Call for new service standards measure

The Middle East hospitality sector needs to consider a new model for measuring service standards, according to one industry professional.

Ethos Consultancy managing director Robert Keay explained: “Many of the hotels here, particularly five-star hotels, are driven by Leading Hotels of the World (LHW) standards and these are the same questionnaire used whether you’re in New York or Dubai.

“We think there are certain things that are more important to measure than others and that quite often organisations get focused on measuring the wrong things.”

As the chairman and co-founder of the London-based International Customer Services Insitute, Keay has first-hand knowledge of a new hospitality service measuring programme slated to come to the Middle East in future.

“We have a product called International Customer Service Standards,” he explained. “We’ve been rolling that out in the finance and government sectors here and now we’re hoping to move it into hospitality.

“This is a standard that comes from the International Customer Services Insitute and which is assessed by British Standards Institution (BSI); it’s a bit like an ISO 9000 standard, but it’s unique in terms of how it works and how it’s measured.”

The new standards measuring model is known as Five Ps, continued Keay.

“How that works is that policy is the thing organisations evolve from; products and premises are the things that get people in the door; but then it’s actually the people and the processes that keep customers coming back — and these are the five things that drive customer satisfaction and loyalty,” he asserted.

Although the standard is based on those five words starting with ‘P’, there are 66 criteria for operators to meet, Keay revealed.

“One of the things that we find [in this region] is that they focus far too much on premises, followed by products and then people and processes, whereas really people should come first,” he said.

“Most customers view a certain level of décor as standard in this region; what they’re really looking out for is an experience that’s of value to them — good processes delivered by good people.”