Hotel Mystery Shopping Service Explained

The concept of hotel mystery shopping is becoming ever more popular in the hospitality industry. In today's competitive world, the difference between acceptable service and exceptional service can mean the difference between a one-off customer and one that wants to return to your establishment over and over again. The training of staff in any department of hospitality is important and there are reputable companies and institutes that offer comprehensive training courses in all aspects of hotel work. From reception, housekeeping and restaurant jobs to top management posts, every position is equally important in contributing to the team that delivers the best service possible for your business.
Hotel mystery shopping has become an important tool in measuring the service provided in hotels and maintaining the top quality expected in every department.
Maintaining Excellent Service
The world of hospitality is all about the customers' experience and that goes beyond simple theory. The concepts behind service to the customer are theoretically based but it is the practical execution and 'going that extra mile' that must be encouraged if a business is to remain competitive. This industry thrives on repeat business and reputation; because the employees are directly involved with a customer's pleasure and comfort of stay they have a direct impact on the customer's entire experience and, consequently, the potential for people to return or recommend to others.
The hotel mystery shopping service not only covers front of house staff's direct contact with the customer, but it also includes facility provision, marketing of services, choice of food and beverage availability, atmosphere and general tone, quality and vibe of the business. All of these aspects of providing the best service are imperative and must be assessed and continually monitored if your business is going to succeed.
The Service Provided
There are a number of international companies that pride themselves on providing excellent hotel mystery shopping services. Many are based in more than one country and can provide their service in several locations, in multiple languages and all with the same level of consideration.
Reputable companies offer a very individual service and will design a bespoke programme that encompasses the individual requirements of their clients. Some aspects of one particular company may need more focus than another and programmes are tailored to focus accordingly. First and foremost, the hotel mystery shopping experience is one that follows comprehensive training courses and aims to maintain the standards initially set. The company providing the service is usually the same one that hosts the training courses, meaning the assessments are relevant and appropriate.
The internal brand of every client varies and is what makes the difference to the customer. Mystery shoppers are very well trained and briefed on the establishments they are assessing, and the atmosphere and experience they should be expecting. The customer experience begins the minute they decide to stay or visit a hotel and ends when they have left completely. It includes general feel, facilities, interaction with staff and overall impression. Some of these appear intangible, but the surveys and reports designed to evaluate these components are easily analysed and conclusions can be defined and acted upon.

Brand Management Made Simple

Brand management involves nothing less than a pure creative ability and sustainability of your particular brand. The art of branding attract customers who will then continue remain endearingly committed to the popular brand. Forceful brands have the ability to make your product or service stand out among other market competitors. On the whole, efficient brand management gives the essential impetus to create a desired superior image for your organization and its true potential.

First and foremost, managing your brand includes effective management of both its tangible as well as intangible distinctiveness. In respect to product brands, tangibles among others mostly embrace your product, its price, and packaging, while, with regard to service brands, tangibles primarily include customer experience above all else. Intangibles, on the other hand, revolve around such emotional connections as the clients may eventually develop with your product or service.

Brand management is the process of putting together an assorted medium of marketing mix to subsequently obtain a whole that provides you with an identity of your own. Technically, it is little else than capturing the attention of your clients with a striking brand name. To achieve this objective, it must portray the distinct image of a well organized, progressive and highly reliable business. Your prime goal thus is capturing a market niche for your offered product or service, in addition to finding proper means to create confidence among your existing and potential clients, signifying that you possess the ability and potential to provide unique solutions that adequately cater to their specific needs.

Prime scope of branding lies in vivid conveyance of your brand message through appropriate marketing initiatives, creating loyalty among your customers, persuading them to make use of your product or service, and establishment of a long term emotional bond with your client base. Moreover, branding concept helps to inculcate clear perceptions about your product or service. To prove its effective utility among your clients, it should also help to raise their expectations. Key aim of brand management can be defined as creating a differentiation of opinion.

Strong brands are specifically designed to lessen customer perceptions regarding social, safety, and monetary risks associated with purchasing a particular product or service, in the absence of adequate prior knowledge. Besides, brand names also assist customers in clearly visualizing an intangible product or service. With respect to market share, organizations with strong brand names have the benefit of enjoying an explicit edge over their competitors. The key target of a business should entail considerably good support to its brand, enabling it to sustain itself on long term basis. With a reasonably competent system in operation, one significant benefit of brand management is helping project a robust corporate image that reflects your credibility as well as prominent market status.

Field Communication for Mobile Payments

Near Field Communication technology has been a very highly anticipated and desired feature for smart phones and other "E-Wallet" devices. The technology is already available in newer model smart phones and is being used mostly for exchanging pictures and documents from one phone to the other by doing nothing more than quickly touching the phones together.
NFC technology has recently been explored for making mobile payments with your smart phone or "E-Wallet" device. If successful it will eliminate the need to ever have to carry a credit card or cash again.
As with any new technology there are issues that need to be resolved before it can catch on like wildfire. A few of those issues are:

• Security

Security is the absolute most important factor when considering a new device or piece of software that is to be used for handling sensitive information. As soon as a new technology is born, almost immediately you will find somebody trying to exploit it for their own gains. We need to be 100% sure that the only people capable of using our bank information to run a charge are people we have authorized to do so.

• Popularity

How are we supposed to use the technology and expect to leave our wallets at home when 9 out of 10 stores that we shop at do not support our new found favorite thing ever? Simply speaking having the technology is not enough, we need to make sure that it is worth taking the potential security risks outlined above for the convenience of making payments on the go.

• Convenience

Is the device really worth having? There are literally hundreds of new inventions every day, most of them you never even hear about because they do not really serve an important enough purpose to care about. Most popular devices do a great job of showing you a huge problem that you never knew you had and then present itself as the solution to that problem. Remember, every dollar saved is a dollar earned.
It has been said that Near Field Communication is the wave of the future. So far it has not really caught on the way that has been expected. The jury is still out on whether or not the technology will actually be the next big thing or a passing fad. You can bet that you have not heard the last of it considering the amount of money that is being spent trying to implement the idea and solve the problems that the technology currently faces.
I for one am not a big fan of using the technology for mobile payments. The easier it is for me to spend money the more money I wind up spending, not to mention an increased exposure to banking and/or identity theft.

Courage and Leadership

When I think of the concept of courage I'm often drawn towards those larger than life, uncommon examples of valor that are held in reverence and awe.
For example, Medal of Honor recipient Sgt John Basilone on Guadalcanal repelling 3,000 Japanese for three days and nights without sleep, rest, or food; or Neil Armstrong taking control away from the computer and manually flying the Lunar Module to a safer landing spot on the moon with only 40 seconds of fuel to spare.
It's easy to understand courage in this context; these "life and death" type scenarios. But what about courage in the "everyday" that we are required to exhibit?
I think most of us equate courage as fearless acts of valor that are reserved for larger-than-life scenarios. It's easy to look at these type of fearless acts and wonder if we have what it takes to exhibit courage; and therefore be a leader.
It's important to note, however, that exhibiting courage does not mean that one acts without fear. In fact fear is actually a requirement of courage. Courage is the act of being scared to death and doing what's required anyway. One of my favorite quotes comes from World War I Ace Eddie Rickenbacker where he said, "Courage is doing what you're afraid to do. There can be no courage unless you're scared."
In this context, every day we are faced with courageous choices and acts. Every time you act upon your gut instincts; every time you listen and follow your heart; every time you choose to do the right thing; you're exhibiting courage.
It takes everyday acts of courage to deal with your life situations, love, family and work.
Maybe you're required to step forward, make a fool of yourself, and lead your team in the Birthday Song for one of your employees.
Maybe you need to tell your kid no about going to the "party of the year" where all of her friends will be going.
Maybe you're the father, who for the first time ever, decides to lead his family in grace over the evening meal.
All of these acts require courage. I realize that they're not "life-and-death" type scenarios, yet there is still an element of fear involved in each. Regardless of the fear level, it's just as important that we put aside the fear and do the right thing.
Don't discount the everyday acts of courage that are required in our lives.
You need courage to hold your family together when they seem to be falling apart.
You need to have courage to not lose heart when met with failure.
You need courage to be a leader.

Richard specializes in leadership and change management. His philosophy of inspiring "everyone to think and act like a leader" is based on timeless natural principles and common sense; and from his positive and humbling experiences as a husband of 20 years, father of four daughters, professional executive, and military pilot.