The Welcome : Employee, Customer & Digital Components of Hotel Management
“You are welcome!”
The above statement is made to most hotel guests because hotels are expected to welcome customers in a way that makes them feel very special and desire to stay longer than planned and come back again. Despite the differences in individual choices and expectation, every customer desire to be safe, served, and sound during and after his/her hotel stay. The other needs and expectations that are specific to individuals can and should also be met by hotels; this is usually the differentiating factor between leading hotel brands and others. Therefore, in addition to providing for the general needs and expectations of all customers, each hotel should endeavour to understand each customer to customize his/her experience. Leveraging technology and digital literacy, hotels can optimize and automate their systems and processes to understand each customer and offer customized experience to them.
Often, we hear the saying that ‘the customer is king’. While this has gained currency due to the importance of the customers to the existence of any business, the real king is the employee. The employee is responsible for ‘making the customer king’ by way of marketing and business development, customer service, after sales service amongst other important functions. If these functions as mentioned above are not carried out to the satisfaction of customers, there will be no customer. Therefore, in growing a sustainable hotel, the importance of your people (employees) cannot be overemphasized. It is similar to the role of doctors in a hospital, teachers in a school, or lawyers in court. If the individuals entrusted with the responsibility to care and manage the hotel are not professionals and well taken care of, the hotel will suffer losses.
Taking care of your people include meeting their extrinsic and intrinsic expectations. These includes their renumeration, career growth, leave allowance, and work-life balance (shifts). How can you provide what is ‘enough’ to satisfy the needs of your people? The answer lies in understanding the hotel industry and benchmarking against other players in the industry. Irrespective of where a hotel is currently positioned in the market, the future is still ahead. So, what should hotels do to be relevant in the future? What are the critical factors that will shape the future of hotels? While there are so many questions begging for answers about the future, one thing is sure: ‘the future is here’.
The future of hotels is somewhere in between digital technology, privacy, and individualization of services. What is currently happening in the advanced countries, and how is it shaping the industry? A cursory examination of global trends is critical in preparing for the uncertainties and risks of the future. So much have been said about hotels and the way to go. It is important however to note that application of recommendation from consultants, business schools and experts should be tailored to your operating environment for it to have the desired impact.
pcl. recognize the need for a Nigerian report on the future of hotels. Thus, this report. Enjoy your read!