Want some old advice ? " The customer is always right".
It is always diffucult to deal with customers' complains, but this is the golden rule !
We all had this experience of the disatisfed guest complaining of the hotel services.
Nowadays , the service offered in high luxury hotels is so personalized that complaints are all the more difficult to accept, and delicate to compensate. They have to be handled even more individualy.
It is always complicated to find the right words to answer and explain what hapenned. All the more in front of a tough guest, but the way we can handle the situation in front of the guest is really important because even if the guest had a bad experience, the way you listen to him, react and try to find a solution can make him change his mind ! Besides, giving him the impression that he is treated like a number would only increase his anger!
The way we deal with these disatisfactions makes the reputation of the hotel : if the guests are happy with the solution, he will not give a bad image through word of mouth ! being reactive to solve a problem can even be a good advertising for the hotel!
After finding a solution to satisfy the guest, we have to put ourselves into question, to understand what happened, and take it into account top improve our services, and to ensure that this mistake will not happen again. Customers' feedbacks are key data that can help the employees and managers to improve guests' stays. It is crucial to consider them carefully.
Find below 8 new pieces of advice to help you handling customers' disatisfactions :
1. Ditch the formalities and break the rules
2. Don't give customers too much choice.
3. Monitor your reputation online. All the time.
4. Shut up and listen.
5. Collect lots and lots of customer feedback
6. Sit tight and be nice
7. Don't fear using your QSA budget
8. Focus on learning from the feedback
What Caroline explained in her comment about the article is totally true. When clients complain in your hotel, you can't just tell him that he is wrong. You have to find the rightwords to in order to relax the customer and avoid a major complain. It is also important that the client feels that we care and that we try to do what we can to satisfy his demands. In this case good training and especially the belief in your work and your passion for it is essential as well as good communication with your superiors because a hotel can only offer good service unless it is well directed.
ReplyDeleteI’m agree with Caroline’s comment related to her article. She expresses exactly how complains could be prejudicial for hoteliers if they don’t take it into the account.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, with the increase of customers’ negative reviews the hoteliers don’t have the right to let go the clients’ complaints. As I have learned, hoteliers should always try to solve all complains even those who seem impossible to deal with.
Once the hoteliers are aware about the complaints, they should be proactive in order to diminish the customers’ discontentment. The clients will understand that the hoteliers are doing the necessary to give him satisfaction even by offering a glass of drink or another attention. At the end our host will retain how the hotel solves his complaint and his experience will remain positive in most of the cases.
It is true that to deal with customer's complaint is not always easy, especially when he is in front of us yelling that the service was not good, the room was not cleaned at time... We have to be very diplomatic and not to show them our anger even they are not right.
ReplyDeleteNowadays, with the fast development of social networks, forums, even tiny negative feedback of the guest can influence the reputation of the hotel! We have to accept those feedbacks as a “gift” because thanks to them we can see what we are not doing well and consequently improve our services.
I agree with Carolin's opinion that we have to consider all guests’ comments carefully and to ensure that the mistake will not happen again.
In an industry of services like ours,guests' complaints and service mistakes are part of our routine. Fair or not, we have to listen to the guests' criticisms, apologize and find a solution to make them happy.
ReplyDeleteWhy? Because the customer is always right of course! Why that? Because he is our source of revenue, he is our reason to be and with years, he has become more and more volatile! If we do not want to lose him, we have to take care of him because at the least unsatisfaction, we will not lose one but maybe hundreds or thousands of customers (depending on our guest's social network and Tripadvisor comment...).
What we have to keep in mind is that customers will forgive the hoteliers for failing delivering the high quality of service they expected. However, they will not forgive the hoteliers for not repairing their mistakes and not compensating.
As my colleagues said, hoteliers should see criticisms as gift as they give them a chance to repair their mistakes and to turn an unhappy guest into a loyal customer. Comments should be reviewed and adapted solutions offered to optimize the experience of the guests.
The difficulty is: there is solving a problem and solving a problem. What I mean is that, even if most hoteliers are aware of the importance of a guest value and make their best to answer complaints, their solutions are not always adapted or appropriate... It is really an art now to deal with conflicts because, as I said, guests are more and more demanding and competition is tough. Following the few rules written in that article is thus a good start to adopt a good customer relationship.