WHO IS ACTUALLY OUR CUSTOMER?

Monday, 24.07.2017

Customer-Oriented Action

Can you describe "the guest" with whom you or your employees deal with in service every day? Can't you? Don't worry: Then you are not alone. Drawing the ideal guest on the drawing board and being able to anticipate all his needs may have been a nice fantasy in the early euphoria of digitization. By now, we know: "The digital customer" is not a benchmarked fairy-tale prince to build yourself. THE GUEST, THE UNKNOWN BEING The flood of data has by no means made "the guest," the unknown being, a predictable benchmark. On the contrary: The more data we have about our guests, the more demanding the service becomes. Because digitally pampered guests are accustomed to individuality. In addressing, in preparation, in service, in complaint management - in every detail. Where everything is at stake in service, the human factor is still crucial. According to a survey by Bookatable, 86 percent of restaurant visitors still believe that personal service matters today. This poses a challenge in the digital world for which there is no schematic answer. We now apply analog interaction from consultation to restaurant service according to digital standards - in a highly colorful manner. How do we solve this dilemma? By presenting our guests with personalities that are just as colorful. COLORFUL AND INDIVIDUAL If digital customers are a colorful cloud, this can only mean one thing for talent selection: There is also no "employee." A digital nomad in a T-shirt does not want to be served by a waiter who still has a formal mindset. Where hotels and restaurants used to score with uniformity, stars, and standards, today the individual qualities of each employee are particularly important. Ultimately, these are also the qualities that are evaluated on platforms like Yelp or Tripadvisor. Hospitality businesses that reflect the colorful life, pick up on the individuality of their guests, and make their lives more colorful are particularly successful with digital customers. They master many disciplines - because limiting oneself to one type of guest no longer works today. CUSTOMER-ORIENTED LEADERSHIP A great team is a bunch of colorful characters. The greatest value of service personalities lies not in similarities but in differences in life path, qualifications, and character. Of course, a qualitative framework is still needed to enable the freedom of radically customer-oriented leadership. However, only people who meet guests in all their diversity on an equal footing can fill it. Because they are just as free. END WITH STANDARDS! So we are not looking for employees who resemble old standards - or their boss. This is a bad habit of monkey business, where success still arises from adaptation. Let's put an end to the myth of the "ideal host" - it exists just as little as the "ideal guest." For the profile of Top100 Speakers Carsten K. Rath: https://www.speakers-excellence.de/redner/carsten-k-rath-service-hotelbranche.html You might also be interested in: https://www.speakers-excellence.de/se/blog/kundenservice/ Articles on the topic: https://www.impulse.de/serie/kunden-begeistern