Emotional Engagement

WHAT IS EMOTIONAL ENGAGEMENT?

 According to the dictionary, emotion is ‘something that causes a reaction’ and it is exactly what
hotel brands are trying to achieve through ‘emotional engagement’.
 Hotels now make every possible effort to improve the state of mind of the guest in a positive way.

HOW IT CAN BE MEASURED? By Questions such as-

 ‘Did the staff smile and greet you in a friendly manner?’
 ‘Did the staff engage in personalized conversation?’
 ‘Did the staff make an eye contact?’
 ‘Did the staff bid a fond farewell and welcome you back?’

Will be used to measure ‘emotional engagement’

 Other factors such as ambiance, the flow of service and the general environment will determine
the ‘emotional engagement’ score.

More than 50% of a Guest's experience is about emotions

PAMPERING THE GUEST

 Do everything you can to make your guests feel comfortable while at your property.
 Do everything you can to fix any potential issues, which may arise.

TECHNOLOGY: GOOD OR BAD?

 Technology is significant and expected by the guest. Although it helps in many ways to improve the
guest experience, do not let it become a barrier to ‘emotional engagement’.
 Your colleagues should make an eye contact and not focus on the computer screen while talking to
the guest.
 Smile and greet the guest when passing and make conversation while taking an order on a handheld
device.
 Technology will always be the key to your operation but be sure that your colleagues do not leave out
the human touch.
 The Importance of Emotional Engagement in
Guest Experience
Hotels who deliver a positive emotional experience have seen Guest loyalty
improvements that include:

 15x more likely to recommend the Hotel

 8x more likely to trust the Hotel
 7.8x more likely to try new products offered by the Hotel
 7x more likely to purchase more from the Hotel
 6x more likely to forgive a mistake

Five ways to build Emotional Engagement into

your Guest journey
1. Know what emotional triggers exist currently in your experience. One of the most
important things you need to do to build emotional engagement into your guest journey is to
know what you are currently putting out there. The best way to approach this understanding is
to walk the experience as if you were a guest yourself.

2. Define what emotion you want your experience to evoke. It’s important to define what
emotion you want your current experience to generate. Do you want to take care of your
guest? Surprise and delight them? Make them feel like an honored guest? All the above?
Knowing what the end goal is makes it easier to create a plan for getting there.

3. Listen to your Guests…a lot. Having an open channel of communication with your guests
is essential to getting the information you need to create a better experience for them. You
need to read between the lines and look at what they feel and discover the truth of what your
guests want. You need to look for this truth and understanding of what drives value for your
guests to create an experience that meets your emotional goals.

4. Identify your Guests’ subconscious experience. Be aware that your Hotel is constantly
giving signals to your customers of what they think about them. For example, banks put
pens on to chains in their branches, which says ‘we don’t trust you’. Hotels keep guests
is on hold for 20 minutes which send is a signal that you do not really value them. What
subconscious experiences are you giving your customer’s? Moreover, are these the ones that
you want to give?

5. Never stop improving the experience. Having a customer-focused culture at your Hotel
is not a project that meets a target and is complete. You should measure how the guest feels.
Furthermore, the guest experience is always changing and so then does the target. It is
always evolving into something new with different challenges and pitfalls. Keeping an
emotionally engaging experience is a continuous, not a one-off.