Compliance V Customer
Compliance versus customer: Why we need leadership to reverse the hospitality industry’s Covid customer service crash
I walked into a café recently to have a quick look at what was on their menu because I thought it might be nice to meet a friend there the following day. As I walked in, prominently displayed were two signs reminding people to wear a mask, multiple signs required by government for people to check-in via a QR code, a separate sign informing unvaccinated people they were not permitted (also Government mandated), four printed pages signed by a staff member confirming to the world they had undertaken their COVID Safe checklist … and a very basic sign probably produced using Microsoft Word with large red text which was underlined reminding customers that abusive behaviour was not tolerated by management.
All this, but no menu.
This article is not about COVID-19 Government regulations and their value, I’ll leave that for others to debate. It is, however, about the impact of these regulations on attitudes toward service and the burden it has placed on businesses and their teams, at the expense of something else. The customer experience.
An excuse?
It’s never been such a tough time to work in the industry. The consequence has been an inevitable and noticeable decline in service standards.
Many hospitality businesses are using regulations as an excuse to place the customer second, third or fourth in the hierarchy of what is important to a service business.
But if you consider the consequences of how to make customers feel appreciated and safe, is it such a big break from how top operators ran restaurant, cafes, reception desks and bars before the pandemic?
As a former Executive Housekeeper for an international hotel company as well as someone who worked in kitchens at Hungry Jack’s in their youth (in my mind one of the better practitioners of hygiene and safety I have seen in my career), hazard identification, staff and safety training, handwashing procedures and cleaning processes in this manner are the norm in checklists at luxury hotels to fast food outlets and everyone on between.
The need to lead
Yes, the government has added a significant burden on service teams to enforce regulations, but the bigger problem is that for many businesses it has become ‘all to hard’ and customer needs are becoming de-prioritised.
The answer? Well, there are several elements that businesses will need to address, particularly as we see internal and international borders open and demand increasing. Recruitment processes will need to be enhanced and training regimes re-kitted.
But the most important part of the puzzle is leadership.
Being an advocate for a customer-centric business requires leadership.
Sometimes that leadership requires challenging business norms that have become prevalent during, or in some cases before, the pandemic.
A business returning to customer centricity may require leadership that challenges behaviours of team members. It may require those leaders to coach teams to communicate better than pointing to a sign and better prepare teams for difficult to handle customers, even sometimes abusive ones. After all, those types of customers existed before the pandemic too.
So if you are ready to lead, and to help put the customer back in their rightful place as our main priority, our industry needs you now.
Edmond Power is the principal and founder of Power Hotel People. A boutique executive recruitment and talent management agency for the tourism industry. He has 22 years of experience in hotel operations, marketing, sales and strategic human resources.
Customer centric leaders looking for a role to lead us out of the recovery can contact Edmond Power directly on 0422 362 156 or via
e-mail edmond@devilbend.online