Mr. Ely

Guest Service / Customer Experience Mgmt

The Importance of Creating Legendary Customer Experiences

By John Ely, Senior Vice President of Marketing, Signature Worldwide

A new trend is shaping customer service, and it goes well beyond simply providing what guests expect. Today, customer service is being measured against a guest's experience in total - all of your guest's interactions with your company, your facilities, your products, your services and, most importantly, your people.

While customer experience has fast become the industry's new buzz phrase, most are still having a difficult time differentiating between good customer service and a legendary customer experience. The following story helps separate the two.

In my previous job, I was responsible for a project that involved bringing the company's 200 largest clients to the corporate office to get to know the senior management, tour our facilities and learn more about our new products. As part of the tour, I brought the guests in a day early and took them out for a nice dinner with our senior managers.

On the surface, the mere scheduling seemed daunting. Each of our clients would send multiple representatives, and I scheduled up to four clients on any particular tour. Also, I had as many as five or six colleagues joining us for dinner, which meant I was responsible for more than 50 corporate dinners that included anywhere from 12 to 20 people.

For my own sanity, I created a rotation of four restaurants. The first round of dinners went just as planned. All of the restaurants served fantastic food, had great atmospheres and offered quick and attentive service. For all practical reasons, I was completely satisfied. Then came my second trip to the first restaurant in the rotation, which made clear the difference (and value) in creating a legendary customer experience versus simply satisfying me.

Upon entering the host said, "Welcome back Mr. Ely, we're glad to see you again. The last time you were here, we noticed you had a large party, and it seemed to be business related." The host went on to say, "I saw on the reservation that you had a party of 15 tonight, so I reserved one of our small banquet rooms for you at no extra charge. I thought this would create a better atmosphere."

I was immediately impressed. Not only did the host remember my name, he remembered the circumstances of my last visit. He had even made arrangements to ensure this latest "experience" was even better.

The exceptional service didn't stop with the host. Once we were taken to the banquet room, I noticed a small table that featured a variety of wines. "I hope you don't mind, but last week I noticed you ordered different wines before, during and after dinner, and instead of just providing a wine list, we've set up a selection of the chef's wine recommendations," the server explained.

At that point, my appreciation grew further, and the staff continued to wow me throughout my entire experience. Obviously we had a fantastic dinner, and all of my clients were very impressed. The experience at this restaurant went well beyond great food. The restaurant staff made me look good in front of important clients. Before the next group of clients arrived, I instructed my staff to forget the rotation and book every party at this restaurant.

Experience versus satisfaction - does it matter? It absolutely does. Because the restaurant staff did the unexpected, they earned my business on the next 45 client dinners, which had a collective tab of $122,500.

As a hotel owner or executive, you surely understand the importance of quality customer service and probably do a good job of satisfying your guests. You also know that loyal customers are likely to return more often, spend more money and tell their friends about your hotel. However, new research into customer behavior proves customers who are merely satisfied aren't particularly loyal.

A survey from the Harvard Business Review found that 65 to 80 percent of "ex-customers" reported being satisfied with a company they left. So if even satisfied customers are likely to leave when a more convenient or affordable option presents itself, what can you do to keep them?

The answer, according to CEM (Customer Experience Management) thought leaders, is to look past product, price and location to focus completely on creating emotional experiences at every customer touchpoint. Unlike CRM (Customer Relationship Management) which provides applications for gathering quantitative data about your customer, CEM focuses on qualitative components - the emotional responses of a customer.

Giving every client a magnificent experience is certainly not new in the hotel industry, but managing the customer experience so that every single client loves every single aspect of your hotel requires more than fancy amenities. It requires a unique commitment and a systematic, company-wide approach to excellence that makes it virtually impossible for employees to deliver anything less than an exceptional experience at every turn.

Commitment to CEM starts with a different way of looking at satisfaction and loyalty. While many managers conduct customer surveys, they often view the results too positively. Successful CEM managers know that customer satisfaction isn't a goal - it's a necessity. They know there is very little connection between mere satisfaction and true customer loyalty, so they set higher standards and analyze data much differently.

Once you establish CEM as the top priority of your hotel, it's important to build a three-step system that helps every member of your team deliver consistently exceptional experiences.

The first step is working with the clients who love you most to identify the ideal customer experience. Through market research, focus groups or simply old-fashioned conversations, find out what your staff is doing to regularly create those emotional bonds. What you learn will help you build the ideal hotel experience, one that's full of things your best clients can't get enough of.

Next, compare that ideal to the way your people are working today. Regular customer surveys and mystery shops can help you evaluate employee behaviors and the impressions those behaviors leave. You may even want to focus on a net promoter score. This concept developed by loyalty business model expert Fred Reichheld is designed to find those customers who are evangelists for your hotel. Based on a 10-point scale, when these clients are asked how likely they are to recommend your hotel to a friend or colleague, they answer nine or 10, with 10 being the most likely to recommend. If those survey results show you don't have a lot of promoters and you're not consistently creating the ideal experience, your third step is launching a training program that arms every employee with the tools to get better.

Regularly hold fun, interactive training events that stress participation and practice. Create a learning environment that encourages participants to be open and identifies obstacles to their success. If employees suggest changes to procedures that will help delight guests, have the courage to implement those changes. Most important, remember that training is a journey, not a destination. Support skill development by measuring performance with ongoing mystery shopping and surveys. Use those results to recognize success and coach for improvement.

Because today's customers are more informed and more volatile, it's much easier to get more from your loyal customers through upselling and cross-selling. It's this loyalty - created through legendary experiences - that will have a huge impact on your hotel's bottom line. In fact, a survey from Harvard Business Review reports that 97 percent of all customers who report being loyal to a company, end up being life-long customers!

John Ely is senior VP of marketing for Signature Worldwide. He is responsible for developing, implementing and evaluating strategic marketing and corporate growth plans, and has industrial and consumer marketing experience. He has an associate degree in electrical engineering, a bachelor's in technical management and a master's in marketing and communications. He is a member of the American Marketing Association and Product Development Management Association. Mr. Ely has served as a professor at Franklin University and is certified as a "Teaching at a Distance" (TAD) online educator. Mr. Ely can be contacted at 614-766-5101 or johnely@signatureworldwide.com Extended Bio...

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