Transforming business performance by taking an outside-looking-in customer perspective

By Graham Perry, Managing Director, BWH Hotel Group Australasia

Graham Perry, Managing Director, BWH Hotel Group Australasia

A personal philosophy that has served me well throughout my career is to always maintain an ‘outside-looking-in’ customer perspective. This enables a business to keep up with and respond to the ever-changing customer needs.

This has acted as a guiding light and a reminder to constantly look externally and not fall into the trap of always working ‘in’ rather than ‘on’ the business.

The past 12 months have forced us all to focus more than ever on our customers. In Australia, we first faced devastating drought and bushfires and then flooded before heading into the pandemic.

The bushfires proved to be a particularly good test of our preparedness for what was to come. From the moment the first of our hotels were affected by road closures and threatened by fire, we went into action. The contingency plans we developed for these first hotels were then rolled out across other properties as the crisis broadened. Our response forged a partnership approach with our hotels, proactively going out of our way to assist with communications, sales, marketing, and operational support. We realised quickly that fires (and pandemics) don’t respect borders – and as a result, we had to respond hour by hour, region by region, property by property.

Taking a ‘how can we help’ approach

The bushfires became a dry run for the pandemic. Employing the same philosophy and the need for change, we were always considering ‘how we could help?’. This came to the fore one weekend in late March 2020 when the senior team realised the world had just changed overnight, and we had to adapt and in an instant. We responded proactively, turning everything upside down, questioning how we could add value. Everything became ‘hyper local’ in terms of our sales and marketing efforts, looking for and capturing every conceivable piece of business. We scoured disparate government and industry information to become the definitive one-stop-shop of all Covid-related knowledge for our hotels.

Recognizing the isolation and uncertainty our hotels were facing, we refocused on seeing the situation from their perspective. We proactively offered fee relief to our hotels without waiting to be asked. We rallied our team, creating an account management system to look after the mental health and wellbeing of our hotels. We positioned our business as your local home away from home. We introduced guidelines and policies, such as our We Care Clean hygiene and cleanliness protocols, to help the hotels focus on their customers, the guests, like never before.

Post Covid

Pleasingly all of our hotels have remained open during the pandemic, albeit that many are still essentially in ‘survival’ mode. We have become proficient in the ‘new norm’ by understanding that some of our hotels are doing well, while others are struggling, and we need to continue to monitor and respond accordingly.

Taking an outside-looking-in customer perspective allows business to keep abreast and be an early adopter of technology and distribution

The key is not to become too complacent and comfortable in the ‘new norm’ but to continue to analyze and understand how the business is going to best come out of this. As at the end of November 2020, most of the state borders have reopened in Australia, and while domestic travel is re-emerging across Australasia with a vengeance, we need to embrace the fact that change is a constant, and we’re never going to go back to the old norm. This means jettisoning some of the things we used to do but no longer need and adopting some of the initiatives we introduced during this period, which will be beneficial to our hotels and business for the long term. This includes acting locally as well as nationally and globally, applying a new communications approach, continuing the new account management process where we act as business coaches for our hotels, enhancing our revenue management forecasting and optimization excellence etc.

As a result, we are coming out of the pandemic fast and refreshed, fitter, stronger, and with even stronger relationships with our hotels.

Importance of technology

Taking an outside-looking-in customer perspective allows business to keep abreast and be an early adopter of technology and distribution. Many of the companies I have worked for have been pioneers and always quick to embrace technologies. In the 1980’s and 1990’s Utell International was a case in point leading and embracing videotext, computerization, Laserdisc and switch technology and implants.

The key is to look at innovation confidently as an opportunity, not a threat - which is simply a delayer and a distraction. I always “Let customers find information and book, what, how, when and where they want”. Let them choose.

Arriving in Australia in 1995, I remember many in the industry commenting that “the internet will be the death of travel agents,” which we now know is inherently untrue. There are more now than there were then. By taking the customer view at Ansett owned Travel and we became the largest leisure travel agent group and the first to embrace the Internet, the first to launch Travel and Direct, a 24/7 telephony service, and we embraced Loyalty with Flybuys.

It is critical to be able to predict both customer and technology trends and to work out which component is leading and which is following whilst recognizing that this relationship can switch and change in an instant and never more so than when we are faced with global catastrophes. This is where innovators can change the landscape and disrupt.

Artificial Intelligence

Artificial Intelligence is the next step. It has been here for a while, albeit with slow take-up.

Post Covid, there will be a greater take-up of the related technologies by the hospitality industry turbocharged by their need to provide customers with a safe and secure, touchless environment, with contactless check-in and keyless entry - and essentially using mobile to facilitate flexible and relevant customer engagement. This can include the provision of personalized content, a virtual concierge, selling ancillary experiences, enabling guests to check-in (and check out) prior to arrival and receive welcome notices and upgrades to better rooms.

The hotel groups that embrace AI and personalized content can take a big leap forward. We may see the emergence of hotels allowing their most loyal customers to find information and book how, what, when, and where they want by harnessing the power of AI with personalisation. The hotel industry has tens of millions of loyal members at its disposal. Who knows – as well as driving repeat business to their own branded hotels AI and personalisation could facilitate the emergence of global (H)OTA’s allowing loyal customers to book other hotels, airlines, wholesalers, car rentals, and local itineraries in the vicinity of the destinations they visit and the hotels they stay in – be it local restaurants, events, and tourism attractions.

The technology to achieve this is here now and particularly for those who allow their CTO’s to maintain an outside looking in customer perspective for their business. This can lead to disruption and exponential growth, and even greater loyalty and profits – which at the end of the day is what driving a Direct business is all about.