An Enduring Customer Service Training Program That Contributed To Residence Inn Becoming A Thriving Global Brand
THE NEED
Three business objectives:
Design and implement a new standardized service training curriculum to be rolled out to 300 hotels
Get buy-in from property managers and regional teams
Make the training program simple and fun – a key aspect of Residence Inn culture – for property managers to operationalize
How We Delivered
I led a task force of stakeholders among managed and franchise hotels to benchmark best-in-show service training programs
From the Residence Inn mission statement, we developed a Service So Memorable service and hospitality training platform based on a safari journey and created a self-paced training booklet
On a regional basis around the country, we then hosted two-day Train the Trainer workshops with two team leaders from each property
The Service So Memorable curriculum was tied into the brand’s Quality Performance Review process so it could be measured and celebrated
Results
The impact on the brand and its employees was astounding
Guest Satisfaction Scores for the brand improved over 3 points in one year following implementation
Service So Memorable training was widely adopted and became a life of its own at the hotels with employee awards, incentives and recognition
The daily employee pre-shift meeting (aka the Daily Huddle) and Service So Memorable pocket card illustrating simple behavioral models and skills became a vital component of a hotel’s success in improving guest satisfaction.
