South Florida is known around the world for its sun, sand and surf. Those natural attributes are responsible for thousands of jobs, millions of visitors and billions of dollars. But what about service? South Florida may invite the world to come play on its beaches, stay in its hotels and eat in its restaurants, but what kind of hosts are its people?
Julie Grimes gives the overall customer service experience three out of five stars. She is the owner of two hotels in Miami: the Doubletree Hilton and the Hilton Bentley South Beach, where she also is the managing partner.
“Come into this city. Pretend you are a visitor. Go through the experience of getting off the plane to the hotel and then getting to a restaurant or going shopping,” she said. “What happened during that experience? Is it good? Is it bad? My guess is there’s a lot of room for improvement.”
Having a reputation for good customer service and delivering on that reputation is good for business. Research from Harvard Business School in 2011 found a one star increase in customer ratings on Yelp can lead to a five to nine percent increase in revenue. However, the impact was most pronounced for independent restaurants not chains.
Jose Acevedo is on the frontlines of customer service. He is chef concierge at the Seagate Hotel and Spa in Delray Beach. He also founded the Palm Beach Concierge Association. He’s a veteran at customer service.
While technology has given customers a stronger voice thanks to social media and instantaneous online reviews, he finds guests still want validation.
“We provide that last bit of validation.” He explained, “It’s evolving into texting. They want to be on the beach and they want to quickly know the dinner reservation has been confirmed. The expectation of getting that information has jumped up tremendously.”
Karen Wollard says jobs like Acevedo’s, that interact directly with customers, are key. Wollard is the associate director of FIU’s Professional and Continuing Education at the Institute for Hospitality and Tourism Education and Research. “The frontline is the bottom line.”
She said the average price of a hotel room could change by 20 percent based upon online customer reviews.
Wollard and other customer service educators WLRN spoke with quickly mention how the service experience extends well beyond the hospitality industry.
“Service starts with competence. You don’t care how nice someone is if they don’t know what they’re doing, whether that’s the building department, the Transportation Security Administration or the server at the restaurant,” Wollard said.
Associate dean of FIU’s Chaplin School of Hospitality and Tourism Management Mohammed Qureshi, said, “Miami is getting a lot of diverse guests coming in. I think we are not fully ready for some of the people from China, for instance. We don’t have signs in Mandarin and do not understand the culture. There is a lot of room for training.”
Charles McGinnis, director for continuing education and professional development at Miami Dade College, says, “We’re seeing just as much importance placed on that as you have traditionally in hospitality.”
Grimes of the Hilton Bentley South Beach doesn’t want her industry and community to take the current tourism boom for granted. “Yeah, we’re a town people want to come to because it's nice and warm and we have great beaches. But we don’t nurture it. It’s the easiest piece of the economic puzzle that can move to another level.”
