1. “Achieving a Guest Obsessed Culture”
Culture Shock
“Achieving a Guest Obsessed Culture”
Andrew Gammage
Head of Quality & Guest Insight

2. Agenda How Premier Inn's has developed a Guest obsessed culture
Key Activities & Programmes
How Guest Recommend feedback has become an integral part of Premier Inn’s business
Team member behaviours
Brand decisions NH

3. About Premier Inn GT

4. Premier Inn history First Travel Inn opened in 1987 1998 - 200 sites
Largest UK hotel chain
Premier Lodge acquired
International
Re-brand to Premier Inn
Hotels

5. Premier Inn goals
Premier Inn’s strategy is to move from being a “great” Brand to a “world class” Brand
Two key components
Putting the guest at the heart of our business
Engaging all Team members in the journey
Understanding guest experience through
Measuring Brand standards
Ongoing the Guest research NH

6. The Premier Inn bedroom

7. People & Service GT

8. Good Night Guarantee Launched in 2001
Understand issues and fix problems
Continuous improvement
Customer retention
Team members empowered to fix problems
Consistency of product & service

9. “Delivering the Basics”
Brand Standards
“Delivering the Basics” NH

10. Brand Standards & Audit
Robust Brand Operating Standards
Hardlines which must be delivered
Guidelines - opportunities to tailor our approach & “wow” individual guests
Independent measurement through a comprehensive Brand Audit
External professional audit company
Every site audited twice a year (minimum)
Tough consequences of failure

11. “Using Guest Feedback to deliver a Guest obsessed Culture”
Guest Obsession
“Using Guest Feedback to deliver a Guest obsessed Culture” NH

12. Guest Recommend Programme conception
Previous guest satisfaction measured via a twice-yearly brand-level postal survey
Requirement for more frequent feedback at individual site level
Move from satisfaction to advocacy -Guest Recommend
ORC International worked with Premier Inn to implement monthly site-level measurement of guest satisfaction NH

13. How the Programme Works
sent to Guests within 24hrs of checks out
Guest clicks on link and completes online survey (1 to 5 scale) NH
Portal updated daily with the previous day’s surveys
Premier Inn can action findings within a couple of days of the guest’s stay

14. Real-time web-based reportingNH

15. Easy access across the organisation
Quick and easy access for all personnel
Portal facilitates sharing of best practice
Sites can see their own scores and those of other Premier Inn hotels
Top 10 sites are showcased at quarterly review meetings
Enables bottom 10 sites to learn from their example
Sites can track their own verbatim comments
Over half the hotels log on every day to keep track of their scores and read their comments NH

16. Guest Recommend Programme Outcomes
Brand level
Site level NH

17. Guest obsession is integral
Our focus on Customers is described as ‘Guest Obsession’
According to Premier Inn’s MD Patrick Dempsey, the research is “worth its weight in gold”
By acting on guest feedback, KPI scores continue to increase
Likelihood to recommend
Overall satisfaction
Likelihood to stay again
Value for money GT
“Our success will be achieved by listening to our Guests – and reacting quickly and instinctively to their feedback and future expectations”
(Patrick Dempsey, MD, Premier Inn)

18. Balanced scorecard
Premier Inn’s balanced scorecard includes the Guest Recommend & Brand Audit score
Key bonus measure
Guest measures are central to reward & recognition programme e.g. Conference
Stretch targets for each site and region
Hotels ‘chase green’ by exceeding their targets GT

19. Valuable insight
“The Guest satisfaction survey has potentially been the biggest change introduced in Premier Inn for many years, giving us valuable insight.
It tells us exactly what our guests think of the key aspects of the service and product that we provide, including whether or not they would recommend us to a friend or colleague.
We are committed to ensuring all our guests have a fantastic experience; the feedback really helps us to coach and train our team members to deliver this.” GT

20. Programme impacts on decisions made at a local level
Portal provides real-time data, all Team members know their performance
From night porter to housekeeping, they understand how to improve the guest experience
Hotel Teams can take quick tactical action based on guest feedback
Sites hold regular meetings to review feedback
All sites have a Guest action plan
GM’s talk to Guests about key focus areas GT

21. Informed significant strategic investment decisions
All brand decisions are underpinned by the likely impact on the Guest
Key Driver Analysis identifies which elements of the offer most likely to improve guest satisfaction
Decisions taken as a result of Guest Recommend include:
staff training
‘Good Night Guarantee’
Breakfast
In-room entertainment
Air-conditioning strategy
Refurbishment programme GT

22. Focusing on Premier Inn’s best assets
“Staff Care” - Key Driver of top box recommend
Developed enhanced Brand service standards
Improved staff training
Use to drive Staff awareness of their impact on the guest experience
Reward & recognition GT

23. Emphasis on Good Night Guarantee
Guest aware of the Guarantee are more likely to stay again
Use Recommend to measure check inn standards
Increased importance in Brand Audit
Drive awareness GT

24. New and improved breakfast
Review of guest feedback identified that the breakfast offering would benefit from improvement
Specifically food quality and product choice
New breakfast menus trialled
Survey used to measure Guest feedback
New breakfast concepts
New products
Healthy, vegetarian & ‘Superfoods’
All you can eat
Ratings for breakfast food quality and service are vastly improved as a result GT

25. Bedroom refurbishment
Guest Recommend survey used to assess impact
Six out of ten sites improve their guest recommend scores
Most sites improve bedroom &r bathroom scores
Findings help to determine the level of investment for the future bedroom upgrades
Guest Recommend scores help prioritise investment GT

26. Other Room Upgrades Entertainment
Survey data identified that 40% of guests did not give a positive rating for the in-room entertainment
Of those giving a negative score, most wanted to see Freeview channels included
Fast tracked the introduction of Freeview channels
Air-conditioning
As a value brand, air-conditioning was not offered as standard
Guest feedback from guests at city centre locations has driven air conditioning roll-out programme GT

27. 360º feedback to guests GT

28. The future NH

29. Evolving programme Regular reviews of the Guest Recommend programme
Questionnaire content
Reporting
Portal layout
More dynamic use of the questionnaire
Premier Inn Guest panel
Extending UK programme to cover overseas ventures & Whitbread Restaurants NH

30. Thank you
Questions?
NH & GT