Until We Meet Again

On October 29th, the CDC updated its guidelines for event planning. Meetings & Social business will eventually need to return for our hotels to survive. As the holiday’s approach and more of us choose to get together with friends and family, we need to reimagine what gatherings look like. The question is how can we safely execute the events of the future with COVID lingering? 

Below is a partial list of some of the bullet points from the recently released CDC guidelines. You can see the full checklist at https://www.cdc.gov/coronavirus/2019-ncov/downloads/community/COVID19-events-gatherings-readiness-and-planning-tool.pdf

The hotel industry has been devasted by COVID. Weddings and fundraisers have been put on hold, employees have been laid off and the meeting’s business is in limbo.

Hoteliers are a resilient group of creative people who love what they do.

The hospitality industry was my first career and something I cherish. We enjoy people and bringing folks together for shared experiences.

Here are some tips that may help get your social gatherings and meetings get back on track in a safe way. Of course, always following all CDC and local guidelines. Including, reduced capacity mandates, social distancing, sanitation, and masking up.

Creative Seating

I have seen some highly creative ways hotels are bringing people together while keeping them safely distanced.

  • Blocking off rows & seats
  • Using natural barriers like plants
  • Creating pod seating for intimate breakouts
  • Placing directional signage for a better flow

 Keeping Things Clean

Sanitation and cleanliness are of the utmost importance in this Corona Era. If you have traveled recently you have seen what the Airline Industry is doing. I feel airplanes are cleaner now than they have ever been. The same is true for hotels. Here are some things that can be done to improve consumer confidence. 

  • Provide multiple sanitation stations
  • Clean surfaces and high-touch areas frequently and on an   assigned schedule
  • Consider Bathroom Attendants for public areas
  • Invest in touchless doors, facets, and dryers

 

Drinks, Dinner & More

  • Eliminate self-service
  • Get rid of communal utensils
  • Provide disposable one-time use condiments
  • Stop food sharing instead pre-plate items
  • Provide boxed meals
  • Bundle DIY cocktail kits for attendees

As we move into the holiday season, we should consider some ways we can safely make a comeback, see our loved ones, and celebrate life events together. The hospitality industry is working hard to reinvent itself and we need you.  I hope you can make one small step toward re-entry with confidence.

Until we meet again.  


Reputation Management

Today’s consumer is discriminating and demands excellent service. If your company doesn’t deliver on your brand promise, they will let the entire world know about it. So what do you do to manage a negative perception and boost your on-line reputation?

Root Cause- you must address the root cause of the problems. To get an understanding of what is going on behind the scenes, conduct a social media audit. Look at multiple platforms and review sites such as Yelp, Trip Advisor, Twitter and any other sites that impact your business. Review the comment and bucket or categorize them into common cause areas. This exercise will show you the pain points. Perhaps you have shipping complaints, cleanliness or quality issues or poor customer service comments. Next, prepare to address the various deficiencies with the appropriate division heads.

Leverage Staff Buy-in-once you have your bucket list complete, assemble your team. Run through the exercise showing the buckets and common complaints. Have an open conversation to determine if you need to adjust written standards, define if job tools are missing or set up new training protocols.  Create a plan that starts with stakeholder buy in and accountability. The end game is to deliver excellent quality. Once the stakeholder team has developed an actionable plan, take it to the staff in the form of a We Can Do It meeting. Then monitor results weekly and monthly for progress.

Ask your guest to write review. Now that you have presumably turned a corner, don’t be shy about asking for reviews. If you know a particular customer has had a great experience ask them to comment. Send, thank you e-mails with links to review sites for easy access.

Good Quality and Quantity. Build up your positive reviews and your popularity rating will improve.  Many of the sites work off an algorithm system for prioritizing. Remember, you’re only as good as your last review, so keep up the accountability on the back-end.

Senior Managers should respond to negative reviews.  Use the process to help identify ongoing customer issues and pain points. I know several managers who do an audit quarterly just to learn about operational deficiencies.

For a complete Social Media strategy and tactical marketing deployment suggestions contact; jcross@crossnm.com


Blitz Your Way To New Business

 

Blitz Your Way To New Business

By: Jodi Cross

When was the last time a business owner or representative came to your business and invited you to try their products or services? This is not a new concept and some would argue that sales blitzes or cold calling are no longer effective. But, it is one of the first projects I organized years ago at my hotel sales job.


Recently, CNMI worked with a client to organize a sales blitz of local accounts. The blitz resulted in almost 10K in definite business and nearly 150K in prospects. Like anything else effective results are in the planning and follow up. One thing is for sure, sales blitzes can be a lot of fun and they get people out of a business as usual slump!


Before you begin to organize, identify the key business goals, special offers and need periods. Create your special offers and leave behind collateral based on those pre-determined business goals.


Here are my four “T’s” to blitzing your way to success.


Teams– Sales is everyone’s job, without it your business will not succeed. Be sure to target enough time to get all the blitz materials together and team members oriented. 15-20 days in advance is usually a good planning cycle.

  • Identify a leader- usually your head sales person is best suited to manage the efforts.
  • Create cross-functional teams by including all departments.
  • Anchor teams with seasoned sales professionals and pair them with a junior manager from another department. Cross promote specials and offers collectively.

Territories– Use Google maps or your local city and street addresses to carve out target zones with in a 10-mile radius.

  • Set anchor calls in key buildings so you don’t have any problems with security.
  • Target about 30-50 calls for your teams per day.
  • Make your appointments on slow days like Monday’s and Tuesday’s.

Theme’s/Treats-I go back to my original question of when was the last time someone invited you to do business with them and gave you a gift. In this post e-mail, Internet world many of us rarely come out from behind our computer screen let alone thank our customers personally or invite them to work with us. My background is in the hospitality industry. We are in the business to be welcoming and hospitable. What better way to make someone feel good than to thank them for doing business with you or invite them to try your services.  This isn’t unique to the hospitality industry but it certainly is one nice advantage.  Any business owner can do it. Over the holiday’s, my broker from Edward Jones actually dropped off homemade cranberry relish to my office.

  • If you are promoting holiday parties, drop of Santa cookies and wear reindeer ears. You certainly will get the office talking.
  • Perhaps you are looking for more wedding business, dress up in formal wear and leave behind wedding favors.
  • If you are in the spa business, try bringing scented aromatherapy and leave behind a token gift with a bounce back coupon valid for the next month.

You get the idea.


Tracking- All this effort will be for not if you don’t measure and track the results.

  • Set a morning meeting and nightly recap to gather the team’s cards and tracking sheets.
  • Keep a centralized report on all activities and follow up items.
  • Track revenue for all business units. Just because you were looking for catering business but ended up finding a golf member prospect that still benefits the company.
  • Develop an action item plan for follow-up that the sales team or other managers can pursue immediately while the blitz is still happening.
 

With a concerted effort and a little organization your business can see immediate results from conducting a sales blitz.

To obtain your own sales blitz tracking sheet, email Jodi Cross at jcross@crossnm.com.