How customer experience promise audits can save customers

The boarded up windows were a bad sign.

This isn't the way a guest wants to arrive at a hotel. I pulled on the lobby door, but it was locked. Is this thing even open?

An employee saw me pulling on the door and let me in.

The hotel was open, but undergoing renovations. I really liked the hotel’s restaurant, but that was closed, too. I might have stayed somewhere else if I had known ahead of time.

Caught off guard, I hoped things would get better. They didn’t.

Inside of the first 30 minutes, three promises were broken that negatively impacted my customer experience:

  1. Mobile check-in didn't work.

  2. In-room wifi didn't work.

  3. I didn't get a room upgrade.

That third promise comes with being a "Gold" member of the hotel chain's loyalty program. Gold members get various perks in exchange for staying 25-49 nights per year. An upgraded room, when available, is one of those perks.

At least my room was clean this time.

Poor experiences like this are easily avoided with something called a promise audit. Here's what it is, why it's important, and how to do one.

A hotel’s windows are boarded up.

What is a customer experience promise audit?

Companies make a lot of promises to customers. A promise audit evaluates whether those promises are kept and identifies ones that are broken.

You can audit all the promises made along a customer's journey or focus on one specific area. For example, the hotel chain might audit how often Gold guests get the eight benefits they are promised.

The chain calls out three of those benefits in particular that it knows are most important:

Screen grab of three benefits a hotel chain promotes to Gold Elite members of its loyalty program.

Notice that room upgrades are called out as a top benefit.

I go out of my way to stay with this hotel chain in part to get a nicer room. A promise audit might reveal that Gold members like me haven't been getting those upgrades.

What are the benefits of a doing a promise audit?

A promise audit can help you identify opportunities to make the customer experience more consistent, avoid unpleasant surprises, and prevent chronic service failures.

This helps reduce customer churn, improve your product or service, and improve operational efficiency.

For example, I'm searching for a new hotel chain despite achieving lifetime elite status with my current one. My guest experience is way too inconsistent and I don't regularly receive all the loyalty benefits I'm promised.

Many travelers have reported similar frustrations with the chain in online forums. It's costing the chain a lot:

  • Loyal customers are switching to other brands.

  • Service costs are going up (17-minute tech support calls aren't cheap).

  • Goodwill costs are going up (extra points, comped meals, etc.)

  • Word-of-mouth advertising has turned negative.

  • Guests are reducing their overall spending with the chain.

Promise audits aren’t just about saving customers. They can also help you increase revenue.

I've seen impact first-hand. My wife, Sally, and I own a vacation rental cabin called The Overlook in the Southern California mountain village of Idyllwild.

We conduct regular promise audits at our cabin:

  • Monthly: maintenance inspections

  • Quarterly: review guests' journey (i.e. stay at the cabin)

Those audits have helped us identify important improvements that led to a 30 percent increase in revenue over the past year.

How do you conduct a customer experience promise audit?

Most promise audits are quickly conducted by following a few steps.

Step 1: Identify the scope of the audit.

Decide what particular set of promises you want to focus on. It could be a specific marketing campaign, an aspect of your operation, or the entire customer journey. For example, the hotel chain might audit the benefits that are promised to loyalty program members:

List of benefits for a hotel chain’s loyalty program.

Step 2: Identify where these promises are made to customers.

Promises are communicated to customers in many ways, including via advertising, from employees, and digitally. One of the challenges is to identify all the places where those promises are made and make sure they're consistent.

Here are a few places where the hotel chain communicates it's loyalty benefits:

  • Website

  • App

  • Hotel associates

  • Mail (welcome and renewal letters mailed to members)

  • Email

  • Brochures

Step 3: Identify how often the promises are kept.

Gather data to determine how frequently promises are kept, and which promises are broken. There are a few ways to gather this data:

  • Review reports if the data is already collected.

  • Test the various systems in question to see if they're working.

  • View customer complaint data to identify broken promises.

The hotel chain tracks extensive data about its guests. It could easily access data to determine whether its guests are getting their benefits.

My last 10 stays with the hotel chain provide a snapshot of what the audit might reveal. Here’s a breakdown of the eight benefits I’m promised as a Gold member:

Four benefits have been delivered every time:

  1. Member rates

  2. 25% bonus points

  3. Welcome gift of points

  4. Late checkout

One benefit has not been applicable:

  1. Ultimate reservation guarantee

Three benefits are inconsistent:

  1. Complimentary in-room enhanced internet: 90%

  2. Mobile check-in: 0%

  3. Enhanced room upgrade: 0%

Mobile check-in allows you to bypass the front desk and check-in via the hotel’s app. You can then use your phone to access your room. That feature has only worked one time for me, and not in the past 10 stays.

Enhanced room upgrades are clearly promised "based on availability." So it would be unfair of me to expect an upgrade on every visit.

But I haven't gotten upgraded on any of my last ten visits, while I used to receive regular upgrades. This tells me something is broken.

Promise audits can also uncover unexpected problems.

For instance, the hotel chain's loyalty members earn points that can be redeemed for free stays. Unfortunately, those points aren't redeemable at many hotels. I've only been able to use points to book the hotel I wanted 40% of the time over the past two years.

Why should I go out of my way to earn points if I can’t use them?

Conclusion

A customer-focused business consistently does what it says it will do. Once you get the results of your promise audit, you can identify the root cause of problems and take action to fix broken promises.

Learn more about how keeping promises can help you win and retain more customers by reading The Guaranteed Customer Experience.