Episode 859 - Top 5 Hospitality Tips You Can Use in Any Industry

0:04 Helping leaders motivate their people to a higher level of performance through strong human relations, team building, and goal achieving. This is the 7-Minute Leadership Podcast with your host, Paul Falavolito.

0:22 Hello, everyone, and welcome to the 7-Minute Leadership Podcast. It's episode 859. I want you to think about the last time you walked into a really nice hotel. Maybe it was Ritz-Carlton, a Marriott, or even a small family-owned hotel where the employees seemed genuinely happy to see you. Someone greeted you. Someone made eye contact. Maybe somebody remembered your name, offered to help with your luggage, or asked how your trip was going. And within a few minutes, you had already formed an opinion about that business. Now, here's a question.

0:59 Why can't every workplace operate that way? Why can't a hospital make people feel that welcome? Why can't a manufacturing company treat its employees with that level of attention? Why can't an ambulance service, a law firm, or a corporate office deliver the same experience? They absolutely can. And today, I'm going to give you five hospitality tips that you can take straight out of the hotel and resort industry and apply to practically anything. any business in the world.

1:35 And I have a little experience with this. Before my career in emergency services, I worked for Club Med in Mexico. I spent time in an environment where the entire business revolved around creating an experience for the guests. When you work in hospitality, you learn something very quickly. People remember how you made them feel long after they've forgotten the details of what you actually did for them. And that lesson has followed me throughout my entire leadership career. So let's dive in. Tip number one, the first 30 seconds sets the tone. Think about walking into that hotel lobby.

2:17 You haven't checked into your room. You haven't slept in the bed. You haven't eaten at the restaurant. And yet you've already made judgments about the property. Is it clean? Are the employees friendly? Does anyone acknowledge you? Does the place feel organized? Hospitality professionals understand that the experience begins before the actual service is delivered. Now apply that to your business. What happens when a new employee walks through your door on their first day? Does somebody greet them?

2:50 Is their workstation ready? Does their supervisor know they're coming or do they walk into a building where nobody seems to know who they are? Think about the message that sends. I tell leaders all the time that the first day of employment is one of the most important days in someone's career with your organization. That employee may have been looking forward to this opportunity for weeks. They might have told their family how excited they are, and then they showed up and someone says, Oh, you're the new person?

3:21 Hang on. I think somebody's supposed to train you. Congratulations. You've already damaged the experience. So here's your action item. Walk through your business tomorrow as though you're a first-time visitor. Pay attention to what you see and hear during those first 30 seconds. Then ask yourself whether that experience represents the organization that you want to lead. Tip number two, anticipate needs before somebody has to ask. This is one of my favorite lessons from hospitality. Great hotel employees pay attention.

3:59 If a guest walks into the lobby carrying several bags, somebody offers assistance. If a family arrives with small children, a thoughtful employee recognizes that they may need a little extra patience. If a guest looks confused, somebody approaches and offers directions. The employee is reading the situation and taking action.

4:23 Now imagine bringing that same thinking into your workplace. A supervisor notices that a new employee is struggling with a particular assignment. They step in and offer some coaching before that employee becomes frustrated. Or a manager notices that the next shift is going to be extremely busy, so they make sure the supplies are stocked and the work area is ready. A department head realizes that an upcoming deadline is going to create problems for another department, so they reach out early. This is hospitality thinking applied to operational leadership, and it can dramatically improve how your organization functions. So here's something I want you to consider. How many problems in your business happened because somebody saw an issue developing

5:12 and waited for someone else to address it? Probably more than you'd like to admit. Teach your people to pay attention to what's happening around them. Reward employees who recognize needs and take appropriate action. because anticipation is one of the most valuable skills you can develop in any workforce.

5:34 Tip number three, every employee owns the experience. If you've ever stayed at a really well-run hotel, you've probably noticed something interesting. The quality of the experience doesn't depend entirely on the person working at the front desk. The housekeeper matters. The maintenance employee matters. The person preparing breakfast matters. Every employee has an opportunity to influence the guest's opinion of the business. And that brings me to something that drives me absolutely crazy in organizations. The phrase, that's not my job.

6:12 I cannot stand that mentality. Imagine you're staying at a hotel and you ask an employee where the elevators are and they respond, I work in housekeeping. You'll have to ask the front desk. How would you feel? You would probably think that that employee could have taken five seconds to help you. Now think about your workplace. Does your accounting department understand how its work affects your frontline employees?

6:38 Does your maintenance team understand how its work affects your customers? Does your leadership team understand how its decisions affect the people who have to carry them out? Everyone contributes to the experience and leaders need to communicate that expectation. At my job, I want our employees to understand that the experience we provide extends beyond the patient receiving medical care.

7:04 It includes how we treat family members, how we communicate with hospital staff, and how we leave our ambulances in station for the next crew. The next employee coming to work deserves a good experience too. That's hospitality thinking. And here's the challenge. At your next staff meeting, ask everyone this question. How does your job affect somebody else's experience in this organization? You might be surprised by the conversation that follows. Tip number four. Service recovery can define your reputation.

7:41 Let's talk about something every business experiences. Mistakes. A hotel room isn't ready when promised. A restaurant gets an order wrong. A customer... receives incorrect information, something goes wrong. And what happens next becomes a defining moment. In hospitality, there's a concept called service recovery. It's the process of recognizing a problem, taking ownership of it, and working to restore the customer's confidence.

8:12 And I think every leader should understand this. Let's say a guest arrives at a hotel after a long flight and and discovers that their reservation has been entered incorrectly. They're tired. They're frustrated. They want to get to their room. Now imagine the front desk employee says, I'm sorry this happened.

8:31 Let me see what I can do to get this resolved. They take ownership. They explain what they're doing. They keep the guest informed. Even when the solution takes time, that guest can see somebody working on their behalf. Now apply this to leadership. An employee brings you a scheduling problem. A customer complains about poor service. A project falls behind.

8:54 How do you respond? Do you acknowledge the issue and take responsibility for moving it towards a solution? Do you follow up afterward? Because one of the fastest ways to lose someone's confidence is to make them explain the same problem over and over again to different people. So here's my advice. When something goes wrong, make sure somebody owns the resolution. Give that person the authority and resources they need and close the loop with the person who raised the concern. People notice when leaders follow through. And tip number five, create an experience people want to return to.

9:38 And this is the big one. And I want you to really think about this. The hospitality industry spends money An enormous amount of effort trying to get people to come back. Hotels want repeat guests. Restaurants want regular customers. Resorts want families to return year after year. And the experience is what helps make that happen. So let me ask you something. What if you applied that exact same philosophy to employee retention? What if you approached your workplace with the goal of creating an experience that employees actually look forward to returning to? Think about that. What would have to change? Would your supervisors need to communicate differently?

10:23 Would your onboarding process need improvement? Would you need to address certain workplace behaviors that everyone has been tolerating? Would your employees need to feel more appreciated? I have a saying that I've used throughout my leadership career, human first, employee second, because every person who walks into your workplace has a life Outside of that building, they have families, they have responsibilities, they have good days and difficult days, and the way we treat people at work matters. Hospitality teaches us that small moments can have an enormous impact on the overall experience. Remembering someone's name, recognizing a job well done, checking on an employee who seems unusually quiet,

11:12 making sure people have the tools they need to succeed. These are things leaders can do every single day. And here's one more point worth remembering. Your employees are also experiencing your organization. They're experiencing your policies, your communication, your training, and your leadership. If that experience is consistently frustrating, eventually some of them are going to look for somewhere else to work. So I want you to start thinking about like a hospitality leader, ask yourself, what would make somebody want to come back here tomorrow? And then start building that experience because your workplace has a reputation among the people who work there. And that reputation is being shaped

12:04 every day. So there you have it. Five Hospitality lessons that can improve leadership in practically any industry. Make the first impression count, anticipate needs, take ownership of the experience, recover from mistakes, and create a workplace people want to return to. This week, pick one of these ideas and put it into action because great hospitality begins with people paying attention to people and great leadership works together. the exact same way. This has been the 7-Minute Leadership Podcast, and I thank you for listening.

12:47 For more Paul Falivalito podcasts, visit paulfalivalito.com.