I have been familiar with Signature Worldwide for the past 23 years – 4 as a Hospitality Client and 19 as a Training Account Manager for the company.
My first introduction to Signature Worldwide was when I attended a Transient Edge reservations training reinforcement visit. My Training Account Manager introduced me (and the rest of the hotel team) to the concept of Legendary. Since that day, 23 years ago, being Legendary has been part of my daily conversations – whether I am in front of a client or not – it is hard to ‘turn it off’ when I am out and about doing my own thing!
Merriam-Webster online defines Legendary as: well-known, famous. What does it mean to be Legendary in the service industry? It means differentiating yourself from your competition. You want to make yourself memorable for all the right reasons. If you are remembered for all the wrong reasons, then you are infamous! Which, by the way, Merriam-Webster online defines this as: having a reputation of the worst kind. Yikes!
So, what does it take to be Legendary?
There is a simple set of behaviors and practices to follow which will ensure you are creating the right types of memories for your clients:
For the service industry associate interacting with a client:
- Connect with your client – be the first to acknowledge, make eye contact and greet your client
- Discover their wants and needs by asking qualifying questions – the more you know about your client, the easier it is to take care of them
- Deliver value by fulfilling their needs and wants – you have asked a lot of great questions, now be sure to provide the information and/or services which correspond with the client’s responses AND if you can, give them a ‘plus 1’ – something above and beyond what they expected
- Close in a Legendary way – offer additional assistance, thank the client and be sure to provide your name so they can tie the memorable service to the Legendary Associate
For the service industry associate who is focused on honing their skills:
- Ensure that you are receiving the proper training so that you can deliver your company’s service skills on a consistent basis
- Take accountability for your performance – if your company invests in onsite mystery shops or recorded shop calls, be sure to critique your performance and identify in what areas you can improve
- Work with your co-workers or mystery-shopping partner to skill practice the areas in which you need to improve
- Celebrate your successes – while we tend to be our own worst critics, we also need to recognize the good stuff we are putting out in the service universe
Celebrating successes is a very important part of being Legendary. When we identify the correct skills and behaviors which differentiate us from our competition, we need to make these a habit and ensure we are consistently delivering these. These Legendary tendencies become second nature and eventually we don’t need to worry about making the client remember us for the right reasons. All you’ll have to worry about is recognizing, and perhaps obsessing over, the differences between Legendary and Infamous service when you are out and about doing your own thing!