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.