In today’s social media driven world, anyone can share their hotel experience online. In fact, on many travel sites, the number of “stars” given to a hotel is no longer awarded by professional critics, but by the guests themselves.
This means hotels need to work harder to ensure a hotel experience goes smoothly to prevent any negative online reviews in the first place. However, sometimes mistakes do happen and we know that guests are much more apt to put their negative experience online than a positive one.
The best way to immediately mitigate the problem is for employees to address it head-on in a manner that is highly positive. Hotel guests can become easily angered when a problem arises and it is not managed with respect.
Here are the three simple steps that hotel employees can do to mitigate a problem:
- Respond with sympathy
- Apologize
- Correct the issue
These three actions should be ingrained in any good marketing plan in order to ensure a hotel’s good reputation is maintained.
Although good customer service starts with hiring the right people, it goes deeper then that. An employee needs to feel valued and empowered, which starts at the top of the organization.
Fortunately, new tools are emerging that provide a “frictionless guest experience,” which improves reviews and loyalty overall. These new innovations also empower guests to interact with hotel brands in customized ways. In addition, as we have highlighted before, it will fully counter any bad reviews that may come about on the Internet.
Mistakes happen. We are after all, human. But how we respond matters tremendously. Start by hiring good people, train them with the right attitude for fixing problems and make sure they have the power to correct an issue without having to always go to the top.
By treating employees well and embracing the latest guest satisfaction innovations, hoteliers will be more armed in dealing with guest problems, which will translate into long-term brand loyalty.