How Do The Best Hotels In The World Provide The Exact Same Service Every Single Time?

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How Do The Best Hotels In The World Provide The Exact Same Service Every Single Time?

Posted by Bruce Claver on Aug 2nd, 2010 // View Comments

Your taxi pulls up to your favorite five star hotel and you begin to pay the driver. Meanwhile, the trunk pops open and doorman removes your suitcase for you. As you exit the taxi, the doorman extends his hand to assist you out as he politely greets you, “Good afternoon Ms. White. Welcome to the Four Seasons Hotel” and yet, you’ve never stayed there before. “How does he know who I am?” you think. As you approach the front desk, the desk agent immediately greets you by name (again, “How did she know who I was?), welcomes you to the hotel, asks how your travels were, confirms your room type, departure date and which complimentary paper you would like to receive.

You are asked which credit card you would like to use to handle your charges and using your name one more time, the desk agent welcomes you a second time, reviews the key packet with you and asks if you would like assistance with luggage. After you decline, you are escorted to the elevator and bid farewell. What just happened here? Both the doorman and the front desk agent followed their standard operating procedures and you the guest, just experienced what begins to make a five star hotel, a five star hotel. The doormen “sneeked a peek” at your luggage tag as he removed it from the trunk of the taxi to learn your name. He then radioed the front desk with your name and the desk agent hit all 12 of her standards in under one minute.

Standards are policies and procedures that give the customer a sense of uniformity and comfort when they visit your business. The example above is no different than walking into a McDonalds and asked, “Would you like fries with that?” Every business needs to have its standard policies and procedures in place in order to brand itself. Branding is what sets your business apart from your competitor. It is the personality of your organization. It is why someone stays at a Four Seasons hotel and not a Ritz-Carlton. It is why one is loyal to Hertz, and not Avis. If your staff has not been given and trained on polices and procedures, then your company has no real personality behind it.

Without a policy and procedure, there is no consistency and precedent either. And without these, employees will either do whatever they want which will cost you – the business owner valuable resources and money, or breed indifference and apathy since nobody has been given a clear understanding of what to do or what to say. You can have one employee welcoming a customer with “Good Afternoon” while another may say, “Hey YO! WHAT UP, BRO?!!” Your staff can be saying anything to the customer.

Policies and procedures set precedent and parameters for the staff which in turn, guides them into offering the same consistent service with every customer. Service is not a generic word. It should be defined by your company and define your company’s character. What exactly do you want to provide to your customers? Just a warm “hello” from a warm body? Or a, “Good Afternoon Mr. Jones and welcome back!” It is not by chance that when you go into a Four Seasons hotel or Ritz Carlton that they use your name at least twice in conversation or confirm your departure date and bedroom preference with every checkin. A Four seasons in Boston will offer the same five star service as the Four Seasons in Chicago and it is not a coincidence. It also helps management know what the team is doing. Without it, a manager can only hope his customers are receiving the best service and hope does not guarantee anything. Your front line employees are the face of your company? So, how does your company look? Indifferent? Angry? Happy? How is it defined with your Polices and Procedures?

About the author

Bruce Claver has spent the last 20+ years working in various management roles at properties that were all rated as #1 in their markets, including Caesars Palace, Ritz-Carlton Chicago, Le Meridien and currently the #1 rated private city club in the U.S. – The Union League Club of Chicago.

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