What we seem to have forgotten when it comes to Service
While our governments have locked us dowm of course there has been no service. Allegedly because service is considered not to be relevant for society.
Service is needed by everyone
Not only service in restaurants, hotels, at the hairdresser's but also culture, concerts, events. Weddings, birthdays and funerals are important for society and are missed. If that wasn't the case, we could go straight back into the caves. With our population, there aren't enough caves anymore so we have to reopen everything else - from hotels to the smallest shops. And schools? Schools are relevant to the system and the only job that one can apparently do without education, training or work experience is that of a politician. But we don't want to do that to our children.
Real good service is needed again
What is that now? I'm sure some people are wondering. In the last few decades, hotels and restaurants have shaped their service offerings according to the wishes and guidelines of the financially strong chains - Hotel & Restaurant became Standard operating procedure run instead of customer serving. “Optimize” operations they called it, “Uniformed” would be the better expression combined with “Reduced” and often converted into “Self-service” which means “no service” at all. Optimal for profit - negative for the guest and hospitality in general.
The small ones are the fine ones
Good service was only found in the small, often family-run companies that still looked after the guests, knew them and remembered birthdays and anniversaries without a reservation. However, these are the ones who suffer most from the Corona measures and many of them are already broke or close to it. We are losing diversity, true service and also part of our culture.
Perfect inhuman service
All of the phrases coined by chains of hotels and restaurants, from the rehearsed robot-like greeting to the forced sentences to upsell, made the service simple but inhuman. Perfect for chains and from Hamburg to Santiago de Chile you are greeted with the same sentences, harassed during your stay with the same phrases. Even the question, "How are you", is automatically translated by every guest into "I really don't care" . I am just doing my job.”
In the next articles, we will explain what really good service should be, from breakfast to greeting, housekeeping, reception, restaurant and management using examples - good and bad.
This is done in German but also in English for all interested parties here on our website www.itsjusthotelsservice.com, on our YouTube channel “Service Richtig - Hotels, Restaurants, Cruise” and our podcast (https://podcastaddict.com/podcast/3134091).
There will be short but substantial lessons with the hope that the few who still know what service means will pass this knowledge on. Comments are welcome and hoped for.
Author: Stephan Busch, Academic Director at the State University for the Humanities Moscow RGGU, Faculty of Tourism & Hospitality and the Swiss International University earned his Master Certificate in Hospitality Management from Cornell University, USA. He has a diverse experience in launching operations, business development and service training- for hotel and cruise companies in Asia, Europe, Canada and Russia.
www.itsjusthotelsservice.com, contact@itsjusthotelsservice.com