Untitled - Hospitality Maldives

gets retold 10-20 times, each time with a bit
more horror and drama (we all love to exaggerate
and tell the bad stories), the long
term impact and deterrent marketing can be
powerfully disturbing.
As the Halloween season winds down, make
sure using disguises is not a year round event
relative to service delivery. Consider evaluating
if your messages simply lure guests in or
if they really deliver what the message promised.
When hotels or other organizations
promise hospitality on a variety of levels and
the guest signs on, excuses and problems
are not an option.
When a guest chooses a hotel, they have
chosen based on the hospitality promise that
the hotel makes. In Conde Naste Traveler’s
recent Business Traveler Readers’ poll (October
2006), the top five things ranked by respondents
were: location; comfortable bed;
price; security; and SERVICE. How is each
of these top five categories being positioned
and how are they actually delivered? Have
they been disguised or does the real thing
show up?
One interesting trend in some hotels is the
“outsourcing” of concierge and other services.
While potentially advantageous to
a hotel’s immediate bottom line, the result
can be disastrous from a long term guest
loyalty and profitability point of view. If an
outside source is not seamlessly integrated
in the hotel service promise, relationships
can turn sour. According to a recent article in
the Wall Street Journal (September 8, 2006,
by Hannah Karp), this issue is front row and
center as some hotels are signing on to save
money as competition grows. But, most of
the time, the guest does not know as outsourced
employees dress in hotel uniforms
and of course do not identify that they are
actually employed by those other than the
hotel. Aha….a disguise!
In this case, the concierge, known for their
professionalism and training in delivering ultimate
and personalized service, is not really
the hotel’s concierge yet is THE inside relationship
upon which guests depend. Ms. Karp
points out that the concierge; a hotel’s core
position, can indeed make or break a guest’s
experience. If that’s the case, why would a
hotel consider presenting a disguise of service
by farming duties out to those who may
not share the same commitment and understanding
of guests? How will other guest
service employees refer to these outside resources
and will the team work as a whole
to present a consistent service delivery standard?
And, if loyal guests get disenchanted
with this lack of commitment or understanding,
does this disguise really save money or
instead harm the long term reputation and
profitability by creating skeptical and untrusting
guests?
Another interesting disguise is the “Guest
Services Hotline” or the “at your service”
button on the phone. When it first showed
up, the concept was to offer guests a direct
connection with a real person to address immediate
needs, concerns or questions. In
some cases, other buttons like “front desk”
and “housekeeping” have even disappeared.
The problem is that many times, it still often
takes at least 10 rings to get an answer, and
even more frequently it’s the same operator
that answers regular phone lines. And then,
the guest is transferred anyway! Just this
past week, a guest in Philadelphia vented
to me about this exact issue. Aha…another
disguise! This time it’s a button that makes a
promise, gets the guest excited and then offers
even more distractions and frustrations
as before.
Vendors can also masquerade as key hotel
resources that end up fooling the guests.
One reader shared a scary story about a hotel
business center run by outsiders. When
there was a problem on the bill, the guest
went to the hotel front desk manager to resolve
the situation. Guess what? He said he
could do nothing as the “business center was
run by an outside vendor.” The guest encountered
a disguised effort of who was really
there to serve them and they, the guests, in
fact, were not served. Why would a hotel allow
this vendor, masked to the guest, to hold
such power? The hotel and the guest seemed
under a spell of “no service” and the vender
led the hoax.
Valet services are another area where good
intentions can lead to bad inventions. Contracted
valet services may care more about
numbers than people and their cars. While
hotels provide valet services as an extra convenience
to guests, many guests can relate
to the inconvenience of complete chaos when
delivering or retrieving a car and the abrupt
transition at the point of entry or departure.
The welcoming spirit promised by the hotel
may not be part of the contracted valet company’s
training and therefore becomes invisible
to the guest. Hotel staff must then begin
first impressions anew to get guests back on
board and in the flow of a good experience.
Unfortunately, those departing may not have
that chance.
Is anything disguised in your hotel? Have you
taken a close look at hospitality messages or
services that may not be delivering the seamless
continuity of service excellence?
It is so easy to get excited and devastating
to be disappointed. Beware of using hospitality
and service as a disguise to get guests in
the door or to use additional services. Your
guests will catch you in the act and they
won’t repeat the performance. Try to score
with guests, not scare them. They may keep
coming back to you, in this life and the next…
and that’s worth eternal service success.
It is so easy to get
excited and
devastating to be
disappointed.
Beware of using
hospitality and
service as a disguise
to get guests
in the door or to
use additional
services
Roberta Nedry is President of Hospitality Excellence, Inc., consultants in guest experience management and audits, service excellence training for
management and frontline employees and concierge development. To learn more about the programs her firm offers and their service expertise, visit www.
hospitalityexcellence.com She can also be reached at 954-739-5299 or roberta@hospitalityexcellence.com.