Ms. Curtis

Spas, Health & Fitness

Seamless Customer Care in the Hotel Spa

By Nina Curtis, Founder & President, The Nile Institute

"The Purpose of Business is to Create a Customer"
(Peter Drucker, writer, management consultant and university professor-1909-2005)

I totally agree with the late Mr. Drucker and would like to add, and to keep them...

How do we achieve this when there are so many choices for customers today? How do we stay a step ahead of the competition and what does it really take to build customer relationships and loyalty for life?

The Organization

It all starts at the top. Hotel organizations that lead the future of seamless customer care strive for continual improvement and adaptability. The vision and intent that filters down from upper management provides integrative processes in a more decentralized organizational format and the hotel spa becomes an integral part of this scene. When a spa director or manager clearly understands the intent of the organization, they are able to lead and motivate their team to success.

Seamless customer care is embraced as a TOA (the way) and as the foundation of the business philosophy. The intent of maximizing customer engagement and delight throughout the organization becomes paramount, from the first greeting when the guests arrive, to the dinner in the restaurant, the spa experience and back to the guest's room. It all must appear seamless.

Adapting a seamless customer care orientation must be viewed as a long-term investment by upper management. Essential areas of improvement must be identified if guest integration and engagement are to be successful. How would you currently view your 'customer care' on a scale of one to five, five being outstanding? What areas can you already see room for improvement? How do you identify what your guest really desire?

It is easy to believe that all of your guest are in 'heaven' when they leave your spa but how do you really know? How pro-active are you when it comes to getting 'guest' feedback and how do you use the information for improvement and adaptability throughout your organization?

Areas identified for improvement and subsequent expansion of key programs must be based on successes, not challenges. The initial efforts must be "realistic," leading to identifiable results. ** **

The Culture

Developing seamless customer care must involve all organizational levels and departments. When all departments are involved, the importance of the customer care orientation is unmistakable. An Oscar winning strategy developed by upper management and passed on to associates in the organization will not achieve overnight success. True change efforts are executed by associates who actually contribute to customer care. Real delegation must occur so that associates have a stake in the organization's long-term success. A progressive culture that thrives on change and improvement and rewards all associates for their contributions must be established.

The Team

Seamless customer care requires extensive training and development of the entire team, both before and after implementing any program. Everyone must understand how his or her position contributes to customer care and how everyone's position supports the whole organization. Associates must not only know their roles, they also must recognize how other positions in the organization enhance seamless customer care, leading to customer delight. Associates must be empowered with the ability to make improvements as needed. This implies that mistakes will be made as change takes place, but mistakes must be supported and tolerated during the initial step toward innovation.

The Performance

Committed hoteliers realize that achieving seamless customer care cannot take place just by performing better. Excellent quality, added value, and customer satisfaction surveys help, but they are inadequate without 'engaging' the guest. This means seeing guest as partners. As a partner, the guest becomes involved in the organizations decision-making processes at many levels. What new products should be brought into the spa? What treatments should be offered and how often should new therapies be launched? These questions can all be answered effectively if the organization is engaging its guest through taking the temperature of 'guest delight' or guest sacrifice.

Committed hoteliers recognize that guests are a valuable asset and a source of innovation. Therefore, committed hotels actively develop systems for guest involvement comprehensively throughout the organization. The spa is a great arena to capture and engage guest. Information derived from spa guests' experiences can be of great source to the organization as a whole. Spa trends in therapies, treatments and products can all create stimulating innovations for the entire organization. Think; eco friendly spas, organic products, bio-dynamic therapies and energy esthetics. These trends are engaging customers and impacting our world.

The Standards

Seamless customer care is an off shoot of the philosophy of total customer integration (TCI). The TCI orientation is a natural subset of total quality management (TQM), which among other things emphasizes the development of systems to determine customer requirements. One of the seven criteria for the Malcolm Baldrige National Quality Award emphasizes customer satisfaction.

The fundamental philosophy by which TCI operates is that guests are not targets for the hotel's marketing efforts but instead are partners with whom the hotel must work to enhance the delivered value of products and services. This philosophy, which adapts a long-term view, considers guest as valuable assets. Therefore, guest retention is as important as acquiring new customers, if not more so. Total customer integration clearly implies that the primary segmentation criterion used in marketing strategies should be to distinguish current guest from new customers.

Seamless "Guest" Care

As seen by the aforementioned, seamless customer care in the hotel spa can not take place if the vision does not start from the top and filter throughout the organization. Spa directors and managers must be kept abreast of the direction of the organization as well as the spa should be viewed as an integral part of the hotel's growth and an impetus for innovation. ** **

Turning a Customer into a Guest

When creating seamless customer care in the hotel spa one should consider:

1. Making guest needs the standard for success.
2. Reinventing the spa to meet guests' changing needs.
3. Customizing some aspect of the spa's products and treatments for your guest.
4. Interacting with guest to stay ahead of their needs.
5. Delivering on promises...always.
6. Building relationships for life.
7. Make delighting the guest your obsession! Let guest know that you C.A.R.E

• Be Credible
• Be Accessible
• Be Reliable
• Be Expert This creates a seamless formula for the entire hotel.

Remember: If you're not taking care of the guest, someone else will!

Founder and President of the Nile Institute, Nina Curtis has worked in the personal care and spa industry for more than 25 years. She holds certifications in aromatherapy, reflexology, acupressure and color therapy and was instrumental in developing of training programs for salons and spas across the country. As principal of Curtis Communications, she consults for leading companies in the personal care industry. Ms. Curtis earned a MBA from Pepperdine University, and sees the value of learning business skills that are directly applied to the spa a nd hospitality industries. Ms. Curtis can be contacted at 310-275-6453 or curtiscomm@earthlink.net Extended Bio...

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