Shannon McCallum
Appearances
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
People come to Las Vegas, especially to celebrate. It might be a birthday. It could be an anniversary. It could be a divorce party or a bachelorette.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
You might stand and shadow someone to see how they're interacting as they check someone in, check someone out, or deal with a guest situation. Then we have a shadowing portion where they're actually the ones doing and they have their mentor that's shadowing them to be able to give them feedback in between interactions so that they can continue to improve.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Then once they're on their own, we have management coverage that can be there to support in case any situations individual can't manage on their own so that we have someone nearby that can help with that escalation to get that resolved. And then they do that with the individual so they can also understand what were those extra steps that they maybe didn't have.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
that they needed to be able to take care of it? And is that something that they can actually do on their own next time now that they have that knowledge and they've been part of the solution? So again, it's really about that support, making the team feel supported.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And there's always someone there that can come and assist in order to have a successful interaction and help to diffuse any kind of a situation that may come up. And again, trying to fix it while the guest is there, again, I can't stress how important that is. Because otherwise it does carry on and it can take a guest stay in a different direction. So that's truly what our goal is.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
You know, it's interesting. When I was a young manager outside of Las Vegas, you know, I used to think that I needed all the information about the guest situation, like a 360 view before I could talk to the guests because I wanted to be prepared. I wanted to stand on the line and defend the property. And again, I think when you're more green, that is something that you feel like you need to do.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
You have to have all the details. I can't talk to that guest because what if they bring up something I don't know about?
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Then I realized over time that my best way of diffusing the situation was coming out without having the knowledge from the team member because maybe they had a negative interaction and their take of it was slightly different or maybe they misunderstood what the guest was trying to get at.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
So I come out with my blank notepad and a pen and I would greet the guest and I would ask them to tell me about their situation and I would take notes so that the guest could understand that I actually cared about what they were saying.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
In addition, I would thank the guests for their feedback because that is something that I wouldn't have known about if they hadn't taken the time to bring it to our attention. And perhaps this is something that could be affecting other guests. So I was validating the fact that they had an issue. and really then look to see what is the appropriate solution.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Again, it can't be a cookie cutter like here's a resort fee for free or I'm going to take care of your parking because every guest situation is different and every guest remedy that is desired could be different. Some people don't want any compensation at all. They just want to bring it to our attention in order for us to be able to fix it.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Oh, it's a pleasure to be here. Thank you so much for having me.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Other people may want compensation because they feel like they've been inconvenienced. And we have to be flexible and we have to fully understand the situation to be able to make sure that the guest sees that we're being genuine about their concern.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And that is something I tried to pass on through my experience to my team members, because I think that, you know, when we work in this business, there's so many moving pieces and There may be a bump in the road from time to time because it is so big and there are so many moving parts that they need to be flexible to understand that each situation is different and we need to treat it like that.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
I have to agree with that too. I really do. I've had situations years ago where I've gone out and taken care of a guest issue and those guests now will travel with me no matter where I'm at because they feel like, It doesn't matter if something goes wrong because I know Shannon's there and she'll take care of it for me. And again, it's building that loyalty and that loyalty surpasses brand.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
It surpasses location. I've been in three different hotels on the Strip and guests will follow people because there's so many beautiful properties on the Strip, but it's the people that that make the difference. And that's what I try to share with my team as well.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Absolutely. I mean, I've been in hospitality over 30 years. So for a long time, it didn't really change very much. You check someone in, you check someone out. You always had someone at the desk. You had people answering the phones. You had Bellman taking guests to rooms. And COVID really challenged hoteliers, especially in the luxury space, that technology is not necessarily a bad thing.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Technology can help you. And our guests were looking for unique experiences that were more touchless. And that kind of threw a wrench in the luxury arrival experience needing to be something that's one-on-one where we're touching guests. their keys.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And, you know, so it, it really challenged many environments that they needed to look for something new and different that could help them to be able to, to be able to diversify the way that they gave service. Mobile check-in is one of those things that can not only be an option for a guest who's in a
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
To also providing a touchless experience where the guests can feel safer because they don't have to interact with anyone for an extended period of time. You know, that has been fantastic. And I think that also allows us to gain efficiencies in our business, which is a great thing because COVID also, we didn't have a lot of workers online.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Lauren, you're 100% correct. I started very young in high school working in hotels. I had a luxury hotel just down the road from where I grew up. And when I was 16, I had really a memorable moment that stuck with me through my career. Our property was hosting what was called the Commonwealth of Nations.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
We had people that were afraid to come back to the workforce because they were worried about getting someone who was compromised and their family sick, their children sick. And there was a lot of fear, not only for travel, but people that worked in the industry.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And this really enabled us to be able to do more with less, not because we were trying to cut services, but because we had constraints in our workforce. And And again, that allows us to be able to look at other technologies that may help us as well.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And as you know, I'm very involved in the technology community with the HFTP, which is the Hospitality Finance and Technology Professionals Association. And the use of bots and AI is something that is up and coming. And many other industries have been early adopters in those items. And the hotels are coming along in it.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And I do think that there's many people that would disagree with me that technology has a place in luxury. But it truly does when you think that people can actually choose the path that they're going to take. It gives them more flexibility to find the best fit for them. And we've been able to integrate technology into our business in many ways. One of those is using bots.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And using bots is huge for being able to replace manual work like reporting. My managers are putting out reports every two hours on what our room pickup is and what our occupancy is and when is it time to sell out. And they sit behind a desk. And we don't necessarily need our managers to be sitting in an office away from the business.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
We want to make sure they have eyes on the business, that they can step out and they can reorganize if there is a few people in queue or if people have questions and make sure everybody is smiling and taking care of the guests in the way that we want. So really being able to introduce voice, concierge, bots to do reports.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
There's so many different ways that we can incorporate technology without it taking away from the luxury experience.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And we had individuals so notable like Margaret Thatcher, the Sultan of Brunei, Rajiv Gandhi, the Prime Minister of Canada, Brian Mulroney. all gathered at our property. And it was remarkable looking around the room to see these people that I'd only ever seen on the news before actually sitting in our establishment.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
It's really about using the data that you have in order to be able to supplement that guest experience and be able to look for permanent fixes and not band-aids.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Well, last week was CES. That's the largest consumer electronics show in Las Vegas. And there's always really great new things that are there being showcased. One of them that was a standout for me in the hospitality space was a little box, like you said, that's put on the desk.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
But what it does is if people are traveling internationally and they don't speak English, it'll actually recognize the dialect of the language that they're speaking, be able to translate it for the front desk. And when the front desk replies, it can speak back in their dialect. So, you know, a lot of people don't travel to places they've never been because they don't speak the language.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
But now it's making it so easy. You don't have to pull out your phone and use some kind of an app and fiddle with that. That takes time. And the fact that it recognizes the exact dialect that they're speaking is just amazing. In the past, we've had to get translators on the phone or have someone who speaks that language and find them and the guest has to wait. This eliminates all barriers.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And I just thought, wow, that's poosh. You know, it just blows your mind. Yeah. Because it really is, it helps us to be able to be more welcoming to our guests who are coming from all over the world without them being worried that we won't be able to understand that they need a new key for their room or they're looking to find a restaurant that's open at that time.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
So I thought that was a really good new tool as well. And anything that can make that interaction easier and eliminate barriers and And to be able to help the guest in a more efficient way is actually a win-win for everyone.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
You know, we've been using AI more for a digital concierge. So we have a what we call red chat at our property. And a guest can actually type on the website or by text message when they check in anything that they want to know, whether it's the pool hours of operation or if they need a recommendation for dining, what's open.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
If they want to go on a tour and it connects them automatically to all different areas of the property so that they don't need to go and find a concierge. The other great thing too is it's connected to a 24-hour concierge system that allows the guests to be able to go online and book things, not only when the concierge desk is open, but 24 hours a day.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
So they can book their tour to the Grand Canyon in the helicopter or their transportation if they like. all through this system that's interconnected with our AI chat bot, which is really fantastic further development of our service. They can buy tickets to go see Janet Jackson in our theater at 11 p.m. at night, even though the concierge desk is closed.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And I realized at that young age just how amazing hospitality can be to be able to interact with individuals like these. And none of my friends were doing anything nearly as cool as that at their age.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
So I think that that is what guests are expecting now. When they pick up their phone and they do a search, they want their information right away. And hotels need to figure out, how do I do that? How do I expand the hours of my desk without incurring additional costs, but giving that service to our guests that they're looking for when they're looking for it?
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
We have international travelers that their day is our night and they're up all night. And we've got restaurants that can service them 24 hours a day, depending on what their schedule is. And it's capturing that information. And I think that's where you're going with that question is...
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
You know, when someone's having a celebration or they have something that's important to them, how can we notate that and make sure that when they're visiting the front desk, that that pops up and the team knows it's their anniversary or that they may need a special assistance with certain areas of the property?
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
You know, those are the kind of things that I think all properties are searching for right now. It's not always easy when you've got over, you know, 3,600 guest rooms to try, you know, and it's, you are also dependent on the guests giving you the information. So that you have it in there.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Otherwise, it's really making sure that our team captures it so that it can be used for the rest of their stay. But I mean, that is a big, big search for many properties right now. And you have to find these ways to be able to use technology to help you do that.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
I agree. And we thought, you know, before COVID that QR codes were going away. And we were so sure... The poor QR code.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
But now it's like everywhere. You go into a restaurant, you scan it, you can get your menu on your phone or you can pay. We've got QR codes on our TV screen, our smart TVs in the room. From every restaurant, you can scan it and you can actually get the menu just like you said, sitting in your bed. We have a whole digital platform where they can get a map to the property. They can...
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
you know, send a concierge request, they can book their spa, everything that you would need, order food, can all be done from your bed with a QR code. So I do think that when we're talking about what happened during COVID, yes, the QR code came back and it seems to be here to stay because it is such a great way to deliver information to our guests 24 hours.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And that also brings some efficiencies too, because having that kind of a platform for your guests in their rooms is You don't need to maintain your guest directories. Everything is available digitally for your guests, which also is an efficiency because when the interim dining menu changes, you don't have to reprint your guest books times 3,500 or 5,000 with backup.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
So we have learned a lot in the last five years on how to do things better and more efficiently. So I do feel like we're better for it.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Definitely being able to go cashless. We opened up our property cashless. So and that was a huge savings for us not having to prepare banks times 50 for the front desk banks times 50 plus restaurants and lounges and having a cashless. team bank area in addition to a cashier cage for our guests being a casino property. And that was really rare.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And it is very rare in Las Vegas to not have the front desk have cash banks. So we've got all digital experience in the restaurants. They can use credit card or they can charge through the room, but the restaurants don't take cash. And that's very similar to how we see some stadiums moving.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Like we've got in Las Vegas, two large stadiums, Allegiant Stadium, our football stadium, and our T-Mobile Arena, which is where our hockey is played. And those are all cashless as well. So guests are traveling less with And, you know, that has has really streamlined our business, even on the gaming side.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And I know we're not talking about gaming, having cashless tables where people have a digital wallet in their loyalty program where they carry their cash. So that really is unique and different, too.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
That time in my life was actually very formative for me because I really was set off in a whole different path. Hospitality wasn't even on my radar. It was a means to get me through school. And when I was graduating from college and I was on my way to law school, taking my LSATs, I realized that I loved the passion and the integration and working with people that hospitality brought to me.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
You know, I'm a huge believer in the service profit chain. I'm sure you've heard of that, that happy employees will take care of your guests and make them happy. want to come back in the future and thereby the company will be successful. And I've always really operated with that philosophy. But engaging with your team. And again, I'm in meetings a lot of the days.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
But when I'm going from place to place, I'm alert. I'm greeting the guests and I'm greeting my team members and saying hello and thanking them for the hard work that they're doing. We just came out of Christmas and New Year's and Formula One and rodeo and thanking them specifically for the work that they're doing to take care of our guests.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
When I get into the elevator with room attendants that are taking care of our guests in the rooms, whether I'm walking through the lobby and I see the front desk, Making sure that they know that I am happy with the work that they're doing and that I appreciate them goes such a long way. I also take feedback from guests where our individual team members are recognized. And I share them.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
We have an internal digital platform that's like a Facebook for team members. And it allows me to speak with a voice to our team to be able to share those great comments. And again, have other people see the great things that are being done, which really propels the team to want to continue to do it.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
So I think you have to take the time to engage and really make sure that the team know that you care. Because that is how they feel when they're at work and you want them to come to work and be excited to go and feel like they're being appreciated.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Well, when we talk about team members, we need to also talk about leaders. And I have a lot of leaders that also work for me, with me on our team. And I like to continue to inspire them to continue to grow. Because just because we're further along in our career doesn't mean that we don't have things to learn.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And often I will do book clubs with my leaders, my top leaders, so that we can read a book together together. And take the learnings and discuss it as a group. One of the books that I really has been a go-to for me is Trust and Inspire. And it's a Stephen R. Covey book. And it's really about how to change your style of leadership from a dictator kind of style.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
I've got people that have been in the industry over 40 years that work for me. And things have changed a lot. And the newer team members that are coming into the environment don't respond to that very well. They want to feel valued and they want to be able to try things out and not do things because they're being told to do them. And so that has been really helpful.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Another book that's been powerful for us is Unreasonable Hospitality. And that's a Will Gadara book. And again, it's more food and beverage based, but it's very relatable across the industry about striving for excellence and really how to do more than what our guests are expecting us to do. So those really surprise and delight moments. that catch their attention and make them feel valued.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
So it really changed the direction of my career and And also gave me so much insight. And they say that we're so lucky to find your passion. And I found it so young and many people work their entire lives and they don't get that opportunity. But what it brought to me was that interaction with people and that ability to work with people.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
The current one that we're reading is Be the Unicorn. And this one's an interesting one because it's all about data-driven habits to really separate us out. So I talked about really understanding the guest feedback and doing the reporting and looking for root causes. This is about being intentional about using data to understand our business to become the best.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And so this one's a little bit of a different take, but there's lots of leaders out there. Dr. Brian K. Williams is also a go-to for me in the luxury space as a thought leader. He's fantastic. And it's all about bringing your best to work every day and showing other people that the best is what we need to do to be successful and how contagious that is. So
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
you know, continuing to really dwell in that space really engages my leaders, which engage my team members, which take care of our guests. So it all works together.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
You know, I have a couple. You know, I went to Vancouver and I went to an anniversary of a property I opened 25 years ago. There were still team members there that I had recruited to be there. And it was so lovely to be there. But just their attention to detail. It was an airport property, the first luxury airport property in the world. in Vancouver, British Columbia.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And they had a welcome amenity in my room with cookies the shape of airplanes. And they had a telescope in the room so I could plane watch while I was having my stay. And I feel like they've done such a great job personalizing that experience and making it so unique, something you can't get anywhere else. The other one was at the Conrad in New York, where a good friend of mine works.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And to do so and how much gratification I get when I see people being happy and pleased with their experience. And that really has followed me through my career growing up in Canada, moving to the United States, really taking some big risks. And it really took me in a whole new direction.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And he leads an amazing team there. And the focus on wellness and sustainability was really apparent in the room. My room had a filtered water station and they gave me a logoed reusable metal container so I could actually fill up in my room and then take it with me. And that is something that's unique and new and different and really recognizes their care for the environment.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And then also for their guests to be able to provide that as a service and as an amenity. So I think both of those properties are really doing great things.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
I would say we can't be complacent. Our world is changing so quickly around us and the competition is gearing up. So we always have to be looking to see how we can better the guest experience. So status quo is no longer acceptable in our world. It's very competitive out there. So really staying engaged.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Whenever I travel, I'm taking photos of what other people are doing in order to continue to give me ideas. And I send them back to my team so they can also learn from my experience. But I would say just stay progressive, keep looking, keep focusing on the experience, and keep supporting your team because they're the ones that drive guest satisfaction on the front lines. Mm-hmm.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
That's unacceptable. You've got to come and visit us in Vegas. It really is. I would love to. That you need to have. I would love to. Awesome. Well, I hope you have a wonderful day and I'm sure we'll talk soon. Thank you so much for having me.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
I've had the opportunity to work with smaller hotels and then also huge hotels in Las Vegas where they don't really get any bigger than they are in the city. and really trying to strive to make that experience a personalized experience for my guests, no matter what the size of the property is, is truly very important to me.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Loyalty surpasses brand. It surpasses location. I've been in three different hotels on the Strip and guests will follow people. They trust that you are going to ensure that they have a great experience. We can't be complacent. Our world is changing so quickly around us. The competition is gearing up. So we always have to be looking to see how we can better the guest experience.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Well, you know, you have to really focus on it because it's very easy in volume operations to treat everybody in a very cookie cutter way, like they're there for the same reason. But truly, you need to recognize that guests are traveling all for different reasons, and they all have different needs when they're traveling.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And I've found that by adding technology, it enables the guest to then choose their path. And what I mean about that is, say, mobile check-in. That is something in the last eight to 10 years has been really a search that many properties have pursued. And it really is to streamline that guest experience. Some guests who are on business only want to get their key and get to their room.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
So being able to deliver that to their phone and have them bypass the lobby and make sure that they're not standing in line is fantastic for them.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
But it's also really amazing for the property as well, because those people that want to check in and they need to talk to someone and they want recommendations for dinner or activities to do while they're staying with us, have that ability to have the time of those individuals at the property because they have different needs.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And I think that's where you need to really focus on, you know, that every touch, every time and every interaction, every time. And how do you make that memorable with the guest and be able to listen to them in an individualized manner to understand what they truly need in order to have a successful stay?
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Correct, correct. And it is a way to give people what they want, sometimes not without even them knowing it. It's just like, here's this wonderful way of being able to check in and get your key before you arrive and be able to start your stay right away. And many people will take that opportunity and then come back later in order to be able to speak to someone.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
But what that does is freeze up the individuals that are here to give service so that they have more opportunity to be able to deliver successfully.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
You know, it starts with the training and making sure that our teams, especially in these large buildings, understand that our guests, this is an important stay for them. People come to Las Vegas, especially to celebrate. It might be a birthday. It could be an anniversary. It could be a divorce party or a bachelorette. We get it all here.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And making sure that our team is not treating the guests the same because they all have different needs. Also, some of our guests may save six or eight months to be able to come here and make this a memorable experience. So making sure that the team understands how much control they have on providing that experience. I also would say training is incredibly important.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Making sure that you're not just throwing people out on the desk and letting them sink or swim. We have a very elaborate training program here to make sure that our team members are 100% prepared before they get out onto the desk. In addition, we assign them a mentor.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And that's something that is really a good practice to do so that they always have someone that they feel comfortable asking questions that they know are approachable. And they can they can balance different situations they may have off of them in order to be able to have success with the guests standing in front of them.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Absolutely. Empowerment is critical, especially, again, in a volume operation where the manager can't be with every individual checking in at the same time. So giving your team the ability to be able to have perhaps up to a certain dollar value is that they can make a decision to be able to solve that situation while it's right in front of them.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
The most important thing for guests when they're looking for some fix to a situation that they're having is having it done quickly. And then they can get back to enjoying themselves and enjoy their vacation with us. If the issue is not resolved and they have to wait for a manager because that individual doesn't have empowerments, it can make that problem last for their entire stay.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
It's really important as well that we solve their problem while they're staying with us because that way not only can they enjoy, but it also is more efficient and less costly often. for the hotel to make it work during the stay than having to deal after the stay where the guest has lost their trust in a property because we didn't follow up the way that we needed to.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
I can't agree more. And again, it's, It's about building the confidence in your team that is on the front lines. And when they know that you're standing in their corner, no matter what the decision is. And again, we shouldn't Monday morning quarterback and tell them that they should have done this, this and this.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
But we can let them know in the future, there's a few other things that you could offer in order to be able to resolve a situation and make it comfortable for them. And really build them up and thank them for taking the time to work with that guest to resolve their problems.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
You know, we're very fortunate to have a great leadership team at the property and we always track all of the great comments that our team members have. And we have a practice of posting those great comments up on the wall. So the individuals say at our front desk can read what other people did in order to take care of our guests.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
And I think learning from others is huge because you don't always get all of the different variety of items that come to you to be able to learn from. So being able to do that and saying, oh, I didn't know I could do that. Oh, this is great. I can take that path. It really helps to be able to have that variety. We spend a lot of time.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
really now in the social stage, looking at social reviews, feedback that we get on Google or TripAdvisor or other ways of communication that our guests have to be able to not only look at the individual comments, but we have a guest relations team that actually tracks them and reports on them so that we can also see maybe if there's trends in in what's happening.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Are there common things that our guests are not happy with? Are there common things that our guests are happy with? And then we look at root causes for those in order to be able to create a long-term solution that will fix the majority of what the issue may be.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
So it really is a great way to analyze not only the amount of dollars that we're spending on recovery should we need to, but then also is it going up or down year over year? Or month over month. And did we have a unique issue that maybe affected our guests in the short term that won't repeat?
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
So it's really about using the data that you have in order to be able to supplement that guest experience and be able to look for permanent fixes and not band-aids.
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
Well, we're a big property. We've got 50 restaurants and lounges. We've got a loyalty program, actually, too, because we're with Hilton as well as our Genting Rewards. So there's a lot of information to take in. Our training is about three weeks for our new team members. And we have speakers that come in from different areas and
Experts of Experience
You’re Overthinking Customer Service! (Luxury Hospitality Gets It Right)
to be able to share their knowledge about all of the different programs and the food and beverage outlets and safety and security to really make it as engaging as possible. And as well, we do have technology training, which allows them to know how to work the functionality that we have. But then we move into like that modeling that I talked about where