Effectively handling complaints in any industry is important, but it seems to be particularly critical in the hotel industry. Research from as early as 1985 suggests that when people have had a bad experience in a hotel and their complaint is not handled effectively, seventy-five percent will tell someone else. In fact, they'll tell twelve other people.

 Here's what the research specifically reveals about hotel complaints:
 

• Men will complain more about service failures than women. And this is the case even when gender differences are factored into who stays in the hotel.

• By and large people complain more about equipment failures (room too noisy, bed not comfortable, toilet doesn't work) than they do about personal service failures (bell man took too much time coming to the room, front desk clerk was rude). This doesn't necessarily mean that the majority of the problems that guests face are about equipment failures. It just means they are more likely to complain about equipment failures.

• Hotel guests tend to be less satisfied with the way that personal service failures are handled than the way that  equipment failures are fixed.

• "When" a customer complains makes a big difference in terms of satisfaction. If a customer complains during the check-in process, the way the event is handled by the hotel generally doesn't result in greater satisfaction. The way hotels frequently fix complaints during the check-in process is to upgrade the customer to a nicer room. This suggest that they are trying to "buy the customer" off, and this not be the best way to satisfy customers. This means that hoteliers need to focus on solving the kinds of complaints guests have before and when checking in. These probably include long lines at the check-in counters, poorly handled luggage issues, hotel transportation systems, reservations issues, etc.

• Research about complaints in hotels also suggests that when hotels track complaints, they tend to indicate the nature of the complaint, and what was done to satisfy the customer. But rarely do hotels attempt to quantify the level of customer happiness or satisfaction with the complaint resolution. This strikes us as crucial, because this will undoubtedly determine whether the guest will return again. And if staff aren't tracking guest reactions, they probably aren't paying much attention to them. They are more likely focusing on the issue, rather than the guest.

We recommend that hotels look carefully at the personal side of their service. We have long maintained that hotels, in particular, will find it difficult to create perfect experiences for all their guests. As a result, hotels need to work very hard at creating socially pleasant situations for their guests as the "equipment" side of a hotel isn't so noticeable when people are having a good time. This is not to say that a certain standard don't need to be in place. 

It does suggest, however, that loyalty with hotel guests is created by the personal feelings that they share with hotel staff. We know a top notch hotelier who has served as a general manager for some of the best hotels in the world. He's very clear when he says, "Ninety-five percent of our service failures are human related. Could our beds be better? Perhaps, though they are darn good," he says. "The loyalty with our guests and also the failure with our guests, however,  is almost always people related."

Janelle Barlow, Coauthor
A Complaint Is a Gift
 
 
 

Previous "Complaint Is A Gift Corner" pages: 
 

#1	Overselling Service
#2	Not Listening to Complaints
#3	Plastic Chicken
#4	Complaints You Can Do Nothing About
#5	A+ Complaint Handling
#6	Beware! Others are Watching You
#7	At Least Keep Talking!
#8	Let Customers Know You'll Tell Someone
#9	If You're Going to Apologize, Then Mean It
#10	Keep Front-life Staff Well Informed
#11	Don't Set Goals to Reduce Complaints
#12	Products Used During Special Events
#13	Best Practices of Complaint-friendly Organizations
#14	Complaints About Mother Nature!
#15	Socially Offensive Situations
#16	A Complaint Is a Gift in Action
#17	Information Systems  Users' Complaints, I
#18	Information Systems  Users' Complaints, II
#19	Creating an Internal Service Culture
#20	When Your Customers are Industrial Buyers
#21	Customers Who are Poor Complainers
#22	Complaints That are Difficult to Talk About
#23	Do You Mistreat Your Customers?
#24	Fairness: Treatment of Staff
#25	Expectations and Complaints
#26	Successful Toll-free Experiences
#27	Small Companies and Service
#28	A Banking Customer Strikes Back

We invite you to submit your "best" examples by fax or e-mail. We won't print any company names with the "poor" examples, because we believe that every organization fails from time to time. We will give credit to companies delighting their customers. In the case of the "poor" examples, we'll comment on how we think this situation could have been handled better. If you want us to list your name, please tell us that is what you want to do.

A Complaint Is a Gift, The Training Program 

A Complaint Is a Gift, The Book

Note: We have been getting e-mail from our readers asking us to list the names of the companies who get complaints. Our policy is to never list names. The reason for this is because every company fails from time to time, and we wouldn't want to tar some company's name just because of one bad example. Furthermore, we are dependant upon the writer's side of the story. We don't know for sure what happened, and in the name of fairness, we will not post names. Furthermore, the purpose of this corner is not to pass complaints along to corporations. This Complaint Is a Gift corner is designed to look at examples of good and bad complaint handling so we can learn from these experiences. Please, if you have a direct complaint you want a company to learn about, contact them directly. In many cases, we have never heard of the company in question and have no idea how to reach them. Janelle Barlow

tel: 702 939-1800

fax: 702 939-1804

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