HGEM consumer survey finds 1/3 customers not happy with payments in hospitality

Guest experience expert HGEM set out to understand how well the industry is doing on the payment front - are customers generally happy with how payments are taken; is it done at a good pace, or are there still some pain points that irritate consumers and take away from their overall enjoyment of the experience?

305 consumers from a wide variety of ages and backgrounds we surveyed.

The survey results show that 1 in 4 (28%) customers think that hospitality gets it right about half the time when it comes to payment speed, whereas 7% of respondents, quite pessimistically, feel that payments rarely nor never get taken at the right time in hospitality settings. Youngest consumers are most dissatisfied with how long it takes to pay – nearly a fifth (18%) think payments are rarely taken in good time.

When it comes to the question – what the right pace for payments is – 9 out of 10 (88%) expect to pay within 5 minutes, and a quarter of those people want it in 2 minutes. There is a small minority of customers that are more patient: 1 in 10 respondents are happy to wait up to 10 minutes for the bill, and only 1% are happy to wait for up to 15 minutes.

Payment speed can negatively impact the whole experience, in fact, as the survey results show – 93% of consumers say that slow payment affects their whole experience negatively, to various degrees. 70% say it affects them a little; 20% say it affects their enjoyment a lot, and a small percentage (4%) say it ruins the experience for them.

Splitting the bill with more than 3 guests can be quite an awkward experience if all parties calculate their share. Has technology improved on this front or is this still a pain point for customers? 59% say it has gotten better in the last few years, but 41% say it’s still awkward and could be improved upon. Interestingly, youngest customers find it much less of a hassle than older ones. Only 27% of 18-25-year-olds find bill splitting painful, however, customers in the 26-35 age group find it the most awkward, with 46% thinking this; closely followed by 36-45-year-olds with 44%.

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