CASE STUDY Hotel La Tour
Premier Inn and Papa John’s both use Rant
& Rave to monitor guest feedback at source and then communicate with guests using multimedia. Rant & Rave instantly identifies where a manager needs to make changes, and allows the operator to respond to customers in real time. Phil Evans, chief revenue officer at Rant &
Rave, says that, on average, customers using the platform see a 29% reduction in com- plaints. He says: “If you make it easier for the guest to express their dissatisfaction directly, and if the brand acts on feedback swiftly, guests are less likely to air their bad experience on media. And if there is a positive review, we will encourage the guest to share it on Facebook and other channels – we amplify the ravers.” It is crucial that managers contact any dissat- isfied customers immediately to discover their concerns and assure them that any problems will be resolved for the next time they visit. By engaging in this way, you are more likely to turn a disgruntled guest into a loyal one. Evans says: “One person’s score of three is another person’s two, so you need to find out the why behind the score. If a guest has a bad experience in a hotel and the brand reacts, the guest is more likely to feel more loyalty afterwards and be more of an advocate in the future.” Businesses also get to identify process
blockages, such as slow checkout, in this way. Similarly, if staff scores are consistently low they can address training needs. Conversely, if they are high, staff can be rewarded. Rant & Rave services the platform, which includes sending timely emails and texts to customers. At Premier Inn this includes reminding guests about their booking details and sending map links. This reduces no- shows by 20% and gets a visit off to a good start. The email also offers guests a chance to book a table in the restaurant or reserve breakfast. By upselling like this, the return on investment is tangible – in one year, Premier saw 84,000 extra table bookings. At hotel group CitizenM, most book- ings come directly through the website. The company makes the site sticky by deploying two versions of web pages to see which per- forms better, and running user behaviour analysis. To manage reviews and protect its reputation, the company uses ReviewPro. Amber Virani, marketing manager at 82-bedroom hotel the Arch, London, also
Hotel La Tour in Birmingham is publishing live, unedited customer reviews collected from an independent third party on its website. It employed Feefo's system, which integrates through the hotel’s Micros Opera management system and generates over 500 verified reviews per month,
which are published on the website as and when they appear. Jane Schofield, managing director at the time of its specification,
said: “Our policy is to embrace social media and online customer reviews. It makes good business sense to listen to your customers, respond to what they are saying and, where appropriate, make business changes which will enhance our offering. Guest comments are also extremely valuable in the ongoing training of our team. “We know that, on occasion, things will go wrong and I think
that anyone looking at our reviews can see that we genuinely do strive to deliver the very best customer service.” This simple but effective combination of trusted reviews along
with genuine business insight has earned Hotel La Tour a Feefo service rating of 96%.
uses ReviewPro to analyse trends in customer reviews collected from all channels – from online travel agents to Google to Trip- Advisor. She says: “ReviewPro breaks down the reviews into categories, such as maintenance, cleanliness or customer service, so we can look at it and then set goals in each department accordingly.” If there is an issue with reception, say, the front of house manager will organise more training for customer-facing staff. Meanwhile, the general manager and dep- uty general manager will respond to reviews on TripAdvisor. “We don’t get many negative reviews, but if we did, we’d ask them to email their issues directly and we would investigate,” Virani says. “We wouldn’t offer them a complimen- tary stay, but we would do something special the next time they visited. That speaks louder and is more of a wow factor.” But she stresses that talking to customers
face to face and finding out what they want is still the most effective tool in combating bad reviews. “You can’t rely on technology – you need a balance. When it comes to return on investment, a happy guest posts good reviews. The hotel is five years old and 40% of our business is retention, so that speaks for itself.”
What does the future hold? Evans reckons that customers will increas- ingly demand more evidence of how a brand reacts to complaints. He says: “Brands will need to show ‘you said; we did’, and show the changes. Those brands that do will be able to pull away from the others if they understand the emotion of the customer.”
SPONSOR’S COMMENT: FEEFO
Feefo generates real reviews from genuine customers. It’s feedback you can trust:
Consumer engagement ●●Understand consumer satisfaction. ●●Respond to negative experiences publicly. ●●Display Feefo service ratings, showing you have nothing to hide.
Business intelligence ●●Continuous, genuine feedback helps you focus attention where it’s needed most. ●●Feefo’s custom toolset understands performance. ●●Identify behaviour of purchasing advocates.
Website performance ●●Generation of gold stars in Google. ●●Increase in traffic to your website through advertiser ratings. ●●Growth in conversions by displaying product reviews.
48 | Technology Prospectus 2016
www.thecaterer.com
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36 |
Page 37 |
Page 38 |
Page 39 |
Page 40 |
Page 41 |
Page 42 |
Page 43 |
Page 44 |
Page 45 |
Page 46 |
Page 47 |
Page 48 |
Page 49 |
Page 50 |
Page 51 |
Page 52 |
Page 53 |
Page 54 |
Page 55 |
Page 56