STANDARDISATION & PERSONALISATION balance in hotel service. HOSPITALITY & SERVICEABILITY difference

Standardisation is the level of PRACTICE in your boutique hotel and personalisation is the level of POTENTIAL of your hotel service and delivery.

Standardisation leads to TRUST and reliance.

Customisation makes your guests feel SPECIAL.

Lack of standardisation feels sloppy and unprofessional.

Lack of customisation feels boring and like any other.

Standardisation provides EASE and optimisation.

Customisation leads to improvement and INNOVATION.

One enables less mistakes and decisions, less energy and time waste.

Other provides more creativity, dynamics, fun and involvement.

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Video Transcript:

Hello everyone. Welcome to Remarkable Boutique Hotels where we talk about outstanding experiences and everything that leads to them.

Today’s topic is super important and let me be honest with you I’m a bit upset. I see so many complicated things being discussed in hospitality industry while independent hoteliers fail to deliver standardized service with meaningful personalisation, consistently. Let me repeat that again, even though it’s only introduction, but that’s the secret behind all complex innovations and new trends in general, so what you should deliver is standardized service with meaningful personalisation, consistently. Don’t chase trends, enter price competition, join other brands, before you make this clear, why, well because you’ll end up hitting bottom line and not be able to innovate under your own terms. Most of the topics being discussed in media and academia really concern big chain hotels and associations but eventually small hotels are the ones left behind. But listen, not because you are being outplayed but because you were following big players instead of doing basic things clearly, consistently and according to your concept. Those are the things we’ll cover today. Finally. Let’s dive in.

Today’s goal is to see how everything is tightly connected. And if you don’t have good foundations, nothing new will pay off.

Okay. So, two statistics for the beginning.

First, 92% of guests trust word-of-mouth recommendations from family and friends.

And second, guests today, or to be specific research says Millennials and Generation Z which are people born after 1980, anyways it says gusts today seek unique experiences which leads to the development of experience economy, meaning experiences are new definition of luxury.

So, why did I start with these? Because we can talk personalisation, standardisation, standard operating procedures SOPs, service design and so on, but what for, if we don’t know what the goal is.

So, I chose two goals for today and those are word-of-mouth marketing and experiences, meaning your goal is to have more ideal guests who become loyal guests and recommend you to people similar to them and who love staying with you.

This to happen, you should one, met the expectations they had prior coming and two, exceed these expectations during their stay.

First one, ensuring to meet expectations, is done with standardisation, or making sure you provide what you promise, hit your own standards and show up according to the image you built. And second one, exceeding expectations, is done with personalizing services in a meaningful way to the specific guest and your hotel’s identity. Both of these approaches have to be done consistently so that guests can rely on you and feel safe when choosing you.

So, to meet guests’ expectations you need to have clear concept and internal standards and to communicate those when doing marketing, so you should create whole branding around your true hotel’s identity and what you can provide always and under any circumstances. This way, you assure guests’ expectations will be realistic and not so difficult to meet.

Once you do that then and only then providing extras and going above and beyond for a guest make sense. That’s the time to over deliver and surprise them in a way that is again relevant to your hotel’s identity, but also something your guests need and want. And this is where we come to creating experiences. But please, note, these are not about city tours, star gazing or evening live piano shows, no, not at all. Not to say these are bad ideas especially if they fit the atmosphere and values of your hotel but this is beyond that. This is about making your guests’ stay feel easier and nicer. And what do I mean by that?

Easier means thinking about how you can anticipate guests’ everyday needs like special routines, already available requisites without them having to ask, some particular products maybe protein powder, or anything you discover they do regularly and is part of their lifestyle. This means finding out their morning and evening routines, nutrition protocols, exercise needs so one simple fitness ball and corner prepared for their physiotherapy could make a huge difference in their experience or having their favourite fruit and water instead of wine which they don’t drink as a welcome package with favourite music playing, and so on. Examples are literary numerous.

Beside this, you want to make their stay nicer by shaping their wants. These could again be very different things such as arranging a visit to some local event maybe wine or chocolate fair or cheese making classes, or meeting locally famous person in area they have passion for, or having custom gifts if they are celebrating something, organising painting activity for the group of friends or kayaking adventure or something as simple as providing them with lots of candles for romantic evening or their kids favourite toys in their room. Still you want to have some scope so first think about what complements your hotel’s character and then think about specific guest.

So, the point is, you want to create a stable baseline of your services and of what you promise in general. That’s what you standardise. Then, on top of that, you add above and beyond moments that are like many little surprises to your guests along their whole stay. And that’s what you personalise. So, on one side you have procedures and standards and on the other side there’s on-the-spot creativity and attentiveness.

But, very important note here: encouraging your employees to move away from standard operating procedures for example, is not the same as providing personalised experiences. Guest personalisation is not in conflict with standardisation. These two are more like layers that enhance the overall quality of stay. So, sticking to SOPs has the aim to provide promised experience of your hotel and to deliver your signature elements to every guest, consistently, showing you are trust worthy.

It's only when you have basics highly trained and likely to perform at its very best, then this becomes baseline service which you can step away from in full understanding why you are doing so. Therefore, some hotels will benefit more from working on consistency using procedures and standards while other hotels are ready to provide highly personalised experiences and curate their standards according to each guest’s needs. In fact, this is more connected then it looks, because if you have well designed procedures that are not copy paste standards from some book or association but more like those standards put in context of specific situations for your hotel then this becomes a picture of really well applied standardisation and personalisation levels.

So, to kind of wrap it up, the main questions are: First, is this guest getting everything you promised, are they experiencing everything you stand for as a hotel? And second, who is this guest and what would be even more valuable service for them now? How can you create a meaningful experience for them?

Unfortunately, many hotel owners confuse personalisation with things like selling upgrades, implementing personalised email marketing or addressing guests by names. That’s not how they will become your ambassadors and walking billboards for your hotel. You better ask and learn about your guests. That will help you tailor your offer at a bespoke level and lead you to closer and more immersive interactions.

Also standardisation is mistaken for hitting standards like delivering room service in 30 minutes which is meaningless without the complete context of the situation like what is being delivered and why. Three course meal and cappuccino are not the same, right?

In fact, this is where the difference begins between service and hospitality. It’s one thing to be mere supplier of accommodation and other services but completely different to be experience provider. Service is transactional element, it’s like technical delivery of a hotel product, but outstanding guest relationship throughout the whole guest journey is part of well designed hospitality approach. Guests today are not coming to consume hospitality services but to experience them.

So one part is to design experiences and to set a frame within which your team can customise those experience each time for every guest. This is part of service design process. But there is another part which is intangible, it’s pure hospitality which makes you feel welcomed among strangers.

Hospitality is not a checklist, that’s serviceability. Hospitality’s about human interaction and caring about the experience guests have when using hotel services. And nurturing this hospitality mindset in your team, in a way that fits your hotel identity and character is what will influence one of the most important things and that is market differentiation.

Guests will be less likely to choose you by price but due to your recognisable performance and that actually leads us to what we set as a goal at the very beginning of this video and that is word-of-mouth marketing. Really good foundations spiced up with your unique hospitality approach is what turns a first time guest into a loyal guest who spreads the word about your hotel. Marvelous, right? And easy eventually, long term effect definitely.

Okay, so, go ahead and turn your guests into walking billboards for your hotel and they’ll be happy to do it because you were happy to serve them as no one ever did. The way I love to say goodbye, until next occasion, have a beautiful experiences my friends.

Thank you for listening. Here at Remarkable Boutique Hotels, we want your hotel to be worth every penny and every second of your guests. Schedule a discovery call to find more about our remarkable methodology which is unique in the whole hospitality industry. I would love to hear your hotel story. See you there.