Train your team to deliver 'Ordinarily Extraordinary' guest service

Empower front-line workers to enhance experience

As a conference speaker and hotel trainer, whenever I see the title of an article, book or blog post that has anything to do with guest service, hospitality or customer service in general, I’m always quick to click and read. Too often, the headline is a teaser for the latest tech stack add-on, app or automated tool for “personalized” experiences. However, sometimes I do find good reads.

Lately I’ve noticed that most of the content I see about guest service and hospitality focus on providing something that is extra, above and beyond, outrageous, wow, or legendary, to use some key word examples.

These are all great concepts and I’m all for entrusting front-line associates with the resources they need to proactively extend those little extras that mean so much. I’m also a huge advocate of giving all staff the authority to resolve issues and complaints directly, including the authority to offer compensation up to a set amount, as Horst Schulze, former CEO of The Ritz-Carlton Hotel Co., made famous decades ago.

Yet to me, focusing on the exceptional, occasional, opportunity to amaze is simply not enough. Instead, our primary focus should be on providing guest service experiences that are “ordinarily extraordinary.”

A fruit basket amenity or flowers in the room upon arrival makes a good social media post, but what truly creates guest loyalty is the summation of dozens of seemingly little things throughout a guest’s stay.

Lodging companies simply must provide ordinarily extraordinary “physical product,” such as décor, furnishings and amenities. I believe that these days most hotels excel at delivering on these areas, perhaps due to stringent brand standards or even more so due to the power of online guest reviews that often include pictures of any shortcomings in maintenance, furnishing or housekeeping.

Each year for over three decades, I've traveled to approximately 70 hotels to conduct KTN’s training workshops, and on top of that, travel is my passion, so I’m in at least 80 hotels a year. Across all segments, brands, and geographic locations, it seems to me the biggest opportunity to stand out these days is focusing on human interactions. You cannot “out-tech” the competition.

As anyone who started in the hotel industry a decade or more ago will recall, the orientation process typically included formal training on guest services and hospitality. Now, too often, the first day on the job is all about learning the tech involved in the job, which typically involves watching online videos on how to work the property-management system, point-of-sale system and other systems.

Yes, it’s great to encourage staff to proactively go above and beyond in providing extras, and to entrust them to immediately resolve routine issues and complaints. But if you really want to stand out, focus on providing experiences that are routinely, ordinarily, extraordinary. Here are some tips straight out of our KTN workshops and conference presentations to review at your next meeting:

• Do the basics extremely well and extremely consistently! Obsess on holding eye contact, smiling and open body language.
• Acknowledge and greet guests first, before they greet you.
• Extend welcoming remarks before starting transactions. Make sure no one is ever greeted with “Checking in?,” “Just one?” or “What can I get you?”
• Be focused and fully present when engaging with guests. Don’t ask “How are you today?” unless you truly want to know.
• Listen with empathy when guests share their travel stories and drama.
• When responding to guest complaints, express empathy and understanding before apologizing and resolving.
• Use all of the above when interacting with everyone you encounter, whether they are guests, visitors or coworkers.
• Managers, it is absolutely essential that you model these behaviors every day.

Doug Kennedy is president of the Kennedy Training Network, Inc. Contact him at doug@kennedytrainingnetwork.com.

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