More hoteliers are understanding the difference between “guest service excellence” and “hospitality.”
In short, “guest service excellence” is more demonstrative, while “hospitality” is more of a philosophy for our work-life culture — or, as true hospitality superstars know, it’s really a philosophy for living daily.
As a trainer, I’m often asked by clients whether it is truly possible to “train” people to adopt a spirit of hospitality, or whether it is a personal characteristic that must be recruited and hired.
Although it is wonderful to think it possible to specifically attract and hire applicants with high levels of emotional intelligence and empathy, that is a bit of a dreamworld, especially in today’s labor markets. And, no test is perfect, despite the many pre-employment assessments out there that claim to measure such traits, which no doubt can provide some valuable insights.
However, it is possible to nurture these traits in each and every one of our hospitality industry staffers.
Start by de-anonymizing your guests. When I first heard this word, I immediately wrote it on a post-it note to use on a future article. It is a word most often used by those in the data analytics and digital marketing fields, in reference to figuring out profiles of typical and/or actual website visitors.
In the hospitality leadership and training business, de-anonymizing guests is when we train our team to imagine the many guest interactions they have daily, but from the other side of the front desk, bar, guest room door, phone line and email or chat exchange.
Employees who are in regular, direct contact with guests often become desensitized to the uniquely individualistic human experiences guests are living out daily. After a while, those humans become just another “front” to a bellperson, “cover” to a server, “caller 19” to a phone rep, or “the next guest in line” at the front desk. Just another guest dirtying up a room or who has to call maintenance because they can’t figure out how to work a smart TV.
Many of those who work in hotels have never experienced most of the travel-related, real-life situations playing out in the lobby, dining room, guest rooms and corridors.
Some of your staff’s only travel experiences may have been on trips planned by their parents for vacations, or college spring breaks or maybe to attend a happy occasion such as a wedding. Many have yet to experience the lonely life of isolation and stress of today’s business travelers, or what it’s like to be on a business trip when you have a sick kid, or to be in town for a funeral or hospital stay. Or to technically be on “vacation,” but to really be going away for a “rekindle the marriage” trip suggested by a marriage counselor.
What do we as leaders do about it? Here are a few tips.
- Encourage your staff to truly engage guests in conversations during which they will be able to discover their “story.”
- Encourage them to ask, “What brings you to our hotel?” or “Are we celebrating anything special?”
- When happy occasions are mentioned, encourage staff to respond with sincerity and maybe even offer a suggestion or “local insider’s tips.”
- When solemn occasions surface, train them to pause and say nothing for a short time to truly share the moment of reflection and then say something such as “I am so sorry for your loss” or “Let us know if there is anything we can do for you during this challenging time.”
- As a leader, think of the primary reasons guests frequent your hotel. Are you near a hospital? Military base? A university? A corporate complex? If so, speak with your staff about how they would feel if they were saying goodbye to a partner or relative who was headed out for deployment, or dropping an 18-year-old off at school, or taking a friend in for surgery.
While it may be theoretically possible to only hire emotionally intelligent, empathetic staff, a more practical solution is to encourage staff to understand that every day they are encountering real humans who, just like themselves, are emotional creatures living in this physical world. By getting them thinking about these human experiences, you can de-anonymize guests and foster authentic, personalized, genuine experiences which will truly create guest loyalty.
Doug Kennedy is president of the Kennedy Training Network, Inc. Contact him at doug@kennedytrainingnetwork.com.
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