Putting the Guest at the Helm

The Venetian Resort Hotel & Casino

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.

On November 26, 1996 an explosion hit the Las Vegas strip that razed the Sands hotel and made way for a little bit of Italy to occupy that land. Indeed, in just 28 months, on May 3, 1999, the Venetian Resort Hotel and Casino opened its doors and redefined the culture of Las Vegas as an upscale travel destination. The Venetian takes one back to the spirit of Venice. Its goal is not only to transport visitors to the romantic charm that is the city of canals but also to provide its guests with the ultimate resort experience and exceptional guest relations.

To do so is a daunting task; best-in-breed guest care must be the commitment of the entire organization. It also requires critical tools, systems, and processes to guide its success. The management team must always have a complete sense of its performance through the eyes of the guest. The Venetian propels its success by not only being able to quickly react to guest concerns but also by being in a position to track and trend every individual area of its operations – a huge task given the enormity of its size.

The philosophy of The Venetian’s Vice President of Hotel Operations, Kirsten Dimond, is: “You cannot just be a firefighter reacting to isolated incidents. You must be able to get out in front, see the big picture, and constantly look for opportunities to improve guests’ experiences beyond the day-to-day service recovery. From a management perspective, we have a focus on what is actually driving customer satisfaction, not the customer complaints.”

While the difference in philosophy is subtle, the tools, systems and processes that make it a reality are not. Much thought and development has gone into the customized architecture of the UniFocus GUESTScope™ system, which is at the heart of the program. The scope of the feedback collection includes every guest touch point from reservation to checkout.

“To create an exceptional guest care environment you need facts, not just perceptions,” states Dimond. “If you simply look at a log of guest complaints or use a system that basically delivers just feedback of those on the two extreme ends of the satisfaction scale, you will develop a skewed view of the landscape. You need to create a program that brings open communications from all guests to your attention.”

Reinforcing that philosophy is The Venetian’s Vice President of Food & Beverage, Pete Boyd. “The fact is you are always going to have a certain percentage of ‘ranters’ and ‘ravers’ in this business. I find the real value is in the information collected from the middle; the ones who make suggestions or say they enjoyed the service very much, but …”

It is also important to clearly define the differentiators for which you intend to excel. “The Venetian has defined two main aspects of customer service that we intend to standout for in our guests’ minds: courtesy and efficiency,” points out Audra Ryan, Guest Relations Manager for The Venetian.

How the Program Works

To increase the number of responses so that they are statistically valid in their representation of the entire guest population, The Venetian uses UniFocus’ e-mail survey technology. By doing so, they have dramatically increased their response rate, going from an average of 1,000 surveys a month to over 5,000.

Each night The Venetian’s PMS passes fully encrypted survey criteria information for that day’s checkouts to the UniFocus data center. An e-mail survey invitation is automatically generated. A customized survey is created for each respondent because the UniFocus system already knows from the PMS data each guest touch point that was involved in the stay. Their unique survey is based on an algorithm that ensures valid statistical representation of each touch point for the final reports.

There are core elements of the guest experience that all respondents are asked about, such as the front desk or operations that currently need closer attention. The information is made richer by including open-ended comment sections in each module.

The results are made available in several ways. First, there is a Web-based quick response system interface that posts survey results in real-time as they are received. This allows guest relations to review the results for issues that need immediate response. Through this interface users can drill down to any level of the data. In many cases the process of issuing a response is done with just a few clicks of the mouse. UniFocus’ automated Guest Response System is wholly integrated with the Web-based reports. Through templates and customized response features, timely and personalized attention is accomplished.

Secondly, weekly performance reports with trend summaries are issued to each operational unit. This includes the full content of the comments. Each unit is responsible for reviewing and creating action plans to meet or exceed their performance goals. With the vast amount of data available they can isolate the cause of trends with actual facts that can be identified down to specific time periods, rooms, personnel or other elements.

“The real jewel here is in the detailed open-ended comments we get from guests that we normally would not have received,” states Boyd. He notes that many times suggestions of ways to ‘stand out’ are mined from these comments and become new programs, even when the hard numbers would have caused them to leave well enough alone.

Thirdly, senior management is issued an executive summary of performance results on a monthly basis. The report is tailored to shed light on overall performance as well as the performance on critical elements of The Venetian’s strategic plan. Trends are identified in the reports. Results that are above and below performance thresholds are spotlighted.

“It is important to have a tool that provides the executive team with an unbiased, dispassionate, and statistically reliable picture on how you are performing,” stresses Dimond.

Taking It to The Limits

The Venetian has also taken advantage of the capabilities of their guest feedback system to elevate the value of the program to a higher level. “Because of the volume of responses we receive, and the flexibility of the UniFocus system, we have begun to advance our knowledge-base through market testing different guest programs and treatments,” points out Dimond.

Things like new bed and bedding programs, guest amenities, service-level enhancements and much more can now be pre-tested. The system can market test and statistically validate guest reactions to strategic initiatives and determine their relative value in terms of impacting guest satisfaction. The testing provides management with the confidence of knowing that when resources are expended to roll out new programs they will truly enhance the guest experience.

The Venetian has been able to remain at the top of industry recognition for its delivery luxury and service. This is notable given the increasingly competitive Las Vegas market. It has done so with a management philosophy that includes guiding principles and clearly stated goals that have directed the investment in tools, systems and processes that guide the entire organization to success.