At the Four Seasons Hotel last week in Boston, Stephen Shapiro attended a presentation on how they're innovating in the customer service industry to stay ahead in hotel service. The EVP of Marketing, Barbara Talbot gave the presentation. I've summed up a few parts of his post.
The most important thing at the Four Seasons hotel is the people. Their model of service is: people, product and profit. Four Seasons believes that if they treat the people coming into the business correctly, everything else will follow.
Another key point was that the Four Seasons hotels make their hires according to the attitude of the person, not the experience. They believe all skills can be taught, and it's more important to have the right kind of person. Also interesting to me is that the customers are treated equal to the employees. Four Seasons believes that if you treat your employees well, they will in turn treat the customers the same way.
Four Seasons believes that there is no other hotel that can match the customer service they have. Why? Four Seasons believes that it's so engrained in the entire company, no one can live up to their level.
I think it is amazing that Four Seasons claims that their customers are equal to their employees. How many other service providers claim something like that? What do you think of this innovative service?