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Improving a Net Promoter Score: 4 Ways to Bolster Your Hospitality Business

This article was published on August 2, 2021

In the highly competitive hospitality industry, improving a net promoter score (NPS) can be vital for businesses that want to stay on top. As a loyalty- and retention-management tool, NPS gauges the likelihood that customers will recommend your brand or product to others. Because companies with world-class NPS tend to command premium valuation and consistently higher sales and margins, NPS is widely used as a lead indicator of a company's financial performance.

In the hospitality industry, effective customer service that relies on strong communications technology can go a long way toward improving a net promoter score.

With this measurement in mind, today's organizations are increasingly embracing customer experience management and the general importance of building customer loyalty as leading factors in a business' overall performance. And in hospitality, where successful organizations depend on strong customer interactions and brand trust, gaining a competitive edge in the industry often means diligently monitoring the organization's NPS. Here's why.

Measuring NPS in Hospitality

To determine NPS, organizations ask customers one question: How likely are you to recommend this business to a friend or family member? Based on their answers, customers are established as either promoters, who are likely to recommend the business, or detractors, who are unlikely. The final NPS is derived from subtracting the percentage of detractors from the percentage of promoters, resulting in a value between -100 and +100.

Different industries have different standard NPS criteria and score ranges, but generally any score above zero is considered good, and anything above +50 is considered excellent. According to a recent report published by the Temkin Group, the hotel industry has an average NPS score of 33, ranking above other industries like retail (29), banking (21), or healthcare (19). Ultimately, the NPS is not just another metric for your organization; it's a measure of how your business stacks up against competitors within the industry.

Any good business knows that friendliness and cordiality are requirements in hospitality, and proper communications can create that air of welcoming that makes guests feel at home — while boosting NPS along the way.

4 Steps Toward Improving a Net Promoter Score

For hotels and other businesses in hospitality, improving a net promoter score often means having the right communications technology in place to support effective customer engagement. Here are four ways to build brand loyalty and improve the customer experience.

1. Offer Rewards

Implementing a loyalty rewards program is a solid way to keep customers engaged and bolster brand awareness. With unified communications-as-a-service (UCaaS), you can send surveys via chat app or SMS that reward customers with points upon completion. Customers can also earn points by booking lodging online through the website or via an AI-powered chatbot, and they can use their points for discounts on future stays. What's more, UCaaS allows you to collect customer information in real time and in one centralized location, no matter which channel — voice, chat app, SMS, email, etc. — customers use to interact with the business. With a fully integrated loyalty program distributed through UCaaS, your business gains critical data for improving the company — which services are lacking, which ones are knocking it out of the park — and establishes better customer engagement.

2. Nurture Promoters

Loyalty programs can certainly help build your promoter base, and giving unexpected benefits to already-existing promoters can go a long way toward making those customers your brand advocates. Send SMS messages with unexpected rewards and promotions to valuable customers to help cultivate strong relationships with them. Use communications APIs to send unexpected bonus promotions through chat apps like Facebook Messenger or WeChat. No matter how you choose to reward your promoters, you'll surely see the benefits of nurturing these relationships in your next NPS assessment.

3. Minimize Detractors

When analyzing your NPS, don't write off the haters, as detractors can help identify existing pain points in your operations. One way to decrease the number of detractors you have is to diligently address the grievances they air, and with an omnichannel contact center, you can gather data in real time in order to quickly resolve customer issues. Customers can call in via their preferred device and convey their issue to an AI-powered chatbot that then passes the customer along to a human agent best equipped to handle the concern. This type of seamless communication and customer engagement can easily put out fires and ultimately convert detractors.

4. Integrate Personalization

Part of improving a net promoter score is making each customer feel like they're your only customer. By personalizing communications through intuitive customer service integrations, you ensure each customer feels respected and heard every time they interact with the company. Consider a hotel that integrates Zendesk into its existing CRM to track incoming calls in real time, for example. Just before the call comes through, the front desk hotel employees receive a screen pop on their CRM with information about the caller, their reason for calling, and any other relevant details. The employees can then answer the call already informed and ready to handle the caller's question or concern, providing personalized attention and building loyalty in the process.

Cultivating Communication

Ultimately, improving NPS means building relationships with customers through effective communication, especially in an industry that depends on customer satisfaction and engagement. With an omnichannel cloud-based communications platform, a hotel can access the tools and agility necessary to keep customers connected and promoters engaged. More importantly, the platform can scale as you build your promoter base, keeping processes productive and automated.

Any good business knows that friendliness and cordiality are requirements in hospitality, and proper communications can create that air of welcoming that makes guests feel at home — while boosting NPS along the way.

Jea Yu
Jea Yu Contributor

Jea Yu is a co-founder of Undergroundtrader.com, the premiere virtual trading desk and trader education site that has served over 10,000 traders, fund managers and investors worldwide since 1998. His brainchild was voted Forbes Best of the Web for four consecutive years under the active trader category. Jea also produces The Morning Profit Maker service on Marketfy.com, which seeks to capture his proprietary Perfect Storm patterns within the first 90 minutes of the trading day to generate consistent morning income stream for members. Jea has published four best-selling books and has spoken at expos and seminars around the world. He specializes in finance and technology and always stays on the cutting edge of strategy development.

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