Customer Experience Radio

Customer Experience Radio Welcomes Hotelier and Director of Operational Excellence Leticia Tavares

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Leticia Tavares is a Hotelier and Harvard MBA Grad, originally from Brazil.

Since 2016 she has been working in the Travel & Hospitality industry, and she is currently the Director of Operational Excellence in a large hotel in Atlanta.

After graduating with an MBA from Harvard Business School, Leticia joined Marriott International on a rotational program that brings MBA talent into hotel management. After concluding an 18-month rotation she became the Director of Operational Excellence of a well-known hotel in Downtown Atlanta, and she is responsible for increasing Guest Satisfaction, Intent to Return, and other Key Success Metrics.

Leticia’s passion for hospitality led her to create a Travel & Hospitality blog and Instagram account: Hospitality Vitae.

Connect with Leticia on LinkedIn and Instagram. You can find the article on Leticia’s day to day in operational excellence here.

* Please note that this interview represents Leticia’s own views and opinion and does not represent those of Marriott International.

Intro: [00:00:01] Broadcasting live from the Business RadioX Studios in Atlanta, it’s time for Customer Experience Radio. Brought to you by Heineck and Company, real estate advisors specialized in corporate relocation. Now, here’s your host, Jill Heineck.

Jill Heineck: [00:00:17] Good afternoon, and welcome to this very special edition of Customer Experience Radio. I’m your host, Jill Heineck, and I’m a business owner, real estate adviser, and customer experience enthusiast. You know, I run my business mainly on deep relationships, and traveling around, and really getting to know people and where they’re from, and the areas in which they’re coming from so that I can share what Atlanta is about if they’re relocating to the area. And it’s a great way to really get a feel for other markets and get to know other people.

Jill Heineck: [00:00:50] And so, one of the things that I really love about our next guest is that part of her work is traveling. And that that has become a great big hobby for her as well. And so, I’m really excited to welcome Leticia Tavares. And she is the owner of the blog, Hospitality Vitae. Am I saying that right, Leticia?

Leticia Tavares: [00:01:14] Yes. Perfect.

Jill Heineck: [00:01:14] And she’s a hotelier and she’s also a Harvard MBA grad. And she’s originally from Brazil. And since 2016, she’s been working in the travel and hospitality industry. And she’s currently the director of operational excellence at a large hotel in Atlanta. So, I’m really excited to welcome you today, Leticia. I know we’ve had some scheduling challenges. So, welcome to the show.

Leticia Tavares: [00:01:42] Thanks so much for having me, Jill. I’m excited to talk to you today. As you said, I’ve been in the hospitality industry since 2016, but I’ve been always passionate about the industry. And I’ve been always passionate about traveling, you know, first of all. I’ve been to more than 40 countries, so hoping to share more with you.

Jill Heineck: [00:02:04] That is amazing. And has that been a lot on your own volition or is that been also part of work?

Leticia Tavares: [00:02:12] So, I have travelled a bit for work. So, since 2016, when I joined the company that I work for, I had to travel a bit because of work, but mainly in the U.S. Although, I was always based in Atlanta, I have worked in [inaudible]. I worked in D.C. I worked in Florida for a little bit. But, personally, I just love to travel. So, my first trip abroad, I think I was ten years old. I actually came to the U.S., so I went to Disney with my family back in ’96. And then, after that, I guess I didn’t stop traveling.

Jill Heineck: [00:02:55] You got the bug. I love it. So, do you think that your travel experiences leading up to, let’s say, the 2016 timeframe got you interested in giving that same kind of guest experience in your hospitality career?

Leticia Tavares: [00:03:17] So, I think that one of the things that drove me to hospitality was the fact that I feel it’s a career that you just deal with people from so many different cultures. You know, you work with people with so many different backgrounds. And I’ve always been interested about that diversity, which I think it’s really positive for the industry. So, when I came to the U.S. From Brazil back in 2014, I knew that I wanted to be in a company that was multicultural, you know, that value diversity. And I just found myself in hospitality. I think it’s wonderful that we get to work with people with so many different points of view. And we learn from their different backgrounds and from their experiences, too.

Leticia Tavares: [00:04:03] And I think, you know, maybe when you travel, you don’t realize, but you get to learn so much about the local culture. And one thing that I always try to do when I travel is get to meet locals as well. If either it’s like, you know, I have a friend who lives in that country that introduced me to someone who is there at the moment. I just love being able to get to know a place through the eyes of the locals. So, I think everyone, when we’re thinking about our careers, if we connect the dots, I think that part of looking back in my previous careers or previous experiences, traveling was always something that was part of it that I could see now, again, being part of my career. So, I think no matter what I do next, I think that’s always going to be important to me.

Jill Heineck: [00:05:01] Yes. And I relate to that so much, because being in the relocation industry, so much of our network is outside of my market. So, I’m traveling to these events to meet other relocation professionals. But I’ve always built some time or a day or extra to see the city that we’re in. So, we go to Chicago, we’ve done L.A., we’ve done Dallas, Houston, places that I wouldn’t normally probably go. Maybe a few of those I would go more often. But it gives you that flavor. And like you said, and I try to find those couple of things that are locally based, not necessarily tourist based that you would do when you’re in the city. So, I totally agree with that. And I think that that makes it so much more exciting whether you build it in on the front end or the back end, but either way, it makes work more exciting as well.

Leticia Tavares: [00:05:56] Yeah. Yeah. It’s always fun to be working in a new city and a new place. I always try to get the time to just do something interesting and get out of the hotel, get out of your comfort zone there, and just go explore a little bit.

Jill Heineck: [00:06:12] So, talk to us a little bit about your role in Operational Excellence. Because I think that this does really connect well with the customer experience. So, talk to us a little about what your day-to-day looks like.

Leticia Tavares: [00:06:24] Sure. So, first, when I joined the company that I work for, I did a rotation. So, for like one-year-and-a-half, I was doing different things and help that operations. So, I think after coming out of an MBA, I didn’t see myself going into a corporate role. I wanted to learn from the ground up. And, especially, you know, if you work in a hospitality company, it’s important to understand how to manage a hotel. Because I didn’t want to be in a corporate role without knowing what really happens on the day- to-day, relating to the staff and knowing what a front office agent does or a housekeeper does. And, you know, there’s just so much to learn with the staff. And that’s why I decided to go into the operational side. And for one-year-and-a-half, I did a rotation. So, I was in housekeeping, front office. I did marketing. I did a little bit of corporate. So, I was a few months in an office we have in Miami. I did marketing. I did finance in L.A. Actually, I did guest relations. So, I just got a few of so many different areas in operations.

Leticia Tavares: [00:07:38] And then, I thought that was perfect because when I found this position as director of Operational Excellence, it was kind of a position that I could bring all that I learned into this perfect position that is almost, like, made for me. Because you get to be in operations, but you also get to be a little bit in the background and, like, do some analysis, and look at data, look at customer research. You know, you read what the customers are saying. So, I like that balance of being part in operations and part doing more like a strategic planning, strategic thinking. So, that was perfect for me in, I think, on the day-to-day what I would say that I do. And that was more, I guess, before COVID. Because after COVID, my role changed a little bit.

Leticia Tavares: [00:08:32] But I do, basically, run process improvement projects within the hotel. Since my hotel is really big, it’s almost 2,000 rooms, we do have many process improvement projects that we want to work with. And that really starts by reading the customer research. So, by reading what the customers are saying and identifying what’s kind of wrong or what could be better, that gives me ideas for projects that I could work on in the hotel. And, you know, I never do anything isolated. My projects, I always build a team with hosts, so front of the line hosts that are living that on the day- to-day, they’re part of my work team. And together, we work to solve an issue and make the experience of the guests better.

Leticia Tavares: [00:09:22] So, that’s my goal. You know, I want to make my associate’s life easier and their work easier. I want to eliminate what we call wastes in their work. And I want to make the guest experience better and seamless. So, that’s very important to me as I do any projects in Operational Excellence.

Jill Heineck: [00:09:46] Right. Which makes perfect sense, because if your associate team is feeling empowered and feeling like they are all working towards a goal, they’re going to deliver an excellent experience to the guest.

Leticia Tavares: [00:09:57] Yes. Absolutely. Yes.

Jill Heineck: [00:09:59] That’s ultimately the goal.

Leticia Tavares: [00:09:59] And I talk a lot about customer, but for me, there’s always the internal customer, that is the associate. And the external customer, that is, in my case, my guests. So, when I do the voice of the customer, basically, when I read the surveys, I’m reading external surveys from guests. But I’m also talking to the associates to understand, “Okay. So, what’s your point of view? What’s wrong? What could we do better? Tell me about your job. Let’s walk through the process. What do you do on a day-to-day?” So, both points of view are extremely important. And I think that sometimes we talk so much about customer, customer, customer. But our internal customer, which is our associate, they have the best ideas, right? So, they’re the ones that I want to be working very close with.

Jill Heineck: [00:10:52] Right. So, is there a recent project that you’ve completed that you can talk about or kind of give us an overview of, possibly, what the challenge was and then how you overcame that or what you implemented to overcome it?

Leticia Tavares: [00:11:09] Sure. So, actually, I’ll share with you two. I don’t know if you’re putting this video and you can share a link (Here is the link: https://asksuite.com/blog/how-to-improve-hotel-operations/

). But I have an interview that I talk a lot about this specific project. So, if anyone has more questions, I’ll be happy to share with you. But, basically, we saw that our scores in in-room dining, which is the food you order from your room, they were not great. They were kind of stable. Not where we wanted to be. And we were wondering, like, what is going on? So, my first step was, you know, let’s look back and let’s see what the guests are saying. I mean, I’m lucky to have a lot of data. I know that many companies don’t have the amount of data. But because we send surveys to guests regularly, I have a lot that I can read. And from that point of view, the voice of the customer, which is my guests, I had a lot of people saying either, “The food is cold.” Or, “It’s taking too long to get my meal.”

Leticia Tavares: [00:12:10] So, I think, basically, timing and quality were, like, the two big things. And then, I then spoke to the associates to understand what’s going on. And, you know, and it’s the chefs saying, “Well, the chicken is not right.” And then, the runner, that is the person that actually brings the food up saying, “Well, I got the request to pick up the food. It was too late already. The food had been sitting there.” So, that first discovery phase, I guess, in the Six Sigma language, we had some tools that we used. But that first phase, it’s all about understanding that voice of the customer and really understanding, “Okay. What’s the process we’re trying to analyze?” Because you can’t tackle it all.

Leticia Tavares: [00:12:58] You can say, “Okay. I want to understand, you know, how the food is made and what happened.” So, you could try to understand as much as you want. But, in fact, you need to be a little bit more, you know, “Let’s focus. What do we really want?” So, you need to define when the process begin and when the process end. And for us, the process begin when the order is placed on the phone. The process ends when the order is delivered. That’s what I was trying to see. You know, I didn’t want to see anything before that and anything after that. And then, I built a team of hosts and including chefs, the runners, the person that takes the call that is talking about the food, because these are all the people that live and breathes that process.

Leticia Tavares: [00:13:47] And then, from there, there are different phases in the project. But, basically, we’re trying to understand what’s the root cause, what’s really wrong. And you’ll never do a Six Sigma project jumping into conclusions. I think that was my biggest learning when I went through green belt and black belt training is, you can’t jump into conclusions right away. You need to understand the root cause. And so, that was eye opening for me. And that’s kind of the mentality that I always try to bring because people tend to jump to conclusions too fast. I mean, that’s just one of the examples.

Leticia Tavares: [00:14:24] And then, of course, we put some new processes in place and new tools. And we saw this was growing.

Jill Heineck: [00:14:30] Like what?

Leticia Tavares: [00:14:30] So, it worked. You have a control phase that is after the project. You keep checking to make sure it’s working. And if not, of course, you’re going to go back and you see what needs to be changed. But at the time, our scores went back up and it really worked. So, that’s just –

Jill Heineck: [00:14:48] So, what did you change or what did you implement? An example of one thing that you might have changed in the process.

Leticia Tavares: [00:14:55] So, a big thing that we realized was that when the host was taking the order via the telephone, they were not necessarily taking notes. They were inputting in the system while the –

Jill Heineck: [00:15:11] And could forget. And could forget.

Leticia Tavares: [00:15:14] Because they’re doing that every day, so in their mind, I get it. You know, it’s like, “Oh, it’s an automatic process. I’m not going to forget it.” But you do forget. So, basically, what we created was exactly what you need to tell the guests, then spaces for you to write down what the guests say. Because there is a standard. You need to explain what room service is, because – I don’t know – I’ve been in a lot of hotels, it’s not the traditional room service anymore. So, you need to explain that it’s made to order, but it’s packaged to go. And a lot of the comments from guests were, “Oh, I didn’t know it came in a bag. I thought it would be the tray.” So, basically, this checklist reminded the host of what to say and also spaces for them to write things down, to then put in the system to send the order to the kitchen.

Leticia Tavares: [00:16:11] We also updated the whole MICROS. So, MICROS is the system where you put the order thing. Because when I observed – because part of the process improvement project is observing the process – there are a lot of items that were not in MICROS. So, the host had to write a lot of things manually, which doesn’t make sense. You know, you need to make their jobs easier.

Jill Heineck: [00:16:36] No. And that would make sense why the chef wouldn’t see it or would miss it.

Leticia Tavares: [00:16:42] But the thing is, I think for our associates – and any different industry – sometimes our associates are just tired of telling us because we’re not doing anything. And you just need to stop, listen, and make changes because they know it’s wrong. They’ve been doing it. So, I think that it’s the moment when you’re running this project that you really saw a police and then you’re like, “Okay. What are quick ways that we can change right now?” Like MICROS, we changed it in a week. And I’m not saying that no one was paying attention. It’s just that the hosts are just so used to do it that, maybe, it got to a point that no one was just voicing their opinion. And that’s why it’s important to talk and ask and checking with your associates to make sure that things are going well. So, we changed MICROS.

Leticia Tavares: [00:17:30] Well, we have a phone that we dispatch the orders. And we dispatch it to the runners when to pick it up or where to drop the order. So, just try tracking that data better to see how long it’s actually taking for the runner to deliver the order. What are the issues? So, we realized it was important to have people actually stationed at the kitchen. Not runners running around the building, which is 47 floors. That can take a long time to come up and down to deliver food.

Jill Heineck: [00:18:05] You think? My food is definitely going to be cold.

Leticia Tavares: [00:18:10] So, many small things but it’s just I love doing that kind of work because I’m making the whole slice – I mean, the associates we call them hosts – the associate’s lives easier. And that really makes me happy. I love doing that.

Jill Heineck: [00:18:29] I love that you love improving the process because I know that a lot of us have high aspirations for that. But when you’re actually seeing the change happen, it’s so rewarding, isn’t it?

Leticia Tavares: [00:18:40] Yes. Yes. That’s true.

Jill Heineck: [00:18:41] It’s so rewarding. So, talk to us a little bit about – I mean, I happen to be from the Boston area. I grew up on the Cape and went to school in Boston myself. So, tell us during your time there, what were your favorite things to do in Boston?

Leticia Tavares: [00:18:57] Oh, my God. So, I was in Boston for two years during my MBA. And I, actually, was coming straight from Brazil. And I think it was the worst winter ever in so many years. So, that was really interesting. From that moment, I realized I want to move down to the south. But no –

Jill Heineck: [00:19:23] Me, too.

Leticia Tavares: [00:19:23] So, I really enjoyed – do you remember this pastry shop called Mike’s Pastry?

Jill Heineck: [00:19:30] Of course. In the north end. It’s still there.

Leticia Tavares: [00:19:31] Yes. So, I like my Mike’s because they were in Cambridge. And to be fair, you know, school is so demanding that I didn’t have a lot of time to go to Boston. I mean, it’s really close, but I was most of the time in Cambridge. There is a Venezuelan restaurant, it’s called Orinoco. Very good. It’s in Cambridge as well. I loved it. I mean, I haven’t been back in a few years, but I think they had been there for a long time so I’m hoping they’re still there.

Leticia Tavares: [00:20:04] But so many things opened in Cambridge. I love this salad place called Sweet Green. And they were not in Boston when I was there. But I heard that they opened now. And you have Peet’s Coffee in Cambridge. I just love walking in that area. It’s so, so cute. And I just love walking through campus because my campus was not where, like, Harvard is. You know, the business campus is – I don’t know – maybe ten minutes away. So, I just felt that the business campus is a little bit isolated. So, I like to cross the bridge and just go towards Cambridge.

Jill Heineck: [00:20:42] And Harvard does have a gorgeous campus. I’ve been on the undergrad campus and walked by the MBA campus, but that whole area is so pretty and it’s so different now. I mean, it’s been a long time since I’ve gone to school there. So, it’s been a long time since I’ve actually kind of investigated Cambridge. Because every time we go back, we’re going back for a short stint in the summer because we try to avoid the cold.

Leticia Tavares: [00:21:12] Yeah. Yeah. I think it was in the summer that they have the Charles River – what is that big event that they have the sailing team?

Jill Heineck: [00:21:24] It’s the crew. It’s the crew event. Why am I losing my mind?

Leticia Tavares: [00:21:31] Yeah. Me, too. But that was beautiful because it was nice weather and the river just looks so pretty with everybody there. And I think, now, I guess things will be a little bit different, but I hope they keep those traditions.

Jill Heineck: [00:21:47] I do, too. Even in the really, really cold weather. I’d love to hear a little bit about any recent experiences that you’ve had that kind of wowed you from other big brands. Or it really wouldn’t matter to me, I just am interested to hear what you’ve experienced in your travels or just in your day-to-day. Any particular customer or guest experience that’s kind of blown you away and that you’ve taken away and you might kind of try to implement that in your day-to-day work.

Leticia Tavares: [00:22:23] So, I think that now travelling during coronaviruses times, not a lot of people have traveled and I completely understand that. I decided to travel a little bit, of course, taking all the precautions, wearing a mask, and doing whatever I can do to make my life safer and also all those people’s lives safer. But I try to travel because I want to experience that change. And since I work in hospitality, I want to see what other companies are doing. And it doesn’t necessarily need to be in a hotel. I like going to a restaurant to see what they’re doing or just visiting an attraction to see what are the things they have in place.

Leticia Tavares: [00:23:05] And I, actually went, recently – maybe a-month-and-a-half ago – to Disney. They have a resort in Hilton Head. It’s very cute. And I have a friend who has, you know, the timeshare, I think they call it Disney Vacation Club. So, she had points with Disney Vacation Club, and we found a very good deal in the middle of the week. And since I was working different hours that week, we were able to go from, like, a Monday to a Wednesday. And that was pretty busy, you know, there were a lot of kids and families. And I just thought they were doing such a great job. So, first of all, you get there, they have to check. The first house where you come with your car, it’s where they have the check-in area. And they tell you when you first come in that they just want one person off the party to go up and check, you know, to avoid crowds. So, my friend went up. She did the checking. They told us where to park.

Leticia Tavares: [00:24:10] The rooms there a little bit different because they are the Disney Vacation Club, so they’re larger. In the room, we had signs explaining how the room was cleaning and disinfected. They have those big shampoos, conditioner amenities in the bathroom, like a lot of hotels now have instead of the small ones. All those amenities were covered in plastic with signs saying it had been cleaned. The remote control was also covered in plastic with a sticker. So, all these new things in place that I thought, you know, was really nice to see. And then, of course, all the other things they had in the closet, like extra blankets, extra duvet covers, they were all packaged and nicely done.

Leticia Tavares: [00:25:03] And then, in the public space, of course, lots of signs. The pool, the chairs were six feet away or, I mean, adapt it to whatever kind of family. If you had four people in your party, of course, they would put chairs close by. And in the pool, they had someone cleaning the pool. Not the pool itself, but like the rails all the time. That person was like going around. You know, if someone touches the rail, that person would go and clean.

Jill Heineck: [00:25:36] In circles.

Leticia Tavares: [00:25:36] In circles. So, I was [inaudible] in the pool for two hours, that lady did not stop cleaning that pool. So, I think that now it’s a lot about first impressions and what you see. I think that before, if you think about hospitality as a concert or a theater, there’s the backstage and there’s onstage. I think that now it’s all onstage, because people want to know what you’re doing. Like, the guests wants to know how do you clean, how is it done. I remember when I started my career back in 2016, it was all about, you know, creating a seamless experience and doing things in the back stage so that for the guests it was like, “Oh, my God. How did this show up here? You know, that’s so magical.” But, now, I think people just want to know. Like, if there is an amenity in my room, how was this sanitized. Is the amenity put in plastic? So, all these things that before, maybe, people are not paying attention, now, they want to know. And that’s why I think training the staff and everybody needs to be on the same page, that’s more important than ever.

Jill Heineck: [00:26:57] So, I know you profiled that property, the experience that you had there on your blog. Will you talk a little bit about your blog?

Leticia Tavares: [00:27:07] Oh, yes. Sure. So, you know, I have started my blog because so many people asks me how is life working in hospitality. And I think people just think it was so different. You know, coming out of an MBA and just choosing a career that is not a very traditional path. It’s not very common to see people going into hotel operations, in general, after an MBA. So, in the beginning, I was like, “You know what? I’m just going to start and I’m just going to do whatever I feel like posting. I want to show my career in hospitality.” You know, I travel so much, too, that also became a way for me to show my travels and give people a different point of view. You know, I’m not a blogger that travels. I want to take pretty pictures. I think that that’s okay. But my goal is to bring a different perspective. Yes, I want to have a nice picture, but I want to show from a hotelier point of view how my experience was. And I think that people are so interested in that because I’m bringing that different perspective. And that’s why I started my blog.

Leticia Tavares: [00:28:14] So, it kind of evolved and so I brought more travel in, because in the end, you know, it’s not that I can show a lot of the backstage. I cannot be taking pictures off the backstage of a hotel, but I can talk about it. But, you know, not necessarily through images. And I tried to interview hoteliers nowadays. I try to talk about my travels. But to be fair, I mean, someone once told me, if you want to start something, just start. And that was how I started. I didn’t have any plans or any, what they call, content strategy. It was, I’m going to show what I feel like showing regarding hospitality. You know, I’m a small blog, small Instagram, but I just find a way to – it’s my creative side, like you have your podcasts. You know, I just like having something for my creative side. I have fun doing it.

Jill Heineck: [00:29:13] And remind everybody where they can find it.

Leticia Tavares: [00:29:17] So, it’s hospitalityvitae.com. Vitae means life or career in Latin. And, you know, I speak Portuguese, and Portuguese comes from Latin. So, there are a few words that I know and I just wheeled off that word and I just worked with them together. So, that’s it.

Jill Heineck: [00:29:39] And your Instagram handle is also Hospitality Vitae?

Leticia Tavares: [00:29:42] Vitae. Yes. Yes. The same handle. Yes.

Jill Heineck: [00:29:45] Excellent. So, give us a couple of examples of some special things that your team does to make guests feel special when they’re in the hotel.

Leticia Tavares: [00:29:58] Yeah. Sure. So, I think that there are two things that I usually look at. One, it’s anticipating needs. And I think when you have a lot of data available – that I told you I’m lucky to have – if you don’t really translate that data into actionable information, that’s just lost. So, I really like to dig into the data to understand who is my customer, why is he coming here, what is he doing here. So, all those things I can find very easily with the data I have on-hand. And that helps me anticipate needs. So, if you think about your business, if you have a restaurant or if you have a small retail shop, you know, who are your customers? So, that’s square one. And in the hotel pre-COVID, we did get huge conferences in my hotel. So, I know it’s business travelers. You know, they’re maybe there for one to three days. They like using the mobile checking because they’re in and out. So, all these things that we knew about them, we could use to make their experience seamless. So, I think anticipation of needs is a big, big one.

Leticia Tavares: [00:31:24] And one thing that I learned when I told you I did my rotations, I worked in the Ritz Carlton in Washington, D.C. And I really love luxury hotels. I’m passionate about it. And I think one day in my career, I’ll go back to a luxury property. It was all about preferences. So, that was back in 2017. Now, we have a system for that. But before, you know, we would give our hosts at the Ritz Carlton a piece of paper, like it was a little notepad, and they would discover preferences of the guests. So, like, if you talk to a guest in the restaurant and you’re a server, and you found out it’s their wedding day or you found out that they really like orange juice with two ice cubes, whatever, you could write that down. And we had a database of preferences so that we knew what the guests wanted or liked.

Jill Heineck: [00:32:29] And then, they’re very surprised later on when they go to another potential Ritz property and they have the orange juice with the two cubes. How did you know that?

Leticia Tavares: [00:32:41] So, that was a big thing at Ritz Carlton. And, now, we have one system now in place so we can really see preferences from other hotels as well. Preferences are like the guests preference translates to different brands. So, if I look at the guest profile and I know that he likes this, it doesn’t matter if I’m on a Ritz Carlton or Marriott or Renaissance, I could act on that preference. But there is a difference because preference is something that’s constant. It’s like if they travel with their kids and someone found out the kids really like chocolate and they put chocolate in the room. If that guest travels for business and all the time he gets chocolate in the room, then it doesn’t necessarily a preference because he could go back and say, “Why do you always put chocolate in my room? Like, I really like to workout. I eat healthy. I don’t need chocolate.” So, you can’t really mix what’s a preference with what’s something that happened on one travel in a hotel.

Jill Heineck: [00:33:48] Right. Exactly. Exactly.

Leticia Tavares: [00:33:51] Because he was there with his kids.

Jill Heineck: [00:33:54] With the family. Right. Different trip.

Leticia Tavares: [00:33:56] Different trip. Sometimes we had some mix up, but then we would figure it out this is really a preference. This is not a preference. It’s a one off. He’s with his family.

Jill Heineck: [00:34:09] That’s a big thing in our business as well when we talk about anticipating needs. And that’s based on customer feedback over several years. It’s the same thing that you’re talking about, where we go back and where we say, “Okay. We can do this better. We can do that better.” You and I, we’re in our businesses, our companies, in our jobs, and our roles every single day, all day long so we kind of know what we’re doing. And sometimes when you’re not conscious about kind of making these little milestones along the way for the experience, it definitely does make an impact whether you do it or not. So, when you do do it, when you do, do that little thing with serving the orange juice with the two ice cubes, that can really set the tone for the rest of the experience. That one little thing.

Jill Heineck: [00:35:04] And so, that’s definitely something that we’ve also focused on. And I love hearing that other companies are doing the same thing. We did have [inaudible] came on last year and he talked to us about the anticipatory needs. He talked about empowering the teammates to help any guest having a situation or a challenge. And so, you’re speaking right to that. And I really appreciate that, because it just kind of threads all the way through.

Leticia Tavares: [00:35:34] And he’s a role model. Definitely.

Jill Heineck: [00:35:37] He’s definitely a role model. So, before we wrap up, tell me, do you have a couple of, maybe, one or two actionable pieces of advice that you would share with our listeners to get more engagement either from your teammates in order to deliver that guest experience or anything that you would like to share with our listeners would be great.

Leticia Tavares: [00:36:04] Yeah. Sure. So, when we spoke about some of the projects I do at my role as Operational Excellence, I think a big actionable item that you can start right away is, listen to your associates. Stop whatever you’re doing. Put in your calendar, “I’m going to have a one-on-one meeting with my front of the line hosts to understand what is going on.” If you can do it this week, I would say, do it. Because there’s just so many things happening now and so many things impacting the day-to-day of our hosts and associates that taking that 15 minute, 30 minute of your time to talk to them will really, I think, make an impact. And that’s, again, what I call the voice of the customers, so that’s the internal customer. Which, if he’s happy, if your associate is engaged, if they have the tools and resources they need, they will do their job. They will perform. And your job as a leader will be even easier because you have a team that is empowered and a team that is ready to make a difference. So, I think that’s definitely a big one.

Leticia Tavares: [00:37:18] And then, the voice of the customer, your guests or your clients, how are you getting their feedback? Not necessarily you have research in place. You know, I’m very grateful to have a lot of researches and a lot of data. But what can you do? What’s the one question you can ask your clients to get that feedback and that input that you need to understand how your processes are going or how your business is going if people are satisfied. And I think in the hotel perspective, the big question is, what’s your intent to return? Would you return to my place? That’s what tells us if they give us a nine or ten, you know, it means that they had a very good experience. And if they give us a seven and eight, how we can make that experience better for the next time they can give us a nine or ten? So, I think you can look at, you know, net promoter score or you can do some research to see the different ways, the different types of research that are out there. But, you know, if you can ask one question, what would you ask? And if you are on the front line with your associates, how can you interact with the guests right away? Ask how was your experience, was there anything I could do that I could have made it better. I think that really is impactful.

Leticia Tavares: [00:38:49] Sometimes we might think, “Oh, there’s just one question.” But you can find out so many things. Because when I’m checking guests out and I ask, “How was your stay?” If they tell me it’s okay. Okay is not okay. I want it to be excellent. So, what could I have done better? Sometimes we’re a little bit afraid of asking the question because we know that we might hear what we don’t want to hear. But that’s the only way to act on those issues and change it for the better. And I think the last one would be, you know, I think with coronavirus, we had to be flexible, right? Like, we had to change and make changes on a daily basis. But there’s still some resistance to change. And that’s going to be in any business.

Jill Heineck: [00:39:37] Always.

Leticia Tavares: [00:39:37] Always. So, I think for you as a business owner or even if you don’t own a business, you just work in a corporate office, I think, for me, it’s always when you’re trying to implement changes, you always need to show to the people that are impacted what’s in for them. So, that’s the big question. So, in my case, the room service project that we were talking about, like, what’s in for the person who is taking the calls? What’s in for the chef? What’s in for the hotel? You know, for the hotel, our food scores are going to go up. For the chef, he’s going to stop having orders that are not right. He’s going to deliver a better product. And for the associate that is picking up the calls, you’re going to have guests that are not calling back and say, “Where’s my order? Where’s my fork? You forgot something.” So, you really need to show it to everybody who is involved in that process what’s in it for them. Because once they understand that they will win, that together we will win, they will want to, at least, try to make that happen.

Leticia Tavares: [00:40:54] And I love that because then it also shows that you and management or operations are actually listening to the team that is delivering the service. And when they feel heard and understood and then things that they’re giving you feedback on actually get addressed, that makes a giant impact on the end user’s experience. I so enjoyed talking to you today. Thank you so much for taking time out. And we definitely, in the show notes, have your blog and Instagram handle up there for people to come check you out.

Jill Heineck: [00:41:33] And I wanted to thank everybody for listening. I’m so proud to share this show with you as these stories do prioritize the customer experience or guest experience as a legit business strategy, reminding us that no matter the business that you are in, whether it be real estate, hospitality, teaching, consulting, the customer experience should always be the heart of the business.

About Your Host

Jill Heineck is a leading authority on corporate relocations, and is highly sought after for her real estate industry acumen and business insights. As a published author, frequent panelist and keynote speaker, Jill shares her experience and perceptions with people from around the globe.

Jill is a founding partner of Keller Williams Southeast, established in 1999, and the founder and managing partner of Heineck & Co. Her real estate practice specializes in corporate relocations, individual relocations, luxury residential, and commercial properties. Jill’s analytical approach to problem-solving, along with her expert negotiation skills and sophisticated marketing, deliver superior results to her clients. Her winning strategies and tenacious client advocacy have earned her a reputation for excellence among Atlanta’s top producers.

While Jill has received many accolades throughout her career, she is most gratified by the personal testimonials and referrals she receives from her clients. Jill’s unwavering commitment to the customer experience, and her focus on the unique needs of each client, serve as the foundation of her success.

Follow Jill Heineck on LinkedIn.