First North American Guest Experience Award
With the term “guest experience” on the lips of almost everyone involved in hospitality it was inevitable that a competition would be created to identify the best in the industry. The awards are the brainchild of The International Luxury Hotel Association and TrustYou, the leading provider of online reputation management.
The winner for Best Service and Best Rooms/Housekeeping was Trump International Hotel Waikiki Beach Walk in Honolulu Hawaii.
Here are excerpts from Bench Tacsanan‘s interview with Scott Ingwers, Managing Director and Regional Vice President of the Trump Collection as he shares his thoughts on the impact of staff training.
How important is training in providing guest experience that consistently exceeds expectations?
Training in both class room and operational settings truly has been key to ensuring both consistency and professionalism in all interactions. Focus continues to be placed on cultural sensitivity, as we are an international destination, as well as areas such as luxury language and understanding how we make the guest “feel” in various situations. Each day brings a myriad of opportunities for us to either exceed or fall short, and we look at each interaction as an opportunity to really earn customer loyalty.
Our cultural foundation at Trump Hotels is to “create an unsurpassed regard for our associates.” We take this to heart in how we respect and value all of our team members, as well as how we invest in their development and reward them for exceptional performance. We spend a tremendous amount of time studying and implementing improvements to the workplace environment, which substantiates the value we place on the good work performed by our great people each and every day. We have also put programs into place that facilitate improved methods of internal communication, geared towards tapping into the knowledge, opinions and intelligence of all our valued associates.
It is only fair and right that we give our associates the opportunity to understand how to do their job correctly, as well as the tools, coaching and counseling necessary to become experts in their particular craft. Taken a step further, we endeavor to share real-life scenarios with our team in order for them to understand “cause and effect” of particular interactions and scenarios. The nuances of reading a guest and understanding their individual comfort level can make all the difference in ensuring a successful outcome to any situation.
Service delivery can only be successful if we exceed the guests’ actual expectations, not necessarily what we may perceive them to be. Consequently, along with the prerequisite friendliness and attention to detail, we spend a great deal of time on the dynamics of how to deliver service that is both thoughtful and bespoke. Our team’s commitment to training and service delivery was recently acknowledged with the Forbes Travel Guide Five Star Award for 2015, which is the first for any Oahu hotel.
Want to read the entire interview? Click here
Linda Harding-Bond
