This article continues to generate quick a number of views and comments so I’ve popped it back up top again and added my latest comment at the top here:
June 11, 2010
Thanks for the ongoing comments guys.
And this nicely illustrates an aspect of social media in relation to customer service these days.
You can’t control the conversation in social media. And the stories can spread like wildfire.
1 person can have a hell of an impact on your business.
I’ve written the blog, the Trip Advisor review and mentioned the incident in my newsletter just now, almost 3 months after the event.
As regular readers will know, I’ve only just stop writing the SitePoint Tribune after 5 1/2 – the readership of that was 1/4 million web savvy people – imagine how the story could have spread if it was mentioned in that as well.
Andrew, the General Manager of The Hermitage, has handled the issue as well as anyone could and he’s obviously very web and social media savvy.
He’s continued to engage the audience, accept the criticism and get people moving on.
The most interesting thing about all this – I have no doubt whatsoever that the little bit of publicity this has generated has been positive for The Hermitage.
# 1: Staff get a nice real life example of why they shouldn’t slag their guests off.
# 2: Lots more people are aware of The Hermitage and will soon forget the negative bit and remember the positive stuff I’ve written and that Andrew has followed up with.
Brendon – June 11, 2010
Back to the article:
Would The Staff At The Hermitage Please Shut The Hell Up?
Maintaining the consistency of your standards in a large operation is, without question, very difficult.
It’s so important to provide a positive experience in business these days because the customer now has so much power.
- Customers have Facebook accounts,
- Customers have blogs,
- Customers have Twitter accounts,
- Customers have an account with review sites.
The customer is King………… not because it’s an old cliche, but because the customer now has the power to very significantly impact on your brand.
Now, more than ever, a bad experience can be related to literally thousands of your potential customers within minutes.
One bad experience for a customer can result in your hard work being for nought.
Exhibit # 1- The Hermitage Hotel, Aoraki Mount Cook
I recently stay at the perfectly positioned Aoraki Mount Cook hotel, The Hermitage.
This hotel has the best view of any hotel I’ve ever stayed in, with a glorious vista of Mount Cook out the window.
View from The Hermitage
My mates and I (5 in all) took 3 rooms.
It was $320 per room for quite a nice room, but the amazing view made it worth every cent.
The Hermitage room and view
After freshening up, we headed off to the bar and enjoyed a quiet beer before dinner.
The Panorama Restaurant – Well Worth A Visit
There’s a choice of restaurants at The Hermitage and we opted for the Panorama Restaurant – great choice.
A superb meal was had by all, made all the better by the service from Piers (?sp) and his team. Piers is the Restaurant Manager and the most professional I’ve seen in years.
He matched the food with the right wine for us and the result was amazing.
After dinner the other lads all went to bed because, did I mention (??), they’re all much older than me and need their sleep.
I headed off for a stroll around the front of the hotel and to do a bit of star gazing.
As I headed back in I thought a cleansing ale would be nice. A cleansing ale is always nice.
Let The Slagging Off Begin
I grabbed a beer at an upstairs bar and sat out on the balcony. Soon after I was joined by 10 or so staff members of the hotel (including 1 of the staff who just served us in the restaurant).
Thanks for your money that pays my job - now naff off
These guys and gals then proceeded to have quite an animated discussion on what a pain in the a$$ their guests are. They happily slagged off guests for 10 minutes or so until Piers from the restaurant walked out to where we all were.
They shut up soon after that and almost all went inside.
Piers came over to have a brief chat with me before I left.
As I was leaving I heard one of the 2 girls still left say to him something along the lines of “Why are you f$%#*# sucking up…..”
Being Discrete In Front Of Customers Shouldn’t Be Such A Stretch
Maintaining high standards when your staff are young, full of vim and vigour and ready to conquer the world must be challenging to say the least.
But being discrete in your place of employment in front of the customers shouldn’t be too much of a stretch for people.
So unless you want to stay in a place where the staff will happily take your $960 for 3 rooms and $585 for dinner for 5 and then bitch, piss and moan about what a compete pain in the a$$ you are, then I’d recommend staying at Twizel, the nearest town.
At least there they’ll be appreciative of your hard earned dollars.
The Takeaway
What’s the takeaway from all this?
- I’d be almost certain that staff get decent education on being discrete.
- I’m sure the hotel management would hammer home how important it is to treat guests well – including after they leave.
Maybe the education needs to include a bit of social media understanding and how 1 bad experience gets related to thousands very, very quickly.
But my guess is that unless it’s your job that gets cut because of the loss in revenue due to the power of social media, staff won’t care.
Cheers
Brendon
Cheers,
{ 12 comments… read them below or add one }
But will they learn anything? Or just take their piss poor attitude to another hotel?
Brendon, thanks for bringing this to my attention. This is the first time that this has been reported in the entire time I have been managing the Hermitage. The staff are taught that guests are to be treated with the utmost respect at all times, even when off duty. It will not be difficult for me to track down these staff thanks to your detailed explanation, they will find that their uses of guest areas priveleges will dissapear.
I am sorry for this unfortunate incident, but pleased that you have brought it to my attention so that it will never happen again.
Regards,
Andrew Cleverley
General Manager
The Hermitage Hotel
Thanks for the response Andrew
It’s a tough one – people sure need to let off some steam and we all need to vent every now and then.
You have the added difficulty of finding the balance between giving staff some social leeway in a remote location like yours and the need for some restraint on behaviour that doesn’t do the business any favours.
It screws the whole premise of a hotel genuinely caring about their guests.
Cheers
Brendon
Thanks Brendon,
Yes it is an unusual situation for a hotel to be in with staff being able to socialise with guests while they are off duty, and this has never been a problem before. It appears from my investigations that there seems to be 2 or 3 staff that may have been involved in “letting off some steam”, unfortunately they picked the wrong location for this.
However, I was certainly pleased to see that you thoroughly enjoyed your stay, including the rooms, amazing view, our wonderful Panorama Restaurant and the service provided in the restaurant. It is a shame that this isolated incident has tarnished our high standard of guest experience that we aim to achieve. I can guarantee this will not repeat itself, the staff here genuinely appreciate our guests and enjoy interacting with them in a friendly, relaxed, yet professional way and I believe this can be exemplified by the way Piers has conducted himself whilst both on and off duty.
Thanks again for your feedback.
Regards,
Andrew Cleverley
General Manager
The Hermitage Hotel
Thanks Brendon,
Does not matter what industry you are in; the employees need to realize that the customers and their money do pay their wages and their continued patronage ensures the business can continue to operate and has the ability to employ staff.
What a timely lesson for me to use as an example with my next staff meeting. Yes…I will give you the credit for the example!
It’s a cracker of an example Michelle. You’d think in hospitality they’d have a better idea. The culture of the hotel smacks of arrogance.
Brendon,
The employees involved have been located and have been banned from being on the hotel’s property outside of work hours, they have also been banned from purchasing alcohol from the hotel. This type of behaviour is not acceptable in this hotel’s culture, controlling staff behaviour 24 hours a day is difficult but manageable – proof of this has to be that in my time at the Hermitage this is the only incident of it’s type and it was snuffed out as soon as I was made aware of it. You will also be pleased to know that we have just refurbished the staff lounge in order to keep staff seperate from guests as much as possible and will be opening a seperate public bar away from the hotel in October 2010.
It can be very difficult for most people to understand the difficulties of running a large business in an isolated location such as this, especially when I have 200 staff to worry about. I make every effort to ensure our guests are given the best service possible at all times.
I’m enjoying the constructive commentary from your readers.
Thanks,
Andrew Cleverley
General Manager
The Hermitage Hotel
Unfortunately it can be common, well it is in Australia. There seems to be an attitude of employees feeling they are owed a job and they are doing the guest a huge favour just by smiling at them
And it is the business owner that cops it.
On the front of our policies and procedures manual we have the following quote. It doesn’t guarantee that our staff always have a perfect attitude but it does lay down just where we stand as a company. If I ever hear any bitching from our therapists about a guest, they are asked to go read the front page of our manual a couple of times and decide if this is the place they want to be. Usually sorts it out
Great blog but an even nicer response from Andrew, will be sure to stay at his hotel next time in NZ.
“A customer is the most important visitor on our premises.
They are not dependent on us. We are dependent on them.
They are not an interruption of our work. They are the purpose of it.
They are not an outsider to our business. They are a part of it.
We are not doing them a favour by serving them.
They are doing us a favour by giving us the opportunity to do so.”
- Mahatma Ghandi
Thanks Alison,
Just let me know if you are ever heading through this way, I will make sure you get looked after!
Cheers,
Andrew Cleverley
General Manager
The Hermitage
Hey Brendan,
That is too bad that those employees were so stupid by complaining about guests in public areas. That is ridiculous but I’ve seen similar stuff in many types of different businesses, including hotels, over the years from owners, managers and employees, too. Not as blatant as this but very similar. They obviously don’t understand who signs their paycheque and gives them tips/gratuities. Stupid!
I used to work in hotels for almost twenty years in various cities and resorts here in Canada as a worker and as a supervisor. Some hotels allowed employees in bars and some didn’t. The one thing that we were always made to understand was that when we were in public areas, whether on-duty or off-duty, we were to make the guest feel welcome no matter what. If we wanted to complain or blow off some steam we had to do it in the back of the house not out front.
It is not always easy to deal with customers but they are the ones that are spending money with us and they can just as easily spend it elsewhere. Not only can they spend it elsewhere they can now tell everyone about it quickly and easily with social media like you mentioned. A bad review can now spread like wildfire. You never know who might be listening so it is better to be careful and watch what you say than to risk upsetting a customer and have them take their business elsewhere (and tell everyone about their bad experience).
Here’s an example of a review of a local restaurant that is found when someone searches for this restaurant in Google Local. It isn’t flattering and the whole world can read it anytime. Not good. I’m sure this has affected some possible diners choice on whether they go there or not. It’s titled “Big disappointment” http://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowUserReviews-g184843-d762114-r36646136-Laughing_Oyster_Restaurant-Powell_River_Sunshine_Coast_British_Columbia.html
I have to commend the General Manager for taking some initiative to track down the employees and deal with them. Hopefully they got more than a little slap on the wrist for this incident. You could have just as easily been a travel writer that was sitting there going around looking for stories to write in their magazine or newspaper column. What a story this would have been in there.
Cheers,
Robin
Thanks Robin,
You will be pleased to know that the employees have been banned from the hotel property after their shifts and are also not allowed to purchase alcohol, their social life now involves sitting in their rooms watching TV. All but one of them have resigned.
Thanks again,
Andrew Cleverley
General Manager
The Hermitage Hotel
Thanks for the ongoing comments guys.
And this nicely illustrates an aspect of social media in relation to customer service these days.
You can’t control the conversation in social media. And the stories can spread like wildfire.
1 person can have a hell of an impact on your business.
I’ve written the blog, the Trip Advisor review and mentioned the incident in my newsletter just now, almost 3 months after the event.
As regular readers will know, I’ve only just stop writing the SitePoint Tribune after 5 1/2 – the readership of that was 1/4 million web savvy people – imagine how the story could have spread if it was mentioned in that as well.
Andrew, the General Manager of The Hermitage, has handled the issue as well as anyone could and he’s obviously very web and social media savvy.
He’s continued to engage the audience, accept the criticism and get people moving on.
The most interesting thing about all this – I have no doubt whatsoever that the little bit of publicity this has generated has been positive for The Hermitage.
# 1: Staff get a nice real life example of why they shouldn’t slag their guests off.
# 2: Lots more people are aware of The Hermitage and will soon forget the negative bit and remember the positive stuff I’ve written and that Andrew has followed up with.