10 years ago, I was part of the pre-opening team of one Luxury Hotel in Dubai. The hotel was really beautiful, and it was set to become a benchmark in the city. This hotel was the place to be.
Coming already with some experience, I oversaw the Guest Experience department. By then I had worked for one of the best hotels in the world and kind of understood what I was doing. Now, some people in my team, and other teams were starting their careers in hospitality and didn’t really have experience. The hotel had over 500 rooms, so if we go by that, how many guests can I really impress by myself a day? 2%? There is no way you can be successful if you rely only on the ability and experience of a few people.
Guests interact constantly with different members of the team, a single guest will have over 30 interactions daily with different hotel staff, now if you have 500 guests that’s 15,000 interactions a day. That is 15,000 opportunities to delight, or 15,000 times something can go wrong. Luxury is brutal, it’s a very tough and demanding environment and if you don’t have the right culture you are set to fail.
For me it was the first time I had that realization, and I learned it the hard way. I didn’t have managerial experience, this was the first, I had a team of 30 people and while I knew processes, standards, complaint handling, guest experience very well, I didn’t know how to properly take a team there. I struggled to say the least. I was intense and very stern. Not great qualities. Now, things were perfect, I had a process for everything, but we weren’t really accomplishing the level of connection and personalization we wanted, then I discovered that I was doing it all wrong.
From then on, I changed completely my approach, and our briefings turned from torture to inspiration, to moments of creativity, celebration, and collaboration. Now, it wasn’t only me thinking about surprising a few guests, but we were 30 of us thinking about the same. If all of us would take at least 10-15 guests we were covering about 450 guests a day…. Better right?
Now imagine if you would have ALL your organization in that same vibe? You could accomplish the dream, and your guests would feel like they are in a dream. We were crafting beautiful moments every day, and we were able to make a huge impact with really small and thoughtful things.
Having a good culture is tough, it is one of the most difficult things to achieve. But if you do, your organization will function in ways you can’t even imagine. Results will be mind-blowing and you will save so much money (it’s a fact).
3 things I learned from that experience:
-Talk about it, everyday all the time. What you talk about is what’s going to come around.
-Creativity can be learned. Guide them and trust your team.
-When you make someone feel special and you care, you are also a receiver, you will feel so proud and good about yourself that it becomes an addiction.
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