Die-hard sports supporters are often united by their sense of devotion — or in the case of England football fans, long-suffering disappointment, despite social and political differences. Such intense camaraderie satiates an innate human desire to belong, which in turn, translates into immense commercial returns for sports teams and their affiliates in the form of tickets, merchandise and pay-per-view telecasts.
With the pandemic bringing the travel industry to a standstill, three-time SMU LKCSB alumna Josephine Tan investigates how hospitality brands can foster a similarly fierce sense of camaraderie among their top guests, in order to increase customer satisfaction and loyalty, as well as boost the morale of both staff and guests.
Having graduated with Bachelor of Business Management (2004), Master of Business Administration (2015) and Doctor of Business Administration (2019) degrees, Josephine is well-versed in the intricacies of the hospitality and service business — she is also a service and hospitality veteran and consultant, as well as a wine sommelier and certified bartender. It was actually a consultancy project for a hotel that inspired her DBA thesis, “The impact of camaraderie on customer satisfaction and loyalty in the hotel industry”, which looks at how strong bonds between employees and customers affect guest loyalty.
According to Josephine, studies on camaraderie are often associated with the field of sports. But she wanted to take it out of the sporting context and, instead, try to replicate that unyielding loyalty in a commercial setting.
“I have seen football fans in action and, regardless of a win or a loss, they will celebrate or cry together, even if they are strangers,” she elaborates.
It led the service and hospitality veteran to wonder if this binding force can be nurtured in the hotel industry and if it holds the winning formula to help a lacklustre hotel industry thrive, especially in a challenging economy.
“When the hotel does well and continues to exceed expectations, guests are happy and will not hesitate to shout out about their experience to everyone,” explains Josephine.
“Conversely, guests would also be more forgiving when there are service lapses. Customer satisfaction will increase, which leads to greater loyalty, thus continuing the cycle.”
The power of camaraderie
Josephine's study was the first time that empirical tests were conducted on the relationship between camaraderie, emotional satisfaction and loyalty in the hotel industry, and the findings were nothing less than surprising. While they not only reinforced Josephine’s hypothesis, the study also showed that camaraderie has a direct and significant relationship with the four phases of loyalty, cognitive, affective, conative and action loyalty between hotel employees and customers, as well as among co-workers.
In fact, a hotelier interviewed by Josephine disclosed that a guest who checks into the hotel more than 200 nights a year has also lodged multiple complaints. This shed light on the fact that ensuring camaraderie between employees and hotel guests is immensely important, as guests tend to be more forgiving towards any unfortunate issues or unpleasant encounters.
“They complain so the hotel will do better and not repeat the same mistake with other guests, as they view themselves as ‘semi employees’,” she notes. However, Josephine also adds that “immediate service recovery is essential” because ‘if unhappy customers are ignored, this dissatisfaction will lead to eventual disloyalty”.
It Also Starts from Within
Moreover, Josephine’s thesis revealed that camaraderie is not just a one-way street. Besides affecting staff-customer relationships, the SMU Lee Kong Chian School of Business adjunct faculty states that it is also important to build and encourage camaraderie among employees. She believes camaraderie among co-workers produces a trickle-down effect on customer loyalty.
“Camaraderie creates a positive environment that employees enjoy being a part of, which leads to happy and satisfied employees,” she notes.
“And when employees spread this happy vibe to customers, it leads to positive customer service interactions and builds an organic brand culture.”
And with COVID-19 bringing about so many challenges, Josephine says it is even more important that hotels continue to bolster guests’ loyalty as well as staff morale. She adds, “Hotels have to be more empathetic during this period, and perhaps build on this sense of shared compassion through corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives.”
At her current consulting role, Josephine helped launched a CSR programme for old folks’ homes and orphanages. This not only helped the hotel staff bond with one another as they prepared performances and meals for the elderly and children, but also contributed to a sense of fulfilment as they made a difference in the lives of the less fortunate. She also adds that such activities indirectly help build camaraderie within the staff body.
Concurrently, Josephine shares that this is also a good time for hotel management to implement new service standard operating procedures so that the “trickle-down effect on customers will be immediate once border restrictions are eased”.
Three Ways to Build a Relationship
Through her research, Josephine recommends these ways to encourage camaraderie between hotel staff and guests:
#1: Introduce structured service training
“Training has to be seen as an investment, not an expense,” says Josephine.
Many hotels do not invest in proper onboarding exercises with new employees, trusting that the on-the-job training employees gleaned from their previous hotel stints or from hospitality school would suffice. This lack of a structured training programme is detrimental not only to the new employee but to the hotel as well. With no formal training, the new employee does not have the chance to form any sort of camaraderie with their co-workers, and will also find it difficult to establish camaraderie with hotel guests.
#2 Adopt an open mindset to redesign service flow
This, according to Josephine, can help build camaraderie between staff and guests. In fact, she shares that something as simple as doing away with traditional check-in counters, as what Swissotel Singapore has done, is a great idea in redesigning service flow.
Josephine explains that the removal of check-in counters not only makes the environment more open and inviting, it also frees up front-desk employees to walk around, strike up conversations with guests and assist with self-check-ins.
#3 Train hotel employees in cross-functional roles
Just as how Apple assigns a single associate to take a customer through the entire purchase journey, Josephine believes that the hotel industry can do the same. In traditional settings, every hotel staff has a specific role, such as a front desk staff, concierge or bellhop.
“If everyone can attend to cross-functional duties, the workload will be more evenly distributed. There will be less waiting for guests, which in turn improves their hotel experience,” says Josephine. “In addition, assigning just one employee to welcome, help with check-in, usher the guest to the room and make recommendations on local tours/specialities as a concierge, will definitely help in building camaraderie.”
Don’t forget local guests
While international travellers might be far and few amid a pandemic, local guests are just as important. Hotels should use this time to come up with more creative attractions for local guests such as introducing pet-friendly facilities, work-from-hotel packages and staycations.
“There will be more regular local guests and hotel stays are becoming less transient. Many individuals or families will do staycations on a regular basis as they cannot travel. With more familiar faces, it is easier to create camaraderie. This is the perfect opportunity to establish camaraderie,” she adds.
