H&C News has been running a series of articles on ‘guest experience’, with some of our leading hotels and hoteliers sharing how they aim to deliver excellence, not just satisfaction.
In this article, Michelle Collins of The Flying Dodo challenges us to recognise that it is feelings and emotions that actually drive human and therefore guest behaviour and response, and to consider the implications.
Are you only seeing 5% of the real picture?
You manage what you measure – the great rule of business. But what if you’re measuring the wrong thing, and what really matters is seemingly too difficult to measure?
Well, then, you’re probably a hotelier using guest satisfaction as your key performance indicator and only seeing 5% of the bigger picture.
Allow me to explain.
The dominant paradigm of measuring success in hotels is guest satisfaction, i.e. the difference between a guest’s expectations and the perceived service quality.
However, this model is flawed because it only focuses on value created by rational factors. Human behaviour is not driven by rational thoughts, it is driven by emotions, and emotions occur subconsciously. In fact, 95% of all our behaviours are driven at a subconscious level.
This means we’re often unaware of the things that really influence us. By the time our “thinking selves” get involved, the decision to act is already made, so we’re just post-rationalising a done deal to make it more acceptable to us.
If you want your guests or potential guests to behave in a certain way, they have to feel something first.
Take a hotel like Citizen M, which is the subject of Hotel & Catering News’ Roundtable on guest experience.
You don’t check into Citizen M to be “satisfied”: satisfaction is the minimum level that should be met and more often than not this leads hoteliers to ask unnecessary questions like “how satisfied were you with the cleanliness of your room.” Really? The guest has to answer this? Isn’t this the role of the housekeeping supervisor in checking standards?
We check into a hotel like Citizen M because we want to feel special and leave feeling happier than when we arrived. Wouldn’t it be more insightful to ask “How did you feel when you walked into your room?” and then “What was it that made you feel this way?”
A quick look at the Citizen M page on Trip Advisor illustrates this perfectly . . .
“The little touches – the book corner, the tablet controls in the room, the glass shower, the mood lighting; the fact we got to choose our own room – they are what makes it so exciting.”
This kind of information is the key to success because:
1. We are physiologically wired to repeat what makes us happy. Happiness is a reward for actions that improve our chances of survival and is key for guest loyalty. A loyal guest is willing to forego purchasing a lower priced seemingly identical hotel room with a competitor because of an irrational (emotional) preference for your hotel.
2. Emotions forge stronger memories that create big markers in our brains. This allows us to recall and recover information much faster and more effectively. Not only is this critical for brand recall and advocacy but also for creating enduring happy memories. Guests check into a hotel as much (if not more, I believe) for the prospect of looking back on happy memories as for enjoying the experience at the time.
And as I draw this stream of consciousness to a close, I ask you to finish reading with one key thought in your mind: “your guests may forget the things you say and do but they will never forget the way you make them feel.”
About Michelle (Hawkins) Collins
Michelle is the Head of Happiness at (and owner of) The Flying Dodo. She uses her knowledge of the brain, consumer psychology and marketing to turn what was once seen as a subject for the self-help shelves into a field of expertise taking pride of place in the business section of the bookshop.
She sees happiness as the greatest source of competitive advantage in our experience economy by using it to create richer, stronger and more memorable customer experiences.
Michelle has over a decade of experience in marketing, market research and consumer psychology. She has worked across industries and sectors including consulting, FMCG, healthcare and hospitality. Prior to launching the Flying Dodo, she spent 4 years working in luxury hotels and was latterly Head of Sales and Marketing for a 5* hotel in Tanzania.