19 Ways To Empower Employees

Source: www.TurfMagazine.com

For any business (and this is certainly true in the landscape industry), it’s the frontline employees who clients see most often. A good interaction or a bad experience with your employees can instantly create an overall impression of your company, so it’s essential to carefully select and train employees, says Alex Pratt, director of human resources at the renowned Omni Parker House in Boston. After that, empower those employees to create happy customers.

Omni Hotels & Resorts gives its employees a list of ways they can create memorable stays for guests. The Power of One concept is introduced to new Omni Parker House employees immediately at orientation.

The thinking is that “one extra gesture, one kind interaction, one example of going that extra mile to help someone with something he or she needs — all these and more are small events that can add up to a profound change in perception and experience.”

Here is the list Omni gives its employees as ways it can ensure guests feel comfortable and appreciated:

  1. Think! Use common sense.
  2. Know and satisfy our customers’ expectations.
  3. Greet customers immediately with our undivided attention.
  4. Smile and make eye contact.
  5. Make the first and last 30 seconds count. Ask our external customers about their stay and invite them back.
  6. Be natural and appropriately friendly.
  7. Use our customers’ names whenever possible.
  8. Promptly answer telephones with a “smile” in our voice.
  9. Determine the needs and wishes of our customers and make decisions that benefit them. Bend the rules sometimes.
  10. Take ownership of our customers’ needs and wishes and personally follow through on their complaints.
  11. Escort customers whenever possible.
  12. Stay up! Be energetic! Take good care of ourselves!
  13. Wear our uniforms and name tags in an immaculate manner.
  14. Take personal responsibility for cleanliness and safety.
  15. Be ambassadors for our hotel and promote it enthusiastically.
  16. Be a team player.
  17. Protect and maintain all hotel assets and equipment — we all earn a living here.
  18. Always remember that we are hospitality professionals.
  19. Always maintain your smile even though your customer may not.

Read more: Empowering Employees: The Power Of One

Editor’s note: This article was originally published in December 2015.