Customer experience - The arrow you need to hit the mark

We operate in an environment that is booming with an influx of travellers and hospitality brands alike. It is essential for growing hospitality brands to understand that the key to their success lies not in their product but their service.
It is the experience that the customer remembers and appreciates, not the furniture, for example. One must try to think like a traveller and when they do that, they'll see that where a traveller stays forms a considerable part of their trip. It is during this stay that they often unwind. This is where your service will be essential to determining their overall customer experience.
A brand must be acutely aware of this crucial ingredient to providing them with an experience they'll remember. It is the service and hospitality of a brand that will linger long after the stay has been concluded.
Customer experience is all about creating a luxury for the senses; it is all about how good and welcome you make your guest feel. It is the intangible that is offered with your tangible hospitality that leaves the customer happy, thus making them a raving fan of your brand. Customer experience means delivering what you promised, and excellent customer experience means exceeding what you promised. Often, the difference between branded and non-branded is the emphasis they put on providing not just satisfying, but a 'wow' experience to their guests.
The hospitality industry is replete with both seasoned and young brands trying to make their mark. In the sea of options, where the physicality of the establishments bears little or no distinction, it can be an arduous task to capture the intended audience. A wow experience can be the arrow you need in your quiver to hit the mark. By providing unmatched quality in hospitality, you can create a distinct position for your brand in the market.
Hospitality is about being hospitable, not robotically desirable. Even despite the highest quality of guidelines in place for conduct, it is the personal touch that you are able to add to your customer's experience that takes the cake. The way you train your staff is the way they will treat your customers; and if you want your customers to feel a sense of attachment towards your brand, you'll have to give them experiences to attach their emotions to.
Don't train your staff to be uniformly cordial to customers in the 'tried and tested' robotic manner. Train them to serve their customers as per their individual needs with affectionate hospitality, and you will see a sweet result of that in the form of the satisfaction that your customers leave with and a genuine desire to come back. That is the ultimate goal of offering a great hospitality experience.
Another great way to enhance your customer experience is to localise it; give your guests an experience of the best kind of hospitality there is in the culture of the region where the hotel is located. Every region has a culture of its own and every culture has its unique way of treating their guests in a special manner. Hospitality brands can take inspiration from these traditions and weave it into the customer experience they offer to their guests.
It will prove to be an interesting and enriching experience for their guests, leaving them with a good memory and it will help your brand be remembered as a unique one. This will also help enhance the image of your region and attract more guests to your hotel. The kind of brand recall value that is created by providing fulfilling experiences to guests is truly solid and lasts awhile.
Moreover, the UAE as a region itself is quite rich in culture and traditions. To be able to imbibe the local hospitality traditions into an elegant customer experience will add an invaluable intangible factor to the 'Made in UAE' tag. It is not just the numerous physical inputs that are readily available in the UAE, it is the innumerable qualitative inputs that help us enhance our service as well.
The writer is general manager, Leva Hotel Apartments. Views expressed are his own and do not reflect the newspaper's policy.