We got the chance to chat with Louise Mackegård, Hotel Manager of Copperhill Mountain Lodge and long-time user of Loopon, regarding guest satisfaction, reputation management and exceeding guest expectations.
If you've ever wanted to visit the beautiful mountains of Åre, Sweden, Copperhill Mountain Lodge is the perfect place for you. Copperhill is an art, design and architecture hotel, supremely located on top of Förberget Mountain in Björnens skiing range in Åre. The hotel is all about contrasts. The contrast between inside and the outdoors, the spectacular and the familiar, the designed and the cozy and welcoming. The hotel itself is unique in its kind and is one of Europe's largest wooden buildings. The nature outside is magical and the combination of these is unique in itself.
Meeting or even exceeding guest expectations is a top priority for any successful hotel. How do you integrate guest feedback for your strategy or decision-making?
Hostmanship is important to us and forms the basis of our entire business concept. Hostmanship is about making people feel expected and welcomed. To really make our guests feel seen and heard. Of course we have many goals that we want to achieve at our hotel, but two are more important than any other:That our employees are happy at work and that our guests are happy with us. If we as hosts feel comfortable, our guests will notice it and they will enjoy their stay as well. We also know that the guests' strongest experience happens in the interactions with us who work here. It is these interactions that give long-lasting memories. The architecture, the copper wall, the fireplace and the design furniture does not mean anything without the hotel staff's hostmanship and values. We want every guest to bring a wealth of experiences from here and it comes largely from us who work here.
Guest satisfaction is something that we discuss a lot and often. In every management, department and development strategy meeting we have guest satisfaction as a starting point and work closely with guest feedback and desires when making decisions. We have worked out a systematic way of handling the feedback and it is a strong core value for us that we take this seriously. It's easy for recurring feedback to be neglected and the mindset that "it's not possible to do anything about it" arises. It is something that we have worked on a lot as there is often a third alternative or solution that no one has thought of yet.
Copperhill Mountain Lodge is located in the beautiful mountains in Åre, Sweden.
In which way do you integrate Loopon's feedback system for achieving guest satisfaction?
We work actively with the system, every management member, department leader and receptionist has access to the system and we are transparent to our employees. We award each individual employee with a "hostmanship check" when they are personally mentioned in the Loopon system. We also communicate this in a weekly newsletter to our staff. This is to emphasise how important it is for us to make an impression to the guests. Similarly, we give the entire department a hostmanship check when they have achieved their department goal. This check can be saved and used for a massage or dinner in the restaurant. Not to mention the honour :)
How does Copperhill Mountain Lodge view NPS?
We have decided to use NPS specifically as a goal that we follow up on with the hotel every week. We present this goal in our weekly newsletter that goes out to all of the staff as well as in our staff dining room and at our staff meetings. It's easy to talk about, relate to and incorporate, the employees know exactly what the goal represents.
Which is your favourite function with Loopon?
I like the "Correlation Report", it is always exciting to look at. I also enjoy the "Management Perspective" where I can follow NPS during the previous weeks/months to see the highs and lows.
Copperhill Mountain Lodge is known for its architecture and design, making their guests feel warmth and at home.
Without revealing too much, what is the most important step to take in order to ensure that the guests have the best possible stay at your hotel?
I think it's a lot about building a culture, that all of our staff members are aware of that this is a core value and one of our most important goals. A key factor is also that our staff members know that they have the full authority to do what is necessary for the guest to be satisfied. They do not need to call a manager and get their opinion, but they have our complete confidence to make their own decisions. Another key factor is to stay one step ahead. If we know there will be a storm outside, we will for example call the guests before arrival and offer them to drive directly into the warm garage.
Is there any trend our important topic in the hotel industry that you're paying extra attention to?
I think we need to work more proactively, for example by asking the guest beforehand what they expect form their visit. In that way we can plan more. For example, we know beforehand that the purpose of the particular hotel visit for the guests is to spend time together and that the children are at home with a babysitter. Then we can direct the guest to avoid, fro example, the children's times at the spa and also book them at the later sitting in the restaurant when the families with children have already eaten. I think the trend is that many more are going away to celebrate different things and the expectations are sky high.
We say thank you to Louise for sharing her insights that many hoteliers around the world will find valuable. If you want to book your own stay at Copperhill Mountain Lodge in Åre, Sweden, you can do so directly here.
