Efficient Responsiviness That Makes a Difference: A Hands-On Report

Together Bradford HomeSuites and UniFocus deployed a solution that minimizes the involvement of management’s time and maximizes the delivery of responsiveness to the guests.

The Bradford HomeSuites in Richardson, Texas sits in the heart of the Dallas/Ft. Worth Metroplex high tech business corridor. This area provides hotels with a healthy pool of repeat visiting business travelers. The Bradford HomeSuites’ limited-service platform entered the market when it opened its doors for business nine years ago. The encroachment of competition seeking to also cash in on the opportunity means it needs to continually find new ways to drive the loyalty of its customer base.

Since their guests are a high mix of repeat stayers, Bradford HomeSuites wants to develop a deeper relationship to maintain that business. One key element of the strategy is ‘attentiveness’, demonstrated by responding to any concerns as quickly as possible. The challenge is, as it is for many players in this market segment, that on-site management teams must make maximum use of their time allocated to any one activity.

Together, Bradford HomeSuites and UniFocus deployed a solution that minimizes the involvement of management’s time and maximizes the delivery of responsiveness to the guests.

How Technological Innovation Has Changed One Manger’s World

Bradford HomeSuites has been a beta tester of the next-generation Rapid Response Module in UniFocus’ Guest Response System. It is a Web-based interface with the GUESTScope™ survey results reporting application. With it management teams gain a high-tech tool that ensures they easily meet their responsiveness goals.

Jacob Wood, the Assistant Manager of the Richardson Bradford HomeSuites, was interviewed for this Hands On- Report. “Before this system, it used to take a long time to go through all of the surveys we received, sort them out by response categories and then answer them one by one.” Wood operates in a much different and efficient way now.

Sitting at his keyboard, Wood logs onto the UniFocus Web site and can immediately pull up guest survey responses presorted by positive, neutral and negative comments, depending on what he wants to look at. Bradford HomeSuites has a standardized communication strategy for all three categories. He can view up to 20 survey results in a single browser window. Through point-and-click features he quickly selects from company approved communication templates and remediation options listed in drop-down menus to create a response. If merited, he can insert personalized comments in the response by selecting that option. Then he clicks a delivery method: e-mail or postal mail, which prints a letter and an addressed envelope. He then moves on to the next guest as he scrolls down the page. At the bottom of the page he clicks on the “Send Selected Responses” button and he’s finished. In a matter of just a few clicks, he’s off to his next task. What used to take a good part of the day has just been completed in minutes and makes way for more personalized service for the guests who are currently on-site.

“I like the way I can get through our guest comments that we need to address and have time available to ‘Click Out’ some thank you notes to the ones who reported positive experiences. It makes me feel good when I receive reply e-mails back thanking us for our care and attention. Guests who had expressed concerns also write back after our reply and let us know they appreciate our acknowledging how we can make their stay better the next time. And they do come back. I have seen them. This system helps us develop a closer rapport with our guests and it is delivering reservations for future stays.”

What used to be a considerable task for hotel staff has now been made very manageable and, yes, obviously profitable. Wood was asked if he has seen other benefits from the combined guest survey and response systems. He specifically pointed out they have been using the system to guide the topics in the hotel’s quality assurance program, noting that since this was started their overall scores have gone up.