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April 2003
About a month ago, I penned an article
on this subject (CRM) following a visit to Singapore. A lot has happened
since then: The war in Iraq has come and almost gone, and the unfortunate
SARS epidemic has most especially plagued the tourism, travel and hospitality
industry like there is no tomorrow.
When I placed the article into the public domain, the intention was
to focus attention onto this crucial subject, hopefully stimulating the
creative minds of the industry - to do things better. I am pleased to say
that I received a lot of good feedback, and those who feel the shoe fits,
are using the case study for its intended purpose.
I am also pleased to say that the General Manager of the Pan Pacific
Singapore - Scott Swank has taken time out of what must be very trying
conditions to craft a response, explaining what measures he is taking
to improve customer service and brand loyalty. Here below with his permission,
is what he has to say.
Scott Swank
General Manager
Pan Pacific Singapore
7 Raffles Boulevard, Marina Square
Singapore 039595
DID: (65) 6826 8218
Email: [email protected]
http://singapore.panpacific.com
April 2003
Dear Mr Ronson
I read with interest your March, 2003 article on "Hotel
Positioning: Customers Really Do Matter", particularly as you used
our hotel as your case study for what we are not doing to focus on the
customer and the entire CRM process. I had intended to get this letter
off to you quite some weeks ago, however, with the advent of the Iraq war
and then the even more serious consequences of the SARS outbreak in Singapore
I've had my hands full with rather unusual activities to keep us focused
and profitably operational!
Before I go on, perhaps I can give you a bit of background on myself.
I was appointed as the General Manger of Pan Pacific Singapore in January
of this year. I have spent most of the past 12 years in Singapore, working
for this hotel as Director of Marketing and then Director of Rooms from
1991 until mid 1996. At that point I was transferred as General Manager
to Pan Pacific's hotel in Dhaka, Bangladesh. In 1997 I returned to Singapore
as Hotel Manager of the Oriental Singapore and then owned and ran my own
restaurant business here in Singapore until the end of 2002. As fate would
have it, the closure of my restaurant, Spoon, coincided with Pan Pacific's
need to appoint a new General Manager.
I will say at the outset, that my focus has been and always will be
on the customer/guest and their real versus perceived needs and desire.
Having said that, "Rome was not built in a day" and to make significant
change to a 16 year old, 780 room hotel takes more than several months.
I couldn't agree with you more that, physically, our Pacific Floors
are a nice product. However, as you rightly note, we currently "throw"
product and services at our guests regardless of what they really might
want or need. We are in the process of making rather significant senior
management changes to develop a stronger CRM culture in the hotel and,
along with that, is coming a reassessment of all of the current "policies"
that are practised in relation to what we do to provide for our guest's
needs.
We also recognise the need to provide improved business services to
our guests and while our leisure travellers may love the ongoing "F&B
fest" on the Pacific Floors our corporate guests are usually too busy to
enjoy such services. As we improve the quantity and quality of our business
services we will offer a more personalised approach to what a Pacific Floor
guest (or any guest for that matter) can take advantage of while not making
them pay for every service they want on a "a la carte" basis. Certainly
access to and/or use of computers, facsimiles, printers and photocopiers
is a must in today's busy 24/7 world.
As you correctly notices, we face some challenges with our internet
services but I am pleased to note that they will hopefully be resolved
in the coming week with a software upgrade that our vendor notes should
make our connectivity more seamless and less problematic. Despite our internet
services having been in place for over 3 years, problem solving activities
have, unfortunately, not been successful in clearly identifying what the
actual problems are. Outside of the software upgrade, a new technical service
report that drills down to the specific causes of our guests problems is
being implemented to allow us to deal with fact versus fiction. I think
it is safe to say at this point that our vendor partner supplying this
service now understands our need to ensure that this service works 100%
of the time. Would we sell a room without a working toilet or telephone?
I think not. Internet facilities are no different today.
Besides our physical or technical points of focus I am pleased to note
that, in co-ordination with our head office (located next door to this
hotel), we are in the process of finalising the implementation of a number
of CRM focused projects targeted at those who book our hotel rooms, those
who dine in our F&B outlets and those who are our company's most frequent
guests. We do recognise that it will behove us to reward those who take
the efforts to help us to do what we do better! We have a sizeable and,
until now, relatively unused guest history database. I have every intention
of using this resource to bring us closer to our customers and to ensure
we know what it is that we should be doing for each and every one of them.
We are developing guest and associate care programs that will involve all
our executive and department level management and will in the near future
institute more daily and weekly opportunities for my management associates
and I to meet with and better understand both our guests and associates.
In a nutshell, we are embarking on a total transformation of what is a
good hotel into what we want to be a great hotel. Clearly customer focus
will be the root of that success.
I'm glad you did recognise our guest comment card system which, in
fact, does provide a great deal of specific feedback on a wide variety
of our different services and products. On average, we receive 800 to 1000
comment cards per month. I do, in fact, review every card every day.
While the volume is there, I would note that the follow up and response
mechanism was not where I would want it to be. In addition to the many
other things we are doing, we are also in the midst of implementing a working
"fulfilment" mechanism to make sure each guests comments are actioned (determination
of root causes of problems and actions required to resolve said problems)
and that we respond to each guests suggestions or constructive criticism.
I did appreciate your kind comments about the generally attentive,
hard working and courteous approach that you noted in most of our associates.
They are, ultimately, our most valued asset in providing personalised customer
care.
Finally, I am please to note that our Hotel Manager, Mr Chong Yim,
who joined the hotel in December of 2002, was formerly Pan Pacific Hotels
& Resorts Corporate Director of Food & Beverage since 1996. In
fact, in addition to re-engineering our overall Food & Beverage products
and services, he is also undertaking the responsibilities to lead our overall
rooms operations as well..............so, your dream is already becoming
a reality at Pan Pacific Singapore!
Thanks for writing the article. Your focus coincides exactly with what
we want to achieve and its publication has helped us to educate some of
our other more entrenched management associates in understanding that not
everything that is, should be! While I haven't addressed every one of your
observations (like the fact that your newspaper never got delivered!) please
be assured that I understand where we are and have a very strong vision
of where we want to be. Patience and a lot of hard work, with a dose of
good luck will ultimately take us to where we want to be. I'm sorry that
we weren't "out in force" when you were here but that is a function of
the realties of the scope of change we are making and certainly not due
to lack of interest in meeting our guests. Be assured that my objective
is to, as quickly as possible, be out of my offices at least 80% of the
time, meeting those who make our business a successful one!
It would be a pleasure to meet you at some point in the future when
you have occasion to again visit Singapore. Please feel free to contact
me directly if I can personally make your next visit arrangements through
my office. I can be reached directly via email [email protected],
fax 65 6339 0382 or my direct line 65 6826 8218. It will be a pleasure
to meet you at some point in what I hope will not be the too distant future.
Regards,
Scott
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Terence Ronson
[email protected]
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Terence started his career as a Chef,
and acquired his wealth of practical experience and knowledge whilst holding
various management positions with Hilton International in Asia and at several
prestigious establishments in the U.K. After developing a personal interest
in computers and technology some twenty years ago, Terence has turned his
attention on to this exciting and rapidly evolving aspect of the business,
working with several prominent IT related companies in the hospitality
industry, applying their products and services so as to streamline businesses,
improve profitability, and the guest experience.
Terence now runs his own business Pertlink Limited, which specializes
in helping hospitality companies maximize the use of IT in the pursuit
of improved customer service. |
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