Another great article from a crazy mentor of mine Scott Case. This holds true for both consumers and staff. In my my field of Hospitality - “innovation” is polarized between a) attraction to the new and b) resistance to the unfamiliar. Making guests and staff happy nowadays is constant tug-of-war of the opposing forces of neophilia vs. neophobia. The love for the new vs. the preference of the old.
To quote Scott - the answer is that feedback loops should be a founding principle of every business. They exist to organically feed “innovation”. With an ever-changing landscape, building a culture that obsesses what guests and staff REALLY want - not what we are accustomed to doing in the past - is innovative in itself.
After a few months helping open Santa Monica Proper Hotel, and over a decade relationship with the founders, I am seeing this humility of really trying to listen how we failed the guest more than how much they love us will be their cornerstone. Watch out for this brand - if Scott is right that customer experience is the hill that companies live or die on, and this “shift” produces new and different sets of of winners and losers, than I see Proper Hospitality disrupting the homogeneous bar of luxury and lifestyle hotels.
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