Obtaining feedback : Does it irritate, or is it too late?You are about to check out from the hotel after a night’s stay when you are approached by a member of the hotel’s staff enquiring about your experience. Let’s assume it turned out to be mostly positive with just a few issues here and there. On the other hand, if your stay was marred with several negative factors, there’s not much the hotel can do at that time, except perhaps learn and improve from your feedback, or, as is most often is the case, vaguely promise to make your next stay a better one.
As you leave the hotel, you ask yourself ‘why couldn’t they have requested for my feedback during my stay without leaving it too late?’ Having spent 22-hours in the hotel, you find it hard to believe that no one asked about your stay - until during the final stage of your ‘900 minute moments’ (and that’s excluding the 420 minutes sleep time), in that hotel?
You will be surprised to learn that most hotels typically ‘short circuit’ the process and ask customers for feedback only at the end of their stay. The tendency to ask guests about their experience at departure time is a ‘hangover’ from the past, when guest feedback predominantly occurred (and still does), via the ‘pen and paper’ approach via comment cards or feedback forms left in guest rooms.
No property can operate efficiently without hearing back from those whose feedback means the most - its guests. Hearing what guests have to say about their experience is vital to any property's operations, since it provides; insight into areas where things can be improved upon, where investment is needed, and where guest expectations are unmet, met or exceeded.
Prevention is better than cure! Timely feedback obtained during the guest stay will provide operators the opportunity to resolve situations before they become reviews. By enabling guests to address concerns directly, they will often feel that their feedback is being taken seriously, feel empowered and will be less inclined to publicly ‘air’ their anger or dissatisfaction on TripAdvisor. Guest feedback can also help you to engage with your guests on another measure - a ‘get to know your guest’ level.
When is it a good time to seek feedback from guests during their stay in the hotel? Asking guests for feedback at every moment can be annoying; waiting until they are almost leaving is too late. At arrival…for sure, but there are other moments that add to the total sum of the guest’s experience during his or hers customer journey. Asking guests at arrival can help resolve negatives encountered during the booking phase. Another unobtrusive door to ‘open’ feedback is when the guest logs onto the hotel’s Wi-Fi, and as per a study done recently, 65% of guests log on within seven minutes of arriving.
As a standard of operation (SOP) some hotel brands require front desk staff, to place a courtesy call to the guests’ room, shortly after they have entered the room, to check if their impression of the room meshes with their expectations and if there are anything that they want to give feedback on. Knowing the right time to call is vital. Calling too soon like just when the guest is about to enter the room can frustrate the purpose of the exercise.
Other times to seek feedback are when guests are at the hotel bar – especially when on their own, during breakfast or when leaving the restaurant. A request for feedback before checkout is an opportunity for the guest to leave any final comments or suggestions at that final moment of the customer journey. Ultimately, the choice about when and how often to ask for feedback should be determined by each hotel, knowledge of guests’ preferences and the type of service offered by the individual hotel.
Shafeek Wahab – Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka
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