The guest experience manager

Best Practices and up to the minute news on Customer Experience Management and Service Excellence

Have a guest experience tip? Click here to share.

Have a guest experience tip? Click here to share.

Best Practices and up to the minute news on Customer Experience Management and Service Excellence

Tag Archives: Emotions

How Music Changes the Way Guests Feel, Wait, and Even Taste

June 7, 2026Emotions, Perceptions, Feelingsambiance, Emotions, Guest ExperienceBenjamin Manning

If given the choice, it might be tempting to put on a favorite playlist or album on the workplace speakers. But music selection can have a stark impact on how guests perceive their experience. Whether in the hotel lobby, a private spa, or a busy restaurant, the overhead music needs to match the desired atmosphere. The time of day or peak hours should be taken into account, too. But the choice might not be as simple as one might think — even the smaller aspects of a song, like the speed or repeti...

Enter your email below to access this content:

Already a subscriber? Please login

Timeless Customer Service Qualities to Practice Always

March 20, 2026InsightsCommunication, Emotions, Guest ExperienceBenjamin Manning

Between pop up advertisements, enticing signage, or mail flyers, you’ve attracted a potential customer through the door or onto your site. Now what? Now, the real trial begins. The customer’s experience can cause a domino effect with the power to affect business in a number of ways. A negative experience can lead to one star reviews, money lost immediately to reparations, poor reputation from word-of-mouth, and even bad press. Modern tools make customer data more accessible, allowing managers to...

Enter your email below to access this content:

Already a subscriber? Please login

Number of Consumers Reporting Problems With Products and Services Has More Than Doubled Since the 1970s, Survey Finds

February 17, 2026Guest Experience NewsEmotions, Guest Experience, operationsKristen Grau

Customers and consumers are having more issues — and getting louder about them, according to a survey from late last year. The aptly-titled National Customer Rage Survey found that the number of U.S. consumers that reported experiencing a product or service problem in the past 12 months has more than doubled since 1976. The survey from Arizona State University's business school found that this could cost businesses $596 billion in revenue if customers continue to feel dissatisfied. "Defusing cus...

Enter your email below to access this content:

Already a subscriber? Please login

Making It Right Can Go Wrong – Don’t Make These Mistakes

February 12, 2026Competitive IntelligenceEmotions, Guest Experience, operationsBenjamin Manning

After dozens of uneventful trips with Amtrak, my most recent experience completely soured my view of travelling with America’s primary passenger train company. Poor customer experiences are undoubtedly costly (according to Forbes, reportedly up to $3 trillion costly). One experience can turn a customer away for good, and that can turn into a bad review that drives other customers away, too. Losing customers to competitors becomes a big financial risk. On top of that is the cost of trying to win ...

Enter your email below to access this content:

Already a subscriber? Please login

A 5-Minute Cap on Hold Times for Customer Service Lines Could be Coming to California

February 10, 2026Guest Experience Newscall centers, Emotions, Guest ExperienceKristen Grau

Automated customer service lines are supposed to help with customer satisfaction. But with long wait times and unclear options, they often leave people feeling more frustrated than before they called. That's why an assemblymember from California is trying to change that. Assemblymember Rick Chavez Zbur proposed the Right to Human Customer Service Act (AB 1609) in January — which would prohibit customers from being placed on hold for more than five minutes. Plus, it would require that a human mus...

Enter your email below to access this content:

Already a subscriber? Please login

Lighting Trends to Brighten Guests’ Experience

January 23, 2026Emotions, Perceptions, Feelingsambience, Emotions, Guest ExperienceBenjamin Manning

Lighting directs focus, sets the mood, and wholly transforms a space. There are many universally agreed upon aspects of lighting in interior design. Our understanding of the psychology has grown over time, but our brain wiring has hardly changed at all. Cool, bright lighting tends to simulate energy, and warm, dim lighting feels cozy. While these basics remain true, shifts in cultural preferences and scientific advances continue to lend to change in interior design practices. With new technology...

Enter your email below to access this content:

Already a subscriber? Please login

Meaning Behind Design: What Goes Into a Waiting Room

January 14, 2026Best and Worst PracticesEmotions, Guest Experience, Guest LoyaltyBenjamin Manning

Whether in a hotel or a hospital, a waiting area serves the same basic function: offering guests a place to pause and pass the time. Yet the expectations tied to those spaces vary widely depending on the setting. A healthcare waiting room carries very different emotional weight than an airport lounge or hotel lobby, and thoughtful design reflects those differences. Interior design is rooted in how people perceive and respond to their surroundings. Elements such as color, materials, lighting, and...

Enter your email below to access this content:

Already a subscriber? Please login

5 Important Qualities a Leader Should Have

November 5, 2025LeadershipEmotionsGillian Manning

Proper leadership is as essential to a company as anything in business. Poor leadership leads to high turnover and demotivated employees, wearing down your productivity levels. Disgruntled employees are going to have a much harder time providing an excellent guest experience. You can save thousands by keeping your employees happy. Gallup, an analytics and advisory firm, found that poor leadership costs U.S. corporations $550 billion annually. More than 6 in 10 employees would prefer a new manage...

Enter your email below to access this content:

Already a subscriber? Please login

What Memory Do You Want to Leave Guests With?

November 5, 2025Emotions, Perceptions, FeelingsEmotions, PeopleJoe Pye

On a recent trip to Walt Disney World, my wife and I visited the same restaurant twice in six hours. Both experiences were completely different and completely memorable. We like to visit the Magic Kingdom at least once per year, and we always go to Skipper’s Canteen, a Jungle Cruise-themed restaurant. It’s a fun place, where the servers crack jokes and get in character as the skippers of the Jungle Cruise ride in Adventure Land. We had such a great experience for lunch that we booked a reservati...

Enter your email below to access this content:

Already a subscriber? Please login

How Charitable Work Makes You a “Real Business”

October 10, 2025Competitive IntelligenceEmotionsJoe Pye

Aside from working as editor of GEM Journal, I run a blog focused on craft beer called BrowardBeer.com. I used my blog to raise money for Ukraine war relief. I coordinated it as a full-on marketing campaign, and it yielded incredible results for my website and the brewery I partnered with. Together we raised more than $11,000 and managed to get a ton of publicity for both businesses. During the process, I learned major benefits of brand awareness: Trust from the community and repeat business for...

Enter your email below to access this content:

Already a subscriber? Please login