Ms. Stiel

Concierge

The Five Questions to Which Every Employee Needs and Deserves the Answers

By Holly Stiel, President, Thank You Very Much Inc.

Over the years I have been asked countless times, "How do we make training stick?" and "How can we create and become the kind of company that revolves around service?" They know they want the type of environment and the type of employees who live and breathe service -- creating a grand experience for the customer and renown for their property and brand.

While I get asked these questions often, I find the commitment to do the work required to actually have such a company culture is not as enticing to these executives and managers as the idea of it. It's like wanting to be thin and buff but not wanting to eat a healthy diet and exercise. Some clients claim they want a "Sea Change" when it comes to their customers' service experience. They say, "We want to have concierge-type services. We want our people to behave like the employees of The Four Seasons." When I tell them what is involved in actually having this type of service culture they usually say, "Well, we didn't mean exactly like the Four Seasons -- something sort of like that, something easy!" Well, there isn't partway (like partially pregnant) when it comes to superb customer service a la The Four Seasons model. What I think they are really asking for is a Vitamin C pill or a shot of B-12 - an easy fix. It doesn't work that way to create a total Sea Change. Actually, creating a service and customer experienced based company culture is quite simple. It's not easy, just deceptively simple!

To get started, let go of lip service, and commit to doing the work required. In order to create and sustain a service culture there are five important questions that employees must be able to answer in order to be able to make their best contribution. I like to think of them as The High Five! These deceptively simple questions are:

1. What do you want me to do?
2. Why do you want me to do it?
3. How do you want me to do it?
4. How will I know how I'm doing?
5. How will you help me improve?

I know these sound like easy and very common sense questions, but I challenge you to answer them for yourself and then ask every employee in your company to answer them and see if they can. Chances are they won't be able to.

Let's take the questions and answer them one by one.

1. What do you want me to do?

I am constantly amazed at how many employees don't really understand this simple question. Either the company has never told them what their standards are and what is expected of them or the company has told them once at orientation and then never mentioned it again. The "What?" here can be answered by a good set of standards, which are different from the job description or S.O.P's. They are over-arching standards for professional conduct.

If a company strays from their standards, they will ultimately be=2 0less effective and open up the possibility for inconsistency at best and chaos at worst. It is like having a lawless society when you run it without standards. Having standards, however, is not enough. Enforcing them is the critical element that is missing in so many unfortunate service interactions. It is having standards and holding people accountable to them that make it possible to manage effectively and have the desired outcome.

2. Why do you want me to do this?

Adults want to know and understand why they are being asked to do certain things such as adhere to a set of standards. Once they know the "What?" they want to know the purpose of it, the"Why?" They want to be clear about what they will personally get out of it, so they can decide if they want to do it or not. The why needs to make the case for the what. The why is also about company values. Values quite literally drive our behavior. If we see the value in something or hold the value as a personal belief, our behavior will reflect it.=2 0I learned the power of values as a foundation for the why, from my career as a concierge. The concierge profession stands on its values. These values have shaped the history of the concierge. The concierge profession has basically flourished because of these rock solid foundational values.

They are elegant and humble in their simplicity. If more businesses adopted and insisted upon living and working to a set of values, everything would work better. Here are the values of the concierge.

• In Service Through Friendship: We help each other and we are kind to each other.
• Our Word Is Our Bond: Trust.
• My Guest Today Is Your Guest Tomorrow: We share.
• Concierges say "Yes!": They make things happen.

3. How Do you want me to do it?

The "How?" of course, involves training. The reality is that one or two days of training, no matter how excellently designed and delivered is no guarantee that sustained changes in behavior will result from the effort. What training can and does accomplish is a strong foundation and a platform in which information can be received. Real change in behavior only occurs in the follow-up, and reinforcement stages. It is highly dependent on the buy-in at the leadership level and occurs over time.

As a consultant, I have observed up close and personal, companies giving lip service to their desire for a service culture. They bring in outside consultants to conduct training classes but managers don't even show up in support of those classes. The message they send is that this is really not very important -- it's for you, not for us who are ABOVE you -- your superiors. Needless to say, this behavior is not inspirational to the trainees.20** **

4. & 5. How will I know how I am doing? and How are you going to help me to improve?

Both of these questions can be answered through the skill of coaching. When employees come back from training, their attitude is usually, "Okay, that was good, now what?" If nothing is ever talked about, then nothing will be the result of the training effort.

• Coaching, not "telling" is so valuable because coaching not only leverages the training investment, it reinforces the new skills and behaviors.
• Holds employees accountable to them. The best part is that over time, self-discovery coaching, based on the positive, promotes consistent, incremental performance improvement throughout the organization -- from top to bottom -- and exponentially increases communication.
• Most employees depend on once-a-year performance reviews to know how their work is being perceived. Coaching takes away any surprises and eliminates employee resentment at finding out where they stand only at performance review time
• By regularly coaching employees, managers become self-observant and ultimately more responsible for their own performance. Now that the five simple questions every employee needs to know the answers to have been explained, there is one last tip to help you in designing and sustaining a culture of service.

A great way to think about developing an effective service culture revolves around the thinking of a world-class concierge. This is the perfect centerpiece to use because if you think about it, the core difference between the great service provided by world-class concierges and your average service providers is the concierges' ability to find a way to "yes." The concierge practice of "make it happen" thinking, revolutionizes the customer experience, because it elevates customer service to an art form and ultimately improves the bottom line.

After 17 years serving as the first woman concierge, Holly Stiel founded her own company, Thank You Very Much, Inc., to provide training for hotel concierges and customize concierge service philosophies and practices for all types of industries. A philosopher, published author, keynote speaker, workshop leader and consultant, her programs have been delivered in 25 languages, to businesses ranging from The Bank of America to NASCAR. Ms. Stiel has written four books : the newly released textbook, The Art and Science of the Hotel Concierge. Ultimate Service, The Complete Handbook to the World of the Concierge, Thank You Very Much – A Book for Anyone Who Has Ever Said, “May I Help you?,” and The Neon Signs of Service. Ms. Stiel can be contacted at 202-639-5712 or Thankyouinc@aol.com Extended Bio...

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