I always enjoy Rick Hendrie's articles on customer service. His recent article on "Smile, It Enhances Your Face Value"  is dead on. Unfortunately, it begs the question that many managers express to me "How do I get them to smile?"

In two other articles. The Case for "Smile" Training and Generation Y: Training a New Generation of Employees, I made the case for the "smile" and why it is important to transmit this to Gen Ys (and all the other ones we deal with). It amazes me that the Gen Y article of four years ago is still one of the most accessed on HotelOnline archives and it tells me that we, as an industry, have still not addressed some customer service training issues.

It is mid-summer and the industry is experiencing record REVPAR increases driven by rate rather than demand. The attempt by many hotels and hotel companies to install and implement check-in kiosks indicates that they have given up on training employees to give great customer service to travelers who, on average, are paying 9% more in rate than they were paying last year. (Priceline Survey, HotelOnline, July 13, 2005.)

What many hotel marketers and Revenue Managers miss is the value of the repeat customer who is driven by customer service as well as by price. It is a matter of "the value proposition" -- reaching the right customer at the right price at the right time with the right product! Customer service is a large component of that "value proposition" that attracts the "right customer" to return to the hotel.

We would all like to think that we hire only those who have the right "attitude" but the reality is that few of us have a labor pool so deep and so wide that we can hire only those with the right "smile" attitude. For many of our potential employees, "smile" is a learned behavior. If the number of body piercings is relatively small, we can train the behaviors that will impress the guest.

"Smile" is a learned and observable (read evaluate-able) behavior. When we learn how to train employees in observable behaviors that we want to see exhibited to our guests, we can raise the bar on our customer service standards. "Telling" them isn't good enough -- we need to demonstrate, model and measure the behavior that we expect.

Training managers to train their employees is the most cost-effective way of transmitting customer service training in high turnover positions. The following are some principles that we use in this program:

• Hire for Talent/Train for Skill. Talent is closely related to attitude. It is the ability of a potential employee to exhibit the "image" and empathy that we want them to project to our guests. If you were a guest, would you feel good about the person you are interviewing as a representation of the service that you will experience in all aspects of your stay?

• Identify the Competencies/Skills. What do new employees need to know and how well do they need to know it? Separate the hard skills from soft skills. Let them know the metrics you will be using for evaluation.

• Make the Expectations Clear. How many of you use a "skills training checklist" by timeline? In other words, in 30 days we expect the following level of competency in these skills, 60 days, 90 days, etc. It gives the employees a framework to measure their own skill acquisition. Put it in terms of observable and measurable competency.

• Break Down Concepts into Observable Behaviors. What exactly do you mean when you say "acknowledge the guest?" What behaviors does that concept entail? Hint -- the first is "smile!" My favorite is "I want my employees to use common sense" -- what the heck does that mean to an eighteen year old?

Create a "Culture of Customer Service" in your department and your hotel and you will find that you spend less time and money on acquiring new customers and employees because you will have "repeat" customers begging to come back!

Carol Verret, in association with HotelTraining.com has an online sales training module that deals with New Business Development and developing client profiles by market segment.

copyright © Carol Verret, 2002-2003 -2004 -2005