Hospitality Marketing Podcast Show 241

Hospitality Marketing Podcast 241 Transcripts English (US)

 (Announcer)– Welcome to this week in Hospitality Marketing. The podcast Show number 241 with your host, Loren Gray. Hello, everyone, and welcome to the hospitality marketing podcast. I’m your host, Loren Gray, and this is episode number 241. So each week we spent around 20 to 30 minutes sharing the most interesting tools, news and techniques being used in marketing for the hospitality industry. We also do a quick recap of our weekly live video show this week in Hospitality Marketing, which also airs every Friday at 11:30 a.m. Eastern US time. That is so that lets get started.

(Announcer) — And now today’s new resource tool. So it is no surprise that our entire narrative has shifted towards our Coronavirus, Carona 19 discussion. It is prevalent. It is the black swan of our industry. At this point, the tragedies keep rolling out. Uh, the layoffs and so forth. It is on and on and on, and it is leaked to continue to rehash the numbers and so forth. I have been on nine webinars this past week alone, all volunteering to try to help, as I think a lot of my vendor partners they’re doing is a lot of people from ownership and management.

And what have you are all trying to do is we’re trying to just as we’re watching the bombs drop. You know? What are we what’s happening? What What what What can we do? What can’t we do? What should we do? We’ve had some amazing collaborations going forth. We’ll talk about that in our live show review as Thio, yet again, another landmark live show that we’ve done this week with our attendees but to keeping to the theme of what we’re doing it to be more optimistic about being in the circumstance we are and in the free fall that we are born knowing that as I make this recording that it has yet to get worse and it will.

So I don’t want to keep harboring on Bloom and do news. I want to talk about here now. Realities of things and so forth. I know that we are furloughing a lot, or I say we as an industry, we are furloughing a lot of our talented people immediately, sometimes before we even know that they have passwords to platforms that we don’t even know how to access back into because they’re out the door. And we didn’t realize that we didn’t go through this audit process of this discovery process.

I know from being a the business that I do, that one of the first things we do is audit what platforms all of our clients are represented on. Who has those accesses? And never once not once has it ever been clean and audited, and we’ll hear it all is. And here’s the person. And here it’s locked down, and nobody else that has access to these things should or shouldn’t have access to them. It’s always a mess. Nobody knows who they often find out that they’ll have access anymore.

Somebody did something, and they don’t know how to get into it any war. So all in all, that’s one thing to consider right now that you need to make sure of that before you start letting your town and go out the door, if you haven’t already, is to get from them what it is that they have access to, and then go into that access and clean it up so that it’s not left accessible by those that are no longer under your supervision at this time. To that end, the tool of the week that I want to talk about is actually a plaque home platform called Fleek, which is F l e q dot i Oh, why am I referring to this one in particular?

Well, often times when we were very busy, we often want and wish that we had our protocols written down rs Opie’s Britain down that those that knew what they were doing with platforms and processes and so forth the training aspect of that that they can train the people that need to learn it from them. Now, given the fact that we’re furloughing so many people, all that knowledge, all that understanding, all that Familiarization capability is walking out to your door and you don’t have an eminent replacement to it.

Yes, you have great anticipation that the people that you’ve had to, unfortunately, furlough will be coming back and that you want to bring them back. But we don’t even know what parody. Um, we’re going to be going into at the end of whatever the end of this is and how long this is before we get to that ending our world is fundamentally changed because of this event, good or bad. Whether we agree to it or not, our world will be different than the world that was before it. Justice.

Any of these landmark events, like 9 11 and the financial crisis and so forth are in our culture’s things change from that. But from a fundamental logistics point of view, the ability to train those that need to be trained on what you have is critical. And fleet is one of those things that while you still have access to your staff, hoping that you do still or whether you still want to do that for those that you still have access with, having them transcribed and use this platform to literally create training modules, video and audio and also text and also screen grabs were literally the purity of having your person with a platform usefully can record their click by click instructions as they’re talking through what they’re doing.

This actually transcribes the dictation as they say it, anyone, other languages as well, what they’re doing so that there is a training protocol of form so that if somebody else of unfortunately has to sit in that chair or you yourself, while the in term of that person being gone, you have to do What is that they did. There’s some reference of what it is that they did and how they did it. Why not learn it for the person that knows it best? Now, the caveat to this to understand, too.

And this is what we’ve had in webinars and conversations many times is, uh, when you’re training right now is a good opportunity to go back to your vendors and asked to be retrained on the platforms. They obviously have time on their hands. And, of course, they would have joined to create that increased collaboration with you and Bonnie. But Kaiser, who is a brilliant, brilliant revenue manager strategist who I’ve had the pleasure of speaking with and over 33 cities for ageism as rocket program she referred to training, unfortunately, is turning into our day and age is being Xerox training for those old enough to remember what a Xerox machine was.

We call them copiers, but at the time, Xerox was the manufacturer, so it turned into a verb. Xerox copies. Unfortunately, though, if you use the same original over and over and over. It eventually turned into this very blurry mess. That’s what happens with training. Ah, person lose the original training from the original train or from the product, and even 100% was presented. Maybe 40% was retained. Well, that 40% gets used and so forth and so on. But when that person goes to train the next person or another person, let’s say they’re only using 44% that they remember to train the next person.

That person also has less retention of what they were trained from the first person. So you see the point. Eventually you get a copy of a copy of a copy and turns very blurry. And eventually you may realize you may be frustrated with the software you were frustrated with systems on to realize that you just don’t know all the things the systems were supposed to do. It’s one of the the frustrating aspects of the vendor side of the conversation that they’re sitting there hearing frustrations of losing clients, and they’re wondering why they lose inclines with the product, does what they’re supposed to do.

And yet it’s not been conveyed in a way that they understand. So this is a great time to re learn what it is about your systems that you have to retrain as it were. And what better opportunity while doing that, retraining that you do it and use a platform like Fleek to go over and recorded so that there’s a purity of the training Now. Fortunately, lot of vendors have their own training videos and training guidelines and training sources as well. So this doesn’t fit for all of what I’m saying that they may be better, but then you having to do it yourself.

But when you’re doing internal protocols, things that are unique to your business or your processes or your S O P. Ease your recipes, even for food, beverage, perhaps your operational protocols for banquets on and operations and engineering and engineering maintenance logs and what to do and what’s that sequence of? What’s the Scheduling and housekeeping guidelines and housekeeping training room cleaning room training? All these things could be done while you still have access to your best talent right now to sit down and start putting this together so you have this in a library so that when it comes time to get out of this, which we will and whatever that may be you may need, You may not be able get back everybody that you wanted to get back, You know, lives change for everyone and you might have gaps and who you can get back.

And that gap may include their experience of that particular firsthand knowledge. Here you have a record that you can go and say, OK, I don’t have that person back anymore. But I do have a new candidate for this position. Let me train them the way that what the other person knew that they did with this platform. So Fleek f l e q dot io is the tool off the week now for this week’s hospitality technique. Okay, so our technique conversation is an extension of this whole process off what fleet does in the sense of a coordinated in training?

Uh, so you can have a continuity to understand the use abilities of your products and service is an S. O. P. S. And so forth, but also expansion beyond just using that kind of base platform. This is the time as I mentioned earlier to audit all the platforms that you’re connected to and who’s connected and who has the authorization to those and accumulate the keys as it were, a CZ being a previous GM to hotels and stepping into the door, other than making sure people feel comfortable with the new role you’re playing and what have you and who’s who and who does what.

You begin to go through. An audit protocol of security measures of who has access is to accounting information. How human resource information, logging capabilities that G M’s need to be able to look at at personnel files and, um, legal documents and so forth and also key rings. What keys? Go where? What keys? Open what door? What? Our master keys was the key box. Who has the key box? Who has access to the key bucks? Any GM knows that this is a process of discovery and a lot of times, anytime you didn’t even back when it was hard keys and so forth still is.

Actually, there was always a key that didn’t fit and nobody knew what it was there for, who, Why did why is ah ah staffer having that key to that room that has the safe. And why did they have it? Well, it may have been an accident. They end up getting it because it was a match to another door that, unfortunately, the same. And you know all these things. That’s what audits are good for. That’s what you need to be thinking about now is auditing your off your service is your program, your product?

And I mean this in a lot of sense, is where redo your inventory while you still have the staff on payroll to do it. If you haven’t cut it already, go through the process of understanding what departments had need. Have to access toe What On the technical side, of course, who has access to what software’s why? Who is the creator of certain things? Make sure you have master administrative access is nobody is above the ownership representation of that product. That hotel that will rest, rest or not, should have a better access or a controllable access over the ownership of them, because that is important if the person may turn negative and they can actually disrupt your business by being in control of it, better than you.

So it’s very important that you take advantage of while you still have access is to your team to reach out and make sure that you have that information secondly to. And this goes to the mental health of your team. We’ve brought this up many times of women or is this past week it’s used in persistent conversation. There’s three conversations that are going on right now, conversations to our guests and clients of how we’re being sensitive to their concerns, what we’re doing about that or if we’re closed our communications of what we’d hoped that they remember us four and that we want to keep the communication with them on.

Then we have communications with our team members, the gem oh, population of our team that includes everyone as to being that leader that they hope to be that that they want, that we are honest with them, but also real with them that were helpful in support of them, but realistic about it, knowing that not all of us will survive through this. Not all of us in this in context of what we’re doing now is going to continue on and not over promising things or bearing our heads in the sand, but having those communications with them openly.

And then, of course, there’s the closed doors. Executive team ownership conversations as to the durability of finances, the prioritization of maintaining operations financially, Liquidity vs what costs need to be cut, usually the most predominant, one being payroll? And how would that be? Roll out into what criteria would that be established on those closed door confidence conversations as well? But during that entire process, an audit can happen. One. You should do things as any staging down goes that maybe itself compressed with your inventory so that you have a limited amount of rooms open.

But you can service them with the staff that you still have and never, um, sellable above your service capabilities. Don’t be a high end hotel that low rates themselves because they figured they cut all their staff. You’re going to get the negative reviews. You gonna get the negative consumer sentiment for those who are still engaged with you, and that’s a longer road a ho than anything else. When you start getting negative reviews, that takes a longer time to get out of that hole, that naming financial one that we’re looking at right now.

But take advantage of the talent you had with your engineering teams. Go through a complete systems audit, all furnace and furnaces, all electronics, all plumbing, all everything. Because eventually, given the Dybbuk duration of this ah black swan event, you may be down to just one engineer and those things, they’re not things they’re going to continue on. So having those done as I’ve reset just before you lose the extra hands is a strong one. Housekeeping, full room inventory, furniture fixtures, everything. A complete list of maintenance schedule requirements, minor and large.

Deep cleaning list, deep cleaning schedules. All of that stuff should be done and being done now. Food and beverage. Same information. Same types do things that are going to be a supportive to your team as possible. If you’re having a close to your food and beverage operations due to either the fact that you being quarantined or shut down or just no business available, be supportive of your teams. Maybe rotate them and their families through and through the ability to socially distance them where they can come in and deplete your food stock inventory, so because you’re not going to be refilling it anyway, and it helps augment them.

So these are all taking advantage of the talent while you still have access to them aspects of what we were calling the technique of the week for this week. Now this week’s hospitality news that you should know. Okay, so news and show review our show was epic again last week. Of course, we had Dr Cecil Staton with Who is the president? CEO of Ah Ho of the Asian American Hotel Owners Association and also Mr Robert Give Bob Gilbert, which is the president, CEO of the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association, International agents.

And may I what? We had the pleasure of having them come back again. We have in the first half hour of the show, literally, just for themselves. It’s been a week. It’s been a tragic week. It’s been ah, daily. What’s next week? And so it was a chance to see from their possession position is that they have, in top of the association’s what they see happening and beyond just what forensically but also forward wise. What what is it that they see their association focuses being obviously, Dr System was talking about their hair, every heavy, heavy involvement with the lodging industry in Washington, D. C. Um, advocating what can be done to help us financially with government assistance.

For that, that’s their big focus, their lobbying with that. The advocacy for that, um, Bob Gilbert, of course, was talking about the rebuilding of the training and the honing of skills of those that are in marketing and sales and revenue management that have been furloughed as to keeping them fresh and battle ready so that they will be able to come back into their positions. And when the time is for the industry to try to rebound and be a full form and function for that and be a supportive about educating and helping people aware of what they need to learn and possibly be better at two have become back faster on B, maybe even opportunistic in that way of what they can do better.

So it was a great to hear both of them of once again in solidarity and also in harmony. They are focusing on two completely different things, but for the same girl and gained for industry in general after they include the conversation of the third. About 30 minutes. I did have the pleasure of having Mr Edward ST Onge from Flip to Mr Robert Cole with Rock Cheetah Valen Parini with the Nor one Keep. Mohammed, who is the director Education for or four Alcoa. Tim Peter from Computer Associates. Literally Mark Urman from T. C. R M. Think Up Enterprises.

Stephanie Smith with Cog Will marketing and Adrienne Fontaine and Amy. My apologies. I’ve taught my head totally blanked ist what your company is, but she’s very strongly to be engagement person and very talented. We want to have her on as a guest host. We could feature what she does, which is why I don’t remember it. But we keep having the opportunity to have these two gentlemen on, so we keep deferring that so hopefully we’ll be able to get to that quite soon. Obviously, the entire conversation with Cecil and Bob was about the Corona virus and what’s being done from their associations. Perspective.

Then, when we had the entire group of co host with us, we dove into the of the articles conversation around Airbnb how it’s trying to urge the government to alter the rules for hosting during the Corona virus because, of course, they are being infected. Direly is everyone else’s, and there are certain rules that make it very more challenging for them. So that we talked about that a lot impact of its impact of o t A s. Where will they be the same or different coming out from underneath this?

But they brands and brand types of will be like after all this given of the impact that this has had on our industry, that was most literally that, and it’s wrapped around the entire covert idea. 19 Impact owner industry. We spent well over 22 hours on this, actually, two and 1/2 hours talking about this. So that was our live show, and it always is. Every Friday, 11:30 a.m. Eastern standard time, Um, at next week’s show is that Billy B. I t dot L y ford slash h d m show 242 and we will also have another guest host that week is, well, the article I want to bring in.

As for newsworthy review with one single argue that we didn’t get to really touch on during the live show, but I thought was relevant in its context, not in its content. The statement of the headline of the article was Travel industry slashes ad spending in half amid Corona virus and the article was thin. I’ll be honest with you from a content point of white port view, but I want to bring this article into the dialogue because there are some things that need to be done now, which goes to our technique of the weekend away.

And that is everyone shutting the lights off. They furloughed their sales teams, the marketing team’s revenue management people just that they’re cutting the payrolls well, and they’re also shutting off. Now they’re marketing. That’s like turning off your street. Sign that even if you’re able to do business, you can’t be found in our digital age these days. If you’re not out there, at least for who you are at a life support level, at least then you’re not to be found at all. What Google has sufficiently done is displaced and pushed everything below eight pages and a mobile scroll on mobile is the Internet, as we’ve said before, so you have to get through all the Google dialogue before you get to the first paid aspect of what would be even if they’re looking for your hotel by name.

And then, of course, if you were optimized for organic, which, if you’re letting go your marketing agency for enforcement jury majority reasons, they’re not keeping that up, so you’re gonna lose that ground. But if you did keep up or it’s still the located there, then you below even that. So you’re not gonna be the answer to the person’s question when they’re looking for what you do is that you have. Obviously, there are financial repercussions to This is, well that as any person that handles PPC knows, if you shut off a campaign when you turn it back on, you will have a higher than previous cost per click.

Uh, because Google has to re identify index, as it were, what your ad campaign was. Four. And so they charge you hire until they actually optimized wife should be lower keeping your ad campaigns for the base minimum brand. Just that life support enough clicks enough budget to keep it on and active will by far save you money even If the stretches bye weeks and months, then it would been to have shut it off and then try to go back. And here’s why. When you go back, you’re not the only game in town, everybody.

It’s like the 24 races at sea bring where, when Rourans across or lemons runs across the hop in their car, everybody’s trying to get to the start line. Everybody’s trying to get out to the gate fast and first. And so if you’re hampering yourself by having to be re indexed and paying more for it. And worst of all, yet having not done other marketing to maintain a market presence, your car is not going to start right off the bat, and there’s gonna be others who have already done this and we’ll be doing this.

That will be to the start gate and out and in front when everybody starts looking for places they want to be in your market, so it’s very wise to consider don’t slash. I understand you’re looking that you have to keep your powder dry and gas in the tank to finish the race. You need funds and money, but this is a natural process of some hotels that are too lean won’t come back out of this. Regardless of the government subsidies or whatever happens, they might just be on borrowed time.

Others that have planned in prepped and kept a war chest and kept liquidity and kept smart with all this and keep their marketing on so that they can continually be aware. So if they continue to have business or can get business even if they were shut down temporarily, they’re the ones that, when this happens, will be in a much better position. And by the other hotels that didn’t quite make it. Who’s to say so? That’s the strategy. Variations off cutting your marketing versus not cutting your marketing.

So that’s why I use that as our news for this week. So remember you find us on Google play Apple iTunes I heart radio soundcloud stitchers, Spotify, Pandora tune in just 39 different platforms. Most importantly, which is kind of fun. You can ask Alexa, Google assistant or cirie just simply to play the the hospitality marketing podcast, and it will begin to play the last show, which is this one so far. Number 2 42 So If you like our show, please raid us and leave us comments we’d love to hear and see about this.

We have time to be able to catch up on this stuff now that simply have to be at home all the time. So I hope this becomes a regular part of your keeping up with what’s going on aspect of it. If it’s your first time hearing us, please subscribe to us on the platform that you found us or any of the other platforms that I have mentioned to it. And if you would like to go over and get all the show notes of the articles and links that we are referring to, in addition to links to the live shows and so forth, you can go to hospitality.

Digital marketing dot com, forward slash podcasts. And don’t forget our live video talk show that you conjoining participated every Friday at 11 30 Eastern US time, called This Week in Hospitality Marketing the live show, and that you can simply go to hospitality digital marketing dot com forward slash live There you see links to all 242 shows. That is, we do have a little over six and 1/2 years in 28 countries in over 15,000 Weekly attendee. So we have turned into quite the weather, which is probably why we get to have them. Mr. Bob Gilberts and Dr Cecil Staton’s of the World join us on our show, so we appreciate that so again, Thank you for the privilege of your time and we’ll talk to you all next week.

You have been listening to this week in Hospitality Marketing, the podcast show 241 brought to you by hospitality, digital marketing and support of the HSMAI, the Hospitality Sales and Marketing Association International rights reserved copyright 2020.