The hospitality industry is flourishing at an exponential pace and it has started to embrace and adopt technological innovations to enhance revenue generation and increase customer loyalty. As it goes without saying, customer service is always the prime focus for any business and the same is perceived to be applicable in the hospitality industry as well. Every industry seems to be in a rat race to see customers as just opportunities for ringing their cash desks and spends hours to create services which can be pushed onto the customer. The world is going through a digital transformation and almost every interaction happens via the internet today. But there is also a growing concern that with so many methods and ways to target your prospects to subscribe to your business, are we handling our customers as merely a means of revenue generation?
We are in an industry which needs to work completely different from the conventional methods of providing service. This is the only industry which cannot see its prospects as customers or revenue generators but as interactions for much longer durations. We are dealing with real people to whom we need to reach out, understand and be felt which will help us in better knowing what we need to deliver.
For any hospitality consultant or hotelier would be wise to agree that we are not in a business which provides only services. The foundation of any successful hotelier is not to have customers rather guests and to imbibe in itself and its team the very fact of the trade that it is not guest service that we aim to provide rather “Guest experiences”. Experience can be in any form but the success is in how unique and enjoyable you can make it to your guests. Right from providing the local cuisines of the place to the creation of that perfect magical and exquisite ambiance or the adventurous activities which can be incorporated into your offerings, it’s the experience which remains in the minds of our guests for a very long time.
We live in a world with different kinds of personalities and with traits which are either inherent or created by many societal influences. Many of our guests come from various walks of life and it is very important that we learn the persona of our guests even before their stay. A clever understanding of their requirements will contribute in formulating a felicitous experience to guests.
Hospitality is an industry which deals with the two most important ( E’s ) of human nature and it can be conquered only by providing an another integral ‘E’ in Hospitality. If it’s the persona of your guests that needs to be studied then it is the first ‘E’ to be satisfied and it comes with a big caution message ‘handle with care’. This E which amplifies the superior self-existence in any human being is the ‘Ego’. Analysing a person and knowing his/her requirements is necessarily studying the Ego of your persona because it is this letter E which can be altered unimaginably. So the goal and the start point of your service deliverance is to satisfy the Ego of your guest. Rightly said, “We are in the Ego business” and it’s crucial to find out the key touch points of your guest’s ego as it opens up various opportunities and aspects for service. Handle the ego of your guests with care and satisfying it is the start to a good service deliverance.
Once you have identified the Ego and found out the various opportunities for your service deliverance the next important E which needs to be tackled is ‘E’ for ‘Emotions’. Emotions are more personal and no technology can replace the feeling of oneness when you interact with your guests. Emotions are the only way to establish a direct and personal relationship with your guests and Hospitality is all about relationships. Emotions cannot be expressed through lifeless electronic media but have to be one to one, between you and your guest. Talk to your guests rather directing them to fill in endless columns in forms. It goes a long way when you take the time to converse with your guests and make them feel that you are not just a service provider but a friend who has invited them home. That’s the most eminent touch point anyone would want and paves the way to ensure your guests that they have come to the perfect place.
Handling the Ego and tackling your customer Emotions are the two hardest parts in the hospitality industry but once achieved then it automatically creates a roadmap to success. It creates the exact picture to the next E which is the focal point for your deliverance and that being ‘Experience”. You must have by now well understood your guests ‘Ego’ and ‘Emotions’ and are all set to showcase that exact, unique and exquisite experience to your guests. It is not the service which need to be delivered but that much-expected experience which eventually is guaranteed to stay in their minds. It goes beyond the obvious sectors of providing accommodation, food and drinks but to the more finer and innate tasks of elevating the human senses to an all altogether different level of their existence in your property. Once that kind of experience is delivered then you are in the absolute path to being a successful hotel entrepreneur.
