Five Tips to Maximize ROI From Guest Feedback

Follow this formula for the best ROI³ (Return on Investment In Information)

Guest experience feedback is one of the best tools your team has to help create a winning culture for guests and staff. We asked guest experience innovator, Scot Carson, founder and CEO of Amusement Advantage, Inc., to share his top tips for making the most of both negative and positive feedback. Read on as Scot shares his tried and true steps to making the most of critical guest feedback.

Step 1: Understand that perception IS reality.

First and foremost, you must truly accept and embrace feedback, even if you don’t agree with it. Guest experience is often shaped by perceptions, which become that guest’s reality.  If they share their perceptions either privately or publicly, their perceptions then impact other people’s perceptions as well. One guest’s perceptions can become a much greater reality. If you don’t agree with it or understand it, you must get more information so you can best take action. Ignore or dismiss guest perceptions as wrong or inaccurate at your own peril! Embrace challenges and issues as opportunities.

Step 2: Get organized.

The more resources you have in place to quickly, effectively, and efficiently monitor and manage all types of feedback, the more return you will get on this information. Invest in information with people and systems to quickly deal with all forms of feedback received from all channels. Timing and quality of responses and actions taken can have a huge impact on effectiveness.

Step 3: Dive into the (many) details.

The devil is in the details and far too often we focus on percentages, statistics, overviews, and trends, neglecting the root cause of the issue. Remember the Five W’s? Who,  What, When, Where, and Why? Take a hard look at all the information available to you. Then, dig deeper and find out everything you can to formulate a strategy to address the issues presented. Customize feedback collection to focus on recurring issues and drill-down on the Five W’s even further.

Step 4: Remember that engagement is key.

When possible and appropriate, follow up with the source of feedback. More  importantly, engage others internally to discuss the feedback provided. First, challenge your own  understandings and strive to gain a new level of comprehension from other people’s perspective within  your organization. Then as a group, use brainstorming and creative problem solving to look for solutions.  Try the SCAMPER* technique: Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate and Reverse/Replace. (*from Odyssey of the Mind Creative Problem-Solving Competitions).

Step 5: Celebrate wins.

Last but not least, celebrate all positive feedback. We all thrive on encouragement and want to win at our jobs. Detailed guest feedback that pinpoints specific individuals’ contributions should always be recognized publicly. These situations provide many golden opportunities to build up teams and individuals and cultivate a positive working environment. This will create an encouraging and productive culture—which will ultimately fuel more great experiences for guests!

Have questions for Scot? Contact him at sales@amusementadvantage.com.