Customer sentiment remains strong towards hospitality

NPS across the hospitality industry are up compared with pre-lockdown, but there was a drop this weekend compared with opening weekend, according to the new Customer Sentiment Tracker from Feed It Back and KAM Media.

The companies are collaborating to create a regular Customer Sentiment Tracker to help the industry understand changing customer satisfaction levels as it re-opens.

“We saw a drop in NPS score this weekend, compared with re-opening weekend but we don’t see this as cause for concern” comments Carlo Platia, CEO at Feed It Back. “Re-opening weekend is likely to have attracted the keenest and most enthusiastic hospitality supporters so the high score last weekend will reflect this. Overall satisfaction ratings were fairly stable.”

“We’ll keep a careful eye on this, across the different hospitality channels, during these critical initial few weeks and months. The new Customer Sentiment Tracker, with KAM Media, aims to help the industry keep track of how customers are feeling overall” continues Platia.

Comparing this week’s feedback across all hospitality channels, an impressive 93% of those who visited pubs and restaurants at the weekend said that the venues new procedures made them feel safe enough to return, a slight drop from re-opening weekend.

Katy Moses, MD at KAM Media comments: “The feedback we are seeing from customers shows that the vast majority are feeling happy with the new procedures which operators have adopted, which is testament to the hard work and commitment which the industry is putting in to ensure that customers feel safe.”

Of the 7% who said they did not feel safe enough to return, the number one reason given was they felt hygiene measures weren’t up to expectation. Comments captured by Feed it Back cited things like ‘lack of masks’, ‘servers touching glasses’ and ‘lack of disposable menus’ as things that concerned them. Lack of social distancing was the second largest cause for concern.

“Desire for masks and gloves in hospitality venues were relatively low on a customer’s list according to KAM research pre-opening, but they were more in demand in food-led venues than drink-led. Obviously different customers will have very different expectations and desires in different venues. There is certainly not a one size fits all solution and satisfying everyone is virtually impossible” comments Moses.

“Listening to customers and staff on a very regular basis is obviously even more critical while we navigate these first few months. Ensuring customers feel safe is key and perception is reality – give more cautious customers the option to find out exactly what to expect before they visit the venue. And most importantly give them the opportunity to feedback on their experience and react to their comments.”

The new tracker measures key KPI’s focussed on customer sentiment including NPS and satisfaction ratings covering cleanliness, atmosphere, service and value. If you’d like to receive the new customer sentiment tracker, from Feed It Back and KAM Media, please email hello@kam-media.co.uk or allears@feeditback.com

KAM Media

KAM Media is a boutique research consultancy, specialising in hospitality and retail. Our research and insights tools, and services, are designed to give our clients the critical knowledge needed to understand why, where, when and how to create an impactful and engaging customer experience, at every stage of the journey.

For more information contact:

Katie Jenkins – KAM Media – katie@kam-media.co.uk

Feed It Back

Feed It Back is a company that tracks the word on the street about operators, through immediate feedback on experiences and online review platforms, such as Facebook and TripAdvisor. It aggregates all feedback into one easy to use platform that allows operators to efficiently deal with feedback they otherwise wouldn’t have heard, reward employees for excellent service and turn negative experiences into positives.

It currently boasts a range of clients including: Loungers, Boston Tea Party, Tenpin, Brains, and Paul UK, to name a few.

For further information, contact allears@feeditback.com