The hospitality industry comprises numerous businesses, including restaurants, hotels, tourism, theme parks and more. While none of these sectors are the same, they all have at least one thing in common; guest experiences. 

The key to success in the hospitality industry is making the guest experience the heart and soul of your business. A great example of an exceptional guest experience is the theme park Disneyland. Disneyland’s reputation for providing a quality experience to children and adults alike makes it one of the most successful businesses in the world, let alone the hospitality industry. 

If you want to learn just how crucial the guest experience is for the hospitality industry, keep reading. 

What Is Guest Experience? 

Without knowing what guest experience is, you won’t be able to outline how to improve it. Guest experience in the hospitality industry is your guests’ overall impression while engaging with your business. Whether you run a restaurant, hotel or bar, you want to provide an exceptional experience for your customers. This includes their first touchpoint of booking with you, checking in, the quality of service and ambiance you provide as well as, your customer service. An important aspect of ensuring a good guest experience for your customers is implementing tech and software. As the world goes increasingly digital, many clients expect hospitality businesses to keep up with the latest technology trends to optimize their experience overall. 

Why is it important?

Guest experience matters because it has the potential to make or break your business. By leaving your customers with a positive experience, you’re more likely to  boost customer loyalty, encourage repeat business and leverage free marketing through word of mouth. A negative experience, on the other hand, can be damaging to your reputation. Unfortunately, all it takes is a few bad reviews to ruin a sea of good ones. In the last decade, with apps like Open Table, Google Business Reviews, and Yelp, its essential that businesses ensure each and every guest is satisfied with their experience, because in todays online world, everyone’s a critic. 

With your customers impacting your business perception and performance, it’s essential to emphasize providing a fantastic experience for your guests. To do this, you must meet and exceed customer expectations and make them feel welcome and appreciated. Luckily, there are numerous software applications to help businesses exceed customer expectations while managing business costs. From labor costs, materials, leasing, and more, expenses rack up, but this doesn’t make guest satisfaction any less important. 

How to ensure a positive guest experience

Now that you know why a positive guest experience is essential to the success of your hospitality business, here are some areas to target when optimizing the guest experience. 

Convenience

The first step in ensuring a positive guest experience is creating ease and convenience across every touchpoint. For example, when making a reservation, you don’t want your customers to struggle. If a customer runs into too many issues when making a reservation, they’ll look to a competitor for more manageable alternatives. When customers intend to spend money in a hospitality business, they expect it to be easy and convenient.

From the booking phase to checking in and accommodations, you want the experience to be stress-free. If your business doesn’t already have one, a hospitality CRM can make a huge difference. By making it easy for your employees to manage reservations and easily track their customers and business reservations, you, in turn, make it easier to provide quality service to your guests. 

Communication

In the hospitality industry, customer service reigns supreme. You could have the loveliest hotel or restaurant in the world, but if your customers are unhappy with the quality of your customer service, it won’t matter. Employees with client-facing interactions need training on how to engage with customers. This means not just being pleasant with happy clients, but the unhappy ones as well. 

No matter how much work your business puts into providing an exceptional customer experience, mistakes happen, and problems can arise. It is what you do when faced with an angry customer that has the potential to turn them into loyal one. When interacting with customers, practice mindful listening, assess their needs and always have a professional face and tone. 

First Impressions matter

You’ve probably heard “First impressions are everything,” and this idea certainly applies to the hospitality industry. Communication skills are extremely important, as mentioned above, but there are some keys to making a good first impression on customers. 

When greeting guests, ensure you’re attentive to their needs and are present. For example, if you have a recently married couple staying at your hotel for their honeymoon, congratulating them upon arrival and offering a complimentary glass of champagne will give you a strong start to their stay.

Additionally, ensure you use positive body language when interacting with guests. This means smiling, maintaining eye contact, and conveying an interest in what they have to say. If your business sees many tourists, being knowledgeable in the local area and its activities can make all the difference. If you’re in the food & restaurant business, being an expert in all of your menu items and having suggestions for wine and alcohol pairings can change your customer’s experience for the better. 

Choice

You can’t satisfy everyone, however, when you’re in the hospitality industry, that’s your goal at the end of the day. Customers have unique needs and preferences, and what satisfies one customer may not have the same effect on another. Providing a range of options (but not too many) is your best shot at keeping everyone happy. 

Because the hospitality industry is so competitive, providing a range of options can help you differentiate your business from competing businesses. A range of options allows your employees to personalize offerings to meet your customer’s needs and desires. For example, a range of cocktails, beer and wine, will enable you to meet the preferences of a broader range of customers. 

By giving your customers the power of choice when interacting with your business, you help drive repeat traffic through your doors and bring in positive reviews. Satisfied customers are more likely to become loyal ones, and they also are your best marketers in bringing in new traffic. Satisfying your customers boosts your reputation and traffic, in turn boosting your profits. 

Guest Experience & Hospitality Success

Your hospitality business can run smoothly by displaying exceptional customer service skills, giving your customers the power of choice, offering convenience and making a solid first impression. By enticing customers enough to bring in repeat and new referral traffic, your business’s reputation will be known for the exceptional experience it provides.