Shift Happens!? When You Become Your Own Guest

Many of you are in the service business. But regardless of what you offer, service and quality – not price – continue to be the most vital competitive advantages. For your organization to survive, you must constantly improve your Guests' experience.

According to surveys from Stanford University and Carnegie Institute of Technology, only 15 percent of business success is due to technical knowledge, while 85% percent is due to people skills, including sales, support, and Customer service – all the areas that touch the customer.

So, how do you improve and enhance the Guest’s experience? Here are a few ideas that I have observed from innovative organizations:

The business card for one resort’s general manager doubles as a complimentary room offers for select guests. Now that’s really a selling solution.

Hyatt used to require their management to take the place of bellmen, cooks, maids, and other staff workers for a training day. This role reversal helps both management and staff what the other levels in the organization deal with each day.

The Mill Casino and Hotel in North Bend, Oregon reproduced works of art on the back of room keys. The key also mentions that reprints are available for sale in the gift shop.

Are you old enough to recall when gas station attendants checked the oil in your car and washed the windshield? Win-River Casino wants to ensure that their guests feel at home, so they wash every car’s windshield and leave a note.

How about the long lines and the frustrated guests waiting in them. . .for anything? What would happen if you delivered hot chocolate, a piece of candy, or a small bag of pretzels while they waited?

Lexus dealers used to wash a car and fill the tank with gas after a service visit. While the cost of gas now may prohibit this practice, there is no reason that any dealership can’t return the car washed and vacuumed.

We can think of what we would like if we were our own Guests/Customers.

• Be Nimble.
• Be Quick.
• Be Responsive.
• Today solutions must be offered in real-time.

Remember, it can be as simple as using the resources you have, just in different ways. It is often simply transferring resources with the simple objective of stimulating new business and retaining existing Guests.

Here are my “secrets” to your success:

• Share the dream of your entrepreneurial vision.
• Bring joy to the workplace.
• Encourage others to think like owners.
• Owners should think like Guests.
• Ensure you remain in contact with your Guests, employees, and suppliers.
• Listen more than you talk.
• Say you’re sorry and mean it.
• Say thank you, and believe it.

Looking for great ideas? Go back to Pre-preCovid to find some ideas that can be recycled. Opportunities are there for all of us if we simply look for them.

The center of gravity is where the Customer/Guest resides. Go back to what worked Pre-PreCovid. Dust off some ideas that may not have worked then but could be implemented now. There is no shortage of great ideas. Need a few? Drop me a [email protected]