Hospitality vs. Customer Service: Building a Strong Clientele

The Rudiments of Hospitality vs. Customer Service

Hospitality and customer service are often used interchangeably, but they have distinct differences. Hospitality is about creating a warm and welcoming environment that makes guests feel valued and cared for. It's about anticipating their needs and going the extra mile to ensure they have a positive experience. Customer service, on the other hand, is about meeting the specific needs of customers and helping them solve problems. It's about providing assistance and information to ensure customer satisfaction.

Identifying Hospitality Systems

Hospitality systems are the processes and procedures that businesses use to deliver exceptional hospitality. These systems can vary depending on the industry and the specific needs of the business. However, some common elements of hospitality systems include:

• A culture of hospitality: This is the overall attitude and approach that the business takes towards its guests. It's about creating a welcoming and inclusive environment where guests feel valued and appreciated.
• A well-trained staff: The staff should be knowledgeable about the products and services offered by the business, as well as the needs of the guests. They should also be able to provide excellent customer service.
• A focus on the guest experience: The business should focus on creating a positive and memorable experience for its guests. This can be done through a variety of means, such as providing personalized service, offering amenities, and creating a comfortable and inviting atmosphere.

Provision of Service Beyond Your Mood

One of the most important aspects of providing excellent hospitality and customer service is to do so consistently, regardless of your personal mood. This means putting the needs of your guests first and providing them with the best possible experience, even when you're feeling stressed or overwhelmed.

No Time to Play with Your Service

There is no room for complacency when it comes to providing excellent hospitality and customer service. Businesses must constantly strive to improve their systems and processes in order to stay ahead of the competition. This means being willing to invest in training, technology, and other resources that will help to enhance the guest experience.

Building a Strong Clientele

By providing exceptional hospitality and customer service, businesses can build a strong clientele that will return time and time again. This can lead to increased revenue, improved brand reputation, and increased customer loyalty.

In conclusion, hospitality and customer service are essential for any business that wants to succeed. By understanding the differences between the two and implementing effective hospitality systems, businesses can create a positive and memorable experience for their guests, which will lead to a strong and loyal clientele.

Customer service for entrepreneurial entities

 When we are born, we have to learn how to use the various limbs of our body. The ways that we use them would change over time as we grow and become accustomed to how our muscles react.  If we are observant, many of these motions tend to be repetitive. 

Yet, for many of us, our approach to setting up a business is ready, fire, aim. We tend to do so without practice and then wonder where we went wrong. This is particularly noticeable if we're observant as we deal with our internal and external customers. 

It is said that the customer is always right; this is untrue. No one individual is always right. Yet this fallacy is unchallenged by many, even at the corporate level. 

Entrepreneurs need guidance on how to plan their customer interactions. This needs to take place before they even meet their first customer. It is required so that the customer/SME interactions function smoothly. 

How can we encourage and uplift customers so that they enjoy the experience of interacting with our entities? Are there areas that we need to attend? What are the touchpoints? 

Asking and answering the above questions allows entities to respond better to customers' needs, regardless of how they interact with the business. Sit with your advisors today and plan your customer interactions for your business. If you need assistance, just reach out. There are adequate resources available. 

Enjoy your weekend. 

Hospitality - the business of businesses

 

When you're working in hospitality, there's one sure thing: all your days will be different. The industry comprises various moving parts that make it an excellent teacher. 

Several fields come into play within the hospitality industry to create an experience. E.g. Real estate, function and event planning, food and beverage, reception and front office, accounts, cost controls, maintenance & engineering, laundry, housekeeping services, retail, transportation, activities, gardens and amenities, horticulture, training and development of human capital and the list can go on depending on the property/resources being managed. 

The hours can be long and gruelling. Often, hospitality workers can be the most challenging customers since they know what they have to put up with when the roles are reversed, and they are the service providers. 

So, what does hospitality mean to you? Smiling at the customer? As is so readily touted in so many programs - written and spoken? When seen within the public domain, do we pay attention to operations to ensure that the organization functions as one entity? 

A variety of roles are required within a well-run hospitality organization, and the level of competence is expected. No effort that goes into creating the customers' experience is accidental. You need to be functional in the areas within which you serve. 

In short, every element of activity must bring value to the experience of the guest in a manner that surpasses their expectations - creating value in their minds without the concern necessarily of money they have to/need to spend. 

Let's do better to enhance our services within the hospitality environment.

Understanding customer service within your business

Customer service like everything else in business is under revision. It is feeling the pressure of the pandemic and lots of promises formerly made by organizations are failing under the test of the pressure. 

You can no longer reach anyone in most organizations. The reliability of most entities have been put under pressure and they are failing to reach the most basic of expectations. 

COVID has impacted entire departments within organizations where everyone within the said department can be put in isolation/quarantine. This disconnected the organization's ability to be able to deliver on certain basic functions.

With the displacement  caused by  Covid-19  there are many organizations that do not know the experiences of their customers. Simple transactions like document processing, payments on accounts, receivables on accounts, administrative matters, and all else seemed to have gone out of order. 

Lots of organizations are blaming the broad back of COVID, and the occasional bad weather now we are in hurricane season. 

Who is suffering as a result? Well let us start with the elderly, who have having quite the challenge adjusting to using technology with which they are not fully familiar. They try to make calls for clarity only to speak with someone who can offer little more than polite dialogue since they are not even in the same country and don’t know the people within the organization they are supposed to be representing. The elderly will have issues with, among other things; online payments, health and medical insurance claims, seeing the fine print on the screens, being able to speak with someone who can offer solutions that are tangible. The world within which they must now function makes them seem obsolete. 

The youth with education programs that have instructors not fully competent with the technology themselves, but the youth get blamed for not attending class when they spend hours waiting for admittance to the class, or instructors to even show up. How do I know this? I’m a remote worker so I get to observe some of this behaviour through the youngsters in my domain. 

Those in between, who in many instances are now realizing that being able to see and pronounce a word does not necessarily mean they understand what is being communicated. The breakdown in communication is huge, and it doesn’t help when most cannot spell and are unable to adequately use grammar to ensure what is intended is being communicated. 

Can the current situation be blamed on COVID though? I say NO! COVID has caused us to pause and consider what we have taken for granted for way too long. We have not learned the lesson the first time around and COVID makes us repeat the pauses/shutdowns to see if we would identify what we missed and adjust our behaviours to suit. It feels like we are taking 40 years to complete a 30 day journey. [Only some will get this.] 

This is a time of reset in all relationships, public and private. We need to come to a place of empathy where we take the time to understand each other. In this environment, we wouldn’t be listening to respond, but to understand.

Sometimes when you listen to someone express themselves, even when they are thinking, if you don’t interfere with a response but remain silent, you will observe them arrive at the solution themselves. They didn’t need advice but a listening ear. They wanted the support of someone hearing them think. 

The other aspect is when people require the services/products of vendors who provide them. They ask for concessions, they want to negotiate already bottom out prices or they price your work then wonder why you don’t want to take their offer. However the experience has been when situations like this come up is that not only does one do the work, but then they have to beg to be paid. Many of us have learned the hard way and we’re done with it. 

To be clear, if you want to get into business, then have the money to get the business planning done - there’s no such thing as a discounted lawsuit. They don’t say that they got what they could afford but they, the customer, will malign your name and damage your reputation. Be careful when you are doing business. Take every effort to communicate clearly in this era of distorted understanding. Ensure that you put everything in writing since people learn in various ways and therefore relate differently to information. 

What have been your experiences over the past 2 years? Feel free to share. Have a wonderful Sunday. 

An Epidemic of Excellence

If we were to fight fire with fire, why couldn't we make an epidemic work for us as a region? With the recent pandemic fresh in our minds, we were able to see the impact it had on virtually every aspect of our society - commerce, trade, tourism and hospitality, healthcare, the environment and others. 

The tourism sector finally realizes that their locals are also people with spending power, and only now their backs are against the wall try to woo them in to use the products and services they sell. In many cases the locals, many of whom were treated badly before now reject them. It should be a wake up call for an industry that claims to offer hospitality, but only offered hospitality to people with foreign accents and foreign exchange. 

Hotels and restaurants clamour for industry recognised accolades of 5 star, green globe, luxury, prestigious, and the like; yet they lost to common touch of how to interact and treat their fellow citizens who work hard and save for vacations only to go overseas since they weren't appreciated in their own domicile. It's for this reason that Staycations may not have enjoyed more success than they could have. 

This was a discussion that many shared their thoughts on recently, and they were not complimentary to those who were hospitality practitioners. 

What can we do? We have to revamp the mindset of everyone in our countries.

As we learned, those of us who studied hospitality are no longer employed exclusively in tourism. We have gone into many diverse fields within which the what we learned in hospitality now plays an integral part in our careers. 

Are we serious about our marketing? Here are 6 lessons.

You may wonder why I have such a topic for this post, but just Friday, March 15, 2019, in the evening an observation prompted me to put this post up. It is not intended to get the representative in trouble, but more importantly, reinforce the need for companies to be diligent about what they do with regards to representation within the market.

I happened to visit Pricesmart, Barbados when I encountered this product. Left to my own interpretation about what the product's benefits are I am yet to hear the voice of the lass who tossed it into not only my shopping cart but also those of others who happened to be going through the aisle.

Clearly, she came to the end of her shift as she just walked off after throwing her 3 pointers from quite the distance. This was done without a greeting or even an inquiry as to if I/we wanted the product.

Thanks for the free sample, but there are ways that things are done and this is not what I know product sampling to be. Surely the company paying for this product to be marketed had no intention of having their product represented this way. Then again, maybe they did since clearly no due diligence was done to find out if the marketing company had a track record of presenting products properly to the general public. It seems like they hired the cheapest company to get the product out.

Approaching the cashier, I had to indicate that this product does not have any pricing and described how it reached my cart. The cashier assured me it was a sample and nothing would happen when clearing security to go to my vehicle.

Here are some 6 lessons:

1. When marketing your businesses, the cheapest option is not always the best. 
2. You need to train your representatives on the presentation of the products they will be showing. 
3. The representatives need to be courteous even when their shift comes to an end. 
4. She did not know if I was a mystery shopper for the same/other brands or even for Pricesmart itself. (easily she could lose her job in an already tough job market) 
5. Your representatives need to know how to competently handle objections raised by potential customers. 
6. You never know who is a blogger. 

Marketing dollars are expensive, and often businesses have to be creative in order to find funds for marketing in an already competitive environment. Many need to remember that they are not working for the company for whom they wear the uniform, but primarily they represent themselves and cannot afford to take a shoddy approach to their work. 

If your team needs to be trained, there are a multitude of trainers who can help you realize your objectives. Marketing organizations need to invest in their teams so they get the best representation. As I always say, think beyond the first sale. 

Check back often as we post things that we observe. That's what we can do in the islands. I hope that this article helps businesses become more aware of how little deviations in behaviour can help/hinder the development of your business. 

An overlooked marketing opportunity

Recently, I was facilitating training which comprised of a variety of business people. Among them were a small group of the hearing impaired and a translator, using American Sign Language.  They attended the entire series of sessions and my curiosity got the better of me as we were discussing the topic of operations.

I asked the translator when signing how many languages would be able to understand. Needless to say, it was an eye opener the response I got. When signing in that particular method people who understood English and Spanish could understand.

Wow! So why are more of us NOT learning to sign? We would expand our communication methods much more. As a tourism destination, it may give us a marketing edge being able to communicate with a more wide cross-section of people. What would that mean for the island of Barbados/The Caribbean? Maybe we should start learning to sign and find out.

It's time...

Daily in our lives, we are faced with recurring situations that if we are not careful can cause us to lose sight of our goals, aims, and aspirations. This can happen in our personal and working lives, yet so many people have chosen to remain dissatisfied rather than take action to change their outcomes. To have a conversation with them will seem like they are entrenched in disillusionment without any hope of relief.

Have you ever been tired of being sick and tired? Have you ever felt as if you were in a situation without hope for a better existence?

Well, you have to decide you want something different in your lives and be willing to commit to making those changes.

In short, It's Time:

• To stop procrastinating about going after your dreams. 
• To commit your life to the Almighty as he is a God of order and, right now, you can do with some order in your life. 
• To make solid concrete goals, and commit to realizing them within a specific timeframe.

Do you believe that you can do more with your life? That you can make a bigger difference? That you have huge unrealized dreams within you that, with the right effort, you can realize them within your lifetime. 

It's time:

• To get on purpose, and celebrate life and your achievements with those who are closer to you. 
• To identify the team members who will help you realize the success that you desire. Success is a team sport. 

Don't wait another moment, get to planning your future, especially when you realize the rate at which time is traveling. 

Really?!?! - Examples of Customer Interactions

We have a long way to go when we are going to be talking about customer service. The thing is I'm making reference to as a region, not any one island. We are in serious trouble if we're to be globally competitive.

To get an idea of what I mean, have a look at the following scenarios.

• While being served at a restaurant attached to a hotel, the server at the table was more than a little inexperienced in her role as a waitress. It seemed like the tables of customers were a bother to her and it showed in her attitude. She got orders wrong, spilled the food, and when serving wine actually created a storm in the wine glass with the sound effects of thunder. The glass was noisily placed on the table with the wine sloshing around inside the bowl of the glass. She didn't know who the party comprised of, neither did she care. 
• Another restaurant and bar attached to a hotel, the male server on this occasion tried to communicate mentally, he came up to the inside of the bar where a large party was seated, put his hands in both pockets and hoped the beverage orders would in some way make their way to his head. He carried an attitude since he was witnessed being taken to task for the poorly concocted drinks he made and tried to serve. An opportunity to correct/improve his night and those of the patrons forever gone. 
• The taxi driver who is anxious to bring you from the airport so he can get a fare and complete his daily work by midday. Reeked of perspiration, admittedly it was a hot day, and when asked about how to get from the hotel to a particular destination suggest it was in walking distance. When the trip took place later in the day, it was a 15-minute trek up and down steep winding roads. Really? Leaving a card would not mean that you would be called again, especially since you don't know your own country. Broken trust is not easily repaired. 

All experiences were not unpleasant, but for those making an effort, we can only encourage them to continue doing so. They are the difference makers. We have met some people that though untrained, had outstanding personalities that made them a joy to interact with on each occasion. You actually looked forward to seeing them and though you had to spend money, you realized the value of doing so.

Perhaps our myopic view of who is our customer, often emphasized by the tourism industry has come home to roost. The old definitions which so clearly depicted what a tourist looks like have created a callousness in our minds as a region, making us numb to the realities of the real hospitality. Dulling our senses where we miss opportunities to serve right before us, and in many cases losing earnings that those who require service would be more than willing to pay us for.

It's time that we move beyond the service for a reward, and rekindle our values of hospitality where we are really nice to our guests, where ever they are from. Remembering individuals and not looking at them as niches, targets, and all the other terms that marketing has allowed us to label them. People the world over want to be made to feel special and valued. Often they don't get it at home, which they work so hard to maintain year round.

Good manners with support systems

It seems that many people do not know their own name. Don't believe me? Just call anywhere and experience how many people on the other end loathe saying their name when identifying themselves and the organization they represent.

When working somewhere you represent a brand of the business; however, there's a personal brand as well. Some older business people who never went anywhere to study business had something about their personality that enabled them to interact with people. So skilled were they with people, that when anyone was referred to the organization they would also be asked to see that people who offered exceptional service.

Nowadays, service has gone the way of education and entitlements which have become so entrenched that the provider has lost sight of who is the customer and what they represent to the business that they should be representing; albeit in a woeful manner.

We seem to have put so much emphasis on catering to customer complaints that customer service has become a department for fielding the various complaints of customers rather than an area that permeates the entire establishment that plans and implements practices that enhance the customer experience. With more education and certification in the area, we have become more reactive rather than proactive; dwelling on problems rather than focusing on solutions.

Businesses, big and small, have lost their sense of good manners. We have developed a society where looking pretty/cool takes precedence over being sincerely helpful. Many of those who offer help seem to have an ulterior motive; they want to be paid for everything. No one seems to care about developing a sound reputation for integrity and honor.

Can we make a difference? Yes, we can! Constantly being mannerly can do you a world of good, and it can improve our environment significantly. Stop being just an expense and begin being an asset in your environment, and develop a reputation for great manners.

UNDER RESEARCHED...

There are lots of people seeking to get into a business. Conversations with many of them will reveal that these people have some pretty good business ideas.

Further discussion can be quite the insight into the fact that there are more ideas available than the research that goes into them. In short, many of the businesses are not where they should be in terms of the research that's necessary. Therefore they are totally unprepared for the hiccups.

In business, you cannot be myopic only planning for the perfect picture that you have visualized that business will happen exactly like that daily. Once you are alive, storms will come through ever so often; sometimes earlier / later. There's just no sure-fire formula.

How do you ensure that your business is shovel ready? In other words, if you were being processed right now to access funding for your business, have you eliminated all of the setbacks that can halt the process? Should you get the funding right now, how fast can you mobilize to implement what you requested the funding for doing?

When business owners are asked to present about their business, and they are cross-examined, it is when many realize that they are not as prepared as they thought. Sole proprietors suffer most with this as they have not built a team which would enable them to benefit from another perspective.

Do you know the following for your business? Here are some questions that will need to be answered regardless of what business you are in:

• How much money do you need to begin your business on the right scale that would enable you to meet your objectives head on? 
• If you have to get investors, what are you willing to offer them / receive from them as a part of the total investment package? 
• Do you know how investment/financing works and recognize the differences among them? 
• Who forms a part of your team and what experiences/influences are they bringing to the table that can enhance your business and enable it to gain traction in the market? 
• Do you have a full complement of professionals that you can access? [accounting, financial, legal, marketing, business advisory services, operations] 
• How will you handle shocking changes in your business' environment? Especially those that weren't considered in your SWOT analysis. 
• Do I, as an entrepreneur, have what it takes to orchestrate this and where can I quickly find help? 

These seven are not the only questions, however, they are key considerations for your business' development. 

Well....do you still think that you have the best business concept, or do you still need to put in some more work? How well do you know your business and the industry within which it will function? Do you know that you will not have all the solutions, and who are you willing to partner with to arrive at the necessary solutions? 

Always keep in mind that not all money is good money. Don't get overconfident in your dealings with the members of the public you serve.

Remember that the research you put in is not a one-time effort as your environment is always changing. Your research needs to keep up to date lest you become extinct. 

Think in terms of possibilities. You were given that idea download for a reason; how best will you exploit it? Looking forward to reading about your lessons learned down the road. Plan to be the winner you set out to be. 

Customer Service used to be just Service

On occasion I have the opportunity to wonder about a few things that years of experience have granted me the privilege. One that comes to mind was Service; where did it go? Why was it so lacking nowadays, and who's this new Customer Service that though qualified academically does little when compared to the natural capabilities of Service? Here are a few thoughts about what I mean:

• Nowadays we get hospitality degrees and designations of varying sorts, yet seem unable remember encounters of those we've met in the last week. Despite the various devices, communication and other sorts, we seem incapable of remembering little details of our customers. How come that those of the older era who didn't have the tech aids and were able to remember the names of people, families, their likes, and some favorite activities? The older era didn't count the time they were with a client. Service was not given in exchange for something, only as a means of helping another feel more comfortable in a more inviting atmosphere. The result was higher value in the minds of the customer. 
• Attitudes that have developed by the work force that they only seem to seek support when their jobs are threatened are archaic; we have a responsibility to people! Regardless if whether they are seen as customers or fellow workers just to name a few. People are important! 
• Have we forgotten the "magic" words? [good morning, good evening, please, thank you] 
• There's also the rising trend of people having to refer to their sexual preference to determine their ability to work. I mean who really cares who you sleep with? The real question is can you do your job?! This coming out business, is really no one else's business but your own. Keep it there! It's not a badge of honor about your level of competency on your job. 
• Pay attention to detail - serving beverages and food in a sloppy manner in a huge NO! A lot of marketing dollars can be saved when you take the opportunity to serve people that you have in your presence well. If you're superior, they will return for a repeat experience. 
• A sour face, with the attitude of people accepting you as you are is tantamount to suicide. You really can't seriously expect to be mean, rude, and all the other adjectives that I can't publish; and then expect people to want to do business with you. 8 hours per day is a third of a lifetime, shouldn't it be enjoyable? Man has but a short time to live. 
• Let's look at no only enhancing customer service, but enhancing service. We would find that not only do we please others, but we can be quite pleasant to be around. The result can be in more people wanting to be in your company and doing business with you. 

Have a wonderful day folks! Let's look at the totality of the service we offer - regardless of where we work and live. 

Overrating the Entrepreneur

There's a trend - Governments in order to boost their employment figures are turning to the entrepreneur and implementing programs that overlap that lead to an often dead end road where the entrepreneur can't get what they truly need to get their business off the ground at the end of their education - MONEY.

The programs being touted in the media about entrepreneurialism seem to suggest that everyone has what it takes to be an entrepreneur. Nothing could be farther from the truth. Yes there are some great ideas out there in the minds of those that would be great if they can ever get off the ground. These individuals have neither the experience, the connections, nor the financial backing to realize their "dreams".

It is therefore against, this backdrop that this post is being put so here are some things that you need as a prospective entrepreneur to consider:

1. You need to research your business well. Having just an idea without knowing at least how phase one will work isn't enough. Business is not an arena that you can "fly by the seat of your pants". You need to know your business inside out. You have to provide the information necessary to enable your team to make sound decisions. If you need to get aspects researched, then pay to do it. You'll save yourselves lots of time by finding out what you need to know.
2. Your professional team is necessary as they have more experience than you do. You won't go to the doctor and ask for the syringe to administer your medication that you should have no access to, don't expect that your professional team is going to hand over the tools of their trade for you to botch it up - and then blame them. Also while helping you to understand the guidelines of their expertise, they will not train you in their area of professionalism. 
3. FUNDS - Have funds to start your business or GO HOME. Trying to start a business on the back of others using their assets is just not going to cut it. You need to understand that others are not going to have the need in place more investment in your business than you are. Pay your professionals and other service providers well and STOP LOOKING FOR HANDOUTS! We have to pay to access the information that we then provide you with to make important decisions. 
4. Too many "entrepreneurs" want to behave as if they are the bosses of their professional team members. Respect the personal time of your professional team members. Calling them incessantly after hours and on weekends even when paying fees can create a challenge. All professionals need down time to adequately prepare for the next work wave so they can be on top of their game. This is necessary when we ask nicely. 
5. Follow the advice that you're given - sitting in meetings taking up time and then not following through on the outcomes from that meeting, only to turn up again with incomplete tasks is tantamount to Bovine Faeces - wasting time and energy of all involved. 

Following these five (5) suggestions will go a long way in helping you build a strong and profitable business and in this instance is given freely. If you are lacking in these areas and are thinking about entrepreneurship there are agencies to help you get prepared in the areas you are lacking the resources. Go there first! 

Many professionals discuss these areas among themselves, it's time that you also know so that you can adjust your "business practices". Don't become another statistic just because they're overrating the entrepreneur as an employment solution. 

Making life memorable

I am convinced that I was born at the best time in history. When having witnessed the things that I have and the development that have taken place in the short years of my life one can only be wowed at the developments of the era.

In my time, people have traveled faster than the speed of sound, created previously unimagined devices, can now communicate faster than the speed of light, we now look into the palm of our hands to speak with people across the globe or just to find out where we are via the gps implanted in our mobile devices.

Our technology has changed, our wealthy are getting younger, people are just doing everything faster with greater ease!

• Events can now make 6 figures in one afternoon. 
• Some small businesses can make 7 figures in a year

My puzzle consist of what was missing to help individuals do the same. All the high income earners I know have something in common - their willingness to serve others. The type of business they're in didn't matter. - good or bad; they always made their offerings convenient for their markets to have access to them. They give "service" above and beyond their competition, and they used a system for doing so. 

Do you have a system for living? Are your earnings exceeding expenditure? When your customer [internal / external] leave your presence do you know the level of satisfaction they had from interacting with you? Do you know if or when they will be back? Would you have done business with you?

Don't be numb to the experiences you create or participate in. Keep your senses keen and sharp always in observation and learning mode. Be prepare to execute on available opportunities that present themselves. 

Create lasting good memories both for those you interact with and yourselves. When you take a positive approach to making life memorable, those with whom you interacted will want to repeat that experience. 

Celebrity Service

Have you ever been somewhere and received service that had you totally delighted? I mean you totally did not expect it, yet the service was such that it created a memorable experience for you rather than just mingle well camouflaged among the thoughts that you would have had for a lifetime. When you talk with your friends and colleagues afterwards you totally rave about how the service made you feel important - you were made to feel like a celebrity.

Would some of these statements describe your service experience?

• I didn't have to ask for anything really, they brought it before I thought it. 
• When they described what the experience would be and then exceeded it, I thought I found my piece of heaven.
• I felt like family there! 
• Have you ever been pampered; having your every need catered to? ....just when you thought that was all, then they catered to your wants? Wow!

You begin to get the picture. The experience that you received made you feel so great, that as you think about it, you realized that you received Celebrity Service.  Sure you can use the term, my only caveat is that you don't try to own it, but to share it thereby raising all the service standards one at a time with everyone that you come into contact with regardless of where in the world you are.

What's celebrity service? You get the opportunity to decide it, since there's no cookie cutter approach. It can be a standard that has application across cultures, races, classes, and creeds. It doesn't matter who you interact with, it matters that you made an extremely positive difference to their lives that they not only feel the gratitude of being on the receiving end of the service, but goes a step further in their wanting to serve whoever they come in contact with in a way that makes the experience most memorable.

• It goes beyond good customer service, since the emphasis is not on whether or not the other person is a customer.  
• It's not about differentiating between the internal / external customer. 
• Class demarcations like first, club, executive cannot define it. 
• It's personal; in that the experience of one person's celebrity service does not define that of another.
• Those with whom you interact must feel special, almost as if they are the only one that mattered at that time. Yet the feeling of celebrity service must extend beyond the interaction that they have had with you.
• Celebrity service is the journey, not a destination to be reached. 
• It is tangible, yet vague and wispy; neither governed by stars nor ratings.
• Celebrity service is when your people skills become you most important marketing asset. Not being governed by if the environment is highly classy or rustic. 
• It is reached by training in standards, where the key elements being developed are better people, not better looking environments. 

Here's the clincher. It's something that the Old Caribbean offered that enabled people to speak about going back to their holiday domiciles before they even left to go back home. Celebrity service is enchanting and enhancing. I love it when I experience it, but I love it more when I give it. 

The secret is that it isn't just something that takes place at work, but goes into the household. It's:

• spousal 
• family oriented 
• colleagues cooperating 
• church related 
• just good hospitality 

Are you ready for celebrity service; willing to experience it and to demonstrate it? I would love to hear / read your stories. Be the celebrity hosting other celebrities. Changing you mindset and behaviors can result in better life experiences! We all owe it to ourselves to have a quality of life that's exemplary. Here's another secret. It's service offered in an environment of love and care.  

It's time to get serious...Customer Service

Observing the recent state of business development, one thing is clear. There is a uniform lack of customer service being given by Barbadian businesses. The thing is, we are quick to complain about other businesses with whom we interact, but seldom cast the eye on the operations within which we have control.

This article which shows Where to Get the World's Best Customer Service speaks volumes of where we need to go, if we are to even enter the map of the customer service grid. We have no end of people doing hospitality, tourism and hotel studies; they are not absorbed into the industry, yet there is a constant decline in customer service.

Programs of training speak to how we must address our internal customers, an arena where we can practice offering good service but is often ignored / neglected. There are even programs that have been developed which show clearly how to establish competence in customer service in your respective careers; yet customer service receives little more than "lip service".

You will notice from the article that the countries listed among the best in customer service don't even seem to focus on tourism. They just function on doing business under circumstances where their "customers" / clients are embraced in a welcoming environment and feel a degree of comfort wanting to do business repeatedly with them. They understand that the key ingredient in gaining business' market share is in fact the offering of the best customer service.

Customer service has to be tops in face to face contact, on the telephone, in your correspondence, in every aspect of interaction regardless of whether the person is perceived to be a high value customer or not.

Keep tuned in as we will over the next couple of weeks be looking at customer service and its impact - on businesses and the beneficial spin-offs on entire economies.

N.B. Kudos for the image. We don't know who produced it, but we wanted to say thanks for allowing its use.

The Potential in People

There's something about sharing business information with people that's exciting.  At least I find so. When participants arrive they have all kinds of expectations, their needs for information are quite varied and numerous.

Over the years, I have been rewarded with success stories from programs that we have conducted. In some cases the results were fast. Here are a few:

• Learning what I did from this program, I went out and implemented some of what I learnt with tremendous results. I'm here again to see what else I may have missed. 
• When you said what you did about handling objections in the sales process and that we should never allow the same answer to stump us more than once, you got me listening. When you suggested some of the responses, I tried them and got significant results. Thank you. 
• Treating my work colleagues as customers has made a difference to my work day. Our environment is so much more friendly and productive. We get more done in less time and with little stress. Please come again. 
• Richie B. I have done programs with you that included customer service, sales, business planning,  and they have all yielded fruit. Whatever you put on in the future, and I can make it, I'll be there. 

Comments like these warm the heart. I remember stopping the use of reviews in our training since I once got graded 11's with 10 being the top end of the scale outlining excellence. My reasoning was that it may have caused me to lose my edge by becoming complacent. 

Sometimes, we would be there to do just one training program. Especially having been told that there were budget constraints. When the organization realized the effectiveness of the program, the changes in the participants, and the speed with which they saw results (sometimes as quickly as 24 - 48 hours); we would be called back for further programs often within weeks of completion. 

There was one client in the early days that we prospected for five (5) years before we closed the deal for us to do one program. Within weeks of completing that program on customer service, we went back on multiple occasions within that said year to do sales, and then team building. We were then subsequently booked almost yearly since that time. 

Within the last couple of years we have been conducting training in business planning, complete with the final sessions being to have meetings with investors and financiers. The participants loved the process, so did those with the money. Since they were getting people who were at least prepared in so many ways to do business. 

There are too many stories to share in this short article. I would love to hear yours too. Perhaps we can do business sometime. Check us out. We just love to see other people realize their potential.