The General Manager: Shi(f)t happens!

Evil Erik is laying low during the present crisis and tries to avoid any conflicts, internal or external, by shifting his attention from politics to policies.

He has recently tackled the complaint handling system and is now making sure grievances don't reach him, unless of course the owner is not happy.

He believes that no news is good news and that his staff should be experienced enough to handle such " minor " details.

Recently a guest was unhappy with the service and tried to reach him, but his secretary is now trained to delegate this to the assistant manager, since Erik's brilliant management inspiration is of the opinion " that should keep them busy. "

This guest was told by his " gate-keeper " that he "doesn't understand the role of a General Manager " and was shifted towards the person designated to handle such matters.

This major shift in management style is resulting in the funniest situations:

• A junior manager explaining a senior executive to guests " normally we do ..."
  
  
• A receptionist hiding behind " this is company policy, I am only the messenger ..."
  
  
• A breakfast waiter stating : " our management only comes around noon ..."
  
  
• A sales person writing : I will make sure this doesn't happen anymore ..."
  
  
• A room service order taker explaining that you can have a banana smoothie or a strawberry milkshake, but not a strawberry smoothie because " it is not on the menu ... "

But Erik is a firm believer of the saying " S.H.I.T happens " and tells his colleagues " no s.h.i.t. problems, no jobs for us. "

But what Erik should be even more worried about are the guests which never complain, no matter what kind of service they get.

They sit patiently in the restaurant and simply don't ask for another drink while the waitress gossips with her boy friend and doesn't notice that their glass is empty.

They don't say a word when someone, who came in the restaurant after they did, gets the dish they ordered and the waiter tells them : " Oh, I‘m sorry. I'll order another for you. "

They are as polite as can be when they meet a rude and impatient sales executive who gets upset or bored when they want to look at several options before they decide, they say nothing but simply book at the competition.

They don't throw their weight around when they contact the sales department, they try to be thoughtful of the hard stressed sales person who complains about "too many proposals to be made ... "

They just smile, they never kick, nag or criticize and they wouldn't dream of making a scene.

They are the real nice customers -- and Erik will never realize what else they are ...

They are the "Silent Customers ", the customers who never come back, that's their little revenge for getting pushed around.

That's why they take whatever you serve, because they know they are not going to use Erik's hotel and the service offered, ever again.

But they don't relieve their feelings straight away, for instance by complaining and/or telling you what they think of your guest services, their revenge is far more deadly.

In fact, nice customers like them, multiplied by others of their kind, can without doubt ruin a hospitality business, and there are a lot of " nice people " like them around.

When they have been treated bad enough, they simply go down the street to another hotel or they eat their food in local restaurants, where the management is much smarter and hires help who appreciate nice customers.

The clever marketers laugh when they see you spending your money frantically on marketing and sales to get these " Silent Customers " back, when you could have had them with a few kind words and a smile.

Eric should learn to realize that the saying: " he laughs best, who laughs last ! " is what gives these "Silent Customers" their satisfaction.

Unfortunately in many catering and hospitality facilities these days it pays to complain before you are served instead of afterwards.

So from " S.H.I.T. happens " to SHIFT happens, service recovery is the General Manager's responsibility and if Erik wants to keep his position, he should initiate an internal paradigm shift from

That will turn future " Silent Customers " into " Honest Advocates " and, as a result of that shift, change slow trade into fast and rewarding results.

PS :

Since I am getting some "nasty" e-mails from a person that ( amazingly ) believes him/herself to be the role model of Evil Erik, may I please remind my readers that in my e-Hotelier articles any resemblance to the person(s) described with any existing person(s) is purely coincidental and unintentional and bears no relationship to any living, ethical, person working in the hospitality industry

Bert "Bow-Thai" van Walbeek | Bert "Bow-Thai" van Walbeek has been an Hotelier for 45 years and Marketer of Tourism for 35 years, a Motivator for 20 years, a Master of Disaster for 15 and a Lecturer for 15 years. He is the Founder and the Managing Director of The Winning Edge, ( ) a boutique consulting company, offering marketing audit, sales and service training and consultancy services mainly to the Hospitality & Tourism industries. He is a regular speaker at Hospitality Conferences and at Hotel Companies Senior Executive Meetings both in Asia and in Europe His entertaining and " outside of the nine dots " presentation on " Hotel General Manager, can anybody, everybody, somebody or nobody do this job ? " makes audiences laugh and cry at the same time ! He can be reached at [email protected]