Month: November 2014

Preparation

by Hospitality In Motion, posted in On My Mind!

I am preparing for tomorrow’s post,  If there are any specific categories my followers would like to read about,  don’t hesitate to let me know!

Teaching a New Dog Old Tricks and the Importance of Morale – Part 2 of 2.

by Hospitality In Motion, posted in Customer Service as an Art.

Morale is as important if not more important in the casino industry than any other industry. The dynamics of this is so deep that it is a must to have a solid protocol in writing for all aspects of the business.

Keeping guests happy begins with happy employees. Keeping happy employees begins with clear and complete communication. Firm and logical policies and procedures that maintain company integrity and at the same time underline the importance of the employees gives that critical edge to companies to achieve 5 Star Customer Services 

Examples of this range from benefits, to wages, to breaks and even to recognition.

As this is the end of the two part series,  a new part will be added to the series concerning recognition.

Teaching a New Dog Old Tricks and the Importance of Morale – Part 1 of 2

by Hospitality In Motion, posted in Customer Service as an Art.

Customer Service is not easy for everyone.  On the same note, some patrons want to be treated much differently than others.  This applies to both ends of the spectrum.  Some employees have a natural knack to provide 100% excellent customer service while others have to struggle with even the basic concepts. They try very hard to please even the easiest guest to no avail or they really don’t try at all.

When hiring new employees, the individual(s) responsible for hiring must take strong observation of customer service skills.  The manner in which customer service is provided can be taught and directed, but an employee with no skills and no desire will never improve the bottom line.

As far as guests are concerned, there are some that will write down the names of the employee(s) as well as time(s) served if they feel that service was inadequate and make a complaint.  This is almost always the case if the guest has the expectation of being pampered.  On the other hand, there are guests who do not want to even be spoken to and at times get angry when they hear “good luck” or “how are you.”  Mind you, the majority of this situation is in table games.  In any case, an employee must be able to adapt and cope with all types of guests.  This can be taught by proper training. Quite often it is “touch and go” with specifics, but service recovery comes in to play any time there is a problem.

**I will be making an announcement concerning an addition/improvement to the blog in between this post and Part 2!  Stay tuned!

Announcement of Next Post

by Hospitality In Motion, posted in Hospitality In-Depth

Teaching a new dog old tricks and the importance of morale. 

The next post will be in two parts.

The first will consist of my thoughts on training employees to provide the best possible customer possible and how difficult it can be to select the best candidates.

The second part consists of information concerning employee morale and how it affects a company’s integrity. 

 

 

Communication

by Hospitality In Motion, posted in Hospitality In-Depth

This post deals with a major component of a company’s success in overall customer service.

Communication is vital and a lag in this communication could mean losing a loyal guest or a potential loyal guest. Much of the information flow concerning players comes from marketing and it is imperative that it is relayed to the appropriate tables games and/or hotel personnel. This information includes but is not limited to credit availability,  special limits,  trip time,  and/or any specific needs during their stay.

Often times,  there is a lag in information flow which causes table games personnel to take valuable time to confirm various information. Even worse,  a player shows up at the table only to be told that he/she has no availability whether credit or front money. This should never happen as due diligence shall eliminate this problem.  When this does happen,  it causes unnecessary tension between player and table games personnel. 

Mind you,  when credit and/or front money is established,  it does take a few minutes for the availability to show as the host must enter the information. The point that I am making here is that it would behove marketing personnel and/or the player’s host to notify table games personnel that the player is on property.  Of course all pertinent information would be included. Most importantly,  inform the player how the process works if they are unaware.

In conclusion,  keep communication and due diligence priority when proactively anticipating the needs of guests.