Lessons from the Field: Ways to identify and build repeat guests
Aug 25, 08 1:59 am
By Dr. John Hogan,
There are only two ways to get a new customer:
solicit a new customer any way you can.
Take good care of your present customers, so they don't become someone else's new customers. Ed Zeitz
The book "In Search of Excellence" in the early 1980s by Tom Peters and Robert Waterman presented numerous examples and statistics on the need to pay real attention to the customer's needs and wants. This was a paradigm shift at that time, when customers in many industries were forced to choose from what was being offered to them, which was not necessarily what they were seeking.
The hotel industry has made adaptations over the past twenty five years with market and product variations. Most of the brands are currently focusing at least one initiative on customer service, but in these days of economic uncertainty, a reminder of the basics of customer service can be an amazing refresher for many hotel staff.
The following are offered for consideration in that refresher:
Focus on existing customers. This is critical, especially at a time when demand is lessening in various markets. If a hotel's efforts are focused primarily on acquiring new customers, existing customers will feel that from the staff and consider options. Think of advertisements for any product that is only offered to "New Customers". You may have had that residential cable service at your home for the past five years and today "new" customers are offered a value or incentive far better than what you receive. How do you feel about that service?
One of the leading causes of the high turnover of hotel sales managers isn't necessarily the economy - it's often ignored syndrome of customer attrition. The difference between a satisfied customer and a loyal customer is the first might return to your hotel again and might refer others, while the loyal customer will return again and will tell others about your hotel and its' service. What are the messages that your sales team is delivering? What does your marketing plan say about existing customers?
Stress value and guarantees. There is no doubt relating to the success of the Hampton Inn brand industry leading 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Every customer has their own preferences or definitions of value, but when your staff communicates the hotel's sincere commitment to meeting those preferences and needs, the customer/guest is impressed enough to become a repeat guest. I am not suggesting a "me-too" approach on how to communicate and deliver that commitment, but value and concerns must be there for sustained success.
A key point in training is to calculate and leverage the lifetime customer value. For example, if a guest stays 3 nights per month @ a rate of $150 per night, the monthly gross revenue is at least $450 or $5400 annually. While that may not seem like a huge number, when one calculates the number of existing customers that might be in this category (say 50 customers) , the value of the existing customers is has now grown with those 50 customers to more than $250,000 annually. These 50 customers do not need to be wooed or convinced to choose your hotel but they do need to feel appreciated and valued. Nearly all successful infomercials and other business models are based on repeat sales and word of mouth testimonials.
In an age when the cost or magnitude of mass communications makes it difficult to attract new customers, keeping the existing customer is so fundamentally obvious. With the technology available to create a simple or sophisticated CRM or guest history, there is no reason to ignore this.
Look at your hotel and its operational practices through your customer's eyes ... and you might be shocked at what you see. A simple illustration is found at every front desk. When someone approaches the desk, do they hear the question "Checking in??" or something more hospitable, such as "welcome" or "We've been waiting for your arrival!" Which sounds more inviting and personal? The approach should be personal, but it does not require much more than a little bit of creative staff team brainstorming and paying attention. "Have a Nice Day" tired expressions don't work anymore.
Rebuild all of your operational practices around your customer's real needs and desires. Your customers have changed over the last ten years. Have you?
Invest in your capital improvements each year to improve loyalty, not just satisfaction. Assess which aspects of customer satisfaction drive retention as well as those which do not.
Segment your customers for improved retention. Remember the expression : "different strokes for different folks", which means as people may choose their preferred swimming stroke, hotel customers also have their own preferences. A corporate traveler has different needs than a youth sports team. The resurgence of women's' floors is not the same as the "Lady Sheraton" rooms or suites offered a generation ago, but are targeting the unique needs of the professional woman traveler today that has become a major segment. What do your customers want? Are they receiving it?
Make the interaction with your customers real and personal - after all, people conduct business with people. Stanley Marcus, the co-founder of luxury stores Neiman - said it very clearly - Consumers are statistics. Customers are people.
Monday, August 25, 2008
Sunday, August 10, 2008
Star studded restaurants
Top Star-Studded Restaurants
John Mariani August 6, 2008
John Mariani August 6, 2008
Beso, Los Angeles
Very hot right now, thanks to a partnership between Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria and celeb chef Todd English. The menu features steaks, roast chicken and Mexican fare. The vibe is suffused with Latino music.
Very hot right now, thanks to a partnership between Desperate Housewives star Eva Longoria and celeb chef Todd English. The menu features steaks, roast chicken and Mexican fare. The vibe is suffused with Latino music.
We’ll have what Madonna’s having
Comedian Fred Allen once defined a celebrity as “a person who works hard all his life to become well-known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized." Which is why, when you enter a restaurant, the only people likely to be wearing sunglasses are either recovering from eye laser surgery or go by only one name, like Madonna, Angelina or Uma.
Even if sunglasses don’t completely disguise a celebrity from view, they have a certain “do-not-disturb” effect in a restaurant, lest a fan wants to bound over for an autograph while the celeb is seasoning her Caesar salad.
See our slideshow of Ten Celebrity-Spotting Restaurants.
But let's be honest—spotting a celebrity, whether from the world of entertainment, sports, media or politics, gives a real buzz to an evening dining out. For some people, such sightings are more important than the food. Simply being in a place where Alex Rodriguez, Demi Moore, Brian Williams or Ted Kennedy dine makes the celeb-watcher feel part of the aura thrown off by the star.
Once upon a time, in Hollywood’s Golden Years, celeb sightings were relentlessly covered by the tabloids as part of the studios’ own publicity machines. Thus, a new starlet would be hooked up with an established star and sent to the Copacabana or El Morocco expressly for the purpose of having their pictures taken by the photogs.
This endures to a certain extent today at celeb-flocked restaurants like Spago and Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills, which count among its guests everyone from George Clooney to Elizabeth Hurley, whereas it is discouraged (though not unknown) in New York. (When Madonna and Guy Ritchie recently went to ‘Cesca on the Upper West Side, they were greeted by a phalanx of paparazzi outside the Italian eatery’s entrance.)
Many restaurants confer with celebs’ “people” as to the best tactics to avoid the paparazzi at the front door. The manager of the Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood, where villas rent for up to $7,000 a night (and whose boast is: “Movie stars get big trailers. The really big stars get us.”) told me that if a big star like Madonna is dining at their intimate restaurant, The Room, she may be ushered through the service hallways to a back door while a double in sunglasses whooshes into a waiting limo at the front door.
See our slideshow of Ten Celebrity-Spotting Restaurants.
But for the average diner who wouldn’t mind sitting across from a celebrity, there are, in fact, rules of behavior. First and foremost, it's tacky to ask for an autograph. If seated next to a celeb, a simple nod of recognition should be all you allow yourself of intimacy. Celebs may well want attention, but on his or her terms.
In a place like New York’s Balthazar in Soho, the chances of spotting someone from the entertainment or fashion business is very high; many of those industry’s celebs either live or have offices in the area, like Martha Stewart, and on any given day you might find Bill Gates lunching with Bono.
Bill Cosby frequents New York’s Le Cirque in Midtown, and literally gets up from his table and goes around the room to kibbitz with the restaurant’s guests. In fact, Le Cirque is one of the city’s best-known celeb hang-outs, and counts among its regulars Woody Allen, Barbara Walters, Henry Kissinger and Paloma Picasso. Once, when a non-celeb newcomer complained that the tables were too close, Le Cirque’s owner, Sirio Maccioni, responded, “Sir, would you rather sit this close or this far from Sophia Loren tonight?—just as Sophia swept into the restaurant.
Of course, New York is the East Coast epicenter for celebrity dining. Some even own restaurants themselves, including Robert De Niro, who is a partner at Nobu with Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Sean Penn, Ed Harris, Lou Diamond Philips and Christopher Walken. De Niro often brings his friends in to dine, so if that looks like Leonardo Di Caprio, it probably is.
The Waverly Inn, owned by Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter, is so exclusive that the restaurant doesn’t answer the phone; either you have Carter’s personal phone number, or you beg for a table in-person that afternoon. Once there, you may pass Uma Thurman and Anne Hathaway in the front room—on your way to Siberia in the back.
At Manhattan’s legendary Four Seasons Grill Room, the titans of media and Big Apple politics gather and jockey for tables everyday at lunch, so you might hobnob with Mayor Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch and Jann Wenner there. Once, while filming a TV show, Lauren Hutton and Raquel Welch tussled and tumbled into the babbling pool in the Pool Room. Ralph Lauren says that “the quality, the design, the food, and the people all come together to make a certain magic—there is no place like it.”
On the West Coast, Hollywood's restaurant-of-the-moment is the one drawing the most celebs. Restaurant publicists tell the media who dined where and when, and if an L.A. restaurant doesn’t have what they call a “sizzle factor,” it’s not likely to stay open long. The new Beso (which means “kiss”) is a Todd English restaurant—himself a celebrity chef—with partner Eva Longoria, who draws pals like Sheryl Crow, Jessica Simpson and Paul Abdul to sip mango mojitos and chow down on Mexican tapas like tortilla soup and skirt steak fajitas. The tortilla soup and guacamole are said to be Longoria family recipes. Angelino magazine advises that “the booths along the east wall offer the best views.”
Ortolan is a swanky French restaurant owned by Chef Christophe Eme and his wife, actress Jeri Ryan, who attracts her star friends and not a few Trekkies who come to see the woman who once played the Borg named Seven of Nine. Other good bets for celeb-watching are the more secluded and reclusive hotel dining rooms like the Bar Marmont at Château Marmont Hotel and Bungalows (Charlize Theron, Keanu Reeves, Courtney Love, Johnny Depp, Amy Winehouse, Sting); the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel (especially breakfast for studio bigwigs courting stars); and the poolside tables at the Bel-Air Hotel—Marilyn Monroe’s favorite, now where Russell Crow, Liz Taylor, Al Pacino and Tom Cruise drop by for the exquisite California cuisine.
Given that Las Vegas has developed a high-powered entertainment scene along with first-rate restaurants, you’ll find celebs visiting on a regular basis. Those who wish for a bit more seclusion from the crowds—like Sen. John McCain, Rush Limbaugh, Steven Spielberg, and Scottie Pippin—like to go to the Country Club Grill, a small restaurant tucked away inside Wynn Las Vegas.
In Washington, D.C., pols have to be pretty careful who they’re seen with and where. The best bets for sightings are at Teatro Goldoni, which also attracts the network media figures like Ted Koppel, Suzanne Malveaux, and Wolf Blitzer, and The Monocle, just shy of the Capitol, where senators go for lunch, alerted by a dining room bell that summons them back for an important vote.
Comedian Fred Allen once defined a celebrity as “a person who works hard all his life to become well-known, then wears dark glasses to avoid being recognized." Which is why, when you enter a restaurant, the only people likely to be wearing sunglasses are either recovering from eye laser surgery or go by only one name, like Madonna, Angelina or Uma.
Even if sunglasses don’t completely disguise a celebrity from view, they have a certain “do-not-disturb” effect in a restaurant, lest a fan wants to bound over for an autograph while the celeb is seasoning her Caesar salad.
See our slideshow of Ten Celebrity-Spotting Restaurants.
But let's be honest—spotting a celebrity, whether from the world of entertainment, sports, media or politics, gives a real buzz to an evening dining out. For some people, such sightings are more important than the food. Simply being in a place where Alex Rodriguez, Demi Moore, Brian Williams or Ted Kennedy dine makes the celeb-watcher feel part of the aura thrown off by the star.
Once upon a time, in Hollywood’s Golden Years, celeb sightings were relentlessly covered by the tabloids as part of the studios’ own publicity machines. Thus, a new starlet would be hooked up with an established star and sent to the Copacabana or El Morocco expressly for the purpose of having their pictures taken by the photogs.
This endures to a certain extent today at celeb-flocked restaurants like Spago and Mr. Chow in Beverly Hills, which count among its guests everyone from George Clooney to Elizabeth Hurley, whereas it is discouraged (though not unknown) in New York. (When Madonna and Guy Ritchie recently went to ‘Cesca on the Upper West Side, they were greeted by a phalanx of paparazzi outside the Italian eatery’s entrance.)
Many restaurants confer with celebs’ “people” as to the best tactics to avoid the paparazzi at the front door. The manager of the Sunset Marquis in West Hollywood, where villas rent for up to $7,000 a night (and whose boast is: “Movie stars get big trailers. The really big stars get us.”) told me that if a big star like Madonna is dining at their intimate restaurant, The Room, she may be ushered through the service hallways to a back door while a double in sunglasses whooshes into a waiting limo at the front door.
See our slideshow of Ten Celebrity-Spotting Restaurants.
But for the average diner who wouldn’t mind sitting across from a celebrity, there are, in fact, rules of behavior. First and foremost, it's tacky to ask for an autograph. If seated next to a celeb, a simple nod of recognition should be all you allow yourself of intimacy. Celebs may well want attention, but on his or her terms.
In a place like New York’s Balthazar in Soho, the chances of spotting someone from the entertainment or fashion business is very high; many of those industry’s celebs either live or have offices in the area, like Martha Stewart, and on any given day you might find Bill Gates lunching with Bono.
Bill Cosby frequents New York’s Le Cirque in Midtown, and literally gets up from his table and goes around the room to kibbitz with the restaurant’s guests. In fact, Le Cirque is one of the city’s best-known celeb hang-outs, and counts among its regulars Woody Allen, Barbara Walters, Henry Kissinger and Paloma Picasso. Once, when a non-celeb newcomer complained that the tables were too close, Le Cirque’s owner, Sirio Maccioni, responded, “Sir, would you rather sit this close or this far from Sophia Loren tonight?—just as Sophia swept into the restaurant.
Of course, New York is the East Coast epicenter for celebrity dining. Some even own restaurants themselves, including Robert De Niro, who is a partner at Nobu with Harvey Keitel, Bill Murray, Mikhail Baryshnikov, Sean Penn, Ed Harris, Lou Diamond Philips and Christopher Walken. De Niro often brings his friends in to dine, so if that looks like Leonardo Di Caprio, it probably is.
The Waverly Inn, owned by Vanity Fair editor-in-chief Graydon Carter, is so exclusive that the restaurant doesn’t answer the phone; either you have Carter’s personal phone number, or you beg for a table in-person that afternoon. Once there, you may pass Uma Thurman and Anne Hathaway in the front room—on your way to Siberia in the back.
At Manhattan’s legendary Four Seasons Grill Room, the titans of media and Big Apple politics gather and jockey for tables everyday at lunch, so you might hobnob with Mayor Bloomberg, Rupert Murdoch and Jann Wenner there. Once, while filming a TV show, Lauren Hutton and Raquel Welch tussled and tumbled into the babbling pool in the Pool Room. Ralph Lauren says that “the quality, the design, the food, and the people all come together to make a certain magic—there is no place like it.”
On the West Coast, Hollywood's restaurant-of-the-moment is the one drawing the most celebs. Restaurant publicists tell the media who dined where and when, and if an L.A. restaurant doesn’t have what they call a “sizzle factor,” it’s not likely to stay open long. The new Beso (which means “kiss”) is a Todd English restaurant—himself a celebrity chef—with partner Eva Longoria, who draws pals like Sheryl Crow, Jessica Simpson and Paul Abdul to sip mango mojitos and chow down on Mexican tapas like tortilla soup and skirt steak fajitas. The tortilla soup and guacamole are said to be Longoria family recipes. Angelino magazine advises that “the booths along the east wall offer the best views.”
Ortolan is a swanky French restaurant owned by Chef Christophe Eme and his wife, actress Jeri Ryan, who attracts her star friends and not a few Trekkies who come to see the woman who once played the Borg named Seven of Nine. Other good bets for celeb-watching are the more secluded and reclusive hotel dining rooms like the Bar Marmont at Château Marmont Hotel and Bungalows (Charlize Theron, Keanu Reeves, Courtney Love, Johnny Depp, Amy Winehouse, Sting); the Polo Lounge at the Beverly Hills Hotel (especially breakfast for studio bigwigs courting stars); and the poolside tables at the Bel-Air Hotel—Marilyn Monroe’s favorite, now where Russell Crow, Liz Taylor, Al Pacino and Tom Cruise drop by for the exquisite California cuisine.
Given that Las Vegas has developed a high-powered entertainment scene along with first-rate restaurants, you’ll find celebs visiting on a regular basis. Those who wish for a bit more seclusion from the crowds—like Sen. John McCain, Rush Limbaugh, Steven Spielberg, and Scottie Pippin—like to go to the Country Club Grill, a small restaurant tucked away inside Wynn Las Vegas.
In Washington, D.C., pols have to be pretty careful who they’re seen with and where. The best bets for sightings are at Teatro Goldoni, which also attracts the network media figures like Ted Koppel, Suzanne Malveaux, and Wolf Blitzer, and The Monocle, just shy of the Capitol, where senators go for lunch, alerted by a dining room bell that summons them back for an important vote.
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