Colleen’s Blog

A long time client of mine had their sales targets set by the board of directors in isolation of a market assessment or a discussion with the sales leaders. They announced the targets to the street before any discussion. The expected growth is unattainable but it's too late...the expectations have been set. It's half way through the year and one region is meeting target, until a production problem reduces quality to such a low level that customers are returning product faster than they are buying it. In this market, where the selling season is finite and the number of customers are static, making up the lost revenue is impossible. To the team, the sales year is over.

It's frustrating. When you see a sales rep struggling month after month, and missing target after target, it's enough to make any sales leader uneasy. The problem is most leaders handle poor performers the wrong way. There's a tendency to have "tough conversations" or attempt to punish them into higher performance. Some leaders even give poor performers the "cold shoulder" and allow a rep's professional performance to seep into their personal behavior towards them. These are all things that are extremely counterproductive and more often than not, contribute to more negativity and even worse performance. Luckily, there are strategies you can put into place to help improve their results. 

This month's award goes to the Hyatt at Vineyard Creek in Santa Rosa who has a breakfast ordering system that is second to none in stupidity. You choose your selections and place it on the door like any other hotel. The hanger specifically reads to place it outside before 2AM. You are invited to choose a delivery time starting at 6AM and they ask that you honor a 15 minute delivery window. That's where the trouble begins!

In the hotel business you have three moments to create a positive service experience for your customer. When the customer enters your hotel, during their stay, and when they are leaving. Let’s examine some recent negative experiences of mine and consider what could be done differently. The Hilton shuttle has standing room only on the way in from LAX, and when we arrive at the hotel the lobby is full of people attending. It looks like you're in the middle of a large conference. To greet the approximately 30 arriving guests are only two check-in people. This created palpable frustration for the guests in line. Solution: Have the driver call ahead to alert the front desk staff of the high number of guests arriving and his ETA. I call to find out about the hotel shuttle and I am told that it arrives every 20-30 minutes...on no set schedule. What does that mean and how is that helpful?  Getting to the airport on time to catch flights is a major stressor for many guests, By not having a schedule you are adding to that stress and creating a negative experience of your hotel when guests leave. Will that cause them to want to come back?

This past weekend Chris and I enjoyed a fabulous dinner with friends at the Savoy. I love their sister restaurant Metropolitan and had high hopes. But, I also expected to be disappointed. I secretly worried it was going to be like seeing the movie version of your favorite book. Never as good as the original.

As we move closer to 2014, and sales kick off season in January, I’m going to be spending much more time in hotel rooms than at home (and more time in the air than on the ground!). I want to share a great customer service story I experienced last year at the Ritz Carleton Half Moon Bay. They provide service lessons we can all learn from: