Aspire Introduces New Products to Transform Customer Service

It only takes one negative experience to influence 300 hotel guests

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. October 14, 2008

APRIL 8, 2008.Logging more than 100,000 miles of travel annually and spending the past 24 months performing extensive research for new product development, Renie Cavallari, CEO of Aspire, is the guru of customer service in the hospitality industry.

"It's not enough to strive for customer satisfaction, service has to be heroic," Cavallari said. "Personally, I got tired with the poor customer service experienced at properties worldwide and asked myself why we can't move beyond mediocrity. As U.S. News and World Report states, 'The biggest reason why guests don't return to a hotel is an attitude of indifference.' Our new Heroic Hospitality programs are fun, provide learning for the line employee as well as the management team."

Heroic Hospitality has been developed for properties to receive the entire program creatively packaged or customized to integrate exclusive market positions, cultures and guest service standards. It demonstrates how the front desk, housekeepers, maintenance operators and other employees can take routine interactions and make them extraordinary.

Realizing that Aspire customers need a variety of solutions, two options have been designed to choose from:

Heroic Hospitality Do-It-Yourself:

o Aspire's creative pre-packaged stand alone solution is fully implemented by the property. Utilizing heroic characters, this interactive training program gives managers the tools necessary to present effective motivational training.

o It has been designed for simple-to-execute customer service training or as part of an employee orientation program.

o It includes a facilitator handbook, one hour of facilitator phone coaching, participant guides and a four-hour DVD presentation.

o Primary focus is creating consciously competent employees who consistently provide exceptional guest service.

Heroic Hospitality By Design

o Two-day on site leader-led custom built program by Aspire demonstrating behaviors to motivate, educate and stimulate a customer service team for achieving outstanding customer service results.

o Pre-arrival custom design including a property's service standards, culture, market position, AAA or other benchmarking focus areas and own guest service system.

o The in-person experience focuses on the property's culture, guest experience priorities and customer service standards emphasizing extraordinary service skills, recovery process and leadership empowerment.

o Each property's marketing position is reinforced and incorporated for creating outstanding customer service.

o On property half-day train-the-trainer sessions to ensure sustainability.

"We invested more than 2,000 hours of research studying both hospitality and non-hospitality models to uncover what must be integrated to affect the guest experience more profoundly," said Cavallari.

"We all know that the five-foot rule of the past is just not enough and only promotes mediocrity. Both our packaged and by design programs make customer service part of the culture, a vital component of sustaining outstanding customer service."

Research also shows that the higher the level of customer service created the more value perceived and consumers associate value with price. The higher the value the higher the price the customer is willing to pay, according to J.D. Power North America.

With a softening demand market, it is imperative that hotels retain customers which is a key strategy for them to protect market share, according to Cavallari.

"It's about creating extraordinary moments, as guest satisfaction is no longer an acceptable standard if you want loyal customers. Guests want more and those who deliver heroic hospitality will win big, especially in this down market," she said.

"Aspire's innovative training tools help people think and learn differently. Our newest training programs awaken the potential of hospitality employees to provide improved guest experiences and enhance their business, directly affecting bottom-line results."