THE CONCEPT AND INVESTMENT
Having come on board in 2013 as general manager from his previous role at Dusit Thani Manila, Prateek Kumar, who Palang explains “is very into CSR” was looking into new initiatives to upgrade the 14-year old Dusit Thani.
“Dusit Thani has been here for a long time and we don’t want to be remembered only as the first hotel to pop up this side of town, but to always be ahead of the times,” explains Palang, who adds that the project was “very easy to support”.
“Dusit International has always been supportive of CSR campaigns. Our general manager agreed to it very easily. We always believe that if a guest is happy they will come back and most often you get complaints if people are going through a tough time.
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“If you know how to deal with them it will be a smoother process altogether,” she continues.
THE PROGRAMME IN PRACTICE
Dusit Thani’s training session with Ebdaah director of education and training Andrew Westerman took place on April 13, 2014 from 8am - 2pm in one of the meeting rooms of Dusit Thani.
Attended by around 30 staff members, there were representatives from front office, housekeeping, security, HR, F&B, and marketing & communications departments.
The training did not simply focus on guests who have physical difficulties. People who are visually impaired, hearing impaired, as well as people with cognitive difficulties and social difficulties, as well as elderly guests, were discussed.
As part of the customer service aspect of the training, staff were taught about how best to deal with erratic behaviour in public areas of guests with cognitive difficulties.
“Andrew said, you know they may be irate or impatient because they have a problem, so the team has to be educated, or just reminded that you deal with them in a very special way because they’re going through something different and difficult,” explains Palang.
“We already do customer service training [at the hotel] but this was specifically focused on a particular market or a specific type of guest.”
In addition to this, the attendees were encouraged to share their own experiences of how they have dealt with disabled guests in the past, and best practice was suggested.
“Andrew said if you see them crying or making a noise you don’t stop them, you let them be. It’s hard to tell sometimes, but there’s always room for discerning first what’s actually happening before reacting,” says Palang. A reminder of the best language to use when referring to disability was offered, with the key message equality.
“We were told to treat them as equal as possible,” she says.
“Fine if they need special treatment, but you don’t want them to be uncomfortable with you treating them as too special, so really it’s a balance.
“Sometimes there’s a queue for check-in and check-out, so when we know they’re special we prioritise them, so these things can be done, they will not take offence. But if it’s too much — so they’re dining and you keep interrupting or you keep knocking on their door — that will be irritating.”
Palang adds that many of the team members became emotional when watching some of the videos shown.
“It showed how they wanted to be treated in society and there was one gentleman from housekeeping — from Nepal I believe — and he talked about how he would want his country to be open to this idea of dealing with people with disabilities.”
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