Guest AuthorRaja Jamalamadaka
Trending

Humans are meant to be valued while technology is meant to be used. Unfortunately, people are valuing technology and using humans.

By | Raja Jamalamadaka | Industry speaker | Neuroscience coach | Marshall Goldsmith awardee | Author | LinkedIn Top voice | IIT | Harvard

Last week, at the reception of a hotel I was to stay in, seven customers queued at the desk manned by an overwhelmed receptionist. Jacques – his name badge read – went about the task fairly systematically –

1.      He greeted everyone with a warm “Bonjour” (Good day), followed by “Comment allez-vous” (How are you). Not too many guests seemed to understand French.

2.      He then entered the passport details of each guest manually in the system and took a snap of the guest using a laptop-mounted camera.

3.      For non-pre-booked guest preferences (higher floor, extra beds etc), Jacques checked his data and politely refused if the guest-tier didn’t permit access to those privileges.

4.      He then completed the check-in process by explaining the hotel rules, facilities and how to get to the room.

5.      With a warm smile, he thanked the guests for choosing to stay at the hotel.

The entire process was executed with military precision – the wait time in the queue was ten minutes per guest

When it was my turn, I asked him why he wasn’t requesting for additional staff at the reception. “Additional staff is available only after 8 am” (I missed noting it was 6:45 am). I asked if my kids’ snaps could wait – they were fast asleep. He however indicated that local rules mandated a snap of every guest right at the time of check-in.

The process was smooth thereafter and I transferred to my room. 

At breakfast that morning, I crossed paths with Jacques again – he had just completed his 8-hour shift. We sat together at the only available table. As we got talking, I asked him about his work and the morning workload. “Well, it is a hectic job, but I love the processes. We love our customers and want to treat our customers fairly – the processes and guidelines help a lot there.”

“How are you sure your guests are happy with your service?” I asked.

“Look at the metrics. We ask every guest to fill out the feedback form. These reports show satisfaction scores of more than 97% – that’s higher than any other hotel in our area. Not a single guest rates us lower than 8 on a scale of 1-10, 10 being the best. More importantly, look at the analytics.”. He whipped his smartphone out and showed me excellent graphs and infographics that presented trends of customer churn rates and some other analytics – they all showed a positive trend. He proudly told me how every staff member of the hotel had been trained to read and play their part in improving metrics – customer service and satisfaction was vital for them.

Exactly, three days later, I stayed at a franchisee of the same hotel chain in a different city. Same time (6:45 am), same queue and an equally warm receptionist, Claudia – however, this time the experience was different. As Claudia saw guests queuing up, she apologized for the wait and offered guests the opportunity to enjoy a cup of complimentary coffee in the breakfast area next to the reception while they waited for their turn. In one shot, the queue vanished. As I was sipping my coffee, I observed Claudia from a distance. She seemed to follow the same processes as those of Jacuqes, but her approach was radically different-

1.      Claudia seemed to know guest preferences from her record on the file – she greeted each guest in their preferred language (French, English German etc). 

2.      As she entered the passport details of each guest manually in the system and took a snap of the guest using a laptop-mounted camera, she offered candies and indulged in small talk – how was the flight, jetlag etc. She seemed to personalize the talk from her data of how often the guest stayed in the past.

a.      In my case, she arranged to take snaps of my kids later in the day after they woke up – I was relieved. 

b.      When the internet connectivity failed for a few seconds, she made fun of it.

3.      For non-pre-booked guest preferences (higher floor, extra beds etc), Claudia checked her data and went out-of-the way to fulfil the request. If she couldn’t, she apologized and made a note on record to ensure someone would work on fulfilling the request at the earliest. 

4.      She then completed the check-in process by explaining the hotel rules, facilities, and how to get to the room – however, instead of a canned script used by Jacques, Claudia explained everything in the context of each guest (kids, jacuzzi and play area took a greater share of talk with me vs others). She genuinely seemed interested in every guest.

5.      With a warm smile, she thanked the guests for choosing to stay at the hotel.

Claudia followed precisely the same policies as Jacques BUT added a human touch that made the check-in process a lot less taxing – and even memorable for my kids (they loved not being woken up).

At breakfast, I requested a meeting with Claudia – she obliged willingly. Same questions as those to Jacques. Her responses? 

“Well, this isn’t a job you can do well unless you love people, and I love people. Yes, processes area great enabler too.

“How are you sure your guests are happy with your service?” I asked.

“Look at the smile on their faces – jet-lagged customers cannot fake a smile. I do everything in my power to widen their smile or bring back a missing one.”

I asked about metrics or analytics, noting that she made no mention of those.

“Oh, those are great additions, but I don’t lose my sleep over them. To me, metrics and analytics are a byproduct of great service – not something to actively work towards. It isn’t just the metric, per se– but the story behind the metric that matters more.”

Wasn’t her bonus tied to metrics and process adherence? Weren’t her colleagues focusing extensively on them?

Her response –

“That is the challenge with people’s understanding of technology. Humans are meant to be valued while technology is meant to be used to meet human goals. Unfortunately, people are valuing technology and processes while using humans to meet technology targets.”

She further added –

“Processes and analytics exist to complement human touch and judgment, not to replace them.” 

Here is my TEDx video on how to work smart

Republished with permission and originally published at Raja Jamalamadaka‘s LinkedIn

Source
LinkedIn
Show More

Related Articles

Back to top button