When our guests check out after staying here at Grand Traverse Resort and Spa, they receive an e-mail to rate their experience with us. This practice is a global standard in the hotel industry as ownership and social media want to know:
- “How was your experience?”
- “Would you come back?”
- “Did any one particular employee stand out?”
I wonder what would happen to the hotel industry if internal guest (a.k.a., employee) comment cards became a standard practice. What would happen to us? How would employees grade their internal guest service here at Grand Traverse Resort and Spa?
Pretend two of your colleagues both work on a job together, and upon completion, they receive a survey and score how the teamwork went. Now think about how you act and communicate with all your co-workers. Would your comment card be scored an A, B, C, D, or E?
A. Great teammate! Helpful, communicates, ensures a task is completed, follows up and follows through. 100 percent professionalism!
B. Very good. Readily willing to assist and gets the job done. 75 percent professionalism.
C. Middle-of-the-road. Had to ask for the help, they gave 50 percent effort, but the job eventually got done. 50 percent professionalism.
D. Very difficult to work alongside this teammate. Negative and complaining instead of working and achieving; job isn’t done correctly. 20 percent professionalism.
E. I’d prefer to eat radioactive worms than have to interact with this teammate again. 0 percent professionalism.
The Mission Statement of Grand Traverse Resort and Spa says, “We believe anything is possible and will create Grand Experiences for our guests, members, and ourselves.”
If you’re scoring in the D or E range above, that is not giving your teammate a Grand Experience, and you need to recognize and change that. Let’s all make our goal for the remainder of 2015 to be As and Bs. Your organization’s success depends on your teams working together with respect for one another. Here are some suggestions:
- Be respectful to one another. It’s okay to disagree; it does not have to escalate into conflict.
- Be polite. You don’t have to ooze sweetness and lavish your teammate with insincere compliments; just be professional and do your job.
- Be aware of the percentage of positive versus negative comments you make. What you say and how you act is how others perceive you. What message are you sending to your teammates?
Norman Bowbeer, CHS, is a Human Resources trainer / generalist at Grand Traverse Resort and Spa in Acme, MI. For more information, e-mail nbowbeer@gtresort.com.
