Hospitality expressed through interaction
“What guests really remember about a hotel is not service (the task that is expected) but it [is] the hospitality that is exhibited.” – Montgomery, 2016
Employee turnover, customer experience, and sales are the top three challenges facing hospitality and retail businesses today. That’s according to a report, titled 'Navigating Business Challenges in Retail and Hospitality: Insights and Strategies for 2024', released by research and frontline training platform, eduMe.
The report, which was based upon a survey that included over 300 retail and hospitality business leaders in the United States, also discovered that 83 percent of leaders within the sectors were not confident in their employees’ ability to interact with customers.
Astonishing isn’t it? Yes, but not surprising.
Take employee turnover: The job market in the hospitality industry is no longer rich with candidates… In fact, it’s been the case long before the pandemic. This has driven HR away from becoming marketers and strategists to spending time continuously posting jobs. HR people in the hospitality industry should be sharpening skills that support a sense of service and hospitality, such as being guest-oriented, friendly, reliable, empathetic, quick-thinking, and resourceful and being good at problem solving.
Additionally, the past year has accelerated digital transformation in the hospitality sector. Hence, it is imperative that organisations quickly and completely rethink how they attract, train, retain, and manage their talent.
Customer experience: The hotel industry thrives on creating exceptional customer service with an abundance of hospitality. Hospitality is expressed through interaction. Interactions can take place in various forms, including verbal communication, eye contact, facial expressions, appearance, and body language and customers are often directly involved in or observe interactions throughout the service delivery system.
The difficulty in managing guest interactions, many of which are ‘delicate’ in nature, is that when handled improperly, it can mean losing a customer. If guests are requesting answers to questions and your staff aren’t sure exactly how to help them, this can signal staff either not retaining information or not caring, and employees being afraid or lacking in confidence to engage with customers.
As CEO and founder of eduMe, Jacob Waern puts it, “To see a lack of confidence around customer service and customer experience abilities so keenly felt, especially when 93 percent of leaders report they are spending considerable time training employees, shows the stark need for a shake-up in the methods being used to provide these employees with skills and knowledge." He goes on to add “Businesses need to invest in better employee training systems and processes in order to ensure that their frontline teams are equipped to provide the best possible service.”
The report also found the proliferation of 'traditional' and outdated methods being used in these frontline industries and delivered in a way that lowers engagement, relevance and accessibility. The Deloitte report succinctly goes on to state that “employees that go above and beyond" as a bigger influence on CX, greater than product quality or price.
Entrance of new competitors such as sharing economy services, rising competition for customers, enhanced virtual and digital technology and a new breed of actors in the theatre of service vis-à-vis artificial intelligence and self service machines has transformed the hospitality landscape. In an environment, where the industry has dramatically changed, bringing with it several new touchpoints that has altered the customer journey - particularly after the recent pandemic enforced a rethink in service interactions, the big question is “are you ready to serve customers while having their best interests in mind?”
Shafeek Wahab - Editor, Hospitality Sri Lanka, Consultant, Customer Service Trainer and Ex-Hotelier
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