Why Do We Read Blogs?

Today’s post is going to differ slightly from previous posts. I have spent a great deal of time over the last few days, reading other business and hospitality blogs, making comments, and generally getting involved in the blogging stratosphere. It has been both fun and informative.

However, when making a judgment about a blog and deciding whether or not to bookmark the site, I discovered that my thoughts were heavily related to whether or not I liked the writing style AND whether I liked the person doing the writing.

As I have become more involved in conversation with business blog peers, I have formed definite opinions on whose ideas I trust, who can provide me with useful information, and which writers I think are genuinely decent people. It’s a blog that ticks all three boxes that gets bookmarked, commented on, and reviewed.

Take, for example, The Happy Hotelier…

The Happy Hotelier, also known as Guido J. van den Elshout, operates something between a luxurious B&B and the suite floor of a luxurious hotel called Haagsche Suites (i.e. Suites of The Hague). Guido writes a blog that entertains, informs and guides, whilst driving traffic to his hotel site. He updates his blog regularly, is the CEO of another company, runs the aforementioned hotel, and still had time to reply (within a day) to my comment on his site:

“Hi Emma,
Thank you for coming by.
I know your site.
Wanna know how? because of your comment to the Vibeagent blog shout out to my version of the T-List
As a matter of fact you are researching an area that I’m interested in as well.
As every hotelier knows, finding the right software is always of importance to enhance your business. Go on and enlighten us please.
Greetings!”

I cannot recommend The Happy Hotelier enough, and it is for this reason that I have bookmarked his site and would like to urge others to do the same.

It is also for this reason that I’ve decided to share a little more of myself with you HERE.

I hope by finding out a little more about me you’ll be motivated to read my blog and leave your comments.

Once again, thanks for reading!

Emma

I am still on a search for the best hotel booking system for small to medium sized hotels. If you know of hotel booking software that can beat HotelSystems.co.uk for ease of use and functionality then please contact me on eharradine@hotmail.co.uk

Empowering Employees

In yesterday’s article I touched on the idea that disempowering employees leads to poor customer service and lack of product / price / service flexibility. I have experienced this phenomenon twice today.

My first experience occurred during my daily visit to Costa Coffee in my home city of Nanjing. I ordered my usual Café Latte and requested a glass of cold water. The look on the cashiers face was priceless. “Cold water?” she asked. “Yes”, I replied, “cold water!” “Do you mean a bottle of water?” “No”, I replied, pointing, “I’d like a glass of cold water from your water machine over there”. The cashier huddled in the corner with her manager for a number of minutes before the manager wandered over to confirm that I was in fact requesting a FREE glass of water to accompany my overpriced coffee. The manager, looking very pleased with himself, ordered the cashier to pour me a glass of water and went back to pretending to look busy. During this process, I was extremely tempted to walk out and never return. The cashier wasn’t even allowed to provide a free glass of water without first checking with her manager!

The second occurrence was later this afternoon when conversing with a client and his employees. I gave a thirty minute presentation to the middle management of a medium-sized Nanjing hotel and after the presentation I asked the staff a number of questions to clarify the message I had delivered. Before any employee answered a question, they would first look at their manager for permission to answer and would never do so until they had received the obligatory nod. In a business where I have been hired to consult on CRM issues the General Manager could not understand how this lack of empowerment was hindering the hotel’s relationship with customers.

I found an interesting article by Mike McDaniel on Ezine discussing this exact problem:
http://ezinearticles.com/?Empower-Employees-to-Keep-Customers-Happy&id=1614535

I’d be interested to hear stories from readers related to hotel staff providing poor service due to lack of empowerment. Especially stories related to hotel booking systems and CRM systems.