Taking Service from Great to Wow!
Hotel training is always fun. I get such a kick out of watching how people absorb new information. Last week, I trained on “Why Wow Works.” The biggest challenge for most service professionals is to understand that great service is expected, even demanded by our clients. Great service does not equal Wow!
T. Scott Gross, the guru of “Positively Outrageous Service,” understands the concept of Wow as good as anyone. I have been his disciple since the early 90’s. As a General Manager, I absolutely embraced his philosophies of Random and Wow. I have taught hundreds of people these concepts and hope that someday we will see a cultural revolution in the area of service.
As I was training, I was chastised because I didn’t give enough credit to the great service being offered at this particular hotel. I had to disagree. I totally honor the fact that we can give great service but we still can fail to Wow! Part of Wow involves making sure that we are engaging our clients. A bottle of wine and a welcome note from the GM is good service. However, it has become such a cliche` that the gesture is often lost in the execution.
Wow is Random and Unexpected. Wow involves sensory phenomena. Wow is usually a single installment of time. Wow Sticks! Wow works because it creates a memory in the guests mind that when laced with sensory phenomena can actually become a long-term memory that is layered with pleasure.
When training your teams, remember Great is Good, but Wow is Outrageous!
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