How satisfied are your guests and customers – What impact does it create on your company’s profits? How do you measure it?
Guesswork and hunches will not help in understanding customer satisfaction levels. You need proof and valid data to consistently and regularly measure and monitor customer satisfaction. You need a customer satisfaction system which helps you study customer satisfaction levels and help plan changes and re-alignments to provide best experience and service in the competitive market.
What’s the need for measuring Guest / Customer Satisfaction?
Profitability at hotels is directly tied to customer satisfaction and employee satisfaction. The whole concept of customer satisfaction boils down to just one thing – if your customers are happy, they tend to be loyal which helps in retention of customers. And if they’re loyal and regular they not only visit the hotel and its other branches more but they refer other customers as well.
Research has proven that hotels lose business opportunities and competitive advantage due to unsatisfied customers. A good Customer/ Guest Feedback system can help continuously measure customer satisfaction and identify deficiencies and areas for improvement.
This need is documented in a well-established research by Bain & Company which is applicable in all customer based organizations and businesses wherein, an increase of 5% in customer retention can increase profits by 25% to 95%. The same study found that it costs six to seven times more to gain a new customer than to keep an existing one (Source: Bain & Company study in Harvard Business Review, 2001).
In the present world it is known that one bad experience of customer/guest can outweigh a whole lot of good experience and excellent service. That bad experience can be easily shared and broadcast to thousands of prospective and existing customers, magnifying its effect leading to a disastrous impact. The availability of online communities and review practices amplifies this effect. So if your hotel is not providing the best of services and experience and is leading to unsatisfied customers, chances are that these will soon become widely known and will influence future bookings.
It is imperative that any such short comings are quickly identified and acted upon. Customer satisfaction and experience at the hotel must be monitored and analyzed regularly to provide the hotel administration with factual data to improvise and provide better and world class service every time.
How can a Guest/Customer satisfaction system add value to your hotel?
A good hotel feedback system can be critical to a hotel being able to use measurement of customer satisfaction and guest satisfaction as a key tool to assess and encourage performance from its operating teams and people. Customer satisfaction reports can also be a good way to promote and publicize a hotel’s special care for it guests and customers.
Hotels are getting more receptive to the feelings that their guests and customers convey to them and this sensitivity is being used in a constructive way to foster better performance from the operating divisions and people in the hotel. This is also a means to build better brand loyalties through the publication of customer satisfaction indices.
How will the Guest/Customer feedback system help distinguish the feedback provided?
A good hotel feedback system should be able to capture the exact feelings that the guest has about the experience that he or she has had with the hotel and ideally this should be just after checkout or use of the facilities. For instance if feedback from the hotel’s restaurant is taken just after the meal this is likely to be more accurate than if it is taken a couple of weeks later.
A good hotel feedback system must be able to analyze the feedback that the guest provides and translate these into intelligent and comprehensive reports that give hotel management a summary of the overall guest satisfaction that it commands. The reports must be able to drill down to show individual areas of satisfaction and performance and further display individuals among hotel staff who can be encouraged to give their best for the satisfaction of their guests.
I personally am in favor of using the reports that a good hotel feedback system can generate for the appraisal and reward of employee performance in the hotel. I have seen this work very well in some leading hotels and when applied intensively, it results in an increase in staff morale and showcases higher levels of performance and guest satisfaction.
A good hotel feedback system can therefore be more than just a measure of customer satisfaction. It can be an integral component of the human resources policy and operations of a hotel. It can also be an effective component in the marketing and brand management programme of the hotel.
Posts Tagged ‘Satisfaction’
How a Good Feedback System Can Help a Hotel Assess Customer Satisfaction and Encourage Performance
Posted in Workflow Management 
Tags: Assess, Customer, Encourage, feedback, Good, Help, Hotel, Performance, Satisfaction, System 
Comments OffCustomer Satisfaction through Hosted CRM Software System
If you look for one you will find thousands of them – CRM systems. With wide range of CRM software sytem solutions avilable in the market it becomes difficult for one to choose a software for his business. The punch lines and features of them try to confuse a common buyer who are not that much technical sound in software features. Actually the CRM software system you need depends on the type of your business and needs. Here are few major players of CRM systems who have surpasses the expectations of customers thereby satisfying them to the most. They are the leaders of the CRM solution. Have a look at them and get the one which suits your needs.
Oracle: Oracle is a brand name for CRM solutions for marketing, sales, contracts, ecommerce, service and other types of industry/businesses. Oracle Customer Relationship Management software has excellent storage capacity, features to streamline business and improve the quality of customer relationship management. When it comes to functionality hardly can other brand surpass its CRM systems! It provides the best of kind of support for CRM and unquestionably supports office operations like finance, supply chain, personnel and features.
Salesforce: This is another name of reliability when it comes to CRM software system. Salesforce basically caters to the needs of customers and the brand offers wonderful incorporation with all types of CRM business functions. Their CRM systems are tremendously flexible, suit organization needs and perfectly adaptable. The brand is indeed a holistic and integrated approach to CRM.
RightNow: RightNow CRM software system is built on knowledge, skill and experience and its service accounts for brilliant customer approach. This is an exceptional CRM software solution. It will help you manage cut down your cost and at the same time it will increase profitability.
The other reliable CRM systems in the market that can be installed for your business either small or large is – Siebel, SAP, and to name a few. Actually the choice of CRM systems entirely depends on the need of the organization. Read the features of a system before you buy one.
Posted in Workflow Management Tags: Customer, Hosted, Satisfaction, Software, System, through Comments OffIT Help Desk Surveys and IT Customer Satisfaction Surveys Boost IT Performance
Problems IT Help Desk customers frequently encounter
Whether your organization has an in-house or outsourced IT Help Desk, some of your IT Help Desk customers are likely dissatisfied with the service they are receiving. Some of the common causes of dissatisfaction with IT Help Desks include:
1. Rude Help Desk Service Reps.
2. Long wait times when calling the Help Desk or after submitting a service request by e-mail or using a Help Desk Web portal or ticket system
3. CSR’s that don’t understand their customers’ problems
4. Closing IT incident tickets before problems are resolved
5. Lack of follow-up by IT Help Desk CSR’s
6. IT customers confronted with recurring problems for which the cause never gets addressed or eliminated
7. Inadequately trained IT Help Desk Service Reps that lack knowledge needed to solve problems
8. IT customers having to explain their problem or question to multiple CSR’s and IT technicians
9. IT customers having to wait a long time for Help Desk problem resolution, hardware repairs, software installation, and other IT support provided at their desk or by phone/e-mail
10. IT Help Desks not being staffed when customers need support (nights, weekends)
11. IT Help Desks having CSRs with difficulty communicating with IT customers in English (e.g. IT Help Desks often outsourced in other countries)
Assessing IT Customer Satisfaction and IT Performance
The best way to assess IT Help Desk customer satisfaction and IT Help Desk performance is to conduct an “IT customer satisfaction survey”.
An IT customer survey gathers IT customer / IT user perceptions, experiences and suggestions about IT Help Desk performance, along with the performance of other IT services. The collective information and insight provided by IT customers provides IT Help Desk and other IT managers with the ammunition they need to make changes to increase service levels and customer satisfaction.
In a well designed IT survey, IT customers indicate their satisfaction level with the in-house or outsourced IT Help Desk and with the other IT support services including Desk Side Support, Application Support, Network Support and any other IT services. IT customers also include comments and suggestions related to the specific issues included in the survey questions.
The IT survey should include questions about IT CSR knowledge, problem handling and resolution effectiveness, CSR courtesy and professionalism, timeliness in actually contacting the Help Desk, timeliness in getting problems resolved, ability of Help Desk CSRs to understand the customer’s problem, follow-up by CSRs and other pertinent questions.
To achieve the best results, IT survey responses should be anonymous. IT customers are more likely to respond to IT surveys and to provide honest feedback when they know their responses are anonymous, eliminating any chance of retribution from IT staff if negative ratings and comments are given.
Most organizations that conduct “IT Help Desk surveys” conduct the surveys annually or semi-annually, using the same questions in every survey. Some organizations do a great job of taking action based on the survey results, while other organizations take minimal action. When we conduct IT Help Desk surveys for our customer companies and other types of organizations, we provide them with trend reports that track progress in addressing problem areas and opportunities needing improvement. Help Desk managers receive survey data that identifies areas of strength and weakness, where improvements have been made since previous surveys, and where Help Desk customer satisfaction levels have decreased.
Most IT Help Desk customers respond to surveys with the expectation that their feedback will be taken into consideration and acted upon. When IT Help Desk managers take action on survey results and Help Desk performance and service levels are visibly improved, IT customers are more likely to respond to future surveys.
Important IT Help Desk survey design and survey execution issues:
1. Asking the right questions and wording them effectively.
2. Making IT survey responses anonymous. IT Help Desk customers are more likely to respond to IT surveys and to provide honest answers when an outside survey company conducts the survey and they are comfortable that their responses will be anonymous.
3. Including IT customer demographic questions (location, department and other pertinent demographic information), and generating survey reports for each demographic criterion.
4. Providing the opportunity to include comments and suggestions along with ratings.
5. Encouraging participation in the survey.
6. Sharing the survey results with IT Help Desk customers and IT Help Desk employees.
7. Acting on the survey results.
8. Conducting the survey annually, semi-annually or quarterly and tracking IT Help Desk customer satisfaction and IT Help Desk performance progress.
Acting to increase IT Help Desk Customer satisfaction and IT Help Desk performance
Some of the actions that CTOs, CIOs, IT Help Desk managers and other IT managers can take to increase Help Desk service levels and customer satisfaction include:
1. Providing training and mentoring for IT Help Desk CSRs in how to handle customer calls, problem handling and resolution, acting professionally, technology knowledge, IT customer follow-up and other pertinent issues.
2. Identifying and managing IT Help Desk customer expectations for service.
3. Establishing and communicating SLAs (service level agreements or standards) to Help Desk CSRs and IT Help Desk customers.
4. Ensuring that Help Desk CSR hiring practices are effective in hiring the right people to staff the IT Help Desk.
5. Staffing and scheduling the IT Help Desk to provide consistently high levels of customer service based on IT customer demand for service.
6. Identifying and eliminating recurring technology problems.
7. Streamlining the IT environment.
8. Providing effective IT Desk Side and Application support.
9. Having an effective IT Help Desk ticket tracking system, managing ticket ageing to keep the backlog minimal, and ensuring that tickets are not closed prematurely, before problems are resolved completely and effectively.
10. Sharing IT survey results with IT Help Desk staff and other IT employees, enabling them to understand how IT customers perceive the effectiveness of IT Help Desk and other IT functions.
11. Creating an action plan to address the issues and opportunities identified by the IT survey and tracking implementation of actions/changes made to increase IT customer satisfaction and service levels.
Reasons to conduct IT Help Desk Surveys
Conducting IT Help Desk surveys and other IT customer satisfaction surveys / IT user satisfaction surveys is well worth the effort. When designed and executed well, with effective analysis of the survey data and timely action taken on opportunities, IT survey benefits include:
1. Significant increases in IT Help Desk service levels and customer satisfaction
3. Improvements in performance of the IT Help Desk and other IT functions
4. Decreased cost of delivering IT Help Desk and other IT services as they become more efficient and recurring problems are reduced or eliminated
5. Increased service levels for your company’s external customers as employees are able to perform their job more effectively as a result of improved IT Help Desk performance
6. Reduced pressure on CIO’s, CTO’s, IT Help Desk and other IT managers as IT customer satisfaction increases
Posted in Workflow Management Tags: Boost, Customer, Desk, Help, Performance, Satisfaction, Surveys Comments Off