THINK

DURING THE MONTH OF NOVEMBER AND DECEMBER I SHALL VISIT ALL THE HOTELS IN JAVA AND IN EAST INDONESIA. DURING THE VISIT I SHALL MAKE A PRESENTATION TO ALL THE EMPLOYEES WITH THE TITLE:
“THE DIFFERENCE” BELOW PLEASE FIND A WRITE UP OF MY PRESENTATION. YOU CAN PRINT IT OUT AND GIVE IT TO THE EMPLOYEES AS A HAND OUT. OR JUST GIVE IT TO THE SUPERVISORS. ALSO DURING MY VISIT I SHALL INTERVIEW ALL THE DEPARTMENT HEADS AND 5 RANKING FILE EMPLOYEES. THE DATES AND TIMES WILL BE GIVEN TO THE HOTELS SHORTLY. GENERAL MANAGERS HAVE ALREADY BEEN INFORMED ABOUT MY VISIT. I AM LOOKING FORWARD TO DISCUSS ALL MATTERS STATED BELOW WITH YOU.
KARL WAELTI



The difference of EXTRA CARE SERVICE..
What is making the difference between a three start hotel, a four star hotel, a five star hotel and a seven star hotel. Is it the standards of service or are there other factors that will play a role? It is defiantly not just the standard but it’s the people who are working in these hotels who are making the difference. The way they have been trained. The way they talk to the guests and very special it is their attitude that makes the difference.
Guests are paying for our service and they have a right to find a clean room and good food in our restaurant. To serve fast and that we are doing a good job is the expectation. We charge good money for it. The extra is above these expectations. That we have Internet access in the guest rooms is an expectation. That we have the best and latest TV channels in new models of TV set is also an expectation and not an extra. The extra lays above all these basic expectations.
Why do we need to provide extra? It is very simple if we want to shine out we have to provide a better service than all the other competitors.

Here arises the question why we are in business?
Some people think we are here to make the difference, or we want to be best. These assumptions are wrong. There is only one reason why we are in business and that is to make money. So our idea of Extra Care does not come from a wrong perspective. Extra care does not cost more money but it will take more imagination, more concentration, and more awareness of delivery good service. We need to be friendlier, more outgoing to please our guests. We want to amaze our guests of what we can come up in our service. This makes our service non comparable. We want to get the guests to say: “WOW these people are really friendly. It is so pleasant to stay in this hotel because all the employees are so eager to please.” Bigger smiles and friendly conversations are changing the guest environment. So to say that we do not have budgeted is the wrong excuse since the EXTRA CARE does not cost more. It will even help to reduce the cost but the Extra has a lot of rewards. We always have the guest on our mind. We do not just want to cut the cost. We do not make the service more efficient by cutting our services. Our mission is to serve the guests. How can you deliver the extra is very simple just follow the Golden Rules.
Ever heard of the golden rules?
It is a universal law and you can find it in all the religion of the world. It simply says “Do to others what you would like them to do to you.” It is that simple. So what can you do to a guest who checks into your hotel? Just think how you would like to be checked in? This way you will find the answer very easily.
So I guess you are realizing that attitude is a key component in service. Our associates have to work and behave in such a way that the hotel can be proud of having them as an employee. We cannot just follow procedures we have to provide a service. We have to show kindness to our guests. We have to express our love for our job and our love for people. So it is not very difficult to analyze what is our business. Are we in the hotel business or in the food and beverage business, or are we in the accommodation business and in the restaurant business? These questions are not totally wrong but they are also not right. They do not really express what our business is. Therefore quite simply we are in the make people happy business. So we have just one purpose and that is to make people happy. The attitude of “its good enough” is just not good enough. We have to go all out to make our guests happy. So just follow the golden rules. “How would I like to be received by the hostess when I enter the restaurant?” We are in a great business where you can express yourself at all times. You can do it “Your Way”. Employees who understand our common mission and vision are policing themselves they do not need to be supervised. They will be empowered to do the best job for the guests and for the hotel. Therefore it is so important that we make sure that every employee understands our mission well. They should be able to tell the mission without reading it. So what is our mission? We should be obsessed to know our mission by hard.

Here our Mission.

“It is the extra care that counts.”

To provide our guest, owners and employees with the services they seek by being constantly sensitive to their needs and striving to deliver EXTRA CARE Services and values in all areas of hotel services and management. Extra care and effort brings extra rewards for all of us Customer, Owners, Employees and Management.

You can see our mission of extra is a statement of our attitude.

It is a way of thinking a way of working a way of life.
It comes from within the people who make up the hotels and the company.
Every day in all we do each of us must always look for the EXTRA CARE element we can add to improve everything we do for our customers and owners.

We want to train you for brilliant service or call it a legendary service. We believe that a standard service any hotel can provide. People learn procedures. For them no complaints means good service. People will not tell you whether they have been satisfied or delighted. If they are not satisfied they just do not come anymore. So we have to go for brilliant service to achieve customers delight. We have to amaze our guest with our attitude and friendliness. So back to the golden rules just ask yourselves if I would be a guests what would truly amaze me when checking in? Or when I am checking out? Or when I call room service? Once you have identified the how and the what, then we just implement it. We must get a WOW from the guests.

So let’s make some short lists of what we could do to amaze the guests? Once we know and we have identified the amazing service, we should make it a point and do it every time a guest is coming into our outlet. Consistently do it every time without stopping. It makes no point to do it for a few weeks and then let the great idea just die on a natural dead.

I think by now you can see that the WOW is not a matter of budget but a matter of your attitude. It’s low cost but high impact. Then we should look of how we can change our service to a very brilliant style. This way we will not just have guests with a high satisfaction but who are delighted with our service. What ever situation you are in you can always refer to the golden rules. Important is that we are writing down some of these famous stories of EXTRA CARE. By now we should have already a lot of collected stories about our employees on how they have demonstrated our EXTRA CARE.
Riz Carlton one of the best hotel chains in the world they have a slogan that says.
“Ladies and Gentleman we are serving Ladies and Gentlemen.” Usually ladies and gentlemen are well educated and know how to behave. What a great way to do it. “I guess you are a Gentleman?” We have to show our guests at all times that our only reason for being is to make our guests happy. We have great chefs in our company and we should be able to produce a high class kitchen. (Haute Cuisine)
The dancing waitress at the bottles in Makassar is spelling it out. She shows her enthusiasm for her job. Beside that we are very enthusiastic about our business we need to be very knowledgeable. We must show our commitment to brilliant guest service every day. We should speak every day about the service and keep on inventing to amaze them even more. Every department should have at the beginning of the shift a briefing or call it a “line up”.
As a basic thought we have to remember that we at all time must show the following to our guests and colleagues in all our actions:
Dignity,
Respect
Courtesy
Kindness

Dignity is not only for the guests but also for all our employees. We have to respect all and there is no reason why we should not show to our colleges the same courtesy and kindness as we give to our guests. We cannot have double standards. We cannot have two faces one for the guests and one for the back of house. Here we can realize that our employees will treat the guests in the same manner as we are treating them.

We should make it a point and every day we start with a briefing and we influence our employees with these four basic key points of relationship.

Good service cannot just be standard and procedures based. We cannot afford to become complacent or even arrogant. Often in places where they become very successful the biggest danger was complacency and indifference. Some manager’s say: “It’s the financial statement that counts. We make money and we do not have complains. They do not realize that it does not mean if the guests do not complain that people were happy with our services.
Let’s become creative and amaze our guests in the way we behave and how we are talking, and how we are walking, how we are looking at our guests. Why can’t we not make thing different. For example to answer the hotels phone by saying: ” It is a great day at the Quality Hotel, good morning my name is Dora how can I be of service to you? Say it loud and clear. It should sound fresh. That would make the difference. Sometimes to be different requires courage, since people might think that we are not normal. Telephone operators should have a telephone voice test before they are getting hired. They should have special training of how to talk on the phone. Just think of a radio talk host with a voice that sounds like a “drum” painful to the ear.

So it is simply the difference between us and other hotels: WE ARE NICER.
We also have to realize that not all the guests want to be treated the same way.

The way we walk shows our attitude. Whether we are busy or not we should show that what ever we do for us it’s urgent. Strolling is not appreciated. Guests might get the wrong message.

By now I hope you have realized that we have to stand out of the crowed to be recognized as the best service provider. Not just system or standard service but warm, friendly, loving service. Service from the heart.

We want to achieve: ”Satisfaction 100 % guaranteed”.

So it is very simple, we want that employees feel working in our hotels is fun. This will at the same time improve their conviviality. It is much nicer to be around happy people.
I strongly feel work can be fun. We just have to believe it and do it.

We like to give to everybody a virtual compass. This compass will always show the true north. The compass is build up on our Vision and Mission and on our joint values. It is important that you analyze what are your common values. Values like honesty, integrity, hope, believing in our goals and purpose as well as our mission.
The virtual compass will show us that everything is interrelated. In the north you have Choice as Franchisor and Management Company. On the right side the guests. We all must know our bosses are not the management team but the guests are our CEO. Guests are also stakeholders and they want instead return on their investment. On the right side we have the owners. They are also very important for us. Without owners we also have no hotel. They must get profits in order to pay back their loans. In the middle you see the employee. They are our most important assets. They are our ambassadors to the guests. The employees are the one who will make our guests happy. They are stake holder too and have hopes and expectations. It is the management job to see that all the three parties are getting what they want. Guests, Owners and Employees.
We must understand we all need each other. Therefore team work is a must.

We expect our associates to act and work in an ethical manner. “You do not need to cheat to win,” We are very much concerned of how we become successful. We want to do it right. We all appreciate our clean conscious mind. We are very proud of the fact to be honest and of high integrity, people can trust us. We do not cheat or support any criminal activities. We trust each other and appreciate the joint opportunities. On these bases we are planning our future.
Our weapons are smiles, enthusiasm. We are providing the best dining experience to our guests and we are fully aware that the dining experience does not just end after the dessert. We have to make sure that our guests are not getting sick from our meals we served. So we are checking any raw food and the cooked food items whether they are still consumable or not. Quality starts with hygiene.
We must realize if people get food poisoning it will spoil the fun and our reputation. All our efforts in culinary art will be wasted. So beware of food poisoning. Especially if the food is for several hours on a buffet.

You can see we have to change a lot of things and old habits specially the bad habits must go. We have to become better and we do not have just any amount of time available. It is now or never to fix it so please change your speed.
The future is rushing by at the speed of 60 Seconds a Minute.
To become number one in the race for excellence and then to stay no one is not easy achievable, we have to work hard. What it means for us that we have to keep on improving our skills and knowledge. As long we are in the race we have to improve from challenge to challenge. This is just to keep ourselves employable. Remember the one who stops improving will no longer be employable tomorrow.

We all must plan our future. But first visualize every day on your ultimate goal you want to achieve. Don’t be modest. If you can see it in your mind you can achieve it.

The hotel business is a glamour industry and we are in a very good location in the world. Our company is a rising star. We want to expand and this means we will have a lot of opportunities for you. It will be possible to work in foreign countries. You can become an instructor and work in one of our schools in Indonesia and in foreign land.

There are companies who believe that training is a waste of time and just a waste of money. But history has shown that Hotels will pay the price so or so. If you do not train you will need the money for paying for your employees mistakes. Therefore you will pay for training whether you train or you don’t train, but I believe to train is the cheaper solution. Why not become a specialist. Take some courses that are conducted by the CDI and the chance that you will get promoted is much better. If you are a kitchen help why not learn it properly at school. We run courses for food production, food and beverages and barman. We shall provide English courses on the internet. This will be good fun. Why not become a waitress and learn all the procedures. Learn the art of food and beverage service? It will open many new doors of opportunities. Doors will open only for qualified professionals. You could work one day on cruise ship. Or you can make a management career. Without any education it will be very difficult to move up the career leader. Also we have a Front office and Housekeeping course. You must know it is a difference whether you have learned your vocation in school or you just learned it by experience only. Have a good look at our short courses.
During this visit to the hotels this November and December in Java and East Indonesia I shall interview department heads and also some ranking file associates. I hope I can help to clarify a lot of questions you might have. Ask your HRD department for joining the interview.

Under construction we have an Internet Website where you all can become a member and you can see at all times all the courses we are going to conduct in the Career Development Centre. There will also be a Job provider site that will give to the members a chance to apply for jobs in Indonesia and in overseas. We shall extent these services all over the world. We have to become a never stopping learning organization.

The world has become a small place. Today at any minutes a day and by day and by night there are 300.000 people air born. Can you imagine of how many people are flying. What took you 6 month of travel just 100 years ago you can do now in just 13 hours. What this is telling us that people from many countries are traveling today and they all communicate in English.
English has become the global language. It is therefore imperative that you learn to speak and write English . Not just a little you have to learn it well. The guests cannot be served when we do not understand what they want. Remember what counts today it is 50% vocation and 50% language. So I suggest you learn English. We have now courses for English on the Internet. It cost US$ 75 for 7 month. We would provide the computers. For 10 students we shall provide one computer.
Also during this visit I shall check with you of how we can work together and set up this language laboratory in each hotel.
We need to have a passion for what we are doing. Do what you love to do and you will not work an other day in your life. It will become your hobby.
Our smiles are a mirror of our attitude. We shall teach you how to smile. Smiling is a key part of our job.
We have great plans in 2007. We are going to add more hotel brands to our existing brands. We shall change the name of the company to Core Hotels International. We want to have 200 Hotels through Asia. From New Zealand to Russia we shall have hotels. This means for all of you we have great opportunities to develop our business together.

TOGETHER WE WILL ACHIEVE OUR JOURNY TO GREATNESS.
To explain the difference in a nutshell is very simple. IT’S SERVICE FROM THE HEART. IT’S NOT JUST BY STANDARDS.