Why Delivering On Your Brand Promise Matters

Anna Ransom

Cooler weather and measurable snowfall have arrived near the Amadeus Hospitality Business Unit headquarters. It’s the season when many instinctively turn to their favorite warm beverage. Imagine this:

You visit your favorite establishment and order a hot chocolate through the drive-thru. You place your drink in your cupholder and drive away. After a few miles you finally you take that first body-warming sip but find that something is missing….. chocolate! How you would feel? Disappointed, frustrated, angry?

This scenario recently happened to a friend whose reaction was to post their experience on social media. They showed their actual cup of chocolate-less hot chocolate, inclusive of the branding of the establishment where the drink was purchased. When social media can easily reach hundreds, thousands, or millions of people, how does that seemingly small mistake reflect on their brand promise?

According to available research¹ about negative experiences,

95% of people will share it with others.
54% of people will share with more than 5 people.
45% will take to social media.
88% are influenced by the online reviews of others when making a purchase.

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Thinking back to the hot chocolate, hospitality professionals today face similar challenges. How can you effectively deliver on planner expectations to ensure flawless event delivery? The above cited research also shows that 69% of customers state that one marker of good customer service is the resolution or delivery of their request. Additionally, 63% indicate that addressing the concern appropriately the first time led to a good experience.

Understanding that good customer service is only one metric tracked by growing organizations, it’s also important to realize that 83% of consumers indicate that good customer service changed their behavior. Most notably, 52% made additional purchases and 51% recommended that company to others.

All these data points are interesting and potentially compelling, but how can you action on them? Let’s consider the reason that a prospect or customer may have reached out to you as a hospitality professional. Perhaps you’re engaging with a local planner and they need to reserve a boardroom for an executive meeting in two weeks. Time is short and they have so many logistics to arrange. Ask yourself:

How are you making this process easy for them?
What will you do to help them communicate all of their event details efficiently so they can focus on the more high-touch aspects of their meeting?
How will you reassure them that you understand all their event requirements and have the resources to deliver on their expectations?
How does booking and delivering this event impact your organization’s profitability?

Empowering your team with the tools they need to flawlessly deliver on group events is an effective way to ensure that you are delivering on your brand promise. Make sure that when any group has departed from your property, the planner can sit back with their chocolate-filled hot chocolate and reflect on the success of the event with a smile as they easily add your property to their short list of destinations for future events.

Let us show you how Sales & Catering solutions from Amadeus can help you deliver on your brand promise while meeting planner expectations.