GuestInsight Makes The Grade Helping Future Hoteliers Understand The Importance Of Independent Guest Satisfaction Research
This past spring, GuestInsight provided Southern Utah University's Hospitality Management Program with a guest satisfaction measurement system, at no cost, for use as a teaching mechanism. Dr. Emmett Steed, a noted hospitality educator, recently described how he came to us with the request and how it was implemented:
This past spring, GuestInsight provided Southern Utah University's Hospitality Management Program with a guest satisfaction measurement system, at no cost, for use as a teaching mechanism. Dr. Emmett Steed, a noted hospitality educator, recently described how he came to us with the request and how it was implemented:
"I routinely read several daily e-mails to stay abreast of developments in the hospitality industry. Of particular interest to me are electronic applications that may save labor, the greatest expense in the industry. I share the information I find with my students, or I archive articles that are pertinent to my research. On one day I found a reference to GuestInsight. In my industry experience the companies I worked for either conducted guest feedback surveys in-house, or hired a third party to send surveys to departed guests. Both of these methods experienced significant time delays. At least the third party approach reduced the ability of local employees to manipulate results. So, when I saw a solution that reduced manipulation and also provided immediate feedback, I wanted my students to know about it."
"To give students in my Lodging Operations class a hands-on experience (which I feel is a better learning opportunity than simply reading about something), I asked GuestInsight for an opportunity to allow student experimentation. We frequently conduct tours of hospitality operations, so I asked students to rate the most recent hotel toured. After the students had responded to the survey, I asked them to access the survey results and to interpret them. Thanks to GuestInsight, my students now understand how guests can easily provide feedback about their stay, and how management can quickly access the guest feedback and appropriately respond. Thank you GuestInsight!"
GuestInsight is a state-of-the-art service that keeps hotel and resort guests engaged after they have checked out. A proprietary suite of e-communication and market research technology tools afford guests the opportunity to share their insights about their stay through a Web-based guest satisfaction interview. At the same time, hotel managers are able to quickly take the pulse of guest satisfaction. GuestInsight's on-demand research reporting module "scores" the surveys in real-time and gives management a quantifiable index of guest satisfaction at any point in time. Through a secure custom Web portal, hotel managers have the ability to see a snapshot view of how their property(ies) is faring, drill down into specific time periods, and look at individual question results, if desired. The GuestInsight "on the fly" scoring algorithm computes individual scores for operating areas of a hotel property (i.e. guest services, accommodations, food service), as well as generates an overall property score.
After spending 25 years in hotel management positions such as area vice-president, general manager, and vice-president operations controller, Emmett Steed returned to school for a Ph.D. at University of Nevada, Las Vegas in Hospitality Administration. Dr. Steed was hired by Southern Utah University to launch the hospitality management program, where the program has grown to approximately 40 majors and 150 students. Dr. Steed's favorite phrase for his students is, "People do business with people they know and trust".