Doug Kennedy’s Next Training Webcast: Customer Hospitality Is Bigger than Guest Service
Complimentary Registration Now Open
Register your team and participate live, or view the recording, of Doug Kennedy’s next 40-minute training webcast scheduled for Friday, November 15, from Noon – 12:45pm EST. REGISTER HERE
In the lodging industry, we tend to think of our customers as “guests,” so hospitality training is traditionally focused on guest interactions, but customer hospitality is a philosophical concept which should be foundational to your entire company culture, reaching far beyond guest service. KTN President Doug Kennedy
According to Kennedy, many “customers” are not actually guests. They are travel agents, meeting and event planners, and literally anyone who interacts with staff. In the vacation rental sector of lodging, owners are arguably the most important customers. Vendor partners and colleagues from other departments are also customers.
Join in as Doug inspires a more holistic approach to nurturing and sharing the hospitality vibe with everyone we encounter. This webcast covers:
- Understanding the differences between “hospitality” and “guest service.”
- Hospitality experiences are your hotel’s best marketing tool, especially as AI-powered searches rely on reviews and not keyword stuffing.
- You can mandate guest service scripting, but a culture of hospitality must be organically grown and delivered from the heart.
- Strong hospitality cultures are deeply rooted in the etiquette by which colleagues treat one another and are re-ignited at the employee entrance.
- Building on the foundation of customer hospitality is good for business, but also strongly impacts staff satisfaction and retention from being part of a team that truly values kindness and generosity.
- Core essentials for embracing customer hospitality.
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.
Recordings of previous webcasts are available on KTN’s YouTube channel and are now also being distributed on your favorite podcast channel or on KTN’s Spotify channel.
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, 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 additional topics scheduled so far.
Reservations Sales QUEST – 2025 Edition!
Friday, December 20 (Noon EDT)
If you are looking to get more direct bookings in 2025, join in as Doug shares highlights from KTN’s 2025 edition of our Reservations Sales QUEST training program that has helped hundreds of hotels, luxury vacation home rental agencies and resorts increase call conversion. Because he is out every month training frontline reservations teams, and with KTN’s Reservations Coaches regularly listening in to cloud-based recordings of real-world callers, Doug is always up to date on the latest trends. Each year he personally updates QUEST, which is KTN’s foundational reservations course. Register your team to gain exposure to easy-to-use tactics and relatable, real-world examples of sample dialogue they can use immediately. This webcast covers:
- The important role of today’s reservations sales specialists.
- The interplay of voice and online channels. Why do they still call and email us?
- Doing “The Basics” EXTREMELY well.
- Using Investigative, “Conversation Starting” QUESTions, including updated versions of traditional probing questions.
- Storifying Selling: Using “snappy taglines” to narrate the pictures they’ve no doubt already seen online.
Join us for our next webcast in January 2025, entitled Reservations Agents: How To Overcome Objections and Close More Sales
, during which Doug will share highlights from the rest of Reservations QUEST 2025!
How To Be A Lightning Rod and Truly "Ground” Guest Negativity
Friday, January 17 (Noon EDT)
While most everyone knows what a lightning rod is, not everyone knows what one actually does. When lightning strikes, it stands tall to attract the energy and then dissipates it harmlessly into the ground, which makes it a great model for expanding your traditional service recovery training. In exactly this way, properly trained staff can be ready when guests with negative vibes approach, receive that “strike” of negativity, and walk away unaffected and unscathed because they are prepared with the proper responses, proper actions, and just as importantly, with the coping skills to maintain mental wellness.
Join us as Doug covers some of the newest concepts from KTN’s on-site and private, live webcam versions of our latest hospitality and guest service training programs.
- When the next guest approaches or calls, it’s kind of like spinning a roulette wheel where each spoke has emojis representing different guest personas.
- If you encounter 50 or more guests per shift, the roulette wheel is bound to stop on the faces of difficult people. The good part is that you always get to spin again; odds are, the next face is a happy one.
- By striving to understand the experiences your guests are living out daily on the other side of the front desk, bar, phone call, or guest room door, you can better remember that their frustrations are with the situations and not with you personally.
- Showing sincere empathy before offering an apology helps defuse tense guest encounters, whereas a lack of empathy and a scripted apology can ignite guests’ anger.
- The difference between compassion and the co-experiencing, internalizing guests’ trauma. (You are going to be okay!)
- Break the habit of ruminating on negative guest encounters. Otherwise, you re-live the emotional duress each time you re-imagine the situation or retell the story.
- What to do when extreme bullies cross red lines, such as using personal insults, slurs, and inappropriate language.
For additional details, contact KTN at [email protected] or by phone (01) 954.533.9130
*Sponsored By Travel Outlook 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.
