Train Your Entire Guest Services Staff To Elicit Kama Muta (Commonly Called That “Warm, Fuzzy” Feeling)

Register your team and participate live, or view the recording, of Doug Kennedy’s next 40-minute training webcast scheduled for Friday, June 21, from Noon – 12:45pm EST. REGISTER HERE

I’m especially excited about this month’s webcast, in which I’m going to share a new word for a feeling that pretty much everyone who has worked in guest-facing hospitality jobs has had. It happens when we make an authentic, personalized, and heartfelt connection with another human. It is a mutually experienced feeling, felt across cultures, nationalities, and languages. There is even a common gesture that humans around the globe use when the feeling arises, which is raising the right hand and placing it over the heart. KTN President Doug Kennedy

While we in Western Cultures apparently don’t have a word for this feeling, Kennedy explained that one can be found in the ancient Sanskrit language. The word is Kama Muta, which means being moved by love. It is written as काममूत. This webcast covers:

Understanding the diversity of human travel experiences being lived out every day on the other side of the doors to your guest rooms, homes, and suites.
Realizing that hospitality can be a philosophy for daily living that just might make you a happier human. What’s good for the guest and good for the company is also good for us personally!
Bringing out the best in others brings out the best in ourselves. In other words, we can have a lot more fun at work!
Using your power of release, stomping out cynicism, and shining the light of hospitality to everyone we encounter.

Everyone who registers receives a link to the recording, even if they cannot attend. The 40-minute format is perfect for lunch and learns or excerpts can be shared at staff meetings. The target audience is anyone who is interested in upskilling themselves or others, and the topic areas are broad enough to be relevant for all sectors of the lodging industry.

We are grateful to the generosity of our sponsors who have allowed us to offer complimentary admission, said Kennedy. It takes a lot of time to design, promote, and deliver these events, and so we would normally charge at least $99 registration per person, but this series is now completely free to all.

Sponsors include: Travel Outlook, the only KTN Certified call center, Better Talent, a subscription-based talent acquisition company serving the lodging sector, and Track Hospitality Software, a TravelNet Solution, whose products include a PMS and CRM.

Complimentary registration can be accessed at www.KTNwebcast.com Here are the topics and dates for the additional topics scheduled so far.

How To Turn Every Guest“Conversation” Into A Sales & Marketing Opportunity

Monday, July 22 (Noon EDT)

As tech solutions continue to replace touch points in our guests’ cycle of service, each remaining conversation becomes ever more important, especially since guests are more likely to reach out to our humans either when things go wrong or when they have a special request or need. With so many guests booking online, often through third parties, and with an ever-increasing number using self-check-in, any remaining interaction might be the only chance to put a face on your brand and foster loyalty. Doug’s webcast will cover:

How to turn inbound emails, chat messages with quick questions, and in-app message exchanges on OTA’s into opportunities to convert a new booking, cross-sell, or upsell.
Maintenance techs and housekeeping inspectors may be the only face of your company and in the best position to encourage a positive guest review of social media posts, especially for guests who check-in via an app or keyless entry.
These days, it is often the random encounter in a corridor, walkway, or elevator that creates the best opportunity to humanize your brand.
It’s everyone’s job to know the product, which is of course the overall experience, not the room, suite, or vacation home. Answering questions is good, but proactively offering local insider’s tips is a true gesture of hospitality.
It’s the “people parts” that make the difference to guests. So in that sense, everybody sells!

Hotel Sales Habitudes For Booking More Groups, Conferences, and Events

Friday, August 16 (Noon EDT)

Today’s hotel and event salespeople work in completely different environments than most of their leaders experienced. Meeting planning and event booking sites have created a flood of leads, which can be overwhelming for salespeople working within a sales role still designed for the era when most leads came in by phone or website inquiry forms. When revenues drop, salespeople are required to meet prospecting quotas, based on a set number of calls, sent emails, or door knocks. Yet those calls go to voicemail, emails go to spam, and the office doors are either locked, or if open, there's no one at the receptionist station. Self-serving thought leaders are pushing RFP automation and AI-powered prospecting, both of which lead to generic, spammy-feeling sales correspondence. If these challenges sound familiar, join us as Doug shares actionable, real-world training habits and mind-shifting attitudes for booking more business.

When Product, Price, and Place are all essentially the same, which they are these days, it’s the People that make the difference. As a salesperson, YOU are your hotel’s superpower.
Embrace your CRM and make it work for you. It’s the only way to follow-up in a way that is both tenacious and personalized.
Sort and prioritize incoming leads. Craft more authentic, thoughtful responses to the hottest leads.
Yet respond to all leads. This will require you to think creatively to get the help you need, and it may be outside of your silo of the hotel sales department.
Use a tech for touch approach. Embrace tech solutions, but use them in ways that keep the human touch in hotel sales.
Sure, subscription-based tools like Knowland and ZoomInfo can help, but you already own the best sources for contacts to prospect; previous clients and prospects, including those who did not book with you the first time.
How to build the habit of prospecting into your daily sales routine, versus training to find that time when you can make all those cold calls.

How To Turn Inbound Reservations Calls Into Outbound Direct Sales Opportunities

Friday, September 20 (Noon EDT)

Most marketing and distribution leaders tend to think the role of reservations agents is to field inbound calls, answer questions, and close bookings. Yet when you look at the phone logs at resorts and vacation rental companies, many - and perhaps most - guests call multiple times prior to booking. The longer the stay, the higher the rates, the larger the party, the more accommodation types to consider, and most importantly, the more emotionally invested the guest is in their travel planning, the more likely it is that several conversations will be required to get a caller across the finish line. This webcast covers:

Reasons why guests may not be ready to book during their first call.
The importance of using a tracking system to organize call notes and trace leads on follow-up task lists.
Advantages of using a reservations CRM, but also how to get in the game right now by making your own form in Excel or Sheets.
How to help callers narrow down their options during conversations, rather than emailing a long list of all available accommodations that will leave them feeling overwhelmed.
How to ask for their email address and phone number in a way that ensures they provide it!
Sample dialogue and verbiage to use to personalize follow-up email templates.
How to follow-up tenaciously without seeming pushy and annoying.
Sample phrasing for personalizing your follow-up calls and emails.

For additional details, contact KTN at [email protected] or by phone (01) 954.533.9130 www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com.

Sponsored By Travel Outlook, Better Talent, and Track Hospitality Software.

About Kennedy Training Network Inc.

KTN is the lodging and hospitality industry's best source for hotel training programs and supportive services in topic areas of hotel sales, catering/event sales, hotel reservations sales, and hospitality & guest service excellence. KTN President Doug Kennedy has been a fixture on the lodging and tourism conference speaking circuit for decades. Hoteliers worldwide read his monthly hotel, tourism and hospitality industry sales training articles in this publication and elsewhere. Visit www.kennedytrainingnetwork.com or call (01) 954-533-9130.

Doug Kennedy
Kennedy Training Network (KTN)