In between the York and James rivers, near the
Virginia coast, is a place that was once Virginia’s colonial and then its state
capital when the dream of American freedom and independence was taking
shape and being enacted. Today, it remains preserved in that period, embodying the spirit
of the American Revolution. Colonial Williamsburg has become renowned for safeguarding
the past in order to serve the future, and its mission is “that
the future may learn from the past.” While visiting here will
take one back more than 200 years, its revolutionary roots still
guide the approach being taken to ensure visitors realize the
experience that is the promise of Colonial Williamsburg.
Joe O’Callahan, assistant to the president of the Colonial
Williamsburg Company’s hospitality group, oversees Colonial
Williamsburg’s guest satisfaction program. “The challenge
is to understand that Colonial Williamsburg has a very loyal
following which goes back generations,” says O’Callahan.
“Our visitors have clear expectations of the experience and
service quality they will enjoy here; it’s a very high standard.
Maintaining this standard calls for a comprehensive program,
with the voice of the guest at its center. To do this, we have
employed the latest in guest feedback technology.”
It is O’Callahan’s belief that guest feedback is critical to the
success of the entire organization. He uses the phrase
“listening posts” when he speaks of the many survey
points incorporated into the program. In the hospitality
industry, where the key to success is managing the guest
experience, O’Callahan’s analogy of listening posts takes on a
new importance. For guest feedback information to truly be
actionable it must take a more real-time dimension.
Use Technology to Make Guest Feedback Actionable and Valuable
Division, Colonial Williamsburg has been able to undertake
several innovative steps in the design and implementation of
its guest feedback system (GFS). “We view guest feedback
research as one of the investments you are going to get the
most mileage out of,” O’Callahan states. “We clearly are
already seeing payoffs from this program.”
There are several elements of a GFS that are essential for a
program to be successful in driving loyalty, O’Callahan points
out. They include:
- Questionnaires must not limit guest reaction to
only the areas you want to know about, or just the
metrics needed to assess performance — they must
let guests tell you what they want to tell you
- Data collection must be as close to real-time as
possible and use methods that align with the
lifestyle of the guests for comprehensive results
- Reporting of the findings must be equally realtime
in order to be actionable and drive timely
improvements
- Culturally, an organization must be primed to
manage from the information collected under
executive leadership of continuous improvement
- Follow-up and action plan processes must be
formalized and considered an operational standard in
order to ensure the program’s successful execution
The UniFocus guest feedback process used by Colonial
Williamsburg includes an open-ended comments
feature for each question asked. This allows guests
the ability to comment on any of their perceptions. O’Callahan
reports that while some guests may give high scores in a
certain category, because of their degree of loyalty, they
might make suggestions for further improvements, or indicate
there was something different from their past experiences.
“This makes the data rich. We now know the true meaning
behind the numbers in any category; be they good or less than
desired,” he says. The listening post is only as good as the
amount of and type of information it lets come in. In highly
loyal hospitality environments, where guests feel ownership in
maintaining quality standards, they are more inclined to give
the kind of comprehensive feedback that keeps them loyal.
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Collecting the guest feedback as close to the experience as
possible is essential. Colonial Williamsburg uses UniFocus’
Web-based questionnaire system for immediate turnaround.
Guests’ e-mail addresses are harvested through various means
such as capture from the reservation system, or by asking the
guest. Upon check out, the system automatically sends the
guest an e-mail asking for their feedback. It typically arrives
before the guest has returned home. Each e-mail address ties
back to key PMS data such as length of stay, rate, number of
guests in the party, group type, etc. To supplement the e-mail
sample, additional direct-mail invitations are randomly sent to
guests with just addresses in the PMS. Those respondents
are directed to go to a different Web site where they enter an
identifying code that ties all of their data together. Visitors to
the historic dining taverns are asked to visit the Web site and
rate their experiences via an invitation printed on their receipt.
O’Callahan reports great success with this hybrid methodology
at the hotel properties. The overall response level is over 40
percent and represents a true cross-section of guests. Most
responses are reported back to management just days after
the guests have checked out.
It is the real-time aspect of the reporting system that makes
the GFS such a vital tool. Using UniFocus’ Web-based
management reporting system, information can now be acted
on while it is fresh. O’Callahan says this makes several matters
easier. One, they have a real-time snapshot of performance. Two, they
already have surprising service recovery stories through direct
contact with guests. “Many times guests are pleasantly surprised
that management was so carefully reviewing their responses and
cared enough to reach out, let alone within just a few days
of their departure,” says O’Callahan. The Colonial Williamsburg
staff has become more involved in the issues raised by
the guest comments because the information is not dated.
“Typically, in the case of a facility issue, we can now resolve it
in a much shorter period of time,” O’Callahan went on to say.
The listening posts and real-time delivery of the information
mean service or facility issues that are detected can be
addressed rapidly before another guest raises it. Significantly
reducing the lag time between guest comment and corrective
action is a very important benefit of the program.
The UniFocus reporting system for Colonial Williamsburg
has an embedded action plan component. With drag-anddrop
features, issues identified in the online report can be
immediately assigned to an individual for resolution. The
person making the assignment can then track progress and
be notified of resolutions. This is a key part of the processes
of listening to the guests, identifying improvements, taking
corrective action and tying the action to a goal, which is
tracked for resolution.
Organizationally, Colonial Williamsburg has taken steps to
ensure that the information collected in the GFS influences its
operational standards. Review of the data on a daily basis is an
integral part of operational performance. Detailed reports on
specific issues identified by guests flow into the action plan
system that ensures accountability and follow-up, so issues
cannot fall through the cracks. The online reporting system
also allows for the creation of executive-level summaries
based on any specified time period. Colonial Williamsburg
produces these on a weekly basis. In addition, information
collected from the GFS is also used in training, making
it truly a part of the continuous improvement process.
“By the way some of our newer guests react when we
contact them regarding their comments, I can tell that we
are doing something truly revolutionary in this industry,”
remarks O’Callahan. “They are delighted that we care
about what they had to say and value their feedback so
highly. We fundamentally know that in the long-term this kind
of management attitude and operational process will foster
guest loyalty, but we have already seen the needle move
in the short-term.”
The services of UniFocus engaged by Colonial Williamsburg in the
development of its GFS include: UniFocus’ GUESTScope™, which
features custom methodologies in addition to e-mail and Webbased
technology. The scientific questionnaire design allows for
industry benchmarking. As an ASP, UniFocus hosts and manages
the feedback collection system and the robust automated online
reporting applications that include ACTIONScope™, a dynamic, userfriendly
action planning system.
Article approved by, and photos
courtesy of, The Colonial Williamsburg
Foundation, Williamsburg, VA
Reprinted from FocusEd, Fall 2004 edition.
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