Public relations Archives - Public Relations, Advertising & Social Media

It doesn’t matter what United does, part 2

Posted on July 27, 2017 by Brian Lee

United_Airlines As predicted, United Airlines came out of its fiasco from a few months ago essentially unscathed. I had asserted previously that it didn’t matter what United Airlines did to restore its image, because consumers are faced with few choices when flying.

An article in today’s New York Times titled “The Boycott That Wasn’t” revealed that in the second quarter, United Airlines’ revenue increased by six percent and profit by 49 percent.

Sadly, that’s what happens in industries with little competition: You can violently remove a man from his seat on an airplane and then increase passengers flying on your airline by 4.2 percent.

How Hotels Can Measure Internal Communication Efforts

Posted on July 18, 2017 by Taylor Kennedy

INTRODUCTION

A study by Staffbase revealed that good internal communication provides constant feedback and purpose, which increases employee engagement, which in turn decreases turnover rates and ultimately saves the company money.

At the same time, when your hotel employees are happy, so are your guests, according to Forbes.

Here are ways hotels can measure its internal communication efforts.

COLLECT OUTPUT METRICS

Communication efforts–specifically output metrics–need to be measurable. For example, did your hotel’s employee newsletter have a high open rate? Did your hotel’s employee group on Facebook have an increase in page views? Knowing these key performance indicators (KPIs) will help see if progress is being made toward your goals.

Here are various metrics you can collect and how to collect them:

Awareness: Post/page views (Insights on Facebook, Google Analytics for your website)
Interest: Open and click rates (all third-party email providers, like MailChimp, offer analytics for each email)
Engagement: Comments and feedback (if you use tools such as Trello, Yammer or Slack, how often are employees adding input?)

Make sure to act on this data. For example, if you see a downward trend in open rates, experiment with sending communications at different times of day, or change the subject line.

SET YOUR OUTCOMES

Metrics by themselves mean nothing. For example, did a higher open-rate for your internal emails lead to staff better parroting your key messages? Ultimately, you’re looking for behavior changes that benefit your hotel.

As Dr. Stephen Covey once said, “begin with the end in mind.” Create your outcomes clearly, prior to executing any internal communication strategies. What does your hotel want to achieve? Win a Torchbearer Award? Keep turnover to less than 31 percent? The more and more your KPIs improve, the more likely you are to reach your outcomes.

Let’s say you wanted to increase morale and employees’ confidence in management. Your HR and communications teams could survey employees or conduct focus groups to gain deeper insight into their feelings and what resonates with them. The results can help you make informed decisions and steer you in the right direction. A tactic could include a weekly employee showcase on the Intranet site, and a KPI could include reduced complaints.

In a case study by Marriott, one of its business models showcases how they value its employees/internal communication, ultimately leading to financial success: “Take care of the associates, the associates will take care of the guests and the guests will come back again and again.”

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Revelation PR, Advertising & Social Media offers hotels, B&Bs and resorts services related to media relations, community relations, branding, group sales, SEO/SEM and social media management. Please contact Brian Lee, brian [at] experiencerevelation.com or 608-622-7767.

How Hospitals Can Create a Customer Service Culture

Posted on May 18, 2017 by Brian Lee

INTRODUCTION

patient-pickup-sign These days, hospitals have strong incentives to improve the patient experience. One reason is that the CMS reduces Medicare payments for poor-performing hospitals. Another is that the CMS publicly releases the results of patients’ perspectives of their hospital experience in its Hospital Consumer Assessment of Healthcare Providers and Systems (HCAHPS) survey.

Need another reason? Accenture reported that hospitals with “superior” patient experiences achieved 50 percent higher net margins.

Your hospital would be best served creating a culture where customer service is every employee’s focus; otherwise, customer service traits will never be consistently or universally performed. Here are some tips.

USE DATA TO IMPROVE YOUR SERVICE

Working on improving your hospital’s patient experience is actually a form of reputation management, and one objective of reputation management is preventing a reputation crisis, such as bad ratings. One way to work on reputation management is by figuring out what areas or services to shore up.

You already have your patient satisfaction scores to use as baseline numbers. Use the data that you have to guide your direction. For example, the Cleveland Clinic discovered that low rankings in the ED were because of communication issues, not wait times.

KEEP HOSPITAL STAFF MOTIVATED AND ENGAGED

The onboarding process for new employees is an important time in which customer service must be explained. But once training is over, managers, department heads and team leaders need to keep their staff members accountable. They can drive employee engagement by aligning activities with the hospital’s larger strategic plan and organization-wide goals, according to Gallup.

Your communications department should help the hospital president or CEO to promulgate his/her strategic plan and goals and provide regular (e.g. quarterly) status or progress reports. It is hoped that accountability and seeing improvement will keep staff motivated and engaged in providing outstanding customer service.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

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