Eclat Insights | Are You Obsessed? 10 Ways To Become A Customer Service, Obsessed Leader

Obsession is an idea or thought that continually preoccupies or intrudes on a person's mind. When cultivated, it can be a super-power. When you make your customer's happiness your no 1 priority, you make magic happen.

Here then are 10 ways to take your customer service obsession to the next level:

1. Start with Empathy. Start everything with empathy. Creating a new offer, package, service, product? Make sure it has empathy built into the process.

Early Check-Ins and Late Check Outs are prime examples. I never agreed with using either as a revenue management technique, instead, keep the charges for regular users, offer it with compliments for the one-off. 

2. Make everyone in your team: First Response Responsible

Very simply, make sure your team knows who is the first responder for a guest query/concern/complaint/request & make sure you give them everything they need to make this happen. 

3. Simplicity - Remove Barriers To Great Service. Challenge yourself to make it easier and easier for your guests to get what they want/need/desire. Take it to the next step and make a cross-functional team to keep working on creating simpler rules, forms, interdepartmental communication etc.

4. Communicate. Then Communicate Some More.

You want to delight customers, you want to make every experience count. Tell your team. Tell the world. Tell your guests.

Start every meeting with a hello to an imaginary guest in the room (this is not that crazy, apparently Amazon does this. They leave an empty chair at each meeting, representing their customer)

Put up posters, have a competition, make sure it is an email footer in all your emails. Keep hammering it in.

5. Walk The Talk

This one is a big one for me. If you are the leader, show them by doing it. Care for your guests and do anything that may be required to be done from time to time. In fact, I urge you to have a little tracker in your office. Ask the question, 'Did I Do Something Today For My Guests, That May Not Have Been My Primary Job?' Have a tick on it, every day.

We used to love our General Manager, who would from time to time, come to the Lobby, ask if any guest had complained about anything and actually go to the guest to apologise and make things right. He always asked a team member to accompany him so they could learn how it's done, right.

6. Hire With Care, For Care

Spend time in interviews, in situational assessments, maybe personality tests, team chats. Use all and every tool you can to find people who naturally care. If you find people like that, you need only tell them the how for your particular ops, but the why comes to them naturally. 

On the same tangent, Assess Performance For Care. Do you currently assess this quality in your team when you do performance appraisals? 

7. ZOOM Into Every Frame

Imagine a guest experience as a movie. A stay, a meal, even an interaction. Now zoom into each frame of this movie and see how you can make it better. see this for more

Such obsession births innovation. some examples:

The welcome gift in a guestroom. Someone wanted the guest to not only be happy with the room but also feel excited and welcomed. They added a little gift to that frame of the movie.

Then someone a little more obsessed went and personalised the welcome note. It was addressed to the guest and handwritten! 

Can you zoom in more and make it even better?  

8. Wildly Important Measure

A small challenge for you - can you create a lead service measure that your entire team can understand, track and affect? 

Think of it like the sensex30 or nifty50, which becomes a barometer for the stock markets. 

What is yours? p.s. if you think of a cool name for it, like CSATIN (customer satisfaction index), do share it in the comments. Also, what would you put into the index? like, how much weight would you give to which attribute?  

9. The Compound Effect In Service Design

Just keep doing it. Read the full insight, here

10. Mutual Respect & Care

None of the above will take shape or become reality if there isn't mutual respect and care within the team. Put in both, carrots & sticks to shape the behaviour and create the culture you need to make your obsession a reality. 

Feel like talking this out? Does this sound like something you want to do, but just don't know where to start? Let's talk. I am on +919872000604 or p.bedi@eclathospitality.com

Prabhjot

Bedi

is an Hospitality Ideator. A process innovator, trainer, and professional speaker, he has worked with the Taj Group of Hotels, conducted training programs for hospitality leaders, launched a National Council Accredited Hospitality Institute as Principal, successfully launched and sold three hospitality businesses. He now assists hospitality leaders and educators in creating superlative services and products. He also edits the very popular www.hospemag.com - the largest hospitality career e-mag

Eclat Insights | The Perfect Customer Service Experience. The Powerful Storyboard Concept and What You Absolutely Must Do

If you know exactly who your customer is and what great service looks like for that customer, this should be a piece of cake. If you are a banker, you might see a customer walk in, get assisted immediately, deposit a lot of money and thank you for the privilege. If you are a salesperson, you can probably imagine your perfect customer walking in, pleasant greetings exchanged, buying everything you recommend and then some, and again, thank you for the privilege.

What if I asked you to share this with someone? Imagine sharing this perfect experience with your family, or a friend. Imagine telling them all about it.

You would say something like 'So, I was just standing there, and then she, and then I, and then she, and OMG, she was like, wow, can you pack all this and that and that and that and that…'

You would tell a story, wouldn't you?

That's all we want to do in this insight, Tell amazing customer service storied. 

Introducing, The Storyboard.

What Is a Storyboard?

A storyboard is a visual outline for your story. It’s made up of a series of thumbnail images that convey what happens in your story, from beginning to end. It also includes notes about what’s happening in each frame. A finished storyboard looks like a comic strip.

So how does it help in customer service?

Let's go back to that perfect customer service experience we discussed earlier. If you can draw that up into a storyboard, it should be very easy for anyone to see what great customer service looks like for your company, department or process.

This is from a client of mine, where the vehicle delivery team made a storyboard of the customer process. The customer is the one with a crown (as it should be).

All the key interactions are shown as a unique panel. The script or the words they have to use come next and that is called process scripting, but for now, almost instinctively you know the activities that need to happen for this process to be 

1. complete & 

2. good

Storyboarding can help in the following:

• It clarifies the key moments in a process. I call these 'wow' moments, but that's only because I am tired of moments of truth (which to me sounds like a pathological liar trying to balance his karma once in a while)

• It helps you plan your process. If you don't see the customer anywhere in the frame, you know you aren't keeping her at the heart of your operation. If you can't see your customer smiling, feeling happy, elated, then a storyboard allows you to examine the process, frame by frame. In one case, the sheer number of people the customer had to meet to get something done was an eye-opener for the management. They kept asking, so who is in this frame now? and every time they would be told about a whole new designation.

• It helps you communicate your process in an easy & intuitive way. Try running a happy customer service process from a 20-page pdf document. Boring! When you have storyboards, you can print the entire process on one sheet and create a visual reminder for the entire team. You can also regularly work on each frame to make that micro-experience better. Think cold towels/water offered by businesses in summer. It's just one frame of the entire process, but they made it better.

• It simplifies further action. Scripting the words, action, lighting, staging everything becomes so much easier when you start looking at it as a movie.

How to do it?

Start with the basics.

Create a simple outline of your process.

Scene 1 - what happens. Who is in the frame? Where is it happening? Use stick figures. Repeat for every scene.

Stick to some pivotal points or action frames.

So, if the customer has to walk from the main door to the reception, you don't need to draw a frame for every step. 

Frame 1 - Customer opening the door to the shop 

Frame 2 - Customer at the counter

Show it to someone, anyone. They should be able to make sense of the story without you having to explain it. That is the first test of a good storyboard.

Once you have a good first cut, you can keep improving it, crafting a customer experience that will make them share their story with the rest of the world. Word of mouth comes from such craft.

Want to make this WOW? 

I Have 2 ideas for how you can make this wow!

1. Look for emotion in every frame. If you know the emotion you want to create, then you will be able to design a service to create it.

2. Make videos! Yes, not the boring training videos you are used to, but a customer success video. Get your team's best acting talent, write a script, make sure it follows the storyboard you created and simple make the happiest, service experience video ever! Watch it with your team regularly. 

At the heart of great customer service is a great story. Learn to tell yours.

Manage a customer service process? Own a company that has customers? Let me help. Write to me at p.bedi@eclathospitality.com & get absolutely free assistance on creating amazing storyboards > processes.

Prabhjot

Bedi

is an Hospitality Ideator. A process innovator, trainer, and professional speaker, he has worked with the Taj Group of Hotels, conducted training programs for hospitality leaders, launched a National Council Accredited Hospitality Institute as Principal, successfully launched and sold three hospitality businesses. He now assists hospitality leaders and educators in creating superlative services and products. He also edits the very popular www.hospemag.com - the largest hospitality career e-mag

Eclat Insights | How To Put The SODOTO Method To Fabulous Use In Hotels & Service Industries

SODOTO is See One, Do One, Teach One.

In 1890, William Stewart Halsted became the first Chief of Surgery at Johns Hopkins Hospital who transformed surgical education by creating the residency program. Halsted’s model of “see one, do one, teach one” is based on acquiring increasing amounts of responsibility that culminated in near-independence.

Why is it relevant to Hospitality & Service Industries?

• For a very long time, apprentice programs were the only way skill was taught. A novice would join a Master's practice and spend years learning by watching, doing, relearning and redoing. The cycle repeated till a skill was learnt to the level expected by the Master or the apprentice giving up.

• The hospitality & Service Industries have an element of skill in almost every task. We also have the added complexity of creating the service in the presence of the customer/guest. This is known as Inseparability, a service attribute.

• Add to this tasks that require multiple levels of inputs from multiple people. Catering a banquet for example would involve a lot of people putting together their talents to create a unifying experience for the guest. One element that does not reach the desired level puts the entire effort in jeopardy.

• Attrition. Our industries see a lot of attrition and hence we need to keep training new talent.

• Brand Standards. While almost all hotels have similar processes, the details could be completely different. New joinees, not only need to learn your brand standards, they need to unlearn old habits.

Actionable Insights - SODOTO ver 2.0 (some ideas on maxing each part of the equation)

See One.

• There were no multimedia in those days, today it exists and the tech is getting cheaper and easier every day.

• Capture the skill on video, make an interactive learning app, have the apprentice/students/newbies go over this as many times as required. Let them make a note of questions.

• Then when they do see one, performed live, they will take in that much more. They will focus on the nuance.

Do One.

• We suggest a name change to this part. 'Do One Perfectly' (or at least to the minimum standards agreed upon).

• We also suggest that this happen in pairs. One person does, the other watches (see more than one), corrects and repeats till both are happy with the results. A typical suggestion here is to have a mentor do the watching. That might be a good idea in the start for a while, then let go.

• Again, use tech. Let them record their version of 'perfect' and this can be assessed by the mentor/skill specialist.

• We also submit that the 'do one' part needs a heavy dose of deliberate practice.

Teach One.

• Each One must teach. That is the core of this. It may not necessarily be taught to another newbie. It can be each of the learners, teaching the other learners, but teaching is the key.

• It is only when we need to teach, that we clarify the entire process and articulate the task and action taken.

• Once again, record the teaching, and use the best as learning material for the next batch.

• Most hotels may have a departmental trainer and currently, this might fall under their purview. We feel the DT must help others teach.

Real-World Example

Let's take the room cleaning process as an example.

• Step 1 - Break down the process into smaller parts. In this case: Bed Making, Bathroom Cleaning, Rest Of The Room.

• Step 2 - Have your DT/Mentor/Senior make a video detailing the process. If you can create a simple text file, as a handout, that would be great. You can also transcribe the audio of the video to create this. Share this with all your learners.

• Step 3 - Have a live session - real world or online. This is the SEE ONE. Let the learners know there will be a test. This makes the learner pay a little more attention.

• Step 4 - Let the learner's pair up and DO the process. Let them observe each other and give feedback.

• Step 5 - Let them teach their partner first. Once you are sure they know what they are doing and teaching, let them teach the next batch of new joinees.

I have 2 things I would like you to think about:

1. Which skill would you like everyone in your company, hotel, department to get better at?

2. Which skill if you had been made to teach early in your career, would have created 10X gains?

If you like this and want to implement it, we would be the 'remote' mentors for you. Let's try it out for one process and take it from there? I am on p.bedi@eclathospitality.com and one process is on the house.

Eclat Insights | We’re Influenced By Very Particular Types of Rewards. Now That You Know That, What To Do About It @ Work.

Expected rewards reduce motivation on a task. Surprise rewards increase motivation on the same task. Fixed rewards are less powerful than performance-based rewards, even with creative tasks. - Zach Hamed

Why is it relevant to Hospitality & Service Industries?

Typically you would use this for team members/employees and some actionable insights are mentioned below. But I invite you to use this to think of customer/guest behaviour too.  

Our job as hospitality leaders and managers is to make sure that we design our services in a manner that produces the greatest amount of value or joy for our guests.  The ideal would be to design services and processes that bring joy to both, the guests and the team.

Actionable Insights

Rewards are used to create the desired behaviour. We train the mind to do something because there are rewards attached to the activity and a positive outcome. There is a whole lot of information at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motivation.

Let's break the insight down to smaller learnings:

Expected rewards reduce motivation on a task.

If you know you will only get X, to do Y, you may not want to do it. Since you know what the X is. Of course, this will not hold true, if what is expected is equal to or greater than what you want for that task.

Surprise rewards increase motivation on the same task.

When the surprise is revealed, it must be equal to or more than the value of the expected reward.

Fixed rewards are less powerful than performance-based rewards, even with creative tasks.

This makes intuitive sense. If everyone just gets the same reward, irrespective of effort or outcome, then the incentive to do more is taken away.

Real-World Example

Let's try and run 3 examples. 

Example 1 - Only For Guest Behaviour

The most simple, yet amazingly effective use of this insight, is the Happy Meal @ McDonald's.

“Few things are more iconic in American kid culture than the garishly decorated McDonald's Happy Meal box. Who among us can’t remember whining to their parents for a cheeseburger when all we really wanted was the latest Barbie figurine, Hot Wheels car, or cheap movie tie-in tchotchke?”– Kayla Webley

It is the perfect combination of expected & surprise reward. The child knows they will get a toy (expected), while which toy on that day and visit is the surprise.

Example 2 - For Your Team

Most organisations celebrate employee birthdays. Most also run 'employee-of-the-month type programs. In both these cases, the rewards are known and hence not really a surprise.

Imagine a different reality. Let's say it's your birthday and the HR team (or interdepartmental, which we suggest) gives you 4 boxes to choose from. Each box has a different gift so to speak, but all are similar in value. You don't have to get a cake or a voucher, you may get free tickets to a movie, a free phone recharge or even a gift card etc. You wouldn't know what yo

Prabhjot Bedi

is an Hospitality Ideator. A process innovator, trainer, and professional speaker, he has worked with the Taj Group of Hotels, conducted training programs for hospitality leaders, launched a National Council Accredited Hospitality Institute as Principal, successfully launched and sold three hospitality businesses. He now assists hospitality leaders and educators in creating superlative services and products. He also edits the very popular www.hospemag.com - the largest hospitality career e-mag

Eclat Insights | What's Not Going To Change? The Simple Yet Effective Method To Future-Proofing Your Business

The entire Insight is from something Jeff Bezos is quoted as saying on a number of occasions.

I very frequently get the question: “What’s going to change in the next 10 years?”

That’s a very interesting question.

I almost never get the question: “What’s not going to change in the next 10 years?” And I submit to you that that second question is actually the more important of the two.

You can build a business strategy around things that are stable in time. In our retail business, we know that customers want low prices, and I know that’s going to be true 10 years from now. They want fast delivery; they want a vast selection. It’s impossible to imagine a future 10 years from now where a customer comes up and says, “Jeff I love Amazon, I just wish the prices were a little higher.” Or, “I love Amazon, I just wish you’d deliver a little slower.” Impossible.

So we know the energy we put into these things today will still be paying off dividends for our customers 10 years from now. When you have something that you know is true, even over the long term, you can afford to put a lot of energy into it." — Jeff Bezos

Sure, spend time on what might disrupt your business, but I do think that there is a lot of merit and reward if you get what will remain true for your business in ten years. If you can get that right, you will have strengths that will not only create moats and safety nets but also grow.

Why is it relevant to Hospitality & Service Industries?

OTAs (online travel agents) were disruptive to the business model. There was a major shakeout in the way consumers found and booked hospitality services. To survive, everyone had to learn the new tools and work with the new formats. What did not change though, was the age-old hospitality maxim - location, location, location. Even on the OTAs, online booking, social media channels, consumers were still looking and booking for location. Price and Services followed.

Will technology disrupt the hospitality sector, of course, it will. There is so much happening in AI, Data Management, Multiverses, that the landscape of 'what' is a good service offering to have will evolve. As the concept of 24-hour-breakfast has demonstrated, not everything is a fad, some trends become habits.

What has not changed and may not change is a good breakfast spread. The quality of the food and the quality of the service.

Actionable Insights

Set up a leadership session with your top management and call it 'What Will Remain The Same?' or 'What is timeless in our industry?' or 'What do your guests want today, that they will want in 10 years too?'

• Make a list.

• Give a score on the scale of 1 - 10 on each item that is accepted by the group.

• Rank the list in order of the score. 10 being the highest priority.

• Build these strengths. Set up cross-functional, continuous improvement teams with a process champion and have them think of the process from 3, 5, 10 years out.

Real-World Example

Will Check In & Check Out be an important service element in hotels in 10 years? This is the first hurdle that you need to cross.

If you are someone who believes that in the future, there will be no need for a Check-In - since we will all be live on a network, all the time, then maybe you as a leader you need to keep an eye on when the tech comes through and you can make it available to your guests. Phone keys are already here, maybe in the future it will be based on wearables or as sci-fi fiction depicts, based on your eyes or voice etc. Maybe there will be no front desk. Amazon go - talks about no cashiers/checkouts at stores, why not hotels or restaurants?

If you are someone who believes that in the future, human touch, interaction, warmth, security, will play an even bigger role in the service quality and pricing, then you need to imagine what that service will entail and what you need to make it happen. Do you need to start doing better hiring and training? How do you create warmth in a sub-2-minute interaction? What information should you gather on the guest, what preferences should you capture and use? There might still be a tech element, but you will lead with people and build for 'genuine care'.

Want to make this WOW?

If you have read earlier insights published, you will know that one of the recurring themes in this section is the Employee Experience.

Think of this insight from the perspective of your employees. What will your ideal employee want in 10 years? Work-life balance, prosperity, challenges, opportunity to learn & grow? Are you investing in creating those things? For example, are you developing a learning management system for your team?

Something else that you might want to think about, in terms of employees of the future, do you think it will be led by super specialists like the medical/tech/influencer industry and or generalists?

If there is nothing else you do on this insight, do just this - a 2-hour session with your team on what they think the future will look like.

As always, I am happy to assist, lead this session for you. This is with my compliments and on the house. get in touch at p.bedi@eclathospitality.com.

Eclat Insights | GPOV - The Most Authentic Way To Look At All Your Service Interactions

POV - Point Of View is the mental position from which a story is observed or narrated. GPOV is the Guest Point Of View. When we look at every interaction, every process from the Guest's Point Of View.

Why is it relevant to Hospitality & Service Industries?

All hospitality and service stem from creating experiences for customers/guests. Everything we do should be aimed at creating lasting value and fulfilling the customer need.

Sometimes, however, over a period of time, processes become more team/operations-oriented, rather than guest-oriented. It then becomes paramount to relook at these processes with a fresh pair of eyes, especially the guests' so that we can eliminate, change, upgrade the process.

More Detail on the topic

Think of a big customer-facing process, and then look at it or go through it from a guest's point of view.

Let's take Hotel laundry. In many hotels, a laundry slip is still used. The guest is supposed to fill it up, marking the various items and count on a piece of paper which sometimes has a self carbon so that the guest can keep a copy as proof. This is both cumbersome and irritating, to the guest.

If you saw this from a GPOV, you would realize that a lot of time we put our dirty laundry in the bag just after taking a bath. We then need to remove the dirty laundry and count it again to fill in that sheet. Why would anyone want to do that, just after getting dressed and about to leave for a meeting/work?

Can we then think about making this easier, better for the Guest?

This can be looked at in two ways:

1. Incremental Change - small improvements

• Increase the font size on the forms

• Make the forms Index Card sized

• Instead of big form for all possible items, make small ones specifically for the type of clothing etc.

2. Quantum Change - Rethink - Make it easy

• Reduce categories. Instead of all types of items listed with varying prices, have one or two prices for all types. Then it is only about the total number of pieces and maybe the guest can just scribble that on the laundry bag itself.

• Let the guest just dump all the laundry on the bed and when you collect it, send the guest a quick message with the laundry bag contents listed. If there is a discrepancy, the guest can reply, if not, it's all good.

Just thinking about what the guest feels, sees, goes through, can unlock remarkable innovation and value.

Actionable Insights

Go through every process as a Guest.

Team Exercise - Playback Theatre

Playback Theatre is an original form of improvisational theatre in which audience or group members tell stories from their lives and watch them enacted on the spot.

For our purposes, we will do this with Customer / Guest Stories. Guest interactions with the product or the service.

HOW TO DO IT

• Get your team to sit together in a circle.

• Ask one team member to recount/share a guest experience story. For example, a guest called the front desk because he thought he felt an earthquake.

• After the story is shared, get team members to enact, retell the story by acting the scene out. Use as many actors are required. For the above example, one team member plays the role of the guest, the other of the front desk agent.

• From time to time, pause the play and discuss the emotion being played out. Let the team talk about it. For the above example, it could be fear, reassurance etc.

Do this with as many stories - positive or negative, as you like.

Want to make this WOW?

Get your favourite / regular guests to participate in these workshops. Let them exaggerate some of the things that irritate or baffle them about your processes.

If you read this till the very end, here is a special something for you. You can reach out to me to discuss any process you like. I will also be happy to conduct a workshop on this with you and your team. This is completely FREE. p.bedi@eclathospitality.com

Prabhjot

Bedi

is an Hospitality Ideator. A process innovator, trainer, and professional speaker, he has worked with the Taj Group of Hotels, conducted training programs for hospitality leaders, launched a National Council Accredited Hospitality Institute as Principal, successfully launched and sold three hospitality businesses. He now assists hospitality leaders and educators in creating superlative services and products. He also edits the very popular www.hospemag.com - the largest hospitality career e-mag

Eclat Insights | The Must-Know "Peak-End Rule"​ for Service & Process Design. You Need To Factor This Into All Your Processes

The peak-end rule is a psychological heuristic in which people judge an experience largely based on how they felt at its peak (i.e., its most intense point) and at its end, rather than based on the total sum or average of every moment of the experience. The effect occurs regardless of whether the experience is pleasant or unpleasant. Source: Wikipedia

Actionable Insight

The processes that make a service experience may not be rocket science, at least not until we open hotels on the moon, but adding a dash of scientific temper can dramatically change the outcome.

The only two things you need to know, from a practical, implementation point of view are:

• Create a towering peak moment in every positive guest experience.

• Reduce the peak moment in every negative guest experience.

Real-World Example

Let’s take Restaurant Dining for example.

Designing / Managing Peak Moments

Create a towering peak moment in every positive guest experience.

• If the guest is a repeat guest, can you remember their favorite drink and bring it to them?

• Maybe, instead of "asking" for Indian bread orders, bring them some and offer it? Charge only if consumed.

• Offer a taster - the mini size of a dish, dressing, or drink you think would go nicely with what the guests have ordered.

Reduce the peak moment in every negative guest experience.

• When you can see the guest is not particularly enjoying the food, offer to bring something else for them.

• When a guest complains about a dish, do not argue, contradict or try and make it seem like the dish is perfect but they don't know what is what. Reduce the peak moment, by apologizing & swiftly removing the offending dish from the table. Then convert it into a positive peak moment, buy having the Chef come over and prepare something off the menu.

Designing / Managing Ends

Remember, the end of a process is as important as the peak moment in the process.

Dining ends, usually with the bill being presented. Can you make this fun? Can you do something to keep the guest occupied or even entertained? Please, no customer satisfaction form or tool at this point. You want to create a good, last moment, not have them recollect the entire evening.

Gift & Farewell

We love gifts and we love a good farewell. Can you combine the two?

Make the server or the hostess walk the guests out, maybe even to the car, and make them hand over something - a small treat, a little note, a thank you card or coupon. Tell them the next time they visit or order for home delivery, the one dish they liked the most will be complimentary or 50% off.

It does not need to be about free stuff or discounts. You want to use the farewell, to remind them of the peak moment in the experience.

Want to make this WOW?

Do this for your team as well. What is the peak moment on the first day of your new joinees?

What is the farewell that your team gets at the end of each hard day of work/shift?

Surprise them, make them smile and you will see it travelling to your guests.

Let me try and End this on a sweet note. If this resonates with you, let's talk and see if we can add this to some of your critical processes. I am always on p.bedi@eclathospitality.com and ready to serve. p.s. this is free! :)

---

Prabhjot

Bedi

is an Hospitality Ideator. A process innovator, trainer, and professional speaker, he has worked with the Taj Group of Hotels, conducted training programs for hospitality leaders, launched a National Council Accredited Hospitality Institute as Principal, successfully launched and sold three hospitality businesses. He now assists hospitality leaders and educators in creating superlative services and products. He also edits the very popular www.hospemag.com - the largest hospitality career e-mag

Eclat Insights | What Are Lead & Lag Measures, Why You Need Them & How To Make Them Work

There is a giant difference between knowing a thing and knowing the data behind that thing.

– CHRIS MCCHESNEY, CO-AUTHOR OF THE 4 DISCIPLINES OF EXECUTION

A LAG measure tells you if you’ve achieved the goal, a LEAD measure tells you if you are likely to achieve the goal.

Let's say you want to get healthier or fitter. The lag measure (read goal) can be measured by your weight or BMI. However, to get there, you need to do some steps, take some action - maybe eat healthier, work out, sleep better. When you track these activities, you are using lead measures.

Why is it relevant to Hospitality & Service Industries?

I have loved the idea of lead measures since I first learnt about it in N Kano's Customer Service Model. I used that model to train a lot of people and set up what we call Active Empowered Processes.

Hospitality & Service requires attention to detail. Improving small aspects of the service, in incremental gains, can have a compound effect on the overall satisfaction of guests. A process is a series of steps. Measuring only Customer Satisfaction or Net Promoter Score at the end of the service does to allow you to make changes while you can.

Measuring lead measures, allows leaders to make changes, correct delivery of service to ensure that the end goal is achieved.

Actionable Insights

• Break up activity into smaller parts and then measure it.

• Use a metric that can be divided into smaller parts, a metric that can be measured, a metric that tells you when you have accomplished your goal.

• Create vibrant, compelling measures.

Make it easy to measure. If the measures create more 'work', your teams will just ignore them.

Example - Hotel Rooms Revenue For A Particular Day

LAG Measure - Revenue from Room Sales. Calculated at the end of the day, during night auditing. There is nothing you can do to improve the sales once the night auditing process is complete.

However, if you had LEAD measures:

• Booking Horizon - Starts 90 days before the date. You start measuring the number of reservations for a particular date. If this number is low, you push sales.

• Confirmed Reservations - You start confirming your reservations for a particular date. This can start 7 days before the date.

• Upselling - You can start tracking this is a Lead Measure from the first Check-In of the day.

Want to make this WOW?

Use this for healthy competition amongst your teams.

• Breaking the measures down into smaller parts can make both learning and working fun. For example, break down the cleaning of a room into smaller measures: bed making, bathroom cleaning, restocking minibar etc.

Make it super easy for your teams. 

• For example, a common measuring system used to track washroom cleaning in hotels, restaurants is an A4 printout stuck to the back of the door in a plastic sheet, that the cleaner is supposed to sign off at a predetermined interval of time. What can you do to make this better? Allow them to take pics after cleaning and sharing it on a WhatsApp group or an app of your choice. You get the time stamp, you get a visual that can be compared to what the standards are set as and it is super easy for the team member.

"All winners are trackers. You cannot improve something until you measure it"

Your productivity measure has to be something that you can measure while the task is on. A lead measure so to speak, is not something that has the feeling of an autopsy.

A word of caution - Goodhart's law states that when a measure becomes a target, it ceases to be a good measure.

If you would like to develop lead & lag measures that remain great measures, get in touch. p.bedi@eclathospitality.com

PrabhjotBedi

is a Hospitality Ideator. A process innovator, trainer, and professional speaker, he has worked with the Taj Group of Hotels, conducted training programs for hospitality leaders, launched a National Council Accredited Hospitality Institute as Principal, successfully launched and sold three hospitality businesses. He now assists hospitality leaders and educators in creating superlative services and products. He also edits the very popular www.hospemag.com - the largest hospitality career e-mag

Eclat Insights | The Forgetting Curve, What It Is, Why It Matters & What To Do

The forgetting curve hypothesizes the decline of memory retention in time. This curve shows how information is lost over time when there is no attempt to retain it.

Why is it relevant to you?

For yourself, use these insights to develop a system to fight the forgetting curve. If you lead a team, then bake this into your processes.

Actionable Insights

The key here is to retain the knowledge. Start with acceptance. Just because you saw a product demo once or you had a lecture or training program, does not mean you will retain that knowledge and neither will your team.

• You have to put in a process to consciously review the learned knowledge.

Simply put, you should make sure you review regularly to make learning stick.

Find out more about spaced repetition - A Simple yet powerful methodology to learn and retain knowledge using flashcards. There are tons of apps too.

Real-World Examples

For Chefs / Kitchen Teams - When trying to share, teach a new recipe to the team.

1. Ask your team to read a recipe.

2. Do a demo of the recipe the next day. Take pics or make a video.

3. Have a discussion on the recipe, dish, the next day.

4. Ensure there is a review: 3 days, 7 days and 21 days from the first time the recipe was demonstrated.

5. Use the pics or video for the review. Ask questions. Take a quiz.

6. Do a repeat demo if the team is unable to remember details.

For Front Office Service Leaders / Food & Beverage Service Leaders

You can use an electronic version or pen & paper.

1. For your regulars or repeat guests, make cards with their names on one side and details on the opposite side. These could be preferences, standing instructions etc

2. Get each team member to start with one card from the stack. If they are able to answer correctly the card moves to a box they need to see only after 21 days. If not, they need to see it again the next day.

3. Do this, till you are out of cards.

You can use the same methodology for any knowledge across any team.

Want to make this WOW?

• Reward people for remembering stuff.

• Allow people time on shift to do this.

• Start small. Make a deck of just 10 cards with the most important things you want your team or yourself to remember. Once you ace these 10 cards you will know the power of the method. Expand as & when required.

If you need starter ideas, do reach out to p.bedi@eclathospitality.com

Eclat Insights | The Compound Effect In Service Design

The idea is from the book 50 Activities For Achieving Excellent Customer Service by Darryl Doane.

I love compounding. The quote 'Compound interest is the eighth wonder of the world' is attributed to Einstein. Until recently, I thought of it merely in terms of finance or rather growing money. When you think of it in terms of life, productivity, personal, team or business growth, it is even more potent. 

3 lines of What The Idea Is

• The compound effect is the strategy of reaping huge rewards from small, seemingly insignificant actions.

• Small choices + consistency + time = significant results #formulasforlife

• Using learning from each interaction, each incident, to shape future interactions and responses.

Why is it relevant to Hospitality & Service Industries

The number of interactions one of your guests has with your team over a 24 hour period could vary from type of service to type of guest, but for simplicity let's say it is just 2. Just 2 interactions, in 24 hours, per guest.

If you serve 100 guests a day, that is 200 interactions, which is 73,000 interactions in a year.

Imagine if you could record the learning from each of those interactions, and keep improving all future moments of truth.

Real-World Example

A guest asks a steward if there are any vegan options because he can't find them on the menu. You may not have vegan options or the options may not be visible easily. This is a service design flaw.

First, the steward helps the guest, if he can himself or by talking to the chef/manager.  

He makes a note of the request.

At the end of the shift, he hands over that to the manager or adds it to an online list.

A vegan menu is then created by the chef/manager.

When other guests inquire about a vegan menu, instead of pointing to some dishes on the menu, the guest is offered a special, standalone vegan menu.

If every interaction that is warranted a new, different response from the standard operating practices is recorded and actioned, you get a compound effect.

Actionable Insights

1. Ensure your team captures any situation, request, demand, question, that is not already framed and featured in your SOPs.

2. It could be as simple as where is the restaurant to who owns this place? No management judgement should be used to document. No filtering. 

3. Make it simple for your team to record all such incidents. Create a voicemail box, a simple email address, pen & paper, anything that they can do to capture the details where they work. If there is too much effort required to do so, it will not happen.

4. Create a Chief-Moment-Of-Truth Officer position to ensure that all such records are accessed, actioned and added to SOPs. p.s. Your SOPs are supposed to be living, breathing entities and not something that is filled away in vaults. 

 5. Reward the people who add/create more knowledge for everyone. 

Want to make this WOW? 

• Have a competition. See who can add the maximum new service intentions.

• Create customer personas to go through all your SOPs and see how to improve the experience.

The 5-second rule! - Do something about this right now!

Look at the last customer complaint you got. Was it something new? If it was, make sure you create a response for it and add it to your SOP.

We love creating amazing service processes. If you want to ideate on any of your processes write to me at p.bedi@eclathospitality.com. It's free coz it is fun for us.

Prabhjot

Bedi

is an Hospitality Ideator. A process innovator, trainer, and professional speaker, he has worked with the Taj Group of Hotels, conducted training programs for hospitality leaders, launched a National Council Accredited Hospitality Institute as Principal, successfully launched and sold three hospitality businesses. He now assists hospitality leaders and educators in creating superlative services and products. He also edits the very popular www.hospemag.com - the largest hospitality career e-mag

Eclat Insights | A New Moment of Truth Gap

A new Moment of Truth Gap is the time it takes from having ordered something and receiving it. source

This gap can have branded moments.

• For example, a customer buys shaving cream through an online retailer. In addition to the notice that the product has shipped, the company can now provide suggestions on how to best use the product. Maybe it’s the middle of winter and the company sends a link to a video on how to protect your skin against dry and windy weather.

Why is it relevant to Hospitality & Service Industries

• There are many ways to look at this. How do you reinforce your brand while the guest waits for something they have ordered and are anticipating.

• In many service interactions, or what is traditionally called Moments Of Truth, almost every other gap seems to have been calibrated, except this one.

Actionable Insights

• Step 1 - Make a list of all such experiences. Examples could be guests booking a stay, booking a spa session, ordering a meal, confirming an event etc.

• Step 2 - For each of these experiences, develop 3 things you can do after the guest books and before the guest consumes the service.

• Step 3 - Create small interactions to make this gap add to the anticipation.

Real-World Example

Let's take the example of a family booking a holiday with a resort. The holiday is 2 weeks from the day they booked the holiday. What can you do for this new Moment Of Truth?

• Idea 1 - You can send them an email a week prior to arrival that tells them a little bit more about what all the resort offers; activities, events, etc.

• Idea 2 - You can ask them to choose a room based on the view. Send them 2 different pics of the views and they can choose one.

• Idea 3 - You can remind them to put email auto-responders, coz they will be on vacation. The joy of the holiday starts way before the holiday.

We would love to hear what you have added to your processes from this. As always, if you need any assistance do reach out to p.bedi@eclathospitality.com

Prabhjot

Bedi

is an Hospitality Ideator. A process innovator, trainer, and professional speaker, he has worked with the Taj Group of Hotels, conducted training programs for hospitality leaders, launched a National Council Accredited Hospitality Institute as Principal, successfully launched and sold three hospitality businesses. He now assists hospitality leaders and educators in creating superlative services and products. He also edits the very popular www.hospemag.com - the largest hospitality career e-mag

Eclat Insights | The Netflix 'Play Something' Feature & What You Should Now Start Offering Your Guests

There is enough research to show that more choice, does not mean more happiness. Psychologists David Myers and Robert Lane, conclude that the current abundance of choice often leads to depression and feelings of loneliness.

That is why Netflix created 'Play Something'

When you hit the ‘Play Something’ button, you’ll be instantly met with a series or film we know you’ll love based on what you’ve watched before. Or with one more click you can ‘Play Something Else’ and get:

• A brand new series or film,

• A series or film you’re already watching,

• A series or film on your list, or

• An unfinished series or film you may want to revisit.

WHY IS IT RELEVANT TO THE HOSPITALITY & SERVICE INDUSTRIES

We love to shower our guests with choices. The more the better. From pillow menus to tea menus, sleep menus, spa menus to the already every expanding buffet and In-Room Dining menus, guests now have an array of choices. The list is endless and the choices are increasing every day.

As we mentioned in the insight - 'The last best experience that your guest has anywhere becomes the minimum expectation for the experiences they want with you', your guests hope to get what they have experienced and liked anywhere.

Do you have an 'Awesome Anything' process in place?

ACTIONABLE INSIGHTS

• 'Awesome Anything' is the one thing you are absolutely certain that your guest will like when they say "bring me anything".

• It is a list of things that are presented to the guest, in order, if they do not like the first thing suggested.

• All suggestions are one at a time. Multiple suggestions are not offered in one go.

REAL-WORLD EXAMPLE

• Imagine a simple interaction in a restaurant. Let's assume the server knows the guest name and remembers to use it. #[[connected topics]] "Good Evening Ms Bose, welcome to Friday's. What can I get you today?" she says. "Anything" replies Ms Bose. "Coming right up"

• The server brings the guest a dish, a drink and a little something sweet. It is perfect.

Want to make this WOW?

• Remember your guest preferences and history. You can use old-school index cards or the latest CRM & AI, but do it. Surprise them with something they knew they craved but were not able to ask for, something from their childhood, or mum's kitchen.

• We know this is an ideal version, but let it be a starting point for your conversation on this. Instead of bringing the dish right away, you could do an elevator pitch for the dish.

Prabhjot

Bedi

is an Hospitality Ideator. A process innovator, trainer, and professional speaker, he has worked with the Taj Group of Hotels, conducted training programs for hospitality leaders, launched a National Council Accredited Hospitality Institute as Principal, successfully launched and sold three hospitality businesses. He now assists hospitality leaders and educators in creating superlative services and products. He also edits the very popular www.hospemag.com - the largest hospitality career e-mag

Eclat Insights | How To Teach So People Learn

The art historian Gustav Friedrich Waagen on how to teach so people learn: "First delight, then instruct."

If you wanted to teach magic, you would want to start with a magic trick. Not any magic trick, a trick that may seem simple to someone who does not want to learn magic, but to the eager student, that trick should be awesome, awe-inspiring. It sets the tone for what's coming.

Having delighted someone, you have their heart's attention, not just the mind.

Why is this relevant to Hospitality & Service Industries

• The concept of inseparability in service means that one cannot separate the production of service from the consumption of it.

• Front Line staff training is therefore critical for any exceptional service design and delivery.

• This insight will help you create better training programs for your teams.

• This can be particularly useful for managers that work with skill-oriented workers. You may find that you need to correct them, instruct them in the middle of their work and sometimes in front of their peers. This advice could do wonders for you.

Actionable Insights

Find something to say, do, show, tell, share that will delight them, then when you have their attention, instruct them.

Real-World Example

• Want to teach your team about welcoming guests? Don't start with a PowerPoint presentation in a dark room. Welcome them into the training room like you would welcome a guest!

Want to make this WOW?

• Give them a welcome drink or a treat! Or

• Welcome them in the local language Or

• Welcome them in their native language

As always, do share your implementation of this insight with us.

Brief About writer:

Prabhjot

Bedi

is an Hospitality Ideator. A process innovator, trainer, and professional speaker, he has worked with the Taj Group of Hotels, conducted training programs for hospitality leaders, launched a National Council Accredited Hospitality Institute as Principal, successfully launched and sold three hospitality businesses. He now assists hospitality leaders and educators in creating superlative services and products. He also edits the very popular www.hospemag.com - the largest hospitality career e-mag