You already know: The hospitality industry is hyper competitive. To stand out in such a crowded market, you’ve got to have an edge, something unique that makes your guests come back for more. But what is that thing? Is it your food? Your service? Your atmosphere? Sure, all those things count toward an incredible customer experience, but what about your employees? After all, they’re the ones who keep the machine running, aren’t they?

Your employees are the lifeblood of your business — the face of your brand. So wouldn’t it make sense to make them your advocates? At PerformanceScope, we know how critical your employees are to your business. We also know that when your staff is engaged and fulfilled in their work, your business’s reputation grows. Curious how you can transform your employees into raving fans who advocate for your brand? Let’s take a look.

Focus on Employee Engagement

Whether you’re trying to encourage your employees to promote your brand or improve your overall guest experience, it all comes down to your employees. When you focus on making your establishment an inclusive place, a place where your employees actually want to be, your staff finds fulfillment in working for you. And when your staff is happy, they naturally want to share their experience with others.

But here’s the best part: People trust messages shared by your employees more than they trust messages shared by your brand itself. Want proof? According to a study conducted by The Marketing Advisory Network, a brand’s reach extends 561% further when employees share its message. The same study found that viewers are 24 times more likely to reshare brand messages shared by employees.

Want a piece of that marketing pie? Then focus on employee engagement.

Set Clear Brand Values

Do your employees know what your brand stands for? How can they be your advocates if they don’t know what they’re promoting? To get your staff excited about supporting your brand, you must set a clear mission for your establishment.

Educate each staff member on the importance of upholding that mission, and make sure they know how essential they are in the grand scheme of things. By clearly defining your brand goals and sticking to those goals, you create a cohesive company culture that your employees feel proud to be a part of. And when your employees feel proud of their work’s mission, they naturally feel more engaged in their roles.

What do engaged employees do? They provide better guest experiences, they’re more productive, and perhaps the best part? They promote your brand because they’re actually excited about being a part of it.

Make Sure Your Employees Feel Appreciated

Each member of your staff is an asset, and it’s your job to make sure they know it. How great does it feel when someone acknowledges and thanks you for your hard work? Pretty awesome, right? Your employees feel the same way. But if you rarely (or never) express your gratitude for their diligent service, how will they ever know you appreciate them?

A wise manager once said, “critique in private, praise in public.” Try it. It works. Praise your employees openly! If you market on social media, try showcasing your employees and their accomplishments. When you openly applaud your staff, they know their work matters, and they more closely identify with your brand.

They feel engaged in a cause, and when employees feel engaged, they’re far more likely to deliver stellar experiences for your customers. Not only that, but again, they’re also more likely to promote your brand to others because they truly feel their work matters. Perhaps even better, they’re far less likely to look for another job.

Surveys: The Key to Building a Cohesive Team of Raving Fans

Here’s the bottom line: You can’t improve employee engagement if you don’t know how your staff feels about working for you! And if your employees don’t feel engaged, they’re not your brand advocates. Worse, they’re probably not performing anywhere near the level they would if they were truly invested in their work.

Asking in-person questions won’t help: Your employees may not give you an honest answer for fear of losing their jobs. Observing might help, but often, employees put on a happy face just to get through their shifts. So how on earth do you get your staff to express their honest feelings? Simple: anonymous surveys.

Conducting employee experience surveys is perhaps the most effective method of gathering mission-critical feedback from your staff. After all, they’re the ones executing the mission every day, right? Surveys help you measure and manage employee satisfaction by allowing you to collect truthful, concrete data from your staff. Using that data, our team delivers actionable insights that clearly define the factors that contribute to engagement and those that detract from it.

When you know what needs to improve, you get a whole lot better at improving it. So stop guessing. Operate from a place of awareness. Your business depends on it.

Want to Improve Employee Engagement? PerformanceScope Can Help You Do It

At PerformanceScope, we’re hospitality experts. We’ve spent over 30 years in the industry, and we know exactly what it takes for your brand to excel. That’s why we’re so passionate about helping operators discover the incredible power that surveys bring to the table. Whether you’re looking to improve your customer satisfaction or increase employee engagement, you need data to get the job done, and we’re here to help you collect it.

To learn more about how our customer feedback and employee engagement surveys can help transform your business, give our team a call at 952-847-3393, or connect with us online. Ready to see what our solutions can do? Test drive PerformanceScope for free!