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Customer service is more vital than ever
By: Terry Holmes
Customer service is more vital than ever, says Terry Holmes, seen here in front of the home of the late, and forever loved, Princess Diana, Kensington Palace, in London.
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With the ever-increasing number of hotels chasing a decreasing number of clients, customer service is king. Therefore, we need to focus on the two greatest assets we have - the relationships with our clients and travel agent fraternity and our people who serve them.
I have been with Red Carnation Hotels for three years now and every day I am still very impressed by the enormous enthusiasm and genuine warmth that our staff show when looking after our clients. Anybody can build a hotel (all they need is money) but the difference between a good hotel and a great hotel is the people that work there.
One of the key philosophies of our company is that all General Managers maintain a visible presence in the public areas of the hotel, they also use a system which I refer to as BDA (Before, During and After). Before: what this means is that apart from sending out guest preference forms for new clients to ensure that we are able to match their wishes to specific rooms, drinks, newspapers etc, we also write to the travel agent thanking them for the booking and to ensure that all their requests are fulfilled. During, i.e. when the client is in-house: we send a little a note to the agent to advise that their client has arrived safe and sound and we ensure that the client’s stay exceeds both theirs and the agents expectations. We also put in a personal gift from the hotel manager and the agent. After: we follow-up with a thank you note to the agent thanking them for their business thus ensuring that we further cement our relationship and thereafter we keep in direct contact on a regular basis. By doing this two things happen: we continue to enjoy a high factor of repeat business and we will receive the best possible form of advertising which is, of course, word-of-mouth.
I have always been a great believer in the fact that the client is King. There is an old saying that the best hotel in town is where you are best known. We all have sophisticated practices to record individual guest preferences but a genuine interest in the individual guest is fundamental to our success. There is nothing that can replace a sincere face-to-face experience with a member of staff welcoming you ‘home’.
It is imperative that we recognize each individual (both client and agent) as a unique business partner. To ensure this you must be consistent in delivering what you promise. To me integrity is one of the most important assets an hotelier can have. Linked, of course, to a great sense of humour, love of the job and leading from the top.
Personalizing a guest stay, treating everyone as an individual and
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offering outstanding customer service have helped create the loyalty that accounts for much of Red Carnation’s success. That loyalty is also fostered by learning from our guests and acting upon what they tell us. We hold regular focus group dinners and all guests booking via our website receive an email from Jonathan Raggett, our Managing Director, thanking them for staying at one of our hotels and asking for feedback on their visit.
Having run some of the best hotels in the world, I have never ceased to be amazed by the amount of re-investment that Red Carnation makes in its hotels worldwide. The attention to detail is quite incredible and that is just one of the ways our clients benefit from our bottom line. Many hotels will be cutting staff and slashing rates which will only result in either a lowering of standards or service. History shows that both of these actions are counter productive and we will be doing neither.
I am often asked who and where are the heroes of the hotel industry in this celebrity-obsessed world? Although the industry has many heroes, one of the main attributes of a top hotelier must be discretion. Therefore, whilst we are often asked to write ‘kiss and tell’ books and appear on television we tend to have celebrity status with our clients and not in the media glare.
However, I do think that the popularity of cookery programmes on television have led to some of our best chefs gaining celebrity status and this has in turn got young people considering careers in hospitality and seeing it for the exciting and dynamic industry that it is.
THE AUTHORTerry Holmes is Executive Director of London-based Red Carnation Hotels - motto Exceptional Value and Service. His regular Terry's Tips emailed musings see a consistent 70 percent open-up rate compared with the industry norm of 25 percent. Terry Holmes' career includes heading Cunard Hotels, and running its flagship, The Ritz, London, and for many years he was legendary Managing Director of The Stafford, London, www.redcarnationhotels.com.
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