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...

We just wanted to give you an update on our upcoming course. We aim to make it the most complete wedding planning course you can find on the internet. 

It will not only cover the romantics of being a wedding planner but also what it takes to open your own business, gather your team and make some decent money.

Why is it taking a bit longer? We want to give you the best training experience possible. It should be complete, good audio and video quality, documents to complement the training and of course: it must give your results!

If you have any ideas on what you think is the best way to deliver this, please don't hesitate to drop us a line by email.

We are looking forward to your feedback!

I visited a gourmet burger restaurant, these things are popping up everywhere. They have been around for quite some years but some of them are beginning to grasp the concept of adding good service.

Before I continue, a word of advice to restaurant owners. Parents, people accompanied by even smaller people that is, judge your restaurant on the experience their children have in your establishment. Simple but true. I personally know quite some parents who dislike mainstream fastfood but still visit burger restaurants because of the kids. A friendly waiter, indoor playgrounds, an Xbox, you name it. Small things stick with kids.

A few years ago, a new doctor started in my hometown. He had to build up a "customer" base. Well, he did it thru kids. My son got sick and this doctor was on standby. After examining my son, he handed him a little toy because he had been a good boy. Guess what doctor my son insisted on when he was ill the next time?

So back to the burger restaurant. We came in, the place was packed. Quick eye contact by the staff, a rather young staff. Only four spots left at the bar. Great, better than waiting. Menu's were in the shape of a newspaper, crisp, well designed, nice.

Good design and communication of a menu is something I find very important. It shows your customer that you really care and have an eye for detail. I can get very frustrated by errors and especially by things that are changed on the menu but haven't been announced.

I must say, this staff was very good. Behind us there was a table about to become available and they asked us if we would be more comfortable at a normal height table since the bar was a bit elevated and my daugther had a bit of trouble being seated on the high stool. What a great gesture. They topped it off with some crayons and a coloring template for my little girl to have fun with instead of the ever increasing presence of tablets.

You can implement the following strategies to successfully use Twitter:

Retweet
Retweeting a statement by a company or individual is almost like telling them: follow me back. And most will do. Make sure the tweet is relevant to your business.

Reward a customer... out of the blue.
Choose one of your followers and give him a free drink, lunch or dinner. Not only will they be surprised and happy but they will be sharing it all over social media.

Customize your account
Make sure you look professional on twitter. You can customize your background, have a professional profile image and put your brand in the spotlight. Don't forget that people often discover your restaurant on twitter for the first time. So you want to make a hell of a first impression.

A quote a day...
Why don't you post inspiring quotes, one a day. Post something fun, inspiring or both. People not looking for restaurants may stumble upon it and retweet it anyway.

The making of
I guess not all of your customers have been in the kitchen or back of house. Wouldn't it be fun to post from time to time a behind the scenes photo? It's also a good time to post a photo of staff having fun at the job. An impression of good team spirit will lift the corporate image of your establishment.

Get information
Twitter is a great way to get an opinion from your followers. You can post a survey or a poll to get a feeling of what you should buy: that terrace heater or a kids corner... ;)

In ancient times people were put on the town square, tied by hands and feet to be seen by everyone when they had done something wrong, better known as the pillory.

In 2015, billions of dollars are made by the modern version of the pillory: social media. If you choose to, everyone can comment on your life, your car, your job, anything... Of course the hospitality industry is not spared, on the contrary. Every little complaint is carefully written down on social media platforms or on review sites. The comments are out there for everyone to read, if you like it or not.

In terms of customer service there is an upside, service is improving. Restaurants and hotels are stepping up their game. They can not afford any longer to have a tarnished reputation due to what people write on the internet.

Marketing departments, PR companies and hotel executives are putting a lot of time in rebuttal strategies in how to answer the remarks given by guests. 

Up until now I have read many of them. What strikes me the most is that almost 80% of remarks is about service, not about the food. Facilities (with Wifi on number 1) are very sensitive these days, but the way service staff reacts to remarks on those facilities is even more sensitive.

You know, about 25 years ago, people went to hotels to enjoy facilities they didn't have at home. Now almost every family has Wifi, a flatscreen TV, a coffee machine and a kick ass smartphone. What more can a hotel offer? A swimming pool? Tech companies are working around the clock with big hotel chains to develop state of the art  facilities. License plate recognition when arriving at the hotel and smart watch door access are used as I write this and are considered new now, will that still be the case in 3 years? 

So, dear hotel owners, the one thing that will never be outdated is service! Personal service that is. Invest in your people, train them to the highest level. Train them in recognizing body language, using the right language and anticipating the guest's next move.

In the near future I will handpick reviews of the internet and dissect them, sentence by sentence. I will give my humble opinion on how the situation could have been handled and hopefully start an interaction with you to find even more creative solutions.

Looking forward to the next post...

Vincent
Hospitalitytutors.com

Amateur design

You can't go and make your menu yourself. Trust me. People will notice immediately and on top of that, it will sell more. You can get great templates for your menu for a reasonable price. You buy a template, download it and adapt it to your own style.

Tip: creativemarket.com


​Where to put what

People tend to look to certain places when they get a menu handed from a waiter. About 90% of guests will look to the top left first. So make sure you have something to draw their attention, something to up-sell or maybe a more costly item.

​Don't underestimate the power of footnotes.


Description

Writing a menu is story telling. Tell your guests about the dish, about the ingredient. Tell them something they don't know yet. 

Do you know for example how the pigs for Pata Negra ham in Spain are fed? On acorns! Isn't that a great detail to impress your guests.

There are even chefs that use poems to describe their menu.


Pricing

Pricing should be clear. We speak from experience. If you are offering a dish at a price for two people, make sure it says so. 

Pricing is also the best when you go from low to higher price. People tend to take something better gradually.


Updating

Update your menu often enough, especially for guests coming every week or every month. People want to discover new things. Go with the seasons. Don't serve tomatoes in the middle of winter. Your customers will respect your professionalism.

On May 28th 'Heart Ibiza' will open it's concept to the world. The Adria brothers (ell bulli) team up with Guy Laliberté of Cirque du Soleil to "experience a creative collision between art, food and music".

Obviously the two parties are known for their high standards, exquisite quality and of course their creativity... However, we think they succeed because of another reason. 

I remember clearly the first time I saw a Cirque du Soleil show. Like anyone, I was blown away. I pondered for many years over why the shows are that good. It was circus, nothing special. I saw that as a little kid in the eighties. But this was different. Yes, there were clowns, acrobats... but it was different. Why? It didn't come to me. 

Many years later it hit me and I immediately saw the link with the hospitality industry. You see, to me the restaurant and hotel business is one of the most complex there is. Think about all the individual components that go into such a business. Recruiting, food safety, cost control, training, bookkeeping, customer service, etc... And those are actually similar to any business. The big challenge is that the customer takes you up on all the details, especially the execution. Drinks have to be cold, food has to be hot, bedsheets have to be impeccable, not too much noise in the hotel, the temperature of the poolwater must be perfect. I could go on for an hour. Not one detail can be overlooked. One mistake can be fatal.

After seeing several Cirque du Soleil shows, I had the privilege of seeing "O". The show in the Bellagio on the Las Vegas strip. Again, I was very impressed. I tried not to watch the show but looked at the "how do they do it" parts. The lighting was controlled by multiple people - some of them hanging from the ceiling - and even the opening of the curtain was spectacular (don't want to spoil it for you, should you have not seen it).

When I was watching the singers, standing behind a white, slightly see through curtain, it hit me! I finally figured out why they were that good: they take everything apart, bring it to a new level and bring it back together again. They look at every part of a show and question themselves over and over again on how they can make something better.

The colors of the costumes are amazing, nothing you have ever seen in another circus. Stripes, dots, feathers, you name it. The make up is perfectly in sync with the costume. Even the name of the shows are words you have seldom heard of, they inspire people to find out more. We want to know what the story is behind that mystical name. 

They don't stop there, oh no! The music is live, the singing is perfectly in sync with certain stunts. Even the way you enter the tents is carefully designed so you don't miss the merchandising. When you leave the show, again you walk thru the merchandising area. Just like Disney had figured out in their theme parks. 

But how does this add up to the hospitality industry? It's my humble opinion that we can learn from them. When every restaurant owner looks at his product and separates every aspect of it, I'm sure you can lift the quality and the level of service. Bringing back all the individual pieces will give you a complete concept at the highest level!

Picture a hotel. Any hotel. Maybe one you have been to. Think about the individual aspects or services you encountered. How was the reception? Was staff smiling? Did they use correct language? Was their attire perfect? Did they make eye contact? 

Five questions and we haven't even been to the room yet. My suggestion is to look with a critical eye to every piece of your hospitality operation and improve were you can. Bring all pieces together again and end up with something that is better than the sum of its parts... just like a Cirque du Soleil show.

Kind regards, 

Vincent M. Vermeulen

​Were it not for the late hour and the fact that other hotels I had called earlier were fully booked, I would have seriously considered getting out of there.
The next day, we had to catch an early train. We asked the receptionist to call for a taxi. After 2 calls and waiting for about 10-15 minutes, he told us there was no taxi available. It was only after I pressed him for alternatives that he told us that a taxi stand was within a 5-minute walk around the corner.
I would not come back to this hotel.


The hotels' response

We could not find any response by the hotel management to this review.


Our opinion and suggestions

​I would have still expected some lights

When guests explicitly let you know that they will be late, you should be very careful. These people probably will have had a hell of trip and coming to a city they maybe don't really know. Can you imagine if this receptionist would have done a bit of trouble by leaving a light on or maybe even hanging a sign on the door with something like "Mr & Mrs Smith, please ring the bell, we will come immediately". This small note might have done it for these people. They would have felt welcome. 

I thought that was careless of the cleaning... The towels also did not seem clean.

It is clear that the housekeeping team has not really a high standard in checking a room after it has been cleaned. Even if you run a small hotel, you should have a checklist to make sure the most basic things have been done. 

Tip: always have someone else check the room after it has been cleaned. It's funny but someone else is more likely to pick up things than the person that has cleaned it. In the rush of things you might overlook it.

he told us there was no taxi available

Guests who are in a hospitality situation will get even more upset when they notice that staff doesn't care. We speak from experience in observing over 100 cases where receptionists were instructed to give an impression of not caring. 

In this case the staff member should not only show a pro active attitude but also offering multiple options to assist people in this situation. He could have:

- called another taxi service. Hard to believe there is no other taxi available in Paris.
- have a plan at hand and show these people where to find a taxi stand
- tell them about other transportation possibilities: metro, bus, etc...


the hotels' response

Not responding to these kind of reviews is unacceptable. You should always reply!! We can't stress this enough. There is always two sides to a story and if you're on the wrong side, you can at least apologize and/or compensate.
​

I was born in a hotel. Hospitality runs thru my veins. Caring for people is what I breathe...

The heart of this blog is in respect of the people giving their best every day. The less recognized. The ones supporting the chefs. The ones supporting the chefs shadows.

Don't get me wrong, my respect for chefs is endless... A mix of art, product research and creation is their forte.... but me... I'm a service person. I want to do in service what the best chefs do for food.

Service professionals are so much more than moving a plate from A to B. It's getting into the world of the customer, knowing every little detail about their person and creating a stage that allows us to care for them in a way never seen before.

HospitalityTutors.com is for me my manifesto to bring service under the attention just as we have honored chefs in the last decades, the time is now for the other side of the stove...

Vincent M. Vermeulen