The Challenge
Thornfield Hotel Group's flagship property in Manchester had an NPS of 72. Its three other properties — in Birmingham, Leeds, and Liverpool — were scoring between 44 and 51. The gap was not explained by the physical product or amenities, which were comparable. Guest reviews consistently pointed to staff interactions: responsiveness, problem resolution, and the small moments that distinguish a stay from a transaction.
Leadership had invested in ad-hoc training — a morning session here, a guest speaker there — but with no curriculum, no consistency, and no mechanism for measuring whether anything changed as a result.
What We Built
We started with an audit: observation shifts at all four properties, structured guest feedback analysis, and interviews with both high-performing and struggling staff. The gap between the flagship and the other three came down to two things: clarity of standards and consistency of practice in problem-resolution moments.
The curriculum we developed was built around observable behaviours — not values statements — and structured around the real scenarios that differentiated strong from weak reviews: arrival experience, service recovery when things go wrong, and how staff handed off problems between shifts.
180Front-of-house staff trained across 4 propertiesDelivery was in cohorts of 25 per property over two days, followed by a four-week reinforcement period with line manager observation protocols.
The Outcome
Within one quarter, the three lagging properties averaged an 18-point NPS improvement. Liverpool moved from 44 to 65. Staff turnover in the trained cohort dropped 22% over the same period — a secondary finding that suggested the training had also clarified role expectations in a way staff valued.
