2016 trends guest experience BY: MICHAEL SCHUBACH GUEST EXPERIENCE Recent bad customer service behavior in the airline industry should have us asking, is this the new normal for guest experience? CONTINUE UNTIL BEATINGS WILL MORALE IMPROVES We are still here to surprise and delight... According to my Uber ratings, I am one seriously talented passenger. I’ll be honest with you and begrudgingly admit that my Uber drivers probably like me because I have a tendency to over tip, but I like to think that my excellent score is the result of my unfailing charm and my willingness to engage with my service provider. Actually, I’ll be even more honest with you – charm aside, I’m not just willing to engage my driver in conversation – I’m obsessed by the opportunity. Ask and ye shall hear some of the most amazing stories. On my last Uber ride, my driver’s day job was a circus acrobat. He was a graduate of a circus college in his native Cuba, and went on to marry a high-wire aerialist whom he met at work. I discovered that he is in the process of making a transition from Ringling Brothers, which announced earlier this year that it is closing down operations after more than 100 years in the circus business. Say what you will about making our economy great again, but an entire industry and an American icon are disappearing from the modern landscape, and I got an insider’s story from the back seat of my ride to the airport. I was surprised and delighted. What does all of that have to do with the hospitality industry? It’s that my highly rated, very effective and sin-cerely appreciated interaction is the essence of what people in our business call a “personalized guest experience.” It’s something we hotel folk think we’re good at – or that we certainly aspire to be good at, if you were to gauge the situation by the amount of conversation we devote to the subject. It was from hoteliers that I first heard the phrase “surprise and delight” applied to guest service. It was meant to describe a method of doing business that would make every hotel stay extraordinary. It was guest recogni-tion. It was the empowerment of the front line of a ho-tel staff to personalize experiences so that guests were never treated as faceless commodities. It was building loyalty through outstanding service, and in so doing, making word-of-mouth our best source of marketing. It was strength through knowledge, and knowledge through the presentation of meaningful data. So after decades of discussion and millions of terabytes of big data, I am asking the same questions that I used to ask when I was a less popular passenger – a kid trapped in the back seat of the car on a family vacation: “Are we there yet? Ah geez, are we ever gonna get there?” I look at the state of service in America, as well as the trends in our industry and economy, and I have the terrible feeling that I already know the answer. But I am essentially the same person today as I was then. I refuse to sit quietly and shut up about it. Let me defend my sneaking suspicions. I am writing these words in the wake of a congressional investigation into the appalling service discrepancies in the airline industry, as witnessed by approximately the entire world population, courtesy of smartphone cameras, YouTube and the evening news. It’s amazing, isn’t it? Despite rising fuel costs, IATA reports that this year the airline industry will return net profits of $29.8 billion. With record profits and through-the-roof ridership, was there ever a better year for excellent customer service? Hmmm...let me think. 34 Summer 2017 HOSPITALITY UPGRADE www.hospitalityupgrade.com