Guest Relations
Stop Sending Me Surveys Unless You Care What I Have to Say!
Shep Hyken | January 26, 2022
By Shep Hyken I’m getting survey fatigue. But it’s different than it used to be. In the past, companies have sent me surveys that were so long I became tired – or fatigued – at some point during the survey, and as a result, I wouldn’t complete it and therefore the company never received my feedback. We’ve covered survey length before, and that’s not what this is about. This time I’m talking about being fatigued, as in sick and tired of getting so many surveys. It seems that almost every time I get my car worked on, call my internet provider, stay at a hotel, fly on an airline, order almost anything online, etc., etc....
A Small but Powerful Surprise
Shep Hyken | January 19, 2022
By Shep Hyken I love a surprise. Think about the last time you received a surprise from a friend or loved one. It doesn’t even have to be a big surprise. It could be something small – just something that proves the other person was thinking about you. Has this ever happened to you in business? I receive surprise appreciation gifts from clients. I’m enjoying a box of chocolates a client sent as I create this post. And of course, I love surprising others. But what I want to share now is the example of a surprise that came from a most unlikely source, the TSA, as in Transportation Security Administration. My friend...
Shiji Insights – Recap: The Real Economics of Hotel Guest Engagement Roundtable
Shiji | January 14, 2022
ROOMDEX recently hosted an expert panel discussion on “The Real Economics of Hotel Guest Engagement,” featuring 4 leading hotel software vendors. Hotels are more than just a place to stay, they also offer guests amenities, services, and entertainment that enhance the guest experience and make their stay more special – ultimately delivering the guest more value. As the panel host, Paul Peddrick noted, “All guest engagement ultimately has a commercial goal.” But how? With this question in mind, panelists Robert Stevenson, CEO at INTELITY, Marvin Speh, Co-Founder & COO at Roompricegenie, Angie Andresen, Senior Director Global Pro...
The Omnichannel Experience – What the Heck Does That Mean?
Shep Hyken | January 12, 2022
By Shep Hyken There is a term in the customer service world that is often misused or misunderstood. That term is omnichannel. I have had many conversations with clients about the omnichannel experience, and I’ve even shared content about it with our subscribers in the Shepard Letter and my videos. It’s time to bring it back with what may be the perfect example. First, let’s talk about the basic definition. It all started with a concept known as multi-channel. This was about different ways customers could communicate with you. For example, they could use phone or email. That’s two channels. Today there are many ot...
Don’t Cut What Is Obvious to the Customer
Shep Hyken | December 15, 2021
By Shep Hyken Last week I covered the concept of skimpflation. In case you missed it, the short definition is that skimpflation is the result of a labor shortage, some say due to The Great Resignation, and higher business costs that come from inflation and supply and demand issues. This translates to the customer experiencing a lower level of service, and in some cases, quality. Our colleague at Shepard Presentations refers to it as customer service on a diet. Unfortunately, customers in both the B2C and B2B worlds are not having the experiences they’ve come to expect from some of the companies they enjoy doing business with...
Feedback Bribery
Shep Hyken | November 24, 2021
By Shep Hyken To what extent will a company go to try to get customer feedback? Is it a simple email request? Is it an incentive to fill out a survey? And, if there is an incentive, can that skew the results? One of our faithful subscribers sent in a question. At the end of a project with a customer, she sends an email requesting the customer take a short survey. She said that she gets a very low response rate. So, she sends another. Then another. On the fourth try, she writes, “Do you like coffee? My treat!” She says that she gets a response to that almost every time. Her question to me was, “Is this a form of bribery, ...
“New-Style” Digital Versus “Old-Fashioned” Human Interactions
Shep Hyken | November 17, 2021
By Shep Hyken Here’s a question, and I think I know the answer. Would you do business with an airline that didn’t offer the ability to book a ticket online, check-in online, and get your boarding pass online? Assuming that every other airline has these self-service digital options, what if one didn’t? Would you be willing to call for a reservation, wait on hold, pull out your credit card to verbally give your payment information, and stand in line at the ticket counter to check in on the day of departure? Would you choose to fly with this airline over the others? I feel I can safely say the answer is, “No!”...
A Fast Answer or the Right Answer
Shep Hyken | November 10, 2021
By Shep Hyken Recently I was talking to a customer support rep. She was amazing. She was personable, genuinely cared, and I felt that she understood my problem. That said, we were struggling to get the problem resolved. She said, “I know you want to get this resolved right away. I can give you a fast answer or I can give you the right answer.” Next, she explained why. She said that my problem was complicated, and while she could probably give me the answer that would make me happy in the short term, it was not a long-term solution. She was almost positive I’d be calling again in the future, even more frustrated than I w...
Dealing With Angry Customers: Be Sincere When You Apologize
Shep Hyken | October 28, 2021
By Shep Hyken “I’m sorry.” Customers love to hear those important words, especially when they are calling about a problem or have a complaint. I briefly covered this in a recent article (The Five Best Things to Say to an Angry or Upset Customer), but I want to dive into the “I’m sorry” comment a little deeper. Not long ago I called a customer support center and early in the conversation the agent said, “I’m sorry you are experiencing this problem.” I appreciated those words. I felt that I was being heard and even understood. That was until a minute later when the agent once again said, “I’m sorry.” That se...
Tripadvisor Content Moderation Transparency Report Reveals New Data in Fight Against Fake Reviews
TripAdvisor | October 27, 2021
2021 Review Transparency Report analyzes a full year of traveler contributions — over 26 million reviews — to examine how review trends shifted during the pandemic A total of 3.6% of all review submissions in 2020 were identified as fake – Tripadvisor’s robust platform protections ensured the vast majority never made it onto the platform In-depth report findings coincide with launch of new Trust and Safety information center on Tripadvisor NEEDHAM, Mass. - Tripadvisor, the travel platform trusted by hundreds of millions of consumers worldwide for its traveler reviews, has today published its 2021 Review Transparency Rep...
Old School Ideas Can Have Big Impact
Shep Hyken | October 20, 2021
By Shep Hyken Many years ago, my daughter and I were in our basement, and she found an old typewriter. She looked at it with amazement and asked, “Dad, what’s this?” I explained it was what we used before computers and keyboards were invented. We would type letters and thank-you notes on a piece of paper, without spell-check. She asked if she could play with it. It kept her busy for days. Years later, we occasionally reminisce about the old typewriter. Technology has evolved. We’ve gone from typewriters to computers to apps on a mobile phone. I was recently answering a question from a young customer service agent. One thing I su...
Sense of Arrival Back at the Forefront
Larry and Adam Mogelonsky | October 13, 2021
By Larry and Adam Mogelonsky A keyword to keep in mind in this post-coronavirus era of travel is ‘friction’. While vaccine statuses will soon become ubiquitously digitized via uploads to a mobile wallet or shared amongst governmental databases referenced at each passport swipe, it’s the COVID-19 tests that present far greater an obstacle, in turn broadly impeding the hotel industry from reattaining 2019 occupancy figures. Until such time as antigen or rapid PCR tests are no longer required, getting across international borders is a steep burden in both the time taken to arrange the test prior to departure and the cost of the test ...
The Secret To Customer Loyalty
Shep Hyken | October 13, 2021
Shep Hyken Okay, maybe it’s not the secret, but what I’m about to share with you is one of the secrets. Actually, three secrets. In the real estate world, the three keys to success are location, location, location. In this article, we can say that three secrets to creating and sustaining customer loyalty are communication, communication, communication. The way you communicate, what you communicate, and how often you communicate can create the experience that gives a customer the confidence to continue doing business with you. So, with that in mind, here are three communication tips that will help drive custo...
The Five Best Things to Say to an Angry or Upset Customer
Shep Hyken | October 7, 2021
By Shep Hyken I was recently interviewed by Mario Martinez on his Modern Selling podcast. He shared a story about how he emailed the CEO of a company, and in an incredibly short amount of time, his phone rang, and you can guess who it was … the CEO. In a state of shock, instead of launching into the reason for the complaint email, my friend asked him, “How are you?” The CEO said, “I’m not well. That’s because you’re not well.” He was referring to the complaint and how my friend wasn’t happy with his company’s product. That made me start thinking about the best ways to begin a conversation wi...
Would Customers Pay to Do Business with You?
Shep Hyken | September 15, 2021
By Shep Hyken Think about this … what if you were to charge a customer just to talk to you about what you would sell them? Or, if you own a retail store, a fee to enter the store. What would you have to do for your customers to be willing to pay for the privilege of buying your products or services? I’m not suggesting that you should. This is just to get you thinking about how good you really are. How good you are compared to your competition. How good your customer service is. How good your people are. You get the idea. Are you good enough that customers, if you asked it of them, would pay? That’s a pretty high bar. Th...
You’re Terminated: Three Reasons Customers Will Stop Doing Business With You
Shep Hyken | September 9, 2021
By Shep Hyken One of the favorite chapters I wrote in my recent book, I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again, was about why customers would terminate their relationship with you. Yes, the word terminate ties into the movie Terminator, which somehow became a theme in the background of the book. So, why would a customer terminate his or her relationship with you? In the book, I shared 10 reasons, although there are many more. These reasons are derived from our customer service and experience research, which revealed what was most important to the customer. So, it makes sense that the opposite ...
Amazon Sets the Standard for Every Business
Shep Hyken | September 2, 2021
By Shep Hyken I’ve written about this before. Our customers are smarter than ever when it comes to customer service and receiving a great customer experience. They no longer compare us only to our direct competitors, but instead, to the best service they have received from any company, large or small, global or local. These companies are setting the bar higher. They are forcing everyone in business to up their game, and that’s great for us as customers. One company that has been continually setting new standards and forcing all companies to step up is Amazon. That’s nothing new. They’ve been doing it for decade...
Want Your Employees to Voice Suggestions When Customers Treat Them Poorly? The Double-Edged Effects of Felt Trust
Linchi Kwok | August 26, 2021
By Linchi Kwok "The customer is not always right, but your job is never to show them how they're wrong. Your job is to be professional, courteous, accommodating … even (and especially) under stress." — Steve Dorfman, Driven to Excel When consumers know they are always right, they may breed a sense of superiority or entitlement, expecting the frontline employees to comply with any customer behaviors. A report shows that 98% of service employees had experienced unpleasant customer behaviors; over 50% of employees encountered rude customers at least once a week. In a more recent case, a female customer pulled out a gun an...
What Is Service Culture?
Franck Louveau | August 23, 2021
By Franck Louveau You may have heard how important service culture is, especially in the hospitality industry. But what exactly is service culture and why is it so important? Let’s take an in-depth look at this concept and how it plays out through customer service culture examples. Service Culture definition You may find varying definitions of the term 'service culture'. In essence, it refers to a company culture that’s focused on customer service, so you could also call it customer service culture. A company with a service culture focuses its mission and processes on serving the customer first and foremost. T...
Guest Services Automation – Reliable Revenue and Reduced Hotelier Labor
Jos Schaap | August 19, 2021
By Jos Schaap PMS technology has been a part of standard hotel operations for over 30 years and has made hotels operations efficient and scalable. However, as powerful as it is, there is still plenty of manual management of guest data and transactions. The truth is that hotel managers and front-of-house staff spend a lot of their time staring at a computer screen. Every time your face is looking down, possibly wrangling with your PMS/POS, the less meaningful time you have with your guests. Hoteliers should be looking for opportunities to break down those barriers to guest service. I believe that it is a mistake to be satisfied with the ...
StayNTouch Expands to Gulf Region, Selected by Riyadh Based Hotel Management Company, IRIS Hotels
StayNTouch | August 18, 2021
IRIS Hotels, one of Saudi Arabia’s premier hotel development and management companies, selected StayNTouch, a global leader in guest-centric technology and mobile hotel property management systems (PMS), to implement their PMS technology at the collection of the boutique hotels in Jizan, Taif, and Riyadh, Saudi Arabia. This partnership marks StayNTouch’s first hotel customer in Saudi Arabia and an expansion into the Gulf region. Founded in 2011, IRIS Hotels is a premier, full-scope hotel management, acquisition and development company headquartered in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia and centered around six major brands 一 IRIS Hotel, IRIS Boutiq...
Cornell Panel: What Keeps Us Coming Back: How to Build Customer Loyalty
The School of Hotel Administration at the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business | August 16, 2021
By Amy Wang When making purchases, almost everyone has experienced being offered special programs for which they can sign up. Promising future discounts and rewards in exchange for loyalty, these programs are by now nearly ubiquitous. But what happens to customer loyalty in the midst of a pandemic? On April 27, a panel of experts joined Helen Chun, associate professor at the School of Hotel Administration (SHA) to talk about this very topic. In a keynote webinar titled “What Keeps Us Coming Back: How to Build Customer Loyalty,” produced by the Center for Hospitality Research (CHR), the Leland C. and Mary M. Pillsbury I...
The Difference Between Repeat Customers and Loyal Customers
Shep Hyken | August 13, 2021
By Shep Hyken “We love our customers, and they obviously love us. They keep coming back, again and again!” Who doesn’t want to be able to say that? And, if that is the case with your organization, let me ask you this question: Do you know why they are coming back? Not to be a “downer,” but we shouldn’t confuse a repeat customer with a loyal customer. They are not the same. Don’t get me wrong, I love repeat customers, and we absolutely want them. Repeat customers are very desirable. I write about this topic in my latest book, I’ll Be Back: How to Get Customers to Come Back Again and Again. As a business, yo...
Would You Rather Go to the Dentist or Call Customer Support?
Shep Hyken | August 9, 2021
By Shep Hyken Here is a stat that’s hard to believe: Forty-eight percent of Americans would rather go to the dentist than call customer support. OUCH! It seems that going to the dentist to get a filling or a root canal is preferred over having to call customer support. This statistic comes straight from the 2021 Achieving Customer Amazement Study we conducted this year. We surveyed more than 1,000 consumers to find out what they loved and hated about customer service. What would make them come back or terminate their relationship with the brand or company? But let’s get back to this stat for a momen...
