I recently stayed at a very nice resort in Florida. The hotel had great accommodations -- a lavish pool, a direct view of the ocean, a fully equipped workout area and a beautiful beach bar and restaurant. Most of the employees were very gracious and courteous. By all accounts, my stay should have been a wonderful experience. However, I did bump into one employee who was less than friendly. This individual seemed preoccupied and annoyed any time I asked for assistance or even started a casual conversation. As a result, all of the great work and effort by the other 20 or 30 employees was negated by the poor attitude of one.
The moral here is that everyone on your staff must be a customer experience ambassador. The actions of just one employee can send guests away with a negative memory of their entire stay.
It is imperative that all staff members work together to create not just acceptable customer experiences, but legendary ones. How is this accomplished? The best way is to look at the world from your customers' point of view. This is something that most of our clients say they do, but after some investigation, I find that very few truly understand how a customer experiences their hotel or resort.
First, as hotel staff you are on the property every day, or nearly every day. You know who works in what department and their job responsibilities. Cara at the front desk is responsible for checking guests in; Jim in maintenance is responsible for keeping the property in working order, and so on.
However, this is not how guests experience your property. They have a more holistic experience. Through a series of research projects, my colleagues and I followed targeted guests around various hotels and resorts and cataloged their experiences, from their initial reservation through the entire buying and use cycle.
What we found were some commonalities among all vacationers and travelers. A guest doesn't have a front desk or bell experience; rather they have an "arrival" experience. They don't have maintenance or housekeeping experiences, they have a "room" experience. This experience methodology holds true throughout their entire stay from dining experiences to activities (golf, skiing, etc.) experiences, departure experiences and many others.
Common sense says these experiences are nothing new. Guests have been having them for years. But how many of you actually train your employees to create these experiences? Let's look at just the arrivals experience. How many employees (or departments) affect a guest's arrival? Many of them do -- and not just the front desk.
The shuttle driver, the door person, the bell person, the groundskeepers, the maintenance team and the concierge can impact the experience. If just one of these employees is not doing his or her job or has a bad attitude, the guest could be disappointed. Have you ever checked into a hotel and the grounds looked shabby? I have, and my initial impression of the place was immediately tarnished. Even though everyone else in the hotel might be doing a great job, my negative first impression lasted throughout my entire stay.
Training employees is paramount to the guest experience. They are the frontline to the customer relationship and hold the key to creating these "legendary" experiences. In the past, most training revolved around a department or set of tasks. For example, we would train front desk people to perform a set of tasks revolving around managing the front desk. We would teach housekeepers to be housekeepers, bell persons to be bell persons and so on. Most training involved gathering a set of like employees and teaching them in the vacuum of their standard operating procedures.
So, how do we plan for training these experiences? We must first train the experience and not the task. Training must be organization-wide. I can't only train my sales staff and expect the entire customer experience to be elevated. Every staff member must be included in the experience training. I?ve found it's easiest to create an experience matrix and list all employees and/or departments that can have an effect on a certain guest experience. Then create a plan to train those employees using the same customer service or experience program.
Next, the training must be cross-functional. I can't gather the housekeepers on one day, the maintenance staff the next day, the front desk agents on the third day and train them independently. They must sit together in the same training sessions. This way they learn not only what the guest experiences need to be, but also how different departments work in concert to actually create them. Each employee will learn how vital their role is in creating these lasting impressions for your guests.
Finally, evaluate what the customer experiences. If you don't mystery shop your properties, I suggest you start. There is no better way of gathering customer experience data than pure observational research. Other methods include comment cards and online surveys. With a little investment in training, your guests' experiences can become not only consistent, but legendary.
John Ely is senior vice president of marketing for Signature Worldwide, a training and business solutions company dedicated to helping clients create legendary experiences for their customers. Ely is responsible for developing, implementing and evaluating strategic marketing and corporate growth plans, and has more than 14 years of industrial and consumer marketing experience. For more information, call (800) 398-0518 or visit www.signatureworldwide.com
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