How can you exceed guest expectations with creative solutions?

Know your guest and collaborate. More often when we seek solutions for customer service we reflect back on trends, training guidelines and grouping customers according to their demographics. Rather a better and more effective way towards creative solutions would be to host empathy interviews with your customers and pool the feedback. You will be surprised that your customers are looking for solutions you never thought were important to them. Now pool this feedback with a group of your team members with varied age, rank, gender, experience and brainstorm creative customer solutions. Prototype them and watch them come to life.

In today's market, customers are more price-sensitive than ever before, but they also look for valuable experiences. People buy products or services to feel a certain way, and it's not enough to provide just service, food, and drink. Clients want to be transported to dimensions of happiness where unforgettable memories are made. Customers pay for the extraordinary and the memories that come with it. In the end, there is only one boss: the customer. And he can fire everyone in the company from the chairman on down simply by spending their money somewhere else. Being proactive is a key to success in the hospitality industry.

In my experience (working for a guest feedback data company) the best way to improve is exactly this.. Knowing your guests and understanding if they had a good/average/bad experience will allow you to communicate with them appropriately via email or in person during their next visit. You can categorize guests using the metric of NPS (Net Promoter Score) using companies like Yumpingo to gather feedback on the menu items the guests liked, did not like and why.

Training is an important part when it comes to customer service. The employees need to be equipped with the right skill set to complete their part in the customer journey effectively and communication

Exceeding guest expectations involves anticipating needs and providing unexpected, personalized experiences. Offer surprise upgrades, personalized amenities, or exclusive services aligned with individual preferences. Implement innovative technologies for seamless experiences, create unique packages, and consistently seek feedback to tailor offerings. Empower staff to go above and beyond, ensuring genuine interactions that leave a lasting positive impression.

In my experience, this is one of the most crucial points when it comes to customer journey. This is the bridge between customer experience to customer delight. It’s these anticipated needs of the guest which when filled leaves an indelible mark on their journey. There are several ways that you can go ahead and anticipate the guests’ needs but you need to listen actively to deliver these unexpressed wishes and needs of the guests.

Just be there for their demands and preferences that's personalized guest service and above the expectation , And you will be all the way up in market

Reading these clues, picking up on spoken and unspoken words, and understanding their significance requires skill. While PMS and POS can provide us with certain information, it is the micro details we observe that can truly elevate experiences from great to wow. However, achieving this level of excellence requires intention and intrinsic motivation from the team delivering it. The more they experience the positive impact of making others feel the difference, the more motivated they become to continue doing it. Therefore, it is crucial to anticipate, but the real art lies in sustaining this spirit.

That's true but how we can really anticipate their needs . The best way is by engaging with them , taking the time to talk with them before their arrival and during their stay to get to know them we'll and this will make it easier to anticipate their needs

Most reservation systems have a way to log guest preferences. Hotels and luxury brands have been doing this for years. If you know a guest always orders white wine (from POS data linked to reservation data) then have some chilled amazing wine on their table when they arrive.

With my previous work experience, I follow the hathard of critical of control points to avoid the problem of operation, and train my team as well, so we can running a professional operating system for our customers and and rich the top of expectations of our Meangament

Solving problem is not enough. In solving guest or customer problem timeliness is important. Slow response times can cost companies trust and loyalty from customers, leading to frustration and doubt. Poor customer service can lead to lost customers and a bad reputation. Quick guests resolution will lead into a high rates of repeat guests or customers.

Share your vision of hospitality daily! Challenge your team to identify new ways to make guests feel CARE, Cared For, Appreciated, and Respected at Every day. Imagine in detail the glorious reviews you want to earn, and strive to be the team that inspires such 5-Stars! Invite your team to join you on a journey of caring collaboration and continuous improvement. Encourage them to share their observations as to where guests' pain points are. Ensure the team knows you truly welcome their ideas and creativity. Team members must feel sharing problems and ideas is celebrated. Continually invite them to speak openly and give them credit when progress is made. Discuss reviews and have fun using feedback to find inspiration for daily improvement.

One more important tip! Don't just handle the problem for the one person in front of you. Fix it for all future guests who will have that same problem if you don't deal with the root cause of the issue. It may be a process issue, a communication issue, an empowerment or training issue, or a product issue. Sometimes, it is just a mindset issue because the team doesn't know that their #1 goal is to make guests happy so they return tell all their friends, and share their experience with the world on social media and review sites.

Pay attention to details. The more you obsess about the small things the more you will impress your clients. And they will become your biggest fans and tell everyone about it!

Genuine human connection goes a long way. All we need is instead of training , educating the staffs. It is powerful and teach them to think so they can be versatile in any given circumstance.

Delivering on basic expectations is what the guests anticipates. After all, that is what they are paying for. They expect a friendly staff, clean room with everything in working order and a hot breakfast, because that is what they are paying for. Exceeding the guests expectation exists in the unexpected. What ever personalized service you can provide outside of the basic expectations they are paying for, will win them over. They're not expecting it. This is where guests are won and loyalty is gained.

I had my teams in every department submit a list of all the little magical things they do to light guests' faces up with smiles and twinkling eyes. We compiled everyone's beautiful ideas for hospitality and shared them one by one at morning meetings and huddles. They loved having their tips shared and learning what our other hotels were doing to "sparkle sunshine" on our guests. And you know what happened? We had all four NYC properties ranked in the top four spots in NYC in a row. It worked like magic and the teams were all so proud of their accomplishments!

Setting clear boundaries while encouraging the staff to be creative and take risks in surprising guests not only fosters loyalty but also ensures a memorable and distinctive guest experience. This blend of data-driven personalization and staff empowerment creates a dynamic environment where exceeding guest expectations becomes not just a goal but a consistent reality.

But do it in a way that actually helps to get to the root cause of the problem (AND FIX IT). So many business focus entirely on 'Apology Marketing' and closing the loop on guest feedback they forget to measure the issues and prioritize fixes. 70% of first time guests never come back - how you handle complaints drastically affects repeat visits. Do not solely rely on third party review sites - ask your guests directly for anonymous feedback and prioritize the issues that align to negative scores.

Customer or guests feedback gives you insight into their satisfaction levels. Customer or guest satisfaction is how happy customers are with your products, services, and any interaction with your business. It's an important metric as it helps you address customer issues, prevent churn, and build a base of loyal customers.

When it comes to service recovery, it is important to remind your team that the guest is of value to many people, not just the hotel. That guest in front of you is someone's Mother, Father, Brother, Sister, Partner, Spouse, Son, or Daughter. They are valued by many. If they were yours, what would you want for them?

Training is an important part when it comes to customer service. The employees needs to be equipped with the right skill set to complete their part in the customer journey effectively and efficiently.

Your staff are the most important part of your business. People never forget an excellent service. It’s your responsibility to highlight this to the team and make them feel they are the reason for customers to return.

Training staff to match and exceed service expectations is undoubtedly vital. It has direct impact on NPS. This how we can measure it. but, one potential drawback lies in the oversight of continuous training programs is while manuals, checklists, and coaching contribute to initial competence evolving industry standards and changing guest preferences require ongoing learning. Without regular updates and refreshers, staff might inadvertently fall behind. For instance, consider the impact of overlooking training on emerging technologies – a hotel's guest experience could suffer if staff isn't well-versed in the latest innovations. I once checked in a hotel and curtain wasn't working with the remote. room attendant didn't have the know how.

Many businesses invest in employee training because it can increase staff motivation, improve productivity and the quality of work. Employees who are trained are more likely to have a long-term commitment to their employer, as well as perform better at work.

There are very few hotels that handle reviews properly. Those who do it right are beloved by their guests who are happy to stay more often, pay more because they love the experience, and say more glorious things about the hotels online. Your reviews make revenue generation easier or more difficult depending on what they say. Don't pass it on to a staff member to cut and paste cliches. Earnestly work with your team to find opportunities to change and be a bit better every day than you were yesterday. Solve to prevent friction points from recurring. You have the power to build a stellar reputation by sharing responses that detail the actions you have taken to resolve the service defects. People admire authenticity and leadership in action.

Simply put "To sell James Smith what James Smith buys, you have to see things through James Smith's eyes". If every sales person has been able to identify the needs of the customer and then look at enhancing the experience of delivering beyond the mere need, you have a loyal customer.

As a hotelier and a traveller as well, we are looking for a life experience in every trip, and that’s why guesthouses and Airbnb are thriving as they provide unique experience to guests and that “ Less is More” Feedback, surveys, scorecards and all hotels tools to know the guest are good, but to exceed expectations , we need to provide more by giving less. For example : focus on the friendly welcome rather than the protocol of check in “personalize in all directions” and let the guest BE at ease.

Expectation is an anticipation of what could happen and it’s occurrence or non occurrence triggers emotional responses. Firstly it’s imp to understand this. So next time we claim to be creating a special experience we need to ask ourselves if we have understood the emotion the guest needs to be fulfilled. For which it is key to understand our guest.

Using guest feedback to improve the experience is fundamental in growing sales. If a hospitality business focuses on growing their NPS (net promoter score) by just one point this can have a 1.5% increase in sales.