Engage, Don't Just Satisfy: A Blueprint for the "Service-Profit Cycle of Success" in Hospitality - Robyn Pratt, The Phoenicia Malta

Robyn: The brand [I managed for the Starwood], the quality program, which was the mystery auditor program. Looking at measuring quality for the division and per hotel, per region, you start to see correlations between the most successful on a financial level. So what are they doing? What's correlating in the biggest part towards success? And really what stuck out for me was those where you had a strongly engaged, employee engagement was high, guest satisfaction, you had strong guest satisfaction, but at the core of it was, you know, a very proactive GM who really believed in employee engagement and training and focused on consistency. So of course, then when I went and had my own consultancy and developed service culture programs, we really did focus on getting to the core of what can we do, not about, it's not, it is about having happy employees, but it's more about having engaged employees. So they're engaged, and they feel part of the success of the organization. They truly understand their role in bringing that brand culture and vision to life. What does it mean? What does it look like? So I think that I was very fortunate because I had that first-hand experience. And then at 60 years old, I was asked to come back and sort of be a GM. So I said, as long as I can do it in the way that I've learned, we'll achieve success. Honestly, it has been a perfect case study. This hotel is 77 years old. It is a beautiful hotel and a great location, but it's a historic hotel. So with that comes some product where you sort of have smaller rooms. We're not the newest hotel in town, but we certainly a very beautiful hotel.

We have moved the needle on the quality side, and employee engagement has increased quite significantly. And with that, the financial results have improved and it is like a perfect case study. But I want to emphasize that it is authentic. I genuinely care about the employees. It's not done to achieve financial success. To start with, you have to genuinely care. that this is an organization based upon, we care about our people, you know, their values are important and we do care about living them. It is strongly correlated, but honestly, every day I shake my head at the guest feedback that we get about. They cannot believe the guest experience and some of the best they've had, the personalized experience. And they're saying the team seems genuinely happy. They seem like they really genuinely care. They're authentic. And, you know, people comment on, you know, I really, I would come back time and time again. And that's, you know, as you know, guest loyalty is a big factor in success KPIs and it really has happened. And so I, I've seen it from the perspective of looking across a portfolio of hotels, but now having been able to be actually a part of it and see it, it honestly, it does work.

Josiah: Amazing. I'm curious: when you say kind of an engaged staff, is that kind of a metric that you're looking at? Do you have a way to quantify that?

Robyn: Yeah. So we do twice yearly employee engagement surveys, and we use the same type of questions that we would use for our guests. How happy are you to work here? Would you recommend our hotel? to your friends and family to work on that type of question. So we measure just like with guest satisfaction, we measure our NPS, our overall satisfaction. We do that, the same thing here with the employees. And we've been doing that, and the needle is moving up as the two move up together.

Josiah: That's amazing. Do you recall the most recent score?

Robyn: Yes. So it was 9.6 on employee engagement.

Josiah: That's, it's pretty incredible. Are you able to share some of the specific things that you did to turn this around and boost employee engagement?

Robyn: So I think it is about, and I know that you've talked about culture with a lot of people, but it is truly, first of all, obviously it needs to have a great belief from the person who's leading it. But then, you know, it's about engaging the heads of departments and the management. in that way as well, that we are focused on having them accountable for engaging their team in this culture. So creating a strong culture, and I've developed service culture programs for hotels, for other organizations, and you go in and you've developed it, and you've developed the values and the vision and the training, and it's all fantastic. But it's not about just doing a one-day or training or talking to the leadership team. It's about how you live it every single day. and it's about being true to that vision and value and everything that you do, that vision and those values are your lens. So sometimes you might need to walk away from things or a person might be extremely skilled in something if you compare them to the other candidate who is not as skilled but is really going to bring your value of authenticity to life in a much stronger way, particularly when you think about leaders. Because when you get, and I, you know, nothing's perfect. So, you know, we've chosen maybe managers or HODs that seem really great. And you say, yes, it's going to work. But then when they come into this very different organization, their leadership style or their management style, it feels really bad. And people are saying, well, how come that sort of department, it's very different, or they, or those team members don't feel a part of the bigger organization because they don't have that same experience with their direct manager. So I think the first thing I would say is ensuring that you've got your management, your leaders engaged. Then, it is about being consistent and transparent at our monthly orientations. It's about sharing that information. What do our values mean for Phoenicia Malta? We have 32 different nationalities. So what empathy means to me may be very different to them. So it's about really clarifying what empathy mean when you come, and you're a brand ambassador for Phoenicia Malta. versus, you know, maybe where you worked before so that we're all aligned. We also employed an employee, well, just like you have a guest experience person for the guests, we employed an employee wellness manager and she has, I think, been a real linchpin. She's a fantastic person and very caring, but it's really, you got someone focused on the employee initiatives and is there to If there is issues, bring them to the fore. If people don't feel that they can go and speak to somebody else or their manager, they tend to be happy to talk with her. And she's, I think, been a real game changer for us. And then, it's like a virus. You plant that one seed and people start to see it grow and things are flourishing. And you gradually get people buying into what we're doing. And I do believe it's not just saying, oh yes, we've done service culture training. We've done leadership training on how to be a great leader in leading a service culture. You've got to really show people. You've got to walk the talk. And just like in COVID, I was helping to serve the breakfasts or go up and take the sheets off the beds. being part of it. Obviously, I'm not doing it every day, but we get in when we need to, we get in together. And so it's really being authentic. And this is what I found, at least. And of course, I'm in a small hotel, so it's much easier than if you're in one of these great big hotels. But I think that what you can do is bite it off. And as long as you have those HODs, heads of department and the management, who understand the importance and the role of culture and don't just see it as this warm fuzzy thing that head office says we have to do. So we tick the box and do the training, which I also know happens. Then, you know, if you can get people on board with it, it can really make a difference.

Josiah: That's great, Robyn. And I just want to emphasize for our listeners, what you mentioned really got my attention, where you said as you saw your employee engagement scores go up, you saw your guest satisfaction scores go up as well. And I think sometimes we talk about this being a virtuous cycle in hospitality, but I don't always see the numbers attached to it. It's more theoretical. But it sounds like you're just seeing both of these go up, which increases loyalty and I imagine revenue and it's a positive cycle.

Robyn: I know you have circumstances that you're going to be in a situation where it could be harder, but I really do believe in this service profit cycle. And if you can get it right where you've got those strong leaders who are really engaging the employees into your brand vision, you know, it's not just about engaging them or making them happy. It's about helping them to feel part and engaged in what we're doing as a business. And then, in turn, it sort of just happens, the guest satisfaction and you know, then I've just come from what we call this mix and mingle of a month, a weekly invitation to guests to come and talk to the management team. And every week. You know, they, you hear this, like, I just can't believe how happy the staff seem. I just can't. And they know people's names, and they say it's so wonderful to experience how people really seem to want to care about those sorts of things. You hear them, you genuinely hear them. And it really does reinforce to me anyway, that what we're doing in really working on the culture. is bringing us the benefits. And yes, you have, during those tough times, you've got to do what we've learned in, you know, normal businesses. You've got to pull in the reins. You've got to focus on, you know, doing things hard and you've got challenging times. But when you've got that strong engagement from the steward up to the hotel management, and there are tough times, it's so much easier to bring people together and say, Hey guys, we need to really focus on working, you know, maybe being a bit flexible here and doing things a bit different, but you will always find, I think it much easier if you have that strong level of engagement.

Josiah: When it's interesting, maybe it's not an either or situation where you focus on happiness or engagement. I'm just, I'm curious on your perspective, but I feel like I'm thinking about my own life and kind of career and work. It does feel in my work life, the moments when I've been most engaged or aligned with the mission of the organization and the people that I'm working with, I ended up being happiest too. So it's sort of a side benefit, but it's by focusing on the engagement first leads to happiness. Is that been your experience?

Robyn: I would agree with that. I mean, obviously you want your team to be happy, but they can be happy and not engaged in what you're doing as well. So I think it's exactly what you just said. If they feel like they are your part of what's happening, then I think it's that level of happiness comes around. I'm happy to go to work in the morning.