The Power of the Word 'Excellent'

Post by Matthew A. Woodruff, Vice President of Quality and Guest Satisfaction, Hospitality Ventures Management Group

As Vice President, Guest and Brand Excellence for Hospitality Ventures Management Group, my job is to ensure that the guest experience we provide and the feedback we receive is not just "good" but rather "EXCELLENT."

When you experience EXCELLENT service, you remember it and want to take the time to tell others en mass by filling out comment cards, writing letters and posting your experience on social media sites. The exciting part about the concept of Good to EXCELLENT is the amount of effort between the two is relatively small. A little more focused effort and a philosophical change in your outlook can yield EXCELLENT guest satisfaction results.

EXCELLENT is contagious, and it starts with you

You choose your attitude every morning and that attitude can be contagious.  The next time someone asks, “how are you,” tell them you’re EXCELLENT!  

If you can create a culture of excellence at your hotel, that culture will rub off on your associates and guests. Your associates will start using the word EXCELLENT in front of your guests and their fellow associates. They will start to answer the switchboard "Were having an EXCELLENT day at the insert your hotel name," without you even making it a "policy." And, your guests will start using EXCELLENT to describe the memorable service they experienced at your hotel.

Ensure excellence through touch points

I will expand upon the concept of touch points and how they can be used as a tool to ensure EXCELLENT guest experiences in an upcoming blog.  I define a touch point as "an opportunity that we create to engage our guests and ensure they have an EXCELLENT stay."  You have many touch points in your hotel right now and others you can add easily. Utilize these touch points as opportunities to interact with your guests during their stay to ensure that they love their experience.

Confirm excellence with guests

How do you confirm your guests actually had an EXCELLENT stay prior to leaving your hotel? The best way is to just ask them!  Avoid asking questions like "How was your stay?" or "Was everything OK?"  Those responses typically will be "It was fine" or "Yes, it was OK," and they don't confirm excellence.

Instead, when a guest is departing, use the guest’s name, look them in the eye, and ask, "Ms. Smith, did you have an EXCELLENT stay with us?" If the answer does not come back a resounding "Yes," be prepared to ask a follow-up question like, "Was there something we could have done to improve your stay?" It is then you will learn the root of any negative issues she may have experienced. At this point you have to use service recovery to make the guest remember the resolution more than the problem that she experienced.  I’ll expand upon this topic in a future blog.

Make EXCELLENT the lasting memory

Using the word EXCELLENT throughout a guest’s stay will have a subliminal effect when that guest is remembering the experience. Guests will use EXCELLENT when they are completing surveys or writing reviews on social media sites because that is the word they recall when they think of your hotel.

Consider that if you ask a group of guests to circle "Good" on a 1-10 scale, you’ll probably find some guests will consider “5” to be good while others may circle “7” or “8.”  However, ask those same guests to circle "Excellent" and you’re likely to get very few responses below a “9” or “10.”