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Do you ever
wonder why the hotel business is the only one in the world that has the
most managers on the property at times when we have the fewest
customers? Typically
the management staff arrives at 8:00am and leaves at 6:00pm while the
majority of our guests check in at 6:00pm or later and most checkouts
occur prior to 8:00am.
The front desk
associates are the ‘troops’ in the trenches, dodging bullets from
difficult guests; taking flak from management for not being able to
check in five guests and at the same time, not answering the phone in
three rings. These are the
first people with whom the guest has contact and the last person the
guest sees upon departure, with a multitude of guest contact points in
between. When you walk out
the door at night, you are placing the success of a multi-million dollar
asset in the hands of the front desk associate, typically an 18 to 25
year old who can best be described as ‘the least paid and the least
committed’.
If they don’t
quote the rates correctly, your ADR and REVPAR suffer.
If they can’t be bothered checking in walk-ins after you leave,
you go down with unused inventory.
You revenue success is largely in their hands.
Why then do we spend so little time and thought in the hiring
process, training them to deliver customer service and giving them
incentives to sell rooms?
Hiring
Front Desk ‘Troopers’
With the current
labor shortage, it is tempting to hire front desk associates using the
‘fog the mirror’ method. If
the person shows up for the interview and can ‘fog a mirror’ meaning
they are breathing at all, they are hired.
The interview typically lasts thirty minutes or less and is
followed by the completion of appropriate paperwork and sizing them for
a uniform, if you bother with the uniform at all given the current
turnover rate.
When you sit down
in front of this potential contributor to your success, ask yourself if
you would buy anything from this person.
Can they sell you on themselves?
If you have a sales department, involve them in the interview
process. A sales person can
spot the sort of individual who can not only sell but who will be well
received by their clients. Place
yourself in the position of a guest and ask yourself how you would feel
about your hotel if this is person is the first person you see upon
check-in and the last one you see at check-out.
Ask behavioral
questions, such as their most positive customer service situation both
as a customer and as an employee. Inquire
as to how they have handled themselves in difficult situations and, if
they have had any sales experience, what was their greatest achievement
in their own eyes.
Training
the ‘Troopers’ to Give Good Customer Service
If we tend to
hire by the ‘fog the mirror’ method, our training can often be
characterized as the ‘deep end of the pool’ method.
That is, we throw the new associate into the deep end of the
pool, stand on the side and see if they fight their way to the top and
float. I often hear General
Mangers say that it is pointless to spend the time and effort in
training people because they stay for such a brief tenure. They don’t make the correlation that if we train them at
the outset in what our expectations are, they might stay longer.
The bottom line is that no matter how briefly they may be
employed by us, how many guests do they lose for us because they
haven’t been trained properly.
Understand that
the average front desk associate has only stayed in a hotel when they
were on vacation with Mom and Dad.
They may have never made a reservation or checked into a hotel on
their own. How can we
expect them to have empathy for the guest?
My strong
suggestion is that you make them a guest for a night.
Have them stay at the hotel so that they know what a room looks
like, how to work the HVAC system, turn on the hairdryer, use the coffee
maker, where the extra pillows and blankets are located.
This is so simple and I guarantee that it will save them and the
guest a lot of aggravation if they can answer these simple questions
when a guest calls.
Don’t assume
that they know how to answer the phone.
Tell them what your preferred greeting is.
They should use their name when answering the phone because by so
doing they take ownership of the call.
When they have given the guest their name, they know that if it
is not handled correctly, the guest knows who they are.
Have them call
your competitors and ask for information and attempt to make a
reservation. This way they
develop empathy for how the guest feels when placed on hold.
They also develop an understanding of rates and how the
competition does it, for better or worse. Ask them to make notes on each call and review it with them
to get a feel for their understanding of how the process should work.
Don’t just
foist them off on whoever happens to be on duty for training.
Even if it is your best front desk associate, the trainer needs
to be trained on how to train. Different
people learn at different speeds and sometimes ‘super doers’ are not
that patient training people with little or no knowledge.
Invest a little time and money in the person that you designate
as a trainer to give them a train-the-trainer seminar.
Model behavior
for the new employee. Work
the desk with them from time to time to demonstrate how you expect them
to treat the guest. Be careful not to make disparaging comments about a guest
within earshot of your employees and whatever you do, do not let them
hear you ‘bad mouthing’ another employee.
This sends the message that guests are annoying and that you will
potentially talk about them the way they have heard you speak about the
guest and the other employees.
Sales
Training and Incentives for Front Desk ‘Troopers’
If you have a
sales staff, involve them in training the new hire how to sell a
reservation. They
can teach them how to quote rates, sell benefits and close a
reservation.
You will need to
set parameters for the rates you want them to quote and how to quote
them. Let the new associate
know about your business; what are your average ‘booking windows’,
the basics of how you mange your inventory, what an ADR and REVPAR
really mean and how their efforts contribute to both. Remember that we tend to assume that they have more knowledge
than they actually do or we assume that the person we have assigned to
train them has explained it correctly.
Selling walk-ins
is a different category all together.
I am reminded of a situation in a hotel that my company had
recently purchased. As the
VP of Sales and Marketing, I was on property and working late in the
sales office. The hotel had
sold about thirty of its 162 rooms that evening.
As I left the sales office to walk across the lobby, I saw
someone walk in and up to the desk; they left and never returned.
When I asked the desk associate why she had let them leave when
she had the leeway to quote a very low rate she replied “Look, the
more people I check in, the more work I make for myself”.
(True story, trust me, I couldn’t make this up.)
The fact of the
matter is that even if they don’t articulate this as the
‘departed’ front desk associate did, it is in the back of their
minds. After the general
manager walks out the door, you will never know how many people walked
and left. The front desk
associate doesn’t do it out of malice but they may have had a bad day
and it is just too much effort to close a walk in when they will be paid
the same if they do or they don’t.
Following the
above incident, the front desk incentive was born in my company.
It was very simple – a buck a room for walk-ins and same day
reservations. They are
given a bottom line rate to ‘fall back’ to and a dollar for each one
they sell. It is cheaper
than travel agent mission. One of my clients just instituted this and while the front
desk staff collectively walked away with several hundred dollars in
October, the hotel increased its sales that month by 40% over the
previous year.
In order to
retain the good associates, you need to create that team environment.
Show them the franchise guest service scores and how the hotel
rates in relation to the rest of the system.
Point out the high scores and the ones that require improvement.
Set goals for those areas that need work and reward them when
they attain them. Something
as simple as sending a pizza to each shift says ‘thanks for a job well
done.’
Let them in on
the hotel’s revenue goals so that they understand how rates fluctuate
with demand. Explain your
strategies for achieving revenue goals for the month, the season and the
year. People are more
willing to do the things they are asked to do when they understand why
you are asking them to do it.
Remember that
they don’t know or understand the business unless you explain it to
them. They may stay longer
if you generate enthusiasm for your hotel and the business as a whole
– the front desk can be e an entry for a rewarding career in the
hospitality industry, not just another job.
There is so much
more that a well-trained and motivated front desk staff can accomplish
for your hotel. They are a wealth of information. They know your guests, your end user, better that you do.
They can tell you that Mr. Smith is in town to start up a new
company and stays three nights each week.
They know the rate that the guest walks out feeling they received
good value for the money they spent last night.
They also know where the price point for rate resistance sets in.
They know what our guests want and which of our features are
truly benefits to them. They
know – you need to ask them to find out.
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Carol
Verret is a twenty-year veteran of the hospitality business, having
begun her career with Four Seasons and Westin Hotels in Montreal,
Canada.
She most recently was Vice President Sales and Marketing for
Sunstone Hotels before she left in 1996 to start her own business.
Carol Verret Consulting and Training provides consulting and
training services to the hospitality industry in the areas of customer
service and sales.
For a complete description of her services, access her web site
at http://www.carolverret.com.
Comments and feedback are appreciated and can be communicated via
phone at (303) 618-4065 or email Carol
Verret
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