I was thinking of creating a "TripAdvisor" for hotels as I am sincerely tired of stupid people who scream and behave like they own the world. No guests have the right to try to ruin my teams work day - we are here to help - not for guests to take out their physco problems on. Any hotelier who still thinks the guest is always right - think again - your teams happiness must come first. I was thinking of creating a "TripAdvisor" for hotels as I am sincerely tired of stupid people who scream and behave like they own the world. No guests have the right to try to ruin my teams work day - we are here to help - not for guests to take out their physco problems on. Any hotelier who still thinks the guest is always right - think again - your teams happiness must come first.
I wrote this on LinkedIn on June 22nd and at the time completely unprepared for the reactions I was about to receive. Which is the reason for this blog. I realized that I had touched on a subject that rose a lot of emotions among many fellow hoteliers and hotel employees and presumable guests of hotels as well. Within minutes of posting I got the first private respond: "Monika, My advise..delete the post.. You are a GM.. You are above it". The source was a close friend that seriously made me think if I should delete my post. Then I decided that I had a need to raise this point. Maybe because I just recently came back from Copenhagen from a weeks course in "Happiness at work" with the Woohoo Academy was my reaction stronger and so the decision to keep the post. Today I am very happy I kept my post. At the time of writing this blog I have had 646 Likes and 210 posts on LinkedIn and 2,264 shares on Facebook through a person I do not know. In the first two days after my post on LinkedIn most responses commented on PARKHOTEL Praha's Tripadvisors score or that I needed to accept that when working in the hotel industry the guest is always right and that we should just accept that guests behave in bad manners. A few example comments: "The guest has and always be right, and your job as a hotelier is to encourage and create the passion for superior excellence in service." "...try to find out what when wrong with the teams. If something went wrong it is our responsibility to identify the gap and correct it." "...our carreer was made to take care of people, assist, give them a great service no matter what..." After close to 20 years in the industry I am tired of hearing these statements as I strongly believe: we are creating these monster guests and we have done a very good job in disciplining them to scream to get what they want. Just because we work in the service industry does not mean that we have accepted a job that would allow others to treat us as they like. Comparing to other service industries (airlines, call centers, travel agents, banks etc.) where phone conversations are recorded or clients are asked to behave or leave the premises. So what makes us believe that we are so different? Maybe it is because we do not talk about clients or customers but rather about guests. If you are my guest in my home I will do everything I can to make your stay pleasant. The challenge with this perception is that our guests do not feel/behave like they are guests entering our homes. They are in a hotel where they can be demanding and judging because they have paid. Maybe this is the predicament; the seller and the buyer does not have the same perception or view of the exchange? Fortunatly the majority of guests in hotels are not "monsters' and know how to behave. By not giving our team the full authority or backing we are teaching guests that "ask/scream for the manager and they will give". Or the newer more popular threat "I write bad comments on all social media about your hotel if I don't get". These kinds of remarks makes most hotel GM's shiver, abandon their employees and give the guest right. Some of the excuse I have heard GM's use "the employee is new", "The employee should have known better" or "They made a mistake in the system, we will need to train more". Continuously undermining the employee who most likely have been sweating their back side off trying to be polite and careful with the guest while following the order the manager has given. Then the "big boss" comes and corrects, not by providing a better solution, but by changing the rules. Rules the employee tried desperately to follow. 2-3 days after my post I started to see hotel employees complimenting my post and several GM's given me kudos for standing up and saying what many thought but did not dare to say loud. A few example comments: "Monika Hilm it is so nice to see that someone did take this opportunity and strength in being audible enough where no one is willing to listen to the excuse that your efforts were just not enough. Would anyone dream that it would be intentional to spoil a guest vacation or stay. All and every one want to give there best!!! Time to change the spunk." "This is a severe concern right now... Sometimes my team members are threaten by guests that if my team don't give them what they want, they are going to write bad about them." We are here to Serve not Servants..BTW Guest is not Always Right..Ms Monika Hilm i appreciate your Efforts.. That made me really proud - there are so many good GM's and hospitality people out there. If you are a manager of a team, any size or level manager, you should take it as your key role to create a "happiness at work" culture for your team. If you do they will give better service to t he guests. Give them the empowerment and then support. When mistakes are done, stand up for them and protect them, discuss it separately with them and let them make the changes if they can/ want to without ever overruling or criticizing them in front of a guest. Mistakes are good - we become stronger if we treat them as learning experiences and not as failures. The guest comes and goes, but your team should hopefully want to stay. My point about creating a review site of guests is probably not that relevant and in the end: why focus on something negative as problem people, when the majority of our guests are not monsters. It is unfortunate how much focus and influence sites like Tripadvisor has gotten. I personally enjoy responding to guest who is trying to blame/shame one of my hotels - maybe because I am blunter as a person than most GM's or maybe because I just say as it is. If I think you are right I say so straight and if I don't I also say so - I do not play games. Honesty is one of the key factors when I hire employees. When explaining my culture to my current Front office manager 1.5 years ago, she told me "but I have been trained for 15 years to lie and now you want me to unlearn". She is still challenged with answering review sites in the honest open mannor that I do, but still she has come a long way by being able to recognize it and in face to face situations being excellent at honesty and openness. In a response to a post of PARKHOTEL Praha's facebook by a gentleman that called me "stupid cow" I responded by apologizing for my inappropriate use of language. Stupid is not a suitable word to refer to another human being, However, I can not refrain from wondering if I would have chosen a more subtle word or not added so much of my energy and passion into this statement - would so many have reacted and responded? I doubt that. I thank all who responded to my LinkedIn post positive or negative does not matter you have all contributed to making my day more interesting and enjoyable. Have a happy day, Monika
6 Comments
Unni
10/4/2016 11:07:52 am
Very true !
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8/11/2016 04:00:47 pm
Dear Monika,
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8/11/2016 04:01:37 pm
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28/8/2017 09:30:12 am
Your tips make sense to me and I think that it is a logical point to make proper discussion about it. We are supposed to give the honor which other person deserve more than any other thing.
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22/9/2018 03:35:26 am
That is right. I believe that the saying " customer is always right" is too worn out. We are lying in a season where people have become abusive of their privileges that's why the saying doesn't work nowadays. We should never tolerate abusive people, especially if they do not bring any good to us, may it be personally of professionally. Customers aren't always right, they just want to act as if they deserve all the privilege in this world!
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Monika HilmMy passions are managing and improving the results of hotels through employee centered processes. My motto: "Put your employees first and the rest will follow. Don't just say it - show it through the actions that you take". Archives
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