WOW the customer on the Site Visit

You have a very important site visit coming up for a great piece of business, what are you doing to win this business. Are you doing your typical customer site visits by walking them through your show rooms, restaurants, meeting spaces, the hotel outdoors? Or are you customizing your site visit based on the customer’s needs? I have been on so many hotel site visits where they are identical and after a few you feel like you have seen them all and they all seem like they are running into each other.  As a matter a fact, they become dreaded. Site visit represents a unique opportunity for you to WOW your customer and close the business.

Your customer is most likely doing site visits with hotels that are your competitors. How do you Wow your customer? How do you demonstrate that your hotels should get their business? How do you differentiate yourself from your competitors?   First, you want to make sure you are really communicating with the customer to understand their needs.   Be open and honest. Make sure you are setting appropriate expectations and you are transparent.  Ensure that all onsite team members are well versed on the customer and are ready to perform.  One very important thing is to avoid the standard site visits, always offer a customized experience.  Put a lot of effort into the site visit so that the customer sees the value in bringing their program your hotel. Make it unique and memorable so that they remember the experience after they return to their offices.

What is the customer’s product?  A few years ago, I did a site with a company that made watercraft so we customized our site visit around their products. We began with the entrance. We borrowed a watercraft placed it in the lobby in a beautiful display, that impressed the planner and the President of the company who came with the planner for the site.   Our entire management team participated in the Meet and Greet to show how important this group was to the hotel. Our welcome drinks had the company’s logo at the bottom of the drinks and when we showed the ball room we had all of the TV screens set with with the President of the company giving a speech. All amenities delivered to the rooms was logo items with the hotel and the company. The entire weekend, we wowed these customers by doing unique and memorable things while still reminding them of the partnership. Did we win the business? We definitely did.  Were we the best hotels in the area in terms of best renovations, features? We were not, but what we had was passion, innovation and the ability to understand the clients needs. We used the site visit to demonstrate this to customer. We differentiated our hotel from the competitors by adding value and showing our ability to host their group effectively. What are you doing to differentiate your hotel from your competitors on a site visit? Share your site visit ideas, successes, failures with us.