Smart Business Magazine, Apr 2013
April 2013 Smart Business Florida 11 Kong also thought that Best Western needed to be known for certain aspects of the hospitality industry so the company launched the I Care Clean program which uses UV wands for cleaning and black light for inspecting cleanliness in rooms It also launched the Descriptor program which allows travelers to choose the Best Western that meets their needs out of the companys three different hotels Best Western Best Western Plus and Best Western Premiere Ultimately when I talk about unlocking potential and looking at who we are and what we stand for and capitalizing on that its really about what is Best Western Kong says If you look at how Best Western is different from any other hotel brand its because we have some very caring sincere salt of the earth type of owners in our brand who are very passionate about the brand The big opportunity for us was to capitalize on that because that is something we have at Best Western that nobody else has and we want to turn that into something thats relevant to the consumer Connect with the customer To drive that desire forward Best Western crafted its vision statement to lead the industry in superior customer care Today everyone talks about customer service but in this digital world the human touch is disappearing very quickly Everybody is focused on innovation efficiency and productivity like using kiosks to check in and ordering food and beverage from a tablet computer and there is very little chance to interact with the guests Kong says Our industry is the hospitality industry and its about hospitality and caring for people We have made that our vision and we started to create programs to capitalize on how we care more than anybody else If youre looking to keep your brand relevant or expand upon it you have to find what you want to be best at Take a look around you study the environment and assess what the unmet need is Kong says I talked about us living in a fast paced digital world and humanity is disappearing because people are so focused on efficiency and productivity So our unmet need was that humanity was disappearing Then you have to define yourself Look at yourself and see if you have any attributes that can be leveraged to capitalize on that unmet need The third thing is to begin to develop a plan to meet your end goal The last thing is you set measurements and you make continuous improvement To make the message of caring and top notch customer experience stick you have to ingrain it into your culture That cultural shift is what we are working on now Kong says To live our vision we have to make sure that every single employee cares We have put together a cultural change initiative that involves selecting the right employees and giving them the right training and resources It involves aligning all our business systems and business processes along this caring initiative so at the end of the day all our people systems and processes are all aligned to deliver superior customer care Creating this culture change is so important because a lot of companies simply have a program of the day which is a one time event rather than a system for creating a company mentality Employees can see right through that he says It doesnt stick You have to have the right people in place They have to feel empowered They have to feel like they have all the tools to do what it is that you want them to do There needs to be compensation systems and performance management systems aligned with that and it has to be customer centric All those things need to be lined up Thats how you can affect the cultural change In addition the leadership team has to be involved for the cultural change to take effect and for it to be sustained If the leader doesnt walk the talk then employees see right through it Kong says If the leader is always every day every moment living what he is preaching then people get invigorated and inspired by that The leadership is everything Through these brand relevance initiatives Kong and his team at Best Western want to be the dominant player in the broad midscale market If you take all the industry measures whether it is revenue per available room market share in that respect our relationships with all the major buyers whether they are travel agencies big corporations or independent travelers in all those aspects we want to have the superior market share he says Every company should set goals for themselves because if you dont set goals you dont know whether youve gone there or not and you cant stay on that path How to reach Best Western International Inc 800 780 7234 or www bestwestern com
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