A tale of two cities
No, not the Charles Dickens story, this episode is a tale of the different experiences I had recently at two locations of the same brand. It got me thinking about the consistency, or inconsistency, between experiences your couples, clients and their guests might have, either when encountering different members of your staff, or at different events.
Listen to this new, 6-minute episode for an idea of where you can look for these inconsistencies, even if you’re a team of one!
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Below is a full transcript. If you have any questions about anything in this, or any of my podcasts, or have a suggestion for a topic or guest, please reach out directly to me at [email protected] or contact me via text, use the short form on this page, or call 732.422.6362
Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and leave a review (thanks, it really does make a difference). If you want to get notifications of new episodes and upcoming workshops and webinars, you can sign up at www.ConnectWithAlanBerg.com
A Tale of Two Cities.
No, not the Charles Dickens story. Listen to this episode, find out where I’m going with this one.
Hi, it’s Alan Berg. Welcome back to another episode of the Wedding Business Solutions Podcast. I titled this A Tale of Two Cities because I recently stayed at two Sheraton Hotels in back-to-back weeks in two different cities and I had two completely different experiences.
And what it made me think about is if you are not the only one who’s performing your service for your business, what is the experience with the other people?
So in my case, it was a Sheraton Hotel and a Sheraton Hotel, one in Phoenix, one in Florida. And I had a really good experience at the one in Phoenix and I had some problems with the one in Florida. And yet they both have the Sheraton name on the outside of the building.
So what is my expectation going from one of those to the other? Well, I expect consistency. Now, if I had gone the other way from not so good of an experience to a better of experience that would leave me probably with a better taste in my mouth.
But again, still scratching my head, why couldn’t the first experience have been as good as the second, or in this case the second as good as the first. So if you are a venue and you have multiple people out there that your customers and their guests are interacting with or if you’re a multi op DJ, photographer, videographer a florist, invitations, anybody, right?
If you’re an officiant but you’re not the only one who performs the ceremonies what is the experience from one to the next? And if you are the only one, what is the experience of people that might see you more than once? They might be a guest at one event and then a guest at another. They might be getting married or hiring you for an event and then another, if you do a lot of corporate work go from one event to the next.
So is there a consistency between that or is it a tale of two cities or a tale of two experiences? Because the consistency is what is expected when someone refers you, if someone experiences what you do and then hires you, right? If they were a guest and then they hire you they expect that consistency as well.
So what is the expectation of them and what is the expectation internally? Do your people understand that? Clearly at these two hotels, their management was different. And I say that because I experienced different things. When I walked towards the front desk of the first hotel the one in Phoenix, people looked up, they made eye contact, they smiled. There’s something called the Marriott 15-5 rule. I’ve probably spoken about this before. I know I’ve spoken about it from the stage. I know I train on this. Real quick, the 15-5 rule is that a Marriott employee within 15 feet of a guest will make eye contact, smile just acknowledge them. Within five feet they need to do that, but also say something. And then importantly, they need to do it to each other. Internal guests are the other employees and external guests are the people coming to stay at their property.
So by someone looking up before I get that close that 15 foot rule there and acknowledging me with a smile shows that I’m welcome. At the other property, didn’t get that. Walking past the front desk, even if I wasn’t asking for something they still looked up, made eye contact. The other hotel I came in, I went out. And if I didn’t stop at the desk, they didn’t look up, they didn’t make eye contact, they didn’t say, have a nice day, or welcome back or anything like that. That’s what I expect because I’ve experienced that in other places. And even if it wasn’t with another Marriott or Marriott property, Sheraton being a Marriott property I would expect that at another property, another brand because they’ve raised the bar.
And that’s the same thing with you. If they have experience with other type of people in your industry or in your position, what do they expect? Or what do you expect now when you’re a customer? Right, what do you expect from a waiter or a waitress in a restaurant? And then you go to another restaurant of a similar price point, doesn’t have to be the same brand. What do you expect? Is it a tale of two cities or not? And that’s the consistency again.
When I see consistency from different wait staff within a restaurant, it says this is what’s coming from the top. This is what’s coming from management. When I see the lack of consistency there’s a lack of attention, maybe, right? Or they don’t care, which is even worse, right?
So where is that consistency in your business? Where can you find those inconsistencies and try to make it better for the next group that encounters what you do? So pay attention when you’re a customer and then take an introspective look into your own business and say, what can I do to make sure that experience is what my customers expect?
And it’s consistent event to event, person to person especially when you get into staff that gets larger. You need to make sure everyone, if you’re a florist, delivery people some of your most important people, rental company, delivery people, some of your most important people because they’re the last people that they’ll see and other people, other industry people will see them as well.
And it reflects everything reflects back to you. I hope I gave you something to think about, thanks.
I’m Alan Berg. Thanks for listening. If you have any questions about this or if you’d like to suggest other topics for “The Wedding Business Solutions Podcast” please let me know. My email is [email protected]. Look forward to seeing you on the next episode. Thanks.
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