[lang_en]Our Danish Action Learning set of 18 hospitality managers have been working hard this winter on the second of six moduels that focus on the art of Service Management. The course is based on our GROW model and has been accredited by the University of Chester.
Value for the customer
The focus of this second module is strategy or how to create value for your customer. Our starting point is the value equation adapted from the ”Service Profit Chain:
Working from this value equation we have spent quite some time exploring two main issues. The first issue is the ”R” – or result – that guests are looking for. Do purchasers of a Black and Decker drill purchase a hand held high speed electric motor devise or are they in the market for a hole. In the same way we must ask the question in the hospitality industry: What are our guests really looking for when we sell the them a room for the night, a management conference package or a wedding banquet?
In the industry jargon we use terms like pax and covers to refer to our guest – etiquettes that would be more appropriate where we describing a flock of sheep all heading for the watering hole.
Loyalty is the key – creating a memorable experience
If the aim is repeat businesses – loyalty – we need to understand what guest are really looking for. What does value mean to them – that is the first step. The second issue is the ”P” – the processes – that we use to deliver that result to the guest. This is where the experience comes in. If we only think in general service terms we are in response mode. Response mode means that we make sure that guests get what they ask for – and we call it good service. But when we invite people home for diner or even a weekend – we don’t give them good service do we? We try and anticipate their needs, we think through who they are and what they might enjoy, and we look to see how we can create an experience for them. And that experience will nearly always have a huge emotional component – we make a connection – and that connection is what creates the memorable experience.
Guest speaker Søren Würtz from Rambøll Management
As part of the Service Management program we invite guest presenters, this time we had the pleasure of welcoming Søren Würtzt from Rambøll Management: Center for Experience Economy. Søren presented his personal invovative approach to the subject by emphasizing that:
“The service profit chain is a great tool for understanding how to create value from at customer experience perspective. This means not just understanding the client from at psychological perspective but also from the sociological perspective. One way to do this is to think of customers and our selves as belonging to tribes. What are our rituals, what are their rituals and how can we make connections. Sørens main point is that loyalty arises if what we offer is meaningful (valuable) to them in their tribal context”.
So in order to understand what it feels like to part of a tribe – with ritual visual indicators – we decided to create a tribe and perform a raindance.
Sørens point was well made – the rain came pouring down and we had a great after noon. A big thank you to Søren Wurtz from Rambøl.
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På diplomlederkurset er vi nået halvvejs i modul II, der omhandler strategi. I vores terminologi er strategi lig med at skabe værdi for kunden. Det teoretiske udgangspunkt er værdibrøken fra teorien om Service Profit Chain:
Oplevelsen består i at skabe en emotionel forbindelse til kunden
Der er skrevet rigtig meget om oplevelser og oplevelsesøkonomi, og der er rigtig mange, der har den opfattelse, at det har noget at gøre med at lave flotte marmorgulve i shoppingcentre. Det er ikke helt vores opfattelse. Vi tror meget mere på, at oplevelser har noget at gøre med at skabe en emotionel forbindelse til vore gæster. Det vil sige, alt det mekaniske: Flotte gulve, 42 tommers fladskærme osv., er komponenter, som er med til at skabe basal kundetilfredshed. Men er målet at skabe loyalitet, skal vi langt forbi kundetilfredshed og op i noget, der hedder begejstring.
Gæstetaler Søren Würtz fra Rambøll Management
Derfor havde vi bedt Søren Würtz fra Rambøll Management’s center for oplevelsesøkonomi til at komme og give os sit bud på, hvad oplevelsesøkonomi er for en størrelse. Det blev en meget spændende eftermiddag, som Søren selv opsummerer som følger:
“1. Service profit Chain er et fantastisk redskab til at forstå værdiskabelse fra et modtagerperspektiv. Dette modtagerperspektiv bør tages alvorligt, og for at gøre det, må vi forstå modtagerne som indlejrede i sociale kontekster. Vi må med andre ord have en sociologisk forståelse og ikke alene en psykologisk forståelse af vores værdiskabelse (og derfor ikke som udgangspunkt tale om behov).
2. Stammerne er én model til at forstå de sociale kontekster, som vores kunder, medarbejdere og virksomheden befinder sig i. Hvis man tænker stammer som fundament for den sociale dynamik i oplevelsessamfundet, når man således frem til en række frugtbare resultater, der i forlængelse af Service Profit chain giver:
A. Et ledelsesaspekt: Sørg for at stammens dynamik fungerer
B. Et kunde- og loyalitetsredskab.”
Loyalitet og stammefællesskaber
Og her tror jeg at vi kommer til det, der er det nye i min egen præsentation. Loyalitetsbegrebet er, som konsekvens af den nye sociale dynamik, totalt omdefineret i forhold til traditionelle teorier. Mennesker er kun loyale, hvis der skabes værdi for dem i deres egne stammer. Mere tydeligt kan det nok ikke siges. Det betyder, at hvis vi vil skabe kunderelationer, der er så stærke, at kunderne anbefaler virksomheden frem for en anden, skal vi servicere deres følelser i stammerne frem for at servicere et behovsdrevet forbrug.
Og da vi arbejder med Action Learning, interaktivitet og aha-oplevelser, var der vel ikke andet for end at skabe oplevelse af et stammefællesskab.
Sluresultatet kan du opleve på denne lille video:
Stor tak til Søren Würtz for en spændende dag![/lang_da]