Customer Sentiment in Hospitality

A positive feeling on the part of the guest/tourist is essential to achieving a bond between them and the brand, destination or service. In other words, satisfaction is a prerequisite for customer loyalty. A guest’s positive feeling arising from the experience, based on their perception of the quality delivered through the service, is what we commonly call customer satisfaction. When a service experience is enjoyable, the guest’s/tourist’s attitude towards, and relationship with, the service is reinforced. Guests who are truly “married” to our brand possess this sense of satisfaction to a far greater extent than those who are “unfaithful”, hence its importance within this experience-feeling-loyalty chain. The guest’s positive feeling, or satisfaction, can be defined according to three fundamental aspects: a)      Its nature (whether it is a process or an outcome) b)      Its origin c)      Its time and place By its nature The definition at this point depends on how satisfaction is understood: as a process or as an outcome. The literature on the subject offers a considerable body of work supporting both perspectives. Satisfaction may be understood as an evaluation process, or as an outcome, reaction, state or response to use and consumption. When conceived as a process, it begins when the guest, through evaluating and comparing the service received, confirms or exceeds the expectations they had previously formed regarding it. This process is known as the expectation-confirmation paradigm. When conceived as a reaction or response, it is associated with an opinion, perception or belief (the cognitive dimension), an emotion (the affective dimension), or a behavioural intention (the conative dimension), in relation to a product or service, and varies in intensity (from less satisfied to more satisfied). Over the past two decades, research has demonstrated the primacy of the affective aspect over the cognitive one when measuring satisfaction, giving greater weight to this component by recognising that satisfaction is related to feelings about the product or service (liking, pleasure or delight). By its origin The definition at this point is based on the object in relation to which the guest expresses satisfaction. This may arise from a product, a service or one of their specific attributes; the purchase or consumption experience; the service provider; the hotel or brand; the destination; or their price, among other possibilities. By its time and place The definition at this point is based on when satisfaction occurs and how long it lasts. It depends on an experience or lived moment, and may therefore occur during or after the purchase or consumption decision. The degree of satisfaction exists at a specific point in time; it is finite and does not endure indefinitely. The degree of satisfaction may be measured at a specific moment, either after a consumption experience or over a period of time following several consumption experiences involving the same service. Satisfaction, its level and its intensity, are directly proportional to the guest’s/tourist’s intention to repeat their visit, despite the behavioural patterns explained by Oppermann in “Destination Theshold Potencial and the Law of Repeat Visitation” (1998), which somewhat disrupt this relationship:

• Satisfied tourists who do not return because they wish to discover new horizons (allocentric tourists).
• Dissatisfied tourists who return because they perceive less risk in a place whose shortcomings they already know than in visiting a new one they do not know and which may be worse. They prefer the devil they know to the devil they do not (psychocentric tourists).

To achieve customer loyalty to a brand, simple satisfaction is not enough. Tourists who are free to choose among alternatives require more than mere satisfaction. The satisfaction-loyalty relationship is asymmetrical rather than linear. An increase or decrease in satisfaction does not necessarily translate into a corresponding change in loyalty, although a guest’s/tourist’s dissatisfaction or disappointment will almost certainly lead to defection. That feeling of contentment is a prerequisite for achieving guest/tourist loyalty, but it is not sufficient to retain or predict it. To achieve genuine loyalty, it is indeed necessary to create a feeling of complete satisfaction with visits, purchases or consumption. This is the fundamental factor, the key to reinforcing customer loyalty and increasing long-term benefits.