Continually reinventing the standards of guest experience

The Challenge

When stepping into any Four Seasons the passion is tangible. And a big part of this is due to the people. How does Four Seasons continue to foster this customer-centric spirit? By empowering its employees to go out of their way to create outstanding experiences.

Prior to Medallia, the company collected feedback through comment cards and paper-based surveys left in guest rooms, coupled with a web survey with another vendor. With two disparate feedback sources—paper and web—silos emerged, which prevented a full view of the customer experience across all customer segments and properties.

The Solution

Four Seasons partnered with Medallia to manage its comprehensive voice of customer program. The program provides Four Seasons with a comprehensive view of the entire customer journey: from arrival to checkout, including the concierge, the staff, the hotel itself, the spa, meetings and events, fitness, in-room amenities, guest room, and restaurants.

With role-based reporting, only the most relevant information is presented to the right people in the organization to take action. For example, Scott Taber, VP Rooms at Four Seasons, worked with Medallia to implement a regional dashboard report available to every area president and general manager worldwide. This report enables GMs and regional managers to see how their properties are performing in guest satisfaction compared across the company, thereby adding a healthy dose of visibility and competition to drive improvement.

Thanks to Taber and team’s continuation of Sharp’s legacy, Four Seasons constantly drives innovation into the business to improve experiences. The company continually changes ad-hoc survey questions to test and roll out new initiatives, such as including an iPad in every room and a mobile app for select properties.

At already industry-leading NPS levels, Four Seasons managed to improve NPS by 7 points since rolling out Medallia, to leading levels in the luxury hospitality sector. Employee engagement with customer data is incredibly high — staff all throughout the organization love to see how they’re performing in real time and action insights. And while response rates have increased, there’s been a 38% decrease in negative surveys submitted. The brand has also been able to identify that staff and service is most important category in terms of driving satisfaction, and with its focus on this, has maintained world-class satisfaction levels. Hotels are using customer data in staff meetings much more frequently; and the system has become a bridge between HQ and individual locations.

Source: Case Study, Continually Reinventing the Standards of Customer Experience