Mystery Shopping Can Improve Hotel Customer Service

It is widely known that repeat guests and positive referrals are cornerstones for hotels to reach their financial goals.

Once the guest is in the door, they will continually evaluate the value of the hotel's offering looking at such key factors as location, convenience, room size, overall cleanliness, and customer service.

Hotel Customer Service from Management

Hotel management can only meaningfully act on cleanliness and customer service. Cleanliness is extremely important which is why it is continually inspected by several layers of hotel management. Hoteliers know that if a hotel room is deemed unclean by a guest, the chance of a repeat visit is nil.

Hotel Customer Service as Primary Motivator

Cleanliness aside, customer service becomes the primary motivator determining if a guest will become a repeat visitor. The fact is, guests expect at a minimum that upscale hotels will be very clean, much in the same way a buyer of a new car expects the brakes to work.

There is an old saying, 'You get what you inspect'. The customer service at a hotel should be a part of a regular, strategically designed inspection program. Knowing how your staff will perform during service 'moments of truth' separates those that manage customer service from those that react to guest problems. Mystery shopping provides sufficient detail to enable management to take action.

A good hotel mystery shopping program is like an MRI. Like a doctor, hotel management uses it to take a very detailed, close-up picture of their customer service.

The results are then interpreted by management and used to prescribe treatments that will improve the subject's wellbeing.

Regularly inspect your hotel customer service and expect healthy returns.