Service Systems in Larger Hotels (Insight from Christoph Schmidt)

I received a number of emails recently from readers who enjoyed my interview with Hans Pfister, and so I wanted to explore these concepts in the context of larger hotels. To do this, we’re joined today by Christoph Schmidt, who manages operations for 5 hotels and 25 restaurants at LAAX resorts in Switzerland.

Christoph grew up in a small family hotel in the Swiss Alps, and was exposed to hospitality at a very young age. “I remember talking with guests since I was eight years old.” He entered hotel management school in Lausanne, before starting his career in the industry at Hilton.  He did two hotel openings, one in Zurich and one in Sofia – before heading to Berlin to work at the Four Seasons. He took a little time off to earn his MBA from the Berlin School of Economics, and used his skills to manage the Ritz-Carlton in Berlin for two years. Since returning to his home, Christoph has been managing operations for LAAX resorts.

What role do systems play in ensuring a consistently good guest experience?

Regardless of the size of the hotel, it is crucial to have some systems in place. Certainly, the type of system will differ depending on if it’s a small independent hotel or if it’s a large international company. I’ve seen both.

I think a system is certainly essential to assist the employees in fulfilling the guest experience. With a system, you can cover many things but ultimately the service happens in front of the guest. The employee can use the system, but at the end, they need to use their judgment in serving the guest.

For the small hotel, it may not be worth the effort to build a big computerized guest information system. For large hotel companies, it is important to share guest information between properties. You want your guests’ experience to be the same if they are staying in Madrid or Milan. Ideally, you want to have a detailed profile of your guest, knowing what he likes, what his preferences are, what his hobbies are. Sort of like a CRM system for hotels.

How do you develop this profile information? How would you discover a guest’s hobbies?

The system needs to work with guest communication. So the employee who knows that a gentleman likes a lot of strawberry marmalade at his breakfast needs to have a procedure where this information is saved. At one of the hotels I managed, we had small notepads where we could write this information down, and then it would be given to the guest relationship manager.

This process needs to exist in a small hotel as well. The software that you use to save this information is secondary, it’s more important to develop a good procedure for saving and recording information. You must have a workflow system like this before the software system. Employees must clearly know what to do with the information they receive.

How do your employees know when to use a procedure, and when to use their own judgment on how to best serve the guest?

The system gives the employee certain information about their guests, but they need to know when and how to use that information appropriately when they are front of the guests.

It’s also important to distinguish between local and international preferences. What guests want at one location may be different than what they want at another one. For example, a gentleman may want chocolate at a Berlin hotel, but would prefer small antipasti in Milan. Some preferences — such as a room away from the elevator or a sea view – are general preferences that apply anywhere.

How do you did develop operational systems?

It starts at the source: the employee who serves the guest. You need to have a procedure for how information enters your systems. The employee must know the importance of remembering guest preferences, and the need to have a data collection procedure – like the pen and pad system I mentioned before.

So that is the first step. And then obviously you need a responsible person who is compiling the information, and then putting that into the software.

What is the biggest operational challenge facing hotels today?

The culture and the values the company has. To show how values look practically, and really communicate that down to the line staff.  That’s a big job that hotels have to do. And then there needs to be a feedback loop from the employees to the management.

This is one of the largest challenges. I remember at Hilton the staff was very limited and had a big job to cover the operations work without really having time to think of great experiences for the guests. So I think that is the challenge: asking, “Do the resources we have at our disposal allow us to fulfill the values and expectations we have?”

There needs to be a balance between having the resources to cover the operational needs and also to fulfill the expectation we have for guest experience. And this is something that management needs to constantly evaluate.

Thank you for your time, Christoph.