with employees. Te great thing about acknowledging achievements is that you can get a big impact out of simple actions. For example, simply saying,

“Tank you!” to an employee who handled a customer well or tweeting a message about the employee of the week can go a long way.

LUX* Resorts excels at acknowledging employee achievements, says Kaufman.

“Tis group of hotels and resorts located in the Indian Ocean has a STAR Program. Trough the program, each month, one team member from each resort wins and is awarded. Ten, at a companywide gathering at the end of the year, the STARs are honored, and each hotel awards a STAR Team Member of the Year. It is all part of CEO Paul Jones’s firm belief in cultivating an attitude of gratitude.

“In addition to this great program, LUX* Maldives implemented an Instant Recognition Program. When a team member goes above and beyond the call of duty, they have the opportunity to receive a STAR CARD,

which can be redeemed at one of the resort’s shops or cafes. Both programs have been very well received by LUX* employees and have played a role in the hotel group’s ability to rocket to service success in recent years.”

• Educate and inspire them to serve each other. When most companies set out to fix their service issues, they start with customer-facing employees. Big mistake. Te fact is, frontline service people cannot give better service when they themselves aren’t being served internally.

When Kaufman worked with Air Mauritius to kick off its service revolution, they started by addressing the communication problems in its dysfunctional culture, which manifested as bickering, finger- pointing, withholding information, etc.

“First, they had to realize that everyone on staff either directly serves the customer or serves those who serve the customer,” notes Kaufman. “Everyone had to embrace the service improvement mindset — engineering,

ground staff, the technical crew, registration and sales, people at the counters, people at the gate area, people on the aircraft. Tat meant they had to serve each other as well as the customer.”

• Teach them to solicit customer feedback at various points of contact. Asking, “Is there anything we can do better for you the next time?” accomplishes two important objectives. First, you gather valuable ideas. Second, you get the customer thinking about doing repeat business.

“Even if a customer doesn’t have a recommendation, trust that they’ll be glad your employee cared enough to ask,” says Kaufman. “When an employee engages a customer in this way, it’s yet another way to say, ‘We value you. We want to provide you with the best possible service and we would be delighted to serve you again.’ It also shows your customers that you aren’t afraid of improvement. It shows just how dedicated you are to delivering on your promise of uplifting service.”

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