Great Guest Experiences Start with Great Employee Experiences
In business, we talk a lot about optimizing customer experience: faster response times, more personalization, smoother flow. But what’s often missing in those conversations is the simple idea that you cannot build a sustainable, five-star customer experience on a foundation of unhappy employees.
When it comes to hospitality, it’s easy to see the connection. A cheerful server. A patient front desk agent. A housekeeper who takes extra care. When the employee is thriving, the guest feels it. When they’re drained, the guest feels that too. But this isn’t just true for hotels and restaurants, it’s true for every business with customers, clients, patients, or community members.
If your team is your front line, then the experience they provide is your brand, and that brand starts long before a guest ever walks through the door. It begins behind the scenes in the way your people are treated.
Employee Satisfaction as the Catalyst for Business Growth
Happy employees are the foundation of great guest experiences. And great guest experiences are the foundation for higher sales and greater revenue.
When your team is overworked, underappreciated, or stuck using broken systems, that frustration doesn’t stay behind the scenes. It shows up in the way calls are answered, emails are written, or in how much empathy someone has to offer. And no amount of guest experience training can fully cover for a poor employee experience.
But let’s be clear—this doesn’t mean guests should come second. It means they shouldn’t come first at the expense of your team.
The businesses that people rave about and return to, hospitality or otherwise, aren’t just the ones with good customer service. They’re the ones where service feels human, there’s authentic energy behind the interaction, and you can tell the person helping you actually wants to be there. That doesn’t happen by accident. It happens when leadership creates a workplace culture that takes care of its people just as thoughtfully as it takes care of its guests.
Where to Begin
The first step to improving employee experience is reflection. Ask yourself: Are we giving our employees what we expect them to give our guests?
Because ultimately, your guests can only feel as good as your employees do.
Consider asking your team what they enjoy, what they find frustrating, and what changes they’d like to see that would make their jobs that much easier. Though customer surveys are common, employee input and feedback is often overlooked. Some requests might not be feasible, but even knowing they were taken into consideration will make a meaningful difference.
Whatever type of business you run, the bottom line is that if you want your guest experience to be outstanding, your employee experience has to be exceptional. Powerhouse HR is a strategic partner that can help you lay the groundwork for an employee experience that makes your team feel good, so they show up for your guests as the best versions of themselves. We work with small and medium-sized businesses in a number of sectors, and specialize in hospitality. Contact us today to learn more!
