Exclusive 5 Articles Series: Performance driven by passion is what makes hospitality industry flourish and as a hospitality consultant you come across much more than just buildings, the beauty of the industry are the people, employees and guests from all over the world, each with their own view on quality, on life and on experiences. 

In 2016 I published the book ‘A Hotelier’s mind, setting strategy for the future’. This is part 2 out of 5 in total, where I will share fragments out of the book. I wish to share to inspire. 

6 Elements you need to get right before leading Guest Satisfaction 

In this part of the book, I have focused on elements that can and will influence your guest’s decision to return to the hotel. The one element I have not written is the service element of people. The reason for not including it is that, it should be the first thing anybody should think about to create guest satisfaction. We are in the service industry and without good people we wouldn’t even be in this industry.

The internal customer of personnel is where it all starts. If they are not following a vision and delivering the core values that have been developed by the management, there is no point even getting into this business. Much of what you read before goes straight into the delivery to the guest.

In short, I would like to mention a number of elements that will predict a positive internal guest satisfaction or employee satisfaction.

1. The vision needs to be clear and understood, as it sets the path to consistent core values. With consistent, I mean, employees can handle situations and conflicts as well as receive and deal with positive feedback, in good and bad times of economy.

2. Motivation is led by management, through continuous communication with the employees. They need to feel involved, aware of a potential change in the economy, a planned renovation or anything that influence their daily work. I remember, well with the introduction of yielding which was pushed down the chain and many people in reservations, sales and front office seriously struggling with how to handle this internally, let alone how to communicate different pricing levels to the guest.

The communication of something this big has been poor in many hotels or hotel groups that I have worked with, even though it impacts the revenue stream dramatically. It is a positive change giving both guests and employees opportunity.

3. Think and act long term creates great value to employees. They want to understand, they have chosen the job because they want to be involved in the company and make it a success together. Short term results are naturally also of great importance for employees, as they need to be celebrated, but long term strategy creates a tight team.

4. Interaction within the teams from different departments, leads to, mutual understanding of departmental goals as well as individual challenges. Promoting this interaction through workshops or educational efforts, will strengthen each employee as well as the effort to get to the same objectives that have been set by the management.

5. Education within Hospitality and perhaps also with other industries is potentially one of the most vital elements of motivating the internal customer. By having regular updates on how the business is going and educating personnel on trends, skills and knowledge, you will not only create a team that will be able to deliver service, but that touches on all the elements mentioned before, working as a team towards common goals.

6. Finally, people need individual growth, recognition through incentives and the ability to see what the future holds. A career path for each individual is therefore, a way to acknowledge these needs. They should be recognized already in the recruitment process, not only to attract the right candidates but also, to confirm the commitment to each.

Good scores within employee satisfaction are directly influencing the results of the guest satisfaction, there is no doubt about that. Even though when I was involved in a large project within Six Sigma, there was no statistical relationship that was evident.

Main reason for that is that, guest satisfaction surveys are not all about the service and as stated before, service is such an unclear operational definition. Service means something different from one person compared to another as well as all unrelated subjects, like quality of the bed or cleanliness that cause scores that are hard to measure.

Go to Part 1: 'Recruiting for the Future Focus on Emotional Intelligence, Motivation and Energy.'

Art by Alexandra Sarantidi

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About the Author:

Jeroen Gulickx is a well-traveled hospitality professional with two business degrees and extensive experience within the hotel-and-spa segment.

The main capabilities vary from streamlining cost and operational models to strategy yielding, business development, and marketing and digital marketing.

In 2006, he started Mocinno International, a hospitality consulting company that now has offices and representation in seven countries in Europe, USA, Middle East, Asia, and Russia. The team is focused on delivering incremental revenues for hotels and spas and also develops and strategizes hotel suppliers, using mainly the Six Sigma methodology.

Mocinno International works with a network of highly experienced, energetic, and innovative people based in key locations. The team also leads client or Mocinno-originated projects or concepts.

Jeroen shares his over 20 years of industry knowledge through his blog, and other social media, and speaks in travel, marketing, innovation, or strategy related forums.

The book - ‘A Hotelier’s Mind, Setting Strategy for the Future’ - is available in most local online bookshops, or over 1000 bookstores all over the world and here.