A Big RWC Wake up Call.......

We are a long way off ready to deliver our Rugby World Cup guests a quality hospitality experience if my recent two night stay at one of Auckland’s Qualmark four star rated hotels the Crowne Plaza is anything to go by.

Long waits for room service meals, wrong meals delivered, newspapers being dropped from great heights at your door at 4am guaranteeing to wake all but the very sound sleeper and poor dress presentation standards by front desk staff.

It is clear that if this is the standard in supposedly quiet times I can only imagine the lack of performance that will greet our rugby fans when the hotel is full.

Why have we not been addressing this poor performance in the four years we have had since winning the right to host the Rugby World Cup asks Chris Bell Managing Director Customer Experiences Ltd an organisation that specialises in the development of high quality customer experiences.

When Bell brought this to the notice of hotel management, all he got was “that shouldn’t have happened”. It was clear from those comments that very little would be done about the performance, so Bell is issuing a warning to Rugby World Cup guests. If you are paying premium prices for your accommodation at this hotel please don’t expect premium service. According to Bell guests will be bitterly disappointed.

The tourism industry is a long way off delivering on its 2015 tourism strategy goal of “delivering a world class experience”. Its time for the industry to wake up and understand that the world has changed. If the market is going to grow it will come from visitors from the likes of China and other Asian countries. These visitors have very high expectations regarding areas like service and if those expectations are not at least met you can be certain others will hear about it.

Chris Bell is managing director of Customer Experiences, a company that specialises in helping businesses improve the way in which they interact with customers and clients. – chris@customerexperiences.co.nz; www.customerexperiences.co.nz