Julia Forsyth explains how hotels can improve guest feedback with BigEars automated telephone surveys

Julia Forsyth of UK-based BigEars wants to revolutionize the way hoteliers experience guest feedback. Read our interview with her interview below:

What inspired you to create BigEars?

Hotels don’t generally do a good job of getting feedback from guests. They typically have a paper form to fill in as you are checking out, or a web survey which they email you shortly after your stay. Paper surveys are not likely to be filled in during checkout, more likely to be put into a handbag or pocket and forgotten about. Web surveys, completed a few days later, may have a higher uptake than the paper ones, but for people traveling on holiday, web time in precious and they won’t want to waste it filling in a survey, and for other people, the email arrives a few days after the stay so memories of the details of checking out procedure or first impressions of the room or bar can be hazy.

How does your product, BigEars, solve that problem? What makes you different?

Our product is different because we can target the guest close to the point of experience. Hotels can ask questions of guests during their stay, when the hotel and its environment is most relevant to them. You can give them a speed dial (or extension to dial) from the bedroom after they check in and get their first impressions of the reception, the room, the staff. You can reward them with a voucher to use at the bar. Guests can call the survey from the cab on the way to the airport immediately after checking out.

We can do clever things with texting, too – guests can text a short code to take the survey and our system calls them straight back – meaning the call costs them nothing and they don’t have to dial a long number – this text and call back feature has been hugely successful for targetting the under 30 demographic. We’ve also noticed that over 55s are more likely to take one of our phone surveys than a web survey.

What key things have you learned as you created BigEars?

“Talking isn’t work”! People leave much richer more insightful comments on a short telephone feedback line than they would write in a box on a web or paper survey. Also the power of audio is often overlooked or underestimated; really hearing the voice of your customer tells you so much more about their experience at your hotel than reading text on a traditional survey.

Our surveys are not designed for long in depth qualitative questions. They are to give customers the opportunity to tell the hotel what they think, in their own time and on their terms.
It’s a fantastic marketing opportunity for hotels to utilise.

What surprised you the most during development?

Actually, that the majority of calls to feedback lines are with very positive comments.
That audio is incredibly powerful and that hearing peoples’ real voices in their own regional accent and with their own turn of phrase really brings customer satisfaction to life.

How does BigEars make money for you? For hotels?

The ROI for hotels comes from really being able to understand their customers better and proactively manage standards. Hotels can match their performance to their customers’ expectations and really stay ahead of the competition. Now a days the voice of one guest can be amplified on the web…one blogger can communicate his/her thoughts about a hotel stay to thousands of followers. Our tool allows hotels to really listen to and appreciate their guests, encouraging repeat business, recommendations and customer endorsements. Staff interactions can make or break a guest’s experience. Staff training is something that can be actively managed with insightful customer feedback.

The goal of this blog is to encourage hotels to create memorable experiences for their guests. How does your product assist with this?

BigEars is a great tool for enhancing a customer’s experience. With clever dialogue design and branching questions the survey can be kept really short. With creative voice talent and script writing the survey can actually reinforce your brand. Customers really feel listened to and valued when you ask for feedback and then demonstrate that you have heard them and are acting on thier suggestions.

Have a speed dial from the hotel room to ask a question about the check in experience and for their first impressions on the room they have booked. Offer a free drink at the bar as an incentive to participate. Hearing a guest articulate what they LOVE about the room is incredibly valuable; playing the audio clip of a delighted customer to check in staff is a fantastic motivater for staff training… a customer saying how much they appreciated being greeted warmly and taken care of is a great way to reinforce the importance of doing this to reception staff.

What features do you have planned for the future?

The thing we’ve added most recently is the ability to tweet audio links. It’s great for adding content to a Twitter feed. Of course, it’s also possible to put audio links of lovely customer endorsements on your website. Literally having “word of mouth” recommendations for potential guests to listen to.

Can you give us an example of a hotel that has used this successfully?

Not yet! But we think it would be awesome! In the UK, we’ve had success in other domains, including a chain of pubs and restaurants. It’s also used for customer satisfaction surveys for insurance companies, financial institutions, and other retail chains. We’re looking for an innovator who would like to pilot this in the hotel industry.

If a hotel is interested in using BigEars, how can they begin working with you?

We are really easy to work with. The whole system is web based so there is nothing to install and no hardware at all. Links to all of the audio collected from calls can be emailed straight to your inbox. Results are collected in realtime and available instantly. We can even transcribe audio to text (using humans, not machines) and feed it straight into your existing data base. All you need to do is print and place some call to action materials and set up an extension on your phone system that calls the survey.

We currently have customers all around the globe, and platforms to run our software all over the world, so geographical location is not an issue for us. Also, we have voice talents who can record prompts in a whole range of accents, so we can have a BigEars survey up and running in no time at all. We would work closely with you and advise on questions to ask (we have heaps of experience here) and how to keep the survey short and snappy. We hate long boring clunky IVR surveys – ours are not like that at all!

Thank you, Julia!