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Transforming business performance by taking an outside-looking-in customer perspective
Graham Perry, Managing Director, BWH Hotel Group Australasia
Graham Perry, Managing Director, BWH Hotel Group Australasia
The bushfires proved to be a particularly good test of our preparedness for what was to come. From the moment the first of our hotels were affected by road closures and threatened by fire, we went into action. The contingency plans we developed for these first hotels were then rolled out across other properties as the crisis broadened. Our response forged a partnership approach with our hotels, proactively going out of our way to assist with communications, sales, marketing, and operational support. We realised quickly that fires (and pandemics) don’t respect borders – and as a result, we had to respond hour by hour, region by region, property by property.
Taking a ‘how can we help’ approach
The bushfires became a dry run for the pandemic. Employing the same philosophy and the need for change, we were always considering ‘how we could help?’. This came to the fore one weekend in late March 2020 when the senior team realised the world had just changed overnight, and we had to adapt and in an instant. We responded proactively, turning everything upside down, questioning how we could add value. Everything became ‘hyper local’ in terms of our sales and marketing efforts, looking for and capturing every conceivable piece of business. We scoured disparate government and industry information to become the definitive one-stop-shop of all Covid-related knowledge for our hotels.
Recognizing the isolation and uncertainty our hotels were facing, we refocused on seeing the situation from their perspective. We proactively offered fee relief to our hotels without waiting to be asked. We rallied our team, creating an account management system to look after the mental health and wellbeing of our hotels. We positioned our business as your local home away from home. We introduced guidelines and policies, such as our We Care Clean hygiene and cleanliness protocols, to help the hotels focus on their customers, the guests, like never before.
Post Covid
Pleasingly all of our hotels have remained open during the pandemic, albeit that many are still essentially in ‘survival’ mode. We have become proficient in the ‘new norm’ by understanding that some of our hotels are doing well, while others are struggling, and we need to continue to monitor and respond accordingly.
The key is not to become too complacent and comfortable in the ‘new norm’ but to continue to analyze and understand how the business is going to best come out of this. As at the end of November 2020, most of the state borders have reopened in Australia, and while domestic travel is re-emerging across Australasia with a vengeance, we need to embrace the fact that change is a constant, and we’re never going to go back to the old norm. This means jettisoning some of the things we used to do but no longer need and adopting some of the initiatives we introduced during this period, which will be beneficial to our hotels and business for the long term. This includes acting locally as well as nationally and globally, applying a new communications approach, continuing the new account management process where we act as business coaches for our hotels, enhancing our revenue management forecasting and optimization excellence etc. As a result, we are coming out of the pandemic fast and refreshed, fitter, stronger, and with even stronger relationships with our hotels. Importance of technology Taking an outside-looking-in customer perspective allows business to keep abreast and be an early adopter of technology and distribution. Many of the companies I have worked for have been pioneers and always quick to embrace technologies. In the 1980’s and 1990’s Utell International was a case in point leading and embracing videotext, computerization, Laserdisc and switch technology and implants. The key is to look at innovation confidently as an opportunity, not a threat - which is simply a delayer and a distraction. I always “Let customers find information and book, what, how, when and where they want”. Let them choose. Arriving in Australia in 1995, I remember many in the industry commenting that “the internet will be the death of travel agents,” which we now know is inherently untrue. There are more now than there were then. By taking the customer view at Ansett owned Travel and we became the largest leisure travel agent group and the first to embrace the Internet, the first to launch Travel and Direct, a 24/7 telephony service, and we embraced Loyalty with Flybuys.Taking an outside-looking-in customer perspective allows business to keep abreast and be an early adopter of technology and distribution
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