Is Anybody Listening?

Is Anybody Listening?

Part of the glamour of traveling to conferences is staying in hotels - all brands, varieties and levels. One thing I've recently noticed is many hotels are teaching their employees to listen to the guest. Not in the traditional sense, but at a new level, and it’s something restaurants can borrow a page from.

A few examples:

- At a Residence Inn, I was standing at a side exit waiting to run to my car in the pouring rain, when a maintenance worker offered to run out and get my car.

- When I got on the elevator, a bellman greeted me by name, smartly reading my conference name badge, and asked how my stay was going.

- As reported in Fast Company magazine, the W hotels now teach their employees to pay attention. For instance, if a guest is on a cell phone complaining of a sore throat, send up some complimentary chicken soup.

The point? Deliver stealth service. The guest is wowed in all these scenarios. Listen to your guests or customers. Uncover clues and use them to ensure the guest leaves saying, “Now that’s service!” These same skills can be used for your employees --- listen to their clues to see what opportunities you have to wow them as well.

By continually raising the bar of service you provide, it makes it more difficult for your competitors to stay with you. By the time they copy what you were doing last week, you are on to something bigger and better this week. As the old saying goes, second place is the first loser. Listen to your customers and employees and be the one who makes the competition suffer!