What are the customer relationship news at Best Western France in April 2026?
Our priority is to continue working on the customer culture. We have just launched “The Voice of the Hotels”, an initiative aimed at involving the 332 hotels of the cooperative in this dynamic. The goal is to engage the entire network, including the 150 headquarters employees, so that the customer culture becomes a shared reality for everyone.
Spreading the voice of the customer is often a challenge. How do you practically involve everyone?
At the Best Western France headquarters, our customer service team is tight (5 people). To embody the voice of the customer in a fun way, we have created a mascot named “Shaky”, whose tagline is: “Shake ideas, drive change”. Every month, we move a Shaky mannequin to different departments of the headquarters, especially to teams furthest from the customer. There we share key indicators (NPS, CES) by simplifying them, as well as customer and hotelier feedback, both positive and negative. The idea is to use this feedback to improve and share best practices network-wide to inspire all establishments without “reinventing the wheel.”
How important is artificial intelligence in your system?
AI has been implemented very early and is a real success, especially on our omnichannel channels via our chatbot. Previously, 30% of requests were for simple hotel services (presence of a pool, pet acceptance, rates). These requests are now completely automated. Thanks to a significant data update effort, AI displays a comprehension rate much higher than the old NLU models. Today, 80% of our chat flows are handled by AI, and we have increased customer satisfaction by 16 points.
How does this automation impact the work of your human teams?
It is an excellent support. By handling FAQ-type questions, AI has freed up valuable time for the teams. This time is reinvested in high-value tasks that require human intervention: animating the customer culture at headquarters, creating mini-sites to support hoteliers, or sharing best practices. It is a successful hybridization where AI handles repetitive tasks and humans focus on support and engagement.
What are your goals and wishes for the rest of 2026?
The challenge is to continue engaging all employees in the long term so that each hotelier becomes a true ambassador of the customer culture. To avoid boring the teams, we will need to innovate, be creative, and maintain this commitment over time.
