Visitor Satisfaction Tool Kit
The Nova Scotia Tourism Vision recognizes the importance of meeting and exceeding visitor expectations for the long term sustainable growth of tourism in Nova Scotia.
The following Tool Kit is designed on behalf of the Nova Scotia Tourism Vision to be used by operators in the accommodation sector to measure visitor satisfaction in a "do it yourself" method. The toolkit provides hard copy printed questionnaires to distribute to customers while they are at your property. The Took Kit provides the following:
• Introduction to Visitor Satisfaction
This three page document provides an overview of Customer Satisfaction and its relationship to Quality and to business success. It also explores the types of customer satisfaction factors that should be measured in tourism businesses and the benefits to the business of measuring customer satisfaction. This piece complements on The Quality Challenge piece recently distributed by NS Tourism Vision.
• Guest Satisfaction Survey – Short
This is a very brief, four question survey. It is intended for the accommodation sector but the questions are fairly generic and it could be used for other tourism businesses, such as attractions or restaurants, with some very minor modifications.
• Guest Satisfaction Survey – Long
This is a ten question survey that explores guest satisfaction levels from the time they find out about the accommodation property to the time of check out. It is also designed to find out some basic information about the guest and where they are from, to permit cross-tab analysis.
• Recommendations on Using the Toolkit
We have provided some very general suggestions on using the tool kit, mostly around the importance of being representative in selecting guests to survey. The recommendations also speak to how to use the toolkit if the survey is implemented via hard copy. As discussed below, there are several other options as to how the surveys might be implemented (see discussion below), requiring the development of technical tools, and detailed instructions on how to use these tools cannot be provided until they are developed.
• Suggestions to Operators on Using the Results
This piece provides tourism businesses with some suggestions on how to use the results of their surveys to improve guest satisfaction at their business and in making business decisions.
• List of Resources to Assist Business in Making Improvements
The various pieces of the toolkit are provided in MS WORD format.
2007 On-Line Visitor Satisfaction Pilot Project
In the summer of 2007, the Nova Scotia Tourism Vision office conducted an On-Line Visitor Satisfaction Pilot program with volunteer accommodation operators. The participating properties collected e-mail addresses from the visitor, and then the visitor was send an on-line survey from a third-party contracted research company, Corporate Research Associates. This process offered several advantages:
Pros:
• Gathering Visitor Satisfaction research and analysing the results was simpler for operators, involving only asking guests to participate and providing their emails or phone numbers to the contracted company.
• The likelihood of maintaining a standard of integrity in survey administration is greatly enhanced.
• Operators received regular reports and benchmarks against which to compare their performance, which will considerably enhance the value of the research to the operator.
• Participation levels and overall guest satisfaction results could be tracked and measured from one year to the next, by sector, by region, etc.
The summary reports from the 2007 On-Line Visitor Satisfaction Pilot Project are below along with the presentation provided at the Tourism Summit on November 27th:
Summary Report #1
Summary Report #2
Summary Report #3
PowerPoint Presentation on 2007 On-Line Visitor Satisfaction Pilot Project
If you are interested in the 2008 On-line Visitor Satisfaction survey, please complete this form, or contact the Nova Scotia Vision office at 482-6032 or tanya@nstourismvision.com.
