At the heart of every positive hotel experience is excellent customer service and yet there are a myriad of factors that contribute to a successful guest transaction. Some are tangible, obvious and easier-to-manage; others are more ineffable and elusive; but professional analysts and experts are going to great lengths to define and measure the elements that comprise a complete customer satisfaction package. Some of the categories include the following: Interpersonal (the customers’ experience or human interaction with those who deliver the product or service); Financial (what the customer pays for the total experience); Informational (the availability and delivery of all the information a customer needs to function as a customer); Deliverable (anything the customer takes possession of, even temporarily); Procedural (all the functions that customers perform in their role as a customer); Environmental (the physical setting in which a customer experiences the delivery of the product or service); Aesthetic (any sensory experience that affects the perception of value – smell, flavor, visual appeal, temperature, sound levels, music, etc.). By aggregating these specific areas of operation and then analyzing them in a Customer Service Management System, the goal is to identify, capture and retain customers, and to provide a comprehensive view of the customer experience across the entire enterprise. The April issue of the Hotel Business Review will report on what some leading hotels are doing to cultivate guest satisfaction and retention in their operations.

PLUS: Why Hotels Must Use Little Data, mPOS Expected to Replace POS, Why Aren't There More Mobile Hotel Website Bookings?, Mobile PMS, Managing Information for Optimal Results, and much more…