It has been a tough year for the hospitality industry and at last in the lockdown restrictions in the UK are gradually being eased and it is time for bringing hospitality back!

As hotels across the country reopen indoor facilities today for the first time in five months, we bring you a special masterclass to help arm your staff with the right customer service tools to welcome guests back with a smile.

In a video special, I speak with Boutique Hotelier to reveal my top tips on how staff can still deliver exceptional service within the parameters of Covid restrictions and ensure guests are dazzled and delighted to step back inside.

We need to keep exceeding our guest expectations and ensure that with our new operational procedures in place that this does not detract from the  service we deliver. Hospitality is about being warm and welcoming, although the Covid interventions come across as clinical and impersonal, so we need to look at how to enhance the guest experience whilst remaining Covid safe.

A Warm Welcome

Changing your entrance and exit doors have to be clear to your guest. Avoid using ‘health and safety’ type signage. Keep your messages in line with your brand.

Keep Everyone Safe

Taking your guests and staff’s temperature prior to entering the building will help to keep everyone safe. Computerised temperature scanners can be less intrusive.

Cleanliness does not have to  Clinical

Consider where you place your hand sanitisers. Electronic dispensers are more hygienic. Individual bottles strategically placed or offered to your guest can be more inviting.

Guide rather than Direct

One way systems should guide your guests through to their destination. Ugly barriers and directional arrows will look out of place. Use of plants can make this a more pleasant experience.

Smile with your Eyes

We may have to wear masks, and the smiles on our mouths are hidden. When we truly smile, we smile with our whole face including our eyes.

Physical Distance rather than Social Distance

Being socially distanced does not mean you are not allowed to speak with your customers. You may be physically further away from them, but you can still have those vital conversations needed to welcome and look after your customer.

Contactless Touchpoints

Touchpoints are those key interactions with a customer whether they be human to human or human to technology. Moving to being contactless does not mean removing those key touchpoint interactions.

Look forward to their Return

Your guests may leave a different way they entered. Remember you want them to return so make their exit as special as their entrance.

For more assistance to keep your hotel Covid safe, then schedule a call.