Happy Staff, Happy Guests

Making your hotel a great place to work is key to making it a great place to stay.

Hotel guests often are able to pick up on the mood of the staff, and it can set the tone for their whole stay. I recently arrived at a hotel where I was spending the weekend for a friend’s wedding. When I stepped into the lobby with my suitcases and small dog, two front desk staffers were casually bantering back and forth, and didn’t look up or say hello. One word instantly popped into my mind: indifference.

Now, imagine a guest walking into a hotel where staff are happy, engaged and feel that they are treated fairly. Chances are they look up, greet the guest with genuine enthusiasm and set a very different tone. Satisfied staff spread cheer, provide stellar service, and have a better shot at making customers happy too.

In fact, research published in the Harvard Business Review found that in the hospitality industry, each one star increase in a company’s Glassdoor workplace rating translated to more than a three-point jump in customer satisfaction, according to study authors Andrew Chamberlain and Daniel Zhao.

Here are four reasons to infuse fun, fairness and humanity into your workplace culture, in addition to good working conditions, to keep staff and guests happy:

1. Moods can be catching. When I walked into this hotel recently, I was happy and excited to have finally arrived after a long drive and was looking forward to the wedding I would be attending the next day. When the front desk staff didn’t look up, and I instantly “felt” their disinterested attitude, my mood cooled a few degrees. I’m so used to being greeted cheerfully when walking into a hotel that the lack of acknowledgment felt cold. I quickly recovered my good mood, but the first impression was made.
2. Happy staff make connections. If the front desk staff at the hotel had been engaged in their work, they would have undoubtedly noticed me and my husband walking in. They probably would have smiled, made eye contact, greeted us and maybe made a comment about our dog or even offered him a treat. Staff who are bored, distracted, disinterested or similar may completely miss opportunities to make those little connections that form and build relationships with guests.
3. Engaged staff provide better service. Staff who are highly focused on their jobs are far better able to provide personalized service, which starts with the desire to notice details and go above and beyond. “An engaged employee is more present and tends to be more observant of any and all things that relate to guest emotions,” hospitality expert Jim Coyle states in an article on the power of happy hotel employees. Happy staff notice guests, connect with guests, make observations about guest needs and appear available and open to requests. Guests who notice that staff seem disengaged and disinterested may hesitate to approach with questions or requests, and staff will be less likely to ask how the stay is going or whether the guest needs anything.
4. Satisfied staff are more productive. Contented employees also can have a big impact on your bottom line. In fact, studies show that happy employees get more done, with a 21 percent increase in productivity. Engaged teams also experience 41 percent fewer days off work and 59 percent less turnover, according to Forbes. This data shows that keeping your employees happy can keep your hotel running smoothly and efficiently, ultimately adding up to big savings.

“Sales associates, cashiers, baristas, and bank tellers are prime examples in our data of service workers that make up a significant portion of employers’ labor pools, and whose personal experience with company culture (either good or bad) is transmitted daily to customers,” Chamberlain and Zhao wrote in the Harvard Business Review. Of course, this also applies to your front desk staff, concierge and housekeepers. They add that “customer and employee satisfaction should be seen as two sides to the same coin.”