A couple of months ago, I wrote an article an article in Linked-in titled "726 Opportunities"
It was one of my most viewed/read articles with many "Liking" the article and providing me feedback. After a month of being published, I received a private message asking me "how it works." As I wrote in the article, I did not change the checklist as much since it was created however, I validate it at least once a year to ensure relevancy with the requirements of the current traveling market. For me, how it works is really simple. It is not about evaluating based on a checklist. It is about our experiences and utilizing our 5 senses and most importantly, evaluating from a customer's prism... its becoming a (Secret) Customer vs. a Secret Shopper.
Prior to the pandemic and before launching my consulting firm, I had an opportunity to use this checklist as I conducted a pro-bono Product and Service Evaluation for one of the area hotels of a good friend. The objective was simple - "5 Star Service in a 3 Star Hotel". He knew the hotel will never be higher than a 3 Star rating because of several factors relating to hotel amenities such as Swimming Pool, Hotel Restaurants, Club Concierge, 24/7 Room Service, etc. My friend wanted though to have concrete metrics so he can recommend necessary Service improvements and Facility capital expenditures for the owners to ensure it becomes a "Recommended Forbes Travel Guide Hotel."
The result of my evaluation yielded three areas of concentration:
Graciousness, Thoughtfulness and Sense of Personalized Service
Courtesy and Manners
Elements of Luxury related mainly to Housekeeping Guestroom Amenities and Details of presentation.
A couple of weeks ago, I called my friend to congratulate him on having very good Social Media ratings in Staff and Service. From low 80% ratings two years ago, to high 80% and even a 92%. He thanked me for the evaluation and told me that during the pandemic months, he concentrated on my findings as it didn't cost him anything. All he did was to incorporate the training in the daily line-up with his employees and even included basic cultural nuances of different nationalities who stay in the hotel. He now feels more confident that his hotel can obtain a "Recommended Hotel Rating" from Forbes Travel Guide if not this year, next year.
After the call, I looked at what I wrote in my website and smiled serenely:
"What I love to do has always been a passion... and at this junction, my goal is to provide companies with insights, strategies and actions to excellence in customer engagement and service quality."
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