WOW Factor and Guest Experience! 12 TH ANNUAL GREY-BRUCE REGIONAL TOURISM CONFERENCE OCTOBER 26, 2011 PRESENTED BY: THERESA SYER Congratulations on your interest in Creating the WOW Factor and enhancing the Guest Experience. We re excited to share skills and techniques in order to help you build the Wow Guest Experience. Today we ll help you see your business the way your guests do, so you can understand their true experience. You have the opportunity to give every guest an experience they ll always remember. By consistently delivering a Guest Experience you will build loyal customers, have a long term source of competitive advantage over your competition and ultimately increase profit margins. The guest experience encompasses every aspect of your business; it s the total experience a guest has with your company. It is the how you made them feel component. It s about stimulating guests emotions. The secret is understanding how to connect with your guests on the emotional level and understanding whether you made an impact strong enough that the guests want to return to experience it again and finally whether they will be an advocate for you. That s the challenge. Differentiate yourself from the average. Come to work every day with an experiential attitude. Every interaction you have with a guest gives you the opportunity to deliver an experience! Act on it!
UNDERSTANDING THE EXPERIENCE You may have the very best structural building, location, product or outlet, but it's really the quality of the experience that matters most to your guests. You represent your product/service to your guests. The Experience is the next competitive battle ground. So, to win the service battles, the guest experience must be everybody's business. THERE ARE 5 LEVELS OF CUSTOMER SERVICE: Level Description Companies % Level 1 Unacceptable 12 Level 2 Below Average 29 Level 3 Average 38 Level 4 Above Average 18 Level 5 World Class 3 DEFINING THE EXPERIENCE The guest experience is about suspending all of an organization's pre-conceived notions about the guest and truly appreciating or understanding the experience from their perspective. The Guest Experience is the interaction between a company and a guest. It takes place from the time they first make contact with you, to their first impression, until the time they depart. It is a blend of the company s physical performance and emotions evoked, each intuitively measured against guest expectations across all moments of contact. Guest Experience Components Operational Technical Experiential 50% Functional Setting Physical
TOUCH POINTS Today, we have 1/20 th the human interactions that we had 20 years ago. Today s youth have lost a lot of the people skills that older generations took for granted growing up. We Once Had Bookstores Full service gas stations Bank tellers Phone calls Grocery cashiers Dine in restaurants Quality family/friend time We Now Have Amazon.com Pay at the pump Drive through banking E-mails and MSN Self check out Drive-throughs Cell phones, ipods, MSN HUMAN NEEDS - (Key components people recognize on an emotional level) 1. Feel Welcome 2. Be Acknowledged 3. Feel Important EXPERIENCE ATTITUDE IS A person s ability to recognize opportunities that will exceed a guest s expectations, regardless of their circumstances. Think of attitude as your own perception of life and career. It is the way you express yourself through your actions and behaviour. It is based on the choices you ve made about how best to make a guest s stay memorable and beyond expectations. FIRST IMPRESSION TIPS 1. Dress for success 2. Smile 3. Handshake 4. Body Posture FACE TO FACE COMMUNICATION Body Language 55% Tone 38% Words 7% ON THE PHONE Tone 77% Words 23%
PRIMARY ACTIONS OF BODY LANGUAGE 1. Eye Contact 2. Facial Expression 3. Body Posture & Movement 4. Hand Gestures 5. Assess Your Audience SAMPLE OF NON - NEGOTIABLE CORE VALUES 1. Smile 2. Utilize name recognition 3. 10 feet greet 4. Acknowledge guests when waiting 5. Anticipate guest s needs (verbal & non) & deliver on them 6. Watch for visual triggers/silent cues 7. Notice what guests are wearing (make small talk on team shirt etc) 8. Listen for hesitation or uncertainty & offer suggestions 9. Be attentive to special occasions (ask what they re celebrating) 10. Be sincere, not mechanical GUEST EXPERIENCE CYCLE Guest Experience Cycle
YOUR GUEST EXPERIENCE CYCLE THREE SEGMENTS OF EACH CYCLE COMPONENT: CYCLE COMPONENT OPERATIONAL STANDARD ABOVE & BEYOND EXPERIENTIAL OPPORTUNITIES Tasks of the job EXAMPLE: Arrival The action you currently do Offer a pleasant greeting Identifying opportunities that you can do to create a highly satisfied experience resulting in loyal guests. Welcome back Mr. Smith; we ve been expecting you!
MANAGEMENT S PHILOSOPHY Mastering the Guest Experience begins when management s customer service philosophy and values are reflected through front line staff. Every single contact your company has with its guests either cultivates or corrodes your relationship. In other words, your business is only as good as your worst employee. That s why it is so important to build a strong, loyal and committed team! THE WOW A WOW is something you do that you don t have to do that the guest doesn t expect you to do that gets them to say WOW! Take an otherwise situation and making it! SUMMARY The experience that matters most to your guests is not the chocolates on the pillow but the gratifying human interaction. We believe this is the connection; when emotions are evoked and the guest experience is measured against intuitive moments of contact. This is the connection that is lacking in so many business interactions and yet is more essential than ever in creating a renowned WOW Guest Experience. In order to be remembered by your guest and create their loyalty you have to earn a position in their mind. When great service is the sole area of serious competition then it is the Guest Experience that will differentiate you from the others! They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel ~ Carl W. Buechner