BWI Challenges ‘Indifference’
By Staff -- Hotels, 2/1/2008
“I Care” training program aims to lead the industry in superior customer care.
Now that most hoteliers can advertise their “heavenly” beds, ultra-hip lounges and state-of-the-art gadgetry, perhaps the time has come to focus on the soft goods. As all business activities tend to be cyclical, the moment has arrived for the hotel industry to go through its next servicefocused cycle. With a U.S. News and World Report survey finding 68% of customers leave a brand due to an attitude of indifference, Best Western International (BWI), Phoenix, Arizona, is one of many hotel companies recognizing the need to make service and customer care a stronger part of its culture. As a result, it has launched a new service-oriented training program, I Care, with the ultimate vision of leading the industry in “superior customer care.”“Product experiences are important, but they are not points of difference,” CEO David Kong says. “They are price of entry items. If we want to compete effectively in a certain market or command a certain average rate, we have to offer similar product experiences. However, the product experiences are not enough to connect with guests emotionally.”
To help its membership make the connection, BWI has invested millions of dollars (US$3 million or more, according to Ric Leutwyler, senior vice president of brand quality and member services) in the I Care program, which is a system that looks to create customerfocused interactions so guests are completely acknowledged and assisted everywhere, every time. The process teaches that each interaction with a guest offers the opportunity to anticipate guest needs and create powerful, memorable moments of truth. The final proof of success is measured in satisfaction scores, of course, and the initial BWI pilot program reflected that.
BWI spent 2007 perfecting its plans through a pilot program with more than 60 properties taking part in on-site training for all members of their teams. Workshops certified more than 200 managers and almost 1,200 team members. Sixty more managers participated in regional town hall sessions, where they received leadership training and a tool kit known as “The Tabletop Trainer” to bring back to their hotels for staff training.
After the pilot, guest satisfaction levels increased across the board, according to Leutwyler. On a 5-point scale, hotels came into the program with 4.1 rating on service. Some 12 weeks after training, the pilot hotels scored an average of 4.55. “We wanted to see sustained and incremental growth, as well,” Leutwyler says. “Every time we measured satisfaction, it went up.” In addition, member satisfaction with the program averaged 4.75 on a 5-point scale.
As a result, the boldest customer care initiative in BWI’s 61-year history was launched with every member given free access to the training and certification program—either on site, via regional workshops or online. Leutwyler says the company has the resources to reach every member of the BWI team (at 2,300 hotels) within the first six months of 2008.
Leutwyler says the biggest challenge for managers trying to implement this program at the property level is, not surprisingly, teaching staff how to feel and act empowered. “We are trying to tap into what is inside owners, managers and staff. We want them to come up with bold ways to make it happen and step outside whatever boundaries they felt before. It is like taking off handcuffs and letting these people do what they need to do for guests.”
The other big challenge is to maintain the initial momentum of a new program. While the toolkit has logs to track individual “moments of truth,” game cards for team role playing and specific curriculum for every job title, BWI leaders visit Americas properties twice a year (international hotels at least once) and provide ongoing I Care training on each visit, as well as at workshops during its two annual brand conventions. While the program is not mandatory, service quality will be part of the assessment process, as are ongoing customer satisfaction scores.
Another centerpiece of the program is a partnership with a new software company to gather, monitor and track feedback from customers versus member competitive sets. Since partnering with Medallia last summer, BWI has collected and analyzed nearly 500,000 customer reviews. “We are focused on guest satisfaction surveys and looking at how they are moving up and how it stacks up versus our competition,” says Leutwyler. “It’s a five-year plan focusing on progress heading in the right direction.”
Lastly, BWI has created a new customer care category in its annual awards program. Twenty-one hotels received the award in the inaugural year. Taking it a step further in 2008, winners of “most heroic hospitality” awards in North America will be flown to the brand convention in Hawaii.
To make sure the corporation is doing its part, internally BWI is looking for the same transformation at its company headquarters. The director of process improvement is looking at the way members are served and making changes to avoid disappointment.
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