Carol Verret Consulting and Training Consulting Training Seminars |
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. . Outrageous! The Cure for the Post Recession Blues! . |
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March 9, 2010 - It�s almost spring and there are green shoots sprouting in gardens and the economy! It�s time to shake off the deadly serious work attitudes we have adopted and be a little outrageous! Hotel sales, revenue management and every team member from housekeeping to the GM has become deadly serious about maximizing every opportunity and process as well as controlling costs right down to the last paper clip! This is not a bad thing but we have forgotten how to lighten up. Our customers and clients are also experiencing the post recession gloom! Call it Battle Fatigue, as one of my clients referred to it, or PTSD � post traumatic stress syndrome �is not an effective way to reprogram our brains for the innovation and creativity that will pull us out of this recession. Every member of the team feels it, especially when hours have been cut or layoffs were necessitated. We read the research articles on the latest trends, we read all of the new developments in modifying processes � even the discussion group posts on social networks have become deadly serious. While I am not devaluing the importance of these activities, sometimes we need to take our focus off the grindstone and shake it up! How can we rally the troops as well as set ourselves apart from the million, gazillion other hotels making the same offers to our customers and bring a smile to the faces of the people we interact with every day? Outrageous Sales The Web Site Scavenger Hunt. Our clients are sick of the same old pitch by 100 hotels to secure the only meeting they are booking for the next six months! Engage them in something a little bit outrageous �make them smile! If you don�t� have a web site independent of your franchise, do it on one of the social networks where you have posted pictures and info. Set up a scavenger hunt for items or features in the photos such as name one item that shines a light on your meeting appears in picture number five (Answer: the LCD projector) . It doesn�t have to be long list of items. Include a feature of one of the sales professionals profiles such as from which university did the DOS graduate. Set a completion date and online ways that they can submit their answers. Their reward is a special offer for their next meeting � that�s a creative way to post a special offer! The FREE Meeting Lottery. While some may object to this one due its �gambling� connation, there are a lot of people out there playing the lottery! If it is the GM that has an issue it probably is more about the FREE aspect. Ask your meeting planners to enter their numbers online on your site, a social network site or on a form that you email to them for a chance to win a FREE meeting for up to ten people or a credit for the first ten people in larger meeting. Make the form fun and colorful � not just a Survey Monkey form! Put a time frame on it but don�t make it too restrictive. Again, this is an opportunity to engage them and for them to have a little fun with a chance to get something in return. The meeting planners will remember you even if they don�t win the lottery!! Outrageous Team Motivations The Hotel Olympics. We talk about team building exercises for group meetings how about some team building for our associates? What if we developed a medal competition for each department spread over a few days so as not to disrupt operations? How about the Luggage Cart Relay � from the car to the front desk to the room and then reverse it. Then we could have the Front Desk Check In Challenge �who can process a hypothetical check in the fastest and most accurately? Then there�s the Towel Folding Contest in the laundry followed by the Cart Stock Competition for the housekeepers. Get sales out of their box and have a Triple Sheet Bedding Contest for them. Let your imagination run wild, give �medals�, reward with small gift cards. Take some videos, post them on your web site or your hotel blog � your visitors to the site will smile! It�s Almost St Patrick�s Day! I bet you didn�t know that it was the first Shamrock Shakes campaign in 1970 that launched the Ronald McDonald�s House program for families of children receiving treatment in local hospitals. So do some good and have some fun at the same time! Shamrock shakes are only available for a few weeks every year leading up to St Patrick�s Day. Instead of buying coffee for your department team, bring them some shamrock Shakes! (No, McDonald�s didn�t pay me for this�I only wish they had!) We all like to be around people and companies that make us smile � look at the creative ways Google changes up its logo! This doesn�t make Google any less of a serious search engine in the same way that your clients and associates will not think less of you for loosening up a little bit!
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Carol Verret 5910 S. University #C-18, PMB 374 Greenwood Village, CO 80121 Telephone: (303) 618-4065 [email protected] Web Site: http://www.carolverret.com/ Email: [email protected] |
Carol
Verret Consulting and Training delivers sales training with an edge and
measurable results as well as revenue management training that drives incremental
revenue and market share. She also provides consulting services in
these areas. She has provided keynotes and seminars both nationally
and internationally to hotels, management companies and related associations
as well as having articles published in national and international publications.
Check her out on the web site