"Give the product in the hands of the customer", a phrase we always use in our trainings. 

Have you ever walked around in a shop and you saw this great sweater. Did you touch it? Did you feel how soft it was or did you discover that the fabric is not that pleasant? You probably have.

If you are on the other side of the sale, I would really advise you to give the product in the hand of your customer. Especially ladies are sensitive to that. They really like to feel and touch the fabric in order to know if the product pleases them. On top of that it will help them associate the product with quality.  The other opportunity is that they relate that quality to your brand. So it is a double win.

Touch is also one of the most powerful senses you have. You can listen to music, smell a great scent when walking into a store but nothing is so powerful as touch. In the end, you will be wearing that sweater all day.

3 things you can do to incorporate touch in your business:

1. Ask yourself: what is the number one item my clients come in contact with? The door when they enter, your brochure, the waiting room? Then have a look how you can improve that in terms of touch.
2. Whenever you have a physical product, give it in the hands of the customer.
3. Think about sampling. Something they can take with them for free but experience the touch of the product.

A while ago we started with this style of blogging. Finding a review on tripadvisor and offering solutions on how to tackle them. 

Here is one from some unfortunate visitors to a coffee shop/restaurant.

There was no respons by the restaurant. You must know that this place has over one hundred 1 star reviews. 

Why are these people not taking their business serious? Running a hospitality business is making sure that you check all boxes. It's not only what happens within the 4 walls of your establishment but also online. Even having an influence on word of mouth can work miracles.

TIP: always respond to bad reviews, do not hide and choose your words carefully so you don't blame or offend your customers.

so decided to have two coffees in this place.
Customers are attracted by something from the outside. A sign, a nice picture, maybe even a food sample they tasted. Whenever they enter the establishment the inside should always reflect the outside. Even better, it should surpass the expectations.

were told very rudely
The use of language is the most undervalued tool in the hospitality industry. The business is hard from time to time: rude customers, a lot guests at the same time, breakdowns of machinery, anything that might give extra stress.

However, it is our duty to always stay polite:

- don't always think your customers knows how your business is operated. Maybe they come in the very first time and don't know about the no-smoking policy...

- if you need customers to do something, like queue, then explain in a friendly manner why. You could say something like: "in order to serve everyone as quickly as possible and have them enjoy our coffees, may we ask you to queue over here?... thank you so much"

- try to avoid blaming the customer in any way

- use positive words like "very good, delicious, fabulous, etc..."

- humour always works

cost us £6
​Your price should always reflect value! When a product is served to the guest they should never feel that they didn't get enough value. This could be an extra cookie, a napkin or maybe some hot milk served in a jug instead of cold milk in a plastic cup.

cobwebs & toilets were a disgrace
An eye for detail is imperative for every restaurant owner. You should have a fixed daily routine to avoid this.

we saw many deciding to leave
Never underestimate the power of a group. Even when customers don't know each other, they will quickly follow what other people are doing. The best solution is to act immediately and get hold of the situation.

You can find more tips in our restaurant training course

A medical emergency is not something that happens a lot in the hospitality industry, luckily. However, you would be surprised how much it happens overall.


When guests visit a hotel or restaurant a number of factors come into play. Choking is one of them. Guests are maybe eating foods they are not used to eating everyday and might be surprised as to the size or the texture.


We find that first aid training should be a mandatory skill before anyone can open, or even work in a  hospitality driven environment.


Let us give you a few tips on handling a medical emergency:

• Train yourself or your staff to handle any emergency. There are great books or online courses you can take. Best of course is to have a real life training. 

 

• Your first concern is the patient but not to upset or draw to much attention to the situation ask medical services to arrive without sirenes on!

 

• When you call the emergency services, the most important to state is exactly where you are. Address, room number, the floor you are on or even explain the entrance if it would be not clear.

 

• If you need additional medical information, see if you can find the victims smartphone. You don’t need to know the access code of the phone. On the home screen you can see ‘medical ID’ and see details about the patient (see picture).

How do the most relationships start? With a greeting. There are multiple ways of greeting someone. Could be a handshake, a kiss, a handkiss, nodding of the head, a bow, a hug, taking of your hat, waving, winking en saluting.

Did you know there are tribes who greet each other by touching the genitalia? Hmmm... 

Let's focus on handshaking for now.  In the modern world it is one of the most common ways to greet. Wether it be at a first meeting or between old friends.

Original it came from the knights showing good fate and 'saying': I bare no arms. So you could say it was a sign of trust or reconciliation.

How do we shake hands in a good way, some tips:

• Offer a straight hand, do not offer it in a flat way or tilted. Also offer your hand coming from below the waist, not down from the chest.
• Move your head and body slightly forward. Try the opposite, it looks very weird...
• Make eye contact and smile sincerely at the same time
• When in England and people ask 'how do you do?' you should answer with the same question.
• The handshake may be firm but pay attention to ladies or people wearing jewellery. 
• Don't shake too long as it is sometimes perceived as awkward.
• Last but not least, never turn your hand upwards while shaking. It is a dominating gesture.

In most of our trainings we have a topic about etiquette or we include it as a bundle. Why is this so important to us?

Courtesy goes a long way

We sometimes use the phrase: customers may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel. It is your knowledge, however little, of etiquette that will allow you to offer just that to your guest.
We are not talking about curtseying or bowing or another stiff upper lip behaviour but a genuine effort to make people at ease and offer that extra bit of comfort. Not only will it benefit them, it will also benefit you and your team. In certain situations, we do not know how to behave and that is quite normal. Any type of fear can be overcome by knowing what to do, right?

Let me give you a harsh example. You walk on the street and your friend falls to the floor, turning blue, unable to breath. If you are not trained in first aid techniques, if you don’t master this knowledge, you will not know what to do and panic. However, if you did have a first aid training, you would be helping your friend in the blink of an eye.

Exactly the same with etiquette. Wether it be a VIP celebrity coming in or you have a crisis situation with a difficult guest, your knowledge of etiquette will help you to remain calm, collected and ready to resolve the issue.

​

How does this help your business then?

The world is full of culture and that makes it so beautiful. The different ways of greeting across cultures (did you know there are some tribes greeting each-other by touching the genitalia?) or even the philosophy behind giving presents can be different. However, at the end of the day we all are people living on the same planet and we try to fit in as much as possible.

In business we can be sometimes a bit too focused on the product, the sales process or the procedures of the sale itself. We often forget that we are selling to... people! We could tell you a lot of stories about people doing business with other people because of a feeling and not so much the product.

Here are a few tips in business etiquette:

• Always present your business card with two hands, thumbs to the side and face the text towards the receiver
• Try to remember how a customer takes his coffee and surprise him/her the next time by showing that you remembered, they will be blown away!
• Train your team the basics of etiquette: standing up when somebody enters the room, shaking hands correctly or table manners during a business lunch.

We assure you, all these handlings lead to feelings for your customer and they WILL notice the difference!

This is my first post to what I hope will become something valuable for all service people out there. 

The idea: picking a review* from a hotel or restaurant from the internet, analyze it and suggest improvements. Within certain posts you will find documents to download, courses to take or other products. This allows us to support the cost of this blog.

What you will not read: We don't write about the food, more than enough food blogs already ...

The 6 rules:

1. We don't mention the name of the hotel/restaurant
2. We don't mention the reviewers' name
3. We don't reveal the website the review was on
4. We don't write about the food
5. We analyze the situation and suggest improvements for the several issues
6. Every post will have solutions on 3 levels: service, language and training

* All reviews are the subjective opinions of the writers and are in now way changed by us. We do correct writing errors to improve reading experience.

So let's dive right in with the first one....

The review

We stayed at *** during week of the Memorial Day weekend. We booked the hotel with Expedia so I was unable to do any of the hotel research that I normally do when searching for hotels - my mistake. 

We stayed on the second floor (right above the lobby area) so we got to hear a lot of the street noises. I've stayed in better rooms at lesser rated hotels. The "guest room" that they show on their website is no where near what we got. There was a hole in the wall under the desk area and electrical cords were exposed. The bedframe was nearly broken and the bed looked like it was precariously sitting in the frame. The cleaning service was sporadic at best - they did not always come to the room everyday. Aside from these cosmetic issues, my main complaint comes from the service we received.

First big issue ... The bathtub did not drain well, so we were constantly standing in a pool of water when showering. Since this is unsanitary, I informed the young man at the front desk, Patrick, of our issue the very next day. He told me he would send someone to fix that. The next day the tub still pooled up, so we again informed Patrick that the problem was still happening. Again, he said someone would come to fix it. The following day, the water was STILL pooling. At this point, we would only be there one more day so we didn't see a point in telling him one more time when nothing was done about it for the first two complaints. 

Second big issue...On Saturday night of Memorial day there was loud music and bass that you could hear (or rather FEEL) through our floor and walls. At 11:00pm I asked the girl at the front desk what was going on. She informed me that there was a wedding in the hotel restaurant and that she "didn't think it would last for a few more hours." I told her that we had an early flight out, had to get up really early and asked if she could talk to whoever about the music. She said the hotel was not affiliated with its restaurant so she could not do anything but assured me that it shouldn't last more than a few hours. What???!!! 

What I find funny is that the management of this hotel has written replies to each of the negative reviews of this hotel. The management could learn some proactive management skills rather than reactive. I am hoping to get those pictures back soon so that I can upload what our room looked like to give a more accurate picture of the hotel.


The hotel's response

General Manager responded to this review:

I have received you comments pertaining to your stay here at *** over the Memorial Day weekend. I would like to apologize for your displeasure. We take great pride in the high levels of service we try to give to all of our guests. I am sorry that we failed you during your stay. I can assure you I will discuss with the entire staff at the next scheduled staff meeting. 

In the meantime if you would like to discuss your stay with us further please feel free to call me at your convenience.

Sincerely,

**** ****
General Manager



Our opinion and suggestions

I was unable to do any of the hotel research

> It's clear that guests are still doing their homework before booking a hotel. In several studies it has shown that over 80% of customers are influenced by an online review.

Our suggestion: write a marketing plan on your online presence. Don't forget your strategy on how to tackle bad reviews. Obviously it starts with not getting any but you should be prepared. Therefor, stay in close contact with your customers and get feedback before they leave your hotel.

Tip: present the feedback form during breakfast! Usually people are not too much in a hurry and will take the time to review your hotel. Should the feedback be disastrous, you need to interact immediately with the guest.


we got to hear a lot of the street noises
> Guests are looking for peace and quiet during a stay. Street noises combined with a different bed and surroundings leads to bad night rest. 

Our suggestion: Make it very clear in your communication that certain rooms may be subject to noise. When the customer is clearly informed, they have no reason for complaining. You can even offer these rooms at a different rate, there is always someone interested in getting a good deal if they don't mind the noise or if their stay is maybe a very short one or on a unusual time frame of the day.


they show on their website
> Websites can be very dangerous since the presentation of certain rooms creates guests' expectations. The guest has a clear pictures in his head of what the room will be like. Any difference upon arrival will bring down the experience from the start. The fact that in this hotel there was a hole in the wall and the bedframe was nearly broken, points to a poor follow up of the technical department combined with no clear procedures on how to check a room.

Our suggestion: make sure that the housekeeping department reports all breakages to the technical department. The housekeeping floor supervisor should be following up if the work has been done properly and if their is any need of extra cleaning afterwards. A form should be created to report all technical issues and a procedures should be in place to check a room A to Z once a week at least!


when nothing was done about it for the first two complaints. 
> This to us is the biggest issue of this review. When people make a complaint most hotel owners see this as criticism, you shouldn't! It is an opportunity for you to improve your service, turn the situation around and show your professionalism. 

Our suggestion: Apologizing to the customer is a natural reaction in the hospitality industry but making it worse by not following up on your promises is unacceptable. Make sure you ALWAYS follow up if the issue has been fixed to make sure the guest is happy. In a worst case scenario, offer the guest another room... after checking that one is impeccable!


loud music & proactive management
> There is always a possibility that certain things are out of your power. Loud music can be a nuisance and it's up to you to make it as comfortable as possible for the guest. Being proactive about it can avoid a lot of frustration that could be avoided.

The girl at the front desk said the restaurant was not affiliated with the hotel, again this a much used technique: finding excuses. 

Our suggestion: Needless to say that you should talk to the source of the disturbance straight away and take matters in your own hands. Be proactive and start finding out what rooms would be available to move guests to away from the music. On the other side you can also try to have guests doing other things while the music is playing, inform them about things they can do in town or maybe they would enjoy a late night dinner, anything to get them away from the bad experience.


the hotel's response
The response of the hotel is very reactive. It doesn't suggest any realistic solution nor does it offer any kind of compensation. The goal should be that the guest removes the review and gets something in return.

Our suggestion: pay attention to detail! The message doesn't even greet the guest with a hello, it starts of with "I have... ". The general manager should train in language skills and being proactive. In this case he/she could have contacted these guests personally on the phone (they have their details from the check in) and NOT ask the guest to call him, this is not done!

The fact it will be discussed on the next staff meeting is good but did he/she also inform the guests about the results of that meeting, we're not able to know based on this response.

General conclusion: people in this hotel should be urgently trained in dealing with customer complaints. It might have been a busy weekend but this is where the true potential of any hotel shows! Not only during off peak moments.

Sadly, I have the feeling that many of these posts will come back to the conclusion that training is key. Service will follow from it...
​

We are crazy about all things leather. The smell of a newly crafted piece of leather is so much more than the novelty of it. The smell stays in your memory for years to come.

In a recent episode of the Gentleman's journal podcast I recently (re)discovered Ettinger. A typical British brand. Their product range goes from wallets for him to travel bags for her. 

​
How it started

In 1934 Gerry Ettinger started the company in London and started out as a film producer. Being from German descent and having that sense of quality and durability he quickly acquired clients such as Harrod's, Asprey and Fortnum and Mason.

Till this day, his eldest son Robert is in charge of the company, holding high the family values.


Products

Next to the range of products they also provide a bespoke service, engraving initials and even company logo's.

1) Put on a clean cloth and wipe onto the leather. Don't put too much on.

2) Make circles while applying with the cloth.

3) Leave for 15 minutes.

4) Put on second layer to your liking or apply wax if appropriate

A day is typically divided in 3 parts: 8 hours sleep, 8 hours work and 8 hours of other things. Have you never noticed that those 8 hours of "other things" are mainly dedicated to your household. Whether it's shopping for groceries, cleaning up or reorganising the kids room, you are ALWAYS busy in your home.

Why do you do that ? There are several reasons. First the social pressure. People will think of you differently if your home is not tidy and clean. Next reason is responsibility you might have towards the people you live with: your partner, your children or could even be roommates.

Last but not least there is a personal reason: it gives you ease of mind. A tidy environment gives you a sense of calm. At least that is what we see when we question people about it. (Take the survey here)

​There are a 3 things you can immediately apply to have a more organised home.

1. One place, always

When you decide on a place for an item, keep it. More importantly, the item should be returned to the original position in a better state that you found it before.

Pff, I don't need to read this blog to know that. Oh, really? That is the number one reason homes are getting cluttered. Simply by the residents not returning stuff to where it should be. Imagine you take a towel, coming out of the shower, and you can put it straight again in the closet, dried and folded. Wouldn't that be amazing? Of course, but it doesn't work like that. You have to wash it first, dry it en fold it again.

The moment you put that towel on the floor instead of in a washing basket, you disturb the flow of that towel getting back into the closet.

It's more a state of mind than anything else. We can guarantee you that you can save hours per week by putting things back where they should be. Looking for keys, wallets and sunglasses are surprisingly time consuming.

How do you start doing this? One magic word: discipline. Without exception you put it back in the same spot.

"Hey, but what if my roommates don't?" Fair point. Do it for them. Yes, put in the work and after a few days, they will get so spoiled by always finding their things that they will do the same.


2. Work room per room

Admiral McRaven of the US Navy explains in his book 'Make your bed' that a simple act of completing something at the start of the day will get you in a mood to complete other things.

3. It's a job

There are private chauffeurs and there are professional chefs. Yes, two things you can do as well: driving and cooking. As with these professions, cleaning up is a profession. 

What is the difference between a professional and you, the amateur in cleaning up? The training. The techniques you can learn. We can show you for example a great way to reorganise your cupboard so you will never find a box of rice outdated for 2 years. Just because you never reach in the back for such a long time.

If you focus on the professional techniques of running your home for just a short while, it wil benefit you for the rest of your life.

Forbes released an article based on a survey by New Voice media. It stated that companies are losing billions due to poor customer service.

​If you read the survey, it becomes quickly clear that businesses are focussing on the wrong things. In many instances have I visited companies where the interior is like Buckingham palace; The coffee is served in porcelain previously owned by heads of state or the toilets are sprayed with Chanel perfume.

What board of directors quickly have to realise is that all these things do nothing for the customer. This is what we call features. They are fairly easy to implement: you need money. There is no real art to it. 

Don't get me wrong, the nice surroundings of a hotel or a law firm will add to it's reputation and the perception the customer has about it. Even more, some of these venues are places to be preserved. Historical buildings with a great history now serving other purposes.


Time spent wrong

I have personally overseen big projects such as the opening of a hotel and even a 7 floor casino. The years and months leading up to the opening day is filled with plans, meetings and budgets. Things such as the size of elevators and electrical installations are often discussed for hours on end.

What I realised was that staff was rarely talked about and yet, these are the people who are about to interact with the guest or customer.

In one kitchen they installed a very special oven. It could heat up really fast and go to high temperatures for certain special dishes. The cost was close to € 90,000. 

Do you know how much was spent on training the 325 staff members in this 45 million project? Not even 10,000 !! The staff who was to welcome people at the door or on the phone were not considered import enough to be trained. 

That is the reason why companies don't invest in customer service training, they don't see it as something tangible. They don't get a product in return. There is no packaging, no nice wrapping.

How do you think an athlete becomes an olympic champion ? By training only once? It is a constant repetition of techniques, a constant effort of discipline. Without exception and for one reason: to excel, to stand out, to win !

If staff is not trained in customer service, they can not win the service game. 

You don't need service !

Every business on the planet is shouting out that they have to give good customer service to their clients. Most of them only make fake promises. They are much more involved in their product. What they should be working on is their culture. Culture is a word that sums up a lot of things. Kindness, attention to detail, how we talk to people and especially how we treat people. Not only customers but also the people working in the company.

Therefor I dare stating the following: you don't need service! I believe that in the 21st century service is not making a difference anymore. We need something much more powerful than service. Service is something you do for your customer. Bringing a coffee is an act of service. HOW you bring that coffee is something else. Complement it with a smile or with a genuine question if that guest needs anything else.

That is not giving service, that is offering hospitality. Because hospitality is not about giving service, it is about giving a feeling. It is about making your guest feel good. And thàt is the most powerful in the world.

Have you ever been to a really fancy restaurant? Took picture of the food and posted it on instagram or facebook? Maybe a selfie with the chef or a celebrity who was dining there? Well...

YOU CAN NOT TAKE A SELFIE OF A FEELING !

There is no way possible of showing how you feel on a photo. It is an emotion that is invoked by the action of other people. If that person is someone within a company offering you a product or a service, then we are on the right track...