In the lodging industry, we tend to think of our customers as “guests,” reflecting the foundational concept of, “treat our guests as you would those visiting your own home.” However, customer hospitality is the philosophical concept on which we should build our entire company culture, as this concept reaches far beyond our guests. Why?
First, lodging companies have so many more “customers” who never actually become “guests.” The most obvious examples would be meeting and event planners, travel agents, corporate travel managers and more.
Furthermore, a strong hospitality culture is first established by the ways in which leaders treat their staff. Perhaps Mr. Marriott said it best: “Take good care of your employees, and they'll take good care of your customers, and the customers will come back.” Strong hospitality cultures are also deeply rooted by the decorum by which colleagues treat one another.
As a trainer, I’ve often shared that the spirit of hospitality is reignited each day when we greet our first co-worker. It is nearly impossible to authentically deliver hospitality in the front of the house when we do not interact that way in the heart of the house. Some even go as far as to refer to their colleagues from other departments as “internal customers,” which I think is a great idea.
One example of colleague-to-colleague customer service that really resonated with me took place at the Nizuc Resort in Cancun, a property where I have conducted training for more than seven years. I have often written about how much I love the heartfelt gesture all colleagues do when they pass by a guest, which is to — they place their right hand over their heart as they make eye contact, smile and greet the person with a word or a nod. When I returned last month, I watched in amazement as I saw how employees greeted one another with the same “hand over heart” gesture. It should not be surprising at all that this resort was just awarded the Forbes Five Star designation.
At its finest, customer hospitality should extend even further, to our suppliers and vendor-partners. This not only helps build strong relationships so our vendors come through when we need them most, but more importantly, it makes hospitality a habit for all.
Now, there are those who may read this and think that providing customer hospitality requires being fake, scripted or disingenuous. Yet those who truly understand hospitality at its core know you cannot fake it. True, you can fake customer service to an extent. You can mandate a script and force staff to fake smiles, but anyone will see right through that.
Others I'm sure feel that interactions with guests or customers are transactional in nature. For sure, the term “customer relationship” does imply that business is being conducted between the parties. But based on my experiences, when I look back on my own guest and customer relationships, I easily recall many who became dear friends. I remember well a guest named David, who I met while working as a bellman at my first hotel. I later bumped into him when he checked in to my second hotel, where I was now a front desk manager. We got to know each other when he stayed there several days a month. One day I mentioned I was getting married. When he asked to be added to the invitation list, I figured maybe he wanted to send a gift, which he did, but he also showed up. I stayed in touch after I moved on from that hotel job and we grabbed dinner together a few times when he was back in town. One day he found out that my mother had passed away, and knowing how close she and I were, he made a special trip to my hometown to be there for her funeral. I can think of countless “internal customers” who became dear friends, and after three decades in the training business, some of my closest personal friends started out as clients.
I’m sure all readers can immediately think of certain guests with whom they established personal connections, but I will close with a story about something I observed personally.
While conducting training at an all-inclusive resort in the Caribbean, I had just completed an after-work run on the beach and stopped by the bar for a virgin Piña Colada. As I enjoyed my beverage, I looked up to see the bartender lock eyes with an approaching guest, then immediately run outside the bar toward the woman. As they met, they embraced in a long bear-hug, and then both broke into tears. Then I overheard the bartender say, “I know, I miss him too.” I soon realized the back story was that this couple had for years been vacationing at this resort and now the wife was returning for the first time alone as a widow. THAT is customer hospitality.
Building your company culture on the foundation of customer hospitality, and not just “guest service,” will be good for business. Guests will do the two things we want most of all, which are to return and to tell others good things about us on social media. But even more importantly, your staff, and you personally, will also benefit from being part of a team that truly values hospitality at its core, which is of course treating others with kindness and generosity.
Doug Kennedy is president of the Kennedy Training Network, Inc. Contact him at doug@kennedytrainingnetwork.com.
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