Several of us stayed at the Chicago Hilton last week while at the AME Annual Conference and I believe we were all impressed with the level of service. Dave Hogg of the HPM Consortium, who also happens to be the chair of next year’s AME Conference in Toronto, said it best with the following from his own newsletter.
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In striving to be ‘World Class’ all we have to work with are People, Processes and Technology / Equipment. And those that find ways of combining these three elements while focusing on their customer’s success will outperform their competitors. It matters not whether you are running a hot dog stand or a huge hotel. Most principles are the same.
The Chicago Hilton is a very large hotel of over 1,500 rooms combined with 234,000 square feet of conference space. It’s a little like an ocean liner on land. But what was impressive to your editor was the precision with which facilities were transformed by an army of highly motivated ant-like and purposeful workers.
Being a customer of the hotel, one gets the chance to see the rubber-hitting-the-road outcomes (if you look) such as how all services are provided. While they were impeccably delivered everywhere, what I found most impressive was cheerful, honestly helpful, self-confident people who made direct eye contact with you as they expressed a cheerful Good Morning or other acknowledgement. And they did it 24 hours a day – and it came from people at all stations in this complex. All you had to do is appear as though you were unsure and they were upon you to provide help.
In the security office I asked to photograph a poster entitled: “WOW Service Basics” but was told I needed to get approval. So off I went to the executive offices of this huge hotel to get a copy. As I encountered the reception desk the receptionist just received an urgent call and asked me if she could locate one of the top executive to respond to the call. I said fine, off she went.
As I stood there executives were moving in and out of the office area and every one of them, seeing me standing there, stopped to see if I needed help. In fact it got almost to humorous by the 8th or 9th time I was asked that I was thinking of pinning a sign on my chest saying I was being looked after. When she returned I told her how impressed I was with the hotel, after which she scurried away and came back beaming. She said ‘this is our bible’ — this is what we live by and we even coach each other on when we slip. Those very words said a lot to me as they indicated the existence of a top management who must be relentless in walking their talk as well as their commitment to training while building a team-based environment where everyone looks after each other.
The above condensed set of guidelines that they live by and refer to as their “WOW Service Basics,” is supported by – what else – a CAN DO ATTITUDE which is very much related to Henry Ford’s CANDO steps which are now 5S.
When you look at them – think of how you might apply some or all of them to your own environment. Here they are… Helping every guest and team member be their best.
One of the major tours by the attending manufacturers was a full scale look at how a huge hotel does its processes.
Brad Kenney says
Kevin — interesting dichotomy of experience here between you and Dave on one hand, and myself on the other, which kind of shows the difference between locations, even those (especially those?) under the same corporate umbrella.
I stayed at a Hilton last weekend as well, this one the Hilton Bayfront in Tampa Bay, Florida (I was there for two nights for an Association of Business Press Editors board meeting) and don’t have a single thing nice to say about the experience.
On the contrary, the hotel room furniture was shoddy, the doors didn’t shut right, the internet connection didn’t work and I had to call the same, surly front desk staff to send the same, surly maintenance guy up to my room three times to change out the ethernet cable and a broken phone.
Then, I get back home after six long days on the road and am going through my online AMEX statement and preparing my expense report, and lo and behold there’s a $952 charge from the Hilton. Just for reference, I was only there 2 nights, and those were prepaid by the association, so there should have been no charge whatsoever from this particular hotel.
When I finally get in touch with them, the manager sends me a rude and inaccuracy-filled email saying that the charges were justified since I stole nearly a thousand dollars worth of property from the hotel room (including, according to the front desk staff, stealing the curtains off of the curtain rods!) This *gentleman* didn’t bother, however, to do anything like send me an invoice, or offer to send documentation/photographs of the supposed damage – you know, normal business procedure (like informing someone when you’re going to charge their credit card for nearly a thousand dollars).
Point is, as far as I can tell I’m the target of a scam attempt by Hilton Bayfront hotel staff aimed at people traveling with corporate credit cards, who are likely as not to just send the bill through the AP system to get pencil-whipped through to the check-cutters without a second glance.
Just to bring it back around to manufacturing and our collective reason for being, how many times have you heard this one before? At the HQ the heart of the company beats proudly and all the rules are followed to the letter, while the disease of waste, poor service (and even outright corruption) eats away at the fringes of the corporate reputation and, more importantly, the product (in this case manufacturing customer experiences for business travelers)? Like any chain, the Hilton hotel chain is only as good as its weakest link, and “world class” is a pretty tough standard for any global business to uphold globally (and one that is obviously out of Hilton’s reach).
Just my two cents — $952 will buy a lot of those…
Louis English PhD. says
Kevin – Your comments about World Class requiring all aspects of work(People, Processes and Technology / Equipment) come together for the customer is especially important in the service business. We call it the “Moment of Truth”. The moment when all aspects of the customer experience come together seamlessly, each fulfilling the customer needs perfectly. If one fails it does not matter how well the others are done, it is a total service failure.
I stayed at a 5 star hotel in Cincinnati a few years ago and had all the experiences you talked about about. All was perfect until I stepped into the shower and had no hot water. No matter how soft the white terry cloth robe was, how nice the receptionist was, how classy the chocolate in the pillow was, this was no longer a 5 star hotel for me.
Lou English
Mark Graban says
I’m a top tier frequent guest at Hilton and I’ve seen that Hilton probably has the most quality variation across properties of any major chain. For example, the Hilton in Albuquerque is disgusting — dirty carpets and bedspreads, rude staff, and bad service.
I’ve stayed at that Hilton Bayfront and they didn’t try that scam on me, thankfully.
http://www.tripadvisor.com is a great resource for researching individual properties (and for reporting problems).
tony fernandes says
I believe this is a natural outcome of not adopting ‘best practices’ across the organisation
Benchmarking too,if at all practised, may be limited to industry-benchmarking, and not ‘cross-industry’, or ‘transnational’ benchmarking.
The ‘Net Promoter Score’ Blog in BestPrax Club’s website ,illustrates a Power Practice, that will quicklt arrest any downslide in ‘customer-satisfaction’
Karen Wilhelm says
During the AME conference in Chicago, my husband and I stayed at the Best Western, three blocks south on Michigan Ave. At $140 per night, we had similar customer service. When I realized the week before that my reservation was a day short, I called the hotel and Carissa was able to retrieve the reservation I had made online. Naturally that meant that she couldn’t change it, but she went ahead and added a reservation, guaranteed I wouldn’t have to change rooms, and honored the original price I’d gotten even though she was adding a Friday night.
When I arrived, Carissa was at the desk and remembered talking to me on the phone. There was no fancy entrance or doorman, but it was easy to grab a bellcart and take it the short distance to our car and bring it in. We were offered assistance, but like doing things ourselves. Carissa explained the parking situation (expensive, but normal in Chicago at $25 per day – how much was the Hilton?) and was perfectly happy that we had left the car with lights flashing on 11th Ave where the entrance to the hotel was located. We could get the car whenever we needed it by calling the desk.
Actually when I arrived, I had to wait a few minutes to check in, bacause Carissa was giving careful instructions about taking the bus to two other guests who wanted to get to North Mich Ave.
The carpet wasn’t as nice, but the room was pretty good for the price. I’ve paid more in Chicago for less. The towels weren’t as fluffy, but we had plenty of them. The linens were higher quality than in most places.
When I had trouble accessing the wireless network, the guy at the desk talked me through a couple of troubleshooting attempts. When they didn’t work, he had someone at our door with a cable almost immediately. Of course, by then I’d tried the microsoft fix of turning everything off and rebooting. The hotel’s wireless service was fine. And free.
After a night with a spouse who likes to sleep in a chilly room, I asked for a second blanket around 11pm the next night. I had it at my door in less than 10 minutes.
When I called the desk each time, the phone was answered promptly and courteously. Whenever we came in or went out, we were treated like honored guests. Everyone was friendly and smiling. The day we left, one of the staff at the desk was calling other hotels to find a room for a woman who had arrived without a reservation. It was Saturday and the hotel was all booked up.
This in contrast to the day before when I was in the Hilton lobby talking to another conference attendee and a hotel employee literally pushed me out of the way to allow a group of obvously more important people to pass through to the elevator.
Did you get lost? The hotel was very confusing and the signage not much better. One sign read “Alternative Women’s Restroom.” I’m afraid to ask about the alternative women. (The sign was there because there were many more men’s rooms than women’s rooms. Huh?) Another read “Door is Alarmed.” Maybe by the behaviour of the alternative women? Or the men looking for alternative women?
Actually, the people at the Hilton serving meals and in the 8th street lobby were all attentive and courteous. The carpets were amazing, and having a pianist at the grand piano in one of the lobbies was a touch of elegance.
Back to the subject – it’s all about value in the eyes of the customer. I wasn’t looking for luxury, and I got better service than I expected for my $140. If I’d wanted more cushy surroundings and wasn’t paying my own expenses, the Hilton at $250 or thereabouts would have made sense.
As for Hiltons in different cities, maybe it’s Chicago that is the factor. It’s a great city. Except for Nieman Marcus, but that’s a different story.