The hospitality business is an industry where the most important thing is customer satisfaction. Although you put your customer’s best interest first, you cannot always disregard your own welfare that puts your business at risk. You have to be careful in making mistakes that will result in compromising situations. You should be able to spot common hospitality mistakes before you even make them.
Inappropriate Responses to Customers
What they say about customers being always right should apply to all circumstances, conversations, and arguments. Or at least, that’s how it should appear so. In maintaining this Philosophy, hospitality businesses should be willing to hear out concerns from customers and respond in a way that does not negate or contradict their statements directly. Corrections should be done subtly and only after offering an apology or excuse. It is important to make customers feel that they are right to feel about their concerns while maintaining a positive response as you give the necessary and correct information. Do not try to win any argument and if things escalate to the worst, better refer to another mediating person, in most cases, the manager. This is one way to do damage control. In the end, do whatever you can leave on a good note so misunderstandings will be managed and settled without affecting other customers.
Inefficient Processing of Payments
Most people want to process everything fast and automatically. A lot of people believe that everything should already be cashless transactions. Due to the danger of carrying loads of money, many people opt to use cards when traveling or staying in a hotel. Your hospitality business should be able to be on par with this global standard and be ready to get paid quickly and easily without any hassle or delay using modern systems and technology. You can observe this on most websites that offer information on hotels and other accommodations. They specify if a particular place accepts cards and it becomes more attractive to tourists and businessmen alike if such a feature is available. Also, no one has so much time in their schedule to wait for their bill, give cash payment, process transactions, and manually count change every time.
Unreliable Staff and Maintenance
If you have seen online reviews and forums about the hospitality business then you are already aware of how much people give importance to a hotel’s staff and maintenance crew. If they are trained well in the proper upkeep and hygiene of your establishment then your customers can trust you and later on can become regular patrons. Every time one room or facility is vacated, have someone do a thorough cleaning and sweeping of the place in order to ensure that the next occupant will also experience the best condition. For best practices, have someone check out a room before allowing the guest to enter so you can be more sure.
No Sign of Business
It is difficult to know that you are a hospitality business if you have no sign that you are one and in full operation. Nowadays, people get to book a place for their accommodation online so it means that you should also be searchable across the internet. If not, you miss out on the chance of possible bookings. Some information goes hand in hand with this. You should be able to provide your address, contact information, and even a road map people can follow to arrive at your place. The most important part of this is your reception area. Most places with the best services also have the best receiving area where people can confirm their bookings, process their payments, and inquire for more information.
Unresponsive Customer Service
Providing a responsive customer service lets your customers know that you care for them and that you can be reached for any concerns or problems. The problem is, most hospitality businesses can provide this but some only to the extent of their business hours. To ensure that you don’t miss anything, station personnel for your customer service all throughout the day, every day. If your customers can reach out to you anytime then you can ensure that not only will problems and concerns reach you but probable customers from curious onlookers and internet searchers as well.
Keeping up with the tight competition in the hospitality industry requires you to avoid these mistakes. Surely, you wouldn’t even have to go through the experience of doing them if you know about them in the first place. Because of this, you can now focus on the more important aspects of your business.
