7 Ways to Change Hospitality

The Hospitality and Service Sector are in need of a massive change.

The Hospitality and Service Sector are in need of a massive change. Did you see this article that new research that shows 53% of employers believe their employees lack essential customer service skills?That is quite an amazing statistic and needs urgent action, right now.

The scale of the tourism, hospitality and leisure industry is enormous. It has become the world's largest employer and, despite recent global financial crisis, it is predicted that the decline in international tourism arrivals may have bottomed out. Today the industry has multiple facets and the terminology can become confusing and needs some clarity of thought about it’s real purpose. Why does it exist?

Here are my 7 most powerful ways to change hospitality forever:

1. We need WOW customer service, now. Tom Peters' amazing book (available on Amazon for £1 ! )The Pursuit of Wow! defined this 20 years ago and I feel it is time to re-kindle this in the hospitality sector. It will become even more influential in the next few years. Not only the statistics reflect this, my personal experience in training the hospitality sector demands attention to becoming a WOW industry.

Service today consists of four levels: basic, expected, desired and WOW. Basic service can be found at the post office whereas expected service can be found at most fast food restaurants and many businesses. Desired service is often found at good hotels and restaurants but WOW Service is the only way to ensure repeat business.

By creating an impressive, unique guest experience that exceeds all expectations, you are able to capture the customer.

Wow might sound a bit frizzy. I think not. I’m repeatedly struck by the parade of “new” cars that look like every other car, by how many newly opened French restaurants or just-launched PCs or software packages fail to zap you, by how one Big Six audit service resembles all the others. And I’m also struck by how timid most people are in fending off staleness. Then they wonder why they become a statistic in the continuing middle management and senior professional blood bath.

Wow is stepping out (individuals at all levels in hospitality and service) and standing out (corporations and organisations) from the growing crowd of look-alikes. Being average has never had much appeal. Better to fail with flair in pursuit of something neat.

Tom Peters offers 210 stories which are examples of people and companies doing WOW things. While Tom doesn’t offer step-by-step instructions on creating a WOW idea, you will be inspired by his examples. Examples are:

Starters
Fix the Sign

Small things Matter
Getting Things Done
Milk, Cookies and Managing People
Pens, Toilets, and Businesses That Do It Differently
Just Say No to Commodities (And Yes to Free Spirits)
Breaking the Mold
The Wacky World
Searching for the Diversity Advantage
Tomorrow’s Strange Enterprises
Entrepreneurs’ Dreams
Lists!
Attaining Perpetual Adolescence
Parting Shots
Excellence, always

2. Great a grip of Social media and Mobile. Mobile devices and social applications are connected to those future is here right now. The future should be WOW social media . We know they’ll be bigger in the future, but they’re plenty large right now. They will be inseparable in the next 2 years.Social media and mobile already live in symbiosis and we will only continue to see them merge over the course of this year. Mobile activity has allowed social media to live in real time by allowing users to create updates, tag friends and check in on their mobile devices. Smartphones represent 50 percent of new mobile devices being purchased and the growth of connected devices will only continue to rise. Ericsson estimates that there will be over 50 billion connected devices in circulation by 2020, including laptops, tablets and smartphones. In North America, 2014 will mark the first year that online access is greater from mobile devices than a desktop or laptop. Keeping an eye out for authentic ways to make use of emerging social/mobile applications will be of great value to those in hotel marketing.

3. They people have the power. According to The Wall Street Journal, Yelp reports 50 million users across its web and mobile platforms. TripAdvisor has become the world's most popular travel website with 34 million unique users each month. Google Places is the Yellow Pages of the digital age meaning that business listings also show up on iPhone searches as well as on Google Maps. In 2015 there will be an even greater need to:

Monitor Yelp, TripAdvisor and Google Places reviews and alert management of any low reviews every day
Comment on glowing reviews to thank them- yes thank them
Comment on low reviews and how you intend to handle future situations
Feature Yelp deals

A study by Expedia pointed to the fact that more internet access occurs through mobile devices than by laptop or desktop. Moreover, two-thirds of Americans sleep with their mobile device in range, something we cannot say about desktops. Expedia anticipates that the current number of bookings via mobile device, currently about 16 million, will double by 2016. So, besides sleeping with them, what are people doing with their mobile devices? Many of them are booking a hotel for tonight. Expedia has found that a substantial number of mobile bookings are for same-night stays. This sets up a scenario of someone setting off on a trip, and deciding to stay in a particular town that night, totally at the last minute. Mobile makes this possible. That’s the present, but it’s also the future. Most of the people who are using their smartphones and tablets in this way are under 30.

Mobile writes a similar story for restaurants. People who are seeking a restaurant at the last moment tend to be your younger customers, and they simply expect the technology to be there. They want to be able to check out your menu and wine list, make a reservation, or perhaps just place an order and pay for it on line.

4. Leadership is a service business. Organisations exist to serve. Period. Leaders exist to serve their people. Period. A team well-served by its leader will be inclined to pursue Excellence.

Use the word "Serve." (That's what you do.)

Use the word "Service." (That's what you provide.)

Use the word "Servant." (That's what you are.)

Leadership is modeling the way and showing your management team how critical it is to walk the talk. Each and every employee, including myself, all have something we can work on. Forming a connection with guests can improve dramatically with genuine, individual interaction. It is my goal as a leader to instill the value of building relationships by sharing the knowledge I have and learning from them as well.

5. Reputation Management. There is much anticipation that reputation management will begin to dictate the hotel industry in upcoming years. Considering there are millions of reviews written each day across the universe of different platforms, the world wide web has the power of influencing one's decision making process; being able to manage your businesses reputation will determine success or failure. TrustYou had made it their mission to influence travel decisions in a positive way, developing a technology and software making it simple to monitor, manage and market a businesses reputation. Another company, Flip.to, has been making strides to tap into the market of potential travelers' family and friends considering 70% of customers take recommendations from their family or friends when choosing a product, brand or business.

6. Train is not in Vain. Start by asking a different question How can all your staff Be Amazing Every Day? Where is there WOW? Training has formed the basis of skills development in the hospitality industry with considerable financial, and human resources expended in an effort to ensure that employees can perform to the required service standards. Because of high staff turnover rates there is increasing pressure on training requirements to maintain service levels. Training, skills and service quality in hospitality are at the heart of the future.

Training must be considered in a multi level manner to maximise its effectiveness. The three levels that are particularly effective deal with:

reactions of the trainees and liking the program;
principles – facts – techniques; and
applying learned principles.

Start something that makes a massive difference at all levels; be amazing every day.Industry training is thus vital and there is a need to constantly review provision, to ensure that this need is being met.

7. It is the next Generation that counts. This Kids are alright. Hospitality employees are increasingly being classified into their generational groupings as they approach work with distinctly different attitudes.

Builders, born prior to 1946;
Baby Boomers, 1946‐1964;
Generation X, 1965‐1979;
Generation Y 1980‐1994;
Generation Z, 1995‐2009.
Generation I, 2009- 2015

Each of these generations has very different work attitudes that impact upon the customer experience. These different generational approaches pose significant problems for hospitality employers because in a service environment there is a heavy reliance upon work teams to ensure that customer service quality is maintained. Managers have to shape their workforce with these issues in mind. Way of life, achievement and supervisory relationships consistently ranked among the top work values for all groups, whereas altruism, intellectual stimulation, security, independence, and economic return were ranked differently. Within group rankings, Baby Boomers ranked altruism and intellectual stimulation higher than other groups, while Generation X ranked independence and security higher. Generation Y (Millennials) ranked economic return higher than the other groups. Generation I is for the information generation. Thing how they can train using their smart phones, mobile learning and the power of content writing. We are using this in our London restaurant and it is amazing.

What will be your challenge, your prediction for the next 5 years?
Where is your Wow?
Where is you cutting edge training programme?

Excellence can be obtained if you:

care more than others think is wise;
risk more than others think is safe;
dream more than others think is practical;
expect more than others think is possible.

Be Amazing Every Day.

Sep 21 2014

Comments