Front-office staff bloom at Red Carnation

Citation

(2010), "Front-office staff bloom at Red Carnation", Industrial and Commercial Training, Vol. 42 No. 5. https://doi.org/10.1108/ict.2010.03742eab.004

Front-office staff bloom at Red Carnation

Article Type: Notes and news From: Industrial and Commercial Training, Volume 42, Issue 5

Training helped a small hotel group to improve the quality of service offered by its front-office staff.

Red Carnation Hotels operates 14 luxury hotels in the UK, USA, Switzerland and South Africa. The hotels were renovated in 2005, bringing them into line with leading five-star hotels, but the service offered by front-office staff often fell short.

The front-office teams were made up of 60 percent new starters who lacked product knowledge and confidence with office systems. They had little sales ability. Criticism of them on the TripAdvisor web site ranged from mild to damning.

Red Carnation’s departmental trainers were struggling to bring the front-office staff up to the general standards of the hotels. The company’s solution was to create a new role, front-office trainer, to manage a new training course dubbed the Cifo (comprehensive in-depth front office) program.

Lessons took place in a specially equipped training room in a 1:3 ratio, so questions and queries could be dealt with quickly and individually. Initially it lasted for four days, but within three months an extra day was added to deal with the subject of up-selling.

The front-office trainer invited managers to special launch days for the course to keep them informed. Anyone who missed the courses had access to lesson notes and could book a follow-up session.

The first results began to emerge a year after the training began. Red Carnation increased its revenue by 153 percent over 12 months. The following year, despite a faltering economy, revenue dropped by only 20 percent.

The training program, including the front-office trainer’s salary, cost £73,380, while Red Carnation gained £223,400 from up-selling alone.

The program is still growing, with additional sessions on reservation standards and revenue courses that teach managers how to encourage their teams to sell. The seven courses now offered by the Cifo program have been endorsed by the Institute of Leadership and Management.

Direct bookings increased by an average of 40 percent between 2005 and 2009, and despite the recession the chain is running with occupancies in its four-star properties of around 80 percent.

Comments from guests have improved dramatically, and descriptions of the staff on TripAdvisor now include “wonderful”, “helpful”, “friendly”, “happy to help” and “amazing”.

The training won the “Excellence Through People” prize at the Hotel Reservation Service awards, and a “large employer” prize in the latest National Training Awards.

“I feel this is truly the year that Cifo has matured into a program of great significance for Red Carnation Hotels,” said the company’s HR director, Liz McGivern. “As a small company, we are without the resources of the industry giants. However, we quietly and successfully make our way in the business world and are still increasing our market share, when those around us are dropping rates and coping with falling occupancy.”

Meanwhile, Sussex-based Wave Leisure has invested in customer-care training for its front-line staff to offer world-class service to customers.

Wave Leisure put the staff through the Welcome Host Plus customer-care courses in a partnership with Tourism South-East.

Successful participants from across the group’s six centers in Sussex were presented with certificates by Tourism South-East chief executive Mike Bedingfield, who commented: “Our specially-tailored training programs help businesses to remain one step ahead of the competition. Wave Leisure has already seized the initiative so that it is ready to benefit from future opportunities.”

Peter Crowley, Wave Leisure managing director, said: “We work hard to engage with and invest in our employees so that the local community and stakeholders can benefit from our success. It is crucial for us to deliver great customer experiences as part of our overall business strategy.”

The Wave Leisure Trust manages six community-leisure facilities for one local authority and two schools across East Sussex.