Meeting difficulty, head on

By Alexander Pichel

Facing very difficult times, not only as a company but as a geographical region and business segment, we sat down together in December, looked at the road behind us, the blurred road map ahead and said to ourselves: We need to act, now!

When crisis struck, I believe everyone was somewhat expecting it but still, was taken off guard.

Numbers started to plunge for everyone and more forceful in some regions than others.

For us we could see it clearly early on but also realized that we could not face this as our industry tends to do; by closing our eyes, hoping it will pass. We needed to act and alter our market focus, strengthen loyalty, decrease our costs but more importantly, focus on our service delivery.

We wanted to achieve all four of these things and we took a bit of a chance, that one hand would feed other.

When you think of it; most 5-star deluxe properties are the same when it comes to hardware. The design may differ and the location may differ but almost all are in great buildings, have great TV's, great Spa's, great Bars and stunning Restaurants.

Where we can distance ourselves from competition is via the service; the ability to foresee and exceed guests expectations and needs. This sounds like a cliché but as technological development has quickened the pace and everyone tries to keep up; the soft value of the hotel, its service, is where the heart of hospitality lies.

We started of with looking at costs by streamlining ourselves, which is always difficult for everyone. We also placed most staff on flexible or unlimited working hours.

The effect this had was that everyone had to help each other more, stretching across their duty boundaries. This dramatically increased the internal communication and the awareness of the guest.

• Where are they now? When are they coming back?
• Are they particularly happy about something?
• Are they concerned about something?
• Do they have any certain wishes or do's and don'ts

This information is always communicated but now, it started to spread a lot better than previously because all colleagues had to stretch out to each in greater extent.

So in essence; the solution of cost helped the issue of raising service level.

When it came to loyalty and trust between us and our various partners, we could combine that nicely with the drive to increase market share in one of our key markets; Russia.

What we did was to start doing more intensive Sales Blitzes on our domestic market to get the market share moving and to constantly be there for follow up and taking any suggestions or points that our partners had. Simultaneously, I, as a GM along with the GM of our sister hotel, Angleterre Hotel, followed the sales team when meeting our closest partners to sit down with them and cut to the chase: What do we need to do together to get through these trying times?

We arranged so that someone from executive management is always greeting them/ their guests when they arrive, as well as bidding them farewell when they leave. Small things it may seem but the effect was a tremendous sense of trust and confidence in each other.

Now, some months down the road, we have increased our market share, which is easy to quantify. We have increased loyalty which we can see by the numbers of returning guests as well as the number of more frequent business from our best partners.

Our service level has increased which we can see from the reports of the many "mystery-shoppers" who are frequently visiting us to check how well we deliver service.

This has been achieved by sticking to four old cornerstones; trust, flexibility, adaption and know-how.

One example was when we had guests from a consulting company, bidding on a piece of business in the city staying with us. They stayed with us during their first negotiation and I made sure that I, my Director of Sales and Marketing along with the Director of Groups & Events where in the lobby to great them. We had a good chat and we picked up on quite a few pointers that concerned them.

Besides from the accommodation, they were in need of transportation and had started to pre-negotiate with various operators for this and it was very time consuming and frustrating for them. We discussed it briefly and then, we went to work on it.

We contacted the car company and arranged a negotiation. It was a bit tricky but we presented a possibility of repeat business and landed a deal, where we could secure the consultant company's airport- and round trip office transports through us.

So we made a contract with an outside vendor to make life easier for the client.

Shortly thereafter, we signed the contract for accommodation AND transportation during the consultant company's project in the city.

This small extra step came at some additional cost for us but gave us a substantial amount of business because we listened and took initiative to solve their transportation issue.

On individual guest-basis, it is even more important to deliver excellent service, especially in our region where English is not very widely spoken.

As a guest you are the absolute care of the hotel and as such; dependant on what we do- or do not do for you.

We had a guest not long ago who was travelling with a very good friend of his, they were celebrating a birthday.

During their stay we arranged a variety of things for them, sight-seeing tours, Museum- and Opera tickets etc. Restaurants were something that they were very fond of and interested in. So they had a couple of questions and we booked tables in various places for them.

All of the above is standard operations for a concierge and a front desk. However, one of the restaurants had a bit of a funny location. They were concerned about finding their way because they absolutely wanted to walk there. The concern became greater and greater but was overheard by a staff member who said:

- I am off in a few minutes. If you wait for me here, I will walk you there. It's on the way home, only a small D-tour.

They waited for five minutes and the guy walked them there. It is only a 15 minute walk and it only lengthened his walk by 5 minutes but the effect of the gesture was great.

As they left, we were given fantastic comments.

The point of all this is that for hotels like our Astoria or any of our esteemed colleagues and competitors, the main advantage point will always be what the core of our business is about; giving excellent service. Especially in times like these when things are tough and there are fewer guests for more hotels. Think of how many percentages of your expenditure goes into increasing the level of face- to- face service and remember; that is what it is all about.

For the part of loyalty, cost control and commitment, it's same for all business. One just has to plan carefully and anticipate what the effect may be further down the road and make sure to have the right team on site. If it is done well; there can be great development and I am very proud of what we have achieved the last 6-8 months!