. It is much more powerful to be able to analyze guest feedback as a whole, whether it be an online review, comment on social media or a response to a survey question. Guest profile information gathered from a guest survey is incredibly rich and therefore valuable for CRM activities but only 1 in 5 hotels are feeding guest survey data into a CRM platform. Flexible platforms, such as ReviewPro, make it easy to integrate guest feedback data with other software, with remarkable results. 33% of electronic guest surveys have 10 questions or less Only 51% are of using hotels the use Net electronic Promoter 23% guest surveys Score to (NPS) gather when direct analyzing feedback. the results of guest surveys The figures show a trend towards shorter guest surveys, This powerful metric is used across a range of industries which tend to increase survey response rate. The new to measure customer satisfaction. With only 23% of generation of online survey solutions, such as that offered hotels using the NPS in their guest surveys, there is an by ReviewPro, provide a Question Logic functionality opportunity for improvement as it is a highly valuable within the survey design to be able to gather detailed metric that can be benchmarked over time. feedback using as few questions as possible. Managing Guest Satisfaction 6 Surveys: Best Practices

7 Methodology For this report, we surveyed 2,877 hoteliers worldwide. All interviews were conducted using an online survey, with an invitation to participate sent by . No incentive was offered to respondents for completing the survey, other than to receive a copy of the results of the study. To ensure the accuracy of the data, we excluded 237 respondents who stated that they did not work at a hotel. All data reported in this study has a base size of more than 1,400 respondents. Fieldwork was carried out between 10th December th January Managing Guest Satisfaction 7 Surveys: Best Practices

8 Guest Satisfaction Management Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

9 How Hotels Measure Guest Satisfaction Which of the following methods do you currently use to measure Guest Satisfaction at your establishment? (please select all that apply) Online reviews / social media 85% Post-stay survey Printed survey / comment card 51% 50% Mystery shopping 23% In-stay survey 14% On-site ipad / kiosk survey Post-stay telephone survey Do not measure Other (please specify) 7% 5% 1% 8% 99% of hotels measure guest satisfaction in some way or other, with feedback from online reviews / social media mentions being by far the most popular method. The second most common method is post-stay surveys but only 14% are using in-stay surveys, which highlights a missed opportunity for hotels. Most relevant for longer stay guests, feedback from in-stay surveys enables hotels to implement a service recovery strategy, reducing negative online reviews. For other, the majority of respondents mentioned personal communication with guests during their stay or at check-out. Other interesting ideas were Whatsapp/text messages and daily random courtesy calls. Managing Guest Satisfaction 9 Surveys: Best Practices

10 Who Manages Guest Satisfaction Which departments are involved in Guest Satisfaction management within your organization? (please select all that apply) Front Desk 81% General Manager 73% Housekeeping & Maintenance Food & Beverage Quality & Operations Sales & Marketing 60% 56% 53% 53% Revenue & Distribution 23% Other (please specify) 10% Not surprisingly, Front Desk is cited most often, as they deal with guest satisfaction on a daily basis. 73% of General Managers are also involved in managing guest satisfaction. Interestingly, many of those who selected other cited all departments, indicating that some organizations have created a guest-centric culture, ensuring that the whole team is focused on improving guest satisfaction. Based on our experience with the hotels we work with, we have seen this to be a highly effective strategy, both for independent hotels and large chains. Managing Guest Satisfaction 10 Surveys: Best Practices

11 What Hoteliers Think about Guest Feedback Here are some statements about guest satisfaction at hotels. Please indicate your level of agreement with each one. Completely agree Somewhat agree Somewhat disagree Completely disagree It is important to measure and monitor guest satisfaction 96% 4% It is important to act on feedback from guests 89% 11% Acting on feedback leads to improved guest satisfaction 84% 14% It is difficult to manage guest feedback across multiple sources 18% 49% 21% 12% Resoundingly, 96% of respondents completely agree that it is important to measure and monitor guest satisfaction. However, fewer hoteliers sense the importance of acting on this feedback or believe that it can lead to improved guest satisfaction. Again, based on our experience, we have seen that having the right Guest Intelligence insights to enable hoteliers to prioritize operational and service improvements, and implement them, does impact guest satisfaction, and improves a hotel s online reputation. 67% feel that it is difficult to manage feedback across multiple sources. Platforms, such as ReviewPro, that integrate online review analytics (from 175+ review sources) and direct feedback from guest surveys, make it much easier and more efficient to do this. Managing Guest Satisfaction 11 Surveys: Best Practices

12 How Guest Feedback Is Used How do you use Guest Satisfaction data within your organization? Implement operation, service & product related improvements Set and monitor evolution of guest satisfaction KPIs Give staff incentives / bonuses based on guest satisfaction KPIs Improve decision-making in revenue management Publish guest feedback on brand.com website Optimize your distribution strategy We do not formally act on this data Other (please specify) 41% 41% 33% 26% 5% 3% 57% 81% Although all respondents in the previous question feel that is it important to act on guest feedback, only 81% are using feedback to implement improvements. Similarly, all respondents feel that it is important to measure guest satisfaction, but only 57% actually set and monitor KPIs. Taking it a step further, 41% of hotels are giving staff incentives or bonuses based on guest satisfaction KPIs. We have seen this strategy used extremely effectively by our clients who have successfully created a guest-centric culture and excel at exceeding guest expectations. With only 4 out of 10 hotels currently doing so, there is also a large potential for more hotels to use guest satisfaction data & analytics to improve decision-making in revenue management. For example, Duetto integrates ReviewPro s GRI TM (online reputation management score) into the dashboard of its Revenue Strategy Solutions. Managing Guest Satisfaction 12 Surveys: Best Practices

13 Guest Survey Solutions Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

14 Usage of Guest Survey Solutions Is your organization currently using an online guest satisfaction survey solution? Yes No No, but we are considering implementing one I don't know 47% of hotels are not using an online guest survey solution to measure guest satisfaction. 38% 9% 2% 51% There is an opportunity for hoteliers to benefit from using such a solution to: Gather valuable direct feedback to drive operational and service improvements. Increase review volume and ranking on TripAdvisor & Google. View and manage all guest feedback (direct and online reviews) in one platform and dashboard. Send in-stay surveys to allow service recovery and reduce negative online reviews. Improve guest satisfaction enabling hotels to increase ADR (average daily rates). Managing Guest Satisfaction 14 Surveys: Best Practices

15 Important Factors When Choosing a Provider How important do you think each of the following criteria listed below are when selecting a provider/solution for Guest Satisfaction Surveys? Very important Somewhat important Not really important Not at all important Reporting that quickly identifies operational & service improvements 78% 19% 2% Ability to integrate guest survey and online reputation analytics in one dashboard 69% 25% 4% Option to drive online reviews to TripAdvisor and other review sites 69% 26% 4% Surveys optimized for mobile devices 64% 28% 7% Flexibility in creating & modifying surveys 60% 34% 5% Ability to be integrated with other systems (CRM, PMS ) 57% 32% 9% Price 55% 39% 5% Ability to publish survey responses to brand.com 40% 39% 17% In line with previous findings, reporting that makes it easy to prioritize improvements comes out as the top factor when choosing a provider. ReviewPro s Advanced Sentiment Analysis as well as customized views, filters, alerts & reporting for different departments help staff focus on the right areas. Interestingly, 69% of hotels feel that it is very important to be able to drive online reviews to TripAdvisor and other review sites whereas only 40% think it is very important to be able to publish survey responses on their own website. We have seen many of the hotels we work with achieve positive results by implementing both these strategies. For example, by using the TripAdvisor Review Collection Programme within ReviewPro surveys, hotels can drive both review volume & recency, two important factors impacting your hotel s ranking on TripAdvisor. Managing Guest Satisfaction 15 Surveys: Best Practices

16 Survey Data Integration with Other Software Is your guest survey data integrated with other systems or software? Yes No Don't use this type of system Don't know Marketing 35% 43% 10% 12% Online Reputation Management (ORM) 29% 40% 16% 15% PMS 25% 50% 11% 14% CRM 20% 47% 17% 16% Business Intelligence 17% 48% 18% 17% Generally speaking, there is very limited integration of guest surveys data with other systems, the most common being marketing with 35%. Only 29% of hotels are combining guest survey data with online review analytics whereas 94% in the previous question felt that it was important to be able to do so. It is crucial to analyze guest feedback as a whole, whether it be an online review, comment on social media or a response to a survey question. Sentiment Analysis becomes much more powerful and relevant when applied across multiple sources of feedback, helping to prioritize where action is required to make improvements. Guest profile information gathered from a guest survey is incredibly rich and therefore valuable for CRM activities but only 20% of hotels are feeding guest survey data into a CRM platform. We have seen this to be highly effective. For example, through an integration with ReviewPro, our client Red Lion Hotels synchronizes guest survey data with their CRM system Serenata Intraware. Managing Guest Satisfaction 16 Surveys: Best Practices

17 Planned Investment in Guest Survey Management Looking at 2016, is your organization planning to invest more, about the same or less in guest survey management than in 2015? More About the same Less I don t know 77% of hotels are planning to invest the same or more in guest survey management in 2016, reinforcing the importance that hoteliers are giving to guest satisfaction. Our experience working with forwardthinking hoteliers shows that hotels who dedicate resources to guest satisfaction improvement are seeing a positive impact on results. 4% 19% 25% It s important to note that it is not just about investing in a tool. It s about creating a guest-centric culture across the entire organization, which entails the following steps: 52% 1. Actionable insight for operational/service improvements 2. Process changes 3. Involving key stakeholders 4. Setting goals 5. Taking action 6. Measuring performance & reporting Managing Guest Satisfaction 17 Surveys: Best Practices

18 Guest Survey Best Practices Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

19 Number of Questions per Survey How many questions do your guest surveys have? The figures show a trend towards shorter guest surveys, with 64% of surveys having 20 questions or less and only 11% having more than 30 questions. I don't know > % 6% 14% Reducing the number of questions tends to increase survey response rate and survey completion rate. This has two advantages: More feedback & engagement from guests. More opportunities to increase online review volume % 31% 33% The new generation of online survey solutions, such as ReviewPro, offer a Question Logic functionality within the survey design. Question logic (a combination of scale multiple choice, true/false and text box questions) is critical to gather detailed feedback with as few questions as possible. By using this option, you only need to ask questions that are relevant to each guest and can drill down to truly understand why guests are satisfied or not. Managing Guest Satisfaction 19 Surveys: Best Practices

20 Survey Response Rates What is the average response rate you get to guest surveys by ? (# of responses divided by # of s successfully delivered) I don t know 32% > 30% 11% 26-30% 21-25% 5% 6% 16-20% 11-15% 9% 11% 6-10% 5% 13% 15% Only 16% of hotels are achieving a response rate to guest surveys of more than 25%. Furthermore, 28% of hotels have a response rate of 10% or less. How can hotels increase survey response rate? Craft a compelling subject line & personalize your Implement an effective survey design strategy Prioritize mobile Monitor completion rates and adjust as necessary Obtaining the highest percentage of correct addresses from guests is crucial to maximize the sample size of your guest feedback. This is discussed in more detail on the next slide. Managing Guest Satisfaction 20 Surveys: Best Practices

21 Collection Rates For what percentage of your guests do you manage to collect a valid address? I don't 13% >50% 38% 41% - 50% 12% 31% - 40% 21% - 30% 11% - 20% 6% - 10% 5% 9% 9% 7% 6% 5% Only 38% of hotels manage to collect a valid address for more than half of their guests. As a reference, a number of our clients are successfully collecting more than 70% of non-group addresses. How can hotels improve collection rate and quality? Put in place clear processes and tracking to increase the volume and quality of addresses that you capture. Train your staff to be aware of the importance of collecting correct s. Incentivize them by setting collection rate objectives with small rewards, making sure you communicate and share the results within your organization in order to build awareness and motivation. Managing Guest Satisfaction 21 Surveys: Best Practices

22 Net Promoter Score (NPS) Do you use the Net Promoter Score (NPS) when analyzing the results of your guest surveys? Yes No I don't know Other (please specify) 1% The Net Promoter Score (NPS) is a metric based on one simple question: How likely are you to recommend this business to a friend or colleague?. Customers are asked to answer this question on a scale of 0 to 10 in a survey. This powerful metric is used across a range of industries to measure customer satisfaction. 28% 23% With only 23% of hotels using the NPS in their guest surveys, there is an opportunity for improvement as it is a highly valuable metric that can be benchmarked over time. With a powerful guest survey solution, it is possible to monitor its evolution and compare guest satisfaction performance of individual properties within a hotel group. 48% With survey tools offering a Question Logic functionality, it is possible to drill down to understand why guests would not recommend your hotel and take the necessary follow-up action. Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices 22

23 Profile Of Respondents Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

24 Respondent Profile In what region are you primarily based? Europe North America 41% 12% 5% Latin America 7% Africa 6% Middle East Asia Pacific 29% How many hotels are there in your group? What is the star rating of your hotel? 23% 42% 26% 3% 1% 5% % 28% 15% 9% 6% 6% 24 Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices

25 About Us ReviewPro is the leading provider of Guest Intelligence solutions to independent hotel brands worldwide. The company s comprehensive suite of cloud-based solutions includes Online Reputation Management (ORM) and the Guest Survey Solution (GSS), which enable clients to obtain a deeper understanding of reputation performance as well as operational/service strengths and weaknesses. We provide actionable insight to increase guest satisfaction, rankings on review sites/otas and ultimately revenue. Visit our Resource Hub The Leading Source of Guest Intelligence best practices and content for the hospitality industry The company offers the industry-standard Global Review Index TM (GRI), an online reputation score, which is used by thousands of hotels worldwide as a benchmark for reputation management efforts, based on review data collected from +175 online travel agencies (OTAs) and review sites in more than 45 languages. More than 25,000 hotel brands worldwide are currently using ReviewPro s solutions. Learn More Request a Free ReviewPro Demo now Managing Guest Satisfaction 25 Surveys: Best Practices

26 Managing Guest Satisfaction Surveys: Best Practices