InterContinental San Francisco Improves Guest Satisfaction with Loop™ Mobile Guest Engagement Solution

OTTAWA, Ontario, Oct. 28, 2013 /PRNewswire/ -- The InterContinental San Francisco is delivering a superior guest experience with Loop™ Mobile Guest Engagement solution by Benbria®. In keeping with their reputation and commitment of being at the forefront of guest engagement, InterContinental San Francisco improves the guest experience by engaging guests in a more dynamic and real-time way.

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The industry average shows that 95 percent of complaining guests would remain loyal if their concerns were resolved on the first contact. However, the challenge today is that over 90 percent of guests will not approach an employee during their stay to either express concerns or provide positive comments. This leaves hotel management and employees unaware of guests' issues on how they can improve the experience during their visits.

"Given these realities, it was clear that in devising our strategy for optimizing the guest experience we needed to go beyond the status quo." said Peter Koehler, Regional Director of Operations in Northern California and General Manager for InterContinental San Francisco. "Loop helps us capture guest concerns, positive feedback and requests using their preferred mode of communication and alerts our hotel staff in real-time so that they can act quickly and follow up with guests directly while they were still at our hotel."

InterContinental San Francisco equipped their guest rooms, front desk, elevators and common areas with QR code-enabled signage inviting guests to "Keep Us in the Loop." Using their smartphones, tablets or laptops, guests simply scan the QR code or enter the URL and in a matter of seconds a Loop is created enabling guests to make a request, report a problem, make a suggestion or provide positive input on their experience. The Loop instantly alerts the appropriate hotel staff member to take action to address the guest's issue, and then close the Loop while the guest is still at the hotel. Finally, the guest is notified that their concerns have been addressed and they are invited to post a positive review of the hotel on their preferred social networking web site, such as Trip Advisor.

"By providing us with a system for tracking real-time operational metrics on the guest experience, Loop enables us to quantify guest satisfaction during each visit and change our behavior as needed to improve these metrics," added Koehler. Since deploying Loop Mobile Guest Engagement, the InterContinental San Francisco has achieved a positive and measurable impact on their business operations.

• Avoid negative online reviews. Privately resolve issues before guests socialize their experiences via word-of-mouth and social media.
• Recover at-risk guests. Notify hotel staff of guest concerns in real-time and enable them to improve the quality of their experience while they are still on the property.
• Improve guest satisfaction. Improve staff focus on the guest experience by exposing them to real-time guest insights and enabling them to act on the influence levers that impact satisfaction.

"The quality of past experience is critical to revisits. The InterContinental San Francisco is a technology-forward hotel that has chosen Loop to better cater to the needs of their guests and deliver a superior experience," said Benbria CEO Andrea Baptiste. "By using up-to-the-second guest insight to drive staff action Loop is helping Intercontinental San Francisco improve guest satisfaction in an immediate and results-proven way."

About Benbria
Benbria is leading in the area of mobile customer engagement enabling retail, hospitality and restaurant brands to deliver a superior customer experience that goes above and beyond their competitors. Using a variety of mobile, in-store and on-property technologies – including SMS, email, Web, mobile app and kiosk – Loop™ enables brands to capture and direct real-time customer requests, concerns, suggestions and positive input to management and employees for action and closure. Closing the loop through on-the-spot staff action helps brands to quickly enhance the customer experience during visits, recover dissatisfied customers, improve in-store sales conversion rates, avoid online criticisms and foster positive reviews. For more information: www.benbria.com.

About InterContinental San Francisco:
The InterContinental San Francisco opened in February 2008 at Howard and 5^th streets next to Moscone West Convention Center. The hotel towers 32 stories above the heart of the City and features 550 rooms, 14 suites, 43,000 sq. ft. of flexible meeting space with natural light, the Michelin-starred Luce restaurant, Bar 888, a ten-room treatment spa, full-service fitness center, and an indoor pool. In 2011, the InterContinental San Francisco received its LEED EBOM Gold certification from the U.S. Green Building Council. For more information and to make reservations, contact the InterContinental San Francisco, 888 Howard Street, San Francisco, Calif. 94103, at 415.616.6500 or 888.811.4273, or by visiting www.intercontinentalsanfrancisco.com.

Benbria, Loop, Get in the Loop, and Keep Us in the Loop are trademarks of Benbria Corporation. All other trademarks are the property of their respective owners.

SOURCE Benbria