Every hotel’s ultimate goal is to earn guest loyalty. After all, they say it is five times cheaper to retain existing customers than to acquire new ones. However, with consumer habits constantly evolving, achieving a consumer’s total loyalty now seems like an almost impossible goal.
Recently, customers have become aware of the impact of their consumption behaviour: how it reflects who they are and how it affects our environment. Added to this are saturated markets, fierce price competition and consumers who are increasingly familiar with tricks for securing better prices.
Hotels that cannot meet guest expectations are demonstrating that they are not credible and therefore do not deserve their guests’ continued loyalty. And no hotel is immune to this reality.
What steps must a hotel take to demonstrate its credibility?
Quality
Quality is the most important factor in building a credible brand. If people are not satisfied with your product or service, they are unlikely to make a repeat purchase. This does not mean that every hotel must offer exactly the same service, or else risk being considered unsatisfactory. However, every hotel must, at a minimum, meet guests’ basic expectations, whatever type of hotel it may be. As the price increases, so will guest expectations.
Therefore, to be credible, you must manage customer expectations before they arrive at the hotel. The hotel website is the perfect tool for doing so. Pages outlining what the hotel has to offer, room descriptions and plenty of photos ensure that guests know exactly what awaits them on arrival and prevent disappointment.
Trust
People are loyal to brands because they know they can trust them to meet their specific needs. Switching to a different brand means that a consumer must risk feeling dissatisfied with their purchase and losing both time and money in the process.
The question is: how do you persuade someone who has never stayed at your hotel to trust that they will have a fantastic experience? Consumers are aware that they cannot always trust what a hotel says about itself, but they know they can trust what other consumers say. This is where review sites become effective in building trust and encouraging visitors to make a booking. It is also important to monitor these platforms to manage what is being said about your hotel and brand. Any negative review should be handled professionally and within a reasonable timeframe to minimise the damage to your hotel’s credibility and overall brand image.
Brand values
Howard Schultz, CEO of Starbucks, once said that “if people believe they share values with a company, they will remain loyal to the brand”. Therefore, it is important that your brand ethos is built on solid values that your consumers are happy to support by engaging with your brand. Brand values that matter to today’s customers include
sustainability, trust, honesty, efficiency and innovation.
It is not enough simply to say that you have these values; customers must be able to see them throughout their experience. For example, if you want to be seen as a sustainable hotel, it is not enough simply to say that you are sustainable. Guests must be able to see this brand value in action throughout the hotel.
Being credible is not just about offering a high-quality product or service. It is about selling something that consumers are pleased to support, endorse and allow to represent them to the world. Consumers need to know that it is worth their continued investment of time and money.
It is about listening to what customers want and value, and responding accordingly. Get your brand credibility right and you will find that loyalty quickly follows.
