A reasonably strong economy, a growing labour shortage, and changing demographics will make next year very interesting for employers and employees. Here are ten trends (good and bad) to watch for in 2008:
Forget about hiring the ideal candidate. The labour shortage in virtually all sectors means it will be increasingly difficult to hire the perfect candidate for the job. Long gone are the days when employers could have the pick of the litter from three or four well-qualified candidates that all want the job. Instead, employers will hire the person who comes closest to the definition of the ideal candidate and then "train-up" that individual through internal mentoring, external coaching, and formal training programs.
Decline in customer service. Customer service has been in a steep decline for several years and unfortunately you should expect this to continue in 2008. Apathy seems to be running at an all-time high. Whether it is automation, or complacency on the part of workers who know they can easily get a job somewhere else, or simply a lack of trained workers, your patience will likely be tested next year as you attempt to purchase goods and services. Not all is lost though. Most customers will demonstrate their preferences with their wallets and those companies and individuals who display levels of respect, courtesy and compassion toward others will thrive.
Younger managers will be in over their heads. Changing workplace demographics means upwardly mobile individuals will be promoted into management positions at a much younger age but without the requisite grooming to assume such responsibility. These new managers will face workplace situations they have never encountered before and their inexperience will lead to mistakes and failures. They say good judgment comes from experience and experience comes from bad judgment. Let's hope these new managers learn from their mistakes.
Workplaces will get healthier. For several years employers have talked about the need for healthier workplaces but did nothing about it. This is now changing. Employers are finally beginning to understand that healthy, happy workers actually leads to increased productivity, and more and more companies will take steps to ensure employees have access to health and wellness programs, flex-time, additional vacation, better benefits, and safe and comfortable work spaces.
More workday flexibility. The line between work and home is becoming blurred due largely to new technologies, like Blackberrys, and the 24/7 global environment we work in. That's the bad news. The good news is that employers are recognizing this and allowing employees more flexibility through the regular workday to attend to personal matters, ranging from kids' school concerts to car appointments to yoga classes. If employers give respect and trust beyond what the employment contract states, employees will reward them with loyalty and productivity. Work/life balance has become whole life balance.
Employers will go to extreme lengths to determine 'fit' before hiring. Despite the shortage of qualified candidates, employers are investing more time and resources on assessing the personal qualities of applicants prior to hiring. 'Fit' has always been important but in 2008 it will become critical. The cost of a hiring mistake is too high and the availability of new candidates too low. For middle-to-senior level jobs, candidates should be prepared for a battery of assessments, multiple interviews, and extensive references throughout the selection process.
Less demand for education, more demand for training. While I personally support formal education as a necessary tool for a successful career, we will continue to see a move toward more job-specific training in 2008. This training, delivered primarily through community colleges, trade schools, and outside consultants, is targeted exclusively at the short-term occupational needs of employers. As long as the economy remains strong and workers at a premium, this trend will continue.
Disharmony among the generations will persist. For the first time ever, there are four distinct generations working side by side: seniors, boomers, Generation X, and Generation Y workers. Each of these groups holds very different views on just about everything work-related whether it is authority, autonomy, hierarchy, conduct, dress, language, or work ethic. This lack of understanding among the generations is creating a huge rift and even resentment between co-workers. Fortunately, this issue is starting to receive a lot of attention in the workplace. I'm hopeful more harmonious relationships will emerge eventually.
Job dissatisfaction will continue to grow. Many more people are unhappy in their jobs, than fulfilled by them. Everyday I meet people who hold well-paying, highly respected jobs yet possess no passion for their work. Employers would be well served if they stop blaming their employees, and look honestly at themselves and ask how they contribute to this malaise. If nothing is done, the economic consequences of this trend could be staggering.
Too much information, not enough thought. Access to information is at an all-time high. With a few keystrokes, reams of information, on just about anything, is at our fingertips instantly. However there's a growing problem. That's the inability of employees to analyze, interpret, synthesize and apply this information. And, that's the most important part. This trend has been emerging for several years and unfortunately I expect no material improvement in the coming years. If only all employees could manage information like newspaper reporters, who have the ability to select, refine, or shorten stories based on their relevance. We can all learn from their skills.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Gerald Walsh, CMA, is the President and Founder of Gerald Walsh Associates Inc., an executive search, career transition and executive coaching firm.
http://www.geraldwalsh.com/resources_articles.html
Friday, December 28, 2007
Monday, December 24, 2007
Merry Christmas
We wish all of you a very blessed Holiday season full of love ,family and happiness.
SEASONS GREETINGS TO ALL !!!
SEASONS GREETINGS TO ALL !!!
Spotlight on Generation Y
Although the definition can vary, the term “Generation Y” generally refers to people born between 1978 and 1989, or those aged 18 to 29. Whether you call them Echo Boomers or Generation Y, they are without doubt a major, surprisingly different, customer segment. However, does Quebec’s Generation Y travel? If so, what are its favourite activities when travelling, and in general? What is the best way to appeal to these complex new consumers weaned on technology? The following report was prepared by Maïthé Levasseur of the Tourism Intelligence Network of the ESG-UQAM Chair in Tourism (University of Quebec at Montréal):
Profile of the Echo Boomer market segment
In 2005, Generation Y represented 20.3% of the Quebec population 18 years and over. They account for a similar proportion of the travel market, constituting 18.8% of the province’s domestic travellers and 19.5% of its international travellers during the past year.
According to the Print Measurement Bureau (PMB), 42% of young Quebeckers in Generation Y have travelled within Canada in the past year, while the rate is 46% among the entire population aged 12 years and over (Table 1). Nearly one-third of them made at least one trip within Quebec and 10% visited Ontario.
Table 2 lists the most popular international destinations among Generation Y travellers in the past three years, noting the percentage of those who made at least one trip to each destination, as compared to the entire Quebec population. Though this demographic group visited the Northeast United States and France in greater numbers than did the overall Quebec population, it was not as fond of Cuba as other customer segments were.
Figure 1 illustrates the percentage of young people aged 18 to 29 who take part in certain activities while travelling in Canada, compared to the number of participants from the overall Quebec population. Members of Generation Y are more likely to practise sports activities, hiking and skiing, and engage in shopping and nightlife than other travellers. However, they are less likely to attend cultural activities like museums, art galleries and events.
Here are some more pertinent facts taken from the PMB with regard to the travel behaviour of Quebec Generation Y travellers in Canada:
85% travel by car, 9% by bus and 10% by plane
78% travel for only a few days, 22% for one week and only 7% for two to three weeks
their favourite type of accommodation is with friends and family (40%), followed by hotels (34%), motels (18%), campgrounds (18%), cottages (17%) and, rarely, B&Bs (5%)
When travelling outside the country:
41% travel for a few days, 44% for one week, 27% for two to three weeks and 12% for one to two months
76% travel by plane, 36% by car and 10% by bus
Other than their favourite activities while travelling, what interests this clientele? What are its favourite hobbies and leisure activities? Figure 2 illustrates the percentage of this generation that engaged in various sports and leisure activities over the past year.
Compared to the overall population, young people aged 18 to 29 have a higher participation rate in a greater number of sports and activities (cycling, dance, photography, running, canoeing, amusement parks, etc.). Nightlife is especially popular, with 46% of young people having gone out to bars in the last year.
As illustrated in Figure 3, some Quebec events are quite popular with young people in Generation Y: for example, 15% attended the Montréal International Jazz Festival last year. Other Quebec attractions are popular too, with one out of five Quebeckers aged 18 to 29 having visited La Ronde, a proportion that is twice that of the overall Quebec population.
Looking beyond the numbers
With personalities and behaviours that differ from those of preceding generations, Echo Boomers are a challenge for the companies who would like to attract them. However, they are not unreachable, and the following information may help you understand them better.
For this generation, travel offers a sense of accomplishment and pleasure; it is a tool of personal development, a way to discover new lands and an enriching experience, both personally and socially. Traditional sightseeing activities, guided tours and museums are not attractive to them. They prefer adventure tourism, sports tourism, the latest forms of entertainment and outdoor activities.
Professionally, the children of Baby Boomers do not want to be like their parents. While the latter are often workaholics, Generation Y aims for a better balance between work, family and one’s personal life. Not particularly loyal employees, these people look for work that they can be passionate about, rather than something stable and well paid. They do not like hierarchical organizations.
Though often big consumers, they are also savvy, experienced buyers. As a customer segment, they are demanding and hard to predict. Because they often have limited budgets and many have a high debt ratio, the quality-price ratio is key to them (they often travel with only one credit card). In addition, they are very skilled at searching the Web for the ideal destination and price. The Internet now offers tremendous information transparency and Generation Y is certainly the generation that takes full advantage of this.
Technology is part and parcel of their lives and the internet holds few secrets for them; they navigate easily and confidently, whether searching for information or making online reservations.
Unlike other customer segments, Echo Boomers are not afraid of innovation. On the contrary, they enjoy surprises, adapt quickly, and like to get off the beaten path to discover new horizons, new destinations and new activities.
In terms of marketing, it is vital to remember that they have been immersed in advertising since birth and, as a result, are less sensitive to it or even immune. Therefore, they can be difficult to reach through traditional media and more easily reached through the internet. However, viral marketing, search engine referencing and online public relations are more effective than conventional advertising banners. Furthermore, the advent of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook means that marketing efforts must “listen” in order to identify, target and reach Generation Y. Members of this generation like to talk about themselves and their lives (their trips, friends, photos, etc.) on personal pages and blogs.
Remember that they share a lot. Thanks to social websites, cell phones, online chatting and Skype, they are instantly up to date with whatever their friends are doing, no matter where or when. This is why well-executed viral marketing campaigns can be so effective.
The most powerful hook for them is probably a sense of humour, or even sarcasm. Strategies that can make them (and their friends) laugh will win points. Some marketing campaigns have used humour to great effect, even with limited budgets.
In short, they are skilled negotiators, ambitious and nonchalant, and they question everything. They are also wholehearted hedonists, sensitive to the fate of the planet and keen to learn more about the world. Full of ideas, these people are inspiring.
http://www.corporate.canada.travel/corp/media/app/en/ca/magazine/article.do?path=templatedata\ctx\magArticle\data\en\2007\issue11\marketing\8_generation_y
Profile of the Echo Boomer market segment
In 2005, Generation Y represented 20.3% of the Quebec population 18 years and over. They account for a similar proportion of the travel market, constituting 18.8% of the province’s domestic travellers and 19.5% of its international travellers during the past year.
According to the Print Measurement Bureau (PMB), 42% of young Quebeckers in Generation Y have travelled within Canada in the past year, while the rate is 46% among the entire population aged 12 years and over (Table 1). Nearly one-third of them made at least one trip within Quebec and 10% visited Ontario.
Table 2 lists the most popular international destinations among Generation Y travellers in the past three years, noting the percentage of those who made at least one trip to each destination, as compared to the entire Quebec population. Though this demographic group visited the Northeast United States and France in greater numbers than did the overall Quebec population, it was not as fond of Cuba as other customer segments were.
Figure 1 illustrates the percentage of young people aged 18 to 29 who take part in certain activities while travelling in Canada, compared to the number of participants from the overall Quebec population. Members of Generation Y are more likely to practise sports activities, hiking and skiing, and engage in shopping and nightlife than other travellers. However, they are less likely to attend cultural activities like museums, art galleries and events.
Here are some more pertinent facts taken from the PMB with regard to the travel behaviour of Quebec Generation Y travellers in Canada:
85% travel by car, 9% by bus and 10% by plane
78% travel for only a few days, 22% for one week and only 7% for two to three weeks
their favourite type of accommodation is with friends and family (40%), followed by hotels (34%), motels (18%), campgrounds (18%), cottages (17%) and, rarely, B&Bs (5%)
When travelling outside the country:
41% travel for a few days, 44% for one week, 27% for two to three weeks and 12% for one to two months
76% travel by plane, 36% by car and 10% by bus
Other than their favourite activities while travelling, what interests this clientele? What are its favourite hobbies and leisure activities? Figure 2 illustrates the percentage of this generation that engaged in various sports and leisure activities over the past year.
Compared to the overall population, young people aged 18 to 29 have a higher participation rate in a greater number of sports and activities (cycling, dance, photography, running, canoeing, amusement parks, etc.). Nightlife is especially popular, with 46% of young people having gone out to bars in the last year.
As illustrated in Figure 3, some Quebec events are quite popular with young people in Generation Y: for example, 15% attended the Montréal International Jazz Festival last year. Other Quebec attractions are popular too, with one out of five Quebeckers aged 18 to 29 having visited La Ronde, a proportion that is twice that of the overall Quebec population.
Looking beyond the numbers
With personalities and behaviours that differ from those of preceding generations, Echo Boomers are a challenge for the companies who would like to attract them. However, they are not unreachable, and the following information may help you understand them better.
For this generation, travel offers a sense of accomplishment and pleasure; it is a tool of personal development, a way to discover new lands and an enriching experience, both personally and socially. Traditional sightseeing activities, guided tours and museums are not attractive to them. They prefer adventure tourism, sports tourism, the latest forms of entertainment and outdoor activities.
Professionally, the children of Baby Boomers do not want to be like their parents. While the latter are often workaholics, Generation Y aims for a better balance between work, family and one’s personal life. Not particularly loyal employees, these people look for work that they can be passionate about, rather than something stable and well paid. They do not like hierarchical organizations.
Though often big consumers, they are also savvy, experienced buyers. As a customer segment, they are demanding and hard to predict. Because they often have limited budgets and many have a high debt ratio, the quality-price ratio is key to them (they often travel with only one credit card). In addition, they are very skilled at searching the Web for the ideal destination and price. The Internet now offers tremendous information transparency and Generation Y is certainly the generation that takes full advantage of this.
Technology is part and parcel of their lives and the internet holds few secrets for them; they navigate easily and confidently, whether searching for information or making online reservations.
Unlike other customer segments, Echo Boomers are not afraid of innovation. On the contrary, they enjoy surprises, adapt quickly, and like to get off the beaten path to discover new horizons, new destinations and new activities.
In terms of marketing, it is vital to remember that they have been immersed in advertising since birth and, as a result, are less sensitive to it or even immune. Therefore, they can be difficult to reach through traditional media and more easily reached through the internet. However, viral marketing, search engine referencing and online public relations are more effective than conventional advertising banners. Furthermore, the advent of social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook means that marketing efforts must “listen” in order to identify, target and reach Generation Y. Members of this generation like to talk about themselves and their lives (their trips, friends, photos, etc.) on personal pages and blogs.
Remember that they share a lot. Thanks to social websites, cell phones, online chatting and Skype, they are instantly up to date with whatever their friends are doing, no matter where or when. This is why well-executed viral marketing campaigns can be so effective.
The most powerful hook for them is probably a sense of humour, or even sarcasm. Strategies that can make them (and their friends) laugh will win points. Some marketing campaigns have used humour to great effect, even with limited budgets.
In short, they are skilled negotiators, ambitious and nonchalant, and they question everything. They are also wholehearted hedonists, sensitive to the fate of the planet and keen to learn more about the world. Full of ideas, these people are inspiring.
http://www.corporate.canada.travel/corp/media/app/en/ca/magazine/article.do?path=templatedata\ctx\magArticle\data\en\2007\issue11\marketing\8_generation_y
Thursday, December 20, 2007
The Bare Necessities of Good Service
Found in the Dishrag
www.starchefs.com
by Anna Mowry
December 2007
Earlier installments of this column featured show-stopping luxurious service, like theatrical tableside touches or candlelit dinners atop plush beds at beachside resorts. But even the most glittery razzle-dazzle will fizzle if basic professionalism is lacking. We know that back-of-house demands may have unintentionally moved your focus on service to the back burner, so we’re sharing a refresher from Beth Casey, who recently held a seminar on service at the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs national conference in Newport, RI. A hospitality instructor at the California Culinary Institute in San Francisco, Casey has tips that include service fundamentals as well as extra flourishes that will raise your restaurant’s service to the high standard that every diner deserves.
Positive initial contact between a restaurant and customers is crucial and can largely determine diners’ overall impressions of the meal. Prominently display your venue’s phone number on your website, and be sure that customers can navigate it with ease. (We’re amazed at how many restaurant sites we come across that don’t have the phone number on the homepage!) Employ hostesses and reservationists who have proper phone conduct. Educate waitstaff on nightly specials so that they can spout polished dish descriptions after their guests are seated.
Diners can vividly recall how their meal started and finished, so make those moments stand out. Treat your customers to more than just bread: Perigee of Toronto gives every table a seasonal snack (right now it’s a mix of sugared almonds, toasted pumpkin seeds, and dried cranberries). After their plates have been cleared and the check dropped, present customers with an edible parting gift. Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park sends his guests away with breakfast pastries in a to-go box which guarantees they’ll be thinking about their dining experience again the next morning. Complimentary items also curb the shock that’s brought on by the bill for a not-so-complimentary meal.
“Customers are starving for personal contact,” says Casey. “Make repeat diners feel valued by knowing their names, along with their favorite dishes and wine.” Take a trip to the dining room and chat up a few guests (but don a clean jacket and get rid of any dirty towels from your apron strings before your grand entrance). Collect a few names and mailing addresses from Open Table and send thank you notes; giving patrons the extra attention increases the chances of a return for another meal. Just be sure that servers don’t stray into overly casual territory: servers who address their guests as “you guys” are a common pet peeve among diners.
Of course, it’s impossible for you to monitor your servers’ appearance and manner constantly, so Casey recommends occasionally hiring a personal shopper to come in and report on service.
Recommended Reading on the Subject of Service:
Lessons in Service from Charlie Trotter by Edmund Lawler
Setting the Table: the Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer
www.starchefs.com
by Anna Mowry
December 2007
Earlier installments of this column featured show-stopping luxurious service, like theatrical tableside touches or candlelit dinners atop plush beds at beachside resorts. But even the most glittery razzle-dazzle will fizzle if basic professionalism is lacking. We know that back-of-house demands may have unintentionally moved your focus on service to the back burner, so we’re sharing a refresher from Beth Casey, who recently held a seminar on service at the Women Chefs and Restaurateurs national conference in Newport, RI. A hospitality instructor at the California Culinary Institute in San Francisco, Casey has tips that include service fundamentals as well as extra flourishes that will raise your restaurant’s service to the high standard that every diner deserves.
Positive initial contact between a restaurant and customers is crucial and can largely determine diners’ overall impressions of the meal. Prominently display your venue’s phone number on your website, and be sure that customers can navigate it with ease. (We’re amazed at how many restaurant sites we come across that don’t have the phone number on the homepage!) Employ hostesses and reservationists who have proper phone conduct. Educate waitstaff on nightly specials so that they can spout polished dish descriptions after their guests are seated.
Diners can vividly recall how their meal started and finished, so make those moments stand out. Treat your customers to more than just bread: Perigee of Toronto gives every table a seasonal snack (right now it’s a mix of sugared almonds, toasted pumpkin seeds, and dried cranberries). After their plates have been cleared and the check dropped, present customers with an edible parting gift. Daniel Humm of Eleven Madison Park sends his guests away with breakfast pastries in a to-go box which guarantees they’ll be thinking about their dining experience again the next morning. Complimentary items also curb the shock that’s brought on by the bill for a not-so-complimentary meal.
“Customers are starving for personal contact,” says Casey. “Make repeat diners feel valued by knowing their names, along with their favorite dishes and wine.” Take a trip to the dining room and chat up a few guests (but don a clean jacket and get rid of any dirty towels from your apron strings before your grand entrance). Collect a few names and mailing addresses from Open Table and send thank you notes; giving patrons the extra attention increases the chances of a return for another meal. Just be sure that servers don’t stray into overly casual territory: servers who address their guests as “you guys” are a common pet peeve among diners.
Of course, it’s impossible for you to monitor your servers’ appearance and manner constantly, so Casey recommends occasionally hiring a personal shopper to come in and report on service.
Recommended Reading on the Subject of Service:
Lessons in Service from Charlie Trotter by Edmund Lawler
Setting the Table: the Transforming Power of Hospitality in Business by Danny Meyer
Wednesday, December 19, 2007
Musings at the end of Semester
December 19, 2007 Marc Simard NSCC Tourism Faculty
I have been teaching at the Nova Scotia Community College since January of 1995. In just one month I will reach my thirteenth anniversary. Even after all these years officially away from industry I still feel very much part of the "real world" and struggle to stay connected and stay up to date with industry and the changes it is experiencing .
The great thing about teaching is that one gets the sense of both dealing with the future but also of having an impact on that future. You see when you work at a hotel you can have some impact on that hotel but as a teacher one can hope to change in some small way all the hotels one's students will work at. In my thirteen years I have taught and become engaged with more than 500 students.
In the last few years we have all dealt with an increasing wave of change. I know that we as an industry have always faced change, new bosses and new technology but now there seems to be both, more change and it seems to be happening more quickly.
I have tried to discern my response to this change, whether the world is faster or if I am just slowing down. I suspect a little bit of both is the case, but as I took the time to read, explore and reflect on change I thought that in my first tourism management blog the discussion of some of these tourism trends would make a good beginning for this blog. So here goes. Consider the trends that we as an industry are facing. ( By no means an inclussive list)
1. The retiring baby boomers are coming. We as an industry face not only the retirement of a generation of managers but these boomers are at their peak earning years and love to travel
2. The electronic age is upon us. I don’t know if any of us know what that really means but it will impact us I suspect in almost every way. People not only book travel on-line but blog about it and research their travel opportunities on-line. Then, is the in-house technology on the way everything from new property management systems, loyalty systems to perhaps the disappearance of the front desk as we know it and even the guest room key. Let’s face it if we can have ticket less airline travel what do we need a key for?
3. Web 2.0. I know this is part of the electronic age but it seems to me to be so much more. Not only are our clients and those who don’t choose us on-line finding out and sharing about us.So are our employees, potential employees and our competitors. Social Media whether a force for good or evil is a reality that may change its name from facebook to something else but is not likely to go away. Right now many of us are at the denial stage, a few are aware and even fewer are playing the Web 2.0 game recognizing its potential. Oh yeah and don’t forget the opportunities for collaborative learning both in the work place and as part consumer behavior and the purchase cycle. By the way e-mail is old fashioned , in fact is considered by our students or young employees asthe communication method of the system ( what we used to call “The Man”)
4. Cultural Diversity. I used to think that this meant that we had to learn to deal with immigrants and their cultural values in the workplace. After all immigrants where the answer to the rising employee shortage. Well I’ve had a couple of epiphanies about that over the last two years. The first is that most immigrants (other then refugees) to Canada have more education than I . Thy are not coming here to have a career as a house person or room attendant. Not that this awareness of diversity isn’t an important part of our industry as our guests are international and oh yes we will have to recruit workers internationally at least on short term visas. The next epiphany is worth it’s on section so please read number 5
5. Millennials. Along the way discover that I was an immigrant as well, a “Digital Immigrant”. This I think is having an increasing impact on industry as we discover that we are suffering not only from a generation gap but perhaps more importantly a paradigm shift into the way they work and look at life. Yes I know that each generation has speaking of the failure of the next generation to come up to expectations since the beginning of societies. I remember first running across this concept as a youth while reading “The Satyricon” which was written by Platonius during the reign of Emperor Nero nearly 2000 years ago . None the less no previous generation has had the internet embedded in their lives. This generation shares with the world (FaceBook, MySpace, MSN etc…) everything (even those things we would never) and expects to find answers at their fingertips. Lets face it will all Google things. ( Imagine how quickly that became a verb). Wikipedia now has more pages and words in than the Encyclopedia Britannica and is considered to have equal weight by the millennials. So how do we communicate to them? By this I mean how do we find them and reach then where they are?
6. Education. At least in Nova Scotia we have spent fifteen years being inclusive in our education system and preparing most everyone for University. While a laudable goal. I think a society that can’t keep it toilets running is likely to be in trouble before long. The ramifications of these decision are manifold and worth a future blog of their own. Certainly the ramifications are important for business and society.
7. Demographics. The bottom line is that there are fewer young people than old people. The implications of this are huge from increased wages, a lack of workers and increased expectations from the under 25 workers. This means that we may have to become better employers, look for non-traditional employees, change the way we work and the way we manage. This is only the beginning and I suspect worthy of many future blogs ahead of us.
Well that is enough for one rant. I hope you will add to the list. It would be wonderful to see a dialogue on these issues from industry and students alum and those simply with a point of view. There is no question that as Tourism professionals these are issues we are going to have to solve, or at least cope with in the years ahead.
It is not the New Year yet but my new year’s resolution for next year is to blog about our industry, about applied education and the challenges facing faculty/industry teaching/training in the Tourism industry.
May you all have a blessed Christmas, happy holidays and the very best in the New Year!
I have been teaching at the Nova Scotia Community College since January of 1995. In just one month I will reach my thirteenth anniversary. Even after all these years officially away from industry I still feel very much part of the "real world" and struggle to stay connected and stay up to date with industry and the changes it is experiencing .
The great thing about teaching is that one gets the sense of both dealing with the future but also of having an impact on that future. You see when you work at a hotel you can have some impact on that hotel but as a teacher one can hope to change in some small way all the hotels one's students will work at. In my thirteen years I have taught and become engaged with more than 500 students.
In the last few years we have all dealt with an increasing wave of change. I know that we as an industry have always faced change, new bosses and new technology but now there seems to be both, more change and it seems to be happening more quickly.
I have tried to discern my response to this change, whether the world is faster or if I am just slowing down. I suspect a little bit of both is the case, but as I took the time to read, explore and reflect on change I thought that in my first tourism management blog the discussion of some of these tourism trends would make a good beginning for this blog. So here goes. Consider the trends that we as an industry are facing. ( By no means an inclussive list)
1. The retiring baby boomers are coming. We as an industry face not only the retirement of a generation of managers but these boomers are at their peak earning years and love to travel
2. The electronic age is upon us. I don’t know if any of us know what that really means but it will impact us I suspect in almost every way. People not only book travel on-line but blog about it and research their travel opportunities on-line. Then, is the in-house technology on the way everything from new property management systems, loyalty systems to perhaps the disappearance of the front desk as we know it and even the guest room key. Let’s face it if we can have ticket less airline travel what do we need a key for?
3. Web 2.0. I know this is part of the electronic age but it seems to me to be so much more. Not only are our clients and those who don’t choose us on-line finding out and sharing about us.So are our employees, potential employees and our competitors. Social Media whether a force for good or evil is a reality that may change its name from facebook to something else but is not likely to go away. Right now many of us are at the denial stage, a few are aware and even fewer are playing the Web 2.0 game recognizing its potential. Oh yeah and don’t forget the opportunities for collaborative learning both in the work place and as part consumer behavior and the purchase cycle. By the way e-mail is old fashioned , in fact is considered by our students or young employees asthe communication method of the system ( what we used to call “The Man”)
4. Cultural Diversity. I used to think that this meant that we had to learn to deal with immigrants and their cultural values in the workplace. After all immigrants where the answer to the rising employee shortage. Well I’ve had a couple of epiphanies about that over the last two years. The first is that most immigrants (other then refugees) to Canada have more education than I . Thy are not coming here to have a career as a house person or room attendant. Not that this awareness of diversity isn’t an important part of our industry as our guests are international and oh yes we will have to recruit workers internationally at least on short term visas. The next epiphany is worth it’s on section so please read number 5
5. Millennials. Along the way discover that I was an immigrant as well, a “Digital Immigrant”. This I think is having an increasing impact on industry as we discover that we are suffering not only from a generation gap but perhaps more importantly a paradigm shift into the way they work and look at life. Yes I know that each generation has speaking of the failure of the next generation to come up to expectations since the beginning of societies. I remember first running across this concept as a youth while reading “The Satyricon” which was written by Platonius during the reign of Emperor Nero nearly 2000 years ago . None the less no previous generation has had the internet embedded in their lives. This generation shares with the world (FaceBook, MySpace, MSN etc…) everything (even those things we would never) and expects to find answers at their fingertips. Lets face it will all Google things. ( Imagine how quickly that became a verb). Wikipedia now has more pages and words in than the Encyclopedia Britannica and is considered to have equal weight by the millennials. So how do we communicate to them? By this I mean how do we find them and reach then where they are?
6. Education. At least in Nova Scotia we have spent fifteen years being inclusive in our education system and preparing most everyone for University. While a laudable goal. I think a society that can’t keep it toilets running is likely to be in trouble before long. The ramifications of these decision are manifold and worth a future blog of their own. Certainly the ramifications are important for business and society.
7. Demographics. The bottom line is that there are fewer young people than old people. The implications of this are huge from increased wages, a lack of workers and increased expectations from the under 25 workers. This means that we may have to become better employers, look for non-traditional employees, change the way we work and the way we manage. This is only the beginning and I suspect worthy of many future blogs ahead of us.
Well that is enough for one rant. I hope you will add to the list. It would be wonderful to see a dialogue on these issues from industry and students alum and those simply with a point of view. There is no question that as Tourism professionals these are issues we are going to have to solve, or at least cope with in the years ahead.
It is not the New Year yet but my new year’s resolution for next year is to blog about our industry, about applied education and the challenges facing faculty/industry teaching/training in the Tourism industry.
May you all have a blessed Christmas, happy holidays and the very best in the New Year!
Strengths-Based Coaching
- By Lyn Jeffress
Have you ever noticed that when you're doing something that comes naturally to you, you lose track of time? You forget to eat or take breaks - and when you've finished the task, you actually have more energy than when you started?
Now imagine that you can harness that kind of motivation and commitment in your team, and create consistent, near-perfect performance as a result. That's what strengths-based coaching is all about.
When people do things that come naturally, it creates energy. So if people understand what they do well, it becomes self-generating - they want to perform, and perform well. Conversely, when people push themselves to do things that don't come naturally, it drains energy. They are less motivated and less productive. Strengths-based coaching means capitalizing on peoples' talents and abilities, rather than trying to improve their weak areas.
As trainers, we may find this counterintuitive; isn't it our job to improve weak areas? Not according to the folks at Gallop, who used their study of more than two million people to determine how natural abilities could be translated into personal and career success. The job of the trainer (or manager, or coach) is to develop talent - a naturally occurring pattern of thought, feeling or behavior - into strength, through the application of knowledge and skills. It is from that strength that we get performance.
Of course, no talent stands alone. Most projects or tasks require a combination of strengths, and therefore a combination of people. When you put the right combination of people and strengths together, you create synergy - and a much happier team than if those same individuals were forced into less natural roles. It is the very essence of the Service Profit Chain: Engaged, committed employees are more productive. What better way to create engaged employees than by helping them discover their strengths and use them every day?
The first step, then, is discovery. The Gallop Organization has identified 34 separate strengths, along with a process for discovering them (Now Discover Your Strengths, Buckingham & Clifton, 2001; the online 'StrengthsFinder' profile is included with the purchase of the book). Those strengths can then be divided into four unique 'themes,' and when you can identify a person's primary theme, you can determine how best to work with him - and with whom he can most productively work.
Mobilizers, for instance, can readily take control of a situation and make decisions - and they're skilled at recognizing and cultivating the potential in others. Reflecters, on the other hand, need to collect all available information and consider every factor that that might affect a situation. Mobilizers might become impatient with Reflectors, but they also need them working behind the scenes.
Energizers have certain unchanging core values that both define them and enable them to quickly turn thoughts into action. They, too, can be impatient, and their self-assurance makes it difficult to resist following them.
Finally, Connecters are the glue of any team. They are aware of and sympathetic to the needs of others and try to make everyone feel included. They have a gift for figuring out how people who are different can work together productively.
Once you've discovered the strengths within your organization, the real work begins: Strengths-based coaching requires a culture shift for managers who are used to assigning projects based on demonstrated ability, rather than natural talent. And that's where we trainers come in - since we have a 'natural talent' for changing culture.
Lyn Jeffress, Jack in the Box
References:
Flow, Csikszentmihalyi, 1990.
First Break All The Rules, Coffman & Buckingham, 1999.
Now Discover Your Strengths, Buckingham & Clifton, 2001.
Follow This Path, Coffman & Gonzalez-Molina, 2002.
Good Business, Csikszentmihalyi, 2003.
Thriving in Mind, Benziger, 2003.
How Full Is Your Bucket, Rath & Clifton, 2004.
Character Strengths & Virtues, Peterson & Seligman, 2004.
Have you ever noticed that when you're doing something that comes naturally to you, you lose track of time? You forget to eat or take breaks - and when you've finished the task, you actually have more energy than when you started?
Now imagine that you can harness that kind of motivation and commitment in your team, and create consistent, near-perfect performance as a result. That's what strengths-based coaching is all about.
When people do things that come naturally, it creates energy. So if people understand what they do well, it becomes self-generating - they want to perform, and perform well. Conversely, when people push themselves to do things that don't come naturally, it drains energy. They are less motivated and less productive. Strengths-based coaching means capitalizing on peoples' talents and abilities, rather than trying to improve their weak areas.
As trainers, we may find this counterintuitive; isn't it our job to improve weak areas? Not according to the folks at Gallop, who used their study of more than two million people to determine how natural abilities could be translated into personal and career success. The job of the trainer (or manager, or coach) is to develop talent - a naturally occurring pattern of thought, feeling or behavior - into strength, through the application of knowledge and skills. It is from that strength that we get performance.
Of course, no talent stands alone. Most projects or tasks require a combination of strengths, and therefore a combination of people. When you put the right combination of people and strengths together, you create synergy - and a much happier team than if those same individuals were forced into less natural roles. It is the very essence of the Service Profit Chain: Engaged, committed employees are more productive. What better way to create engaged employees than by helping them discover their strengths and use them every day?
The first step, then, is discovery. The Gallop Organization has identified 34 separate strengths, along with a process for discovering them (Now Discover Your Strengths, Buckingham & Clifton, 2001; the online 'StrengthsFinder' profile is included with the purchase of the book). Those strengths can then be divided into four unique 'themes,' and when you can identify a person's primary theme, you can determine how best to work with him - and with whom he can most productively work.
Mobilizers, for instance, can readily take control of a situation and make decisions - and they're skilled at recognizing and cultivating the potential in others. Reflecters, on the other hand, need to collect all available information and consider every factor that that might affect a situation. Mobilizers might become impatient with Reflectors, but they also need them working behind the scenes.
Energizers have certain unchanging core values that both define them and enable them to quickly turn thoughts into action. They, too, can be impatient, and their self-assurance makes it difficult to resist following them.
Finally, Connecters are the glue of any team. They are aware of and sympathetic to the needs of others and try to make everyone feel included. They have a gift for figuring out how people who are different can work together productively.
Once you've discovered the strengths within your organization, the real work begins: Strengths-based coaching requires a culture shift for managers who are used to assigning projects based on demonstrated ability, rather than natural talent. And that's where we trainers come in - since we have a 'natural talent' for changing culture.
Lyn Jeffress, Jack in the Box
References:
Flow, Csikszentmihalyi, 1990.
First Break All The Rules, Coffman & Buckingham, 1999.
Now Discover Your Strengths, Buckingham & Clifton, 2001.
Follow This Path, Coffman & Gonzalez-Molina, 2002.
Good Business, Csikszentmihalyi, 2003.
Thriving in Mind, Benziger, 2003.
How Full Is Your Bucket, Rath & Clifton, 2004.
Character Strengths & Virtues, Peterson & Seligman, 2004.
Thursday, December 06, 2007
Eleven Dining Trends for 2008
Forecasted by Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co.
December 5, 2007 - Restaurant consultants Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co. have forecast eleven major dining trends that impact how Americans will eat in the year ahead.
Their predictions and buzzwords for the year ahead:
1. SPEED TRUMPS EVERYTHING: Say hello to The Portable Generation. No one has patience anymore; in-and-out is being replaced by not even in. Millions of people will be ordering food to go via their cellphones. A harbinger: A flock of fast feeders are taking text-message orders that are paid for via the same web-enabled devices, promising the have orders ready when you arrive. About a third of cellphone orders already come from people in their cars.
Table service restaurants and supermarkets are getting into the act, packing up your orders and delivering them to you curbside – so you can show up looking like a slob. And if you’re sitting down, restaurants want you out faster, so they’ll be swiping your credit card tableside and you’ll get your bill just the way you do at Hertz or Avis – while waiters watch how you calculate their tips.
Dining with colleagues at your desks? -- about 50% of office workers do this every day! A web-based startup will take everyone’s meal choices from their individual computers, consolidate them and shoot a single order to a restaurant that you collectively select, along with pre-payment. No more frantic secretaries juggling which sandwich gets the mayo and which the horseradish.
2. EXPLOITING THE NICHES: We call them “slivers” – food outlets with highly focused menus that explore interesting niches in the market (the explosion of coffee bars is a recent example). Hotels with dull lobbies should especially take note of this!
We’re seeing ceviche bars that specialize in the raw seafood dishes of Peru. Steakhouses are sprouting charcuterie bars. Chocolaterias all over the country are pushing hot chocolate spiked with chiles and pink peppercorns, chocolate coated corn and parmesan cheese, chocolate martinis with glasses rimmed in hot fudge – all of them betting that the publicity about bitter chocolate being good for your health (damn the fat and calories) will keep customers coming.
Then there’s the cupcake phenomenon, proving that people will line up for mediocre food if there’s enough press support. In Colorado, a two-unit company specializing in variations of melted cheese sandwiches is trying to colonize the rest of America. In New York, a couple of players hope to make it big serving nothing the macaroni and cheese.
There’s a mozzarella bar in California, mimicking an idea that’s hot in Rome. Falafel joints in the US, Holland and Australia are trying to sell franchises. Several outfits selling breakfast cereals appear to be thriving, especially in college towns. Rice pudding shops just won’t go away.
We’re watching new kebab/yakitori/satay specialists, leading us to believe there’s a live-fire wave coming.
Finally, a couple of Korean upstarts (and now lots of imitators) have taken frozen yogurt back to its roots -- as an acidic treat rather than something sweetly masquerading as ice cream. They’re boasting of no additives, nothing artificial and no high-fructose corn syrup. It began in California but has spread so quickly that the big frozen yogurt chains are changing their merchandising.
3. GASTRO-BARTENDERS: The folks concocting drinks at your favorite bar have gotten titular promotions: They’ve been elevated to “mixologists” as they search for ever more enticing ways of getting you looped. This coming year, they’ll be especially concerned about your health, of all things. Trendy bars, restaurants and clubs will formulate cocktails from organic fruit juices, vegetable purées, and vitamin-filled sports drinks instead of gooey syrups on the dubious premise that if you’re drinking anyway, you may as well also get your antioxidants.
Cocktails are being “enhanced” with herbs like rosemary, basil and lavender, and bartenders are playing with bergamot oil (think Earl Grey tea) and even saffron.
Superfruits – pomegranate, acai, goji berries – that last year were hot in health food stores are now so mainstream that they’re appearing in alcoholic cocktails.
Bartenders also are creating desserts, in tandem with pastry chefs, so you’ll be able to eat your cocktail. Some loopy scientists have discovered that adding alcohol to strawberries and blackberries increases their antioxidant capacity. So watch for them, and other highly colored elixirs (like watermelon juice) to subliminally lure customers into thinking that the latest Cosmo variation is good for their health.
Of course, all this nonsense may encourage more drinking, but none of it addresses tomorrow’s hangover.
4. NUTRITIONAL SCORING: With health and diet concerns at the top of every consumer trend lists, watch for a flock of competing and overlapping systems for rating the good-for-you-ness of food products. There’s a 1-100 scoring system coming from the Yale Prevention Research Center that deals with both good and bad stuff; another system being pushed by food manufacturers that somehow seems less disinterested; plus individual companies are emblazoning their own packages with arbitrary names that have little or no comparative meaning. Once again, consumers will get confused because the government won’t do the work. But all these claims will put pressure on restaurant and hotel businesses – consumer will start asking why, if they can get scoring systems in supermarkets, they can’t get any information on menus.
5 INNARDS AND ODD PARTS: Consumers have discovered that their wonderful steaks and chops come from animals that have heads and tails as well … and now there’s a growing fascination with the odd parts that people used to reject. In part this stems from TV hoopla of “extreme eating” shows, but it also indicates that people are increasingly willing to eat food that comes far away from their zip codes. You can see this across the US as more and more people shop in ethnic markets.
We seeing tails, shanks, flaps, bellies and cheeks cropping up on middlebrow menus. Ravioli and cabbage leaves are being stuffed with all sort of unmentionable parts of animals. Increasing numbers of people are flocking to “testicle festivals” held in otherwise obscure hamlets, all in search of gastronomic thrills. Is tongue the next lamb shank?
6. THIS TREND MAY GO NOWHERE -- DESSERT RESTAURANTS OPENED BY PASTRY CHEFS: Celebrity dessert chefs, no longer content to see their names just at the bottoms of some menus, are opening their own restaurants – largely, but not entirely, featuring pastry. They’re popping up in New York, California, Japan, the UK, Barcelona, and as far away as Singapore. The trouble is: These chefs are straining for show-off dishes that leave typical restaurant-goers scratching their heads. Foie gras with bitter chocolate?; peanut butter and pears ?; mackerel with avocado, watermelon, black olives?; smoked trout caviar with rosemary biscuit and corn-crème fraiche ice cream?; pink peppercorn ice cream in red wine sauce?. Call us old fogies, but we don’t think these will fly very far.
7. WACKY ICE CREAMS: Maybe this one has more legs than the bizarre stuff above … for oddball ice creams are showing up in unlikely combinations, some of them rather intriguing. Tuna tartare with wasabi ice cream almost makes sense. Cantaloupe sorbet with lavender-cured pork also might in the hands of a genius chef. Foie gras terrine with foie
gras ice cream probably shouldn’t be attempted outside a laboratory, but sweet corn ice cream with a grilled chocolate sandwich starts to sound yummy – even if it never makes the Baskin-Robbins hit parade. There’s valid history behind these ice creams, since Italians have been consuming parmesan ice cream for ages, and no one laughed when Escoffier dabbled with asparagus ice cream.
Here’s one to take seriously if you’re near a Mexican enclave: Paletas are Mexican ice pops in such awesome flavors as mango-and-chile, sweet corn, strawberry-rice, and spicy cucumber-mango-jicama-orange – usually with chunks for fruit and spaces; ole, we say!
8. GASTRONOMY FOR CHILDREN: Food for children is the next gastronomic frontier. There’s a raft of cookbooks for young people, including Kids Cook 1-2-3, a big hit in the US, England and Germany, whose author, Rozanne Gold, coined the term “gastro-pups.”
Also very hot: Kids cooking classes are erupting in restaurants and hotels across the country as chefs seek out ways to connect to entire families – and to fill their restaurants during off-hours.
At the same time, parents are rebelling against so-called kids menus – the ones with fried chicken fingers, greasy fish sticks, and gummy spaghetti. Because more and more kids are joining parents at restaurant dining tables, they – and their parents – want real food. That means child-size portions of regular menu items.
Other startups are franchising cooking academies for young people, and websites are devoted to kids and their food. There’s a store in New York selling only kids’ food, and an interesting new venture is selling pre-packed breakfasts, sandwiches and snacks to parents who only have time to shove ready-made components into a lunch bag. Several supermarket chains are selling kid-oriented dinners-in-a-bag as part of their prepared foods offerings.
Watch as beverage companies they try selling their “enhanced” high-priced waters to your children. Crayola – along with a clutch of cartoon characters -- has licensed its name for flashy-colored vitamin waters; Honest Tea is pushing pouches of fruit-flavored teas (called Honest Kids) for children; and some companies are packing waters in bottles that can be reused as toys, doing everything possible to make simple tap water appear uncool.
9. HAMBURGERS GO OVER THE TOP: They’re becoming fancy and fanciful – and therefore very exciting – transforming a mundane, generic item into a luxury special. It began, probably, with Daniel Boulud’s extravaganza burger with braised short ribs and foie gras. Jars and bottles are now out: Chefs are pickling their own vegetables, making their own sauces, grinding their known meat. Lamb is a strong alternate to beef, and there are suckling pig burgers mixed with chorizo. Chefs are making fanciful combinations of chuck and short ribs, brisket and flap meat, all adding succulence.
And there are more Kobe beef burgers sold today than there are Kobe cattle. We’ve even seen this combination platter: Kobeburger, fries … and a foie gras milk shake! Who eats these things? High-rollers in gambling joints, guests in luxury hotels, and Wall Streeters impressing their buddies.
But the concept is trickling down. Wendy’s made the newspapers with its Baconator Burger, McDonald’s joined the fray with its 13-pounder, and Hardee’s plopped a Philadelphia Cheese Steak atop its hamburger. Several build-your-own-burger chains are expanding, one claiming 300,000 possible variations, including one with bacon, cheese, a slice of pineapple topped with a fried egg … don’t ask!
10. SMALL IS STILL BIG, BUT FOR HOW LONG? The small plates phenomenon keeps on rolling – especially mini-desserts -- but tapas-style restaurants in a handful of cities have to reverted to conventional menus as customers discover they’re actually spending more and often getting less. Look for more menus trying to have it both ways -- with small- and large-size portions.
11. ETHICAL EATING AND GETTING THE JUNK OUT OF FOOD: The British government formally linked artificial colors and preservatives to hyperactivity in children this past September. Now food manufacturers and retailers in the UK and Europe are purging their products of everything that sounds like chemicals. Inevitably, we this will spill over to US retailers who will trumpet “junk-free” food.
As consumers here rebel against the “unnatural”, fast food and casual dining chains will be pressed to reformulate what they’re serving and what they say about it. Meanwhile fancier restaurants will increase talking the talk about buying locally-produced products, humane slaughter of cattle, sourcing fair trade coffee and chocolate, serving whole grains, reducing their energy footprints – all with higher menu prices.
So here’s the irony: As food companies scour the world for “natural” preservatives and flavor enhancers, avant-garde chefs who worship in the Temple of Molecular Gastronomy are adding more and more chemicals to their bizarre creations, hoping to teach old food new tricks.
And: There’s a potential backlash against bottled water, which comes in plastic containers that clog our landfills and that often are shipped half-way around the world for no particular reason. Watch for increasing numbers of restaurants to scrap bottled water and begin charging for filtering their local water.
BUZZWORDS FOR 2008:
“Gastro-travel” – more and more families are organizing vacations around food experiences. And they’re booking hotels based on what experiences are on offer – tours of local markets, cooking classes, interaction with local residents, chances to learn about history and geography.
Outrageously expensive look-at-me desserts and cocktails, $100 and up.
US government pushes for lower salt in prepared foods, meanwhile OKs pumping chickens full of salt water. Big attack on high-fructose corn syrup.
The battle for breakfast widens. Two years ago we predicted the war for breakfast as fast food chains geared up to steal Starbuck’s’ customers. Now big hotel companies are joining the fight, featuring extravaganza early-morning buffets. Their reasoning: It is the meal that most guests eat at a hotel, so that’s the best time to impress them. Eat enough and call it lunch.
Pressure on restaurant chains to buy more “ethically”.
Shochu – a lower alcohol vodka-like beverage, currently outsells sake in Japan and is gaining a big following here; new “superfruits” being discovered around the world, appearing as additives in beverages and desserts (and soaps and cosmetics); sparkling gin, vodka and rum for people too lazy to open separate bottles.
Rose wines from around the world.
Poached eggs appearing on more and more dishes – salads, Asian noodles, steaks and burgers.
Korean food – we’re just starting to get comfortable with this cuisine.
Latino food is on a roll – bolder flavors and brighter colors closer to home will begin to edge out Med-Rim. Look for increasing emphasis on cuisines from specific regions.
Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co. creates high-profile restaurants around the world for hotels, restaurant companies, major museums and other consumer destinations. Their projects include the late Windows on the World, the Rainbow Room, the world’s first food courts, and five three-star restaurants in New York.
They also run trend seminars for large hotel and restaurant companies.
December 5, 2007 - Restaurant consultants Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co. have forecast eleven major dining trends that impact how Americans will eat in the year ahead.
Their predictions and buzzwords for the year ahead:
1. SPEED TRUMPS EVERYTHING: Say hello to The Portable Generation. No one has patience anymore; in-and-out is being replaced by not even in. Millions of people will be ordering food to go via their cellphones. A harbinger: A flock of fast feeders are taking text-message orders that are paid for via the same web-enabled devices, promising the have orders ready when you arrive. About a third of cellphone orders already come from people in their cars.
Table service restaurants and supermarkets are getting into the act, packing up your orders and delivering them to you curbside – so you can show up looking like a slob. And if you’re sitting down, restaurants want you out faster, so they’ll be swiping your credit card tableside and you’ll get your bill just the way you do at Hertz or Avis – while waiters watch how you calculate their tips.
Dining with colleagues at your desks? -- about 50% of office workers do this every day! A web-based startup will take everyone’s meal choices from their individual computers, consolidate them and shoot a single order to a restaurant that you collectively select, along with pre-payment. No more frantic secretaries juggling which sandwich gets the mayo and which the horseradish.
2. EXPLOITING THE NICHES: We call them “slivers” – food outlets with highly focused menus that explore interesting niches in the market (the explosion of coffee bars is a recent example). Hotels with dull lobbies should especially take note of this!
We’re seeing ceviche bars that specialize in the raw seafood dishes of Peru. Steakhouses are sprouting charcuterie bars. Chocolaterias all over the country are pushing hot chocolate spiked with chiles and pink peppercorns, chocolate coated corn and parmesan cheese, chocolate martinis with glasses rimmed in hot fudge – all of them betting that the publicity about bitter chocolate being good for your health (damn the fat and calories) will keep customers coming.
Then there’s the cupcake phenomenon, proving that people will line up for mediocre food if there’s enough press support. In Colorado, a two-unit company specializing in variations of melted cheese sandwiches is trying to colonize the rest of America. In New York, a couple of players hope to make it big serving nothing the macaroni and cheese.
There’s a mozzarella bar in California, mimicking an idea that’s hot in Rome. Falafel joints in the US, Holland and Australia are trying to sell franchises. Several outfits selling breakfast cereals appear to be thriving, especially in college towns. Rice pudding shops just won’t go away.
We’re watching new kebab/yakitori/satay specialists, leading us to believe there’s a live-fire wave coming.
Finally, a couple of Korean upstarts (and now lots of imitators) have taken frozen yogurt back to its roots -- as an acidic treat rather than something sweetly masquerading as ice cream. They’re boasting of no additives, nothing artificial and no high-fructose corn syrup. It began in California but has spread so quickly that the big frozen yogurt chains are changing their merchandising.
3. GASTRO-BARTENDERS: The folks concocting drinks at your favorite bar have gotten titular promotions: They’ve been elevated to “mixologists” as they search for ever more enticing ways of getting you looped. This coming year, they’ll be especially concerned about your health, of all things. Trendy bars, restaurants and clubs will formulate cocktails from organic fruit juices, vegetable purées, and vitamin-filled sports drinks instead of gooey syrups on the dubious premise that if you’re drinking anyway, you may as well also get your antioxidants.
Cocktails are being “enhanced” with herbs like rosemary, basil and lavender, and bartenders are playing with bergamot oil (think Earl Grey tea) and even saffron.
Superfruits – pomegranate, acai, goji berries – that last year were hot in health food stores are now so mainstream that they’re appearing in alcoholic cocktails.
Bartenders also are creating desserts, in tandem with pastry chefs, so you’ll be able to eat your cocktail. Some loopy scientists have discovered that adding alcohol to strawberries and blackberries increases their antioxidant capacity. So watch for them, and other highly colored elixirs (like watermelon juice) to subliminally lure customers into thinking that the latest Cosmo variation is good for their health.
Of course, all this nonsense may encourage more drinking, but none of it addresses tomorrow’s hangover.
4. NUTRITIONAL SCORING: With health and diet concerns at the top of every consumer trend lists, watch for a flock of competing and overlapping systems for rating the good-for-you-ness of food products. There’s a 1-100 scoring system coming from the Yale Prevention Research Center that deals with both good and bad stuff; another system being pushed by food manufacturers that somehow seems less disinterested; plus individual companies are emblazoning their own packages with arbitrary names that have little or no comparative meaning. Once again, consumers will get confused because the government won’t do the work. But all these claims will put pressure on restaurant and hotel businesses – consumer will start asking why, if they can get scoring systems in supermarkets, they can’t get any information on menus.
5 INNARDS AND ODD PARTS: Consumers have discovered that their wonderful steaks and chops come from animals that have heads and tails as well … and now there’s a growing fascination with the odd parts that people used to reject. In part this stems from TV hoopla of “extreme eating” shows, but it also indicates that people are increasingly willing to eat food that comes far away from their zip codes. You can see this across the US as more and more people shop in ethnic markets.
We seeing tails, shanks, flaps, bellies and cheeks cropping up on middlebrow menus. Ravioli and cabbage leaves are being stuffed with all sort of unmentionable parts of animals. Increasing numbers of people are flocking to “testicle festivals” held in otherwise obscure hamlets, all in search of gastronomic thrills. Is tongue the next lamb shank?
6. THIS TREND MAY GO NOWHERE -- DESSERT RESTAURANTS OPENED BY PASTRY CHEFS: Celebrity dessert chefs, no longer content to see their names just at the bottoms of some menus, are opening their own restaurants – largely, but not entirely, featuring pastry. They’re popping up in New York, California, Japan, the UK, Barcelona, and as far away as Singapore. The trouble is: These chefs are straining for show-off dishes that leave typical restaurant-goers scratching their heads. Foie gras with bitter chocolate?; peanut butter and pears ?; mackerel with avocado, watermelon, black olives?; smoked trout caviar with rosemary biscuit and corn-crème fraiche ice cream?; pink peppercorn ice cream in red wine sauce?. Call us old fogies, but we don’t think these will fly very far.
7. WACKY ICE CREAMS: Maybe this one has more legs than the bizarre stuff above … for oddball ice creams are showing up in unlikely combinations, some of them rather intriguing. Tuna tartare with wasabi ice cream almost makes sense. Cantaloupe sorbet with lavender-cured pork also might in the hands of a genius chef. Foie gras terrine with foie
gras ice cream probably shouldn’t be attempted outside a laboratory, but sweet corn ice cream with a grilled chocolate sandwich starts to sound yummy – even if it never makes the Baskin-Robbins hit parade. There’s valid history behind these ice creams, since Italians have been consuming parmesan ice cream for ages, and no one laughed when Escoffier dabbled with asparagus ice cream.
Here’s one to take seriously if you’re near a Mexican enclave: Paletas are Mexican ice pops in such awesome flavors as mango-and-chile, sweet corn, strawberry-rice, and spicy cucumber-mango-jicama-orange – usually with chunks for fruit and spaces; ole, we say!
8. GASTRONOMY FOR CHILDREN: Food for children is the next gastronomic frontier. There’s a raft of cookbooks for young people, including Kids Cook 1-2-3, a big hit in the US, England and Germany, whose author, Rozanne Gold, coined the term “gastro-pups.”
Also very hot: Kids cooking classes are erupting in restaurants and hotels across the country as chefs seek out ways to connect to entire families – and to fill their restaurants during off-hours.
At the same time, parents are rebelling against so-called kids menus – the ones with fried chicken fingers, greasy fish sticks, and gummy spaghetti. Because more and more kids are joining parents at restaurant dining tables, they – and their parents – want real food. That means child-size portions of regular menu items.
Other startups are franchising cooking academies for young people, and websites are devoted to kids and their food. There’s a store in New York selling only kids’ food, and an interesting new venture is selling pre-packed breakfasts, sandwiches and snacks to parents who only have time to shove ready-made components into a lunch bag. Several supermarket chains are selling kid-oriented dinners-in-a-bag as part of their prepared foods offerings.
Watch as beverage companies they try selling their “enhanced” high-priced waters to your children. Crayola – along with a clutch of cartoon characters -- has licensed its name for flashy-colored vitamin waters; Honest Tea is pushing pouches of fruit-flavored teas (called Honest Kids) for children; and some companies are packing waters in bottles that can be reused as toys, doing everything possible to make simple tap water appear uncool.
9. HAMBURGERS GO OVER THE TOP: They’re becoming fancy and fanciful – and therefore very exciting – transforming a mundane, generic item into a luxury special. It began, probably, with Daniel Boulud’s extravaganza burger with braised short ribs and foie gras. Jars and bottles are now out: Chefs are pickling their own vegetables, making their own sauces, grinding their known meat. Lamb is a strong alternate to beef, and there are suckling pig burgers mixed with chorizo. Chefs are making fanciful combinations of chuck and short ribs, brisket and flap meat, all adding succulence.
And there are more Kobe beef burgers sold today than there are Kobe cattle. We’ve even seen this combination platter: Kobeburger, fries … and a foie gras milk shake! Who eats these things? High-rollers in gambling joints, guests in luxury hotels, and Wall Streeters impressing their buddies.
But the concept is trickling down. Wendy’s made the newspapers with its Baconator Burger, McDonald’s joined the fray with its 13-pounder, and Hardee’s plopped a Philadelphia Cheese Steak atop its hamburger. Several build-your-own-burger chains are expanding, one claiming 300,000 possible variations, including one with bacon, cheese, a slice of pineapple topped with a fried egg … don’t ask!
10. SMALL IS STILL BIG, BUT FOR HOW LONG? The small plates phenomenon keeps on rolling – especially mini-desserts -- but tapas-style restaurants in a handful of cities have to reverted to conventional menus as customers discover they’re actually spending more and often getting less. Look for more menus trying to have it both ways -- with small- and large-size portions.
11. ETHICAL EATING AND GETTING THE JUNK OUT OF FOOD: The British government formally linked artificial colors and preservatives to hyperactivity in children this past September. Now food manufacturers and retailers in the UK and Europe are purging their products of everything that sounds like chemicals. Inevitably, we this will spill over to US retailers who will trumpet “junk-free” food.
As consumers here rebel against the “unnatural”, fast food and casual dining chains will be pressed to reformulate what they’re serving and what they say about it. Meanwhile fancier restaurants will increase talking the talk about buying locally-produced products, humane slaughter of cattle, sourcing fair trade coffee and chocolate, serving whole grains, reducing their energy footprints – all with higher menu prices.
So here’s the irony: As food companies scour the world for “natural” preservatives and flavor enhancers, avant-garde chefs who worship in the Temple of Molecular Gastronomy are adding more and more chemicals to their bizarre creations, hoping to teach old food new tricks.
And: There’s a potential backlash against bottled water, which comes in plastic containers that clog our landfills and that often are shipped half-way around the world for no particular reason. Watch for increasing numbers of restaurants to scrap bottled water and begin charging for filtering their local water.
BUZZWORDS FOR 2008:
“Gastro-travel” – more and more families are organizing vacations around food experiences. And they’re booking hotels based on what experiences are on offer – tours of local markets, cooking classes, interaction with local residents, chances to learn about history and geography.
Outrageously expensive look-at-me desserts and cocktails, $100 and up.
US government pushes for lower salt in prepared foods, meanwhile OKs pumping chickens full of salt water. Big attack on high-fructose corn syrup.
The battle for breakfast widens. Two years ago we predicted the war for breakfast as fast food chains geared up to steal Starbuck’s’ customers. Now big hotel companies are joining the fight, featuring extravaganza early-morning buffets. Their reasoning: It is the meal that most guests eat at a hotel, so that’s the best time to impress them. Eat enough and call it lunch.
Pressure on restaurant chains to buy more “ethically”.
Shochu – a lower alcohol vodka-like beverage, currently outsells sake in Japan and is gaining a big following here; new “superfruits” being discovered around the world, appearing as additives in beverages and desserts (and soaps and cosmetics); sparkling gin, vodka and rum for people too lazy to open separate bottles.
Rose wines from around the world.
Poached eggs appearing on more and more dishes – salads, Asian noodles, steaks and burgers.
Korean food – we’re just starting to get comfortable with this cuisine.
Latino food is on a roll – bolder flavors and brighter colors closer to home will begin to edge out Med-Rim. Look for increasing emphasis on cuisines from specific regions.
Joseph Baum & Michael Whiteman Co. creates high-profile restaurants around the world for hotels, restaurant companies, major museums and other consumer destinations. Their projects include the late Windows on the World, the Rainbow Room, the world’s first food courts, and five three-star restaurants in New York.
They also run trend seminars for large hotel and restaurant companies.
Putting Nova Scotian vino on the map
It took 25 years to build the industry and only 12 months for Gina Haverstock to turn a wine from the East into the toast of the town
BEPPI CROSARIOL
From Wednesday's Globe and Mail
December 5, 2007 at 9:33 AM EST
It has taken a quarter century of pioneering vision and tenacity by a group of mavericks to forge a fledgling wine industry in Nova Scotia. It took one woman, Gina Haverstock, less than a year to put it on the map.
Ms. Haverstock, the new winemaker at Gaspereau Vineyards in the Annapolis Valley, has become something of a cause célèbre among local connoisseurs and grape growers since launching her first wine, a 2006 riesling, earlier this year. The tangy-sweet white not only invited comparisons to the archetypal style of Germany's Mosel Valley, it also quickly sold out at the brassy price of $18.99 for an undersized, 500-millilitre bottle.
More remarkably, it achieved something no other Nova Scotia wine had before, taking home a silver medal in a mainstream category at the All Canadian Wine Championships in Windsor in May, beating out highly regarded rivals from Ontario and British Columbia.
Pioneering producers such as Domaine de Grand Pré, Jost Vineyards and Blomidon Estate had made it into the medal rounds of the 27-year-old competition in the past, but with less-familiar grapes such as l'Acadie and cayuga, so-called hybrids bred to thrive in extreme weather. Ms. Haverstock's riesling, on the other hand, was made from a variety of vitis vinifera, the so-called noble European species from which virtually all the world's fine wine is made, including chardonnay, pinot grigio, merlot, and cabernet sauvignon.
"Riesling is known around the world, so it is obviously going to draw attention," said Ms. Haverstock, 30, from her home in the cottage-strewn Gaspereau Valley, an extension of the larger Annapolis Valley near the shores of the Bay of Fundy. "People are always asking for the riesling."
Critics have been applauding, too. Craig Pinhey, a New Brunswick-based wine writer for the Telegraph-Journal, was impressed enough to call my attention to it. Adam Dial, a Lunenberg, N.S.-based managing editor of Appelation America, a wine media and marketing company that publishes online reviews from critics across North America, enthused about the Gaspereau riesling in a recent posting.
"A lean and racy Moselle-like structure with bracing acidity invigorates the palate," he wrote. "Over all, an impressive early showing for this noble variety in Nova Scotia and another validation of the Gaspereau Valley's potential."
That potential is built largely on thermal currents pulled in daily by the world's highest tides a few kilometres away. Warm air means not only better ripening during summer, but also milder year-round temperatures, so tender varieties like riesling are less susceptible to winter damage.
"More water runs in and out of the Bay of Fundy in a day than all of the world's rivers," said Hans Christian Jost, the proprietor of Gaspereau Vineyards as well as Jost on the Malagash Peninsula, the latter founded by his late father in 1983 as Nova Scotia's second estate winery, two weeks after Grand Pré.
Ms. Haverstock's precocious riesling is all the more noteworthy as it marked her maiden vintage as a winemaker.
A native of Port Hawkesbury on Cape Breton Island, she graduated in biochemistry from the University of New Brunswick in 2000 with designs on medical school. Fate intervened during the summer when she worked in the tasting bar at Jost Vineyards.
Wowed by the exotic flavours, which stood in contrast to her previous exposure to wine, which she describes as "Cold Duck at Christmas or New Year's," she immersed herself in grape literature. "To be honest, I didn't really open my [medical] books very much," she said.
Mr. Jost was taken aback during regular tutorials he held for new employees at the winery. "The best taste buds you can ever come across," he said of Ms. Haverstock. "I kiddingly told her, 'Why are you studying medicine? You should be in the wine business.' "
She took the advice seriously. Abandoning her med-school plans, she pursued a sommelier degree and, by June, 2005, had fast-tracked her way through the oenology and viticulture program at Brock University in Ontario thanks to her science background.
Brock also opened the door to training stints in other cool-climate regions, notably Germany, where she fell for the peach-like opulence and complexity of riesling at Weingut Georg Breuer in the Rhine Valley. She also did brief apprenticeships in Austria, New Zealand and Burgundy, France.
All along, the plan was to return to Nova Scotia and take advantage of Mr. Jost's standing offer of a job at either Gaspereau or Jost Vineyards.
There was just one condition. "She said, 'You can't get me to come to Nova Scotia and not give me my riesling back.' " Mr. Jost recalled.
As it happened, Mr. Jost had earlier planted riesling as an experiment in the Gaspereau Valley. The deal was sealed.
Now Ms. Haverstock is being cast as a poster woman for the future of the tiny but burgeoning Nova Scotia industry, which covers 320 acres and numbers eight producers.
"The great thing is we have Nova Scotia kids interested in the wine industry and interested in first-rate training and coming back," Mr. Dial said in an interview.
In another milestone for the industry, the fledgling Winery Association of Nova Scotia recently introduced an official seal for bottleneck capsules, akin to the VQA designation in Ontario and British Columbia, which guarantees a wine was sourced from local grapes and made to various quality standards. The logo? A lobster claw clasping a wine glass.
Even industry veterans are heading eastward, drawn by affordable land, the exciting promise of other vinifera varieties such as chardonnay and pinot noir, and the improving quality of the province's signature hybrid grapes, l'Acadie and New York muscat.
At least four new wineries are under construction and Mr. Jost believes vine acreage could more than double, to 1,000 acres, within several years.
"I wouldn't bother if I didn't have full intentions to produce incredible wines," said Bruce Ewert, owner of L'Acadie Vineyards in the Gaspereau Valley, who moved in 2004 from British Columbia after garnering top awards for Champagne-style sparkling wines at both Summerhill Pyramid Winery and the former Hawthorne Mountain Vineyards in the Okanagan. His plan: to produce premium bubblies as well as table and dessert wines out of l'Acadie off 10 acres. His first vintage is due next year.
Arguably the splashiest new project is Benjamin Bridge Vineyards, launched in 1999 by Gerry McConnell, chief executive officer of mining company Etruscan Resources Inc., and scheduled to open next year. Also behind the project is veteran Niagara consultant Peter Gamble, whom Mr. McConnell hired to help assess the potential of chardonnay and pinot noir, with which Mr. McConnell hopes to make Champagne-style sparkling wine.
"So, we could have a Nova Scotia sparkling wine to celebrate," Ms. Haverstock said of the two new projects. "It's beaming. Nova Scotia is beaming with promise."
Monday, December 03, 2007
Blogging for Lodging - Are You Blogging Yet? Part 1
By Benu Aggarwal
Monday, 3rd December 2007
Blogs are the hottest growing medium of communication for businesses and individuals. Based on Technorati research (blog search engine), there are almost 3 million blogs created every month, and bloggers create over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second!
What are Blogs?
Blogs are websites with content management systems that allow visitors to the site to add content. They are forums for organizations and individuals to exchange ideas and communicate with their partners, customers, employees, etc. You can create pages relevant for your business, post articles on different subjects, and offer a platform for others to write their comments or opinions on that post.
Blog Glossary
As a first step towards understanding blogs, its important to get familiarized with some key terms used in the blog world.
• Blogosphere - Community of bloggers
• Posts – Post is an article or a comment written on a blog.
• Trackback – A method for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. Trackbacks enable authors to keep track of who they are linking to, or referring to their articles.
• RSS – Real Simple Syndication
• Web Syndication - Refers to making Web feeds available from a site in order to provide other people with a summary of the website’s recently added content
• Content Syndication – Ability for others to subscribe to the content on your site (using RSS feeds)
• Socializing the blog – Promoting your blog by asking relevant bloggers to review your site by posting, commenting and linking.
Why Blog?
Due of the interactive nature and ability for readers to write their reactions and comments, blogs offers a solid platform for writer and readers to interact and develop a mutual understanding of the opinions of the either party. This allows managers in organizations to get a closer look at what their employees feel or for companies to understand what their customers think of their products.
In the business environment, we believe that blogs offer a solid interaction forum that can be used by companies to read into their customers’ minds, resulting in a better understanding of customer requirements. This information can be used effectively by companies to tailor their product offerings to best meet the needs of those customers. Blogs can be used effectively by companies to establish credibility and trust, and provide insight into the company’s “philosophy and personality.”
Blogs and Search Engines
For an online marketer, blogs offer a powerful marketing platform. Not only do blogs enable marketers to gain a better understanding of their customers, but the content posted on blogs is much easier to find on search engines as well. Search engines love blogs because they love fresh content. Every time new content is posted on a blog, the blog site pings the search engines. This results in frequent search engine spider visits and hence much higher optimization and ranking.
Blogs also have RSS (Real Simple Syndicate) functionality, which means as soon as your article/post is posted on your blog, people signed up to receive your RSS automatically receive information about your post. They come to your blog to read the post or read it in their RSS reader. It all happens in real time on your site. The more you write, the more people will read and comment. Bloggers link to each others blogs while commenting on the post. So, every time a blog has fresh content, whether you wrote a post or readers of the blog commented on your post, search engines get pinged and visit your site.
Blogs help in securing quality links from relevant blogs by trackbacks and comments, which in the blogging world is also called “socializing the blog.” This helps in gaining link popularity and link relevancy, and helps drive relevant traffic very quickly.
Blogs for the Lodging Industry
The lodging industry can utilize blog technology very effectively as a marketing tool. Blogs can be used effectively by hotels and brands to communicate with their customers and to develop an understanding of their needs. In our opinion, one of the best forms of blogs for the hotel/lodging industry is focused on information about the hotel’s local market.
Hotels can successfully utilze blogs to communicate about the attractions and places of interest in their local market. A significant amount of people visit hotels because of local events, attractions, things to do, etc. Therefore, blogs showcasing local destinations can be highly successful for hotel marketing.
There are several categories and functionalities to consider while developing lodging industry blogs. An example of a hotel industry blog can be found at http://blog.rivernorthhotel.com and http://www.experiencewashingtonstate.com/ . In these examples, blogs discuss the destination and top attractions in the hotels’ local market. It also has information about restaurants in the area and provides reader the ability to post comments and opinions. You can discuss the features and amenities that your lodging offers by creating a section for featured properties.
As I was writing this article, I felt like I was discovering a new passion and embarking on a new journey into the blog world. In upcoming articles, I will be covering even more ideas and strategies about blogging, as well as blog tips and success stories. In the name and game of blogging, I would like very much to hear from you. Please comment and I will surely respond. Thanks for reading!!
Benu Aggarwal is founder and president of Milestone Internet Marketing, experts in creating complete internet marketing solutions for the lodging and hospitality industry. Please contact Benu at benu@milestoneinternet.com .
Monday, 3rd December 2007
Blogs are the hottest growing medium of communication for businesses and individuals. Based on Technorati research (blog search engine), there are almost 3 million blogs created every month, and bloggers create over 1.6 million posts per day, or over 18 updates a second!
What are Blogs?
Blogs are websites with content management systems that allow visitors to the site to add content. They are forums for organizations and individuals to exchange ideas and communicate with their partners, customers, employees, etc. You can create pages relevant for your business, post articles on different subjects, and offer a platform for others to write their comments or opinions on that post.
Blog Glossary
As a first step towards understanding blogs, its important to get familiarized with some key terms used in the blog world.
• Blogosphere - Community of bloggers
• Posts – Post is an article or a comment written on a blog.
• Trackback – A method for Web authors to request notification when somebody links to one of their documents. Trackbacks enable authors to keep track of who they are linking to, or referring to their articles.
• RSS – Real Simple Syndication
• Web Syndication - Refers to making Web feeds available from a site in order to provide other people with a summary of the website’s recently added content
• Content Syndication – Ability for others to subscribe to the content on your site (using RSS feeds)
• Socializing the blog – Promoting your blog by asking relevant bloggers to review your site by posting, commenting and linking.
Why Blog?
Due of the interactive nature and ability for readers to write their reactions and comments, blogs offers a solid platform for writer and readers to interact and develop a mutual understanding of the opinions of the either party. This allows managers in organizations to get a closer look at what their employees feel or for companies to understand what their customers think of their products.
In the business environment, we believe that blogs offer a solid interaction forum that can be used by companies to read into their customers’ minds, resulting in a better understanding of customer requirements. This information can be used effectively by companies to tailor their product offerings to best meet the needs of those customers. Blogs can be used effectively by companies to establish credibility and trust, and provide insight into the company’s “philosophy and personality.”
Blogs and Search Engines
For an online marketer, blogs offer a powerful marketing platform. Not only do blogs enable marketers to gain a better understanding of their customers, but the content posted on blogs is much easier to find on search engines as well. Search engines love blogs because they love fresh content. Every time new content is posted on a blog, the blog site pings the search engines. This results in frequent search engine spider visits and hence much higher optimization and ranking.
Blogs also have RSS (Real Simple Syndicate) functionality, which means as soon as your article/post is posted on your blog, people signed up to receive your RSS automatically receive information about your post. They come to your blog to read the post or read it in their RSS reader. It all happens in real time on your site. The more you write, the more people will read and comment. Bloggers link to each others blogs while commenting on the post. So, every time a blog has fresh content, whether you wrote a post or readers of the blog commented on your post, search engines get pinged and visit your site.
Blogs help in securing quality links from relevant blogs by trackbacks and comments, which in the blogging world is also called “socializing the blog.” This helps in gaining link popularity and link relevancy, and helps drive relevant traffic very quickly.
Blogs for the Lodging Industry
The lodging industry can utilize blog technology very effectively as a marketing tool. Blogs can be used effectively by hotels and brands to communicate with their customers and to develop an understanding of their needs. In our opinion, one of the best forms of blogs for the hotel/lodging industry is focused on information about the hotel’s local market.
Hotels can successfully utilze blogs to communicate about the attractions and places of interest in their local market. A significant amount of people visit hotels because of local events, attractions, things to do, etc. Therefore, blogs showcasing local destinations can be highly successful for hotel marketing.
There are several categories and functionalities to consider while developing lodging industry blogs. An example of a hotel industry blog can be found at http://blog.rivernorthhotel.com and http://www.experiencewashingtonstate.com/ . In these examples, blogs discuss the destination and top attractions in the hotels’ local market. It also has information about restaurants in the area and provides reader the ability to post comments and opinions. You can discuss the features and amenities that your lodging offers by creating a section for featured properties.
As I was writing this article, I felt like I was discovering a new passion and embarking on a new journey into the blog world. In upcoming articles, I will be covering even more ideas and strategies about blogging, as well as blog tips and success stories. In the name and game of blogging, I would like very much to hear from you. Please comment and I will surely respond. Thanks for reading!!
Benu Aggarwal is founder and president of Milestone Internet Marketing, experts in creating complete internet marketing solutions for the lodging and hospitality industry. Please contact Benu at benu@milestoneinternet.com .
Saturday, November 24, 2007
Food Tourism is on the Boil.
World Travel Market 2007 London
Friday, 23rd November 2007
It could be the colourful sight of a giant rustic paella in a Spanish seaside town or the smell of a warm bagel on a New York street - But whatever the dish it seems food is something an increasing number of us remember from our travels.
Like never before, holidaymakers are choosing where they go by what they can put in their stomachs - and catering for them is now top of the menu for tour operators and destinations.
Fiona Jeffery, Group Exhibition Director of World Travel Market, who undertook the independent research with 2000 people throughout the UK of all ages and socio economic groups, said: "Food tourism today is where eco-tourism was 20 years ago; people are starting to take an interest.
"Although the research was carried out on behalf of World Travel Market was in the UK, we believe it is representative of a new and growing phenomenon within the international industry.
"The industry needs to take note and use the opportunity to its advantage. Holidaymakers want a hands-on experience and food is a manifestation of a destination's culture.
"You can open a different door with every meal."
"The last five years has seen an incredible shift in the way holidays are marketed and it's all because people are demanding authentic experiences, said Erik Wolf, president of the International Culinary Tourism Association, a non-profit group representing more than 500 tourism businesses in 19 countries.
" For the first time, the true extent of food tourism has been measured in the UK by World Travel Market, the premier business event for the international travel and tourism industry, with research revealing more than half (53%) ranked eating traditional dishes as a 'very important' or 'important' part of their holiday.
Meanwhile, a staggering 86% of Brits quizzed said they enjoyed local foods when abroad.
The trend is not just limited to those on specialist tailor-made breaks either, with 83% of people who typically go on half- or full-board holidays admitting they willingly miss meals in their hotel or resort to try out local restaurants.
International chef Gary Rhodes, whose TV programmes has helped open up the world's traditional dishes and ingredients to a hungry audience, has recently opened a Rhodes restaurant in Calabash, on the Caribbean island of Grenada and onboard P&0 Crusies new liner Arcadia. He said:
"The potential for tourism through dining is enormous and what better way to learn about a country than at the table! My experience is that travellers are becoming both more sophisticated and daring about what they eat."
Changes in Weekly Shop
Supermarkets have played a major part in the shift in attitudes, making foreign foods more available.
One supermarket chain, Waitrose, for example, recently unveiled a range of tapas and Greek dishes that customers might have tried on their holiday.
"The world is becoming a smaller place and we are seeing our customers' tastes change to reflect this. Dishes from all corners of the globe are becoming mainstream additions to the British dinner table," said Waitrose communications manager Gill Smith.
"Flavours people have sampled on holiday are becoming more popular. As they travel to further afield, customers are more willing to experiment with new flavours. Our oriental range now extends beyond Chinese dishes to Japanese, Malayasian and Thai foods.
"We're also finding that as people travel more, they are more knowledgeable about regional trends within countries. Instead of simply wanting Indian foods, we're finding that customers are aware of Goan and Keralan food and want to buy these dishes at their local supermarket."
In the research, the growing trend to change what they put in their supermarket trolley because of holiday experiences is evident. A total of 42% said this affected their weekly shop choices.
Wolf said that some tourist offices are beginning to highlight food as a way of promoting their country to foreign visitors. This trend though must grow still further.
Chicago Led the Way
Chicago led the way eight years ago when it appointed former chef Judith Hines as director of culinary arts and events.
She oversees 275 annual food-related events, including its summer-long Stirring Things Up festival (May 1-Oct 31), which features culinary tours, food festivals, farmers' markets and concerts. Special hotel rates are available to visitors during the period.
Although it's impossible to know how many visitors are drawn by food alone, Hines said millions come for the festivals, including the 11-day Taste of Chicago in July, where 3.5 million people consumed 70,000 pounds of ribs and 250,000 slices of pizza last year. That helped boost hotel occupancy to 90% last summer.
"Food certainly helps boost tourism. While cultural events like theatre might be a good hook for tourists, it won't appeal to all; the attraction of food is universal" said Hines.
"The misperception is that it has to be all five-star fine dining. We have 76 different ethnic neighbourhoods and promote them all. Having really authentic food is part of the attraction."
Chicago's focus on food includes a food concierge in one of the city's largest tourist offices adjacent to a large theatre booking agency. "It's a great tie-up. We explain the food scene to people who are looking for somewhere to eat on their night out."
Hines also offers city tours with a difference, with a bus stopping at four local restaurants with diners having a course in each. "It's a fun way to find out about the city's culture and heritage," she explained.
Operators claim the last five years has seen a significant change in the eating habits of Brits abroad, with clients shunning the 'chips with everything' restaurants and seeking out more local flavours.
This is borne out by World Travel Market's independent research which indicated that 62% of those questioned shunned "glamorous" foreign restaurants and wanted to eat in rustic surroundings with the locals. Only 7% said they would prefer to eat in glamorous surroundings when overseas.
Only 15% of those questioned would plump for international cuisine rather than food typical of the area in which they were staying.
Demand for Authentic Experience
"People want an authentic experience," claimed Chris Orme, general manager of Far East specialist Travel Indochina.
"We are talking much more about food to people when they book and make it a central part of the holiday, going to local restaurants and experimenting. The availability of Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese food in the UK means clients want to try the authentic stuff much more.
"People have booked particular holidays with us on the strength of the food. We're certainly not an operator that deals with food tours, but eating has certainly become a big interest for our clients."
Long Travel, a specialist in rural Italy and Sicily, claimed around 85% of its clients now asked specifically for food advice when booking.
Contracts manager Laura Bell said: "Customers have very high expectations of the food in Italy because it receives so much good press and is always featured in cookery programmes.
"Getting back to nature and trying out dishes in a traditional setting is a must for our clients. Even the larger hotels we use grow many of their own vegetables and produce wine now."
Restaurant Concierge Service
Mercedes Fehler, marketing manager at upmarket specialist Harlequin Worldwide said demand for local cuisine was so high among its customers the operator had introduced a 'restaurant concierge' service. Customers can contact the operator before departure and the concierge will recommend and make reservations at restaurants around the globe.
"The concierge contacts the hotel the customer is staying in to get advice about the places to eat nearby and will make bookings. It's a very popular service in long-haul destinations," said Fehler. "Short haul, people tend to get out and look themselves. Hunting around for a place to eat in Europe is something people are more comfortable with."
Meanwhile, Caribbean specialist Carib Tours runs a 'food evening' each year for regular clients to showcase the best local restaurants.
"People in the UK have access to some of the best restaurants in the world and so they won't settle for poor food when they're away," said Carib Tours managing director Paul Cleary.
"The four aspects of a holiday that are important to our clients are weather, beach, luxury and food.
"The trend in the Caribbean has been for 'big name' European restaurants and chefs to open in the last few years. Clients want to eat in them, maybe as a special occasion. They also want to get out and eat locally. In Barbados, the Oistin's Fish Fry is a great example, but then it also has The Cliff, one of the world's best restaurants."
The DIY trend has even started to spread long-haul, according the Martin Grass, sales and marketing director of Rex Hotels., which has nine properties in the Caribbean and two in Kenya.
"The Caribbean ahs been dominated by the big all-inclusives in the past and people had no need to go out to eat. While that is still very popular with the US market, people from the UK are a bit more adventurous, especially to the eastern Caribbean.
Islands such as Barbados and Antigua have fantastic local restaurants and are seen as safe to venture out at night. The vast majority of our business from the UK is now room-only, because people want to sample the food and it is comparatively cheap to eat out."
But food has become a central part of the overseas marketing for nations around the world. Earlier this year, Portugal teamed up with Harrods to promote its national dishes through the upmarket stores famous food hall.
For the European destination, the message aims to attract not only those on traditional packages, but also the major villa holiday market predominantly served by the low-cost carriers, since these people eat out more.
Portuguese National Tourist Office director José António Preto da Silva said: "Our cuisine is now one of the key attractions for UK visitors, with each region of Portugal offering unique cooking style as well as local specialities.
"Mealtimes are highly valued by the Portuguese, providing a leisurely opportunity to indulge in good food and good wine while catching up with family and friends, and this is a tradition we encourage visitors to join in to capture the true essence of our country and people."
The Rise of Food Festivals
Similarly, Singapore hosts an annual food festival each July celebrating a different aspect of its culture. This year (it's 14th) marks the 40th anniversary of the country's independence, majoring on what it is perhaps best known for by foreign visitors - its hawker (street) food.
Tee Yen Chew, Singapore Tourism Board's Area Director for Northern & Western Europe said: "Singaporeans are passionate about food and eating. In almost every corner of the island, you will find an endless variety of food served hot or cold at any hour of the day or night. Singapore's cultural diversity is very much reflected in the variety of local food it has to offer - Chinese, Malay, Indian, Peranakan and Eurasian. It is very important to communicate this to people thinking about visiting Singapore. It's not just a fusion of east and west, it the country's unique cultural tapestry."
Closer to home, VisitScotland has begun to promote food alongside its mainstay messages such as golf and outdoor pursuits. The country has also introduced a national quality assurance scheme, Eat Scotland, aimed at raising standards and educating hoteliers and restaurant owners about the important part food plays for visitors.
Key Driver in Scotland
Sector development manager for VisitScotland Ewan Fairweather said: "Food is a key driver in the holidaymaking decision. We want those in the industry to shout about their food, be proud and enthusiastic. That will enrich the visiting experience."
Las Vegas, meanwhile, is a good example of how destinations have changed the emphasis of their food product as tourism has changed.
Food has always been part of the gambling city's attraction from the opening of the first all-you-can-eat buffet - the $1 Midnight Chuck Wagon at the El Rancho hotel. But it was quantity over quality promoted to its original domestic clientele. Very often, food and drink was considered a loss-leader by the casinos, with establishments giving it away to attract gamblers. The arrival of high-rolling punters, overseas tourists and large business travel contingent means it now boasts some the best restaurants in the US. Today, Las Vegas is home to three restaurants that have earned the AAA Five Diamond rating: the Bellagio's Le Cirque and Picasso and The Mirage's Renoir.
"Dining in Las Vegas has evolved significantly from the days of the all you can eat buffets," said Melanie Jones, of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau in the UK.
Las Vegas has now become synonymous with gourmet cuisine and most of the top chefs have now opened restaurants in the city from Wolfgang Puck to Alain du Casse. Even Guy Savoy who allegedly vowed, in the past, that he would not consider opening a restaurant in the US."
For further information telephone Jane Larcombe on +44 (0)1892 785071 or email jane@janelarcombecommunications.comm
www.wtmlondon.com
Friday, 23rd November 2007
It could be the colourful sight of a giant rustic paella in a Spanish seaside town or the smell of a warm bagel on a New York street - But whatever the dish it seems food is something an increasing number of us remember from our travels.
Like never before, holidaymakers are choosing where they go by what they can put in their stomachs - and catering for them is now top of the menu for tour operators and destinations.
Fiona Jeffery, Group Exhibition Director of World Travel Market, who undertook the independent research with 2000 people throughout the UK of all ages and socio economic groups, said: "Food tourism today is where eco-tourism was 20 years ago; people are starting to take an interest.
"Although the research was carried out on behalf of World Travel Market was in the UK, we believe it is representative of a new and growing phenomenon within the international industry.
"The industry needs to take note and use the opportunity to its advantage. Holidaymakers want a hands-on experience and food is a manifestation of a destination's culture.
"You can open a different door with every meal."
"The last five years has seen an incredible shift in the way holidays are marketed and it's all because people are demanding authentic experiences, said Erik Wolf, president of the International Culinary Tourism Association, a non-profit group representing more than 500 tourism businesses in 19 countries.
" For the first time, the true extent of food tourism has been measured in the UK by World Travel Market, the premier business event for the international travel and tourism industry, with research revealing more than half (53%) ranked eating traditional dishes as a 'very important' or 'important' part of their holiday.
Meanwhile, a staggering 86% of Brits quizzed said they enjoyed local foods when abroad.
The trend is not just limited to those on specialist tailor-made breaks either, with 83% of people who typically go on half- or full-board holidays admitting they willingly miss meals in their hotel or resort to try out local restaurants.
International chef Gary Rhodes, whose TV programmes has helped open up the world's traditional dishes and ingredients to a hungry audience, has recently opened a Rhodes restaurant in Calabash, on the Caribbean island of Grenada and onboard P&0 Crusies new liner Arcadia. He said:
"The potential for tourism through dining is enormous and what better way to learn about a country than at the table! My experience is that travellers are becoming both more sophisticated and daring about what they eat."
Changes in Weekly Shop
Supermarkets have played a major part in the shift in attitudes, making foreign foods more available.
One supermarket chain, Waitrose, for example, recently unveiled a range of tapas and Greek dishes that customers might have tried on their holiday.
"The world is becoming a smaller place and we are seeing our customers' tastes change to reflect this. Dishes from all corners of the globe are becoming mainstream additions to the British dinner table," said Waitrose communications manager Gill Smith.
"Flavours people have sampled on holiday are becoming more popular. As they travel to further afield, customers are more willing to experiment with new flavours. Our oriental range now extends beyond Chinese dishes to Japanese, Malayasian and Thai foods.
"We're also finding that as people travel more, they are more knowledgeable about regional trends within countries. Instead of simply wanting Indian foods, we're finding that customers are aware of Goan and Keralan food and want to buy these dishes at their local supermarket."
In the research, the growing trend to change what they put in their supermarket trolley because of holiday experiences is evident. A total of 42% said this affected their weekly shop choices.
Wolf said that some tourist offices are beginning to highlight food as a way of promoting their country to foreign visitors. This trend though must grow still further.
Chicago Led the Way
Chicago led the way eight years ago when it appointed former chef Judith Hines as director of culinary arts and events.
She oversees 275 annual food-related events, including its summer-long Stirring Things Up festival (May 1-Oct 31), which features culinary tours, food festivals, farmers' markets and concerts. Special hotel rates are available to visitors during the period.
Although it's impossible to know how many visitors are drawn by food alone, Hines said millions come for the festivals, including the 11-day Taste of Chicago in July, where 3.5 million people consumed 70,000 pounds of ribs and 250,000 slices of pizza last year. That helped boost hotel occupancy to 90% last summer.
"Food certainly helps boost tourism. While cultural events like theatre might be a good hook for tourists, it won't appeal to all; the attraction of food is universal" said Hines.
"The misperception is that it has to be all five-star fine dining. We have 76 different ethnic neighbourhoods and promote them all. Having really authentic food is part of the attraction."
Chicago's focus on food includes a food concierge in one of the city's largest tourist offices adjacent to a large theatre booking agency. "It's a great tie-up. We explain the food scene to people who are looking for somewhere to eat on their night out."
Hines also offers city tours with a difference, with a bus stopping at four local restaurants with diners having a course in each. "It's a fun way to find out about the city's culture and heritage," she explained.
Operators claim the last five years has seen a significant change in the eating habits of Brits abroad, with clients shunning the 'chips with everything' restaurants and seeking out more local flavours.
This is borne out by World Travel Market's independent research which indicated that 62% of those questioned shunned "glamorous" foreign restaurants and wanted to eat in rustic surroundings with the locals. Only 7% said they would prefer to eat in glamorous surroundings when overseas.
Only 15% of those questioned would plump for international cuisine rather than food typical of the area in which they were staying.
Demand for Authentic Experience
"People want an authentic experience," claimed Chris Orme, general manager of Far East specialist Travel Indochina.
"We are talking much more about food to people when they book and make it a central part of the holiday, going to local restaurants and experimenting. The availability of Chinese, Thai and Vietnamese food in the UK means clients want to try the authentic stuff much more.
"People have booked particular holidays with us on the strength of the food. We're certainly not an operator that deals with food tours, but eating has certainly become a big interest for our clients."
Long Travel, a specialist in rural Italy and Sicily, claimed around 85% of its clients now asked specifically for food advice when booking.
Contracts manager Laura Bell said: "Customers have very high expectations of the food in Italy because it receives so much good press and is always featured in cookery programmes.
"Getting back to nature and trying out dishes in a traditional setting is a must for our clients. Even the larger hotels we use grow many of their own vegetables and produce wine now."
Restaurant Concierge Service
Mercedes Fehler, marketing manager at upmarket specialist Harlequin Worldwide said demand for local cuisine was so high among its customers the operator had introduced a 'restaurant concierge' service. Customers can contact the operator before departure and the concierge will recommend and make reservations at restaurants around the globe.
"The concierge contacts the hotel the customer is staying in to get advice about the places to eat nearby and will make bookings. It's a very popular service in long-haul destinations," said Fehler. "Short haul, people tend to get out and look themselves. Hunting around for a place to eat in Europe is something people are more comfortable with."
Meanwhile, Caribbean specialist Carib Tours runs a 'food evening' each year for regular clients to showcase the best local restaurants.
"People in the UK have access to some of the best restaurants in the world and so they won't settle for poor food when they're away," said Carib Tours managing director Paul Cleary.
"The four aspects of a holiday that are important to our clients are weather, beach, luxury and food.
"The trend in the Caribbean has been for 'big name' European restaurants and chefs to open in the last few years. Clients want to eat in them, maybe as a special occasion. They also want to get out and eat locally. In Barbados, the Oistin's Fish Fry is a great example, but then it also has The Cliff, one of the world's best restaurants."
The DIY trend has even started to spread long-haul, according the Martin Grass, sales and marketing director of Rex Hotels., which has nine properties in the Caribbean and two in Kenya.
"The Caribbean ahs been dominated by the big all-inclusives in the past and people had no need to go out to eat. While that is still very popular with the US market, people from the UK are a bit more adventurous, especially to the eastern Caribbean.
Islands such as Barbados and Antigua have fantastic local restaurants and are seen as safe to venture out at night. The vast majority of our business from the UK is now room-only, because people want to sample the food and it is comparatively cheap to eat out."
But food has become a central part of the overseas marketing for nations around the world. Earlier this year, Portugal teamed up with Harrods to promote its national dishes through the upmarket stores famous food hall.
For the European destination, the message aims to attract not only those on traditional packages, but also the major villa holiday market predominantly served by the low-cost carriers, since these people eat out more.
Portuguese National Tourist Office director José António Preto da Silva said: "Our cuisine is now one of the key attractions for UK visitors, with each region of Portugal offering unique cooking style as well as local specialities.
"Mealtimes are highly valued by the Portuguese, providing a leisurely opportunity to indulge in good food and good wine while catching up with family and friends, and this is a tradition we encourage visitors to join in to capture the true essence of our country and people."
The Rise of Food Festivals
Similarly, Singapore hosts an annual food festival each July celebrating a different aspect of its culture. This year (it's 14th) marks the 40th anniversary of the country's independence, majoring on what it is perhaps best known for by foreign visitors - its hawker (street) food.
Tee Yen Chew, Singapore Tourism Board's Area Director for Northern & Western Europe said: "Singaporeans are passionate about food and eating. In almost every corner of the island, you will find an endless variety of food served hot or cold at any hour of the day or night. Singapore's cultural diversity is very much reflected in the variety of local food it has to offer - Chinese, Malay, Indian, Peranakan and Eurasian. It is very important to communicate this to people thinking about visiting Singapore. It's not just a fusion of east and west, it the country's unique cultural tapestry."
Closer to home, VisitScotland has begun to promote food alongside its mainstay messages such as golf and outdoor pursuits. The country has also introduced a national quality assurance scheme, Eat Scotland, aimed at raising standards and educating hoteliers and restaurant owners about the important part food plays for visitors.
Key Driver in Scotland
Sector development manager for VisitScotland Ewan Fairweather said: "Food is a key driver in the holidaymaking decision. We want those in the industry to shout about their food, be proud and enthusiastic. That will enrich the visiting experience."
Las Vegas, meanwhile, is a good example of how destinations have changed the emphasis of their food product as tourism has changed.
Food has always been part of the gambling city's attraction from the opening of the first all-you-can-eat buffet - the $1 Midnight Chuck Wagon at the El Rancho hotel. But it was quantity over quality promoted to its original domestic clientele. Very often, food and drink was considered a loss-leader by the casinos, with establishments giving it away to attract gamblers. The arrival of high-rolling punters, overseas tourists and large business travel contingent means it now boasts some the best restaurants in the US. Today, Las Vegas is home to three restaurants that have earned the AAA Five Diamond rating: the Bellagio's Le Cirque and Picasso and The Mirage's Renoir.
"Dining in Las Vegas has evolved significantly from the days of the all you can eat buffets," said Melanie Jones, of the Las Vegas Convention and Visitors Bureau in the UK.
Las Vegas has now become synonymous with gourmet cuisine and most of the top chefs have now opened restaurants in the city from Wolfgang Puck to Alain du Casse. Even Guy Savoy who allegedly vowed, in the past, that he would not consider opening a restaurant in the US."
For further information telephone Jane Larcombe on +44 (0)1892 785071 or email jane@janelarcombecommunications.comm
www.wtmlondon.com
Monday, November 19, 2007
Is Counting the Root of All Evil?
Sunday, 18th November 2007
The love of money isn’t the root of all evil; arithmetic is the root of all evil- More specifically - counting. Don’t get me wrong; counting was a wonderful invention. It has its uses. We can keep track of kids: “Are all 5 kids here? Let’s see, 1… 2… 3… 4… where’s Billy?” We can keep track of time.
“He’s working overtime in the salt mines, honey. Instead of 12 hours, he’s working 14 hours today. He’ll be home at … 9, 10. Yes, 10 p.m.” And we can keep track of money: “He gets paid $1.49/hour working overtime, so our bank balance will be $11.37 … $12.37 … $13.37 … $13.86 after Billy gives us his share.” In fact, they remind us over and over in MBA school that “What gets measured, gets managed.”
So where’s the problem? This is evil? This gave us the industrial-friggin’-revolution. This sounds great!!
We measure the wrong stuff
Well, the problem starts when we choose what to measure. We often measure what doesn’t lead to our goal, and expect the measuring to magically create the managing.
Want profit? Let’s count expenses. Tell all managers to submit weekly reports of their team’s expenses. Let’s call it a TPS Report, and count how many TPS reports people send, to make sure they’re doing their job (which has silently morphed from “running a profitable business” to “submitting TPS reports”). Well, whoopie. We’ve added a whole layer of useless counting, and then another layer to count who is and isn’t counting. Since we don’t actually know what to do with the silly TPS report, we slide further from profitability. We’re counting the wrong thing.
Or how about sick days? There’s a hoot. “You only get six sick days.” Nice. Like that’s controllable. If you’re sick for seven days, come on in and give it to everyone else in your department, so everyone has to take six days off. You can measure sick days, but the measure is useless.
Seemingly meaningful measurements … aren’t
Then we make up measurements that mean nothing and try to manage those. “Let’s rank our employees. Then we can fire the bottom 10%.” Sounds easy; isn’t easy. (Sadly, however, it is a much-publicized Jack Welch policy.) How much time will managers spend on this ranking exercise? Do they apply consistent standards that are directly related to the company’s goals? Do we fire the 10% of managers whose ranking skill is in the bottom 10%? Who decides that?
Ranking is hard. Really hard. In fact, in 1963, psychologist George Miller’s famous paper “The Magic Number 7 +/- 2″ presented results showing people can make ranking distinctions between 5 to 9 items, and then we pretty much lose track. If you think you can accurately rank a 250-person department, you’re deluded and thus in the bottom 10%; it’s time to pack your bags.
Even if you can rank, can you use the rankings for action? We want to punt the bottom 10% of the company. We can’t really compare an accountant against a design engineer, so our fresh new Harriford MBA, Darren, suggests we eliminate 10% of each department. That will add up to 10% of the company.
But what if our 30 design engineers rock, while our 30 accountants all suck eggs? As a company, we want to fire six accountants (10% of 60 employees) and no design engineers. But firing 10% of each department means we leave three mediocre accountants standing, and three rockin’ design engineers out of work. That’s clearly wrong. But we get one benefit: we know Darren didn’t understand the logic of firing, so we know he’s in the bottom 10% and should be fired. Success! We have at least one confirmed cost savings from this exercise.
Measurement turns us evil
I know you’re asking: what in heaven’s name does this have to do with spirituality, morality, and/or the rest of our lives? (If you weren’t asking that, don’t worry, just go with the flow.)
Here’s where the evil comes in. We only measure so we can make decisions about those measurements and change our behavior. But we do this by judging the measurements as “good” or “bad.” When we’re measuring a “bad” trend, we panic. We’re afraid. We’re angry. We get frustrated, anxious, mean, jealous, violent, and nasty.
How do people act when they feel anxious, mean, jealous, violent, and nasty? Fortunately, we live in a Highly Evolved Society, so we meditate for five minutes, do some yoga, and we’re fine. NOT! Most people want to get rid of the bad feelings. Some fudge the numbers and play financial games. Think Enron. Some people hit something. Some people treat everyone around like crap. And some people blame.
Yes, they blame. They blame colleagues. “Sales are down! Sally distracted me so I lost the big prospect.” They blame loved ones. “I went over my sick day quota since I had to take Billy to treatment for his Black Lung disease.” They blame the government.”If it weren’t for the (Republicans/Democrats), (the economy/the occupation/global warming/life/love/happiness) would be better.” And they blame themselves. “I’m just a failure.”
All because they counted, then got emotionally wedded to the counting.
What counts and what doesn’t?
I’ve been talking so far about business, only not really. We count the wrong things in business, we count the wrong things in life. We go to pieces when our business counts go off-track, we go to pieces when our real-life counts go off-track. And remember, real life counts more. Where do you get caught in the counting?
Some of us count who’s done more housework, us or our spouse. Some of us count the dollars in our savings account. Some of us count what someone does to prove they love us. Some of us count how pious our neighbors are. It all turns into judgment, and from there, into emotion. When the counting is going the way we want, we think life is good. When the counting goes the other way, we get upset.
The upset is extra, though! It’s our reaction to the counting. The counting doesn’t cause the problem; it’s our stories about the counting that cause the problem.
Let’s fix this. Let counting be counting. Let emotion be emotion. All this score-keeping, counting, and measuring is made up. It’s all fantasy. It’s a convenient tool for making decisions. But it’s not real. And it’s certainly not worth turning yourself into an ogre, feeling horrible, and abusing yourself and your loved ones.
What if you count and discover your bank account isn’t high enough to send your kids to college? Don’t get upset. Use it as information and change your savings plan. But don’t beat yourself up. You can’t do anything for your kids that way, except set a bad example. Use the information to stay centered and work with the people you love to fix the situation.
What if you count and discover your spouse overcharged on the credit card? You can fly into a rage, or you can sit down with your spouse, love each other tremendously, and decide from that place how you’ll deal with the situation. I used the “fly-into-a-rage” method several times. It didn’t pay the bill, nor did it make me an attractive snuggle partner, even to our stuffed animals. The counting-as-information plus love-then-problem-solving works way better.
What if you count pounds, and discover you have more than you want? You can get depressed and eat a chocolate cake to help yourself feel better (Stever’s diet advice: learn to distinguish “sugar rush” from “feel better”). Or realize the number’s just information you can use to change your diet. If you’re going to diet, doing it from a place of fun makes it … well … more fun. And if you’re not going to diet, then at least enjoy the chocolate cake. But don’t let counting trick you into not-dieting, and also not enjoying the cake. That’s plain foolishness!
And what if you count and discover you’re not as rich as Darren, despite your superior skills? Or you’re not as rich as the goal you set at age 23? You can call yourself a failure and jump out of a plane without a parachute. That’s one solution. But maybe you can notice that a number is just a number, while you’re an entire human being who has much more to offer than a number.
Counting is optional. If you stop counting and look around, you just might find you’re warm, dry, full, and reading the web. And that’s not such a bad place to be. So count only when it’s useful, don’t take it too seriously, and feel good either way. Move your attention from counting to living. Put your attention on the things that make you feel happy, joyous, and grateful. If you must count, count those, and every day, count a little higher. It’s your life, and only you can make your counting count.
© 2006 by Stever Robbins. All rights reserved in all media.
Stever Robbins is founder and president of LeadershipDecisionworks, a consulting firm that helps companies develop leadership and organizational strategies to sustain growth and productivity over time. You can find more of his articles at www.LeadershipDecisionworks.com. He is the author of It Takes a Lot More than Attitude to Lead a Stellar Organization.
The love of money isn’t the root of all evil; arithmetic is the root of all evil- More specifically - counting. Don’t get me wrong; counting was a wonderful invention. It has its uses. We can keep track of kids: “Are all 5 kids here? Let’s see, 1… 2… 3… 4… where’s Billy?” We can keep track of time.
“He’s working overtime in the salt mines, honey. Instead of 12 hours, he’s working 14 hours today. He’ll be home at … 9, 10. Yes, 10 p.m.” And we can keep track of money: “He gets paid $1.49/hour working overtime, so our bank balance will be $11.37 … $12.37 … $13.37 … $13.86 after Billy gives us his share.” In fact, they remind us over and over in MBA school that “What gets measured, gets managed.”
So where’s the problem? This is evil? This gave us the industrial-friggin’-revolution. This sounds great!!
We measure the wrong stuff
Well, the problem starts when we choose what to measure. We often measure what doesn’t lead to our goal, and expect the measuring to magically create the managing.
Want profit? Let’s count expenses. Tell all managers to submit weekly reports of their team’s expenses. Let’s call it a TPS Report, and count how many TPS reports people send, to make sure they’re doing their job (which has silently morphed from “running a profitable business” to “submitting TPS reports”). Well, whoopie. We’ve added a whole layer of useless counting, and then another layer to count who is and isn’t counting. Since we don’t actually know what to do with the silly TPS report, we slide further from profitability. We’re counting the wrong thing.
Or how about sick days? There’s a hoot. “You only get six sick days.” Nice. Like that’s controllable. If you’re sick for seven days, come on in and give it to everyone else in your department, so everyone has to take six days off. You can measure sick days, but the measure is useless.
Seemingly meaningful measurements … aren’t
Then we make up measurements that mean nothing and try to manage those. “Let’s rank our employees. Then we can fire the bottom 10%.” Sounds easy; isn’t easy. (Sadly, however, it is a much-publicized Jack Welch policy.) How much time will managers spend on this ranking exercise? Do they apply consistent standards that are directly related to the company’s goals? Do we fire the 10% of managers whose ranking skill is in the bottom 10%? Who decides that?
Ranking is hard. Really hard. In fact, in 1963, psychologist George Miller’s famous paper “The Magic Number 7 +/- 2″ presented results showing people can make ranking distinctions between 5 to 9 items, and then we pretty much lose track. If you think you can accurately rank a 250-person department, you’re deluded and thus in the bottom 10%; it’s time to pack your bags.
Even if you can rank, can you use the rankings for action? We want to punt the bottom 10% of the company. We can’t really compare an accountant against a design engineer, so our fresh new Harriford MBA, Darren, suggests we eliminate 10% of each department. That will add up to 10% of the company.
But what if our 30 design engineers rock, while our 30 accountants all suck eggs? As a company, we want to fire six accountants (10% of 60 employees) and no design engineers. But firing 10% of each department means we leave three mediocre accountants standing, and three rockin’ design engineers out of work. That’s clearly wrong. But we get one benefit: we know Darren didn’t understand the logic of firing, so we know he’s in the bottom 10% and should be fired. Success! We have at least one confirmed cost savings from this exercise.
Measurement turns us evil
I know you’re asking: what in heaven’s name does this have to do with spirituality, morality, and/or the rest of our lives? (If you weren’t asking that, don’t worry, just go with the flow.)
Here’s where the evil comes in. We only measure so we can make decisions about those measurements and change our behavior. But we do this by judging the measurements as “good” or “bad.” When we’re measuring a “bad” trend, we panic. We’re afraid. We’re angry. We get frustrated, anxious, mean, jealous, violent, and nasty.
How do people act when they feel anxious, mean, jealous, violent, and nasty? Fortunately, we live in a Highly Evolved Society, so we meditate for five minutes, do some yoga, and we’re fine. NOT! Most people want to get rid of the bad feelings. Some fudge the numbers and play financial games. Think Enron. Some people hit something. Some people treat everyone around like crap. And some people blame.
Yes, they blame. They blame colleagues. “Sales are down! Sally distracted me so I lost the big prospect.” They blame loved ones. “I went over my sick day quota since I had to take Billy to treatment for his Black Lung disease.” They blame the government.”If it weren’t for the (Republicans/Democrats), (the economy/the occupation/global warming/life/love/happiness) would be better.” And they blame themselves. “I’m just a failure.”
All because they counted, then got emotionally wedded to the counting.
What counts and what doesn’t?
I’ve been talking so far about business, only not really. We count the wrong things in business, we count the wrong things in life. We go to pieces when our business counts go off-track, we go to pieces when our real-life counts go off-track. And remember, real life counts more. Where do you get caught in the counting?
Some of us count who’s done more housework, us or our spouse. Some of us count the dollars in our savings account. Some of us count what someone does to prove they love us. Some of us count how pious our neighbors are. It all turns into judgment, and from there, into emotion. When the counting is going the way we want, we think life is good. When the counting goes the other way, we get upset.
The upset is extra, though! It’s our reaction to the counting. The counting doesn’t cause the problem; it’s our stories about the counting that cause the problem.
Let’s fix this. Let counting be counting. Let emotion be emotion. All this score-keeping, counting, and measuring is made up. It’s all fantasy. It’s a convenient tool for making decisions. But it’s not real. And it’s certainly not worth turning yourself into an ogre, feeling horrible, and abusing yourself and your loved ones.
What if you count and discover your bank account isn’t high enough to send your kids to college? Don’t get upset. Use it as information and change your savings plan. But don’t beat yourself up. You can’t do anything for your kids that way, except set a bad example. Use the information to stay centered and work with the people you love to fix the situation.
What if you count and discover your spouse overcharged on the credit card? You can fly into a rage, or you can sit down with your spouse, love each other tremendously, and decide from that place how you’ll deal with the situation. I used the “fly-into-a-rage” method several times. It didn’t pay the bill, nor did it make me an attractive snuggle partner, even to our stuffed animals. The counting-as-information plus love-then-problem-solving works way better.
What if you count pounds, and discover you have more than you want? You can get depressed and eat a chocolate cake to help yourself feel better (Stever’s diet advice: learn to distinguish “sugar rush” from “feel better”). Or realize the number’s just information you can use to change your diet. If you’re going to diet, doing it from a place of fun makes it … well … more fun. And if you’re not going to diet, then at least enjoy the chocolate cake. But don’t let counting trick you into not-dieting, and also not enjoying the cake. That’s plain foolishness!
And what if you count and discover you’re not as rich as Darren, despite your superior skills? Or you’re not as rich as the goal you set at age 23? You can call yourself a failure and jump out of a plane without a parachute. That’s one solution. But maybe you can notice that a number is just a number, while you’re an entire human being who has much more to offer than a number.
Counting is optional. If you stop counting and look around, you just might find you’re warm, dry, full, and reading the web. And that’s not such a bad place to be. So count only when it’s useful, don’t take it too seriously, and feel good either way. Move your attention from counting to living. Put your attention on the things that make you feel happy, joyous, and grateful. If you must count, count those, and every day, count a little higher. It’s your life, and only you can make your counting count.
© 2006 by Stever Robbins. All rights reserved in all media.
Stever Robbins is founder and president of LeadershipDecisionworks, a consulting firm that helps companies develop leadership and organizational strategies to sustain growth and productivity over time. You can find more of his articles at www.LeadershipDecisionworks.com. He is the author of It Takes a Lot More than Attitude to Lead a Stellar Organization.
Sunday, November 11, 2007
How To Avoid The 5 Laws Of Defeat Of Business Leadership
Even the most successful business leaders make mistakes, sometimes minor missteps, other times poor judgment which sends a business reeling and forced to play catch-up to recover. Organizational strategist and leading business consultant Steven Feinberg, who has helped major companies such as Wells Fargo, Visa and Sun Microsystems, says mistakes don't 'just happen,' but are the direct result of poor timing, interaction errors, perceptual problems, and organizational deficiencies.
'These mistakes are based, in one way or another, on what I call the 5 Laws of Defeat,' says Feinberg. 'Knowing what to avoid when it comes to leading is just as important as knowing what to do.'
Feinberg, author of The Advantage-Makers: How Exceptional Leaders Win by Creating Opportunities Others Don't, identifies the 5 Laws of Defeat as:
1.) Opportunity knocking - do not disturb
'Opportunity myopia,' notes Feinberg, happens when narrow thinking rules behavior.'
'Leaders get so focused on established goals, they often miss opportunities because they don't understand the strategic context in which they can see a way to win.'
Feinberg cites Sears as a classic example. Sears passed on the opportunity to purchase the Home Depot chain because of their own financial problems, without seeing the value of the proposal to acquire Home Depot.
2.) Perceptual bias - we think we are thinking, but are we?
'One of the easiest mistakes leaders make is confusing perception with reality, they don't see what they don't want to see,' says Feinberg. 'Stepping back, removing oneself to see a true picture of your decision making is difficult to do. In my work, I make leaders aware of perceptual biases and errors that cloud clear, accurate judgment.'
3.) Competing against yourself - at cross purposes
'Businesses shoot themselves in the foot by competing against themselves, and they are rarely aware of it,' adds Feinberg. 'Some examples include: pushing for growth while pushing for cost savings, promoting innovation but punishing mistakes, giving mandates to people in your organization, but not giving them adequate decision-making authority to carry it out.'
4.) Stuck in your persistence - making sticky problems stickier
'The adage: 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again' isn't always good business,' notes Feinberg. 'We can get stuck in our own persistence, whether repeated interpersonal conflicts or pushing projects we believe in, even though they are not working after multiple attempts. The road to hell is paved with mishandled interactions. Recurrent problems leave clues-the repeated attempted solutions that don't work. Changing the game, by first stopping the game is a good initial move.'
5.) Reactive tendency - playing to avoid losing
'When a leader is outcome-oriented, the emphasis is on achieving the outcome, you play to win rather than complaining or blaming circumstances,' says Feinberg. 'Reactive mishandling of situations almost always guarantees lower outcomes.'
'What I call 'Advantage-Makers' are those rare leaders who win more often because they know how to consistently transform challenging situations into the best possible outcomes,' notes Feinberg. 'They see opportunities where others see problems, influence outcomes where others are stuck, and create advantages where others are challenged. move forward when others are stuck. If you are not an Advantage-Maker you will probably lose to someone who is.'
Dr. Steven Feinberg, author of THE ADVANTAGE-MAKERS: How Exceptional Leaders Win By Creating Opportunities Others Don't, has spent more than thirty years applying the study of human behavior to performance efficacy and has advised senior executives on key leadership, team, and organizational issues, with an emphasis on advantage-making. Clients range from Fortune 500 firms to start-ups including Wells Fargo, Visa, Citibank, Symantec and Sun Microsystems. Dr. Feinberg graduated magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Buffalo, received an MSW at Tulane University, and his PhD from Professional School of Psychology, San Francisco. He is on the faculty of the University of San Francisco's Department of Organizational Behavior and Leadership.
'These mistakes are based, in one way or another, on what I call the 5 Laws of Defeat,' says Feinberg. 'Knowing what to avoid when it comes to leading is just as important as knowing what to do.'
Feinberg, author of The Advantage-Makers: How Exceptional Leaders Win by Creating Opportunities Others Don't, identifies the 5 Laws of Defeat as:
1.) Opportunity knocking - do not disturb
'Opportunity myopia,' notes Feinberg, happens when narrow thinking rules behavior.'
'Leaders get so focused on established goals, they often miss opportunities because they don't understand the strategic context in which they can see a way to win.'
Feinberg cites Sears as a classic example. Sears passed on the opportunity to purchase the Home Depot chain because of their own financial problems, without seeing the value of the proposal to acquire Home Depot.
2.) Perceptual bias - we think we are thinking, but are we?
'One of the easiest mistakes leaders make is confusing perception with reality, they don't see what they don't want to see,' says Feinberg. 'Stepping back, removing oneself to see a true picture of your decision making is difficult to do. In my work, I make leaders aware of perceptual biases and errors that cloud clear, accurate judgment.'
3.) Competing against yourself - at cross purposes
'Businesses shoot themselves in the foot by competing against themselves, and they are rarely aware of it,' adds Feinberg. 'Some examples include: pushing for growth while pushing for cost savings, promoting innovation but punishing mistakes, giving mandates to people in your organization, but not giving them adequate decision-making authority to carry it out.'
4.) Stuck in your persistence - making sticky problems stickier
'The adage: 'If at first you don't succeed, try, try again' isn't always good business,' notes Feinberg. 'We can get stuck in our own persistence, whether repeated interpersonal conflicts or pushing projects we believe in, even though they are not working after multiple attempts. The road to hell is paved with mishandled interactions. Recurrent problems leave clues-the repeated attempted solutions that don't work. Changing the game, by first stopping the game is a good initial move.'
5.) Reactive tendency - playing to avoid losing
'When a leader is outcome-oriented, the emphasis is on achieving the outcome, you play to win rather than complaining or blaming circumstances,' says Feinberg. 'Reactive mishandling of situations almost always guarantees lower outcomes.'
'What I call 'Advantage-Makers' are those rare leaders who win more often because they know how to consistently transform challenging situations into the best possible outcomes,' notes Feinberg. 'They see opportunities where others see problems, influence outcomes where others are stuck, and create advantages where others are challenged. move forward when others are stuck. If you are not an Advantage-Maker you will probably lose to someone who is.'
Dr. Steven Feinberg, author of THE ADVANTAGE-MAKERS: How Exceptional Leaders Win By Creating Opportunities Others Don't, has spent more than thirty years applying the study of human behavior to performance efficacy and has advised senior executives on key leadership, team, and organizational issues, with an emphasis on advantage-making. Clients range from Fortune 500 firms to start-ups including Wells Fargo, Visa, Citibank, Symantec and Sun Microsystems. Dr. Feinberg graduated magna cum laude from the State University of New York at Buffalo, received an MSW at Tulane University, and his PhD from Professional School of Psychology, San Francisco. He is on the faculty of the University of San Francisco's Department of Organizational Behavior and Leadership.
Wednesday, November 07, 2007
R-E-S-P-E-C-T Aretha Knew What She Was Talking About
Respect Your Customer, For Better Or For Worse
Everybody jabbers about their excellent customer service. Think, however,
the bad experiences you have had during the past few months. They are probably too many to count. Serving customers with courtesy and dedication is not a difficult concept. So why do so few people seem to get it? It's a lack of respect-for themselves, their companies, and their customers. This lack of respect leads to laziness, poor language, an inability to see customer problems as opportunities, and a pointless concern with being right.
Laziness. We all know what it's like to be served by someone who sees customers as an annoying interruption to a coffee break or an unwanted illustration of the fact that they do not really know how to do their jobs. Lazy people and lazy organizations go through the motions of work, but actually spend more time and energy complaining about it than doing it. They do not understand that they would be much happier if they took pride in their work and made an effort to be productive. They lack respect for themselves.
Poor language. When was the last time you brought a legitimate complaint or issue to the attention of a customer service person, only to be told that your issue was not very important? Here's an example of one that occurred to me. A pet sitter that had cared for my dog while I was away for the weekend refused to return my key, even though she had been paid in full. I called up the people who had referred her. They started to worry, suspected something un-kosher, and advised me to change the locks as soon as possible.
I went straight to my apartment complex office. There was one staff member present (let's call her Paula) was with a new customer. I told her that I had an urgent issue, she told me to come back later. I excused myself to the new customer and explained my predicament. The first thing that Paula said was that my problem was not a 'maintenance emergency.'
Aside: Paula loves this phrase. She used it when my shower plug (in a one-shower apartment) broke in the shut position during 110 degree weather, leaving me with an impossible bathing situation. That was on a Wednesday. She thought that classifying my problem as a 'non-maintenance emergency' was justification not to fix it until Monday.
Back to the present situation: I started getting angry when I heard Paula's answer, but I knew by then that she simply did not know how to speak. I told her that the problem was serious (and the new customer agreed). I asked when it would be fixed. Tomorrow morning, she replied. That was all I wanted in the first place! Paula, however, did not say this from the beginning because did not respect me as a customer. Speaking properly, however, is not only about respect for the customer. It is also proportionate to one's self-respect.
Inability to View Customer Problems as Opportunities. At The Hamister Group, we have seen that magic can happen when we respond positively and respectfully to customer needs, especially emotional needs. Let's continue with the Paula example. Since a person exhibiting suspicious behavior had the key to my apartment, you can guess that I was rather emotional. All Paula needed to do was eliminate that awful phrase 'this is not a maintenance emergency' from her repertoire and replace it with. 'Oh, that's terrible! The maintenance man has already left for today. If I can take care of it by tomorrow morning, would that be ok?' She would have become my hero and have made a positive impression on the new customer. This is about respecting your customer's position and yourself as a problem-solver and service hero.
Pointless Concern with Being Right. The customer is not always right. In fact, we all know that the customer is often wrong. But he is still the customer. And, as Mark Hamister says, you won't have to worry about who is wrong and who is right if you don't have any customers.
My high school and college employer, a garden shop in Williamsville, NY, gave me a wonderful lesson in this philosophy: one day an older man came to the shop and complained that a plant we sold him had died. This plant was in its original container, which had a size and shape that we did not use. I politely told him that he had made a mistake: the plant had come from somewhere else. The customer became furious and insisted that he had bought it from us. I took the plant to one of the owners and explained the situation. He said told me to replace it and not to mention again that the man had not bought his plant from us. 'Why?,' I asked. It was from another store. 'It doesn't matter where he bought it. If he believes that he bought it here and we don't replace it, he'll tell people about his bad experience.' This is about respect for your company and your paycheck-which you won't have if your company turns away all of its customers.
There are times when being right are important. We must be right when dealing with laws, brand standards, company liability, etc. Most customer concerns, however, are not related to such issues.
RESPECT. Respect yourself, your customer, your company, and your paycheck. Show that you care at every opportunity. This will make you refreshingly different from bad customer service representatives.
Stop worrying about getting your way because you are right: even if you are right, you can still lose. All customers, right or wrong, can take their business elsewhere.
Show respect when you speak. Word your responses to customers carefully when facing difficult situations. A good answer to a complaint about the way you do things would be: 'That's a very good suggestion.' Validate your customers' emotions, even though it is best not to validate an unjust complaint: 'I understand how you must feel.'
Ask positive questions that lead to issue resolution: 'What can I do to resolve this for you?' 'What works for you?' 'What do you think would be a reasonable period of time to get this resolved?' Most people will not give absurd answers. They will appreciate your attention and may even become your most loyal customers . . . all because you showed them, yourself, and your company a small amount of respect.
And when you have a difficult a customer in front of you, just pretend he's Aretha (although you might want to replace 'kisses' with 'services'):
'Ooo, your kisses
Sweeter than honey
And guess what?
So is my money
All I want you to do for me
Is give it to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T'
Nektaria Hamister is Corporate Director of Communications at The Hamister Group, Inc., a rapidly growing assisted living and hotel management company. Feedback can be sent to her at news@hamistergroup.com . For more information on The Hamister Group, Inc., see www.hamistergroup.com.
Everybody jabbers about their excellent customer service. Think, however,
the bad experiences you have had during the past few months. They are probably too many to count. Serving customers with courtesy and dedication is not a difficult concept. So why do so few people seem to get it? It's a lack of respect-for themselves, their companies, and their customers. This lack of respect leads to laziness, poor language, an inability to see customer problems as opportunities, and a pointless concern with being right.
Laziness. We all know what it's like to be served by someone who sees customers as an annoying interruption to a coffee break or an unwanted illustration of the fact that they do not really know how to do their jobs. Lazy people and lazy organizations go through the motions of work, but actually spend more time and energy complaining about it than doing it. They do not understand that they would be much happier if they took pride in their work and made an effort to be productive. They lack respect for themselves.
Poor language. When was the last time you brought a legitimate complaint or issue to the attention of a customer service person, only to be told that your issue was not very important? Here's an example of one that occurred to me. A pet sitter that had cared for my dog while I was away for the weekend refused to return my key, even though she had been paid in full. I called up the people who had referred her. They started to worry, suspected something un-kosher, and advised me to change the locks as soon as possible.
I went straight to my apartment complex office. There was one staff member present (let's call her Paula) was with a new customer. I told her that I had an urgent issue, she told me to come back later. I excused myself to the new customer and explained my predicament. The first thing that Paula said was that my problem was not a 'maintenance emergency.'
Aside: Paula loves this phrase. She used it when my shower plug (in a one-shower apartment) broke in the shut position during 110 degree weather, leaving me with an impossible bathing situation. That was on a Wednesday. She thought that classifying my problem as a 'non-maintenance emergency' was justification not to fix it until Monday.
Back to the present situation: I started getting angry when I heard Paula's answer, but I knew by then that she simply did not know how to speak. I told her that the problem was serious (and the new customer agreed). I asked when it would be fixed. Tomorrow morning, she replied. That was all I wanted in the first place! Paula, however, did not say this from the beginning because did not respect me as a customer. Speaking properly, however, is not only about respect for the customer. It is also proportionate to one's self-respect.
Inability to View Customer Problems as Opportunities. At The Hamister Group, we have seen that magic can happen when we respond positively and respectfully to customer needs, especially emotional needs. Let's continue with the Paula example. Since a person exhibiting suspicious behavior had the key to my apartment, you can guess that I was rather emotional. All Paula needed to do was eliminate that awful phrase 'this is not a maintenance emergency' from her repertoire and replace it with. 'Oh, that's terrible! The maintenance man has already left for today. If I can take care of it by tomorrow morning, would that be ok?' She would have become my hero and have made a positive impression on the new customer. This is about respecting your customer's position and yourself as a problem-solver and service hero.
Pointless Concern with Being Right. The customer is not always right. In fact, we all know that the customer is often wrong. But he is still the customer. And, as Mark Hamister says, you won't have to worry about who is wrong and who is right if you don't have any customers.
My high school and college employer, a garden shop in Williamsville, NY, gave me a wonderful lesson in this philosophy: one day an older man came to the shop and complained that a plant we sold him had died. This plant was in its original container, which had a size and shape that we did not use. I politely told him that he had made a mistake: the plant had come from somewhere else. The customer became furious and insisted that he had bought it from us. I took the plant to one of the owners and explained the situation. He said told me to replace it and not to mention again that the man had not bought his plant from us. 'Why?,' I asked. It was from another store. 'It doesn't matter where he bought it. If he believes that he bought it here and we don't replace it, he'll tell people about his bad experience.' This is about respect for your company and your paycheck-which you won't have if your company turns away all of its customers.
There are times when being right are important. We must be right when dealing with laws, brand standards, company liability, etc. Most customer concerns, however, are not related to such issues.
RESPECT. Respect yourself, your customer, your company, and your paycheck. Show that you care at every opportunity. This will make you refreshingly different from bad customer service representatives.
Stop worrying about getting your way because you are right: even if you are right, you can still lose. All customers, right or wrong, can take their business elsewhere.
Show respect when you speak. Word your responses to customers carefully when facing difficult situations. A good answer to a complaint about the way you do things would be: 'That's a very good suggestion.' Validate your customers' emotions, even though it is best not to validate an unjust complaint: 'I understand how you must feel.'
Ask positive questions that lead to issue resolution: 'What can I do to resolve this for you?' 'What works for you?' 'What do you think would be a reasonable period of time to get this resolved?' Most people will not give absurd answers. They will appreciate your attention and may even become your most loyal customers . . . all because you showed them, yourself, and your company a small amount of respect.
And when you have a difficult a customer in front of you, just pretend he's Aretha (although you might want to replace 'kisses' with 'services'):
'Ooo, your kisses
Sweeter than honey
And guess what?
So is my money
All I want you to do for me
Is give it to me
R-E-S-P-E-C-T'
Nektaria Hamister is Corporate Director of Communications at The Hamister Group, Inc., a rapidly growing assisted living and hotel management company. Feedback can be sent to her at news@hamistergroup.com . For more information on The Hamister Group, Inc., see www.hamistergroup.com.
Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Five Tips to Improve Hotel Customer Service with User Generated Reviews
By Carol Verret
Providing a consistent level of quality customer service is always a work in process for hotel managers. Couple that with the fact that the labor pool in many markets is relatively shallow and that turnover remains high as compensation remains low, and it is easy to see why some managers are reverting to the 'fog the mirror' method of hiring!
Understanding the sensibilities of a generation of potential employees raised on teams and that heavily participates in community sites like MySpace and FaceBook makes it easier to hire and motivate a customer service team.
First of all we need to reflect the mirror back on hotels' traditional methods of training for customer service. In many hotels, training is focused on process issues, how to check in and check out a guest, how the reservation system works, how the equipment works and as an afterthought, oh yes, be nice to the guest. We fail to incorporate customer service training into the skill sets upon which the employee will be evaluated.
We neglect to build in evaluations based upon measurable behaviors that impact the quality of the customer's experience. We assume that they understand that they need to smile and make eye contact as well as say 'how can I assist you' - don't bet on it! Many of the individuals that we hire don't check into hotels and have little experience with being a hotel guest except when they were on vacation with their parents. They lack empathy for what it feels like to be a hotel guest.
Here's how user generated review sites can help you improve customer service:
• Comments in User Generated Reviews create empathy for the guest. This assumes that the manager exhibits respect for the user generated comments. Our employees totally get community sites - it is part of their DNA. When they see the impact that guest service has on the experience of a guest, the guest becomes a person not just a check on a comment card. it helps them understand how important their role is.
• Ask the Team how they would respond to a negative comment. The guest service team in the comment should be asked to participate in the formulation of a balanced conciliatory response. Our employees want to feel that their input is valuable - that their opinions are considered. This is a perfect way to get them involved and the more we involve them the more committed they become.
• Use the guest comments to reinforce positive training behaviors. Congratulate them when a comment includes remarks on the friendliness of the staff or how a staff member went out of their way for a guest. Let them read for themselves how a poor guest experience impacts a real human, the guest, in their own words.
• Empower them with responsibility for monitoring guest reviews online. Make the guest service team part of the process - assign responsibility to the team for monitoring and printing out reviews from review sites. Copy and distribute them for the next meeting so that team members can make comments and suggest solutions.
• Design a card to be given at checkout to every guest with the URL of a review site. This is a brilliant idea that one hotel thought up and implemented. Every time a guest responds positively to the question 'How was your stay?' hand them a card with the URL of Trip Advisor or another review site and ask them to write a review of their experience.
Every manager and supervisor can create a collaborative community based culture of customer service in their areas. Managers and supervisors that express disdain for the reviews on the user generated sites transmit to their employees that they don't care about the 'community of guests' and if the manager and/ or supervisor doesn't care then why should the guest service associates!
Carol Verret Consulting & Training also offers Creating a Culture of Customer Service training for managers and associates.
Carol Verret And Associates Consulting and Training offers training services and consulting in the areas of sales, revenue management and customer service primarily but not exclusively to the hospitality industry. To find out more about the company click on www.carolverret.com. To contact Carol send her an email at carol@carolverret.com or she can be reached by cell phone (303) 618-4065. View the Hotel Sales Blog at www.hotelsalesblog.com
Providing a consistent level of quality customer service is always a work in process for hotel managers. Couple that with the fact that the labor pool in many markets is relatively shallow and that turnover remains high as compensation remains low, and it is easy to see why some managers are reverting to the 'fog the mirror' method of hiring!
Understanding the sensibilities of a generation of potential employees raised on teams and that heavily participates in community sites like MySpace and FaceBook makes it easier to hire and motivate a customer service team.
First of all we need to reflect the mirror back on hotels' traditional methods of training for customer service. In many hotels, training is focused on process issues, how to check in and check out a guest, how the reservation system works, how the equipment works and as an afterthought, oh yes, be nice to the guest. We fail to incorporate customer service training into the skill sets upon which the employee will be evaluated.
We neglect to build in evaluations based upon measurable behaviors that impact the quality of the customer's experience. We assume that they understand that they need to smile and make eye contact as well as say 'how can I assist you' - don't bet on it! Many of the individuals that we hire don't check into hotels and have little experience with being a hotel guest except when they were on vacation with their parents. They lack empathy for what it feels like to be a hotel guest.
Here's how user generated review sites can help you improve customer service:
• Comments in User Generated Reviews create empathy for the guest. This assumes that the manager exhibits respect for the user generated comments. Our employees totally get community sites - it is part of their DNA. When they see the impact that guest service has on the experience of a guest, the guest becomes a person not just a check on a comment card. it helps them understand how important their role is.
• Ask the Team how they would respond to a negative comment. The guest service team in the comment should be asked to participate in the formulation of a balanced conciliatory response. Our employees want to feel that their input is valuable - that their opinions are considered. This is a perfect way to get them involved and the more we involve them the more committed they become.
• Use the guest comments to reinforce positive training behaviors. Congratulate them when a comment includes remarks on the friendliness of the staff or how a staff member went out of their way for a guest. Let them read for themselves how a poor guest experience impacts a real human, the guest, in their own words.
• Empower them with responsibility for monitoring guest reviews online. Make the guest service team part of the process - assign responsibility to the team for monitoring and printing out reviews from review sites. Copy and distribute them for the next meeting so that team members can make comments and suggest solutions.
• Design a card to be given at checkout to every guest with the URL of a review site. This is a brilliant idea that one hotel thought up and implemented. Every time a guest responds positively to the question 'How was your stay?' hand them a card with the URL of Trip Advisor or another review site and ask them to write a review of their experience.
Every manager and supervisor can create a collaborative community based culture of customer service in their areas. Managers and supervisors that express disdain for the reviews on the user generated sites transmit to their employees that they don't care about the 'community of guests' and if the manager and/ or supervisor doesn't care then why should the guest service associates!
Carol Verret Consulting & Training also offers Creating a Culture of Customer Service training for managers and associates.
Carol Verret And Associates Consulting and Training offers training services and consulting in the areas of sales, revenue management and customer service primarily but not exclusively to the hospitality industry. To find out more about the company click on www.carolverret.com. To contact Carol send her an email at carol@carolverret.com or she can be reached by cell phone (303) 618-4065. View the Hotel Sales Blog at www.hotelsalesblog.com
Friday, October 26, 2007
World’s most outrageous room service dishes
By Jane Levere
Hotel room service sure isn’t what it used to be.
Although some hotels still feature the same ‘ol shrimp cocktails, club sandwiches and hamburgers on their room service menus, others take a more innovative approach, offering unusual dishes—like a Japanese bento box, risotto of escargots, and pavé of sole with cassoulet Toulousain—often created by the well-known chefs who run their restaurants.
This trend is global, frequently found at smaller hotels that belong to organizations like Relais & Chateaux and Small Luxury Hotels, two collections of upscale hotels, and Design Hotels, whose hotels are distinguished by their arty décor.
Famous chefs who oversee room service menus include Raymond Blanc, of Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, a Relais and Chateaux, two-Michelin-star restaurant and hotel outside of Oxford, England; Eric Chavot, of the two-Michelin-star Capital at the Capital in London; Nobu, whose one-Michelin-star restaurant Nobu is in the Metropolitan in London; and Joan Roca, whose one-Michelin-star Restaurant Moo is in the hip Hotel Omm in Barcelona.
Then there's the legendary Philippe Legendre, chef of the two-Michelin-star Le Cinq at the Four Seasons George V in Paris; culinary heavyweight Jean-Georges Vongerichten, whose three-Michelin-star, eponymous restaurant is in the Trump International Hotel in New York; Geoffrey Zakarian, whose restaurants do room service for two Manhattan hotels, Town at the Chambers Hotel and the one-Michelin-star Country at the Carlton Hotel; Patricia Williams, of District in the Muse in Manhattan; and Charlie Palmer, of the Dry Creek Kitchen in the Hotel Healdsburg in Healdsburg, Calif.
Elaborate room-service menus are a relatively recent phenomenon, says Martha Gaughen, an owner of Sterling Brownell, an upscale leisure travel agency in Atlanta that belongs to Virtuoso, a consortium of high-end travel agencies. A travel agent for 24 years, Gaughen is a member of Virtuoso’s hotel and resort committee, which helps determine which hotels the consortium’s agencies partner with. “When I was first in the industry, there was no room service. At Caneel Bay 15 years ago, you couldn’t get anything in your room—you had to go to the bar for ice,” she said. “Room service has sort of evolved—it’s now all about ambience, the setting, the food and the service itself.”
Resorts in particular go all out to make the room service experience memorable; among these is Le Taha’a Island Resort and Spa in French Polynesia, which prepares a “romantic Milky Way dinner” for guests in the privacy of their bungalow terrace, complete with flowers, champagne, wine, and a three-course meal.
Zakarian, who cooked at famous Manhattan restaurants like Le Cirque and the 21 Club and at two of Ian Schrager’s boutique hotels, the Royalton in New York and Delano in Miami, before opening Town and Country, believes room service has “gone from an afterthought to a forethought. Offerings have become much more inventive and creative.”
He finds “customers have become much more sophisticated; they know what they want, and they’re demanding. You have to be able to meet their needs at any time.” One way Williams caters to demanding guests at the Muse is to let them create their own ice cream flavors, with 48 hours’ notice, thanks to her recent purchase of a Pacojet, a Swiss food processor that lets her make and freeze ice cream base and custom-mix in flavors and additions like cookie dough or Gummi Bears.
Williams has also come up with an innovative way for Muse guests to entertain in their hotel rooms: She recently introduced room service items that help guests create their own party, including a popcorn bar, with flavors like cheddar, cayenne, chocolate, truffle and rosemary; garlic potato and taro chips with green goddess, ranch and roasted onion dips; vegetable wraps with mint yogurt sauce; guacamole and chips; and a selection of cheese, grapes and breads.
Once you’ve ordered these yummy dishes, how much should you tip the room service waiter? Gaughen believes there should be “no difference between what you tip when you eat in a restaurant and what you tip for room service, 15 to 20 percent of the bill.”
However, she says it is imperative that you check the room service bill to see if a gratuity is included, which happens most often at resort hotels. If the tip is already on the bill and your room service waiter does something extraordinary, Gaughen suggests leaving an additional gratuity. “If the waiter comes, makes up the table, throws rose petals around, and creates an incredible ambience for your dining pleasure, that’s aboveboard” and deserves an extra tip if a gratuity is included on the bill, or an extra-handsome one if it isn’t, she says. But, she adds, “if the service stinks, I wouldn’t tip. That’s what tipping is all about.”
This article found at
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21379689/
Hotel room service sure isn’t what it used to be.
Although some hotels still feature the same ‘ol shrimp cocktails, club sandwiches and hamburgers on their room service menus, others take a more innovative approach, offering unusual dishes—like a Japanese bento box, risotto of escargots, and pavé of sole with cassoulet Toulousain—often created by the well-known chefs who run their restaurants.
This trend is global, frequently found at smaller hotels that belong to organizations like Relais & Chateaux and Small Luxury Hotels, two collections of upscale hotels, and Design Hotels, whose hotels are distinguished by their arty décor.
Famous chefs who oversee room service menus include Raymond Blanc, of Le Manoir aux Quat’ Saisons, a Relais and Chateaux, two-Michelin-star restaurant and hotel outside of Oxford, England; Eric Chavot, of the two-Michelin-star Capital at the Capital in London; Nobu, whose one-Michelin-star restaurant Nobu is in the Metropolitan in London; and Joan Roca, whose one-Michelin-star Restaurant Moo is in the hip Hotel Omm in Barcelona.
Then there's the legendary Philippe Legendre, chef of the two-Michelin-star Le Cinq at the Four Seasons George V in Paris; culinary heavyweight Jean-Georges Vongerichten, whose three-Michelin-star, eponymous restaurant is in the Trump International Hotel in New York; Geoffrey Zakarian, whose restaurants do room service for two Manhattan hotels, Town at the Chambers Hotel and the one-Michelin-star Country at the Carlton Hotel; Patricia Williams, of District in the Muse in Manhattan; and Charlie Palmer, of the Dry Creek Kitchen in the Hotel Healdsburg in Healdsburg, Calif.
Elaborate room-service menus are a relatively recent phenomenon, says Martha Gaughen, an owner of Sterling Brownell, an upscale leisure travel agency in Atlanta that belongs to Virtuoso, a consortium of high-end travel agencies. A travel agent for 24 years, Gaughen is a member of Virtuoso’s hotel and resort committee, which helps determine which hotels the consortium’s agencies partner with. “When I was first in the industry, there was no room service. At Caneel Bay 15 years ago, you couldn’t get anything in your room—you had to go to the bar for ice,” she said. “Room service has sort of evolved—it’s now all about ambience, the setting, the food and the service itself.”
Resorts in particular go all out to make the room service experience memorable; among these is Le Taha’a Island Resort and Spa in French Polynesia, which prepares a “romantic Milky Way dinner” for guests in the privacy of their bungalow terrace, complete with flowers, champagne, wine, and a three-course meal.
Zakarian, who cooked at famous Manhattan restaurants like Le Cirque and the 21 Club and at two of Ian Schrager’s boutique hotels, the Royalton in New York and Delano in Miami, before opening Town and Country, believes room service has “gone from an afterthought to a forethought. Offerings have become much more inventive and creative.”
He finds “customers have become much more sophisticated; they know what they want, and they’re demanding. You have to be able to meet their needs at any time.” One way Williams caters to demanding guests at the Muse is to let them create their own ice cream flavors, with 48 hours’ notice, thanks to her recent purchase of a Pacojet, a Swiss food processor that lets her make and freeze ice cream base and custom-mix in flavors and additions like cookie dough or Gummi Bears.
Williams has also come up with an innovative way for Muse guests to entertain in their hotel rooms: She recently introduced room service items that help guests create their own party, including a popcorn bar, with flavors like cheddar, cayenne, chocolate, truffle and rosemary; garlic potato and taro chips with green goddess, ranch and roasted onion dips; vegetable wraps with mint yogurt sauce; guacamole and chips; and a selection of cheese, grapes and breads.
Once you’ve ordered these yummy dishes, how much should you tip the room service waiter? Gaughen believes there should be “no difference between what you tip when you eat in a restaurant and what you tip for room service, 15 to 20 percent of the bill.”
However, she says it is imperative that you check the room service bill to see if a gratuity is included, which happens most often at resort hotels. If the tip is already on the bill and your room service waiter does something extraordinary, Gaughen suggests leaving an additional gratuity. “If the waiter comes, makes up the table, throws rose petals around, and creates an incredible ambience for your dining pleasure, that’s aboveboard” and deserves an extra tip if a gratuity is included on the bill, or an extra-handsome one if it isn’t, she says. But, she adds, “if the service stinks, I wouldn’t tip. That’s what tipping is all about.”
This article found at
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21379689/
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