They say the shortest way between two people is a smile. Judging by this Oman should be a rather crowded place. I always had the impression that people of Oman smile much more than people of other GCC countries. Hence, the title choice of "Smiles of Oman" for the latest training initiative of the National Hospitality Institute is just great! So is the idea! - a service level improvement campaign underpinned by training modules for customer facing staff, their managers and supervisors.
Although I have not had a chance to see the training materials I hope that the one-day modules manage not only to scratch the surface by offering canned formulas of welcome address and deal with problematic cases, but also providing insights on customer behaviors, emphatic understanding and more. I always have the feeling that there are two main issues causing service problems here: 1) failure (or unwillingness) to understand customers perspective and/or 2) lack of knowledge on what they are selling. Perhaps a third one is response time.
Like any campaign the real benefits should be in the follow up. Not knowing what the plans of NHI are I attempted to put down a few ideas:
Although I have not had a chance to see the training materials I hope that the one-day modules manage not only to scratch the surface by offering canned formulas of welcome address and deal with problematic cases, but also providing insights on customer behaviors, emphatic understanding and more. I always have the feeling that there are two main issues causing service problems here: 1) failure (or unwillingness) to understand customers perspective and/or 2) lack of knowledge on what they are selling. Perhaps a third one is response time.Like any campaign the real benefits should be in the follow up. Not knowing what the plans of NHI are I attempted to put down a few ideas:
- Sell it to consumers: a strong social media component of the program (twitter, facebook) could help selling the certification concept idea to consumers as well. If we -consumers- will not be aware of the service value of the Smiles of Oman tag, I doubt it will be able to offer enough for businesses as a one day training program.
- Incentivise businesses to use it: like most new things people have to be convinced to use it. Coming up with some arrangement with radio/tv and written press to favorably price Smiles of Oman certified ads, might help business in considering the program and some fresh promotion as well.
- Build it into a certification program: this is a bit of a larger bite and requires significant resources but in exchange would ensure long term impact and sustainability. An annual rankings and award system for the service sector would do good for everybody.
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