Mr. Albarran

Guest Service / Customer Experience Mgmt

Service Consistency: The importance of implementing service standards in all your establishments

By Marco Albarran, Founder & President, Remarkable Hospitality, Inc.

Let’s take a look (from an end user’s standpoint) into a hospitality establishment that has obvious service standards, vs. a comparable that has them (service standards in place) but not being implemented or executed properly:

Properly Applied Service Standards:

(Empowered employee acknowledges guest from 10 feet away, and commences the conversation confidently, with a smile and full eye contact, at 5 feet away): “Welcome to X Restaurant. What may I get for you today?”

Guest: “Yes…hi”, with a small smirk, after having such a rough morning so far, “I will take a small coffee, please.”

Empowered employee: “Would you like for me to leave space for cream, half or half, or Milk? I have Skim Milk in the back here as well.”

Guest: “Sure, why not, thanks for asking.”

Empowered employee: “You are welcome, Mr…”

Guest: “Jones, but you can call me Eric. ”

Empowered employee: “Will do, Eric (while pouring the coffee as asked by Eric). Do you work close by? I have never seen you visit us, but I am happy you came in today to try our new roast!”

Guest: “As a matter of fact, I just started working nearby and had a rough morning so far, so I figured I take a break, walk and grab a coffee.”

Empowered Employee: “Well it is nice to meet you, Eric, welcome to the neighborhood and feel free to come by daily for your coffee with us, or whenever you need to. We have several roasts and other items that you may want to try, as we have some daily specials. Here is your coffee, and you can go to the small station behind you where our creamers and sugars are. That will be a dollar and seventy eight cents. We give you a 10% discount for working nearby.”

Guest: As he gives his credit card to pay, “Sure will and thanks.”

Empowered Employee: “You are welcome. Here is your receipt, and you do not need to sign it. Enjoy your coffee, Eric, and the rest of your day. I look forward to seeing you tomorrow.”

Guest: “Definitely, thanks, I think I will, take care.”

Empowered Employee: “You are welcome and take care as well.” Moves forward to greet another loyal client.”

Service Standards Not Being Applied Properly:

Guest enters establishment, walks towards the counter. The employee, while talking on a cell phone, seems to be bothered by the fact that there is a customer in front, waiting to ask for something. Guest hints at the employee that he is ready to order. After 4 minutes, the phone call is done and the employee asks, “Yes, can I get you something?”

Guest: “Yes…hi”, same situation: having such a rough morning so far, “I will take a small coffee, please.”

Employee: “Cream and sugar?”

Guest: “Well, where is your station where you have this; I can get it on my own”

Employee: in a madder voice, repeats, “Cream and sugar, sir?”

Guest: “O…K…., 2 creams and 4 Sugars”

Employee: “Dollar six, please, (at the same time turning towards another employee) yo Jane, get me a coffee to go! (Rips receipts) Sign right here.”

Guest signs and employee yells out, “next”!

These scenarios occurred to me some while back, in major well known and “successful brands that perhaps you all visit daily”. Please excuse the name changes.

Service standards exist to define the type of hospitality establishment we are managing. Clearly, we experience the fact that due to the plethora of information that we (and what I mean by we, is us, the establishment or business, as well as our end user) can educate ourselves from on the Internet, will create a perceived notion of what to expect from the brand (in this case, I am referring to well known names in the industry, as well as independents). Do you as a hospitality professional dread the fact that you have to abide by certain expectations, not only based on what the existing service standard in your business may be, if any, but also on what the end user is expecting? Is there a state of confusion of miscommunication? Perhaps the existing management company is trying to operate an establishment like a luxury property, when in reality, they have the infrastructure (not to mention the brand in some cases) to truly operate like an upscale property?

The purpose of the article is to certainly touch upon the importance of the service standard, but also, we will dig deeper into situations that can perhaps be damaging existing standards. Perhaps you may not have any to begin with, so how do we start developing a base set of service standards, while identifying where we best fit in the market (or in this case establishment scale)?

The service standard is quite simple in any lodging or restaurant facility. We offer cleanliness, safety and comfort. These are the basics. This is where we are going to build our service standards from. By understanding first and foremost where our establishment is positioned, in terms of scale, we can then start applying some basic concepts that you can gather from the scale which you have selected. For example, we have an upper midscale property we are managing. We assume that if we look at guides in the industry, such as Smith Travel Research, we would fall under same scale with lodging brands such as Hampton Inn or Holiday Inn Express. Naturally, if these are our primary competitors, we will be expected to perform similar to these properties in this market. Anything less and you will only be picking up the slack from your competition. Anything more can also be an issue, as the guest may be confused as what guest perception in this brand would be all about. If they do not get the same experience, they can discontinue patronizing the brand. Also, we can see that if they are rated by a national, credible rating, they can be affected as well. I have seen this occur already.

Traditional hospitality has always been about developing a relationship with your guest. The case scenarios in the beginning displayed two similar situations, with two different outcomes. The service strategies used by the positive experience reflect a consistent clean and welcoming environment, empowered employees, initial acknowledgement by a staff member, smiling, being sincere, upbeat positive attitude, listening, empathizing, anticipating needs by looking for opportunities, suggesting selling techniques, using guest’s name, thanking them for their business and always closing the moment of truth. They are also ready to handle any guest dissatisfaction by implementing service recovery strategies. They know the type of guests that come in, so they already understand the demographic very well. They are eager to see each guest encounter as a challenge and opportunity to with them over by applying these consistent service standards. They own the situation, always. These are the simple and memorable concept that can be applied in pretty much any situation, in any restaurant, or any hotel. All guests and patrons are VIP, and we want them to come back, sell us by word of mouth and social media channels, and refer us new guests.

It seems that the second, negative scenario tends to be a more common occurrence out there, unfortunately. We are amazed to see how this is most commonly experienced in franchised properties (for the most part). Corporate run chains seem to invest more in taking care of the guest, but this is not always the case. They do however, watch out for any inconstancies as their brand is on the line. Independent properties tend to be a hit or miss with this, so it all comes down to the overall attitude of the owner, the managers and the employees. They may have the typical base service standards, yet they may be missing the innovative strategies or the service strategies that connect best with the ambiance or culture of the establishment. As mentioned earlier, looking deeper into the service standard is the execution of it by your employees, once you know which ones you want to have. We suggest the ones listed above as your new baseline. Service standards also are followed very well by employees who are valued. Labor costs are a hefty line item for our income statement, yet, without the proper representation, training and standards that we have discussed above, how are we to truly manifest the service and product we have invested millions into making our establishment an active one? This, we have found, to be the key factor in multiple establishments we have analyzed.

There are certainly more innovation strategies which at the moment, they tend to be too new to truly measure. Applying the traditional basic standards, as the ones indicated above, can certainly provide what is needed, and also can help realize how you can innovate and be competitive with other properties in the market.

Marco Albarran is the founder and president of Remarkable Hospitality, Inc., an international consulting, training and educational firm that specializes in assisting hospitality companies to perform successfully by developing and continuously improving service standards. He also serves as a hospitality instructor and subject matter expert for various universities. Before launching Remarkable Hospitality, Inc., Mr. Albarran was with HVS International, working on national and international consulting projects, including market and feasibility studies for proposed and existing lodging facilities. Mr. Albarran can be contacted at 561-542-6326 or malbarran@remarkablehospitality.com Extended Bio...

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