Un-Boxing Experiences

25 years of blood, sweat and tears building a leading brand, millions invested; but it all works when that same customer walks in again and again with a smile on her face… all vaporized because a staff member treated them like a self serve moron. Disappointed as she is she sends out a message through her blog, twitter and facebook accounts to her trusted network that the brand is no more.

And still leaders of today do not invest pro-actively in front line staff. Some of us try to join in the web 2.0 processes by getting bloggers on our side or by reactively fixing the problem. Still these leading brands box front line performance as a staff expense and not as a crucial realization of the branding efforts. Can we please un-box and accept the experience economy is here to stay?

I just became an Ambassador of the Mekong Riverview hotel in Luang Prabang in Laos. It’s not an official title, Ambassador, just a term I use for being an amazingly loyal customer. As a self claimed experience specialist, I guarantee you will be amazed by the people who run this place. The thing is I haven’t even visited it yet but plan to do so 2 months from now. But I am a fan and I will promote them to the world. Daniel, the manager there, has been able to build my experience even before I visited the hotel.

The hotel is based in Laos PDR which can also be described as “Laos Please don’t rush,” the same attitude many professionals around the world demonstrate when it comes to front line branding experiences. A marketing effort brought me to the Mekong Riverview hotel, a beautiful hotel, but the hotel’s team itself made it clear to me that I should spend my dollars on them. And for Laos, believe me, it’s not the cheapest hotel and the city does have fancier hotels at comparable if not lower rates.

Hoteliers are known to be active in an industry that is somewhat old fashioned. The organizational structure, marketing initiatives and product offer are not always as fancy or innovative. Yet here I was begging for a room at this hotel after they informed me all large rooms were booked. Are the clichŽs true? Are consumers really prepared to pay more for the right experience?

In one key aspect Hoteliers are leading the world; it’s the realization that once a customer walks in to your environment, their work really starts. It’s the realization that once customers honor us with their visit we can create value, a long lasting friendship and make them our ambassadors who will promote and sell our brand for life.

And somehow retailers and other industries believe it’s not the case for them simply because the level of interaction between customer and staff is not the core of their existence. They are in the business of margins and costing. Customers buy shoes and bags; guests buy smiles and warmth?? Apologies for those 10 retailers around the world who do act on this or the other retailers who do have service or experience in their mission statement which is a nice start.

We box things so we can understand and make sense of things, and any investment in the frontline has to be boxed which again will relate to costs and margins. Is it staff related? Then it must not exceed 3% of store sales. These boxes have a purpose and they make sense. They also aid in terms of keeping control and we can’t simply blame middle management for not being entrepreneurial or breaking out of these boxes. Or can we? How do you change ancient ways of doing it? It’s time to make that step and fortunately some of us are. Some of our luxury brand clients in Japan started benchmarking with Hotels instead of with just each other. We sit them down together with Hoteliers to share best practices. It’s time to stop only acknowledging that retaining a customer is far more cost effective than replacing one.

It’s time to stop using powerful words like excellent service and great experiences in the mission statement or statements like “once a customer always a prospect”.

It is time to act.

Let’s look at the hospitality model of The Hotel School The Hague (Netherlands), consistently ranked in the top three hospitality schools in the world.

This “simple” model shows where the experience is created. The experience is not just made by the offer itself; it is finalized where offer and demand meet which is at the front line of the organization. Conventionally retailers have been investing in working on either sides and not so much on where it meets. We claim we do, but we don’t. We research and invest in marketing on the demand side, so people love of us and want to visit us, and then we make sure we have the right products/ services in place at the right price in the right environment. Customers pay us money for this. Oh, let’s not forget to hire some staff because unfortunately we can’t automate the last steps and someone needs to get the right size and wrap it all up.

We acknowledge that a nasty staff member could well have a negative impact on a possible purchase or loyalty; perhaps he or she should be removed, perhaps average staff should be trained again next year, yes we should monitor, coach and reward them; but in reality we don’t seriously. The budget does not fit the box and please don’t rush this. So we lose a 25 year loyal customer and a bunch of her friends and family members with it. Who knows what the (lifetime) value of that is? Well, Ritz Carlton does know actually. And let’s start calling customers guests like hoteliers do.

The most positive factor in the process is that the easiest element to influence, to get to that great experience, to actually get guests to make that purchase, is your people at the front line. The front line teams finalize everything that you put in the mix. It is by far the cheapest investment to be made as long as you don’t box it, but see it as part of the brand experience.

Front line staff leaves us; they are not capable, they only want a dollar per hour more, they are not motivated…they make up excuses; they don’t show up for work. But when we invest in them, give them attention, give them concrete and actionable feedback, train and coach them; they will reward you with loyalty, passion and they will make things happen. They will build your brand to an extent you can’t imagine.

It’s just like any other relationship, if you don’t build it, it will never grow or it never actually existed. Let’s pick up the speed and un-box the ancient way of doing.

My two cents.

article by: Jan Willem Smulders
courtesy of MysteryShoppingLive.com