Colleen’s Blog

I have a question for you. Do you really know where your revenue comes from? Most businesses can probably answer that question pretty quickly. It's obvious, right? Not so fast. Recently, we've been involved in a very large sales reorganization. There are three sales teams, a channel sales team, a field sales team and an inside sales team. It was always assumed that the field sales team was the main revenue engine. After all, they were the ones going out, finding leads and closing business. But, we uncovered something interesting...

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?