When guests at your establishment have an issue, problem or concern, it is likely that they are experiencing a mild feeling of dread leading up to talking to your employees about it. This is not necessarily your frontline staff’s fault — people have been conditioned to have low expectation when it comes to interacting with customer service representatives, no matter what the issue. Receiving timely, helpful and courteous resolutions to problems is almost expected to be the exception, not the rule.
But it should never be this way.
Customer service, especially in the hospitality industry, can and should be done extremely well — there are simply no excuses for poor service. Serving your customers should always be about establishing real relationships and once you have that right, excellent guest experiences will just seem to happen.
Empower your front line staff
With everyone attached to their smartphones now, your company is available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. Whether is be email, telephone, social media or your actual location, your customers have a number of ways to reach out. But while this makes the exerience easier for your customer, it can be a big challenge for your business.
Give your employees the tools they need to be effective. It may requrie the right software and technology, but it may just mean giving them effective training to learn how to deal with a frustrated customer. With the right training, problems never have to escalate to calling on a supervisor. Give even your most junior employee the tools and permission to use their best judgement in situations and the tools they need to follow through. When they know everything they need to know and have access to everything they need to solve any situation, you’ll see a lot more happy customers and happy employees.
Work with your Employee’s Strengths
Your employees are people, too and that means that everyone is different, no matter how streamlined your training and business protocols may be. The best customer service teams use employees’ personalities to play to each indivdiual customer and situation. This may mean upselling a service, dealing with a technical issue or assisting a customer with a disability. Everyone has a strength, find out what strengths your employees possess.
Most importantly, no matter how a customer reaches out, remember that every interaction is an opportunity to build a relationship. Understand and appreciate your employees’ strengths, temperaments and skills to create a team who can deal with any issue and defuse tension at any time. Find ways to treat your customers as individuals by pairing them with the individual employee who will be best at working with them to reach a resolution.
Treat your Customers the Way you want to be Treated
It seems like a simply concept, but it can be lost in the shuffle — treat others as your would want others to treat you. Make sure your frontline staff are attentive and available for anything, no matter who is frequenting your business and who is reaching out for assistance. Unhappy customers are inevitable and they will demand more time and attention to resolve their problems, but to make make life easier, offer your customers the same courtesy and care that you would expect to receive yoruself.
That said, you don’t need to overdo it. Trust that your own experience is the best guide — we don’t always expect 5-star service when we walk in the door of any business. Customers just want it fixed as quickly, efficiently and professionally as possible. Customers have natural expectations, so when you over deliver on something they had low expectations for, they are delighted.
Ensuring excellent guest experience is an evolving artform, not necessarily scientific method. No matter which technique you follow, there will always be room for growth and improvement. The best way to get a true sense of how your customer service experiences are ranking is to invest in a guest experience audit. By inviting a secret shopper into your establishment, you can learn exactly which aspects of your service need to be addressed or praised and how to constantly to improve your provided service.
