When a guest was checking out at the front desk, he had questions about the room's phone bill and insisted on an explanation from the hotel. If you were the front desk receptionist, how should you han

When a guest was checking out at the front desk, he had questions about the room's phone bill and insisted on an explanation from the hotel. If you were the front desk receptionist, how should you handle it?

To appease the guests, ask the lobby assistant to come (invite the guests to the lobby bar or other quiet place). Pull up the call details and check them with the guests. Explain the basis for charging (mainly the case of additional service fees). After doing this, if the customer is still arguing, one of my bosses told me: If the amount is not particularly large (within tens of dollars), it is better to make a decision immediately and waive it. Because this can ensure the normal working order of the front desk, so as to avoid other guests having a sense of distrust in the hotel (because guests, as consumers, have a sense of sympathy), if this brings potential reputational losses to the hotel, it is really not worth the loss. The last time I read an article titled "Who came up with "The customer is always right"", I really understood the meaning of this famous saying. Who proposed the slogan "The customer is always right"?

The slogan "The customer is always right" was first proposed in 1876 by E.M. Statler, the originator of the American hotel industry. At that time, he was only When I was 13 years old, I was working as a waiter in the only small restaurant in a small town near my hometown. One day, a customer came to the front desk angrily from the restaurant and asked the staff to talk to a waiter about him without knowing the situation. The front desk staff thought he was drunk and not sober, so he said: "I know that person (referring to the restaurant waiter) better than you. To say who is right and wrong, I think he is right. "After hearing this, the guest returned to the room without saying a word, packed his luggage, went through the formalities, and left the hotel. Statler, who witnessed all this with his own eyes, wrote a sentence in the notebook he carried with him. When the hotel manager Mike When Mr. Lehe came over and asked him what he had written, he raised the notebook and asked him to read it. The words "The customer is always right" were written on it.

The manager immediately said. Asked Statler: “Isn’t that unfair of you? You didn't even listen to the restaurant waiter's opinion. Statler replied: "What I mean is that service staff should not argue with guests under any circumstances." He later added: "No matter what, it is always a fact that the restaurant has lost a customer." "

A few days later, the 13-year-old Statler was promoted to night duty, equivalent to a supervisor. Who would have thought that nearly 130 years later, the slogan Statler put forward not only In the hotel industry in the United States, but in all other service industries, not only in the United States but around the world, what is the meaning of the slogan "The customer is always right" has become a code of conduct for service industry workers. ? Common sense tells us that no one can always be right. Anyone who has worked in a hotel also knows that most guests can consciously abide by the law, be reasonable, and pay attention to etiquette. Mixed with sediment. There are inevitably a few not-so-nice people who come to hotels to stay or eat. In our country, guests who try to evade bills, cause trouble, and even bully service staff are often found here. In this case, should we still advocate "the customer is always right"?

Statler's slogan "the customer is always right" does not mean that every complaint made by a guest or Claims are reasonable or correct. In fact, guest complaints or claims are sometimes completely unreasonable. What Statler means is: Meeting the guest's request is what the hotel should do, regardless of the guest's request. It seems so trivial and unimportant.

There is no doubt that the promulgation and implementation of the slogan "The customer is always right" is a burden for hotel staff. , no one likes others to take advantage of the hotel's rules, treat the hotel staff as fools, and take advantage of the hotel.

Because of this, even in the process of Statler's management of the hotel, conflicts occur from time to time. .

Let's listen to the story of the shirt and see how Scott dealt with this kind of contradiction.

On this day, a guest who had stayed at the Statler Hotel in Cleveland for several days handed a shirt to the waiter and told her that the shirt had just been washed in the hotel. , but a hole appeared. He said the hotel's laundry room was responsible for compensation. Later, the housekeeping manager inspected the shirt and found that it was an old shirt; the so-called "holes" were simply that the shirt was too old and all the threads had fallen off in one place. She pointed out the situation to her guests. But the guest didn't listen at all and just demanded compensation from the hotel. She referred questions to assistant manager Eugene Kelly. "His demand for compensation is completely unreasonable," she said. "I will never agree to compensation." Kelly sighed and said, "You give me the shirt. I'll take it to the laundry room." Go and see what they say."

The laundry supervisor only glanced at the shirt and said: "We are not the ones washing this clothes. He washed them outside." "Why are you so stupid? Sure?" Kelly asked. "Do you see the black wooden collar button that holds the collar? We don't use those collar buttons. This shirt is washed at Whiteside Laundry."

A few minutes later, Kelly arrived The office of hotel manager Russell Keith. He put the shirt on his desk and told him the story of the shirt. "Okay!" Keith shouted. "You leave the shirt with me. The old man happens to be here tomorrow. Let's tell him about it and see what he says."

The next morning, Kelly was summoned to the manager's office to see him. Statler. "Just tell Mr. Statler the story of the shirt," the manager said to him.

So Kelly told the shirt story again. Statler listened intently, with no expression on his face. When the story was finished, he said to the manager: "I want you to tell me, how much is your time worth? And Kelly's time, the laundry supervisor's time, the housekeeping manager's time, the room attendant's time? You're afraid Can't say a round number. Well, let's say it's $5. Maybe you think your time is more than $5, right?" At this point, Statler suddenly banged the table. . "In that case, why don't you just comply with the guest's request and make amends. In this way, can't you do what you should do?"

In the Statler Hotel Group, it is not All top managers agreed with his rule that "the customer is always right." They worry that doing so will seriously affect the dividends distributed to shareholders. To this end, Statler instructed Mr. Stone, the chief accountant, to make a statistics and add up all the compensation expenses made according to the customer's requirements for 12 months a year. As a result, the total amount was less than one percent of net profit.

Not only is the total amount of all compensation costs very small, but more importantly, the rule "the customer is always right" brings something to the group's hotels that no amount of money can buy: reputation. Because Statler insisted on high standards of service and adhered to the rule that "the customer is always right," Statler hotels everywhere became tourist attractions. Thousands of travelers travel to Buffalo, St. Louis, Detroit, and New York to have an unforgettable experience at the Statler Hotels there. Many people wrote to Statler to express their praise and gratitude. Emily Post was one of the authors of these letters. Her letters were also published in her newspaper column. She wrote: "We stayed at the Statler Hotel. It was a commercial hotel, but very comfortable and the service was perfect. The food at the Statler was outstanding. I couldn't help but ask where the chef and other chefs were from. Where did it come from? I thought it might be from Henry's Restaurant or Rich Merchant Restaurant or Birla Restaurant in Paris. They told me that the chef is from Chicago and the chef is from New York. The service in the restaurant is also very good and can't compare with ours. After a long wait, the first dish was brought to the table. As soon as one dish was finished, the empty plates were immediately removed.

I have never had chicken casserole that well done even in Paris. Let’s talk about salad. The waiter brought juicy and tender vegetables to the table and expertly made his own salad in a blink of an eye. He can really be called the 'Salad Prince', completely different from ordinary waiters. The latter has rough hands and feet and moves slowly. In their hands, the salad neither looks good nor tastes good, and tastes like chewed wax. "

Afterwards, Statler published the full text of the incident in his hotel group's internal publication "Sales Ethics and Techniques", titled "We are proud of this." Statler has always been Regardless of whether the news is good or bad, Statler always reports the guest's reaction to the entire staff. His employees are not only very proud of the Statler Hotel Group, but also have a family-like loyalty. Here's the secret.