To the public eye, it’s business as usual. But we know that, behind the scenes, running a hotel is an incredibly complicated task. With round the clock service and a constant flow of customers coming in and out, the hospitality industry is among the more complex out there.
Not only do you have to provide unparalleled attention to detail, but you need to sustain a perpetuity high level of service that earns and retains customer goodwill. To do that, you need to have a system in place to ensure your team is operating in complete cooperation with each other.
Communication in the workplace is a key element of any business but especially so for hotel staffs. In all likelihood, you have some form of communication tool already in place. But, for the sake of doing our due diligence, let’s review some of the key options out there.
Only then will you be able to truly define the route you’ve chosen and whether this form of workplace communication is making the most of your staff.
What’s in Your Toolbox?
As we’ve alluded, your hotel staff has a wide range of options on the market that could conceivably be applied towards boosting communication amongst your team. Hotel staff communication can be unwieldy if not handled carefully. So let’s take a look at some of the ways in which you can connect your hotel staff.
- Walkie talkies: Easily the most popular communication tool, handheld two-way radios have traditionally been the go-to option for hotels. While they tend to work well for instant communication and ease of use, walkie talkies are fast becoming outdated. The equipment can be bulky, expensive and offer less-than-crisp audio quality that may undermine your message.
- Task management software: For organizational purposes, there’s a lot to love about modern task management tools. Keeping track of your projects and their progress has never been so easy, but before you invest in task management software, consider that you may be sacrificing mobility for precision. But this software may not be available on mobile devices, meaning it won’t be easily accessible to your entire team.
- Phones: A much less formal tool, you might simply turn to your phone system to keep your hotel staff in constant contact. Of course, this may get the job done, but it’s much more difficult to track communications than if your team was all logged in to a single service. Plus, considering how often your team is away from the office, attempting to reach a specific team member over the phone may not be the most efficient approach.
- Email: Much like phones, using email to manage your staff is dependent on key team members being at a desk or otherwise available to reach over a single stationery system. When it comes to hotel team communication solutions, you need a tool that will keep your entire staff a moment’s contact away without requiring your workers to be at a desk or restricted from the everyday course of their duties.
In the above list, we’ve run through some of the most common solutions hotel teams like yours might use, but you may be facing an even more dire scenario.
Perhaps you don’t have a dedicated approach to communication amongst your staff. If this is the case, hopefully, we’ve been able to shed some light on what you should be looking for in a communication tool.
Given your industry, it’s absolutely critical that you address the specific set of needs of your business so that you can maximize your productivity.
The Effect of Effective Communication
Managing a hotel is a role like no other. While businesses should generally focus on the customer experience, hotels like yours live or die by it. Whether your guests are comfortable and feel well taken care of has tremendous ramifications on your long-term success. So that principle needs to inform every decision you make, especially one as pivotal as how your team communicates on a day-to-day basis.
So, now that we’ve outlined popular communication tools, let’s review a few of the key attributes you should ideally be striving for in your hotel team communications. Granted, not all communication options will satisfy these, but it’s important to develop a clear understanding of what you need to accomplish to achieve optimal levels of productivity.
- Reach any team member instantly: There’s a reason why so many hotel staffs still rely on walkie talkies. The ability to contact any or all members of your team at a moment’s notice is easily the most important element of your communication. Of course, you need this capability if an emergency ever arises, but even more than that, you will frequently have to check in on a particular task, inquire about a status update or get a question answered — all scenarios that require an immediate response. Above all else, value instant communication when considering or re-considering your communication.
- Retrieve messages later: As much as instant communication should be prioritized, you’ll inevitably find yourself attempting to reach a team member and discover that he or she is unavailable in the moment. Rather than try fruitlessly again and again to reach them, you should ideally have the option to leave messages for later retrieval. Perhaps the staff member(s) you’re trying to reach is on break, stepped away for a moment or is in the midst of tending to a specific task. If you can leave your message with them, they can get to it as soon as they’re available, and you can get back to work in the meantime.
- Confirm your communication: To ensure that both you and your staff remain in sync, you should be looking for a communication tool that gives you a variety of options to track that your messages have been sent and read. Moreover, you may need the option to submit different kinds of content in order to more effectively get your message across. Versatility goes a long way to establishing a shorthand among your team. Find a tool that streamlines the communication process and provides a number of ways to connect with and verify that your intended message was received and acted upon.
The Best of Your Ability
We cannot overstate the importance of communication in the workplace, and hotel staffs like yours need to be even more aware of the trickle-down effect it can have on your bottom line. With such a sprawling staff serving so many customers at the same time, you need a way to unite your team behind a single mission.
That can only happen when you prioritize effective workplace communication as an integral part of your management style.
However, there’s more to this than simply defining how your hotel staff communicates. You need to be constantly looking for how to improve communication in the workplace. Now that you’ve identified the tool you use to unify your team, the time has come to assess whether this is truly the best option for you.
After all, a simple shift in your communication tools could open up a whole new world of productivity, setting the stage for something greater. Think of the future as you consider the present, and your hotel staff will be that much closer to achieving new heights of success.
