Jeannie Walters: 0:00

We live in a high emotion world, and customer experience is no different. Listen to this question and we'll dive in.

Listener Question: 0:10

Hey there, Jeannie. This is Shawn from the Experience Investigators mail room. I've got a great question for you from someone asking advice regarding training tips in an emotionally charged industry. It reads, I work in hospitality where customers' emotions can make or break the experience. What's your advice for training frontline teams to consistently deliver great service, especially when they're dealing with tired, stressed, or demanding guests?

Jeannie Walters: 0:38

Thank you for the question. Because, you know, in a lot of hospitality situations, those can be really emotionally charged. Because when we think about how guests arrive, they're often tired or stressed. Sometimes they're already frustrated before they even interact with anybody. Now, we've all been there. We've all had the situation where maybe the directions didn't take us exactly to where we were going, or we couldn't find parking, or we've just been lugging around all this baggage and maybe family, and we get to the place where we're staying, and we just want to get through that check-in process as quickly as possible. Or maybe there's something that went wrong. We checked into a room that wasn't quite ready, or we asked for something that they promised but then didn't deliver. There is a lot of setup for disappointment as a guest. And I've thought about this a lot because I think sometimes we put this back onto the frontline staff. We say, Well, you've just got to do everything to make the guest happy, but we tie their hands with policies, procedures, things that they can't do anything about. So when we're approaching this, I encourage us to think about this in a very similar way to the topic of my book, Experiences Is Everything. And that's because I talk about how important it is to develop a mindset, strategy, and discipline. And I think that really applies here. Because, first of all, we need to make sure we have a sustainable mindset for the people that are serving these guests. Sometimes we say generic things like, you know what, just make every guest happy. But then we can't actually deliver on that. So what if we did something a little more sustainable? We did something that's more like, you know what, your role is to guide the guest to a better moment than the one they're currently in. Because then it seems realistic. It seems attainable. It seems like, you know what, if we can have a little improvement that is better than nothing, we can't always wave that magic wand and turn a disappointed guest into a thrilled, happy, delighted guest. It just doesn't happen. So what we want to do is make it 10% better, 15% better. If we can focus on those small wins, that empowers our people to do the right thing and to make sure that they are actually delivering when it matters the most. Now, we also want to think about how this all ties back to the brand. Great hospitality brands don't leave emotional moments to chance. They actually proactively identify where these moments are in the customer journey likely to happen and what can we do proactively about that? How can we make sure that not only our systems, our processes, our tools and technology are backing up what the guest wants in that moment, but also we're training those folks who they're interacting with to have the right information, to be empowered in the right way, to know when these things might happen and why. That really is strategy. That's looking ahead and making a plan so that you know when things are going to happen and you know how you will respond to them. It takes away some of the immediate reactivity that can happen in moments like this. When you have a strategy like that, it also does something else. It provides a consistent customer experience. And that means that you won't have somebody stay at one property and go to another and feel like they're totally disjointed. You want the brand experience to be consistent. That's what builds trust with our customers. So if we can do that by actually having that plan of action, by inviting people into that process so that when things get sticky or when they are high emotion, we are empowering people to have the right tools, the right technology, everything else. And some of those tools are simply things like reminding our frontline workers who are interacting directly with guests, it's okay to take a pause. It's okay to take that big deep breath. It's okay to acknowledge, you know what, I'm really sorry this happened. When we give tools like that, it also helps protect the well-being of the people who are serving these frustrated guests. And that is super important. We have to make sure we're taking care of our people. And some of that is giving them the right tools in the moment so that when things get that way, they can stay calm, cool, collected. That's what guests want to see. That's what will serve guests best. And it will also help us really take care of the employees who are facing these frustrations. We're all humans. We all have emotional reactions. So if somebody comes in hot and you happen to be the one behind the desk, that's not a great feeling. Even if you know it wasn't your fault, even if you know that, oh gosh, this is that system glitch we've been warned about. If somebody comes in and they are looking at you and directing their ire at you, it is human nature to want to respond in kind. So part of what we have to do is make sure we're training for those moments. We are preparing people to be empowered to make the changes that we want them to make and to show up in the way that we want our brand represented. So we have to tie this all together because if we don't give people the tools to really show up in that moment, it's very easy to rely on just reactivity. And that doesn't serve anyone. So it's okay to have some training around phrases because if we have things that we know this language works and we know that we're empowering our people with that, that gives them a tool in the moment. That gives them a tool in the moment when emotions are high. They will know the right language, they will know when and how to take that deep breath, they will know how to react with positivity and proactivity instead of just reacting with the high emotion in kind. So it is about making sure we are preparing for those moments proactively. It's also recognizing that we can't predict everything. So what can we predict? Well, we're going to do everything in our power to make sure that we fulfill our promises. And what happens if we don't? That's what we want to empower our folks with. Because if we get into a situation and the emotions are high and our guests are frustrated, and we have one frustrated guest after another and we can't do anything about it, that's not only a bad day, that's bad loyalty. That's when you get people spreading word of mouth, this is happening to me, and it's negative. What we want to do is focus on that service recovery wherever we can because we know that builds loyalty. So I want you to think about providing your frontline teams with the right mindset to make sure that they understand what their role is, how they can be empowered, what they can and can't do, how they are on task to not just say make people happy, but to make their moment a little better. Can we get a guest a little better than they were a few minutes ago? And then we want that strategy for those emotional moments. What are the things that we know we can do? What are the ways we can control the situation even when it feels out of control? And then we need to practice these behaviors consistently. We're not just improving the high emotional moments, we're improving the journey all the time. And we're encouraging those frontline workers to have a way to tell us, I think this would improve things. Empower them by co-creating with them as well. Include them in the discussions about improvements to be made. And then, of course, we need to take care of our employees emotionally. We need to make sure that we are protecting their emotional well-being because otherwise, we are setting them up not only to fail, but to fail our customers as well. We need to take care of our people in order to deliver great experiences across the board. So if this resonates with you, I encourage you to first be proactive. Look at your customer journey, think about those places where it can get sticky or highly emotional, and put into place a real strategy around that. What are we going to do? How do we execute on that? How do we show up for our customers no matter what? If you start there, you'll start building the right tools, the right processes, and most importantly, you'll be including the right people to make sure that you are delivering for your customers, no matter how highly emotional those moments are. What a great question. What a fun, rich place to look at your customer experience and realize what you can do. So I hope that this resonated with you. And if it did, I have two asks for you. Number one, we love ratings and reviews of this podcast. It helps other people find this. So if you love this podcast, which I know some of you do because you come up and tell me in person, then go ahead and give us a rating and review wherever you listen to podcasts. You can find an easy way to do that in the show notes of this episode. And then number two, please pre-order the book, Experience is Everything by Jeannie Walters. Yours truly. That book will go into more detail about how to align your mindset, strategy, and discipline across your customer experience. We have some really fun pre-order bonuses for you. So check that out at experienceiseverythingbook.com. Thank you so much for being here. I can't wait for the next question. And keep on keeping on. It is great work that you do. It is meaningful moments that you deliver, and that means so much to us. See you next time. Thanks for listening to Experience Action, brought to you by Experience Investigators. If you're ready to turn insights into action, join our CXI Membership. That's our community for customer experience investigators just like you. It's where CX leaders get the tools, support, and inspiration to move from ideas to true impact. And don't miss my new book, Experience is Everything: Making Every Moment Count in the Age of Customer Expectations. It's available now for pre-order. Learn more and reserve your copy at ExperienceInvestigators.com. Until next time, keep asking questions, keep improving, and keep leading with experience.