Are you ready to discover some new innovative and creative ways to induce Happiness and enable your Hotel to Scale Productivity and Revenue?
To me Hospitality is Art. It is like the painter that uses a combination of colors to create a picture. And we all will have a different perspective on how we view the finished product. The key is to bring out the commonalities that tell us that this is an experience we want to share with others.
The challenge for Hotels today is taking a step backward and take a new look at how and where today’s pictures are being painted.
Today Hotels has an unprecedented opportunity to enable a shift from competing to creating.
Part of taking a step backward is to get a clear understanding of where your Hotel stands today.
It is important to have a full and honest understanding of your Hotels current picture.
Make sure you have a good understanding of;
- The current state of your Hotel overall business
- The assumptions and perceptions your Hotel acts on
- What factors your Hotel and other Hotels in the area compete on
Often when looking at these factors it is amazing how similar Hotels are. In many cases, they compete on the same set of factors and carry out almost to the point similar Hotel marketing campaigns.
And often what stands out in the customer’s mind is very often the price point and the perceived value they expect to receive.
With a shift from competing to creating your Hotel will have to become innovative and creative while looking at where you could be.
To start this process requires just the right framework and tools.
Unleash the hidden potentials within your Hotel team
In my articles, I often talk about the importance of technology, Social Media, and New Media. But in today’s modern Hotels their most important assets are their team members.
Some research has shown that team members’ efficiency and talent determine the pace and growth of the organization. And your Hotels team members skills account for 85% of the organization’s assets.
So, for the modern Hotel today the most valuable asset will be their knowledgeable and productive team members.
The bottom line today is that team members need to continue to grow to remain engaged and productive.
Team happiness has increasingly become an imperative for Hotels.
Several types of research and data show the importance of inducing happiness in your Hotel.
Studies have found that happy team members are up to 20% more productive than unhappy team members. And organizations that have induced happiness also experience a positive impact on revenue and team members stay longer with them.
Collaboration fuels success and performance
Team collaboration and connections are key success factors for Hotels that want to thrive in today’s economy.
It is no secret that team collaboration and connections will supercharge your Hotels productions.
But so many Hotels miss this crucial point. Why?
We all been fostered upon traditional customer service serving the customer first. And with the internet and Social Media, the notion of that Customer is King has been set as the foundation for many brands.
The primary flaw with this scenario is that most Hotel has to serve the “paying” customer first and the “paying” Customer is King.
Let me set it straight here the first and most important customers at any Hotel will always be your team members!
Do not forget, that it is the result of the continuous hard and smart effort put in by the happy and valued team member that keeps the organization going in the long-run, competing with the competitors and keeping it ahead of all.
Again, just take the time to read a few reviews and you will discover the source of the concerns. 95% of the concerns reported in guest reviews could have been fixed if the Hotel has invested more in their team members.
The primary reason for Zappo’s enormous success was that the company invested more in the customer experience rather than expensive marketing campaigns.
Their team members’ time was spent observing and tracking customer behavior with the on-going goal of creating more personal emotional connections with its customers. They were in the business of creating customers for life.
Zappos succeeded because they put their team members first and provided them with the tools to create the ultimate customer experience.
They introduced a team culture and a collaborative mindset that is infectious, one that encourages everyone to scale the culture.
Connectivity and meaningful relationships
A report from Gallup indicated that 85% are not engaged or actively disengaged at work. These numbers are just mind-boggling.
The economic consequences of this “norm” are approximately $7 trillion in lost productivity.
One of the major contributing factors to disengagement is the absence of a sense of connection to the organization’s vision and purpose.
Several other factors impact this “norm’ but the common theme is connectivity and meaningful relationships.
When I start work with a Hotel Social Media Framework the most important segment to understand is Foundation.
Human interaction is a two-way dialog that focuses on Humanness and Transparency.
Be creative and innovative and initiate some unique collaboration settings for your Hotel team that allows them to connect and builds a new unique relationship with each other and management.
And be open and honest in the dialogs. Give everyone in the team ownership and tasks that will add new unique values to the collaboration.
Phycologists have found that when humans make a positive social connection the pleasure-inducing hormone oxytocin released into our bloodstreams, immediately reducing anxiety and improve concentration and focus.
Creating a new culture and embrace innovations
No leader intentionally leaves untapped talent and energy on the table. And team members are also partly responsible for their disengagement.
The reasoning for creating a new culture lays in happiness.
For Hotels today we know the largest market segment is Millennials.
One of the most interesting trends that Hotels really should pay attention to among millennials are that they are less inclined to “buy” stuff and they turn to experiences instead.
And when we go beyond the experience what millennials are happy to pay for is happiness!
Hotel needs to understand that happiness also acts as the driver for innovation.
Make your Hotel team actively encouraged to live and breathe your new culture and come up with ideas that will improve the customer experience.
A way for Hotel to innovate around happiness is to start hiring Hotel Experience Ambassadors.
If your Hotel wan to leverage happiness to improve your results you have to start by creating a new culture in collaboration with your team.
Customer experience, new technology, Social Media and New Media require new skill sets. But it is no requirement to hire these skillsets to replace current skillsets. These are skills that can be learned if your Hotel invests in your team members.
Optimize the Experience
Excellent, delightful, optimized customer experience is all about long-term constancy, consistently happy customers, over months and years.
Improving and optimizing the customer experience has for many Hotels been a complex task since it requires team members to change mindsets and behaviors and requires organizations to rewire operations to fit the new culture.
Often the reason this process fails is due to team resistance to change and management behavior.
The traditional customer service workflow process is designed to achieve the best possible resolution most efficiently.
This process ensures consistency across all connections and generates predictable responses that enable the Hotel to better assist the customer.
Typically, good Hotel team members are highly process-driven. They’re the ones whose habits and behaviors most directly impact service level Key Performance Indicators consistently.
But with today’s market shift where the customer experience is more important than price this has pushed conversations outside the traditional customer service workflow.
As a result of this many Hotel team members are blindsided, and not able to provide the proper responses.
A greater focus on customer experience ensures that the Hotel team is making the best possible decision for each customer.
Essentially, creating a Framework for the customer experience is the starting point for measuring the immeasurable.
When your Hotel team make good decisions, you will start seeing a positive impact on happiness. Happiness will result in improved overall results and satisfaction.
Start to take an inventory of your Hotels reviews today, and then keep track of how this process impact reviews.
Once you start to see a positive pattern and behavior than it is time to start optimizing the experience to help each customer thrive. Delight and positive surprises will become a two-way scenario take your Hotel to a new level.
Be proactive and take charge of creating a new culture within your Hotel together with your team members.
Experience Optimization will help spark important excitement throughout the traveler’s journey. Your Hotel will now help the traveler with building new unique confidence in their decisions.
I have loved with all of my heart and soul serving customers, guests, and Hoteliers. As a Hotel Experience Ambassador, I gained a new passion for being a representative and messenger delivering new profound and delightful experiences.
If your Hotel wants to implement new effective success factors then now is the time to be part of a new initiative.
When your Hotel serves your community they will reward you back with serving you.
From a Hotel and Social Media Consultant’s standpoint, the Social Media Community can offer Hotels a one-stop-shop for managing their Social Media marketing such as the community infrastructure, database, listening functionality, profile management, collaboration, content marketing and management, and of course, the analytics.
A Social Media Community will help your Hotel to grow smarter and faster when you focus on the value proposition and collaborate in effective ways.
If your Hotel needs help to put it all together then make sure to let us know.
With the right team behind your Social Media efforts, it can become cost-effective and generate a new revenue stream for your Hotel.
SOCIAL MEDIA MANAGEMENT AND FACEBOOK ADVERTISING FOR HOTELS
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Try something new it will magnetize your Hotel!
Be flexible and identify new ways to make guests happy.
As guest behavior and pattern continues to evolve, expectations will continue to rise. Navigating these changes can be challenging. Learn more about how we can help your Hotel.
About the author
Are Morch is the founder and owner of Are Morch – Hotel Marketing Coach. Get more from Are on Facebook | Twitter | LinkedIn | Pinterest | Instagram| Podcast
