"Connecting the Dots..."
The history of Calbert Group goes back three years. Its founder became fascinated by the service features of mom-and-pop operations.
The degree of personalized service and resulting loyalty bonds appeared as though it could be transferred to hotels and resorts.
Everyone loves extras in the way of reliable personalized services.
The only thing standing between the B&B's extraordinary, one-on-one personalized services and the resorts, was elimination of access problems. Contacting B&B's to make reservations meant you were talking to the owner. They would personally offer the extra assistance in booking, in tailoring your stay, in making reservations at nearby restaurants, or tours, or sports and recreation.
How could this VIP personalized service be transferred to hotels.
The founder, formerly a "Top 100" franchiser, became interested in the methodology of bringing this to fruition. The first discovery is that the hotel personnel would like to deliver these kinds of services. Being cordial, friendly and helpful by nature, the only thing preventing them from doing so was access and authority.
Frequently, each service person is stranded in one or another department. Therefore, their range of visibility and access is quite limited. They can get on a phone and try and help a guest find answers. But, all too often the guest, as with dealing with any large, multi-faceted organization, ends up in a circular maze.
The result is anything but "personalized service."
This is when Calbert Group's founder hit upon the missing link. If only hotel guests could preview all available options - rooms, facilities, restaurants, menus, recreational opportunities, etc. - they could be allowed to book these themselves. Even before they come to their destination hotel/resort, they could view all of this online on their computer screen. It could even be made transparent that "they were not yet there."
So, utilizing state-of-the-art 3D interactive images, Calbert Group created websites that, first, made the entire property "visible" with nothing held back. This would eliminate Guests "passing" on a seemingly fine hotel/resort just for lack of sufficient "visual information".
Secondly, the Guest online would need to be able to navigate through the facilities.
Thirdly, since rooms availabilities, golf tee-time availability, restaurant seatings, tours and other elective activities might not be available the dates they planned to be there, Guests would need to check this online. Reasonably, they would need to do ALL of this before they could comfortably and confidently "book online". Travel agencies, too, as helpful as the agents want to be with their customers, may not always have reliable, up-to-date information the Guest requires. And which business person, family or vacationer wants to "risk it all" to anyone who does not have first-hand information to availabilities, and the authority to give confirmations.
Back to our B&B owner. They can do all of these functions which is why the experience is so personable.
Boiling it all down, Calbert Group's founder found the process was really a challenge of "connecting the dots".
Hospitality 101 - The Reservation Center / VIP PersonalSecretarial Service, and / StayConnected Databases and administrative interfaces, collectively does all of these things. Sometimes, B&B owners even become busy, or distracted and sometimes cannot carry through on their "personalized service" and reliable follow-up.
By systematizing and automating the Guest's decision-making process, hotel-resort's new ResCenter-OnlineDirect and StayConnected programs would make it possible for Guests, and hotel-resort personnel, to always be able to "connect the dots".
This was the first step in overcoming a major Hospitality hurdle - how to deliver the same real-time, reliable information required by Guests to plan their stay. After all, business-conducting efficiency and vacations, too, require precision in scheduling with confidence.
Hospitality 101 - Simple to the end-user, and always working and available in the background HP101 was the answer. Here was a solution for an over-arching need - and the solution was as simple as routinely and promptly "connecting-the-dots" as children do.
See VIP PowerPoints - The next step in making a Guest's stay as rewarding as it could possibly be. (Read about how your hotel-resort can offer the same Bonus Points' benefits of large hotel chains.)
