"Tell me how you meet your customers' expectations and I'll tell you who you are"By Juan Pablo D'onofrio*
The costs of non-quality
We said in our previous note that to achieve positive results we had to work on two key factors of the hotel business: a.La value creation
b.Avoid the costs of non-quality
On the first we have elaborated abundantly in the first two parts of this editorial cycle. We can summarize it in the premise: creating value for customers will produce a healthy spillover to shareholders and the personnel involved.
This virtuous cycle is the only one that lays a solid foundation for the long-term sustainability of a hotel business.
Now let's see how to prevent the defection of clients from reducing this rational scheme. Let's keep in mind a "picture" of the dangerous drainage of customers: (image 1)
We have always been concerned to observe how in our hotel activity disproportionate efforts are made to attract new customers (both intermediaries and consumers), to the detriment of efforts that would avoid the loss of existing customers.
It is exceptional to find processes implemented to know clearly why these clients abandon us and how to implement preventive actions so that this does not continue to happen.
A policy in practice, determined and recovery of former clients facilitates knowing and avoiding new losses. In turn, it provides to locate the niches of non-customers and attack them
Today, opinion portals are a powerful tool available to dissatisfied customers. In them, the dissenting voices manage to multiply by thousands the costs of defections. Portals such as Tripadvisor, Better Business Bureau and others receive millions of inquiries per year seeking to define the identity of hotels based on the opinions of those who have stayed there.
In the era of "word of mouth" it used to be said that negative opinions spread in a 10:1 ratio. Today the calculation has lost meaning. It is simply worth conveying that no one can neglect the costs of non-quality anymore.
Therefore, before thinking about how much non-quality costs us, let's reflect on this matter in itself, so important but somewhat groped.
To measure quality, the eventual benefit of your good practice, and the enormous cost of your non-compliance, we need to agree on how we envision it.
There are countless definitions about its essence, its etymology. Like all human things of enormous subjective component, we can face it from different and valid points of view, both academic and practical.
At Alquimia Hospitality Group we interpret quality as "the satisfaction and exceeding of expectations". Surely the simplest of definitions... and the one that requires the most attention. Because the fundamental thing, beyond semantics, is that the hotelier is clear about the fundamental relationship between:
•What the customer expects
•What you receive
•Dissemination of your experience
Therein lies the challenge: to use intuition, consultation, wisdom and innovation to implement processes that guarantee the result: exceeding expectations.
It is here that we must remind you of a fantastic resource at your disposal, at no additional cost: the knowledge of our staff.
No one, more than the hotel staff, knows the services that are provided, the level at which they are developed and the experience that the guest lives. The hotel staff is the one who lives the "moment of truth".
You only prepare it (training-training-resources in time and form-motivation) so that they exceed expectations
For several decades experts in management techniques have proposed tools for those responsible for a company, in this case hoteliers, to implement mechanisms that facilitate the management of business: we have known the "Knowledge Management" – "T.Q.M. Total Quality Management" – "Balanced Score Cards" – "CRM Clients Relationship Management" – "Innovation Technology" – etc.
All valid tools that have given excellent contributions in their fashion moments.
We believe that the hotelier, simply, should remember and work on the most traditional:
Decalogue of quality
1.La quality is an excellent business.
2.La quality should be planned with the active participation of the company's management.
3.La quality is improved only with the participation of all staff.
4.Investigate the opinion of customers – consumers and / or intermediaries.
5.Evaluate and develop suppliers.
6.Si someone makes mistakes is because:
Doesn't know
You can't
Doesn't want to
7.Se must identify chronic problems and attack them one by one.
8.Promote technology transfer.
9.Know the uses, customs and national and international legislation, their trends and contribute to modernize them.
10.Contribute to a better quality of life.
Working with intellectual honesty on each concept, the hotelier can put together his own management system, aimed at creating value for the client and ensuring the continuity of his business.
Until next time!
* Juan Pablo D'onofrio is President of Alquimia Hospitality Group
Pretitle: Alignment- shareholders- staff- customers- results
