I like to read mission, vision and value statements because I like to see how out of touch senior management is with the employees who actually have to do the heavy lifting in delivering these commitments. Take for example the dry cabernet I had in the lobby of a 4 star Memphis landmark hotel last night...did the cocktail waitress know the statements and could she at least make an attempt at telling me what they were?
I lost a dollar wager in the process because the answer is that....I got what a bird leaves behind on a fence post. Not her fault....management and leadership have once again failed. This is especially frustrating for consumers because many times you see the words 'world class' somewhere in the text. I'd sure like to hear what others think when they hear the words 'world class'. If you are like me your first thoughts are solid gold fixtures in a hotel bathroom, 2 employees to every guest when it comes to service levels, Bentleys ready and willing to drop you off anywhere you want to go and the list can go on. I heard of a hotel in the United Arab Emirates that claims to be the world's first 6 star hotel. When they first opened up they charged to give tours, so they must be special. If that is world class, however, that leaves little room for the rest of us. It probably doesn't make sense for you to have solid gold faucets, because that is not what your bread and butter client wants....so can you be a world class provider of goods and services? In my thought process you can and should attempt to be.
Have you done a good job of identifying who and what you are in your particular marketplace? What you may want to be is not who you should be in some cases....so let's make sure that you have correctly positioned yourself at the right price for the right value to the right consumers. That is step one....do not pass Go and collect $200 unless you have identified this correctly. Now that this is in order, can you begin to push your imagination to surprise the guest and drive more loyalty (not just satisfaction) by re-defining yourself in world class terms? I'm not certain we know what is going on all around the world, but in your immediate world of 7 other competing hotels, travel agencies, timeshares, dentists and whatever business you are in....you can find out what it takes to be immediate world class. How?
1. You can be a guest, customer, user of your competition's products and services
2. You can shop them regularly over the phone, via e-mails/websites and heck, even by sending a note or letter to see, hear and smell how they handle their customers. Look at every channel a consumer would use to inquire and/or buy
3. Open your eyes and ears to other businesses outside of your immediate one to see if you can beg, borrow or steal an idea or two from them (see my last blog about the company CD Baby)
4. Focus group or focus individual your customers and pry from them any and all suggestions they have to help you get better
5. Ask every single one of your employees. As one example, in addition to your customers and your wait staff...who would you want to ask what customers like and don't like on your menu? I did this job and nobody ever asked me. Your dishwasher. Why would they know...because he/she knows what people don't eat because they throw the food away
6. Read. Read books, newspapers and magazines. I read Inc magazine (I read every word from cover to cover) and find at least 2-3 new ideas in every publication....I get more from this one resource than almost any book I read.
7. Talk to your sister and cousin hotels, or whatever business you are in. Put your ego in your back pocket for a little while and be humble and open up to suggestions and ideas from folks who would like to share their successes with you
8. Never ever stop improving. World class is a moving target and you are the one that needs to be raising the bar
Now when you are loaded for bear with new and fresh ideas and suggestions, pull together management and line staff and brain storm the newest definition of world class for your business. Pilot or trial the new ideas on a smaller scale to see how they are received and work out the bugs. I used to think I was hot stuff when I was a Sales Manager selling in downtown Chicago for the 4 best Holiday Inns in the world at the time (several were Hyatt and better quality). I learned better when I moved to a 'fixerupper' hotel in the Chicago suburbs in my first Director of Sales assignment, I really learned how to sell. Right after my arrival (I remember it was summer) I went to the GM around mid-month to get an order of office supplies fulfilled. He told me that we did not have any money in the budget and would have to wait until the first of the next month to buy anything. Wait a minute....I have proposals and mailings to get out. Tough, I have to wait was the response. I went from a $5M operating budget to a $5 operation just like that. So, I went into every storeroom I could find and all we had in excess was several year's worth of holiday placemats...paper ones. You got it, I typed our proposals on these placemats in a poem fashion highlighting the fact that the holiday season will be here sooner than we think and they had better reserve space while the going was hot. The customers thought we did this on purpose, but we did it out of desperation. On it's own I would not say this was world class, but in concert with other unique initiatives we separated ourselves from our competition. In that neighborhood we were world class. I guess it could be said, and more importantly demonstrated, that world class can be physical and it can be mental. Your drive, desire and need to make your employees and guests and customers as happy and loyal as they can be may be all you need to catapult you into world class. You don't have to have the greatest physical plants, or the biggest budgets, but you certainly need to be world class when it comes to your attitude and focus on delivering what it takes.
About Fresh Revenues
Fresh Revenues is a company dedicated to increasing revenues and delivering results through high impact speaking engagements, interactive and uber-energy workshops and true partnership consulting.
Logos, product and company names mentioned are the property of their respective owners.
