Clear,
dedicated vision needed to see big service picture
Serve It Up
Roberta Nedry |
Think
of service as a giant TV screen and envision the guest
or customer as holding the remote control, choosing
which channels to watch or to use.
As that
guest clicks on each button, sometimes they find static,
sometimes there is the most beautiful picture in the
world. Sometimes the sound is off and sometimes what
is supposed to be there is not. Sometimes it takes forever
to find the preferred channel and sometimes, the controls
do not work.
That’s
a great service analogy, especially in today’s
time of economic flux and guest dissatisfaction. What
a service opportunity for those who choose to plug into
the big picture and introduce service excellence. |
Clear vision and connectivity
is essential to achieving this big picture of excellence.
Many organizations set up customer care departments and guest
service resources, yet they don’t equip their personnel
with the service behaviors that support their roles. These
companies may provide minimal training, but that only yields
employees who end up taking orders instead of providing experience-based
responsiveness.
In the customer’s or
guest’s mind, these service concepts may end up better
named as the customer I-don’t-care department.
Take, for example, a guest
with questions about products or services already purchased
for their megayacht experience. Does your crew have the knowledge
and resources to answer questions and actually help? Or are
they simply order takers and depend on pre-existing scripts
to get the answers?
Do they have access to guest
history information so they can immediately address a guest’s
questions? Instead of “no,” empower them to say
“I don’t know but let me find out.” Don’t
let them place too much emphasis on efficient and productive
answers while sacrificing responsive and solution-oriented
guest service that is so essential to the big picture.
Today’s primetime feature
of service excellence depends on empathetic service personnel
who guard the gates of service delivery. Empathy is hard to
have when an employee cannot relate to guest expectations.
Take the time to equip and
sensitize employees to show empathy, apologize for any inconvenience,
respect guest time and respond knowledgeably about all facets
of the situation. Reduce anxieties by addressing concerns
directly, and immediately come up with solutions and answers.
Some organizations that hire
crew may not actually expose those new employees to what really
happens in the guest’s mind. Employees may be trapped
by a company’s procedures when in fact the yacht team
has all the answers to solve the problem.
Without better connectivity
and a panoramic vision of what any guest is going through,
the outcome is usually more costly for the company and less
satisfying to the guest.
Tune in to the big picture
and make sure all channels are directed to award-winning performances.
Guest applause and in turn, their dollars, are worth it.
