Hospitality is Going to Hell in a Handbasket

I travel every week of the year. I wish I could say it was fun or enjoyable, but that would be far from the truth. I recall the excitement of travel back in the 1980’s and 1990’s before 9/11. I’ll never forget the first time I was served from a rolling cart in first class and asked what toppings I wanted on my scoops of ice cream served in a real bowl with a real spoon. Now, the weekly battle between airlines, rental car companies and hotels has devolved into who can provide the worst customer experience. 

I recently entered an airline club to try their new fingerprint check in only to find two people in front of me transacting changes for an around the world adventure. So, I stepped around them to use the fingerprint check in and the agent literally shouted at me to get back in line and wait my turn…but wasn’t the fingerprint check in supposed to avoid these lines? I then get into the club and attempt to connect to Wi-Fi only to find they have changed the password. Get this, the room I am sitting in with no TV and nearly 50 people doesn’t have a sign with the new Wi-Fi password. Instead, I must go to the front desk to view the sign with the password. I next arrive at the airline gate and there is one upgrade seat remaining, but I am number 2 (no pun intended) on the list, despite being a Diamond Million Miler. No upgrade this time, bound for the back of the bus. 

I arrive at my destination and go to the rental car counter and don’t see my name in lights, so I go to the preferred counter only to wait in line for 15 min to see an agent. Then it takes another 10 min to complete the transaction. I could have bought the car at a dealership in less time. Finally, I get to my hotel and I used their mobile check in app to speed things along. Hah, what a joke. Still needed to show a credit card for incidentals and have them tell me all about their wonderful amenities at 10:30pm before I am handed the key card and I proceed to crash on the bed. Each and every week it’s the same thing more or less. The hospitality and service industries have lost their edge in providing superior customer experiences. So, what’s the answer?

Three things are needed now from service industries to change the current trajectory: leadership, customer empathy and process re-engineering. 

First, I have never seen or run across any management person from an airline, rental car company or hotel at the point of service asking for my opinion or experience. I have received many emails from all three as they seek to gather info by further imposing on my time for no compensation. Where have all the leaders gone? Take some time to read Peter’s and Waterman, In Search of Excellence from 1982 and do some MBWA (management by wandering around). One engaged leader could have figured out those airline club issues in 15-30 minutes by being there on the ground and talking with a few customers.

Second, nearly every customer facing service professional (and I use that term loosely) must be re-trained on empathizing with customers. The lack of sincerity and empathy among these front-line personnel is absolutely shocking. The only exception is the openness and humor of Southwest Airlines employees who must receive some sort of specialized training. This single point of failure is by far the number one area for improvement that will make or break the customer relationship. Jan Carlzon, former CEO of Scandinavian Airlines called it the Moment of Truth.

Third, the application of Deming principles of Lean and Six Sigma (LSS) are required now to streamline many customer-facing processes that have devolved into painful interactions. Whatever happened to delighting the customer like Disney and Southwest strive for every day? Why should it take 15-30 minutes to rent a car at the world’s busiest airport – Atlanta? The opportunity to excel exists every day and yet not one single rental car purveyor has cracked the code to make this process easy.

In summary, the hospitality user experience is rapidly declining and requires leadership, empathy and process re-engineering now to build loyalty and prevent defections to competitors or alternative service options. 

Contact Pete Bosse, DrTeamwork@Gmail.com, http://www.DrTeamwork.com, Facebook https://www.facebook.com/DrTeamwork, Twitter @DrTeamwork , ph. 612-810-2524

Caring Leaders Generate Real People Engagement

It seems almost daily, the media features people who are unhappy with the way they were treated by businesses, employers or co-workers. Perhaps this is an outcome of a materialistic society or due to the pressures and time constraints of modern life -- although the expansion of social media might refute that premise. One thing is clear to Pete Bosse, PhD -- "When people feel like no one cares about them, they become more self-focused, less engaged and their loyalty wanes." The result of this lack of caring is often an onslaught of customer defections, employee turnover and teams that underperform. Bosse, @DrTeamwork, is a Certified Net Promoter consultant who believes, "the missing ingredient is Caring Leaders who have a passion for life, for helping others and for getting things done."

Bosse defines caring as "feeling compassion and demonstrating concern and empathy for others through acts of kindness." He calls the compassionate people who genuinely care about their employees, customers and others -- Caring Leaders. Caring Leaders are engaged in organizations and balance their work roles with responsibilities to families, friends and communities. They are aware of their potential impact locally, nationally and perhaps even globally. Bosse says, "Caring Leaders are effective because they live by values and treat others with dignity and respect." They place the mission above their own personal needs and interests, but not at the expense of their people. "Caring generates trust that precedes a virtuous cycle of interdependence," according to Bosse. Building trust is nearly impossible without caring. "If I could choose only one word to impart upon all leadership training, that word is CARING."
Not all organizations lack Caring Leaders.

Annual nationwide survey data validates that the military consistently produces superior American confidence results that may be attributed to successful leadership training and development. As a young Army officer, Bosse recalled learning from his non-commissioned officers the phrase, "Mission first - People always." This meant that it was their duty to complete assigned missions as their first priority. But doing so without regard for their people meant burning bridges, alienating followers, and, worst-case, squandering valuable resources that could not be replaced. In other words, a strictly task-oriented focus with no empathy or regard for people offered short-term success at the expense of long-term relationships. The Army trains its leaders based on the concept of "taking care of people" embedded in Army doctrine. The four dimensions of this doctrinal concept are physical, material, mental and spiritual. The mental state centers on basic needs to learn, grow, achieve recognition, and be accepted. Thus, the Army recognizes the importance of caring and its direct association with successful leadership.

Bosse concludes that customer, employee and team engagement is a function of Caring Leaders - living by the golden rule, demonstrating empathy and performing acts of kindness every day. Imagine a world where all leaders truly cared about people ... Beatle John Lennon declared, "It's easy if you try." Contact Pete Bosse, President & CEO, 3PE Global LLC, 612-810-2524, DrTeamwork@Gmail.com, http://about.me/DrTeamwork, Twitter @DrTeamwork.

Ten Ways Businesses Can Improve Their Customer Experience

“Businesses today must fight harder than ever to stop customer defections, increase same stores sales and build customer loyalty,” according to Pete Bosse, PhD: a consultant specializing in improving the customer experience. When confronted by customer defections, Pete identifies the root cause of poor decisions that usually lead to bad customer experiences. According to Bosse, “The decisions can often be traced to a failure of leadership, some sort of process breakdown or attributed to poor training or policies gone awry.”

Bosse offers ten suggested areas for businesses to explore in creating a unique and different customer experience to improve business results.

1.    Offer added value – Enterprise car rental offers bottles of water to customers waiting in line. Buffalo Wild Wings offers 45 cent wings every Tuesday at most locations.

2.    Provide human contact – Walmart positions a human greeter at the entry of each store. USAA call center personnel answer promptly and remain on the phone until all business is concluded. Enterprise agents accompany you outside to your car rental.

3.    Consider using EDLP – Walmart has successfully used everyday low pricing (EDLP) to expand globally. Costco uses EDLP combined with a membership fee to provide value.

4.    Engage the senses – Starbucks uses freshly brewed coffee to address smell while Costco uses free food samples to appeal to taste.

5.    Create your own currency – Airline miles have been wildly successful for decades and Kohl’s dollars are redeemable during your next visit to Kohl’s.

6.    Listen and respond – Use social media to create a dialogue and build relationships with your customers; but don’t expect quick results. Gary Vaynerchuk, author of Crush It, says most companies act like young men after a first date expecting a quick social media ROI when it’s really a long-term engagement leading toward marriage.

7.    Make it easy – Best Buy offers trade-in value to customers for their used electronics, games and cellular phones to help customers acquire the next generation product.

8.    Recover from disappoints – Trader Joes gladly replaced molded cheese with no questions asked. McCormick & Schmick’s is quick to remove an underwhelming appetizer or entre from the bill. Both know how to turn lemons into lemonade.

9.    Treat customers nice – Chick-fil-A and Ritz Carlton employees respond to customer interactions with “my pleasure.”

10.  Map customer touch-points – If you do nothing else, identify and choreograph the customer experience that you want to deliver. Otherwise, the touch-points will evolve based on operational or financial constraints. Think how Disney handles queuing lines: entertaining hundreds of people standing in line, despite hot weather, by leveraging an opportunity to excite and engage their customers.

The customer experience is entirely about engaging your customers in a way that provides a unique experience, warrants a return visit and culminates in positive customer recommendations to others.

Pete Bosse, PhD (aka DrTeamwork) is a consultant specializing in stopping customer defections and improving the customer experience. Contact info 612-810-2524, DrTeamwork@Gmail.com , http://about.me/DrTeamwork, Twitter http://twitter.com/DrTeamwork.