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One of the areas most under scrutiny from guests currently is, and will increasingly be, safety, and in particular, how well a venue manages to make guests feel safe whilst still delivering a great experience. The most important factor for guests right now is to feel safe when they're visiting a site - whether it's a restaurant, pub, café, hotel or other hospitality venue.
If customers don't feel secure, it's almost guaranteed that they won't be back to that particular establishment. But the same goes for a lack of great service - customers still want a warm greeting, (worst case we've heard - the host was pointing at a QR code on the wall) a friendly and welcoming atmosphere and excellent quality product. It should be Safety & Experience, not Safety or Experience.
Conversely, what if the atmosphere in a premise is too clinical, or safety measures have overtaken the experiential? How do operators know if they've gone too far? To complicate matters, there is no objective truth in where the perfect balance lies, and customers' opinions will vary greatly, depending factors such as age, health, risk-aversity and circumstance, so the trusty 'gut-feeling' will only take operators so far.
At HGEM, we believe the answer to this conundrum is cold, hard data. The only way to understand what your customers want, without asking every single one, is to actively measure guest experience both from a subjective (customer feedback) and objective (audits / mystery visits) viewpoint. The gathered data will allow managers / business owners to identify problem areas, make evidence-backed decisions for improvement and monitor whether implemented changes are having the desired effect. In short, data will empower operators to build a cycle of continuous improvement, to enhance the guest experience, and grow revenue as a result. This principle, of course, should be applied to all areas of the guest experience, and not just safety - but in the current political-economic climate, it's the place to start.
Our newest assessment module - Covid Experience Audits - helps hospitality companies achieve a balance between safety and guest experience, and supports operators' decision-making with the aim of enhancing and perfecting the customer experience in the long term. The audits also help businesses ensure all the legal safety requirements are met, and in case of an incident, our assessment reports help demonstrate due diligence to the authorities. We can help you define and monitor what you expect from your teams, keeping you trading and growing.
Key features:
- Monitor key standards to keep you safe and legal
- Experiential impact feedback on new measures
- Photo evidence to help with training
- Measure success in recognising sales opportunities
The long and the short of it is, happy guests return, and they tell their friends all about the amazing experience they've just had. Businesses that actively measure, and act upon, guest experience data can expect an increase in visits and customer loyalty, which in turn boosts revenue. Our assessments can also identify areas of improvement, or whether an opportunity was missed - for example, are your staff are upselling desserts at the end of the meal as you'd expect?
We conducted a study with a number of clients, and discovered that in the 12 months following implementation of our programme:
So, in summary, there is a proven correlation between measuring and improving guest experience, customer satisfaction, and income. Our friendly team at HGEM would love to discuss how we could help grow your business.
