Exceeding expectations, every stay, every day…. by Fritz Gubler

Over many years, the best hotel chains and individual properties have added great value to their companies by ensuring a high standard of service and creating brand recognition.

High standards of service and the accompanying brand recognition are never achieved single-handedly by Presidents or CEOs, nor by the GM’s of the individual hotels, but by every single staff member who has provided service to their guests. Most companies recognise the contribution of their staff and reinforce it with training and positive coaching. However, individual staff members are often not aware of the impact their daily effort has on the success of their hotel and the influence it might have on their future professional career.

The following story is a good example of how the “extra mile” often pays a good return on investment for both the company and the staff.

Adam goes the “extra mile”

Adam chose the Hospitality industry as his career because he loved to be in contact with people. He completed a Bachelor’s Degree in Hotel Management and was hired by Ritz Carlton to be a Front Office Supervisor in Sydney. He had a friendly and special way with guests and exceeded their expectations whenever possible. After only one year he was promoted to Front Office Manager. This promotion was the result of a unique guest experience.

Adam was at the front desk when a hotel guest approached him, obviously stressed, and urgently requested a tape recorder. The guest explained that he was in the middle of important negotiations. He had just received a tape with vital instructions from his head office and needed to listen to them before he could continue the negotiations. There was no tape recorder available in the entire hotel, as such a request is very unusual.

‘What do I do?’, thought Adam. He could say, ‘Sorry, sir, we don’t have a tape recorder available at reception.’ And Adam knew this was the answer guests would get in thousands of hotels around the world. But Adam was instilled with a passion for perfection. His brain went into overdrive searching for a solution.

‘Ahhh…the hotel’s BMW,’ Adam remembered. ‘There was a tape player built into the BMW.’ Hurriedly he took the ignition key for the BMW and asked the guest to follow him.

When the guest realised how Adam planned to solve his problem, he smiled broadly. The guest listened to the instructions from his head office in the privacy and comfort of the BMW.

The guest then hurried back to the negotiations. On the way he returned the BMW keys to Adam and said a few words of thanks. Several weeks later Adam was summoned to the GM’s office. Adam was a little nervous and wondered if he had done something wrong.

But the GM had a smile on his face when Adam entered his office. He gave Adam a letter to read. It was from Mr Wilson, the Chief Executive Officer of a huge American company. The letter was addressed to the President of Ritz Carlton and copied to his GM in Sydney. It recounted the tape story from the guest’s point of view. The guest explained how important the negotiations were to his company and how impressed he was with Adam’s attitude and innovative thinking.

He said that precisely this kind of service was the reason his company patronised the Ritz Carlton Hotels around the world and would continue to do so in the future. There was more good news for Adam. The GM decided to promote him to Front Office Manager and predicted that with such a guest-oriented attitude he would have a very successful career with Ritz Carlton.

While Adam received only a short word of thanks from the guest at the time, his drive to go the “extra mile” made him stand out from the herd – in the eyes of his guest, his GM and the CEO of Ritz Carlton.

A little about Fritz Gubler

Fritz began his career in the hospitality industry as an apprentice chef, before studying at the famous École hôtelière de Lausanne. He worked for the Swiss hotel and restaurant chain Mövenpick, then the pre-opening team of the Swiss Government-financed Kenya Utalii College in Nairobi in 1975. As GM, he opened the Leisure Lodge Club in Kenya and managed the hotels of the Severin Hotel Group in Mombasa. The biggest challenge of his career was to oversee final construction and opening of Egypt’s 450-room Isis Hotel Luxor. Fritz introduced Swiss-style hotel management training to Australia at the Blue Mountains Hotel School. In 2007 he began publishing books, first with Great, Grand & Famous Hotels, a comprehensive introduction to the world’s great hotels, and most recently with Great, Grand & Famous Chefs and their Signature Dishes. For more information, visit http://www.greatgrandfamous.com/

Related posts:

1. Exceeding Expectations – Every day, Every time – by Fritz Gubler
2. Hotel Stories – Exceeding Expectations with Exceptional Service
3. Going the Extra Mile – Never Lost and Always Found
4. Video Interview with Hotel Houskeeping Supervisor, Magdalena Sabiniano
5. Winners of the Young Hotelier Summer Competition