The Baltimore Sun has just reported that body language helps hotel employees interact better with customers.
In this rough economic time it is especially important for pricier hotels to employ experts to help their employees interact well with customers and ensure that they have a great experience. Hotels are finding every way possible to ensure that their customers are kept happy in an effort to promote return business.
One hotel chain Affinia, sought the advice of a body language expert to ensure high quality service for their customers. Housekeeping up to maintenance were trained to spot the signs of frustration, discontent and anger. Even hotel reservation teams can benefit from this training according to Chrissy Denihan, Affinia‘s chief comfort officer.
The hotel industry relies heavily on good rapport. If a person has a unpleasant experience at a hotel then they are less likely to stay at that hotel chain again especially if the cost is high. Word of mouth can really build or ruin a hotel chain.
According to Denihan, research shows that women often respond better to face-to-face interaction whereas men prefer side-by-side communication. Also, the biggest mistake is to talk too calmly (when someone is upset) and be too soothing,” Denihan said. “The person on the line doesn’t hear a sense of urgency to help them.”
What are your thoughts on hotel chains employing body language experts? Do you think it will help in customer relations or have neutral effect?
Having worked as a chauffeur for 5 years and spending plenty of time at and working with the staff at many 5 star resort hotels, I’d say it’ll have a positive effect over all.
My impression was that the better the hotel, the more in tune the staff was with their guests and patrons, and the better they handled issues in a timely fashion. There are of course exceptions, but they’re exceptions for a reason. As a rule, this will help– as long as they seek out credible experts rather than the cleverly marketed but ill-informed, self-proclaimed experts.