But allowing the attitude that anything goes can be damaging to your bottom line, especially if you are a small hotel. And it can be confusing for staff. So how do you strike the balance?

Over the next few days I’ll be exploring the options to show we are listening and responding to our guests needs and helping to build loyalty and trust.

Anticipate their needs

Start by identifying customers’ needs in advance. Identify your perfect customer and identify the things that will be important to each category of guest. Put yourself in their shoes or ask them directly what they want from their stay with you.

• Are they business users who need a phone re charger, restaurant or theatre bookings make, access to a printer to print their boarding pass, a quick no frills breakfast before their meeting, or an express check out?
• Do you cater for families, who may want equipment for infants and small children (and staff who look happy to see them!), child friendly menus, and something to entertain the kids?
• Do you cater for a lot of celebrations when people may want birthday cakes, flowers, or gifts? If you know there is a likelihood something will be asked for, build this into your services as a norm, that way it can be planned for and staff can be get the right training to deal with the situation.

For more articles and resources

Consider what other tangible incentives you might give that are of high value to the person making the referral, but don’t cost you the earth. Naturally you’ll want to ensure that the cost of the incentive does not outweigh the life time value of the referral.  But bear in mind what you give as a thank you may also be a way of adding to the life time value of the person making the referral too.

The nature of this incentive will obviously depend on where the referral came from.

For guests they might include such things as a gift, discount off their next meal, a room upgrade, an invitation to an exclusive event. Perhaps team up with one of your joint venture partners; this could be services or maybe branded products. A win–win–win for you, your joint venture partner and the customer.

For corporate users make the incentive something your guest can benefit from personally. It’s little incentive for them if it is something they’d normally put though business expenses. So can you offer something as a thank you which will encourage them to come back on a personal visit and maybe bring their family and friends too?

For suppliers, joint venture partners or other local businesses you may want to look at alternate ways to say thank you. This might be an opportunity to get in front of some of your other customers or guests through promotional activities or hosting joint special events. Talk to them directly to see how you can return the favour. Just by asking the question will in itself show you appreciate the referral.

Encourage your staff too to make referrals. Let them show they are proud of where they work. The reward obviously needs to reflect the value of the business; recommending your restaurant to a friend doesn’t warrant the same level of recognition as inviting a friend or relative for a wedding show round and subsequent wedding booking.

What might appeal to them may be dependent on the profile of your team. A cash bonus might work for some, but is soon forgotten whereas a couple of tickets for a show or concert, or a night in a sister hotel or meal with a JV partner will be far more memorable – and visible to other team members too to encourage the same from them.

Once you have a referral system in place, keep track of where and how you’re getting successful referrals. This will enable you to find out what works and what doesn’t, so you can continue to refine the process.

For more articles and resources http://www.zealcoaching.com/products-resources/

Congratulations you have finished your best year ever process.  Just for a moment consider how much time you have just spent creating the coming year the way you absolutely want it.  My guess is about 1 -2 hours and that is probably 1 – 2 hours more than most people you know have invested in creating the coming year as they want it.

So now it is time for you to take action. You want to make sure it becomes a reality.  Consider with whom you share what you have written.  For many people the best time to discover what your goals are is when they see you achieve them – you know; the cynics who will mock you, and make you doubt your ability to achieve them.  Instead, share your goals only with those who will support you, chivvy you along, encourage you, and congratulate you on your progress.

Remember there will always be uncertainty, the coming year will be as uncertain as last year and every year to come will be.  They will always be uncertainty in our lives.  The secret is to act with certainty in everything you have written down.

Give up the all-or-nothing, only-perfection-will-do approach.

Avoid becoming obsessed. Not many of us have a 100% hit rate so there may be times when you set a goal and you end up making a mistake or your goal doesn’t work. It’s really not the end of the world. At this point you have a choice: you can get all flustered, beat yourself up and go back to wandering about without direction – or you can learn from the experience and move on.

You can’t break a resolution by messing up just once or even several times. Whenever you notice you’ve gone a bit off-course get back on-track by shifting your actions to get you back on course.  Keep it simple: Pay attention. If things aren’t working try something different. Correct your course.

Re-visit your Rules for Success.  From this list, what single thing if you did it regularly would make the most difference in helping you achieve your goals?

What will be your milestones for keeping track of your progress?

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• When you see yourself making progress what will you do to reward yourself?
• What will you do to celebrate your success when you achieve your goal?
• Assuming we all have some way of holding back or sabotaging success, what would be the way you might do this? (For example: procrastination, arrogance, believing it can’t be done, not saying ‘no’, indecisiveness, being too proud to ask for help
• When you notice yourself doing this, what will you now do instead?
• Goals are easier to achieve when you have a support structure in place.  Which support structure will you put in place this week to make these goals fun and easy?
  For example:..Ask colleagues and family for support, and to check on how it’s going
  ..Join up with someone else who has the same goal
  ..Join a club or network group
  ..Find a training programme to give you the skills
  ..Set up a coaching programme with a good coach
  ..Find a mentor to guide you, support you and hold you accountable

Get your hotel business off to a flying start in 2012 with one of my 12 complimentary hotel business focus sessions. Find out more here.

Now think about what you need to do to reach these goals?  For each goal outline resources you need, action you need to take and the support you’ll need.

Now make a list of everything you are going to have to do to achieve your goal No. 1.

• What are the actions?
• Who can help you?
• What resources do you need?
• How will you obtain these?
• What obstacles will you need to overcome?
• How will you resolve these?
• What skills will you require?
• How will you acquire these?
• What sacrifices will you need to make?
• What consistent behaviour will you need to adopt to achieve this goal?
• What actions can you take in the next seven days to get you nearer your goal?
• What action can you take in the next 24 hours to get you started?

Now do something every single day, however small, that gets you nearer to your goal.

See Part 6 tomorrow or access the whole programme online here

Get your hotel business off to a flying start in 2012 with one of my 12 complimentary hotel business focus sessions. Find out more here.

Now the next part of the process is probably the most exciting because this is were you start building your blueprint for the next 12 months.

What do you really want in 2012? What goals really matter?

Lots of people come up with lengthy laundry lists of vague, wishy-washy resolutions with no real oomph in them. Often we don’t even really care about them at all. They’re just fashionable or what we think we “should” care about, or based on what we think other people expect of us.

What do I mean? You know, resolutions like this:

…..I’ll cut our overheads                   
…..I’ll be more focussed
…..I’ll be a better ____ (parent/boss/friend/spouse), etc.
…..I’ll clear our overdraft
…..I’ll do more to bring in new business

Unclear statements like this can NEVER engender any real enthusiasm. As a matter of fact, they’re far more likely to cause you to feel bad rather than good because they all focus on something that’s MISSING rather than on what’s truly desired.

When we focus on something, we are much more likely to get it – whether it’s a car, a financial goal or even a relationship. By sending a message of desire to our brain, we start to make pictures of that and, in turn, we do what we have to do to make it happen. Rather like a builder has an idea of what a project will look like when it’s done or like a hairdresser knows what style they want to create before they start cutting, we can all design the future we want – and then go out to get it.

Unfortunately not all of us are focused on positive outcomes. Many of us are obsessed by what we don’t want, what’s wrong with us and what’s missing from our lives. We often forget to put our attention on what’s great, what’s working and what resources we already have to create even more happiness and success. Because we tend to get what we focus on, if you focus on what’s not working or if you spend all your time wondering why bad things always seem to happen to you, then you’ll simply get more of what you don’t want. What’s the point of that?

Finally, the key thing to consider when you’re setting goals is to clarify why you want something. Chances are if you set goals about things that you need in your life or that will benefit you and others, you’ll feel happy when you achieve: for example, increasing patronage in your restaurant may help your profitability.

But if you set goals just because you think you should or to please other people, you may not feel that great – even when you’ve achieved what you set out to do. For example if increasing patronage in your restaurant just increases your workload, but does little to enhance your bottom line, it’s unlikely to motivate you! You have to ask yourself ‘What’s in it for me?’ and ‘What will happen if I don’t manage to do this?

Whatever goals you set, you have to demand more of yourself to push your performance: and you have to realise that we are all more capable then we think we are. Your ability to achieve is immeasurable – and it can be easier than you think to get what you want.

It is also too easy to set resolutions or goals in some areas which are not then compatible with other areas for life.  For example people often set very ambitious goals for their business, which then conflict with personal goals.  So when setting goals for the coming year it is a good idea to look at all areas of life. Business and career, Personal development, Family, Possessions & things that you want , Spirituality, Relationships or personal relationships, Health and fitness and Financial.  Those aren’t in any particular order of importance and ideally you’ll want to have goals in every single area of life.  Even if you are currently focusing on your business goals for the coming year, at some point you have to be honest and take stock of how well these sit with your goals in other areas.

So now what I want you to do is take some time, (this is probably the lengthiest part of this process) and literally dream; picture and list all the things that you want to achieve in all those areas over the next 12 months.  Most people find this easier to do on paper rather than on a computer; use whichever format works best for you to get the ideas flowing.

At this point don’t worry if your goals are realistic or achievable or not; just brainstorm.  Play with the idea; focus your energy and attention on it until it’s clear and sharp and big enough to be exciting to you, until you feel great just thinking about it. (It doesn’t matter at all what anyone else might think of it.) What are all the things over the next 12 months you want to be, you want to do, that you want to have in all those areas of life.  The being, the doing and having of which would make the coming year the best year ever.

From your list of goals pick your most important goal to work on for now.

The goals that you need to be setting need to be SMART.  You are probably already familiar with the idea of smart goals: Specific, Measurable, Achievable, Realistic, Timebound.  Click here for a more detailed article on SMART goals.  But a couple of areas I would stress are:

That your goals need to be specific. Describe in specific detail exactly what it is that you want to achieve.

They also need to be expressed in the present tense as if now; as if you already had the goal

And each goal needs a precise time: day, date, month and year, and in some cases it might even be a time of day

• Now identify your number 1 goal. What is this?
• When do you want to achieve this by?
• What will you see, hear or feel once you have achieved this goal?
• Why is this goal important to you?
• How will this goal impact others?
• What impact will working on and achieving this goal have on other areas of life?
• If you don’t achieve this goal what would happen?
• Now imagine 6 months have passed, and you’ve done it.  You have achieved your number 1 goal. Write down how you would feel.
• Now repeat this process for goals 2 and 3.
• If you wouldn’t feel wonderful about each of these, then you might like to go and re prioritise.

Get your hotel business off to a flying start in 2012 with one of my 12 complimentary hotel business focus sessions. Find out more here.

See Part 5 tomorrow or access the whole programme online here

Yesterday’s exercise probably wasn’t as pleasant as the previous part of the exercise but that is OK; we can now extract learnings from what you didn’t achieve so that you can ensure you make the next 12 months different.

So we’re now going to identify your ‘Rules for Success’.  What I want you to do is go over all of the things you have achieved over the last 12 months and work out what it was that you did during those times that enabled you to succeed.

By going through the goals that you have achieved and also going through the goals that you didn’t achieve you can put together your personal rules for success, the rules that you know you have already proven that if you follow these rules you succeed.

It is a good idea to keep these rules for success somewhere handy, to keep reminding yourself of them.  Then next time when things aren’t going the way that you want you can refer to your rules of success.  I keep mine pinned above my desk as a constant reminder.

So take some time now to review the previous year and work on your own personal set of rules for success.

What are the rules that if you follow them you succeed?

Then look at the things that you didn’t achieve, what were the rules that you weren’t following that if you had followed them you would have achieved these goals?

• What do you need to start doing?
• What do you need to stop doing?
• What do you need to continue doing?
• What do you need to do more of?
• What do you need to do less of?
• What strengths can you draw on?
• What are your rules for success?
• Where will you put these to act as a constant reminder?

See Part 4 tomorrow or access the whole programme online here

Get your hotel business off to a flying start in 2012 with one of my 12 complimentary hotel business focus sessions. Find out more here.

So, yes, some things fell through the cracks. Take a look at that, too, without the drama

So the next part of the process is to look at the last 12 months and this time look at what you set out to achieve but you haven’t achieved yet.  The goals that you set, but haven’t yet actualised in reality.  And again take some time to make a list of all of these things.

• What are the things that you wanted to be by now but not yet achieved?
• What are the things that you wanted to do, but haven’t done yet?
• What are the things that you wanted to have but haven’t had yet?
• Have you any outstanding unspoken conversations?
• What do you regret or feel guilty about?
• List all the other on-going things that bother you and cause you negative energy – however minor.
• What do you need to do with them: action or let go?  Make a decision one way or the other; how important are these things to you?
• What are the things that need to be done?
• What things do you leave behind you and stop worrying about them?

Get your hotel business off to a flying start in 2012 with one of my 12 complimentary hotel business focus sessions. Find out more here.

See Part 3 tomorrow or access the whole programme online here

This New Year take some time (if you haven’t done so already) to sit alone quietly and reflect on what it is you truly want to be, do, and have in your life and for your business?

This process will take you around 2 hours, so a bit longer than the average throw away resolution made on New Year’s Eve.  But to me it is time well spent.

If you prefer to see things written down rather than on a computer screen then I recommend you record all this in a journal, or a hardback book, where you can revisit your notes. Or to access the online version go here. Either way write it down, as this helps reinforce your ideas.

So find yourself a quiet space and set aside a couple of hours to plan Your Best Year Ever.

Step 1 ~ CELEBRATE SUCCESS

Let’s start by reviewing the past 12 months.

Most of us have a tendency to view the taking stock process as an opportunity to beat ourselves up and find fault with everything we have NOT accomplished.

Well, enough of that.  Start from a place of power.

This year, give yourself some credit for what you have accomplished! Make a list, and don’t fall into the trap of thinking anything is too small to be significant. In one way or another, in one area or another (and likely in many), you’ve come a long, long way.

So let’s start by reviewing your successes and accomplishments

So starting from January all the way up to today make a list of all of the things that you have achieved, all the goals that you achieved, any new skills learnt, and burdens you have dealt with.  It doesn’t matter how big the goal was or what area of life it was in write down every single thing you have achieved no matter how small no matter how big.  Month by month list and categorize every single thing you have achieved in the last 12 months.

Now let’s take a look at what you have written. I bet you have achieved more over the last 12 months than you thought you did. So notice how good it makes you feel when you look at what you have gone out and done.

• What have you achieved?
• What are you most proud of?
• What have you learnt that you didn’t know 12 months ago?
• What new skills have you acquired that you didn’t have this time last year?
• What challenges have you overcome?
• What setbacks have you overcome?
• What setbacks have you overcome?
• What situations will you look back on with a smile, even if at the time it was uncomfortable?
• What have you learnt from these experiences?
• How does it feel to be reminded of all your achievements?

See Part 2 on Monday or access the whole programme online here

Get your hotel business off to a flying start in 2012 with one of my 12 complimentary hotel business focus sessions. Find out more here.

So at the very least, here are some things to do now.

1. Take photos of the bar, restaurant and reception while the decorations and Christmas tree are looking their best – don’t leave it until half the needles have dropped off, or the light bulbs have gone out.
2. Keep an eye out for a clear, frosty morning and get outside with your camera to take some shots of a wintery scene.
3. Take shots from different angles of the restaurant laid up for dinner. Be careful with your lighting and use a tripod for best results. Experiment with and without flash – sometimes it’s better without. ‘Snap shots’ may be OK as small images for your website, but if want to use these bigger images, or for printed material, use a professional photographer to take some quality pictures. And include some pictures of the food. Although this is easier to ‘stage’ at a later date, if you can get some shots now, so much the better.
4. Get some video footage of parties – best when guests have just arrived, and had time to relax with the their first drink, but don’t leave it until the tables are strewn with empty glasses. Always check with guests that they are happy for you to record, and secondly for the footage to appear on your site.
5. Ask people for testimonials that they would be happy for you to use in next year’s marketing.
6. Keep tabs on your costs throughout to ensure your have an accurate picture of your profit margins.  This includes post costing for each event, to take account of wastage.
7. Get feedback from your team, and involve them in the review process by asking for their ideas.
8. Take stock at the end of the season, and learn from your successes and failures to build on this for next year – and make sure you record all this where you can find it easily when it comes to planning next year!

   

Here’s to a very successful and profitable Christmas season

Her talk is going to focus on adding personality into your marketing to get results, so there’s new content that’s not in the Hotel Success Handbook so don’t think Lucy will just be repeating herself!

As a bonus Lucy is also on a panel at the festival too – discussing how to use Social Media to promote your business “Social Media – How do we make it Pay”, so you get the chance to listen to her twice!

And as if Lucy was not enough, local hotelier Mark Cribb from the Urban Beach hotel and Urban Reef Restaurant is also speaking and sharing his business story and experiences of setting up his own hospitality businesses in Bournemouth too.

There are also one or two slightly more high profile speakers than Lucy at the event too – such as Rachel Elnaugh, one of the original Dragons from the Den, Geoff Burch, star of BBC’s Over the Shop, Brad Burton founder of 4N networking and author of Get off Your Arse (a great book), Graham Davies, author of Bare Knuckle Brilliance for Every Presenter, and Guy Clapperton, to name a few… but NONE of them is talking about hotel marketing, so that’s why you need to come and listen to Lucy!

The event is being held at the Executive Business Centre, part of Bournemouth University (coincidentally where Lucy studied for her MBA). Again here’s the link to find out more about the UK Business Book Festival

It will only cost you £10 to come and listen to Lucy (or any other speaker), or £35 for the whole day for all speakers which includes a £10 token to buy a book with.

If you want to come along to the UK’s first Business Book Festival here’s where you can get your ticket

Lucy looks forward to seeing you there!