What is your
HQ?
Presented By
Larry Brownfield, CPO OHE
Director of Franchise Development
KOA, Inc.
Definition
Brutal Fact!
It is ironic that the competitive element
most responsible for success in the
outdoor hospitality business ...
and the piece most often missing ...
is hospitality itself!
More than semantics ….
Somewhere along the way have convinced
ourselves that ….
Great Customer Service
=
Great Hospitality
NOT TRUE
The Difference …
Service and Hospitality Are Not the Same
Service is the efficient execution of a series of actions.
Hospitality is interactive; an exchange of
energy at some level between staff and guests;
a genuine human connection. Hospitality is
intensely personal ... which is what makes it
impossible to standardize into a process.
Difference - - - - - -
“Service is the technical delivery of
a product. Hospitality is how the
delivery of that product makes its
recipient feel.” -Danny Meyer
Difference - - - - - -
• Service is a monologue – we decide
how we want to do things and set our
own standards for service.
• Hospitality is a dialogue.
TO be on a guest’s side requires listening
to that person with every sense, and
following up with a thoughtful, gracious,
appropriate response.
Difference - - - - - -
Hospitality is present when
something happens FOR you.
It is absent when something
happens TO you.
Those two simple prepositions - for and to -- express it all.
Difference - - - - - You can readily recognize hospitality when you
experience it, yet you really can't define it.
Trying to "teach" hospitality presents much the
same dilemma -- it is generated by the states of
mind:
• of the leadership
• of the staff
…. not from any specific actions.
Developing your HQ - Danny Meyer
The emotional skills that are required to create a high
HQ are:
(1) optimism and kindness
(2) curiosity about learning
(3) an exceptional work ethic
(4) a high degree of empathy
(5) self-awareness and integrity
Developing your HQ - Danny Meyer
Learn how to “Connect the Dots”
Information
• Staff
• Guest
Developing your HQ - Danny Meyer
Letting the Guest Be Heard
The customer is certainly not always right.
But they must always feel heard.
One of the reasons people turn to social media
for customer service is because they want their
concerns heard and validated – it’s one of our
most human desires and as a business, the most
humanizing quality.
Letting the Guest Be Heard …
It’s important for campgrounds to not only hear
the guests’ concern, but respond quickly and
accurately.
Hospitality tip: canned responses don’t count.
Validate your guests’ concerns by responding to
them person to person. Canned responses
merely validate a business is not listening to their
customers.
Developing your HQ - Danny Meyer
Appreciate The Difference
Between Product and Hospitality
“Service is the technical delivery of a product.
Hospitality is how the delivery of that product
makes its recipient feel.”
Guest who gravitate to social media to voice their
opinion or complaints will be doing so because of the
experience they had, not the product – so make sure
the experience is exceptional, exciting, or
entertaining!
Developing your HQ - Danny Meyer
Mistakes are Inevitable… But how
you handle them sets the table for
success!
People will generally forgive an honest mistake
when someone takes responsibility for it with
genuine concern.
Developing your HQ - Danny Meyer
Are you a Gatekeeper or Agent?
• An agent makes things happen for others.
• A gatekeeper sets up barriers to keep people
out.
We should be looking for agents ... owner/operators/staff
members responsible for monitoring their own performance: In
that transaction, did I present myself as an agent or a
gatekeeper? In the world of hospitality, there’s rarely anything
in between.
Developing your HQ - Danny Meyer
Agent for the guest …
• Hospitality exists when the customer believes the
employee is on their side.
• Hospitality is present when something happens for you
and is absent when something happens to you.
I’m sure we can all quickly think of experiences where we felt that
the person helping us was on our side, (was doing for us), and we can
reflect on how that translated directly into a positive customer
experience for us– even if the interaction began because of a
problem…
The message is clear:
To be exceptionally successful, you don't
have to be the best at everything you do,
you just have to be the favorite of the
people you do it for.
This attests to the power of hospitality.
Err on the side of generosity: You get more by
first giving more.
Conclusion ….
You know how to train people to
become better at what they DO …
How do you train them to become
more effective in the way they
ARE?
Conclusion ….
The Bad News: The spirit of hospitality cannot be
taught as if it were another job skill.
The Good News: You don't need to teach it. Like
the ability to love, hospitality is an innate
capability of all human beings. You just need to
understand how to create and sustain a climate
where it can emerge and blossom.
The Great News: You may already know WHAT
works, but when you really understand WHY it
works, maintaining that context can become
remarkably effortless.
Closing Thoughts ….
• Everything I told you has been adapted from someone
or somewhere else!
• Until you can manage time, you can manage nothing
else.
• If you are not passionate about your business, put
someone in charge that is!
• The problem in my life is not the absence of knowing
what to do but the absence of doing it.
• If you do what you’ve always done, you’ll get what
you’ve always gotten or LESS!
Questions - Comments