The most recent probe on planet Mars by NASA reveals the existence of a dry lake that possibly held water thousands of years ago. Describing the findings as ‘extremely exciting’, a biologist when interviewed on CNN went on to explain that this latest discovery puts the question to determine whether life on Mars exists or ever existed, to being ‘twenty steps away from finding an answer’.

Without doubt, these next twenty steps will need to be gigantic in stride. Nevertheless, slowly but surely scientists are getting closer to the truth. Coming back to Earth, and, in particular to the hotel industry, it appears that for more than 90 percent of the hotels, the search for delivering the ideal guest experience is most definitely  much more than twenty steps away from occurring! One might ask what exactly is a good guest experience? Years ago a wise hotelier described it as ‘one where the customer thought it was so wonderful that they would be prepared to pay even more for their stay next time.’

Another definition of a guest experience is that ‘it is the sum of all the individual experiences a guest has with a hotel. Starting, way before the guest checks in to the hotel, then continues over the duration of the stay in that hotel and ends long after he/she has left! Throughout the journey there may be many different ‘touch points’ experienced and successful hoteliers are the ones who provide a consistently great experience across these touch points. The crucial key word here is ‘touch point’. The Oxford dictionary defines a touchpoint as ‘a point of contact or interaction, especially between a business and its customers or consumers’.

Every touchpoint reflects, reinforces, and reiterates who you are, how you operate, and how you’re different from your competitors. Hence, touchpoints are important because guests form either positive, neutral or negative perceptions of your hotel or restaurant and your brand - based on their cumulative experiences. All touchpoints are not created equal. Some will naturally play a larger role in determining your hotel’s overall guest experience. For example, if you run a hotel, a comfortable bed is typically more important than the view. Both are touchpoints, but each has a different effect on our guests’ experiences as a whole. Similarly, a glum looking doorman silently opening the door for you will project a negative touchpoint as opposed to a smiling doorman who warmly welcomes everyone with a ‘welcome to our hotel ‘or a ‘have a nice day’ greeting, whilst opening the door! It’s easy to guess which one of the two doormen is showing his guests, he cares and is building a rapport during the brief interaction. Every potential interaction with a guest is a chance to check that they are making the most of their visit, to enhance it and to build on your unique attributes. Guests are an opportunity, not an encumbrance. Whether saying “hello” in the lobby and checking if they are enjoying their stay or meal or asking if they have visited a local attraction; engagement with your guests is everything.





Functionality vs Purpose
Getting back to the example of our two doormen, what is the difference between the doorman opening the hotel’s door and the doorman providing a welcoming experience? One might argue they are actually carrying out the same task. The answer is both yes and no. Yes, both carried out a ‘function’, yet, it was only one doorman who understood the true ‘purpose’ and brought a deeper meaning to that function.

Take restaurant operations. As a restaurant server, am I just taking menu orders or am I there to help create an exceptional dining experience?  Dining recently at a Colombo 4-star hotel’s Moghul restaurant (which takes the name of a fortress and palace in Spain built by the Moors during the middle Ages), we ordered several dishes including a potato curry from the extensive Indian menu. When the dishes were served on to the table, I was disappointed to note that the chicken curry we ordered had potatoes too. At a macro-level the menu failed to describe that the chicken was prepared with potatoes and at a micro-level our ‘server’ missed out on advising us that it did, when we placed the order. What our ‘server’ should have done was to recommend another item in lieu of the potato curry. I.e. unless of course, he was ignorant of the menu and I wouldn’t be surprised if he really was.

In reality, the majority of waiters actually are and I would even add managers’ to this list, when  I recall the manager of a 5-star hotel’s Chinese restaurant (named after the ‘Dragon and Phoenix in Chinese),dodging my query as to how many servings  a ‘medium’ or ‘large’ portion holds, when glancing thru the menu. Seldom do you encounter a person delivering the service who is not just robotically serving but understands how he/she is contributing to the hotel’s overall purpose. I often find myself thinking about these macro vs micro experiences that brands steadily discharge. I doubt most brands even see these tiny issues that have an impact on some of their Customers. Take Starbucks for example. When you place an order they ask for your name. Making it a standard of operation at the macro level, to personalise the guest experience is a terrific process to implement.

However, the real challenge is at the micro level – to ensure that customers are not insulted by the order taker calling out their names incorrectly or mispronouncing them. In the above examples, both the waiter and the ordertaker have a key role. It is to connect the dots properly at ‘touchpoint’ to ensure that their brand lives up to the promise they state to each and every customer and for these persons at the frontline of service to be successful, the senior most leaders must take ownership. Sadly, there just aren’t enough managers around who do just that! Your brand promise is irrelevant if your customers do not believe it. Therefore, your promise must be supported by reasons-to-believe. If you are in the business of taking care of others, especially in the hospitality industry and desire to show that you really ‘care’, this ‘function vs. purpose’ concept makes a difference on how you are perceived. It separates the impersonators who provide mere lip service from those who genuinely deliver a memorable experience for their guests.





The duct tape mindset
There is this ‘Takeaway / Dine-in’ chain that has opened an outlet at Havelock road. They offer a wide variety of food and beverage items, and, I was stuck by the very tastefully crafted, well-lit menu boards that were on display. However, I did caution  the manager that although these boards look very attractive, whoever designed it failed to realise that should just one item need to be added, deleted or require a change in price, the entire board - listing well over 40-50 items, will need to be redone and at additional cost. I also remarked to him that considering the ever spiraling food costs in this country this is bound to occur sooner than later.

Lo and behold, Just five days into opening, price changes are effected, by using badly torn pieces of duct tape with the new prices untidily scrawled using a ball pen to mask prices of two items on one of these eye catching boards. Each time I would see this shoddy piece of art, I would think about the message this was sending how this brand does not care to fix this. That menu board is part of the experience, maybe not to the extent as having of a meal, but the message no matter how subtle is there.

Duct tape is so useful it can fix almost anything but certainly not your guest experience. Unfortunately because of our traditional macro view of the Customer our Customer experience today is filled with a lot of duct tape. Indeed it is not to be confused with the premise of ‘Duct Tape Marketing’ where the phrase ‘duct tape’ refers to stickiness, or the concept of helping marketing messages stick in customers’ minds. I am sure that this is not the type of stickiness any right thinking business would actively seek. But then again, I could be proved wrong!

(Shafeek Wahab has an extensive background in Hospitality Management spanning over 30 years. He has held key managerial responsibilities in internationally renowned hotel chains, both locally and abroad, including his last held position as Head of Branding for a leading Hotel Group in Sri Lanka. Now focusing on corporate education, training, consulting and coaching he can be contacted on [email protected]. Website: www.in2ition.biz)