Book Summary: The Power of We by Jonathan Tisch

The Power of We by Jonathan Tisch explains the story of how the CEO of Loews Hotels uses partnerships to build his business. Although this may be more of a management strategy book, there are some very good ideas I took away from reading it that we can use marketing setting:

• No one can be all things to all people — so you must work with and through other organizations.
• Continually look for appropriate publicity opportunities. If you don’t have an advertising budget to match large competitors, publicity efforts can get you print and electronic coverage out of proportion for your size.
• Push authority and responsibility as far as possible down the food chain. Instead of treating managers and employees as cogs in a machine, consider them partners in leadership.
• Travel and tourism are built on partnerships. Every satisfying consumer experience in travel and tourism depends on the successful combination of efforts by many organizations: travel agents, airlines, car rental firms, hotels, restaurants, theaters, taxi companies, and so on.
• The employee comes first. If you make treating your people right your highest priority, customers will be happier too. When you invest in your people, they are also less likely to walk away and join your competitors.
• When hiring, start with the kind of person who fits your company culture, and then train for skills.
• Having specific operational guidelines might seem restrictive — but most employees find these systems helpful, and even liberating. Competencies can become second nature, which frees up the mind of the employee to focus on more challenging tasks, such as solving guest problems.
• If two people always think exactly alike, then one of them is redundant.
• In hospitality, you get instant customer feedback. Guests are not hesitant to tell you what they like and don’t like about the service you provide.
• Your first interaction with a customer is a priceless opportunity.
• The crucial challenge is making that first stay — the first guest experience — really memorable and pleasant. the goal is to win him over to become a loyal customer. That will give you revenue and referrals for years to come.
• The customer base for hotels is complex. There are almost as many different reasons for staying at a hotel as there are guests. Your hotel has to offer a mix of services, styles, and amenities that will satisfy all of them.
• Treat your customers as partners by:
  • Communicating from the bottom up: understand that today’s customer isn’t merely a passive target of advertising, but actively participates in shaping popular perception through buzz and word-of-mouth.
  • Focusing on the customer experience: your services aren’t as important as the quality of the experience you can help them enjoy.
  • Linking with customer communities: identify groups of customers who have shared interests and feelings, and use this to shape your business interaction with them.
• Be a little more creative, a little more dramatic, a little more surprising, and a little more colorful in every message you create.
• Impressing a guest can happen with seemingly small things – for example reducing the average wait time on a phone call from 45 seconds to under 20 seconds.
• Understand your brand identity and the nature of the customer experience it stands for.
• Find the niche you want to occupy.
• On branding: all Loews hotels offer a similar level of service and common set of graphics standards… but unlike other hotel chains, the properties are not built to fit a common architectural design.
• Do a “design audit” of your organization. Aesthetics play a big role in ensuring the message you send is consistent with your brand identity.
• Truly partnering with your customers requires you know a lot about them and what they need and want.
• Use guest databases to develop and maintain detailed histories of your guests interactions with you, so you understand their spending patterns and the kind of services and amenities they value.
• How does your organization partner with its most important customer communities?
• If you treat your customers as partners, they will return.