Among
his many accomplishments, Steve Jobs inspired the world to live creatively,
expand boundaries, and continuously fuel the will to succeed.
His journey—and his eagerness to share it with
the public—stand as a foundation for all to build upon. Consistently quotable
and incomparably wise, Coyle Hospitality Group presents five lessons the hotel
industry can learn from Steve Jobs.
1. Guest experience trumps everything else. At
its core, Jobs was about improving the user experience. That is why the guest
experience should be the number one priority for any hotel. To optimize the
guest (or user) experience, one must break down the criteria into their
simplest forms, and challenge its value to the guest/user. Steve Jobs held
focus and simplicity in the highest regard; he said, “Simple can be harder than
complex: You have to work hard to get your thinking clean to make it simple.”
Jobs started with simplicity to improve the end-user experience, and his idea
directly translates to hotel guest experience. With clear, straightforward
standards that are all about guest experience—and to measure it along the
way—you can consistently make sure your staff is always, and reflexively,
looking out for #1: the guest.
2. Emphasize the importance of teamwork. Jobs
said that “great things in business are never done by one person—they're done
by a team of people.” In a hotel, teamwork is the backbone of the guest
experience. Without excellent interdepartmental execution, the number of hotel
incidents—from delivering an incorrect room service order to double-booking a
room—skyrockets. Hotel employees are also continuously in the presence of a
hotel’s guest, communicating meaningfully with them. If staff members and guest
alike act like a team advocating for your hotel at all times, you will see
improvements in guest loyalty, brand perception, and overall profit.
3. Details make all the difference. Jobs
explained that if he “had never dropped in on [a calligraphy] course in
college, the Mac would have never had multiple typefaces or proportionally
spaced fonts." He was the first person in the computer world to care about
aesthetic details—small differences that actually matter to the user. Hotels
naturally have a very diverse workforce, a veritable font of unique perspective
and idea generation that can come in many forms. Additionally, a hotel guest’s
experience is highly influenced by small, subjective aspects. Ambiance,
guestroom touches, guest name use, and smiling are all small details that
significantly alter the experience. Deliver these things authentically, and the
offering will naturally be interesting and compelling.
4. Train employees to produce excellent
quality, and hold them accountable for it. Jobs advised: "Be a yardstick of
quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is
expected." Define what the superior product culture is—both tangibly and
intangibly—and inspect it from every angle. Continuously train staff members to
ensure guests are consistently experiencing that quality, and hold managers
accountable. Expecting excellence and then measuring your organization’s
dedication to that standard will make it difficult to miss the mark.
5. Learn from your mistakes. Jobs admitted
that “getting fired from Apple was the best thing that could have ever happened
to [him]…It freed [him] to enter one of the most creative periods of [his]
life.” He was able to take a step back, analyze what went wrong, and create a
plan for his future. He founded NeXT and bought Pixar before returning to Apple
and making the company stronger than ever. In hotels, the mistakes are often
behavioural and affect guests on a personal and emotional level. Quality
assurance audits and mystery shopping will locate problem areas and provide an
environment to practice on the evaluator. It is very hard to see oneself, and
the biggest mistake of all is to lack a grasp of the perspective of the
customer. The seemingly simple request at the front desk is more than likely an
incredibly important moment of truth for the guest. See that from their
perspective and it will be a mistake that is never repeated.
By Coyle Hospitality Group
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