Level Up Your Team Development by Listening to Guest Feedback

Believe it or not, your guests are telling you how to improve your restaurant.

All you have to do is listen. It’s what the best hospitality brands do. 

It seems simple, but it doesn’t happen by chance. You can’t just leave out a comment card and call it a day. 

It takes a proactive approach to gathering guest feedback, then a disciplined effort to design and implement targeted staff trainings to improve the areas that were identified. 

Just like leveraging guest feedback can drive repeat business, it can change the game for your guest service standards as well. So we’re taking a deep dive on some of the more well-renowned hospitality brands who are doing it right: The Ritz-Carlton, Chick-Fil-A and Shake Shack. 

The Ritz-Carlton: Excellence at Every Touchpoint

The Ritz-Carlton is synonymous with legendary service. With a well-defined and intensive training program – Ritz Carlton Gold Standards – they’ve set the benchmark for luxury hospitality worldwide.

This is all built on a rigorous guest feedback system. A combination of post-stay electronic surveys and monthly phone calls helps determine performance relative to the company's brand promise. Hotels are categorized as green, yellow, or red zones based on performance percentiles, with world-class status around the 97th percentile.

The brand learned that when employees produce a 4% increase in customer engagement scores companywide, they gain an extra $40 million in incremental revenue. This is a substantial payoff for using guest feedback to guide employee trainings and guest standards. 

Shake Shack: Training Staff to Deliver a “Feel Good" Experience

Shake Shack created a robust program that uses guest feedback to improve their training programs. They collect customer feedback through digital customer surveys and QR codes.

They focus on areas for improvement in categories including service, food quality, cleanliness, and overall customer experience. Employee input is also encouraged to stay informed about first-hand customer preferences.

Through this, they found that guests with a positive first experience at Shake Shack are 40%-60% more likely to revisit in the next six months. Training employees to deliver these types of experiences, informed by guest feedback, is leading to high levels of customer satisfaction and repeat business.

Chick-Fil-A: “My Pleasure”

Chick-fil-A stands out in the fast-food industry for actively addressing customer feedback. 

They review some 20,000 points of feedback each day through surveys, social media, customer service calls and their dedicated Customer Service page.

This feedback informs their “Culture of Care” and is integrated into their comprehensive training program, where staff are coached to focus on empathy, active listening and problem solving. This customer-centric approach has shown customers that they genuinely care. In fact, “It’s Their Pleasure.”

Collect. Evaluate. Train. Repeat.

Take your training program to the next level – get proactive about listening to what your customers are trying to tell you. Incorporating what they’re saying into your staff training program can transform your dining experience.

If you want to up your guest feedback collection game, Ziosk makes it simple. Our table tablet system seamlessly integrates surveys into the payment process – leading to a high response rate of one in three guests. The insights you gain from their feedback can lead to better-trained staff, a better experience and better business performance.