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Than Your Staff? |
E-mail: [email protected] |
April 2001
One of my pet peeves involves asking an employee a question
and not getting a correct answer. This applies to employees in any
business, not just hotels. In the interest of honesty, however, I
must admit that I do hold hotel employees to a higher standard. They
are, after all, in the hospitality business.
To be fair, there is a lot to know about any property, its facilities, and hours of operation, not to mention the local area. I do not expect every employee to know everything every time, but I do expect more than �I don�t know� or �ask someone else�. An acceptable alternative is an offer to get the requested information for me. When this happens, I thank the employee and tell them I will find out for myself. After all, I am not really looking for information; I am only testing the employee�s knowledge and �hospitality quotient." As a �Professional Guest� and mystery shopper, I ask only questions to which I already know the answer. Your guests, however, ask questions to get information. They want and need a correct answer. If you are not already doing so, I encourage you to ensure that your staff knows this and is committed to being able to correctly answer guests� questions. By the way, the only thing worse than no information is incorrect information. Be sure your employees have accurate and current information. A regularly updated Employee Handbook is one way to accomplish this. Today�s guests are better informed than ever. They often arrive at your property after having studied your web site, read brochures you sent them, and with the AAA TourBook in hand. They know a lot about your hotel; your staff should know more. |
Harry Nobles Hospitality Consulting
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