Context

• A group of luxury hotels decides to train its front line staff (front-desk, housekeeper, waiters, bartenders, concierge and phone reservation) to better handle difficult guests that may turn aggressive.

• The HR department knows that classic trainings in difficult customer management wouldn't match the stakes.

 

Stakes & Goals

• The first goal is to protect staff members by giving them the resources to manage unexpected behaviours from guests, including humiliation or assault.

• The second goal is to bring new value to the relation, transforming the customer into a client.

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Observed Results

The program started on a volunteer basis and spread to a large number of sessions. When a participant was asked about her motivation for enrolment in the program, she answered: "I have three colleagues who participated in this program already: for one of them, I must tell you very frankly, that I didn't see the difference. However with the other two, who could not stand difficult relations with customers and who even had clear tendencies to avoid potentially difficult clients, the transformation was complete. One of the two had accumulated a lot of stress. For her it was like a rebirth and I can see her now having fun and in good spirit in handling the most difficult clients. If such a change is possible in two days, it was a foregone conclusion that I would register. "​

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Merged dynamics (details)

 

Step 1: Modeling

• Through a series of interviews, we have identified different situations that have produced difficult relations (segmentation) and elicited successful and unsuccessful strategies expressed by staff members to handle these situations (models or parts of models)​

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Step 2: Design based on system thinking

• We have designed a program that enables the participants to step out of a double bind expressed as either suffering from being assaulted, or reacting strongly to the client's inappropriate behaviours with the risk of loosing the client, which in the long run could jeopardise their jobs. We have instead  created a virtuous circle by focusing on a positive question: "what is the best service that a luxury hotel can bring to overstressed clients?" and its answer: "To ease their relationship with the staff and to lessen their  potential agressiveness".

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• For this program, we have created a unique mix of training in "mental aikido", profiling, cognitive psychology (stepping in the other person's shoes), communication tools, and value marketing.​

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Step 3 : Facilitation at the crossroads of coaching and training

• A combination between discovery of models, mental training, psycho-somatic experiences and technical practises.

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• The facilitation included specific sequences with a coach on challenging perceptions that could disable some participants from becoming successful in managing their relationship with clients​.