“Be contrarian – leave that chocolate on the pillow,”
The bevy of hotel investors who purchased assets at the peak of the market with the intent of repositioning are now the most vulnerable in today’s economy. This “repositioning” segment of the market is in survival mode, yet creative owners are employing new survival strategies to combat challenges.
“When the bottom fell out of the hotel market in the fall of 2008, owners and lenders were abruptly faced with net income levels that plummeted by 35 to 50 percent. Their ability to rethink and execute dramatically different short-term operating strategies often became the defining element for survival,” said Amelia Lim, an executive vice president and expert hotel advisor for Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels. Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels’ Strategic Advisory & Asset Management experts have been at the forefront of guiding hotel owners in survival mode through the past several months. The firm’s market-driven analyses uncovered six points of vulnerability that struggling hotels should avoid to mitigate long-term impacts to profitability, and to maximize revenue and existing customer relations:
1.Buck the Status Quo and Maintain Marketing Resources.
Hotels have slashed sales staff, PR, marketing, often at costs that may not be apparent in the short-term. Given the prevalent thought of “If nothing’s happening in the market and cash flows are anemic, why should I spend on sales and marketing payroll?” – they’ve hit bone.
“Cutting marketing spend is an understandable and immediate reaction in a hostile environment,” said Lim “Declining demand and average daily rates (ADRs) are temporary, as our market research has conclusively shown. However, the level of guest goodwill and market perception of any hotel’s quality profile is just as temporary.”
If a hotel were to defensively scale back on its PR efforts and marketing outreach in a major way, it would be highly exposed to the risk of an opportunistic competitor gaining market share by its willingness to maintain a consistent message to the market. “The resounding message here is: don’t cut back the channel that feeds you. Keep a steady level of promotions out to the customer base, or risk losing customers,” Lim said.
2.Direct Guests to Proprietary Web Sites for Maximum Profit.
Many high-end hotels are resorting to mass-market channels to off-load inventory. “These are very expensive channels of distribution with a 25 percent fee off the top of revenue – so they end up netting 75 percent,” said Lim. “This is often seen with the independents that do not have the benefit of an affiliation with a sales and marketing group such as Leading Hotels of the World or Preferred Hotels & Resorts. Often, the more profitable way to go is to direct guests to your proprietary Web site.” The implementation of a holistic promotion strategy to channel bookings to a profitable proprietary Web site has been successfully executed at many of the hotels which Jones Lang LaSalle Hotels asset manage.
3.Release the Commitment to High ADR Rates and Introduce Variation.
Hotels need a fairly sophisticated analysis of the proper mix of ADR and occupancy to navigate today’s market. This requires market-specific experience and technical expertise. It also requires operators to sometimes relax their commitment to upholding ADRs.
“While a high ADR is a logical objective, hotels often can yield more profit by adopting a savvy strategy that embraces more modest ADR objectives at the right times,” Lim said. “Do you sell one room for $1,000, or do you sell 10 rooms for $100 each? While the RevPAR technically works out to be the same, there’s a lot more to consider in the balance. The answer lies beyond simple math, and calls for an analytic approach that combines quantitative and qualitative measures of success. The equation is further complicated when considering the incremental profits from other sources within the hotel that any one occupied room brings to the bottom line.”
4.Combat the AIG Effect with Creative Customer Solutions.
“There have been anecdotal accounts of guests requesting luxury hotel names not appear on their receipt,” said Lim. “The reported $20 bag of chips from the minibar of Le Uber Luxury Resort really sticks in the craw of public opinion when 3 percent of the company’s headcount has just been impacted by workforce reductions.”
The connotation of the hotel name and its implied positioning are points worth considering in any sales and marketing strategy. Seek ways to offset any resistance associated with extravagance given that austerity is the rallying cry of the day.
5.Explore Brand Flexibility.
Brands are allowing the delay of investment of capital dollars to help hotels ease into new standards while retaining the flag. Good mid- and long-term strategists will analyze levels of flexibility available within existing brand standards. Very often, relationships with the brands and a well-documented case on how guest satisfaction will not be materially impacted even in the absence of immediate implementation can also facilitate the phasing-in of brand standards in a manner that cushions bottom-line impact, yet preserves long-term asset value.
6.Divide and Conquer Roles: Asset Manager and Property Manager.
An asset manager should not be confused with an onsite property manager. The main value that the asset manager brings is not to dictate how to staff the property, or opine on the blueprints of the hotel’s new elevator as a property manager would, but to ensure that these plans fit in to the overall value proposition.
The asset manager is there to ensure that all the overall strategic vision is maintained and monitor operating activity at a high level. The property manager is responsible for the day-to-day and detailed execution. Understanding and allowing the division of tasks between property manager and asset manager allows the respective areas of expertise to play out in concert, with the effect of maximizing long-term asset value.
Thursday, October 28, 2010
5 Reasons Using A Qualified Consultant Could Make a Huge Difference in Your Hospitality Business
(John is a former Instructor of my, a good friend, and has some great points..)
“CEOs who don’t use outside advice run the risk to internalizing too much. They never realize their full potential, and they miss a lot of opportunities.”
George Clement, CEO Clement Communication, Inc.
There are CEOs of many descriptions and the weak economy reinforced that fact to me in a current assignment. I am in the middle of a four city series of programs for Meetings Quest 2010 where I am leading discussions and sharing ideas on optimizing meetings success. Attendees include professional meeting planners from corporations and associations of all sizes, hotel managers and sales teams, representatives from convention and visitors’ bureaus, suppliers that serve all of the previous groups and independent professionals in the hospitality business.
When I say I am “sharing ideas” and facilitating the general session, that role does not mean I am doing all of the talking. As a career hotelier and educator, I am leading discussions on ways to optimize meeting success from various perspectives of professional meeting planners and hotels. In each of the sessions to date, there has been almost 50% of the time for the program devoted to smaller group discussions on problems facing all of these professionals in the same industry, but that have slightly different roles and responsibilities.
Those discussions have included certain elements of Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and #5 in particular – Seek First to Understand, and then to be Understood. The process is highly interactive and the groups are divided into smaller teams for active and inclusive discussions that involve literally everyone in the 100+ attendee audiences. Within the discussions, attendees first define the components of what may or may not be outside of their area of expertise and then defend or refine those definitions when challenged or questioned by others in the audience.
This format requires guidance and a steady pace by the moderator with invigorating results for the group. The interactive discussions among the attendees appear to create a desire for continued dialogue.
This leads me to the title of this short column – the use of qualified consultants as a means of acting as a change agent or a stimulant to progress through dialogue, thought, and discussion of alternatives and the creation of action plans.
Many of us have heard that “A consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time, and then keeps the watch.1 ” While the downside potential is clearly present when using external resources or consultants, there is also the upside of being able to address serious challenges and solve problems before they evolve into full-blown crises.
Five Reasons Using a Qualified Consultant include:
1.Making Time Count
No one can re-create “time”, but using the right resource can make a difference in how at least some time is spent. A challenge facing many hospitality businesses is answered by using another of Covey’s Seven Habits with his #7, Sharpen the Saw, that addresses the need to be able to renew one’s sense of value and awareness. When dealing with daily operations of staffing, marketing, purchasing, planning and meeting guest expectations, operators are likely aware of the problem centers and the areas where one could maximize results. The predicament often faced is that in dealing with the day-to-day business needs, one cannot and does not focus on them long enough to take action and generate results. A Qualified Consultant can tackle the time issue with a specific plan that uses time effectively and can generate results.
2.Finding True Impartiality
In most segments of the hospitality industry, it is very likely to become "People and Process” focused, due to volume and the 24 hours per day pressure of operations. Familiarity can become comfortable and we run the real risk of losing objectivity needed to assess our approaches to consider change needed to make improvements. A Qualified Consultant can bring a balance of professionalism and objectivity and share both proven best practices and their experience where and when one needs it.
3.Considering Different Perspectives and Approaches
As mentioned in the introduction, there are many different perspectives in business today and they do not need to be perceived as confrontational. A Qualified Consultant can help identify those perspectives from several angles and then offer a number of alternatives on how to proceed.
4.Understanding The Needs
Needs differ from perspectives, in that the business has certain legal, ethical and financial obligations to meet in order for the business to succeed on an ongoing basis. A Qualified Consultant is an excellent “listener” who will take the time to hear and assess you and your team's thoughts. They can use their expertise and interaction with other organizations and operating businesses to work with you in addressing your situations, be they solving people or process issues, to launching new campaigns or effectively monitoring capital improvement programs.
5.Exploring and Recommending Cost Effective Solutions
In many organizations, the answers have “always” been to add a new position, increase the advertising or lower the prices to solve a particular problem. A Qualified Consultant will likely consider those approaches as possible solutions, but will more often include a range of researched options that offer likely outcomes.
1 Advertising executive Carl Ally (1924-1999) was credited with the saying in 1965 about people who are not fond of consultants.
“CEOs who don’t use outside advice run the risk to internalizing too much. They never realize their full potential, and they miss a lot of opportunities.”
George Clement, CEO Clement Communication, Inc.
There are CEOs of many descriptions and the weak economy reinforced that fact to me in a current assignment. I am in the middle of a four city series of programs for Meetings Quest 2010 where I am leading discussions and sharing ideas on optimizing meetings success. Attendees include professional meeting planners from corporations and associations of all sizes, hotel managers and sales teams, representatives from convention and visitors’ bureaus, suppliers that serve all of the previous groups and independent professionals in the hospitality business.
When I say I am “sharing ideas” and facilitating the general session, that role does not mean I am doing all of the talking. As a career hotelier and educator, I am leading discussions on ways to optimize meeting success from various perspectives of professional meeting planners and hotels. In each of the sessions to date, there has been almost 50% of the time for the program devoted to smaller group discussions on problems facing all of these professionals in the same industry, but that have slightly different roles and responsibilities.
Those discussions have included certain elements of Stephen Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People, and #5 in particular – Seek First to Understand, and then to be Understood. The process is highly interactive and the groups are divided into smaller teams for active and inclusive discussions that involve literally everyone in the 100+ attendee audiences. Within the discussions, attendees first define the components of what may or may not be outside of their area of expertise and then defend or refine those definitions when challenged or questioned by others in the audience.
This format requires guidance and a steady pace by the moderator with invigorating results for the group. The interactive discussions among the attendees appear to create a desire for continued dialogue.
This leads me to the title of this short column – the use of qualified consultants as a means of acting as a change agent or a stimulant to progress through dialogue, thought, and discussion of alternatives and the creation of action plans.
Many of us have heard that “A consultant is someone who borrows your watch to tell you the time, and then keeps the watch.1 ” While the downside potential is clearly present when using external resources or consultants, there is also the upside of being able to address serious challenges and solve problems before they evolve into full-blown crises.
Five Reasons Using a Qualified Consultant include:
1.Making Time Count
No one can re-create “time”, but using the right resource can make a difference in how at least some time is spent. A challenge facing many hospitality businesses is answered by using another of Covey’s Seven Habits with his #7, Sharpen the Saw, that addresses the need to be able to renew one’s sense of value and awareness. When dealing with daily operations of staffing, marketing, purchasing, planning and meeting guest expectations, operators are likely aware of the problem centers and the areas where one could maximize results. The predicament often faced is that in dealing with the day-to-day business needs, one cannot and does not focus on them long enough to take action and generate results. A Qualified Consultant can tackle the time issue with a specific plan that uses time effectively and can generate results.
2.Finding True Impartiality
In most segments of the hospitality industry, it is very likely to become "People and Process” focused, due to volume and the 24 hours per day pressure of operations. Familiarity can become comfortable and we run the real risk of losing objectivity needed to assess our approaches to consider change needed to make improvements. A Qualified Consultant can bring a balance of professionalism and objectivity and share both proven best practices and their experience where and when one needs it.
3.Considering Different Perspectives and Approaches
As mentioned in the introduction, there are many different perspectives in business today and they do not need to be perceived as confrontational. A Qualified Consultant can help identify those perspectives from several angles and then offer a number of alternatives on how to proceed.
4.Understanding The Needs
Needs differ from perspectives, in that the business has certain legal, ethical and financial obligations to meet in order for the business to succeed on an ongoing basis. A Qualified Consultant is an excellent “listener” who will take the time to hear and assess you and your team's thoughts. They can use their expertise and interaction with other organizations and operating businesses to work with you in addressing your situations, be they solving people or process issues, to launching new campaigns or effectively monitoring capital improvement programs.
5.Exploring and Recommending Cost Effective Solutions
In many organizations, the answers have “always” been to add a new position, increase the advertising or lower the prices to solve a particular problem. A Qualified Consultant will likely consider those approaches as possible solutions, but will more often include a range of researched options that offer likely outcomes.
1 Advertising executive Carl Ally (1924-1999) was credited with the saying in 1965 about people who are not fond of consultants.
Tuesday, October 19, 2010
Walking after Midnight: How to Avoid Being Relocated from Your Hotel
(Daniel Carig has some valid and useful points, I used to hate walking people. You can aslo find a link to his blog on our page.)
If you’re a frequent traveler, this scenario might be all too familiar. It’s late. You stagger to the front desk of your hotel, bruised and battered by the horrors of modern travel, only to be welcomed with the words, “I’m sorry, but we don’t have a room for you.”
“What?” you cry. “But I have a confirmation … here! … It says my reservation is guaranteed!”
Silly you. Don’t you know that the credit card number you provide at time of reservation guarantees one thing only: that the hotel will charge you if you don’t show up?
As hotel occupancies climb, relocates are making a comeback. As a long-time hotelier, I have the dubious distinction of having performed scores of relocates in my career, and I know how inconvenient and frustrating it can be for travelers.
But you’re not as helpless as you might feel. While there’s no surefire way to avoid being relocated, there are ways to fight the odds – and, if your number is irrevocably up, to negotiate the most favorable terms.
What exactly is a relocate? Also known as walking or bumping, relocates occur when a hotel has more reservations than rooms. Like airlines, hotels overbook in order to maximize occupancy, banking on cancellations and no-shows, and sometimes we get caught with our pants down. Unlike airlines, however, we don’t announce overbookings to a holding lounge full of travelers or ask for volunteers. We handle relocates discreetly, swiftly dispatching you to another hotel while giving you little choice in the matter.
The early bird catches the room. Hotels typically assign rooms as guests arrive, so our options decrease as the day progresses. If we’re sold out and you arrive late, you’re vulnerable. But then you also might be upgraded, since suites are often the last to go. Not a gambler? Call the hotel in advance to say you’ll be arriving late and ask them to hold your room. And always do your homework; if a hotel is a chronic walker, you’ll read about it in online reviews.
You are what you pay. I didn’t tell you this, but the higher your rate, the more preferential your treatment. Reserve the presidential suite, and we won’t dare walk you. Book through an online travel company, which keeps up to 30% of your rate, and you’re vulnerable. Book through an opaque website, and you’re a walking target. It’s not that we don’t love you, we just love our more loyal and lucrative guests better.
Are you on the no-walk list? The truth is, sometimes we do have a room – just not for you. Depending on the hotel, certain guests never get walked, like loyalty club members, frequent guests, corporate clients, VIPs and tattooed bikers. If you don’t qualify, you can always try pleading your case; in cases of undue hardship rooms can miraculously materialize. You can also try arriving in a wedding dress or clutching a heart monitor. But if there’s no room, there’s no room.
Trade up, not down. The good news is the hotel will pay for your room that night, plus taxi fare and a long distance call. But here’s a dirty little secret: hotels prefer to relocate to a slightly inferior hotel, hoping you’ll come running back into our arms on your next visit. You have the right to insist on a comparable hotel. Hell, we’re paying, so why not ask for the Four Seasons? But if the city is full, you might well be cozying up with the farm animals at the Barnyard Inn.
You’ll never believe this, but … It’s hard to admit we had the gall to sell your room to someone else, so some employees invent little white lies like burst water pipes, electrical problems or guests who refused to check out. A truly unscrupulous hotel might try to foist the blame on you, claiming your reservation was mysteriously canceled or booked for this date five years ago. Always get an email confirmation at time of reservation, check it for accuracy, and bring it with you. If you mixed up the month and year, that’s your bad, not ours.
Now don’t get all huffy. Yes, relocating is evil, unforgiveable really, and hotels do it largely out of greed and incompetence. But it’s not a conspiracy, and we’re not singling you out for having cheap luggage or travel hair. Mostly it’s a numbers game. Chances are the long-suffering graveyard agent who relocates you had nothing to do with overbooking the hotel. So cut him some slack, be firm but pleasant, and resist the theatrics and hostage-takings. If you need to vent, save it for the general manager.
If you’re a frequent traveler, this scenario might be all too familiar. It’s late. You stagger to the front desk of your hotel, bruised and battered by the horrors of modern travel, only to be welcomed with the words, “I’m sorry, but we don’t have a room for you.”
“What?” you cry. “But I have a confirmation … here! … It says my reservation is guaranteed!”
Silly you. Don’t you know that the credit card number you provide at time of reservation guarantees one thing only: that the hotel will charge you if you don’t show up?
As hotel occupancies climb, relocates are making a comeback. As a long-time hotelier, I have the dubious distinction of having performed scores of relocates in my career, and I know how inconvenient and frustrating it can be for travelers.
But you’re not as helpless as you might feel. While there’s no surefire way to avoid being relocated, there are ways to fight the odds – and, if your number is irrevocably up, to negotiate the most favorable terms.
What exactly is a relocate? Also known as walking or bumping, relocates occur when a hotel has more reservations than rooms. Like airlines, hotels overbook in order to maximize occupancy, banking on cancellations and no-shows, and sometimes we get caught with our pants down. Unlike airlines, however, we don’t announce overbookings to a holding lounge full of travelers or ask for volunteers. We handle relocates discreetly, swiftly dispatching you to another hotel while giving you little choice in the matter.
The early bird catches the room. Hotels typically assign rooms as guests arrive, so our options decrease as the day progresses. If we’re sold out and you arrive late, you’re vulnerable. But then you also might be upgraded, since suites are often the last to go. Not a gambler? Call the hotel in advance to say you’ll be arriving late and ask them to hold your room. And always do your homework; if a hotel is a chronic walker, you’ll read about it in online reviews.
You are what you pay. I didn’t tell you this, but the higher your rate, the more preferential your treatment. Reserve the presidential suite, and we won’t dare walk you. Book through an online travel company, which keeps up to 30% of your rate, and you’re vulnerable. Book through an opaque website, and you’re a walking target. It’s not that we don’t love you, we just love our more loyal and lucrative guests better.
Are you on the no-walk list? The truth is, sometimes we do have a room – just not for you. Depending on the hotel, certain guests never get walked, like loyalty club members, frequent guests, corporate clients, VIPs and tattooed bikers. If you don’t qualify, you can always try pleading your case; in cases of undue hardship rooms can miraculously materialize. You can also try arriving in a wedding dress or clutching a heart monitor. But if there’s no room, there’s no room.
Trade up, not down. The good news is the hotel will pay for your room that night, plus taxi fare and a long distance call. But here’s a dirty little secret: hotels prefer to relocate to a slightly inferior hotel, hoping you’ll come running back into our arms on your next visit. You have the right to insist on a comparable hotel. Hell, we’re paying, so why not ask for the Four Seasons? But if the city is full, you might well be cozying up with the farm animals at the Barnyard Inn.
You’ll never believe this, but … It’s hard to admit we had the gall to sell your room to someone else, so some employees invent little white lies like burst water pipes, electrical problems or guests who refused to check out. A truly unscrupulous hotel might try to foist the blame on you, claiming your reservation was mysteriously canceled or booked for this date five years ago. Always get an email confirmation at time of reservation, check it for accuracy, and bring it with you. If you mixed up the month and year, that’s your bad, not ours.
Now don’t get all huffy. Yes, relocating is evil, unforgiveable really, and hotels do it largely out of greed and incompetence. But it’s not a conspiracy, and we’re not singling you out for having cheap luggage or travel hair. Mostly it’s a numbers game. Chances are the long-suffering graveyard agent who relocates you had nothing to do with overbooking the hotel. So cut him some slack, be firm but pleasant, and resist the theatrics and hostage-takings. If you need to vent, save it for the general manager.
Tuesday, October 12, 2010
Inject A Dose Of Economy-Proofing In Your Property
Many hotels around the country have made major changes in operations to run a more efficient operation – a must in this slower economy. But many hotel operators are missing opportunities, and some might not know where to start on what can seem like an overwhelming task.
The good news is that whether it’s improving an underperforming property, simply weathering the economic storm, or taking over a new hotel, owners and managers can usually make some relatively quick and easy changes to deliver an immediate boost to the bottom line.
Here’s a to-do list to consider, across some key operational departments, to inject a dose of economy-proofing in your property:
Management
•Designate individuals to oversee:
◦A reduction of workforce, if needed, to better match occupancy levels
◦An energy savings program
◦Working with vendors to help reduce such expenses as food, beverage, and supplies
•Call on all receivable accounts to offer a discount if their balance is paid off early
•Institute a green program in housekeeping to reduce linen turnaround
Maintenance
•Change or clean all HVAC and PTAC filters (which enhances performance and efficiency of the equipment)
•Check all window and door seals; caulk and insulate where possible
•Check and repair ALL leaky toilets, tubs, showers and sinks in guestrooms, public areas, and the kitchen
•Check and replace all defective sink aerators (sink aerators save water)
•Reduce the landscaping water cycles where possible, and use mulch (which reduces recurring water bills)
•Change your exterior lighting timer switches to turn on and off by zones. For example, create zones of every third lamp, and have each zone turn on 30 minutes apart, then off 30 minutes apart, instead of all at once
•Convert lighting to low wattage bulbs wherever possible
◦Converting to florescent tubes in your shops and back of the house will save money
•Convert all exit signs from incandescent to LED lighted signs
•Install motion sensors in offices and shops, including laundry and housekeeping, to ensure lights are off when no one is in the room – also great for public restrooms
•Use setback thermostats and thermostat guards for all back-of-the-house areas, public areas and meeting space
Housekeeping
•Make sure that housekeeping staffers are cleaning light bulbs as part of their daily cleaning
•Wash full loads of laundry ONLY – partial loads waste energy
•Implement a linen and towel re-use program where guests choose whether or not to have linens and terry towels cleaned daily
•Reduce your bathroom amenities, without affecting guest service (and if your property is franchised, verify compliance with your franchise agreement)
•Educate room attendants to conserve energy while cleaning guestrooms
•In occupied rooms, set the thermostats to 72 degrees
•Close all drapes in the summertime, and open them all in the wintertime. If closing them all the way is not an option, close them half or three-quarters of the way
•Use cold-water laundry washing where possible
Food & Beverage
•If the hotel restaurant’s business is slow, change the hours of operation of the restaurant to operate at the minimum requirement
•Change menus to adopt more cost-effective items
•Reduce your inventory levels and work with your purveyors to minimize deliveries
•Increase your inventories in all the hotel’s mini-marts
Human Resources Department
•Join forces among properties wherever applicable
•Work with all in-house department heads to increase efficiency
To incorporate many of these types of measures, managers and owners often need to break long-held habits and instill new ones. Establishing some form of encouragement or incentive for employees can help new policies take hold quicker.
And even though these efforts can be a challenge to implement, they will pay off. And in this economy, it’s hard to find a hotel that couldn’t be helped by taking at least some cost-cutting measures.
The good news is that whether it’s improving an underperforming property, simply weathering the economic storm, or taking over a new hotel, owners and managers can usually make some relatively quick and easy changes to deliver an immediate boost to the bottom line.
Here’s a to-do list to consider, across some key operational departments, to inject a dose of economy-proofing in your property:
Management
•Designate individuals to oversee:
◦A reduction of workforce, if needed, to better match occupancy levels
◦An energy savings program
◦Working with vendors to help reduce such expenses as food, beverage, and supplies
•Call on all receivable accounts to offer a discount if their balance is paid off early
•Institute a green program in housekeeping to reduce linen turnaround
Maintenance
•Change or clean all HVAC and PTAC filters (which enhances performance and efficiency of the equipment)
•Check all window and door seals; caulk and insulate where possible
•Check and repair ALL leaky toilets, tubs, showers and sinks in guestrooms, public areas, and the kitchen
•Check and replace all defective sink aerators (sink aerators save water)
•Reduce the landscaping water cycles where possible, and use mulch (which reduces recurring water bills)
•Change your exterior lighting timer switches to turn on and off by zones. For example, create zones of every third lamp, and have each zone turn on 30 minutes apart, then off 30 minutes apart, instead of all at once
•Convert lighting to low wattage bulbs wherever possible
◦Converting to florescent tubes in your shops and back of the house will save money
•Convert all exit signs from incandescent to LED lighted signs
•Install motion sensors in offices and shops, including laundry and housekeeping, to ensure lights are off when no one is in the room – also great for public restrooms
•Use setback thermostats and thermostat guards for all back-of-the-house areas, public areas and meeting space
Housekeeping
•Make sure that housekeeping staffers are cleaning light bulbs as part of their daily cleaning
•Wash full loads of laundry ONLY – partial loads waste energy
•Implement a linen and towel re-use program where guests choose whether or not to have linens and terry towels cleaned daily
•Reduce your bathroom amenities, without affecting guest service (and if your property is franchised, verify compliance with your franchise agreement)
•Educate room attendants to conserve energy while cleaning guestrooms
•In occupied rooms, set the thermostats to 72 degrees
•Close all drapes in the summertime, and open them all in the wintertime. If closing them all the way is not an option, close them half or three-quarters of the way
•Use cold-water laundry washing where possible
Food & Beverage
•If the hotel restaurant’s business is slow, change the hours of operation of the restaurant to operate at the minimum requirement
•Change menus to adopt more cost-effective items
•Reduce your inventory levels and work with your purveyors to minimize deliveries
•Increase your inventories in all the hotel’s mini-marts
Human Resources Department
•Join forces among properties wherever applicable
•Work with all in-house department heads to increase efficiency
To incorporate many of these types of measures, managers and owners often need to break long-held habits and instill new ones. Establishing some form of encouragement or incentive for employees can help new policies take hold quicker.
And even though these efforts can be a challenge to implement, they will pay off. And in this economy, it’s hard to find a hotel that couldn’t be helped by taking at least some cost-cutting measures.
Saturday, October 9, 2010
The Oldest Profession Or Not…
How technology has changed with RevPar, Twitter, Linked In, Facebook, and Foursquare…not that it’s a bad thing with IT and social media, the expanse and growth of these mediums have grown so much, that it is a foregone conclusion that to be in touch, and current you need these and also the phones and their apps.
In true management form, there are those that don’t use these to reach their Markets. Today you need to be plugged in 24/7. In keeping with operations and development there need to be a disconnect so that you can do the MBWA..you as a Manager need to be seen at the Front Desk, Car Park, Doormen, in the Port Cochre, in the Bar, in the Restaurant, patrol the Meeting rooms, BOH, Hallways, as my friend, who is a well known Hotel Company president, to quote him, “Nothing important happens in your office”. I agree with that, as I came up in the hotel business, there were 2 types of Managers, the one’s that were never in their office, and those that never seemed to leave them. Of the ones I still keep in touch with and are successful, were never in their office. I think it comes down to having the right blend, like a good wine of coffee, or cocktail, it’s how it’s made.
And like a good food, they followed a recipe. I will relate a story I told, Hoteling is the oldest profession, and I normally don’t push religion, but in this case, I refer to the birth of Jesus, he was born in a manger , why, because the Inn was full, why?, it was the holiday season.”, as for the other oldest profession, they had to go somewhere, so I rest my case, Hospitality is the oldest profession, and if the internet was around back then, Mary and Joseph would have had a reservation at the inn, and the donkey would have gotten parked for them.
In true management form, there are those that don’t use these to reach their Markets. Today you need to be plugged in 24/7. In keeping with operations and development there need to be a disconnect so that you can do the MBWA..you as a Manager need to be seen at the Front Desk, Car Park, Doormen, in the Port Cochre, in the Bar, in the Restaurant, patrol the Meeting rooms, BOH, Hallways, as my friend, who is a well known Hotel Company president, to quote him, “Nothing important happens in your office”. I agree with that, as I came up in the hotel business, there were 2 types of Managers, the one’s that were never in their office, and those that never seemed to leave them. Of the ones I still keep in touch with and are successful, were never in their office. I think it comes down to having the right blend, like a good wine of coffee, or cocktail, it’s how it’s made.
And like a good food, they followed a recipe. I will relate a story I told, Hoteling is the oldest profession, and I normally don’t push religion, but in this case, I refer to the birth of Jesus, he was born in a manger , why, because the Inn was full, why?, it was the holiday season.”, as for the other oldest profession, they had to go somewhere, so I rest my case, Hospitality is the oldest profession, and if the internet was around back then, Mary and Joseph would have had a reservation at the inn, and the donkey would have gotten parked for them.
Tuesday, October 5, 2010
Hospitality Conversations – Understanding the Developing Perspectives in Quality Assurance
John Hogan captures and relates some great insight.
The terms “Quality and Excellence” are often very hard to explain in a single word, yet as consumers, we seem to know instantly if the hospitality service or product we are receiving is of the caliber we expected. In this two part series on Quality, I spoke at some length with John Roberto, Senior Vice President & Managing Director of Quality Assurance at LRA Worldwide, Inc., (www.lraworldwide.com/index.html) a well-known, international company that works with many different types of hospitality and service businesses.
In this Hospitality Conversation, I asked John to share some insights on trends and different approaches that his firm is seeing in Quality Assurance. In Part 1, he provided an overview of Traditional Quality Assurance Inspection formats and Brand and Product Evaluations. While both are still used by a good number of organizations, he described them informally as “past and recent past” in that they were building blocks to the next and third evolving trend. The LRA professionals view the Branded Experience Evaluations as the most forward looking and exciting of programs, because they are more all encompassing of the entire guest experience and are inclusive of many more facets of the guest stay.
Question 1: You earlier in our conversation that both the Traditional and the Brand and Product Evaluation QA formats were still widely used. Why the need for yet another program for hoteliers to learn and adapt to? Is this more than “change for the sake of change?’’
Answer: Good question and let me answer in two parts. There are a good number of companies that find the first two approaches work well for them. They tend to be smaller, more rooms-only or select service properties and these approaches may meet their needs for the near future. The third type of Quality Assurance program, Branded Experience Evaluations, is meaningful for all types of properties because it supports all of the touch points in the guest experience, ranging from marketing to reservations to each service delivered.
This is not “change for the sake of change,’’ but rather is meant to address the expanding demand for QA programs to support more departments and specific brand culture. These include marketing initiatives, service commitments, guest touch points, brand language, facility overviews and more. The first two QA approaches touch some of these, but not nearly enough for the travelers of today who are growing in their sophistication and expectations.
Question 2: In Part 1 of our conversation, you shared that Traditional Quality Assurance Inspection focus on cleanliness, facility condition, certain life safety related items and they are evaluated by corporate operations groups and/or the QA group. You said the Brand and Product Evaluations were more Operational Focused and these QA efforts were jointly evaluated and “owned” by both operations and brand marketing for the first time, with a focus on “brand influence” How do the Branded Experience Evaluations differ?
Answer: With the growth and increased influence of a number of major brands, the standards are all the same, as hotel ownership has made the decision that those standards are part of solid business practices.
The Branded Experience Evaluations differ from the first two I outlined in that they are clearly more flexible and can be prescriptive. The consultant will know the specific performance of a property in advance, such as external ratings, satisfaction scores submitted from a third party and the focus is both subjective and objective, which is very different from a numbers-only rating QA approach.
The assessment and views of the professional consultant are welcomed. They might be presented in a narrative (using the brand terms) that is valuable for the property, and may or may have a score attached. These programs also look to evaluate if the marketing message and service commitment of the brand are reaching the customer, as those are considered essential for the brand long-term strategy success.
Question 3: With so many types of service and continuously expanding brands, does this Branded Experience approach work at all types of properties?
Answer: The QA Landscape is certainly becoming more extensive and wider in scope as hotels expand into more entertainment and try to create a culture of their own. More properties are focusing on the total experience vacation, becoming more destination oriented and working to personalize their specialty markets.
There are some differences. The luxury and life-style brands tend to “step out of the box” and require more relevant measurement techniques that focus on measuring their unique service culture. Full-Service brands increase focus on service delivery, while Select Service focuses on product differentiation, while maintaining the core elements they find their guest value. Economy properties may only have one visit per year, but may be a longer evaluation in that visit, appropriate for each brand.
Visits overall are un-announced and the approach may differ somewhat by brand and by kind of property (resort, airport, destination, suburban) to gain more focused information.
Question 4: Doesn’t this approach mean less monitoring and longer times between visits? A great deal can happen or rum amok in six to twelve months, can’t it?
Answer: It could, but the visits are not the only interaction the property has. There are many factors today considered, including the commitment of the owners to meet the agreed upon brand standards. When one includes all of the measurements available, such as GSS, self-audits, associate engagement surveys, social media, online reviews and more, there is too much information available for a property to drift too astray without being on the radar. Putting all of these together leads to a more accurate balanced scorecard. If there is a problem identified, a re-audit or extra visits (for a fee) are arranged and charged to the individual properties.
Question 5: You mentioned the “self-audit”. I really enjoyed the self-directed Tool-Centered Audit that your LRA Director of Information Technology, Michael Getter, shared with me. Do hotel managers really use this tool?
Answer: More managers embrace this each month because it really helps them to assess their entire property in each area. For example, we have some companies that have extremely detailed self-audit area that assign “owners” by physical area or department. Some use strictly “yes or no” responses, while others provide areas of concentration that might look at 50 or more specific topics. These can be addressed by a schedule (weekly, monthly, quarterly) and comparisons and improvements noted. They can be used as means to build pride and/or address certain projects that may have been identified as an area needing attention..
They can also assist a hotel build a case for needed capital improvements and for owners and management groups to evaluate circumstances with limited bias. Each company can create its’ own values, which allows for them to excel at what their guests feel is important.
Closing question: John, your bio says you have evaluated over 1,000 properties – can you name a favorite?
Answer: That would certainly put me on the spot, wouldn’t it? I will share that I have had exceptional hospitality service at a select service property in Arkansas from the night auditor, which pleasantly surprised me. I have also experienced exceptional attention by a major city 5 star hotel staff that also exceeded my expectations by the “little things” they noted in my reservation call that they delivered on. These two examples illustrate the reality of how much “hospitality is a people business”
Keys to Success Hospitality Tip of the Week:
Focus on Quality ”Quality cannot be a sometimes thing by some people. Create teams by involvement through meaningful Quality Assurance Programs. Concentrate on Quality and Quantity will follow. Lead by visible example – being “in-touch” yields proactive results.”
John Hogan, Hotel Common Sense Philosophy #3
The terms “Quality and Excellence” are often very hard to explain in a single word, yet as consumers, we seem to know instantly if the hospitality service or product we are receiving is of the caliber we expected. In this two part series on Quality, I spoke at some length with John Roberto, Senior Vice President & Managing Director of Quality Assurance at LRA Worldwide, Inc., (www.lraworldwide.com/index.html) a well-known, international company that works with many different types of hospitality and service businesses.
In this Hospitality Conversation, I asked John to share some insights on trends and different approaches that his firm is seeing in Quality Assurance. In Part 1, he provided an overview of Traditional Quality Assurance Inspection formats and Brand and Product Evaluations. While both are still used by a good number of organizations, he described them informally as “past and recent past” in that they were building blocks to the next and third evolving trend. The LRA professionals view the Branded Experience Evaluations as the most forward looking and exciting of programs, because they are more all encompassing of the entire guest experience and are inclusive of many more facets of the guest stay.
Question 1: You earlier in our conversation that both the Traditional and the Brand and Product Evaluation QA formats were still widely used. Why the need for yet another program for hoteliers to learn and adapt to? Is this more than “change for the sake of change?’’
Answer: Good question and let me answer in two parts. There are a good number of companies that find the first two approaches work well for them. They tend to be smaller, more rooms-only or select service properties and these approaches may meet their needs for the near future. The third type of Quality Assurance program, Branded Experience Evaluations, is meaningful for all types of properties because it supports all of the touch points in the guest experience, ranging from marketing to reservations to each service delivered.
This is not “change for the sake of change,’’ but rather is meant to address the expanding demand for QA programs to support more departments and specific brand culture. These include marketing initiatives, service commitments, guest touch points, brand language, facility overviews and more. The first two QA approaches touch some of these, but not nearly enough for the travelers of today who are growing in their sophistication and expectations.
Question 2: In Part 1 of our conversation, you shared that Traditional Quality Assurance Inspection focus on cleanliness, facility condition, certain life safety related items and they are evaluated by corporate operations groups and/or the QA group. You said the Brand and Product Evaluations were more Operational Focused and these QA efforts were jointly evaluated and “owned” by both operations and brand marketing for the first time, with a focus on “brand influence” How do the Branded Experience Evaluations differ?
Answer: With the growth and increased influence of a number of major brands, the standards are all the same, as hotel ownership has made the decision that those standards are part of solid business practices.
The Branded Experience Evaluations differ from the first two I outlined in that they are clearly more flexible and can be prescriptive. The consultant will know the specific performance of a property in advance, such as external ratings, satisfaction scores submitted from a third party and the focus is both subjective and objective, which is very different from a numbers-only rating QA approach.
The assessment and views of the professional consultant are welcomed. They might be presented in a narrative (using the brand terms) that is valuable for the property, and may or may have a score attached. These programs also look to evaluate if the marketing message and service commitment of the brand are reaching the customer, as those are considered essential for the brand long-term strategy success.
Question 3: With so many types of service and continuously expanding brands, does this Branded Experience approach work at all types of properties?
Answer: The QA Landscape is certainly becoming more extensive and wider in scope as hotels expand into more entertainment and try to create a culture of their own. More properties are focusing on the total experience vacation, becoming more destination oriented and working to personalize their specialty markets.
There are some differences. The luxury and life-style brands tend to “step out of the box” and require more relevant measurement techniques that focus on measuring their unique service culture. Full-Service brands increase focus on service delivery, while Select Service focuses on product differentiation, while maintaining the core elements they find their guest value. Economy properties may only have one visit per year, but may be a longer evaluation in that visit, appropriate for each brand.
Visits overall are un-announced and the approach may differ somewhat by brand and by kind of property (resort, airport, destination, suburban) to gain more focused information.
Question 4: Doesn’t this approach mean less monitoring and longer times between visits? A great deal can happen or rum amok in six to twelve months, can’t it?
Answer: It could, but the visits are not the only interaction the property has. There are many factors today considered, including the commitment of the owners to meet the agreed upon brand standards. When one includes all of the measurements available, such as GSS, self-audits, associate engagement surveys, social media, online reviews and more, there is too much information available for a property to drift too astray without being on the radar. Putting all of these together leads to a more accurate balanced scorecard. If there is a problem identified, a re-audit or extra visits (for a fee) are arranged and charged to the individual properties.
Question 5: You mentioned the “self-audit”. I really enjoyed the self-directed Tool-Centered Audit that your LRA Director of Information Technology, Michael Getter, shared with me. Do hotel managers really use this tool?
Answer: More managers embrace this each month because it really helps them to assess their entire property in each area. For example, we have some companies that have extremely detailed self-audit area that assign “owners” by physical area or department. Some use strictly “yes or no” responses, while others provide areas of concentration that might look at 50 or more specific topics. These can be addressed by a schedule (weekly, monthly, quarterly) and comparisons and improvements noted. They can be used as means to build pride and/or address certain projects that may have been identified as an area needing attention..
They can also assist a hotel build a case for needed capital improvements and for owners and management groups to evaluate circumstances with limited bias. Each company can create its’ own values, which allows for them to excel at what their guests feel is important.
Closing question: John, your bio says you have evaluated over 1,000 properties – can you name a favorite?
Answer: That would certainly put me on the spot, wouldn’t it? I will share that I have had exceptional hospitality service at a select service property in Arkansas from the night auditor, which pleasantly surprised me. I have also experienced exceptional attention by a major city 5 star hotel staff that also exceeded my expectations by the “little things” they noted in my reservation call that they delivered on. These two examples illustrate the reality of how much “hospitality is a people business”
Keys to Success Hospitality Tip of the Week:
Focus on Quality ”Quality cannot be a sometimes thing by some people. Create teams by involvement through meaningful Quality Assurance Programs. Concentrate on Quality and Quantity will follow. Lead by visible example – being “in-touch” yields proactive results.”
John Hogan, Hotel Common Sense Philosophy #3
What Making Ice Cubes Taught Me About Marketing
Ann Handley writes about her interpetition of How to Make Ice Cubes..
My junior year in college, I took a nonfiction-writing course. For one of our first assignments, the professor had each of us write a step-by-step how-to of something that we knew how to do well, but intended for an audience that would be unfamiliar to the task.
“Write instructions as if you were conveying them to someone from an alien planet,” the professor advised.
At the time, I found the assignment asinine: Why are we wasting time writing how-tos and recipes rather than exploring worlds we didn’t know? Where was the craft in that? And so to mock the assignment and express my derision, I chose to write a “recipe” on the simplest thing I could imagine: How to Make Ice Cubes. “Great idea,” the professor said simply, with an irritatingly blank expression.
Of course, what my writing professor knew—and I didn’t—was that it’s a lot harder to write what you know very well than it is to research and explain what you are less intimate with. What’s more, simple concepts you take for granted can suddenly take on enormous complexity: How do you explain the concept of an “ice cube tray” if you can’t use the words “ice cube”? What’s water? Where does it come from?
The point of it was to exercise our ability to view things from the reader’s perspective, and to convey the familiar but complex with simplicity, brevity, and clarity. Which I learned was extremely hard to do.
For the past six months, I’d been writing—with C.C. Chapman—a new version of How to Make Ice Cubes: Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business—as the title suggests, a book about how to create all kinds of online content that inspires your customers to become your fans. It’s a subject I know well, having been developing online content for almost 14 years. And so I have a renewed appreciation for how difficult it is to express what you know so well in a way that uniquely clarifies and succinctly enlightens—and does so in an engaging way.
So what does this have to do with you, or with the marketing of your business?
Everything. Because what marketers do is convey information about their products and services with simplicity, brevity, clarity—in an engaging way. It’s not unlike teaching, either, because marketers frequently develop content and other messages that don't just simply talk about their products, but inform and educate their audience in an effort to convey why those products matter.
Did you ever hear the expression, “Those who can—do. And those who can’t—teach”? The pejorative premise is that those who master something—whether it’s making chicken vindaloo, or ice cubes, or writing books—make a living doing that thing. While those who don't master that something spend their miserable lives bossing others around, and telling them how to do the things they themselves can’t.
Of course, the truth is anything but: The best teachers tend to know their subject better than anyone. Their true genius is that they can take what they know very well and—like a good writer and a skilled marketer—convey it in a way that engages.
(That quote about teaching, by the way, is sometimes attributed to journalist and social critic HL Mencken, and sometimes to the writer George Bernard Shaw. Since Mencken was a one-time fan boy of Shaw's (he published a book on Shaw’s plays in 1905), many peg Shaw as the quote’s author. And by “many” I mean my local public librarians, whom I trust because librarians tend to be correct on issues such as these.)
The thing about good writing and great teaching is that they have an awful lot to do with good marketing. Just as good writing requires you to consider the reader, and good teaching insists that you engage the pupil, good marketing forces you to consider the world from your customer’s point of view: Is your marketing speaking directly to your customer’s pains, or wants, or needs?
What’s more: Does your marketing speak with true empathy? Is your message resonating with your customers because you are inspired to share it? Are you offering them something they truly want to know? Or are you just a bore who is talking about yourself?
“The trick is always to look at your business or brand from the outside in,” Richard Branson wrote on this site recently. “Instead of looking strictly through the prism of the latest quarterly financials, attempt to see yourself as your customers see you.”
Buried in that piece is a gem of a suggestion, as a kind of litmus test about whether your own business regards its customers with empathy: Try calling your own customer service line, Branson suggests, adding, “Just finding the number can be interesting.”
As business owners, we are all entrenched in the day-to-day of running the business, which can make it difficult sometimes to step outside of our own purview and look at things with the fresh perspective of a customer.
Branson’s idea is one way of doing that; here are some other ideas for seeing things from a customer’s point of view.
Express the key thing your product or service does for your customers in a single sentence. This isn’t the value-proposition elevator speech, which is often about what you do, not what you do for your customer.
Try to express the gist of what you want to say in a single sentence. (That’s a trick from journalism school.) This applies well to business marketing, too: What do you want your prospect or customer to know, first and foremost? I bumbled over a way to succinctly express what our book was about until I practiced what I'm preaching here. (I tried to say too much, because I knew the subject—like I knew ice cubes—too well.) Similarly, this Boston restaurant looks at its business from the customer’s perspective, when it could have just advertised, “Patio seating.” The difference is subtle, but powerful.
Ask customer service. The front line is a great source for feedback, so ask them: What are customers contacting us about? What problems do they have? How might you help them resolve their issues?
Better yet, call your customers. Richard Branson
talks about doing this in the early days of Virgin. If Richard Branson had the time, don’t you?
Show how your products live in the world. Show how your business (or its products or services) exists in the real world: how people use your products; how those products add value to people’s lives, ease their troubles, help shoulder their burdens, and meet their needs.
Even if you are a company that sells to other companies, focus on how your products or services touch the lives of people. By the way, when you are writing about people, another good rule of thumb from journalism school is this: Be specific enough to be believable, universal enough to be relevant.
Consider this video that Boston agency Captains of Industry created for a company called Vitality. Its product, the GloCap, is a drug prescription bottle cap that’s connected wirelessly to the Internet and is able to send alerts to remind patients when it’s time to take their medicines. Rather than focus on the functionality of the bottle or the cool technology behind it, the video focuses how the bottle helps one grandfather maintain his independence and how it allows his family to relax a little, knowing that he's taking his meds.
Monitor search keywords. What keywords are people using when they land on your site? Your blog? Monitoring those keywords tells you what your would-be customers are interested in and actively looking for.
Monitor social media keywords, too. Monitoring social conversations and trending keyword topics on Twitter, blogs, and status updates can be a rich source of customer feedback. Doing so gives you a sense of what people are talking about in real time and what matters to your customers now.
Leverage online tools. Various online tools for customer relationship management are available to help companies stay customer-focused. If you lack time to build online support, or don't have much moderating manpower, consider something like Get Satisfaction.
Think of it as a “social support” for a user base that never sleeps: Get Satisfaction provides interconnected widgets and dedicated forums that let customers pose questions and offer help to each other any hour of the day or night. The secret lies in how the information is presented (intuitively) and shared (through Facebook, Twitter mentions, and other media). See the support page for Mint.com for a sense of how this works.
What else would you add? What other ways can you maintain a focus on your customer?
My junior year in college, I took a nonfiction-writing course. For one of our first assignments, the professor had each of us write a step-by-step how-to of something that we knew how to do well, but intended for an audience that would be unfamiliar to the task.
“Write instructions as if you were conveying them to someone from an alien planet,” the professor advised.
At the time, I found the assignment asinine: Why are we wasting time writing how-tos and recipes rather than exploring worlds we didn’t know? Where was the craft in that? And so to mock the assignment and express my derision, I chose to write a “recipe” on the simplest thing I could imagine: How to Make Ice Cubes. “Great idea,” the professor said simply, with an irritatingly blank expression.
Of course, what my writing professor knew—and I didn’t—was that it’s a lot harder to write what you know very well than it is to research and explain what you are less intimate with. What’s more, simple concepts you take for granted can suddenly take on enormous complexity: How do you explain the concept of an “ice cube tray” if you can’t use the words “ice cube”? What’s water? Where does it come from?
The point of it was to exercise our ability to view things from the reader’s perspective, and to convey the familiar but complex with simplicity, brevity, and clarity. Which I learned was extremely hard to do.
For the past six months, I’d been writing—with C.C. Chapman—a new version of How to Make Ice Cubes: Content Rules: How to Create Killer Blogs, Podcasts, Videos, Ebooks, Webinars (and More) That Engage Customers and Ignite Your Business—as the title suggests, a book about how to create all kinds of online content that inspires your customers to become your fans. It’s a subject I know well, having been developing online content for almost 14 years. And so I have a renewed appreciation for how difficult it is to express what you know so well in a way that uniquely clarifies and succinctly enlightens—and does so in an engaging way.
So what does this have to do with you, or with the marketing of your business?
Everything. Because what marketers do is convey information about their products and services with simplicity, brevity, clarity—in an engaging way. It’s not unlike teaching, either, because marketers frequently develop content and other messages that don't just simply talk about their products, but inform and educate their audience in an effort to convey why those products matter.
Did you ever hear the expression, “Those who can—do. And those who can’t—teach”? The pejorative premise is that those who master something—whether it’s making chicken vindaloo, or ice cubes, or writing books—make a living doing that thing. While those who don't master that something spend their miserable lives bossing others around, and telling them how to do the things they themselves can’t.
Of course, the truth is anything but: The best teachers tend to know their subject better than anyone. Their true genius is that they can take what they know very well and—like a good writer and a skilled marketer—convey it in a way that engages.
(That quote about teaching, by the way, is sometimes attributed to journalist and social critic HL Mencken, and sometimes to the writer George Bernard Shaw. Since Mencken was a one-time fan boy of Shaw's (he published a book on Shaw’s plays in 1905), many peg Shaw as the quote’s author. And by “many” I mean my local public librarians, whom I trust because librarians tend to be correct on issues such as these.)
The thing about good writing and great teaching is that they have an awful lot to do with good marketing. Just as good writing requires you to consider the reader, and good teaching insists that you engage the pupil, good marketing forces you to consider the world from your customer’s point of view: Is your marketing speaking directly to your customer’s pains, or wants, or needs?
What’s more: Does your marketing speak with true empathy? Is your message resonating with your customers because you are inspired to share it? Are you offering them something they truly want to know? Or are you just a bore who is talking about yourself?
“The trick is always to look at your business or brand from the outside in,” Richard Branson wrote on this site recently. “Instead of looking strictly through the prism of the latest quarterly financials, attempt to see yourself as your customers see you.”
Buried in that piece is a gem of a suggestion, as a kind of litmus test about whether your own business regards its customers with empathy: Try calling your own customer service line, Branson suggests, adding, “Just finding the number can be interesting.”
As business owners, we are all entrenched in the day-to-day of running the business, which can make it difficult sometimes to step outside of our own purview and look at things with the fresh perspective of a customer.
Branson’s idea is one way of doing that; here are some other ideas for seeing things from a customer’s point of view.
Express the key thing your product or service does for your customers in a single sentence. This isn’t the value-proposition elevator speech, which is often about what you do, not what you do for your customer.
Try to express the gist of what you want to say in a single sentence. (That’s a trick from journalism school.) This applies well to business marketing, too: What do you want your prospect or customer to know, first and foremost? I bumbled over a way to succinctly express what our book was about until I practiced what I'm preaching here. (I tried to say too much, because I knew the subject—like I knew ice cubes—too well.) Similarly, this Boston restaurant looks at its business from the customer’s perspective, when it could have just advertised, “Patio seating.” The difference is subtle, but powerful.
Ask customer service. The front line is a great source for feedback, so ask them: What are customers contacting us about? What problems do they have? How might you help them resolve their issues?
Better yet, call your customers. Richard Branson
talks about doing this in the early days of Virgin. If Richard Branson had the time, don’t you?
Show how your products live in the world. Show how your business (or its products or services) exists in the real world: how people use your products; how those products add value to people’s lives, ease their troubles, help shoulder their burdens, and meet their needs.
Even if you are a company that sells to other companies, focus on how your products or services touch the lives of people. By the way, when you are writing about people, another good rule of thumb from journalism school is this: Be specific enough to be believable, universal enough to be relevant.
Consider this video that Boston agency Captains of Industry created for a company called Vitality. Its product, the GloCap, is a drug prescription bottle cap that’s connected wirelessly to the Internet and is able to send alerts to remind patients when it’s time to take their medicines. Rather than focus on the functionality of the bottle or the cool technology behind it, the video focuses how the bottle helps one grandfather maintain his independence and how it allows his family to relax a little, knowing that he's taking his meds.
Monitor search keywords. What keywords are people using when they land on your site? Your blog? Monitoring those keywords tells you what your would-be customers are interested in and actively looking for.
Monitor social media keywords, too. Monitoring social conversations and trending keyword topics on Twitter, blogs, and status updates can be a rich source of customer feedback. Doing so gives you a sense of what people are talking about in real time and what matters to your customers now.
Leverage online tools. Various online tools for customer relationship management are available to help companies stay customer-focused. If you lack time to build online support, or don't have much moderating manpower, consider something like Get Satisfaction.
Think of it as a “social support” for a user base that never sleeps: Get Satisfaction provides interconnected widgets and dedicated forums that let customers pose questions and offer help to each other any hour of the day or night. The secret lies in how the information is presented (intuitively) and shared (through Facebook, Twitter mentions, and other media). See the support page for Mint.com for a sense of how this works.
What else would you add? What other ways can you maintain a focus on your customer?
Monday, October 4, 2010
What Are you Wearing..? You're Not Wearing That Are You ?
When you get up in the morning , just like when you went to elementary school, you dress yourself and look your best. What do you take into consideration when you get dress today ?
The question is this: Does how you look when you leave the house affect how others perceive you? Do Clothes make a difference?. But Do clothes make the manager? My early bosses certainly thought so. After a few deep thought after discussions, I finally agreed to clean up my act. And yes, that made a huge difference in my decisions.
Those stories put aside, the truth is that people notice how you dress, consciously and subconsciously. Actions may speak louder than words, but until they get to judge your behavior, which can take a while, people will inevitably trust their initial impressions.
How you dress matters. How much it matters really depends on how clued-in or clueless you are about this sort of thing. It also depends on what you’ve got under the hood in terms of brains, experience, and reputation.
I ran into another consultant who told of a time very early in their career, the were showing new homes, and it was a Saturday right before closing, and a gentleman walked in in dusty, clothes from a day in fields farming. He asked to see a model home, he was told that there were none available that would be in his price range, he left, and several days later, after returning from lunch, the gentleman was back there speaking with her boss, he was dressed in a suit, and he was introduced, and the consultant was sheepish, and the man bought the properties he needed, and he spoke of the previous meeting, and how he was dressed, needless to say two things happened, the consultant left that job shortly thereafter, and the man , well, he went on to become President of the United States.
On the other hand, when I became a consultant I started dressing a little differently. People noticed and commented. One COO said I looked more like a bum than an executive. Another said I should see a Barber. And that’s just what they said. Who knows what they were thinking. First time through I grew a goatee, and a ponytail. I was rejected from a famous retailer because I dressed like a hippie, and shown the door in a luxury hotel , which I was asked to consult by the company president who is a good friend.
The point is that people notice. They also have preconceived notions about people who dress a certain way. I know I do:
· When someone’s smartly dressed in business attire, I think sharp and savvy. Unless of course he turns out to be an idiot. Then he’s just an idiot in a suit.
· When an individual wears jeans and an untucked shirt to a business meeting, I think guts and self-confidence. Unless he turns out to be an idiot. Then, that’s right, he’s just a sloppy idiot.
· When folks wear business casual - khakis and polo shirts - I think mindless drone or middle manager who won’t take risks. (except for guys like me)
Again, the point is that, for better or worse, what you wear makes an impression. Here are 7 Tips to Enhance Your Management Presence instead of detracting from it:
1. Early in your career, spiff it up a bit. Later, when you’ve proven yourself, you can relax.
2. Dress for your audience. If you’re presenting or in an important meeting and key people will be wearing business attire, you should too. If you’re not sure, play it conservatively.
3. Dress the way you feel comfortable. Otherwise, it’ll show. No, it’s not okay to wear your pajamas. You’ve got to grow up and put on a suit sometime.
4. In most industries, super-fashionable attire is overdoing it. There are ways to stand out without looking like you’re trying to stand out. Get it?
5. Don’t dress like a drone or a clone, i.e. like everyone else, unless that’s really you or you’ve got so much under the hood that it doesn’t matter.
6. I don’t care how bright and cheerful you feel that morning; work isn’t a circus so don’t dress like a clown, i.e. the large woman from the old Drew Carey Show.
7. If you’re not Steve Jobs, don’t dress like him. He can pull it off; you can’t. Get your own damn uniform.
Dress for you audience, and Don’t judge others, you never know if the guy you just threw out because you didn’t like how he was dressed, might come back in, and turn out to be your new boss. My Dad always said “Never Judge a Book by it’s Cover, You need to read it a bit First.”
The question is this: Does how you look when you leave the house affect how others perceive you? Do Clothes make a difference?. But Do clothes make the manager? My early bosses certainly thought so. After a few deep thought after discussions, I finally agreed to clean up my act. And yes, that made a huge difference in my decisions.
Those stories put aside, the truth is that people notice how you dress, consciously and subconsciously. Actions may speak louder than words, but until they get to judge your behavior, which can take a while, people will inevitably trust their initial impressions.
How you dress matters. How much it matters really depends on how clued-in or clueless you are about this sort of thing. It also depends on what you’ve got under the hood in terms of brains, experience, and reputation.
I ran into another consultant who told of a time very early in their career, the were showing new homes, and it was a Saturday right before closing, and a gentleman walked in in dusty, clothes from a day in fields farming. He asked to see a model home, he was told that there were none available that would be in his price range, he left, and several days later, after returning from lunch, the gentleman was back there speaking with her boss, he was dressed in a suit, and he was introduced, and the consultant was sheepish, and the man bought the properties he needed, and he spoke of the previous meeting, and how he was dressed, needless to say two things happened, the consultant left that job shortly thereafter, and the man , well, he went on to become President of the United States.
On the other hand, when I became a consultant I started dressing a little differently. People noticed and commented. One COO said I looked more like a bum than an executive. Another said I should see a Barber. And that’s just what they said. Who knows what they were thinking. First time through I grew a goatee, and a ponytail. I was rejected from a famous retailer because I dressed like a hippie, and shown the door in a luxury hotel , which I was asked to consult by the company president who is a good friend.
The point is that people notice. They also have preconceived notions about people who dress a certain way. I know I do:
· When someone’s smartly dressed in business attire, I think sharp and savvy. Unless of course he turns out to be an idiot. Then he’s just an idiot in a suit.
· When an individual wears jeans and an untucked shirt to a business meeting, I think guts and self-confidence. Unless he turns out to be an idiot. Then, that’s right, he’s just a sloppy idiot.
· When folks wear business casual - khakis and polo shirts - I think mindless drone or middle manager who won’t take risks. (except for guys like me)
Again, the point is that, for better or worse, what you wear makes an impression. Here are 7 Tips to Enhance Your Management Presence instead of detracting from it:
1. Early in your career, spiff it up a bit. Later, when you’ve proven yourself, you can relax.
2. Dress for your audience. If you’re presenting or in an important meeting and key people will be wearing business attire, you should too. If you’re not sure, play it conservatively.
3. Dress the way you feel comfortable. Otherwise, it’ll show. No, it’s not okay to wear your pajamas. You’ve got to grow up and put on a suit sometime.
4. In most industries, super-fashionable attire is overdoing it. There are ways to stand out without looking like you’re trying to stand out. Get it?
5. Don’t dress like a drone or a clone, i.e. like everyone else, unless that’s really you or you’ve got so much under the hood that it doesn’t matter.
6. I don’t care how bright and cheerful you feel that morning; work isn’t a circus so don’t dress like a clown, i.e. the large woman from the old Drew Carey Show.
7. If you’re not Steve Jobs, don’t dress like him. He can pull it off; you can’t. Get your own damn uniform.
Dress for you audience, and Don’t judge others, you never know if the guy you just threw out because you didn’t like how he was dressed, might come back in, and turn out to be your new boss. My Dad always said “Never Judge a Book by it’s Cover, You need to read it a bit First.”
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