Service Connection By AG

Amazing that another year has come and gone!  This one was a personal challenge and there were days I really sat in awe but here I am.   Health and personal issues created challenges that were simply beyond anything I could have forseen. Today, stronger, wiser and while bittersweet a crash course of the depths of deception that can be produced to ensure truth sits below titles and unearned reputations.

I had a daunting decision to make and many questions had to be answer.  Did I continue to deliver the training programs I had in the past, and if so did I still have the passion for it?  What if anything had changed in the year I had been personally out of the loop, would that in fact change how we delivered our programs?  Where did/do we go in 2012? How do I continue to grow and use the experiences to better my vision of AG and Service Connection?

The biggest question for me was the passion.  As a woman who has self taught and created something from the ground up, the biggest and most personal question was 'did I have the same drive, passion and desire that I had the day I decided to create AG? 

Often we want answers immediately, we are a generation of 'now' and it was frustrating for me to have no real answer in the fall of 2011.  My belief in development and nuturing had never changed but I need to be able to confidentally move forward.   As is life, the personal experience had rocked me in the spring, while the professional experience in the fall complete the cycle.  Thankfully, the result of that ensured me (my biggest critic) that I could and will continue to deliver the best training and development programs out there.

There was relief and peace and with that I knew I had made the right decision.

So, what is ahead for Service Connection in 2012?  We have been blessed by clients who love our work, who know the difference we make and I am thankful for each and every one of them.  We have a fresh new look, and are rolling out various programs including expanding on our previous executive training and offering a complete quality assurance program that will include the monitoring of all social challenges for our clients. 

I will continue to write and develope all programs and select team members will deliver additional services.

The bottom line.  We (I) had a pivotal year and while I questioned where that would take me, the truth was it occurred to reinforce my direction.

We will continue to deliver the best training and development programs out there and we will remain committed to service companies that truly want to stand out from their competitors. 

Looking forward to 2012.

Angelique

Every once an awhile I get grumpy.  Not often, but occasionally I have been known to “passionately” share my views.    I am sitting here working on a clients new site and as I mentioned in my last blog, I am incorporating a social media module.

First, let me say I am utterly amazed at the reach social media has had this past year.  Yes, I have been on facebook for a couple years, and I had my twitter which I was determined to never use and of course then linked in that I didn’t bother with.  Everything changed in 2010, for me it wasn’t until this last quarter that I really started paying attention ( call me slow!).   The more I got involved, the more I realized how critical it is, and also that it is a full time job, ugh to add to my other full time job.   I was a newbie at the beginning of this quarter and to be honest, it was painful.  Following the golden rules, not self promoting, keeping it light while not offending and most important remembering the world will see this!

Here I am, all set up.  RSS feeds give me what I need and I have everything on my google dashboard.  I can now post to several medias with a click and I must say socializing is becoming easier.  I am still not sold that people want to hear what I have to say, especially on my grumpy days…. but hey, I am told someone does.

Bringing me back to my cranky thoughts.  I always like to create my program from live experiments, and information that is updated rather than traditional.  Get our teams involved in training and really see as professional growth.  With that in mind, hard to sell the importance of social media without understanding it fully and more importantly how it is effecting the service sector.

So, off I go.  I set off on a discovery mission.  Reviewed statistics and set up some small but very interesting experiments of my own.

What did I find out?

Trip Advisor

Often often accused of a playground for false reviews and defamatory comments by competito

rs, Tripadvisor isn’t going anyway.  In November Tripadvisor became the worlds largest travel website with over 400 million hits a month and over 25 reviews PER MINUTE.   Regardless of several lawsuits and settled claims, Tripadvisor is the go to source for many future guests.

Twitter

This was interesting as it was my own little mini experiment. My goal was to see if people were tweeting specifically about hotels and customer service.  I set up an RSS feed to search this and also went one step farther with setting up an RSS feed for blog searchs discussing hotels and guest experiences.

The results did one thing.  They showed me that not only is Twitter here to stay but it is being used as a tool to communicate and send a message.  ” Offer a service and provide it, otherwise you will be held accountable in nano seconds!”.

I started the RSS feeds on December 15th but to be honest with my project and holiday commitments I didn’t get to actually analyze the results until this weekend.

Here is what happened.

The slowest day of comments on service was December 17th where I only had 58 feeds.  The busiest day, 181 tweets about service and a total for the 9 days of just under 1,000.00 tweets.

Now, of those 1,000.00 tweets, there were 738 tweets that had negative comments with over 500 having specifically mentioned the hotel they were staying at.

I can’t possibly post all the tweets; however here our a couple that either had me laugh out loud or cringe!

HI Edmonton Hotel: I booked a team here and THEIR CUSTOMER SERVICE IS HORRIBLE!!!…

 

(US location) Country Inn and Suites is one bitchy hotel. Thank you for the excellent customer service.

 

In the last hr, I was referred to as “sir” twice & was charged $25 for a generic hotel umbrella that I never used. Great customer service!

 

Hahaha. Its a nice hotel, but their customer service is horrible ( this was a reply to someone asking about a hotel)

 

I think or hope I have made my point.  I was surprised at the number of people tweeting their experiences, good and bad this doesn’t take into consideration facebook, linkedin and a host of other sites.

My blog results did not garner as much, however they were two very interesting blogs specifically talking about terrible service at a hotel they stayed at.

For those who have thought …hmm, not going to hurt us – it’s ok.  It’s time to get involved.  It can all seem daunting as I well know but there are a couple easy things you can do to ensure you are on top of your brand and your guest’s experience.

Train

I know that is a given coming from me but it really is critical.  Things go viral in record speed and the bottom line is you must commit to your teams.

Evaluate

Yes I know on site inspections by professionals are expensive but if you are really wanting a true look at what your guest experiences, it is worth every penny.  You can’t possibly fix what you are not aware is broken.  Every good business works on their SWOT analysis all the time, we are no different in the service sector.

Get Connected

I know some are pulling against it and stomping their feet but honestly with some great tools it is not as hard as it seems.

• RSS Feeds. You can set them up and have the work down for you.  Set a search for your particular hotel, restaurant or brand.  This way you will always be on the button and it will give you an opportunity to address a problem and perhaps get a ‘retraction’ via that same social medium.

• Google Reader. You can set your RSS Feeds and also have google reader search for blogs on interest, or news of interest.  Again, A great way to stay on the button.  You don’t have to read everything, you simply scroll through and do a check.

• Google Alerts.  Easy to set up and anything referencing your brand, hotel or service will pop into your in box ( doesn’t get easier than that).

My results weren’t done over a long period of time, but they certainly were an eye opener as to the power and growth social media has taken in the past year ( I want to say quarter so I don’t seem so behind 

I have some great material for our teams and I think they will really understand and relate to the power they control on the front line.  I am looking forward to completing it and in the meantime will continue to tweet or re tweet with the other 25 million users!

Commit to getting involved and understanding the reach social media has.  It is a new world for service and this is when the best of the best will pull away leaving those unaware in the dust.

For information about AG Custom Hospitality or our Service Connection with our new social media program, visit us today at AG Custom Hospitality

Jetted Tub or Jacuzzi?

Recently I moved into a new condo, during the shopping process the Realtor was providing details of the new condo and one of the amenities was a Jacuzzi. Now I am the first to admit I enjoy relaxing in a bath with a glass of wine, so having a Jacuzzi would be a welcome treat.

We went through a list of available units and when we went into view the condo I know live in, my mind immediately went to the Jacuzzi tub, thinking “I can’t wait to see this setup!” When viewing the bath, my first thought was “this is a jetted tub”. At this point I said to my Realtor “Did you say Jetted tub or Jacuzzi” he looked at me and confidently said “Jacuzzi”.

Why is my bathtub important? Well it’s not.

What is important is the example and reminder of how perception can be abstract and in any service sector, it’s your clients that matters. In fact, discrepancies in your perception versus their perception happen more often than you think. While there is no cure all, keeping the lines of communication open and sharpening your listening skills will go a long way in closing the gap.

Perception is your client’s reality and at the end of the day, it is the only thing that matters when striving to provide service excellence!