How CX Goals Fuel Growth and Customer Loyalty in Hospitality

A Conversation with Medallia’s Jeff McHugh: Three Strategies to Transform Customer Experience Goals into Hospitality Success

Customer experience (CX) is no longer just a buzzword in the hospitality industry—it’s the compass that guides successful businesses.

Setting specific CX goals alongside budgeting can transform how organizations prioritize resources, reduce inefficiencies, and build customer loyalty.

?We recently spoke with Jeff McHugh, Enterprise Senior Sales Director at Medallia, and he shared actionable insights on this topic.

?Jeff emphasizes, “Customer experience is all about customer satisfaction at the end of the day. CX goals help you focus on what really matters.”

Aligning CX goals with broader business objectives can set your organization apart in a fiercely competitive market.

The Value of Setting Customer Experience Strategy Goals

Why should hospitality leaders prioritize CX goals? It’s simple: better experiences mean happier customers, increased loyalty, and stronger revenue.

?Jeff explains, “If most of your customers are frustrated with long wait times, you can set a goal to reduce those wait times. This ultimately leads to happier customers and increased loyalty.”

?By targeting specific pain points, organizations solve problems and elevate their reputation. What’s more, is that CX goals often align directly with financial performance.

?Positive customer experiences can drive word-of-mouth referrals, higher Net Promoter Scores (NPS), and revenue growth.

As Jeff puts it, “Reputation is critical in hospitality. If you can set goals with your team, it becomes a key differentiator across the board.”

Understanding Your Customers

Understanding your customers is the cornerstone of a successful customer experience strategy. It involves delving deep into their needs, preferences, behaviors, and pain points.

?By gathering comprehensive data and insights, you can create detailed buyer personas that accurately represent your target audience. This understanding allows you to tailor your experience strategy to meet and exceed customer expectations, ultimately driving satisfaction and loyalty.

Create Buyer Personas for Customer Experience Strategy

Buyer personas are semi-fictional representations of your ideal customers, crafted from real data and insights. They help you grasp your customers’ needs, goals, and behaviors, enabling you to design a customer experience strategy that resonates with them.

?To create these personas, gather data through customer feedback, surveys, and market research. This information will reveal patterns and trends that can guide your experience strategy, ensuring it aligns with what your customers truly want.

Gain a Deeper Understanding of Your Customer Base

To gain a deeper understanding of your customer base, it’s essential to analyze customer data and feedback meticulously.

?One effective method is customer journey mapping, which creates a visual representation of the customer’s experience across all touchpoints. By examining this data, you can identify patterns, pinpoint pain points, and uncover opportunities to enhance the customer experience. This holistic view of the customer journey allows you to make informed decisions that improve satisfaction and loyalty.

Understand Who Your Customers Are

Knowing who your customers are is fundamental to crafting a successful customer experience strategy. This involves identifying their demographics, needs, preferences, and behaviors.

With this knowledge, you can create targeted marketing campaigns and tailor your experience strategy to meet their specific expectations. By understanding your customers on a deeper level, you can deliver personalized experiences that foster long-term loyalty and drive business success.

Mapping the Customer Journey

Mapping the customer journey is a critical step in developing a successful customer experience strategy. It involves creating a visual representation of the customer’s experience across all touchpoints, from initial awareness to post-purchase interactions. This process helps you understand the entire customer journey, identify pain points, and uncover opportunities for improvement, ensuring a seamless and positive customer experience.

Create a Customer Journey Map

A customer journey map outlines the customer’s experience across all touchpoints, highlighting pain points, moments of delight, and opportunities for enhancement. To create a customer journey map, gather data through customer feedback, surveys, and market research. This comprehensive view allows you to identify areas for improvement and develop strategies to enhance the customer experience.

By understanding the customer’s journey in detail, you can create an effective customer experience strategy that meets and exceeds customer expectations.

Aligning Customer Experience Goals with Business Objectives One challenge hospitality leaders face is ensuring CX goals support broader organizational priorities.

3 Ways Medallia and ComOps Support Customer Feedback Excellence

Medallia, in partnership with ComOps, offers a three-pillar approach to help hospitality businesses define, measure, and achieve meaningful CX goals:?

1. Feedback Collection: “Meeting customers where they are is critical,” Jeff notes. Gathering feedback across channels, whether through digital apps, social reviews, or contact center interactions, creates a single source of truth and ensures businesses have a comprehensive view of the customer journey. The customer support team plays a crucial role in gathering this feedback and delivering high-quality service.
2. Data Analysis: Medallia’s powerful text analytics tools quickly identify trends and sentiments in customer feedback. “We can analyze this feedback in real time to pinpoint what’s working and what needs improvement,” says Jeff.
3. Taking Action: The most vital step is closing the loop. “Our platform focuses on operational changes, proactive solutions, and democratizing data across the enterprise,” Jeff explains. This approach enables teams to act on insights effectively and ensure consistent improvement.?

Jeff offers practical examples of CX goals that are transforming hospitality:?

• Reducing Call Wait Times: “Measuring average wait time and satisfaction levels is critical,” he says. Offering features like scheduled callbacks can enhance the experience during peak call volumes.
• Improving Mobile App Experience: Many hospitality providers underutilize app feedback. Key opportunities include measuring app NPS and ensuring seamless transactions.
• Streamlining Online Booking: “Making the booking process frictionless is a focal point,” Jeff highlights. Reducing unnecessary steps keeps customers engaged and ensures conversions.?

CX isn’t just a hospitality department—it’s a strategy.?

Organizations can elevate customer satisfaction, reduce inefficiencies, and drive revenue by setting specific CX goals, aligning them with business objectives, and leveraging expert tools like Medallia’s platform.?Jeff states, “Customer experience goals are not just about solving problems—they’re about creating competitive advantages.”?When CX and budgeting work together, success is inevitable.?

Curious how a solid customer experience program can benefit your organization? Let’s connect.