By Jeanne Sawyer
Saturday, 23rd February 2008
Define the problem first. Explain what the problem is—what went wrong, what are the symptoms, what is the impact on your business. Write it down. Everyone who reads it should understand what the problem is and why it’s important. Caution: describe the problem, not what you will do to fix it.
Use your time for problems that are truly important. Just because a problem is there doesn’t mean you have to solve it. If you ask, “what will happen if I don’t solve this problem?” and the answer is, “not much,” then turn your attention to something more important.
Test your assumptions about everything. Check the facts first. Be sure that you and your team understand the problem the same way, and that you have data to confirm that the problem is important. Test the assumptions about proposed solutions to improve the chances your solution will actually solve the problem.
Measure. The key question to answer is, “How will you know when the problem is solved?” If you don’t measure, you won’t know for sure. Use measurements to learn and portray the truth—the real truth, not what you wish were true.
Measure the right things. A common measurement trap is to measure something because it’s “interesting.” If knowing a measurement won’t change anything (e.g., help you make a decision, verify an assumption or prove the problem is solved), then don’t waste your time measuring it.
Use your project management skills. Solving a big problem is a project: you’re far more likely to solve it successfully if you treat it like one. That means you’ll need to identify tasks, make and adjust assignments, and keep track of what is due when. Be sure to get appropriate management support for your project.
Look for solution owners rather than problem owners. Everyone participating in the situation owns the problem, like it or not—and nobody likes it. Avoid the finger-pointing trap by looking for solution owners, i.e., the people who can do something to help solve the problem. Helping with a solution is much more fun than being blamed for a problem, so you’re more likely to get the response you need.
Whatever you do, do it on purpose. Doing nothing is a wimpy way to decide not to solve the problem—and is quite likely to leave you making awkward explanations when the problem resurfaces.
Communicate. Don’t leave you key stakeholders guessing. Being human, we tend to be bad about keeping others informed about the progress we’re making, especially if there is little or no progress. You’re more likely to get support and understanding if you get the word out honestly about what is happening.
Avoid “bug mentality.” Fixing bugs fixes symptoms: like taking aspirin for a headache, it may provide relief but does nothing to prevent the next headache. It’s ok, and often necessary, to relieve the symptoms but you have to dig deeper if you’re going to prevent problems from occurring.
Identify and fix the right root causes. Complicated problems have multiple root causes, probably more than you can fix in a reasonable amount of time. Don’t waste time or money on causes that are either insignificant in impact or only peripheral causes of the problem you’re trying to fix.
Choose solutions that are effective—and implement the solution completely. Identifying the right root causes is necessary, but unless you then implement a solution, you still have a problem. Double-check to be sure your solution plan really will eliminate the causes you’ve identified, and then execute the plan. It’s easy to get distracted by other projects once you get to the implementation phase and never finish.
Reward prevention. Although it’s generally understood that it costs more to deal with crises than to prevent them, many companies do not recognize and reward those who push past the symptoms to the root causes, preventing future occurrences. If you want to focus on prevention, be sure to reward those who do it successfully.
Have the courage to say “no” when appropriate. If you believe the problem can’t be solved in the time-frame allowed or with the resources available, your best option is to say so right away. Accepting an assignment that you believe is impossible is setting yourself up for failure. Do, however, choose your strategy for how you refuse to take on the project: gather evidence, explain what it will take to accomplish the desired results, etc.
Meet your commitments. Do what you promise and don’t promise what you can’t deliver. Meeting commitments strengthens relationships and builds trust. You need both to solve messy problems. If the situation changes and you do have to change a commitment, let everyone know as soon right away so they can make appropriate changes to their own plans.
Everything necessary, nothing extraneous. Make sure you solve the problem completely, but don’t get sidetracked into doing other things that won’t make this problem go away. Put those extras aside to evaluate later as special projects.
Everyone necessary, no one extraneous. Make sure everybody who can contribute to the problem solving effort is appropriately involved. Only have the people on your team who will contribute actively to solving the problem. People who need to know what’s going on can be informed more efficiently in other ways.
Plan for things to go wrong. We’ve heard it before, and it’s still true: if something can go wrong, it will. Figure out what can get in the way of your problem solving effort and develop appropriate contingency plans.
Use completion criteria. Define what successful completion of each task entails. Specify when it is due and what standard must be met to avoid misunderstandings and delays. You don’t want to tell someone who has worked really hard to complete a task that they misunderstood and you wanted a sledge hammer rather than an ordinary hammer.
Acknowledge and thank everyone who helps. Solving an important problem deserves recognition, and nobody else is going to take care of this for you. Make sure management and key stakeholders know what you and your team have achieved. Remind them of the risks avoided. Thank everyone who participated in the project. It’s the polite thing to do, and encourages them to help you next time.
THE SAWYER PARTNERSHIP Solving Problems PermanentlySM
Consultant, coach, teacher and writer, Jeanne Sawyer specializes in solving messy, expensive, chronic problems—the kind that cause customers to make angry phone calls to executives or even to take their business elsewhere. Her pragmatic approach demonstrates measurable results.
As a consultant and coach, Jeanne has saved her clients millions of dollars and kept them off the front pages by leading them through problem solving projects on particularly complicated problems, helping them incorporate systematic methods into their business processes, and helping them build partnerships that get past the marketing jargon and really work.
jsawyer@SawyerPartnership.com
www.SawyerPartnership.com
Monday, February 25, 2008
Monday, February 18, 2008
Who's blogging? Virtually everyone
By Tom Haines, Globe Staff | February 17, 2008
Dispatches from a quick tour of the travel blogosphere:
At worldhum.com, there's wonder at whether North Korea's Ryugyong Hotel is the worst building in history. There's also talk of Robert Redford making a movie based on Bill Bryson's book "A Walk in the Woods," and a link to a video of Improv Everywhere's stunt in which 207 people freeze for five minutes in Grand Central Station.
On to gadling.com, where there's information and ideas about global migration - everybody, it can seem, is on the move - and updates on Hilton Head Island's annual Gullah celebrations as part of Black History Month.
No time to waste, as crankyflier.com is recapping the latest efforts to build Family Airlines, and weighing the news that United will charge for a second bag.
Too much detail? Then head to travelblogs.com where Sloan and Amy share thoughts on round-the-world travels they blogged about for a year at reasontowander.com.
It doesn't take long to get the lay of the land. In a few keystrokes, a reader can find advice on the best barbecue in Birmingham, Ala., or thoughts of a longtime wanderer about settling down on the Kansas prairie. You can get travel tips at traditional media blogs, or the latest on Paris and Perez Hilton at Sundance, for example, at jaunted.com.
Much like terrestrial travel, where you end up depends on what you hope to find.
For six years, I have been an occasional travel blog reader and a blogger on boston.com. As a reader, I look for the random and reflective, preferring an unexpected anecdote to another take on the latest trend. As a blogger, I post about incidents or observations that are often removed from the spotlight, yet connected to broader contexts. What of memories from African afternoons and Irish rock 'n' roll, for example? I hope the answer gives meaningful pause in a fast foray through the Web.
Joanna Kakissis, a journalist and blogger at worldhum .com, told me in a recent e-mail that she aims to stimulate two-way exchange.
"I try to find a way to reach out to the reader, either through a question or by stoking a debate," she wrote. "I want people to read and respond to my post."
That digital dialogue is now part of the mix at Globe-trotting, boston.com's catch-all travel blog. Readers can share their comments about several daily posts from more than a dozen writers on everything from book reviews to Logan Airport news, from trips with the kids to traveler reflections from Los Angeles, London, and more.
A few more to consider: National Geographic Traveler's Intelligent Travel blog has broad boundaries. The Washington Post's Travel Log also aims far and wide, while the Chicago Tribune's Midwest Getaways blog has a regional reach. USA Today's Today in the Sky blog tracks airline industry trends and breaking news. Crankyflier.com, the work of a self-proclaimed "airplane dork," adds insight to everything from the emergency landing of a 777 at Heathrow to US Airways' on-time performance.
Regardless of range, the best blogs quickly take you in and out of a topic or place. Audio and video can help. During one visit to World Hum, a post included a video clip of Claude Lelouch's 1976 short film "C'etait un Rendezvous." The footage of a car speeding through the streets of Paris at dawn had been resurrected in a video for "Open Your Eyes" by Snow Patrol - another world completely.
For sites like World Hum, a long-running independent operation bought last year by the Travel Channel, the blog is just one part of the mix. It serves as a daily update section of an online travel magazine that includes original stories, timely Q&As, book reviews, and more.
For other sites, the blog itself is the destination, and many inspire by their breadth. Independent travelers have for years been using blogs as a public version of the family vacation slideshow, in real time, on location.
Two men are posting their adventures during a round-the-world odyssey at Long Jaunt, a blog currently at boston.com/travel that is heavy with colorful photo galleries and cultural encounters. The ladies from lostgirlsworld.blogspot.com, "three twentysomething New Yorkers," are home again after a year on the road. But continued posts suggest they earned admirers online besides the ones they met in faraway lands. And they hope to spread the love. One recent post explained the basics of RSS feeds, and another offered a 10-step guide to setting up a blog.
A particularly profound example of where it all can lead is found at notesfromtheroad.com. The site is the work of Erik Gauger. It began nearly a decade ago as a place for him to entertain friends about his travels. In that it is Gauger's private posts about his travels it is a travel blog. But it has become much more: a broad library of his quickly but carefully crafted stories and compelling photos of people and places, from Panama's Kuna Yala territory to Texas Hill Country to the Oregon coast. In one series of dispatches, "Rise Up Sweet Island," Gauger chronicles the struggle between preservationists and developers on an island in the Bahamas.
Gauger wrote in an e-mail that he means for all of his entries to represent "the other Web." For a reader, it is rich reward to arrive at this unexpected frontier of the travel blogosphere.
Other examples of individual work can be found through travelblogs.com, which highlights independent blogs, including one featuring thoughts from a student studying in Mongolia, and another the musings of an American living in Benin. Clicking among dozens of such personal sites can of course be hit or miss. Dead end? There is always the "back" button. Or even logging back into the real world.
Tom Haines can be reached at thaines@globe.com.
Dispatches from a quick tour of the travel blogosphere:
At worldhum.com, there's wonder at whether North Korea's Ryugyong Hotel is the worst building in history. There's also talk of Robert Redford making a movie based on Bill Bryson's book "A Walk in the Woods," and a link to a video of Improv Everywhere's stunt in which 207 people freeze for five minutes in Grand Central Station.
On to gadling.com, where there's information and ideas about global migration - everybody, it can seem, is on the move - and updates on Hilton Head Island's annual Gullah celebrations as part of Black History Month.
No time to waste, as crankyflier.com is recapping the latest efforts to build Family Airlines, and weighing the news that United will charge for a second bag.
Too much detail? Then head to travelblogs.com where Sloan and Amy share thoughts on round-the-world travels they blogged about for a year at reasontowander.com.
It doesn't take long to get the lay of the land. In a few keystrokes, a reader can find advice on the best barbecue in Birmingham, Ala., or thoughts of a longtime wanderer about settling down on the Kansas prairie. You can get travel tips at traditional media blogs, or the latest on Paris and Perez Hilton at Sundance, for example, at jaunted.com.
Much like terrestrial travel, where you end up depends on what you hope to find.
For six years, I have been an occasional travel blog reader and a blogger on boston.com. As a reader, I look for the random and reflective, preferring an unexpected anecdote to another take on the latest trend. As a blogger, I post about incidents or observations that are often removed from the spotlight, yet connected to broader contexts. What of memories from African afternoons and Irish rock 'n' roll, for example? I hope the answer gives meaningful pause in a fast foray through the Web.
Joanna Kakissis, a journalist and blogger at worldhum .com, told me in a recent e-mail that she aims to stimulate two-way exchange.
"I try to find a way to reach out to the reader, either through a question or by stoking a debate," she wrote. "I want people to read and respond to my post."
That digital dialogue is now part of the mix at Globe-trotting, boston.com's catch-all travel blog. Readers can share their comments about several daily posts from more than a dozen writers on everything from book reviews to Logan Airport news, from trips with the kids to traveler reflections from Los Angeles, London, and more.
A few more to consider: National Geographic Traveler's Intelligent Travel blog has broad boundaries. The Washington Post's Travel Log also aims far and wide, while the Chicago Tribune's Midwest Getaways blog has a regional reach. USA Today's Today in the Sky blog tracks airline industry trends and breaking news. Crankyflier.com, the work of a self-proclaimed "airplane dork," adds insight to everything from the emergency landing of a 777 at Heathrow to US Airways' on-time performance.
Regardless of range, the best blogs quickly take you in and out of a topic or place. Audio and video can help. During one visit to World Hum, a post included a video clip of Claude Lelouch's 1976 short film "C'etait un Rendezvous." The footage of a car speeding through the streets of Paris at dawn had been resurrected in a video for "Open Your Eyes" by Snow Patrol - another world completely.
For sites like World Hum, a long-running independent operation bought last year by the Travel Channel, the blog is just one part of the mix. It serves as a daily update section of an online travel magazine that includes original stories, timely Q&As, book reviews, and more.
For other sites, the blog itself is the destination, and many inspire by their breadth. Independent travelers have for years been using blogs as a public version of the family vacation slideshow, in real time, on location.
Two men are posting their adventures during a round-the-world odyssey at Long Jaunt, a blog currently at boston.com/travel that is heavy with colorful photo galleries and cultural encounters. The ladies from lostgirlsworld.blogspot.com, "three twentysomething New Yorkers," are home again after a year on the road. But continued posts suggest they earned admirers online besides the ones they met in faraway lands. And they hope to spread the love. One recent post explained the basics of RSS feeds, and another offered a 10-step guide to setting up a blog.
A particularly profound example of where it all can lead is found at notesfromtheroad.com. The site is the work of Erik Gauger. It began nearly a decade ago as a place for him to entertain friends about his travels. In that it is Gauger's private posts about his travels it is a travel blog. But it has become much more: a broad library of his quickly but carefully crafted stories and compelling photos of people and places, from Panama's Kuna Yala territory to Texas Hill Country to the Oregon coast. In one series of dispatches, "Rise Up Sweet Island," Gauger chronicles the struggle between preservationists and developers on an island in the Bahamas.
Gauger wrote in an e-mail that he means for all of his entries to represent "the other Web." For a reader, it is rich reward to arrive at this unexpected frontier of the travel blogosphere.
Other examples of individual work can be found through travelblogs.com, which highlights independent blogs, including one featuring thoughts from a student studying in Mongolia, and another the musings of an American living in Benin. Clicking among dozens of such personal sites can of course be hit or miss. Dead end? There is always the "back" button. Or even logging back into the real world.
Tom Haines can be reached at thaines@globe.com.
Friday, February 15, 2008
So many sites. So little time.
Avalon Report press/news
Monitoring the ‘Reviewsphere’ is overwhelming: focus on key sites is the solution.
A recent survey conducted by Avalon Report (www.avalonreport.com) of 225 three and four diamond hotels showed over 90% of hoteliers think it is important to monitor reviews online, yet the majority of hotels monitor comments less than once every two weeks. Since 87% monitor reviews manually by surfing site to site, time impoverishment seems to play a major role in this lack of research. Many hotel professionals appear overwhelmed by the scope of the issue, commenting they are lost in the prioritization of endless sites and searches.
Gossip is not the challenge. Does Buzz = Buy?
There is no doubt that Web 2.0 has entered into the hotel landscape like a tidal wave of whispers. Hoteliers worry about traveler comments and web photos with unmatched paranoia. The level of anxiety differs from hotel to hotel and brand to brand, but the conclusions are frequently the same: word of mouth may soon trounce marketing dollars in the sales cycle and tuning into the reviewsphere is essential.
It is true that social networking sites as a whole provide endless places to post commentary regarding travel. Essential to an hotelier is whether all the gossip is translated into purchasing behavior. Recent studies indicate up to 88% of Trip Advisor visitors are influenced by content they read. The numbers for Facebook and MySpace are not so impressive.
The uniqueness of Trip Advisor is the relationship the site has forged with the public. It is a trusted research source for travel buyers and is rapidly becoming an essential stop in trip planning. Among networking sites, Trip Advisor holds a coveted place because it has successfully penetrated the buying cycle for consumers. In this sense, it differs from mega-networking sites such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com, sites whose goal is to connect its users. MySpace and Facebook are bridges to other travel sites, sites where purchasing decisions are made.
A 2007 study by ComScore focused on Google searches indicated consumers visit a travel site with surprising frequency before making a purchase on the same site, an average of 2.5 times over 29 days. In fact, the average consumer does 12 searches and visits numerous sites in comparing pricing, destination and other factors. Also true: travel is considered one of the most competitive sectors on the web in terms of comparison shopping. With customers visiting multiple times and taking 29 days on average to make a purchase, reviews on major sites such as Expedia, Priceline, Trip Advisor, Travelocity and Orbitz may be seen multiple times by a visitor in the buying cycle.
This argues for dynamic content, requiring frequent monitoring and encouragement. In this process, one cannot focus on Trip Advisor alone. Added to Trip Advisor should be the monitoring of key revenue generating sites. Revenue dollars produced by these sites are at risk from negative commentary. Each traveler review on a third party site rides the coat tails of the marketing dollars spent by that site, positively or negatively.
Buyers visiting third party sites are more likely to be shopping, not just networking. One might say these visitors become motivated by comments while visitors to social networking sites become interested. Thus, an unflattering comment on Expedia.com has the potential to stop a sale in a way that a negative photo or comment on Facebook may not. Monitoring a reputation online has value, but managing dynamic commentary within the buying cycle is essential to hotel performance.
Work smarter, not harder.
Often, discussion of the new dialogue between guests and hotels in the sphere of Web 2.0 is ruled by misunderstanding. Limiting the search is a start. Begin by knowing which third party sites generate revenue. For most hotels this involves Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and Priceline. Add other sites that penetrate the sales cycle, such as TripAdvisor. Allow booking numbers and e-commerce production goals to determine your search emphasis because sites that produce revenue are critical to performance.
Automating your search may be the next step toward efficiency. Automated searches save hours of web surfing. Subscribe to a Web 2.0 service, making sure key sites are the focus and that all your results are viewed through a competitive lens for a reality check. In the final analysis, customers on key sites are comparing to other hotels, not just reading about your hotel.
Fight back.
Allowing negative comments to dominate any site in the reservations cycle is damaging. Fortunately, a hotel has weapons at its disposal to combat these perceptions.
1. Respond to comments where possible. On TripAdvisor.com, hotels are allowed to respond to customer comments. Hopefully, other sites will follow their lead in the future to create a consumer/supplier dialogue.
2. Use comments to improve service delivery. Obviously, the best way to combat bad comments is to prevent them from happening. This involves educating staff that every unhappy customer now has an Internet megaphone to use at your door. If negative comment cards are a concern, imagine posting all negative comments on the front desk—this is what the Internet allows. Open internal discussion of concerns is essential to prevention.
3. Encourage guest posting on sites. Although counter intuitive, encouraging participation liberates the majority of guests who have positive experiences to post on sites. Guests who book on third party sites may post on those sites. Other guests may be encouraged to post on critical open networking sites like TripAdvisor.com. Time after time, hotels that encourage posting find the positive outweighs the negative.
4. Do not allow stagnant content. Failing to respond to concerns on a site, where that is allowed, puts the hotel in a negative light. Having old content on a site, whether it is photography of a dated lobby, or a customer comment from 1 year ago as the most recent rating, makes a hotel look far less than dynamic. Updating photography, encouraging comments, and supporting traveler photos will make the hotel look “fresh” and active.
Being paranoid about customer “buzz” in the reviewsphere is pointless, like chasing clouds rather than following a clear path. Focusing on revenue generating and sales cycle sites is the key to sanity. Essentially, it is the difference between trying to listen to all the conversations in a crowded restaurant and talking to the person at your table.
Bottom line is- monitor where it matters.
Subscribe to the leading Web 2.0 solution- The Avalon BUZZ Report.
Monitoring the ‘Reviewsphere’ is overwhelming: focus on key sites is the solution.
A recent survey conducted by Avalon Report (www.avalonreport.com) of 225 three and four diamond hotels showed over 90% of hoteliers think it is important to monitor reviews online, yet the majority of hotels monitor comments less than once every two weeks. Since 87% monitor reviews manually by surfing site to site, time impoverishment seems to play a major role in this lack of research. Many hotel professionals appear overwhelmed by the scope of the issue, commenting they are lost in the prioritization of endless sites and searches.
Gossip is not the challenge. Does Buzz = Buy?
There is no doubt that Web 2.0 has entered into the hotel landscape like a tidal wave of whispers. Hoteliers worry about traveler comments and web photos with unmatched paranoia. The level of anxiety differs from hotel to hotel and brand to brand, but the conclusions are frequently the same: word of mouth may soon trounce marketing dollars in the sales cycle and tuning into the reviewsphere is essential.
It is true that social networking sites as a whole provide endless places to post commentary regarding travel. Essential to an hotelier is whether all the gossip is translated into purchasing behavior. Recent studies indicate up to 88% of Trip Advisor visitors are influenced by content they read. The numbers for Facebook and MySpace are not so impressive.
The uniqueness of Trip Advisor is the relationship the site has forged with the public. It is a trusted research source for travel buyers and is rapidly becoming an essential stop in trip planning. Among networking sites, Trip Advisor holds a coveted place because it has successfully penetrated the buying cycle for consumers. In this sense, it differs from mega-networking sites such as MySpace.com and Facebook.com, sites whose goal is to connect its users. MySpace and Facebook are bridges to other travel sites, sites where purchasing decisions are made.
A 2007 study by ComScore focused on Google searches indicated consumers visit a travel site with surprising frequency before making a purchase on the same site, an average of 2.5 times over 29 days. In fact, the average consumer does 12 searches and visits numerous sites in comparing pricing, destination and other factors. Also true: travel is considered one of the most competitive sectors on the web in terms of comparison shopping. With customers visiting multiple times and taking 29 days on average to make a purchase, reviews on major sites such as Expedia, Priceline, Trip Advisor, Travelocity and Orbitz may be seen multiple times by a visitor in the buying cycle.
This argues for dynamic content, requiring frequent monitoring and encouragement. In this process, one cannot focus on Trip Advisor alone. Added to Trip Advisor should be the monitoring of key revenue generating sites. Revenue dollars produced by these sites are at risk from negative commentary. Each traveler review on a third party site rides the coat tails of the marketing dollars spent by that site, positively or negatively.
Buyers visiting third party sites are more likely to be shopping, not just networking. One might say these visitors become motivated by comments while visitors to social networking sites become interested. Thus, an unflattering comment on Expedia.com has the potential to stop a sale in a way that a negative photo or comment on Facebook may not. Monitoring a reputation online has value, but managing dynamic commentary within the buying cycle is essential to hotel performance.
Work smarter, not harder.
Often, discussion of the new dialogue between guests and hotels in the sphere of Web 2.0 is ruled by misunderstanding. Limiting the search is a start. Begin by knowing which third party sites generate revenue. For most hotels this involves Expedia, Travelocity, Orbitz, and Priceline. Add other sites that penetrate the sales cycle, such as TripAdvisor. Allow booking numbers and e-commerce production goals to determine your search emphasis because sites that produce revenue are critical to performance.
Automating your search may be the next step toward efficiency. Automated searches save hours of web surfing. Subscribe to a Web 2.0 service, making sure key sites are the focus and that all your results are viewed through a competitive lens for a reality check. In the final analysis, customers on key sites are comparing to other hotels, not just reading about your hotel.
Fight back.
Allowing negative comments to dominate any site in the reservations cycle is damaging. Fortunately, a hotel has weapons at its disposal to combat these perceptions.
1. Respond to comments where possible. On TripAdvisor.com, hotels are allowed to respond to customer comments. Hopefully, other sites will follow their lead in the future to create a consumer/supplier dialogue.
2. Use comments to improve service delivery. Obviously, the best way to combat bad comments is to prevent them from happening. This involves educating staff that every unhappy customer now has an Internet megaphone to use at your door. If negative comment cards are a concern, imagine posting all negative comments on the front desk—this is what the Internet allows. Open internal discussion of concerns is essential to prevention.
3. Encourage guest posting on sites. Although counter intuitive, encouraging participation liberates the majority of guests who have positive experiences to post on sites. Guests who book on third party sites may post on those sites. Other guests may be encouraged to post on critical open networking sites like TripAdvisor.com. Time after time, hotels that encourage posting find the positive outweighs the negative.
4. Do not allow stagnant content. Failing to respond to concerns on a site, where that is allowed, puts the hotel in a negative light. Having old content on a site, whether it is photography of a dated lobby, or a customer comment from 1 year ago as the most recent rating, makes a hotel look far less than dynamic. Updating photography, encouraging comments, and supporting traveler photos will make the hotel look “fresh” and active.
Being paranoid about customer “buzz” in the reviewsphere is pointless, like chasing clouds rather than following a clear path. Focusing on revenue generating and sales cycle sites is the key to sanity. Essentially, it is the difference between trying to listen to all the conversations in a crowded restaurant and talking to the person at your table.
Bottom line is- monitor where it matters.
Subscribe to the leading Web 2.0 solution- The Avalon BUZZ Report.
Monday, February 11, 2008
Sales Success And The “Art Of The Question” --- Eight Key Rules
By Dr. Rick Johnson
Saturday, 9th February 2008
Any successful sales strategy starts with the ability to understand the “Art of the Question”. It is imperative that you understand the customer’s needs and find their pain. That not only means asking lots of questions but it means asking the right kind of questions and then listening very carefully. If you become skilled at the “Art of Questioning”, you will be amazed at the information you can uncover.
Key Rules for the “Art of the Question”
Rule #1. Gain information. Don't assume anything when you are building relationship equity with a customer. Ask question after question until you completely understand your customer. The real value is not in the answer but in the ability to ask the right questions.
Rule #2. Check your relationship status and customer interest. Ask questions that uncover the customer’s attention level. Determine if they understand your value propositions. For example, ask whether they agree that your business relationship can help them increase profitability.
Rule #3. Determine buyer makeup. Ask questions to find out where the buyer is "coming from," if he is experienced, knows exactly what his needs are and understands how your products can be beneficial.
Rule #4. Encourage interaction so you can listen more. When you ask questions, you encourage the buyer to talk. This makes the buyer like you better-and helps you learn more about them personally and about their business. It's especially helpful to get the buyer to talk when you realize you have said something they didn't agree with or understand.
Rule #5. Share information. Sometimes you may want to provide information that will help your customer understand your products, your company and the value you provide. For example, you could ask, "Did you know that our product line is rated number one by Purchasing Magazine?”
Rule #6. Ask what they think. Questions that ask for someone's opinion not only provide knowledge, but also indicate that you are interested in what that person has to say. For example, ask, "If you could make a preseason buy with X terms, how much impact would that have on your growth and net profit.
Rule #7. Staying Focused. Key questions asked when the conversation seems to wander can get you back on track toward meeting your goals. Asking personal questions about a prospect to find a starting point is fine, but eventually you need to discuss the real reasons for meeting. Asking questions like "Can we get back to that issue you mentioned regarding your service problems? This will refocus attention on the important issues.
Rule #8. It’s not about you. Simply put, questions that make the customer feel important go a long way to strengthening your relationship. If the customer has mentioned any type of difficulty such as shortages, personnel issues or product quality issues from other suppliers don’t start puking all over them with a sales pitch. Ask them if they are having a rough day, a rough week. Ask if there is anything you can do to help. I once asked a customer what it would take to do business with him and he told me I needed to give him the product free. That led to further discussion and a consignment program that turned him into our largest account.
Questions can be Powerful
Asking the right question at the right time can be very powerful. Timing of questions and the types of questions are directly proportional to your relationship with the customer. Initial questions should all focus on developing your relationship equity with the customer. One of my very first mentors once said to me;
“Rick, if you call on a customer and talk for forty-five minutes telling him all about your products, your company and preach about features and benefits and he talks for fifteen minutes, when you leave he probably isn’t going to think you are a very good sales person no matter how good your presentation was. On the other hand, if you talk to him for fifteen minutes asking the right questions about his problems, his company, his goals and even his personal beliefs and family and you let him talk for forty-five minute, chances are he is going to think you are one of the best salesmen that ever called on him. How can he not think that when you just spent forty-five minutes listening to him tell you about his issues, his challenges, his problems, his company and even his family?”
Choose Your Questions Wisely
Do you remember some of your basic sales training when it comes to the types of questions to ask? As you recall, there are two basic types of questions. They are closed end questions and open end questions. The individual situation and type of information you are trying to get often dictates which type of question to use. However, during the initial relationship process, open ended questions should dominate.
Closed Ended Questions
Closed ended are restrictive questions that can be answered very quickly with a simple yes or no or a very limited response. This type of question is useful for obtaining a specific bit of information, data or validation. They are often used in the closing process as well. Examples include questions like:
Do you want me to order six or eight widgets for delivery next Tuesday?
Do you prefer our next appointment to be on Monday or Thursday?
Open Ended Questions
Open-ended questions do not lead the customer and they do not require a simple answer. Open ended questions seek to gain a better understanding of the customer by getting them to reveal much more about their objectives, needs, current situation and personality profile. Examples include questions like:
Can you explain to me exactly how your business generates new accounts?
How do you determine which business segments are going to get priority on resource allocations?
Can you tell me about the last time you missed productivity targets and how you got things back on track
It’s a Cake Walk
These are simple rules about a simple concept and yet it is amazing how many sales people, even experienced sales people forget to apply them. Sales is not easy especially when the economy is struggling. So ….. print these eight simple rules out and have your sales force keep them close at hand. Maybe just this little reminder may make a difference during these tough times when they are out trying to increase sales and gain market share.
Check out Rick’s new CD series and workbook “Unlocking the Secrets to Amazing Sales” @ http://www.ceostrategist.com/resources-store/unlocking-the-secrets-to-amazing-sales-incredible-profits.html It is a must addition for your sales training initiatives. Order today and get a bonus copy of Rick’s book “Turning Lone Wolves into Lead Wolves ----56 ideas to maximize sales.
www.ceostrategist.com – Sign up to receive “The Howl” a free monthly newsletter that addresses real world industry issues and receive complimentary copies of the “Lead Wolf Interview Guide & “Sales Training 101”. Rick Johnson, expert speaker, wholesale distribution’s “Leadership Strategist”, founder of CEO Strategist, LLC a firm that has helped hundreds of clients create and maintain competitive advantage. Need a speaker for your next event, E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com . Don’t forget to check out the Lead Wolf Series that can help you put more profit into your business.
Saturday, 9th February 2008
Any successful sales strategy starts with the ability to understand the “Art of the Question”. It is imperative that you understand the customer’s needs and find their pain. That not only means asking lots of questions but it means asking the right kind of questions and then listening very carefully. If you become skilled at the “Art of Questioning”, you will be amazed at the information you can uncover.
Key Rules for the “Art of the Question”
Rule #1. Gain information. Don't assume anything when you are building relationship equity with a customer. Ask question after question until you completely understand your customer. The real value is not in the answer but in the ability to ask the right questions.
Rule #2. Check your relationship status and customer interest. Ask questions that uncover the customer’s attention level. Determine if they understand your value propositions. For example, ask whether they agree that your business relationship can help them increase profitability.
Rule #3. Determine buyer makeup. Ask questions to find out where the buyer is "coming from," if he is experienced, knows exactly what his needs are and understands how your products can be beneficial.
Rule #4. Encourage interaction so you can listen more. When you ask questions, you encourage the buyer to talk. This makes the buyer like you better-and helps you learn more about them personally and about their business. It's especially helpful to get the buyer to talk when you realize you have said something they didn't agree with or understand.
Rule #5. Share information. Sometimes you may want to provide information that will help your customer understand your products, your company and the value you provide. For example, you could ask, "Did you know that our product line is rated number one by Purchasing Magazine?”
Rule #6. Ask what they think. Questions that ask for someone's opinion not only provide knowledge, but also indicate that you are interested in what that person has to say. For example, ask, "If you could make a preseason buy with X terms, how much impact would that have on your growth and net profit.
Rule #7. Staying Focused. Key questions asked when the conversation seems to wander can get you back on track toward meeting your goals. Asking personal questions about a prospect to find a starting point is fine, but eventually you need to discuss the real reasons for meeting. Asking questions like "Can we get back to that issue you mentioned regarding your service problems? This will refocus attention on the important issues.
Rule #8. It’s not about you. Simply put, questions that make the customer feel important go a long way to strengthening your relationship. If the customer has mentioned any type of difficulty such as shortages, personnel issues or product quality issues from other suppliers don’t start puking all over them with a sales pitch. Ask them if they are having a rough day, a rough week. Ask if there is anything you can do to help. I once asked a customer what it would take to do business with him and he told me I needed to give him the product free. That led to further discussion and a consignment program that turned him into our largest account.
Questions can be Powerful
Asking the right question at the right time can be very powerful. Timing of questions and the types of questions are directly proportional to your relationship with the customer. Initial questions should all focus on developing your relationship equity with the customer. One of my very first mentors once said to me;
“Rick, if you call on a customer and talk for forty-five minutes telling him all about your products, your company and preach about features and benefits and he talks for fifteen minutes, when you leave he probably isn’t going to think you are a very good sales person no matter how good your presentation was. On the other hand, if you talk to him for fifteen minutes asking the right questions about his problems, his company, his goals and even his personal beliefs and family and you let him talk for forty-five minute, chances are he is going to think you are one of the best salesmen that ever called on him. How can he not think that when you just spent forty-five minutes listening to him tell you about his issues, his challenges, his problems, his company and even his family?”
Choose Your Questions Wisely
Do you remember some of your basic sales training when it comes to the types of questions to ask? As you recall, there are two basic types of questions. They are closed end questions and open end questions. The individual situation and type of information you are trying to get often dictates which type of question to use. However, during the initial relationship process, open ended questions should dominate.
Closed Ended Questions
Closed ended are restrictive questions that can be answered very quickly with a simple yes or no or a very limited response. This type of question is useful for obtaining a specific bit of information, data or validation. They are often used in the closing process as well. Examples include questions like:
Do you want me to order six or eight widgets for delivery next Tuesday?
Do you prefer our next appointment to be on Monday or Thursday?
Open Ended Questions
Open-ended questions do not lead the customer and they do not require a simple answer. Open ended questions seek to gain a better understanding of the customer by getting them to reveal much more about their objectives, needs, current situation and personality profile. Examples include questions like:
Can you explain to me exactly how your business generates new accounts?
How do you determine which business segments are going to get priority on resource allocations?
Can you tell me about the last time you missed productivity targets and how you got things back on track
It’s a Cake Walk
These are simple rules about a simple concept and yet it is amazing how many sales people, even experienced sales people forget to apply them. Sales is not easy especially when the economy is struggling. So ….. print these eight simple rules out and have your sales force keep them close at hand. Maybe just this little reminder may make a difference during these tough times when they are out trying to increase sales and gain market share.
Check out Rick’s new CD series and workbook “Unlocking the Secrets to Amazing Sales” @ http://www.ceostrategist.com/resources-store/unlocking-the-secrets-to-amazing-sales-incredible-profits.html It is a must addition for your sales training initiatives. Order today and get a bonus copy of Rick’s book “Turning Lone Wolves into Lead Wolves ----56 ideas to maximize sales.
www.ceostrategist.com – Sign up to receive “The Howl” a free monthly newsletter that addresses real world industry issues and receive complimentary copies of the “Lead Wolf Interview Guide & “Sales Training 101”. Rick Johnson, expert speaker, wholesale distribution’s “Leadership Strategist”, founder of CEO Strategist, LLC a firm that has helped hundreds of clients create and maintain competitive advantage. Need a speaker for your next event, E-mail rick@ceostrategist.com . Don’t forget to check out the Lead Wolf Series that can help you put more profit into your business.
Tuesday, February 05, 2008
Five Predictions About The Future of The Long Tail in Travel - By Bob Offutt, Senior Technology Analyst, PhoCusWright Inc
The Long Tail is a positive force, holding great promise for travel, tourism and hospitality. Yet, it also has the potential to become a major market disruptor in travel distribution.
There are already warning signs that the democratization of travel content is enabling new competitors and value equations at the expense of the Head, the traditional air/car/hotel/cruise channel. With air travel becoming a commodity, metasearch enabling airlines to compete effectively with travel agencies (both brick-and-mortar and online), and the airlines squeezing the distribution channel financially (e.g., with full content deals, surcharge threats, elimination of commissions), the old value equation is at risk. It is time for something new.
Philip Wolf, president and CEO of PhoCusWright, in his article 'The Long Tail and Travel', outlined the following five tenets for realizing the power of the Internet in travel distribution:
• The little guy's (product, channel, site, business) influence is significant
• The sum of the niches is embraced
• The 80/20 rule is debunked ('law of the vital few')
• The size of your reputation matters more than the size of your marketing budget
• Distressed, 'out of print' or discontinued product now has value
Now, PhoCusWright offers five predictions about the future of the Long Tail in the travel distribution industry:
1) The Long Tail era will drive a new economy.
GLOBAL CONTENT WILL BE EASY TO PUT INTO THE SUPPLY CHAIN.
Historically, the travel distribution channel was the domain of large suppliers. Reservations systems were complex and unwieldy, requiring significant investments in hardware, software and connectivity. It took days or weeks of training to learn to use the green screen suppliers employed 15 years ago to place their information in a GDS. Today, making content available globally is accomplished with a Web site and a simple editor. Large airlines still use intermediaries (the OAG and Airline Tariff Publishing Company) to distribute their fares and rules, but the smaller ones, who rely heavily on the Web for distribution, use their own Web sites and metasearch to attract customers. It is the large airlines' desire to retain complexity in their pricing, sustaining the complicated and expensive process that they continue to use.
PRACTICAL, LOW COST RESERVATION/CONFIRMATION SYSTEMS WILL EXPAND BOOKABLE CONTENT.
There are low cost and shareware packages that provide the capability for a small travel supplier to accept and confirm reservations online. With the low cost of hardware, it only takes a small investment to put a simple reservation system online. We are seeing a proliferation of these systems from parking reservations to dining, bed and breakfast (B&B) reservations, preshipped luggage, weather, traffic, flight information and event tickets.
MECHANISMS WILL BE IN PLACE FOR THE COLLECTION AND DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS.
In the past, funds collection and credit card clearance were huge barriers for commerce sites, but with players like Paypal and Google Checkout, this is much less an issue.
MEDIA AND "NEW" COMMERCE SITES THAT WILL BOTH HAVE A PLACE IN THE LONG TAIL WORLD.
The travel distribution industry has struggled for years trying to figure out how to monetize non-commerce activity. For commerce, it had always been the booking fee, the incentive, the commission, the override and more recently, the service fee. Other information like flight arrival and departure details or weather at a destination was thrown in for free as a cost of doing business. Now with the advent of media sites that are supported via some form of advertising model, sites with content such as weather, traffic, flight statistics and even seat configurations can be economically sustained. While quality individual sites are in place, the value is in the aggregation.
THE LONG TAIL WILL FOLLOW INTERNET PENETRATION.
The Internet is a global phenomena. Yes, but... the Long Tail can only be sustained where the infrastructure exists to support it. This is different for different types of content. For example, for an individual to take advantage of the Long Tail in the music distribution industry, all that is required is an Internet capable MP3 player and access to a single music aggregation site. A person in India can easily download music from iTunes to his MP3 player. However, if the same person wants to plan a trip in India and to make reservations, each supplier (or intermediary), for example, requires reservations software, Internet presence, the ability to collect payments charged against a credit card. In addition, the traveler needs facilities to print an itinerary. In many developing countries, telecommunications and facilities infrastructure is not capable of supporting this. Thus, the provisioning of the Long Tail in travel will follow the development of the necessary supporting infrastructure.
2) The Long Tail facilitators - content provisioners, software suppliers and ASPs - are in pivotal positions.
The commercialization of the Long Tail presents major opportunities for facilitators. While there are existing software packages, as needs mature, there will be opportunities for more complex capability and custom development.
Many businesses will not want to compete directly on the Internet and instead would prefer to have an intermediary to handle the details. Viator, which has content from over 500 destinations worldwide, has been extremely successful at this, while Gullivers Travel Associates works with over 35,000 ground product suppliers globally. On the reverse side, points of sale may not want to deal with thousands of suppliers and would prefer to deal with an aggregator. Smaller points of sale may not want the overhead of their own technology and would prefer to outsource this to a third party. This strategy appears to be working quite well in the dynamic packaging area. There is also a significant opportunity to target specialty markets such as road trips, the vacation - drive market, still the largest single leisure segment in the U.S.
Enabling, supporting and developing the travel Long Tail represents a great opportunity for a new generation of aggregators, software developers and application service providers.
3) Technology and standards will evolve.
The glue that held the traditional travel distribution industry together was standard data formats for intercommunication. To enable the new era of Internet-based distribution, these were updated in XML (extensible markup language) by the Open Travel Alliance. Unfortunately, the bulk of the activity was focused on the Air/Car/Hotel/Cruise industry and the majority of the developed standards (with a few exceptions) focused on sustaining the Head, not enabling the Long Tail. Even the Head suffered because these standards were complex, often required significant technology investment to implement and were often employed inconsistently. This would suggest there is little hope for developing true standards in 'the Tail.' Yet key Long Tail players such as Rearden Commerce, are already forging ahead, establishing defacto standards for suppliers. Aggregators such as Viator, Gullivers Travel Associates (now owned by TravelPort) and Rearden mask the complexity and provide an easy-to-use interface to points of sale. As the Long Tail expands, standards will develop, giving it even more momentum. This is critical if the Long Tail benefits are to be fully realized.
4) The democratization of supply will open up new marketing and packaging opportunities.
The lack of data and interconnect standards provides an opportunity for a new breed of market dominators. GDSs have dominated the travel distribution marketplace for the past 25 years. Their major airline-sponsored software and hardware systems have virtually controlled the distribution channel. Now with economic pressures from airlines, legacy technology and loss of air bookings to supplier-direct channels, the GDSs are struggling to sustain their economic position with the Head content. In the meantime, online travel agencies and travel management companies (TMCs) are developing or implementing new platforms that aggregate content from multiple sources, only one of which is the GDS. These companies have the potential to be the new intermediaries, drawing on a rich supply of Long Tail content, either directly or through aggregators such as Viator, Gullivers and Rearden.
This is the next wave of travel distribution but not the last. As Long Tail sales grow, then it will move to the Head and a new Long Tail will emerge.
5) The success of the Long Tail in travel is directly proportional to the quality of search - making metasearch, geographically-oriented search and vertical search key enablers.
To utilize content in the Long Tail, you need to be able to get to it. Search engines are the 'railroads' of Long Tail content. You have to be able to find it. Today's search engines generally provide too much detail to be useful. Searching for 'B&B in Napa Valley' yields 270,000 results in Google, while Yahoo! does a little better with only 94,000. There are a few embryonic efforts to provide vertical search, but these are relatively shallow and only seem to hit major destinations. Going forward, effective search will be the greatest opportunity for/impediment to the success of the Long Tail in travel.
Come join us at The PhoCusWright Conference in Orlando (November 12-15) where we will explore search and many other topics that are relevant to the movers and shakers of the Long Tail era.
Copyright 2007 PhoCusWright Inc., Sherman, CT USA +1 860 350-4084
All rights reserved.
This article comes from Hotel News Resource
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com
The URL for this story is:
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article28826.html
There are already warning signs that the democratization of travel content is enabling new competitors and value equations at the expense of the Head, the traditional air/car/hotel/cruise channel. With air travel becoming a commodity, metasearch enabling airlines to compete effectively with travel agencies (both brick-and-mortar and online), and the airlines squeezing the distribution channel financially (e.g., with full content deals, surcharge threats, elimination of commissions), the old value equation is at risk. It is time for something new.
Philip Wolf, president and CEO of PhoCusWright, in his article 'The Long Tail and Travel', outlined the following five tenets for realizing the power of the Internet in travel distribution:
• The little guy's (product, channel, site, business) influence is significant
• The sum of the niches is embraced
• The 80/20 rule is debunked ('law of the vital few')
• The size of your reputation matters more than the size of your marketing budget
• Distressed, 'out of print' or discontinued product now has value
Now, PhoCusWright offers five predictions about the future of the Long Tail in the travel distribution industry:
1) The Long Tail era will drive a new economy.
GLOBAL CONTENT WILL BE EASY TO PUT INTO THE SUPPLY CHAIN.
Historically, the travel distribution channel was the domain of large suppliers. Reservations systems were complex and unwieldy, requiring significant investments in hardware, software and connectivity. It took days or weeks of training to learn to use the green screen suppliers employed 15 years ago to place their information in a GDS. Today, making content available globally is accomplished with a Web site and a simple editor. Large airlines still use intermediaries (the OAG and Airline Tariff Publishing Company) to distribute their fares and rules, but the smaller ones, who rely heavily on the Web for distribution, use their own Web sites and metasearch to attract customers. It is the large airlines' desire to retain complexity in their pricing, sustaining the complicated and expensive process that they continue to use.
PRACTICAL, LOW COST RESERVATION/CONFIRMATION SYSTEMS WILL EXPAND BOOKABLE CONTENT.
There are low cost and shareware packages that provide the capability for a small travel supplier to accept and confirm reservations online. With the low cost of hardware, it only takes a small investment to put a simple reservation system online. We are seeing a proliferation of these systems from parking reservations to dining, bed and breakfast (B&B) reservations, preshipped luggage, weather, traffic, flight information and event tickets.
MECHANISMS WILL BE IN PLACE FOR THE COLLECTION AND DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS.
In the past, funds collection and credit card clearance were huge barriers for commerce sites, but with players like Paypal and Google Checkout, this is much less an issue.
MEDIA AND "NEW" COMMERCE SITES THAT WILL BOTH HAVE A PLACE IN THE LONG TAIL WORLD.
The travel distribution industry has struggled for years trying to figure out how to monetize non-commerce activity. For commerce, it had always been the booking fee, the incentive, the commission, the override and more recently, the service fee. Other information like flight arrival and departure details or weather at a destination was thrown in for free as a cost of doing business. Now with the advent of media sites that are supported via some form of advertising model, sites with content such as weather, traffic, flight statistics and even seat configurations can be economically sustained. While quality individual sites are in place, the value is in the aggregation.
THE LONG TAIL WILL FOLLOW INTERNET PENETRATION.
The Internet is a global phenomena. Yes, but... the Long Tail can only be sustained where the infrastructure exists to support it. This is different for different types of content. For example, for an individual to take advantage of the Long Tail in the music distribution industry, all that is required is an Internet capable MP3 player and access to a single music aggregation site. A person in India can easily download music from iTunes to his MP3 player. However, if the same person wants to plan a trip in India and to make reservations, each supplier (or intermediary), for example, requires reservations software, Internet presence, the ability to collect payments charged against a credit card. In addition, the traveler needs facilities to print an itinerary. In many developing countries, telecommunications and facilities infrastructure is not capable of supporting this. Thus, the provisioning of the Long Tail in travel will follow the development of the necessary supporting infrastructure.
2) The Long Tail facilitators - content provisioners, software suppliers and ASPs - are in pivotal positions.
The commercialization of the Long Tail presents major opportunities for facilitators. While there are existing software packages, as needs mature, there will be opportunities for more complex capability and custom development.
Many businesses will not want to compete directly on the Internet and instead would prefer to have an intermediary to handle the details. Viator, which has content from over 500 destinations worldwide, has been extremely successful at this, while Gullivers Travel Associates works with over 35,000 ground product suppliers globally. On the reverse side, points of sale may not want to deal with thousands of suppliers and would prefer to deal with an aggregator. Smaller points of sale may not want the overhead of their own technology and would prefer to outsource this to a third party. This strategy appears to be working quite well in the dynamic packaging area. There is also a significant opportunity to target specialty markets such as road trips, the vacation - drive market, still the largest single leisure segment in the U.S.
Enabling, supporting and developing the travel Long Tail represents a great opportunity for a new generation of aggregators, software developers and application service providers.
3) Technology and standards will evolve.
The glue that held the traditional travel distribution industry together was standard data formats for intercommunication. To enable the new era of Internet-based distribution, these were updated in XML (extensible markup language) by the Open Travel Alliance. Unfortunately, the bulk of the activity was focused on the Air/Car/Hotel/Cruise industry and the majority of the developed standards (with a few exceptions) focused on sustaining the Head, not enabling the Long Tail. Even the Head suffered because these standards were complex, often required significant technology investment to implement and were often employed inconsistently. This would suggest there is little hope for developing true standards in 'the Tail.' Yet key Long Tail players such as Rearden Commerce, are already forging ahead, establishing defacto standards for suppliers. Aggregators such as Viator, Gullivers Travel Associates (now owned by TravelPort) and Rearden mask the complexity and provide an easy-to-use interface to points of sale. As the Long Tail expands, standards will develop, giving it even more momentum. This is critical if the Long Tail benefits are to be fully realized.
4) The democratization of supply will open up new marketing and packaging opportunities.
The lack of data and interconnect standards provides an opportunity for a new breed of market dominators. GDSs have dominated the travel distribution marketplace for the past 25 years. Their major airline-sponsored software and hardware systems have virtually controlled the distribution channel. Now with economic pressures from airlines, legacy technology and loss of air bookings to supplier-direct channels, the GDSs are struggling to sustain their economic position with the Head content. In the meantime, online travel agencies and travel management companies (TMCs) are developing or implementing new platforms that aggregate content from multiple sources, only one of which is the GDS. These companies have the potential to be the new intermediaries, drawing on a rich supply of Long Tail content, either directly or through aggregators such as Viator, Gullivers and Rearden.
This is the next wave of travel distribution but not the last. As Long Tail sales grow, then it will move to the Head and a new Long Tail will emerge.
5) The success of the Long Tail in travel is directly proportional to the quality of search - making metasearch, geographically-oriented search and vertical search key enablers.
To utilize content in the Long Tail, you need to be able to get to it. Search engines are the 'railroads' of Long Tail content. You have to be able to find it. Today's search engines generally provide too much detail to be useful. Searching for 'B&B in Napa Valley' yields 270,000 results in Google, while Yahoo! does a little better with only 94,000. There are a few embryonic efforts to provide vertical search, but these are relatively shallow and only seem to hit major destinations. Going forward, effective search will be the greatest opportunity for/impediment to the success of the Long Tail in travel.
Come join us at The PhoCusWright Conference in Orlando (November 12-15) where we will explore search and many other topics that are relevant to the movers and shakers of the Long Tail era.
Copyright 2007 PhoCusWright Inc., Sherman, CT USA +1 860 350-4084
All rights reserved.
This article comes from Hotel News Resource
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com
The URL for this story is:
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article28826.html
Five Predictions About The Future of The Long Tail in Travel - By Bob Offutt, Senior Technology Analyst, PhoCusWright Inc
The Long Tail is a positive force, holding great promise for travel, tourism and hospitality. Yet, it also has the potential to become a major market disruptor in travel distribution.
There are already warning signs that the democratization of travel content is enabling new competitors and value equations at the expense of the Head, the traditional air/car/hotel/cruise channel. With air travel becoming a commodity, metasearch enabling airlines to compete effectively with travel agencies (both brick-and-mortar and online), and the airlines squeezing the distribution channel financially (e.g., with full content deals, surcharge threats, elimination of commissions), the old value equation is at risk. It is time for something new.
Philip Wolf, president and CEO of PhoCusWright, in his article 'The Long Tail and Travel', outlined the following five tenets for realizing the power of the Internet in travel distribution:
• The little guy's (product, channel, site, business) influence is significant
• The sum of the niches is embraced
• The 80/20 rule is debunked ('law of the vital few')
• The size of your reputation matters more than the size of your marketing budget
• Distressed, 'out of print' or discontinued product now has value
Now, PhoCusWright offers five predictions about the future of the Long Tail in the travel distribution industry:
1) The Long Tail era will drive a new economy.
GLOBAL CONTENT WILL BE EASY TO PUT INTO THE SUPPLY CHAIN.
Historically, the travel distribution channel was the domain of large suppliers. Reservations systems were complex and unwieldy, requiring significant investments in hardware, software and connectivity. It took days or weeks of training to learn to use the green screen suppliers employed 15 years ago to place their information in a GDS. Today, making content available globally is accomplished with a Web site and a simple editor. Large airlines still use intermediaries (the OAG and Airline Tariff Publishing Company) to distribute their fares and rules, but the smaller ones, who rely heavily on the Web for distribution, use their own Web sites and metasearch to attract customers. It is the large airlines' desire to retain complexity in their pricing, sustaining the complicated and expensive process that they continue to use.
PRACTICAL, LOW COST RESERVATION/CONFIRMATION SYSTEMS WILL EXPAND BOOKABLE CONTENT.
There are low cost and shareware packages that provide the capability for a small travel supplier to accept and confirm reservations online. With the low cost of hardware, it only takes a small investment to put a simple reservation system online. We are seeing a proliferation of these systems from parking reservations to dining, bed and breakfast (B&B) reservations, preshipped luggage, weather, traffic, flight information and event tickets.
MECHANISMS WILL BE IN PLACE FOR THE COLLECTION AND DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS.
In the past, funds collection and credit card clearance were huge barriers for commerce sites, but with players like Paypal and Google Checkout, this is much less an issue.
MEDIA AND "NEW" COMMERCE SITES THAT WILL BOTH HAVE A PLACE IN THE LONG TAIL WORLD.
The travel distribution industry has struggled for years trying to figure out how to monetize non-commerce activity. For commerce, it had always been the booking fee, the incentive, the commission, the override and more recently, the service fee. Other information like flight arrival and departure details or weather at a destination was thrown in for free as a cost of doing business. Now with the advent of media sites that are supported via some form of advertising model, sites with content such as weather, traffic, flight statistics and even seat configurations can be economically sustained. While quality individual sites are in place, the value is in the aggregation.
THE LONG TAIL WILL FOLLOW INTERNET PENETRATION.
The Internet is a global phenomena. Yes, but... the Long Tail can only be sustained where the infrastructure exists to support it. This is different for different types of content. For example, for an individual to take advantage of the Long Tail in the music distribution industry, all that is required is an Internet capable MP3 player and access to a single music aggregation site. A person in India can easily download music from iTunes to his MP3 player. However, if the same person wants to plan a trip in India and to make reservations, each supplier (or intermediary), for example, requires reservations software, Internet presence, the ability to collect payments charged against a credit card. In addition, the traveler needs facilities to print an itinerary. In many developing countries, telecommunications and facilities infrastructure is not capable of supporting this. Thus, the provisioning of the Long Tail in travel will follow the development of the necessary supporting infrastructure.
2) The Long Tail facilitators - content provisioners, software suppliers and ASPs - are in pivotal positions.
The commercialization of the Long Tail presents major opportunities for facilitators. While there are existing software packages, as needs mature, there will be opportunities for more complex capability and custom development.
Many businesses will not want to compete directly on the Internet and instead would prefer to have an intermediary to handle the details. Viator, which has content from over 500 destinations worldwide, has been extremely successful at this, while Gullivers Travel Associates works with over 35,000 ground product suppliers globally. On the reverse side, points of sale may not want to deal with thousands of suppliers and would prefer to deal with an aggregator. Smaller points of sale may not want the overhead of their own technology and would prefer to outsource this to a third party. This strategy appears to be working quite well in the dynamic packaging area. There is also a significant opportunity to target specialty markets such as road trips, the vacation - drive market, still the largest single leisure segment in the U.S.
Enabling, supporting and developing the travel Long Tail represents a great opportunity for a new generation of aggregators, software developers and application service providers.
3) Technology and standards will evolve.
The glue that held the traditional travel distribution industry together was standard data formats for intercommunication. To enable the new era of Internet-based distribution, these were updated in XML (extensible markup language) by the Open Travel Alliance. Unfortunately, the bulk of the activity was focused on the Air/Car/Hotel/Cruise industry and the majority of the developed standards (with a few exceptions) focused on sustaining the Head, not enabling the Long Tail. Even the Head suffered because these standards were complex, often required significant technology investment to implement and were often employed inconsistently. This would suggest there is little hope for developing true standards in 'the Tail.' Yet key Long Tail players such as Rearden Commerce, are already forging ahead, establishing defacto standards for suppliers. Aggregators such as Viator, Gullivers Travel Associates (now owned by TravelPort) and Rearden mask the complexity and provide an easy-to-use interface to points of sale. As the Long Tail expands, standards will develop, giving it even more momentum. This is critical if the Long Tail benefits are to be fully realized.
4) The democratization of supply will open up new marketing and packaging opportunities.
The lack of data and interconnect standards provides an opportunity for a new breed of market dominators. GDSs have dominated the travel distribution marketplace for the past 25 years. Their major airline-sponsored software and hardware systems have virtually controlled the distribution channel. Now with economic pressures from airlines, legacy technology and loss of air bookings to supplier-direct channels, the GDSs are struggling to sustain their economic position with the Head content. In the meantime, online travel agencies and travel management companies (TMCs) are developing or implementing new platforms that aggregate content from multiple sources, only one of which is the GDS. These companies have the potential to be the new intermediaries, drawing on a rich supply of Long Tail content, either directly or through aggregators such as Viator, Gullivers and Rearden.
This is the next wave of travel distribution but not the last. As Long Tail sales grow, then it will move to the Head and a new Long Tail will emerge.
5) The success of the Long Tail in travel is directly proportional to the quality of search - making metasearch, geographically-oriented search and vertical search key enablers.
To utilize content in the Long Tail, you need to be able to get to it. Search engines are the 'railroads' of Long Tail content. You have to be able to find it. Today's search engines generally provide too much detail to be useful. Searching for 'B&B in Napa Valley' yields 270,000 results in Google, while Yahoo! does a little better with only 94,000. There are a few embryonic efforts to provide vertical search, but these are relatively shallow and only seem to hit major destinations. Going forward, effective search will be the greatest opportunity for/impediment to the success of the Long Tail in travel.
Come join us at The PhoCusWright Conference in Orlando (November 12-15) where we will explore search and many other topics that are relevant to the movers and shakers of the Long Tail era.
Copyright 2007 PhoCusWright Inc., Sherman, CT USA +1 860 350-4084
All rights reserved.
This article comes from Hotel News Resource
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com
The URL for this story is:
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article28826.html
There are already warning signs that the democratization of travel content is enabling new competitors and value equations at the expense of the Head, the traditional air/car/hotel/cruise channel. With air travel becoming a commodity, metasearch enabling airlines to compete effectively with travel agencies (both brick-and-mortar and online), and the airlines squeezing the distribution channel financially (e.g., with full content deals, surcharge threats, elimination of commissions), the old value equation is at risk. It is time for something new.
Philip Wolf, president and CEO of PhoCusWright, in his article 'The Long Tail and Travel', outlined the following five tenets for realizing the power of the Internet in travel distribution:
• The little guy's (product, channel, site, business) influence is significant
• The sum of the niches is embraced
• The 80/20 rule is debunked ('law of the vital few')
• The size of your reputation matters more than the size of your marketing budget
• Distressed, 'out of print' or discontinued product now has value
Now, PhoCusWright offers five predictions about the future of the Long Tail in the travel distribution industry:
1) The Long Tail era will drive a new economy.
GLOBAL CONTENT WILL BE EASY TO PUT INTO THE SUPPLY CHAIN.
Historically, the travel distribution channel was the domain of large suppliers. Reservations systems were complex and unwieldy, requiring significant investments in hardware, software and connectivity. It took days or weeks of training to learn to use the green screen suppliers employed 15 years ago to place their information in a GDS. Today, making content available globally is accomplished with a Web site and a simple editor. Large airlines still use intermediaries (the OAG and Airline Tariff Publishing Company) to distribute their fares and rules, but the smaller ones, who rely heavily on the Web for distribution, use their own Web sites and metasearch to attract customers. It is the large airlines' desire to retain complexity in their pricing, sustaining the complicated and expensive process that they continue to use.
PRACTICAL, LOW COST RESERVATION/CONFIRMATION SYSTEMS WILL EXPAND BOOKABLE CONTENT.
There are low cost and shareware packages that provide the capability for a small travel supplier to accept and confirm reservations online. With the low cost of hardware, it only takes a small investment to put a simple reservation system online. We are seeing a proliferation of these systems from parking reservations to dining, bed and breakfast (B&B) reservations, preshipped luggage, weather, traffic, flight information and event tickets.
MECHANISMS WILL BE IN PLACE FOR THE COLLECTION AND DISBURSEMENT OF FUNDS.
In the past, funds collection and credit card clearance were huge barriers for commerce sites, but with players like Paypal and Google Checkout, this is much less an issue.
MEDIA AND "NEW" COMMERCE SITES THAT WILL BOTH HAVE A PLACE IN THE LONG TAIL WORLD.
The travel distribution industry has struggled for years trying to figure out how to monetize non-commerce activity. For commerce, it had always been the booking fee, the incentive, the commission, the override and more recently, the service fee. Other information like flight arrival and departure details or weather at a destination was thrown in for free as a cost of doing business. Now with the advent of media sites that are supported via some form of advertising model, sites with content such as weather, traffic, flight statistics and even seat configurations can be economically sustained. While quality individual sites are in place, the value is in the aggregation.
THE LONG TAIL WILL FOLLOW INTERNET PENETRATION.
The Internet is a global phenomena. Yes, but... the Long Tail can only be sustained where the infrastructure exists to support it. This is different for different types of content. For example, for an individual to take advantage of the Long Tail in the music distribution industry, all that is required is an Internet capable MP3 player and access to a single music aggregation site. A person in India can easily download music from iTunes to his MP3 player. However, if the same person wants to plan a trip in India and to make reservations, each supplier (or intermediary), for example, requires reservations software, Internet presence, the ability to collect payments charged against a credit card. In addition, the traveler needs facilities to print an itinerary. In many developing countries, telecommunications and facilities infrastructure is not capable of supporting this. Thus, the provisioning of the Long Tail in travel will follow the development of the necessary supporting infrastructure.
2) The Long Tail facilitators - content provisioners, software suppliers and ASPs - are in pivotal positions.
The commercialization of the Long Tail presents major opportunities for facilitators. While there are existing software packages, as needs mature, there will be opportunities for more complex capability and custom development.
Many businesses will not want to compete directly on the Internet and instead would prefer to have an intermediary to handle the details. Viator, which has content from over 500 destinations worldwide, has been extremely successful at this, while Gullivers Travel Associates works with over 35,000 ground product suppliers globally. On the reverse side, points of sale may not want to deal with thousands of suppliers and would prefer to deal with an aggregator. Smaller points of sale may not want the overhead of their own technology and would prefer to outsource this to a third party. This strategy appears to be working quite well in the dynamic packaging area. There is also a significant opportunity to target specialty markets such as road trips, the vacation - drive market, still the largest single leisure segment in the U.S.
Enabling, supporting and developing the travel Long Tail represents a great opportunity for a new generation of aggregators, software developers and application service providers.
3) Technology and standards will evolve.
The glue that held the traditional travel distribution industry together was standard data formats for intercommunication. To enable the new era of Internet-based distribution, these were updated in XML (extensible markup language) by the Open Travel Alliance. Unfortunately, the bulk of the activity was focused on the Air/Car/Hotel/Cruise industry and the majority of the developed standards (with a few exceptions) focused on sustaining the Head, not enabling the Long Tail. Even the Head suffered because these standards were complex, often required significant technology investment to implement and were often employed inconsistently. This would suggest there is little hope for developing true standards in 'the Tail.' Yet key Long Tail players such as Rearden Commerce, are already forging ahead, establishing defacto standards for suppliers. Aggregators such as Viator, Gullivers Travel Associates (now owned by TravelPort) and Rearden mask the complexity and provide an easy-to-use interface to points of sale. As the Long Tail expands, standards will develop, giving it even more momentum. This is critical if the Long Tail benefits are to be fully realized.
4) The democratization of supply will open up new marketing and packaging opportunities.
The lack of data and interconnect standards provides an opportunity for a new breed of market dominators. GDSs have dominated the travel distribution marketplace for the past 25 years. Their major airline-sponsored software and hardware systems have virtually controlled the distribution channel. Now with economic pressures from airlines, legacy technology and loss of air bookings to supplier-direct channels, the GDSs are struggling to sustain their economic position with the Head content. In the meantime, online travel agencies and travel management companies (TMCs) are developing or implementing new platforms that aggregate content from multiple sources, only one of which is the GDS. These companies have the potential to be the new intermediaries, drawing on a rich supply of Long Tail content, either directly or through aggregators such as Viator, Gullivers and Rearden.
This is the next wave of travel distribution but not the last. As Long Tail sales grow, then it will move to the Head and a new Long Tail will emerge.
5) The success of the Long Tail in travel is directly proportional to the quality of search - making metasearch, geographically-oriented search and vertical search key enablers.
To utilize content in the Long Tail, you need to be able to get to it. Search engines are the 'railroads' of Long Tail content. You have to be able to find it. Today's search engines generally provide too much detail to be useful. Searching for 'B&B in Napa Valley' yields 270,000 results in Google, while Yahoo! does a little better with only 94,000. There are a few embryonic efforts to provide vertical search, but these are relatively shallow and only seem to hit major destinations. Going forward, effective search will be the greatest opportunity for/impediment to the success of the Long Tail in travel.
Come join us at The PhoCusWright Conference in Orlando (November 12-15) where we will explore search and many other topics that are relevant to the movers and shakers of the Long Tail era.
Copyright 2007 PhoCusWright Inc., Sherman, CT USA +1 860 350-4084
All rights reserved.
This article comes from Hotel News Resource
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com
The URL for this story is:
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article28826.html
Wednesday, January 30, 2008
Hotels and airlines enter blogosphere, where travelers compare notes
Jane L. Levere - The New York Times Media Group
NEW YORK
It may be a little late to the game, but business travel is now the subject of a variety of blogs.
In the past two years, companies in the travel business, including Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Marriott International, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines, have introduced blogs to promote their products and brand images, as have business travelers who want to narrate their experiences and gripes.
One of the newest blogs intended to appeal to business travelers is BoardingArea.com, a portal created by Randy Petersen, a frequent flier program expert and founder of the online forum Flyer Talk.
Now in beta mode, meaning that it is still being tested before its official release, BoardingArea is essentially a directory to blogs that address issues of interest to business travelers.
Forrester Research said that in the second quarter of 2007, 21 percent of business travelers who use the Internet read blogs, not just on business travel, but also on sports, business, finance and other topics.
''This indicates that organizing a portal for business travel blogs, especially with good content, means the site has potential,'' said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst for Forrester.
Tracy Gamble, vice president of business development for Propylon, a software company, has found travel blogs to be a great resource. Gamble, who is based in Dallas and spends half her time traveling, reads three or four travel blogs regularly, including the Informed Traveler, Cloud Travel and Gridskipper.
''I regularly consult these blogs before making client dinner reservations,'' she said. She also uses them, she said, to keep up on travel news like changes in security procedures.
Last autumn, she said she was too busy to visit her own doctor to get a flu shot. But after reading a post on Gridskipper, she learned that she could get a shot at a kiosk in O'Hare International Airport. So in November, when on a layover at O'Hare, Gamble went to the kiosk and was done in 10 minutes.
''It gave me peace of mind,'' she said. ''A week before I sat on a seven-hour flight with a lot of sniffing and coughing types. If I'd seen the kiosk without having seen it on the blog, I wouldn't have stopped.''
Hotels, airlines and other companies in the travel business have also harnessed blogs to build customer loyalty, promote their brands and offer insights from their employees.
One of the most prominent bloggers is J.W. Marriott Jr., chairman and chief executive of Marriott International, who began a blog, Marriott on the Move, a year ago. It includes four or five posts a month and podcasts.
Marriott said he had tried to make his comments as personal as possible; for example, his post Wednesday discussed his and his family's experiences in the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
''I love it,'' he said. ''I read an awful lot of responses we're getting. It gives us a chance to communicate with the world and a chance for people to communicate back.''
The company considers Marriott on the Move a success now that it has attracted more than 345,000 visitors, almost a quarter from outside the United States. This year, the company plans to translate Marriott's posts and add the blog to its Web sites in Germany, China and Latin America. This month, it also started a second blog, Marriott in the Kitchen, written by Brad Nelson, its corporate chef.
Starwood started its blog, TheLobby.com, in April 2006 to provide information for participants in its Preferred Guest loyalty program. Chris Holdren, vice president of Starwood Preferred Guest and global Web services, said the tone of content had changed since the blog's introduction to allow the ''perspectives of the bloggers to be brought to life.'' These include four travel writers and some 70 Starwood employees.
Southwest Airlines has operated its staff-written blog, ''Nuts About Southwest,'' a name that refers to its in-flight snack of peanuts, since April 2006.
Blogs can also be a quick way for companies to gauge customer reaction to policies. Early last year, Bill Owen, a schedule planner at Southwest, wrote in a post that the airline sold its inventory only three months in advance. But after an outcry from customers, it changed its policy and now sells tickets at least four months in advance.
The blog had 500,000 unique visitors in 2007, said Linda Rutherford, vice president of public relations and community affairs at Southwest. Southwest expects that number to double this year.
Delta is one of the newer entrants to the blogosphere. It began blog.delta.com last August, which also has staff-written posts.
Delta is using the blog for market research. In the next month, it will post proposed screen shots for its ticket kiosks on the blog for feedback from travelers.
BoardingArea.com lists not only these travel company blogs and those published by daily newspapers, but also features nine blogs started by individual business travelers. Two of the nine blogs, View from the Wing and The Gate, had their start in Petersen's other frequent flier ventures.
Brett Snyder, director of new products for PriceGrabber.com, a comparison-shopping Web site, and author of the Cranky Flyer, one of the nine blogs featured on BoardingArea.com, hopes the portal will do more than earn him and Petersen money.
''It will help with exposure,'' Snyder said. ''Business travelers will be able to come and read not just my blog, but others. I'm a big fan of sharing traffic, getting conversations going across blogs.''
January 29, 2008
NEW YORK
It may be a little late to the game, but business travel is now the subject of a variety of blogs.
In the past two years, companies in the travel business, including Starwood Hotels & Resorts, Marriott International, Delta Air Lines and Southwest Airlines, have introduced blogs to promote their products and brand images, as have business travelers who want to narrate their experiences and gripes.
One of the newest blogs intended to appeal to business travelers is BoardingArea.com, a portal created by Randy Petersen, a frequent flier program expert and founder of the online forum Flyer Talk.
Now in beta mode, meaning that it is still being tested before its official release, BoardingArea is essentially a directory to blogs that address issues of interest to business travelers.
Forrester Research said that in the second quarter of 2007, 21 percent of business travelers who use the Internet read blogs, not just on business travel, but also on sports, business, finance and other topics.
''This indicates that organizing a portal for business travel blogs, especially with good content, means the site has potential,'' said Henry Harteveldt, a travel analyst for Forrester.
Tracy Gamble, vice president of business development for Propylon, a software company, has found travel blogs to be a great resource. Gamble, who is based in Dallas and spends half her time traveling, reads three or four travel blogs regularly, including the Informed Traveler, Cloud Travel and Gridskipper.
''I regularly consult these blogs before making client dinner reservations,'' she said. She also uses them, she said, to keep up on travel news like changes in security procedures.
Last autumn, she said she was too busy to visit her own doctor to get a flu shot. But after reading a post on Gridskipper, she learned that she could get a shot at a kiosk in O'Hare International Airport. So in November, when on a layover at O'Hare, Gamble went to the kiosk and was done in 10 minutes.
''It gave me peace of mind,'' she said. ''A week before I sat on a seven-hour flight with a lot of sniffing and coughing types. If I'd seen the kiosk without having seen it on the blog, I wouldn't have stopped.''
Hotels, airlines and other companies in the travel business have also harnessed blogs to build customer loyalty, promote their brands and offer insights from their employees.
One of the most prominent bloggers is J.W. Marriott Jr., chairman and chief executive of Marriott International, who began a blog, Marriott on the Move, a year ago. It includes four or five posts a month and podcasts.
Marriott said he had tried to make his comments as personal as possible; for example, his post Wednesday discussed his and his family's experiences in the Boy Scouts and Girl Scouts.
''I love it,'' he said. ''I read an awful lot of responses we're getting. It gives us a chance to communicate with the world and a chance for people to communicate back.''
The company considers Marriott on the Move a success now that it has attracted more than 345,000 visitors, almost a quarter from outside the United States. This year, the company plans to translate Marriott's posts and add the blog to its Web sites in Germany, China and Latin America. This month, it also started a second blog, Marriott in the Kitchen, written by Brad Nelson, its corporate chef.
Starwood started its blog, TheLobby.com, in April 2006 to provide information for participants in its Preferred Guest loyalty program. Chris Holdren, vice president of Starwood Preferred Guest and global Web services, said the tone of content had changed since the blog's introduction to allow the ''perspectives of the bloggers to be brought to life.'' These include four travel writers and some 70 Starwood employees.
Southwest Airlines has operated its staff-written blog, ''Nuts About Southwest,'' a name that refers to its in-flight snack of peanuts, since April 2006.
Blogs can also be a quick way for companies to gauge customer reaction to policies. Early last year, Bill Owen, a schedule planner at Southwest, wrote in a post that the airline sold its inventory only three months in advance. But after an outcry from customers, it changed its policy and now sells tickets at least four months in advance.
The blog had 500,000 unique visitors in 2007, said Linda Rutherford, vice president of public relations and community affairs at Southwest. Southwest expects that number to double this year.
Delta is one of the newer entrants to the blogosphere. It began blog.delta.com last August, which also has staff-written posts.
Delta is using the blog for market research. In the next month, it will post proposed screen shots for its ticket kiosks on the blog for feedback from travelers.
BoardingArea.com lists not only these travel company blogs and those published by daily newspapers, but also features nine blogs started by individual business travelers. Two of the nine blogs, View from the Wing and The Gate, had their start in Petersen's other frequent flier ventures.
Brett Snyder, director of new products for PriceGrabber.com, a comparison-shopping Web site, and author of the Cranky Flyer, one of the nine blogs featured on BoardingArea.com, hopes the portal will do more than earn him and Petersen money.
''It will help with exposure,'' Snyder said. ''Business travelers will be able to come and read not just my blog, but others. I'm a big fan of sharing traffic, getting conversations going across blogs.''
January 29, 2008
Sunday, January 27, 2008
Be Green: A Small Bag Change
Everyday a large number of consumers walk, bike, or drive to their local grocery store to purchase a variety of products. It seems that the local grocery store has now become the local buy anything and everything store.
The average household has a huge hoard of plastic grocery bags, flying out of every pantry and cupboard in their home. In recent years several provinces and states have put bans and controls on plastic shopping bags. These vary from a fee on each individual bag to discourage usage, to a complete ban on plastic grocery bags altogether.
Just recently there has been a few big moves which hopefully will have a large successful impact. One hopes these moves shall get people looking at the reality of a product that they are using and than disposing of without a thought.
China State Council has banned plastic shopping bags effective June 1st, 2008. In a recent story from CBC.ca on January 8th, 2008 CBC discusses the ban in China and other such related bans. The article states that worldwide on average, we throw away 500 billion plastic shopping bags annually that can take up to 1, 000 years to fully decompose.
The Oprah Winfrey recently aired January 3rd, 2008 a show called "It's Easy Being Green” . The episode discussed ways that we can help to have a clean environment. Just by making small changes in our day to day lives within and outside the household we can make the earth a healthier place for ourselves and the environment. The discussion talking about plastic shopping bags specifically stated that of the 500 billion plastic bags we thrown away in the world annually, 380 million of them are in the United States alone. It also discussed the fact that for a while people were trying to substitute paper bags for plastic ones, but in order to produce 10 billion paper bags we would have to be cutting down 14 million trees a year.
You might ask what's the best plan?
We need to use cloth, re-usable bags, no paper, and no plastic, because they're both damaging to our environment in different ways. If we opt to use cloth bags we are making a move to save our environment for the future. We quite possibly will save ourselves money. Even though we don't have bans on plastic shopping bags yet across North America and there will be a slight fee for every cloth bag that you purchased.
Oprah has made it possible for people to purchase a cloth bag from her website, the cloth bags are featured as the "O grocery bag". It is made of 100% organic cotton that no type of chemical was used during the production. But if you're not an Oprah fan, or don't care for making purchases over the World Wide Web, a simple re-usable cloth bag from your local dollar store will do the trick.
It makes sense; why not make this change for our environment? It will help ourselves, our kids and future generations. We can only be excited for something that will make such a great difference and yet is so easy to do. So make a difference and DO “a small bag change".
Mary-Jane Martin
Eco-Tourism Student Class of 2009
The average household has a huge hoard of plastic grocery bags, flying out of every pantry and cupboard in their home. In recent years several provinces and states have put bans and controls on plastic shopping bags. These vary from a fee on each individual bag to discourage usage, to a complete ban on plastic grocery bags altogether.
Just recently there has been a few big moves which hopefully will have a large successful impact. One hopes these moves shall get people looking at the reality of a product that they are using and than disposing of without a thought.
China State Council has banned plastic shopping bags effective June 1st, 2008. In a recent story from CBC.ca on January 8th, 2008 CBC discusses the ban in China and other such related bans. The article states that worldwide on average, we throw away 500 billion plastic shopping bags annually that can take up to 1, 000 years to fully decompose.
The Oprah Winfrey recently aired January 3rd, 2008 a show called "It's Easy Being Green” . The episode discussed ways that we can help to have a clean environment. Just by making small changes in our day to day lives within and outside the household we can make the earth a healthier place for ourselves and the environment. The discussion talking about plastic shopping bags specifically stated that of the 500 billion plastic bags we thrown away in the world annually, 380 million of them are in the United States alone. It also discussed the fact that for a while people were trying to substitute paper bags for plastic ones, but in order to produce 10 billion paper bags we would have to be cutting down 14 million trees a year.
You might ask what's the best plan?
We need to use cloth, re-usable bags, no paper, and no plastic, because they're both damaging to our environment in different ways. If we opt to use cloth bags we are making a move to save our environment for the future. We quite possibly will save ourselves money. Even though we don't have bans on plastic shopping bags yet across North America and there will be a slight fee for every cloth bag that you purchased.
Oprah has made it possible for people to purchase a cloth bag from her website, the cloth bags are featured as the "O grocery bag". It is made of 100% organic cotton that no type of chemical was used during the production. But if you're not an Oprah fan, or don't care for making purchases over the World Wide Web, a simple re-usable cloth bag from your local dollar store will do the trick.
It makes sense; why not make this change for our environment? It will help ourselves, our kids and future generations. We can only be excited for something that will make such a great difference and yet is so easy to do. So make a difference and DO “a small bag change".
Mary-Jane Martin
Eco-Tourism Student Class of 2009
Friday, January 25, 2008
Leadership - What Will Happen if Nothing Changes?
By Gregg Thompson
Many of us who lead organizations go through a very similar routine this time of the year. We start by admonishing ourselves for the mistakes of the past year -the projects left undone and the opportunities not seized. We grit our teeth, clean off our desks, start a fresh notebook and resolve to make significant changes in the way we will work in the coming year. Year after year, the same resolutions are made:
1 I've just got to get organized. ('If I can just create a better way of dealing with this relentless stream of email, improve my scheduling and sort out this mess of papers in my briefcase, I'll be able to spend more time doing the really important leadership stuff.')
2 This year, I will set priorities. ('I've got to stop doing a bunch of things, no matter how cool and interesting, and discipline myself to do only the strategic stuff.')
3 I promise to delegate more. ('If I can only get others to do the things I don't want to do and to work as hard and smart as me, I'll be free to do the high value-added stuff.')
I have news for you (and me). While these are worthy goals, the truth is we will all still be at the same spot next year, fussing about the way we are organizing, prioritizing and delegating. But what would happen if we were determined to make a real change in the way we lead our organizations this year? Perhaps we should ask ourselves the more compelling question... what will happen in our organization this year if nothing changes in the way we lead?
Here are seven leadership resolutions you might consider that will make a real difference in your organization in the coming year. Which ones will provide the biggest payoffs? Do all seven, and I promise that you will have the most rewarding year of your leadership career!
1. Craft A Big, Bold, Breath-Taking Story And Tell It Every Day
What is the most exciting, rewarding, and scariest future you can imagine? What great battles will be won, treasures found and people freed. Paint the story in full color. What does the future look like? How are we going to get there? How is tomorrow going to be much better than today? People want to be part of an important story. Tell it to them and help them find their own starring role.
2. Multiply The Strength Of Your Leadership Connections
Consider for a moment the 8-10 individuals with whom you share management and leadership responsibilities. How much more effective would your leadership team become if you dramatically strengthened your personal connection with every one of these people? You have probably created a mutually acceptable status quo with these individuals so change will not be easy. Are there some difficult conversations that you need to have? Try this: honor their uniqueness, share more of yourself, learn about them, ask how you can serve them. Be careful, this is very potent.
3. Act With Exceptional Compassion And Kindness
You are not the only one feeling a bit beaten up these days. The members of your organization are faced with many of the same challenges that you face...imperfect products, unpredictable markets, insatiable customers, disappointing staff performance. Seek out ways to show your humanity every day. Treat everyone in the organization with dignity and respect, especially those who are struggling. They will walk through walls for you, but do not do it for that reason. Do it because it is the right thing to do. We spend much of our waking lives inside organizations and you have the power to make these places where the human spirit can thrive or die. Use this power well.
4. Tell The Absolute Truth Stop Spinning, Sugar-Coating And Avoiding.
You'll be amazed at how many people start listening to you. Everyone wants to improve the communication throughout their organization but what about simply setting a new standard for honesty... starting with you. How much more effective would your organization be if the half-truths, positioning, sacred elephants and face-saving were eradicated? The tough part is that you cannot make this happen by mandating it. You must go first. You must model it.
5. Hold Everyone Accountable. Accountability Is A Very Good Thing.
It is not tyranny. The caring leader insists that people do what they say they will do. When you hold people accountable, you are saying that their work is important. You are saying that they are important. Every time you let a deadline slip or a deliverable go incomplete, you are discounting the person whose job it is to deliver on these commitments. Make it a habit to ensure that every piece of work is accompanied by a personal commitment. Measure. Give feedback. Initiate consequences. Celebrate being part of an organization that keeps its promises.
6. Confront Underperformance With A Twist
You know in your heart-of-hearts who is under-performing in your organization. Make a list. Commit to seeing that this performance changes early this year. Now here's the tough part. Before you take any action, ask yourself these questions - 'What is my part in this situation? How have my actions or lack thereof contributed to this situation? What do I need to do differently?' Approach the individuals in question and describe your responsibilities and personal commitments to change. Then, and only then, it's their turn. You may need to do nothing else.
7. Be Distinctively You
What would you get if you could put all of the leadership qualities of Bill Gates, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, George Washington, Jack Welch and Winston Churchill into one individual? Probably a bland, non-descript person indistinguishable in the crowd. These men and women made a difference because they had the courage to be themselves. Have you forgotten who you really are? What excites you these days? What are your passions? Your obsessions? Where do you want to make your mark? When you are at your best, what are you doing? Maybe it's time to figure out what is most important to you, tell everyone around you, and let this fuel your leadership.
Why not make this your best year ever as a leader. What will happen if nothing really changes?
Gregg Thompson is the President of Bluepoint Leadership Development, and the author of Unleashed! and The Leadership Experience. He can be reached by greggthompson@bluepointleadership.com, or at 513-289-0141.
Many of us who lead organizations go through a very similar routine this time of the year. We start by admonishing ourselves for the mistakes of the past year -the projects left undone and the opportunities not seized. We grit our teeth, clean off our desks, start a fresh notebook and resolve to make significant changes in the way we will work in the coming year. Year after year, the same resolutions are made:
1 I've just got to get organized. ('If I can just create a better way of dealing with this relentless stream of email, improve my scheduling and sort out this mess of papers in my briefcase, I'll be able to spend more time doing the really important leadership stuff.')
2 This year, I will set priorities. ('I've got to stop doing a bunch of things, no matter how cool and interesting, and discipline myself to do only the strategic stuff.')
3 I promise to delegate more. ('If I can only get others to do the things I don't want to do and to work as hard and smart as me, I'll be free to do the high value-added stuff.')
I have news for you (and me). While these are worthy goals, the truth is we will all still be at the same spot next year, fussing about the way we are organizing, prioritizing and delegating. But what would happen if we were determined to make a real change in the way we lead our organizations this year? Perhaps we should ask ourselves the more compelling question... what will happen in our organization this year if nothing changes in the way we lead?
Here are seven leadership resolutions you might consider that will make a real difference in your organization in the coming year. Which ones will provide the biggest payoffs? Do all seven, and I promise that you will have the most rewarding year of your leadership career!
1. Craft A Big, Bold, Breath-Taking Story And Tell It Every Day
What is the most exciting, rewarding, and scariest future you can imagine? What great battles will be won, treasures found and people freed. Paint the story in full color. What does the future look like? How are we going to get there? How is tomorrow going to be much better than today? People want to be part of an important story. Tell it to them and help them find their own starring role.
2. Multiply The Strength Of Your Leadership Connections
Consider for a moment the 8-10 individuals with whom you share management and leadership responsibilities. How much more effective would your leadership team become if you dramatically strengthened your personal connection with every one of these people? You have probably created a mutually acceptable status quo with these individuals so change will not be easy. Are there some difficult conversations that you need to have? Try this: honor their uniqueness, share more of yourself, learn about them, ask how you can serve them. Be careful, this is very potent.
3. Act With Exceptional Compassion And Kindness
You are not the only one feeling a bit beaten up these days. The members of your organization are faced with many of the same challenges that you face...imperfect products, unpredictable markets, insatiable customers, disappointing staff performance. Seek out ways to show your humanity every day. Treat everyone in the organization with dignity and respect, especially those who are struggling. They will walk through walls for you, but do not do it for that reason. Do it because it is the right thing to do. We spend much of our waking lives inside organizations and you have the power to make these places where the human spirit can thrive or die. Use this power well.
4. Tell The Absolute Truth Stop Spinning, Sugar-Coating And Avoiding.
You'll be amazed at how many people start listening to you. Everyone wants to improve the communication throughout their organization but what about simply setting a new standard for honesty... starting with you. How much more effective would your organization be if the half-truths, positioning, sacred elephants and face-saving were eradicated? The tough part is that you cannot make this happen by mandating it. You must go first. You must model it.
5. Hold Everyone Accountable. Accountability Is A Very Good Thing.
It is not tyranny. The caring leader insists that people do what they say they will do. When you hold people accountable, you are saying that their work is important. You are saying that they are important. Every time you let a deadline slip or a deliverable go incomplete, you are discounting the person whose job it is to deliver on these commitments. Make it a habit to ensure that every piece of work is accompanied by a personal commitment. Measure. Give feedback. Initiate consequences. Celebrate being part of an organization that keeps its promises.
6. Confront Underperformance With A Twist
You know in your heart-of-hearts who is under-performing in your organization. Make a list. Commit to seeing that this performance changes early this year. Now here's the tough part. Before you take any action, ask yourself these questions - 'What is my part in this situation? How have my actions or lack thereof contributed to this situation? What do I need to do differently?' Approach the individuals in question and describe your responsibilities and personal commitments to change. Then, and only then, it's their turn. You may need to do nothing else.
7. Be Distinctively You
What would you get if you could put all of the leadership qualities of Bill Gates, Gandhi, Mother Theresa, George Washington, Jack Welch and Winston Churchill into one individual? Probably a bland, non-descript person indistinguishable in the crowd. These men and women made a difference because they had the courage to be themselves. Have you forgotten who you really are? What excites you these days? What are your passions? Your obsessions? Where do you want to make your mark? When you are at your best, what are you doing? Maybe it's time to figure out what is most important to you, tell everyone around you, and let this fuel your leadership.
Why not make this your best year ever as a leader. What will happen if nothing really changes?
Gregg Thompson is the President of Bluepoint Leadership Development, and the author of Unleashed! and The Leadership Experience. He can be reached by greggthompson@bluepointleadership.com, or at 513-289-0141.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Online Reviews of Hotels and Restaurants Flourish
By JOE SHARKEY
Published: January 22, 2008
Many of the reader-generated reviews of hotels, restaurants, destinations and other travel services on the Web may have started their lives as independent blogs by travel buffs. But they have consolidated into major online businesses, taking an ever-growing piece of the market from print guides.
The major sites are TripAdvisor.com, owned by Expedia, and IgoUgo, owned by Sabre Holdings, which also owns Travelocity. Both Expedia and IgoUgo staked their first Internet claims as sites where travelers could research prices and directly book trips. They now operate the review sites as separate businesses.
Like their parent companies, TripAdvisor and IgoUgo are fiercely competitive. TripAdvisor claims by far the greater amount of content, including reviews that are mostly anonymous. Igo-Ugo, on the other hand, requires its contributors to register, and its travel forums and other review material are usually accompanied by member profiles.
IgoUgo pointedly says this differentiates it from TripAdvisor, on which people with vested interests can plant phony reviews.
TripAdvisor acknowledges that an occasional review or forum can be manipulated by a crafty hotel or restaurant owner. But it says the sheer volume of offerings — and the growing sophistication of Internet travel site users — mitigates the problem.
“It’s just very hard to stack the deck with this kind of volume,” said Stephen Kaufer, the co-founder and chief executive of TripAdvisor.com. “On my screen right now, I have 859 reviews of the Sofitel Hotel in New York.”
Traditional print travel guides, whether in book or periodical form, are usually written and edited by travel professionals — some of whom regard the growing online travel review sites as interlopers that barged onto their turf like boisterous day-trippers piling out of their Winnebagos and plopping down next to the members of a beach club.
But Mr. Kaufer argued that online sites have advantages over written guides, including the fact that the Internet reviews are often more immediate and tend to be punchier than guidebook listings.
One of the pioneers in user-generated travel guide information, Zagat Survey, was reported last week to be seeking a buyer. Zagat’s main business is selling print pocket guides with brief summaries of user-generated reviews of restaurants, hotels and other services. Last year, Zagat sold more than 5.5 million of its print guides around the world, but the company has also been aggressively expanding its online business.
A few weeks before the potential sale was reported, Tim Zagat spoke of the difference between the approach of online reviews and Zagat’s, in which thousands of reader-generated reviews are filtered by editors and boiled down to pithy, concise summaries, with ratings tabulated for quality, service, price and the like.
TripAdvisor and IgoUgo, he said, “put everything up raw.”
He added: “We edit the comments and try as nearly as possible to accurately synopsize the results of the survey. We try to make it nice and easy to read — in as few lines as possible.”
Some Internet companies, he said, “are running into the problem that anybody can throw up things on the wall, and after a while there are just too many people doing it.”
Right now, the online business is expanding rapidly, and may soon eclipse the book publishing business.
Both Mr. Zagat and Mr. Kaufer agree that guides printed on paper, being compact and easy to carry, still have a future in the travel review business, perhaps as components of a far more extensive online product.
TripAdvisor.com, founded in 2000, has user-generated reviews and interactive forums on hotels, restaurants, cruises, cities, attractions and even airline seats (through its Seatguru.com site). Like its online competitor IgoUgo, it also publishes photos and even videos from readers, and has sections for reader blogs and interactive forums.
Both sites make money when hotel, restaurant or other ads cause a reader to click through to make a booking. They generate revenue from banner ads and other forms of promotion.
Like IgoUgo, TripAdvisor has a core staff of employees and also employs specialists who “have a nose for sniffing out fraud and who literally read every review.” Both sites also use filters to discourage spam messages. And both are working to make it easier for users to simplify, index online or print out specific information for individual needs on a trip.
Mr. Kaufer of TripAdvisor said he initially worried that the reviews on the site would be overtly negative. “I thought, why would someone typically write a review other than they had a horrible time and they needed to vent,” he said. The opposite happened. People generally like to share good travel experiences, even if they tend to toss in caveats, he said.
Mr. Zagat said that investors in his company have told him, “ ‘Look, this is all symbiotic. We can do both.’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/business/media/22reviews.html?_r=2&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Published: January 22, 2008
Many of the reader-generated reviews of hotels, restaurants, destinations and other travel services on the Web may have started their lives as independent blogs by travel buffs. But they have consolidated into major online businesses, taking an ever-growing piece of the market from print guides.
The major sites are TripAdvisor.com, owned by Expedia, and IgoUgo, owned by Sabre Holdings, which also owns Travelocity. Both Expedia and IgoUgo staked their first Internet claims as sites where travelers could research prices and directly book trips. They now operate the review sites as separate businesses.
Like their parent companies, TripAdvisor and IgoUgo are fiercely competitive. TripAdvisor claims by far the greater amount of content, including reviews that are mostly anonymous. Igo-Ugo, on the other hand, requires its contributors to register, and its travel forums and other review material are usually accompanied by member profiles.
IgoUgo pointedly says this differentiates it from TripAdvisor, on which people with vested interests can plant phony reviews.
TripAdvisor acknowledges that an occasional review or forum can be manipulated by a crafty hotel or restaurant owner. But it says the sheer volume of offerings — and the growing sophistication of Internet travel site users — mitigates the problem.
“It’s just very hard to stack the deck with this kind of volume,” said Stephen Kaufer, the co-founder and chief executive of TripAdvisor.com. “On my screen right now, I have 859 reviews of the Sofitel Hotel in New York.”
Traditional print travel guides, whether in book or periodical form, are usually written and edited by travel professionals — some of whom regard the growing online travel review sites as interlopers that barged onto their turf like boisterous day-trippers piling out of their Winnebagos and plopping down next to the members of a beach club.
But Mr. Kaufer argued that online sites have advantages over written guides, including the fact that the Internet reviews are often more immediate and tend to be punchier than guidebook listings.
One of the pioneers in user-generated travel guide information, Zagat Survey, was reported last week to be seeking a buyer. Zagat’s main business is selling print pocket guides with brief summaries of user-generated reviews of restaurants, hotels and other services. Last year, Zagat sold more than 5.5 million of its print guides around the world, but the company has also been aggressively expanding its online business.
A few weeks before the potential sale was reported, Tim Zagat spoke of the difference between the approach of online reviews and Zagat’s, in which thousands of reader-generated reviews are filtered by editors and boiled down to pithy, concise summaries, with ratings tabulated for quality, service, price and the like.
TripAdvisor and IgoUgo, he said, “put everything up raw.”
He added: “We edit the comments and try as nearly as possible to accurately synopsize the results of the survey. We try to make it nice and easy to read — in as few lines as possible.”
Some Internet companies, he said, “are running into the problem that anybody can throw up things on the wall, and after a while there are just too many people doing it.”
Right now, the online business is expanding rapidly, and may soon eclipse the book publishing business.
Both Mr. Zagat and Mr. Kaufer agree that guides printed on paper, being compact and easy to carry, still have a future in the travel review business, perhaps as components of a far more extensive online product.
TripAdvisor.com, founded in 2000, has user-generated reviews and interactive forums on hotels, restaurants, cruises, cities, attractions and even airline seats (through its Seatguru.com site). Like its online competitor IgoUgo, it also publishes photos and even videos from readers, and has sections for reader blogs and interactive forums.
Both sites make money when hotel, restaurant or other ads cause a reader to click through to make a booking. They generate revenue from banner ads and other forms of promotion.
Like IgoUgo, TripAdvisor has a core staff of employees and also employs specialists who “have a nose for sniffing out fraud and who literally read every review.” Both sites also use filters to discourage spam messages. And both are working to make it easier for users to simplify, index online or print out specific information for individual needs on a trip.
Mr. Kaufer of TripAdvisor said he initially worried that the reviews on the site would be overtly negative. “I thought, why would someone typically write a review other than they had a horrible time and they needed to vent,” he said. The opposite happened. People generally like to share good travel experiences, even if they tend to toss in caveats, he said.
Mr. Zagat said that investors in his company have told him, “ ‘Look, this is all symbiotic. We can do both.’ ”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/01/22/business/media/22reviews.html?_r=2&ref=business&oref=slogin&oref=slogin
Friday, January 18, 2008
A new hotel scheme for gouging the customer
Industry insider is frustrated over bogus, new cancellation policy
By Amy Bradley-Hole
Travel columnist
Tripso.com
updated 3:42 p.m. ET, Wed., Jan. 16, 2008
I'm interrupting my previously scheduled column to tell you about a hotel policy that really makes me mad. I don't know how long hotels have been doing this or who thought it up, but I think it's fairly new and probably the work of some greedy corporate vice president.
A few weeks ago, my friend Mary Ann made a reservation through the Holiday Inn Express Web site for a room at the Holiday Inn Express in her hometown. She was having some company and was afraid she might not have room for everyone at her house. After one of her visitors canceled his trip, she knew she could accommodate all the guests, so she called the hotel to cancel the reservation. Too bad, she was told. You booked a special rate online, and you can't cancel or change your reservation. Never mind that you called well in advance of the arrival date. You're going to be charged room and tax for all six nights of your reservation, to the tune of about $750.
After letting a few choice expletives fly, Mary Ann called me to see if anything could be done about the situation. At first, I didn't have much sympathy for her. I knew that despite her protestations to the contrary, there were probably several warnings about the cancellation policy on the Web site. And I was right. I checked the site, and there are notices about the policy, and they're fairly obvious, though they are full of industry jargon. Still, fail to read the fine print, and you have only yourself to blame!
I discouraged Mary Ann from disputing the charge through her credit card company, because she was clearly in the wrong. Instead, I suggested that she speak to the hotel's manager in person, admitting her mistake and begging for mercy. Maybe he would agree to some sort of compromise, perhaps charging her for only one night. Alternatively, I suggested she go ahead and check into the room even though she wouldn't be using it. At least that way, the hotel couldn't resell the room and make a double profit and she'd gain some small satisfaction from "sticking it to the man." Otherwise, I was afraid she was out of luck.
But the more I thought about it, the more I sympathized with Mary Ann. Anyone could have made her mistake and, besides, the policy is simply outrageous.
The first time I noticed a "no cancellation" policy like this was back in April, when I was booking a room online at a Doubletree hotel. I was cruising through the booking on Doubletree's Web site when I noticed this:
FULL PAYMENT REQUIRED AT TIME OF RESERVATION. CREDIT CARD REQUIRED AT TIME OF BOOKING AND WILL BE CHARGED IMMEDIATELY FOR THE FULL AMOUNT OF THE STAY AS RESERVED. NO REFUNDS OR CREDITS FOR EARLY DEPARTURE, CANCELLATION OR NO SHOW. NO MODIFICATION ALLOWED ONCE RESERVATION IS CONFIRMED. GUEST MUST CHECK IN ON ARRIVAL DATE OR RESERVATION WILL BE CANCELED AND FULL PAYMENT FORFEITED.
They were going to charge everything upfront — no problem, this policy has been around for a while, and I can deal with it. No refunds or credits for early departure — again, this is a pretty standard policy, though many hotel managers will waive it under certain circumstances. But no refund for a cancellation? Hold up!
In the event of a cancellation, most hotels charge only for the first night's room plus tax — and only when the reservation is canceled on late notice. Faced with the Doubletree policy, I figured: Well, if I needed to cancel and didn't want to lose my money, I could just change my reservation dates to another time, or let a friend check in, right? Nope, this ironclad contract did not allow me to modify the reservation in any way. I went ahead and booked the room, however, because I had to be in that town for an appointment that had been planned for ages and could not be rescheduled, and I had to be there even if I was at death's door. And guess what? At the last minute, something almost forced a cancellation, and I almost lost my money.
When I nearly got stung by this policy, it irked me a little, but I didn't give it much thought. When Mary Ann got burned to the tune of hundreds of dollars, I gave it some more thought. I think this policy stinks, and here's why:
I've booked hotel rooms online for ages, and I've only noticed this policy in the past year, so I think it's fairly new. If a company makes major changes to the way it does business, it had better let its customers know about the change as quickly and as clearly as possible. In my opinion, hotels need to post any no-cancellation policy in huge print in a prominent position on their reservations pages. The Doubletree site does a good job of this. The Holiday Inn Express site does highlight some of its cancellation policy with red font, but many people would need a magnifying glass to read that font. Holiday Inn Express even has the nerve to begin its "Rate Description" section with the phrase "Special Savings!" It should read "Buyer Beware!" And almost all of the hotels' rates policies that I checked use industry jargon that many people might not understand.
The no-cancellation policy is not applied across the board. As far as I can tell, it applies only to certain bookings on the hotels' Web sites. If Mary Ann had called the hotel directly or gone down there to book in person, she would not have been charged for her cancellation; similarly, when I called the toll-free reservations number for a hotel company that applies this policy to online bookings, the operator mentioned only the standard 48-hour cancellation policy. If hotels choose to penalize online bookers, fine. But they need to clearly state on their Web sites that booking in other ways will allow guests to cancel their reservations under certain conditions. Also, if you look closely online, you will often find rates that are only slightly higher that do allow guests to cancel. Again, this should be more clearly explained. I shouldn't have to hunt around for a link to get an explanation of the rate structures.
It's not necessary. Don't get me wrong — I think cancellation policies are valid. If a hotel is sold out one night, and it turns down guests because it's sold out, and then people don't call to cancel their reservations, the hotel has lost business. The hotel shouldn't have to lose the revenue of unsold rooms just because lazy people can't be bothered to pick up a phone and cancel a reservation. But in theory, the hotel should invoke the cancellation policy only when it can't resell the room. If a guest cancels a reservation weeks, or even days, before the arrival date, the hotel has plenty of time to resell. Even if a guest cancels late, he should be charged only for the first night since the hotel has time to sell the room for the remaining nights of the stay. Only in rare circumstances, such as during huge events, should hotels keep all the money for a canceled reservation.
So now when you book a room through a hotel's Web site, you've got to make sure that the cheap rates don't come with restrictions that you might not be able to accept. You've got read the fine print every time you book, because hotels are making secretive changes that they don't want you to know about.
Does any of this story sound familiar to you? Does it sound like booking an airline flight, by any chance? Yes, it seems that hotels have now decided to charge rates and make policies just like the airlines do. Well guess what, hotels? People hate airlines. If you want to emulate a business model, how about one that makes lots of money by providing a great service and a great product, not one that makes money by screwing people over. Next thing we know, hotel chains will make us commit to staying at their hotels exclusively for two years. If we decide to go somewhere else, they'll charge us a $200 "early termination fee."
But here's the worst part, in my opinion, fellow travelers: We have let the travel industry do this to us. Every time we go searching for the absolute rock-bottom rate, we will get what we pay for. Every time we forget to cancel a reservation and then swear to our credit-card company that we did cancel it and the hotel is lying, the hotels will find even more ways to protect themselves. Just as businesses must be responsible and ethical, so must consumers.
The next time you book online, please read the fine print, even if you have to go searching for it. Question everything, and then decide whether the risk of highly restricted hotel rates is worth the reward of saving a few bucks.
Amy Bradley-Hole has worked in the hotel industry for many years in many different positions and at all types of properties — from small luxury boutique hotels to large resorts, both in the United States and abroad. E-mail her or read more of her articles on Tripso.com.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22686345/page/2/
By Amy Bradley-Hole
Travel columnist
Tripso.com
updated 3:42 p.m. ET, Wed., Jan. 16, 2008
I'm interrupting my previously scheduled column to tell you about a hotel policy that really makes me mad. I don't know how long hotels have been doing this or who thought it up, but I think it's fairly new and probably the work of some greedy corporate vice president.
A few weeks ago, my friend Mary Ann made a reservation through the Holiday Inn Express Web site for a room at the Holiday Inn Express in her hometown. She was having some company and was afraid she might not have room for everyone at her house. After one of her visitors canceled his trip, she knew she could accommodate all the guests, so she called the hotel to cancel the reservation. Too bad, she was told. You booked a special rate online, and you can't cancel or change your reservation. Never mind that you called well in advance of the arrival date. You're going to be charged room and tax for all six nights of your reservation, to the tune of about $750.
After letting a few choice expletives fly, Mary Ann called me to see if anything could be done about the situation. At first, I didn't have much sympathy for her. I knew that despite her protestations to the contrary, there were probably several warnings about the cancellation policy on the Web site. And I was right. I checked the site, and there are notices about the policy, and they're fairly obvious, though they are full of industry jargon. Still, fail to read the fine print, and you have only yourself to blame!
I discouraged Mary Ann from disputing the charge through her credit card company, because she was clearly in the wrong. Instead, I suggested that she speak to the hotel's manager in person, admitting her mistake and begging for mercy. Maybe he would agree to some sort of compromise, perhaps charging her for only one night. Alternatively, I suggested she go ahead and check into the room even though she wouldn't be using it. At least that way, the hotel couldn't resell the room and make a double profit and she'd gain some small satisfaction from "sticking it to the man." Otherwise, I was afraid she was out of luck.
But the more I thought about it, the more I sympathized with Mary Ann. Anyone could have made her mistake and, besides, the policy is simply outrageous.
The first time I noticed a "no cancellation" policy like this was back in April, when I was booking a room online at a Doubletree hotel. I was cruising through the booking on Doubletree's Web site when I noticed this:
FULL PAYMENT REQUIRED AT TIME OF RESERVATION. CREDIT CARD REQUIRED AT TIME OF BOOKING AND WILL BE CHARGED IMMEDIATELY FOR THE FULL AMOUNT OF THE STAY AS RESERVED. NO REFUNDS OR CREDITS FOR EARLY DEPARTURE, CANCELLATION OR NO SHOW. NO MODIFICATION ALLOWED ONCE RESERVATION IS CONFIRMED. GUEST MUST CHECK IN ON ARRIVAL DATE OR RESERVATION WILL BE CANCELED AND FULL PAYMENT FORFEITED.
They were going to charge everything upfront — no problem, this policy has been around for a while, and I can deal with it. No refunds or credits for early departure — again, this is a pretty standard policy, though many hotel managers will waive it under certain circumstances. But no refund for a cancellation? Hold up!
In the event of a cancellation, most hotels charge only for the first night's room plus tax — and only when the reservation is canceled on late notice. Faced with the Doubletree policy, I figured: Well, if I needed to cancel and didn't want to lose my money, I could just change my reservation dates to another time, or let a friend check in, right? Nope, this ironclad contract did not allow me to modify the reservation in any way. I went ahead and booked the room, however, because I had to be in that town for an appointment that had been planned for ages and could not be rescheduled, and I had to be there even if I was at death's door. And guess what? At the last minute, something almost forced a cancellation, and I almost lost my money.
When I nearly got stung by this policy, it irked me a little, but I didn't give it much thought. When Mary Ann got burned to the tune of hundreds of dollars, I gave it some more thought. I think this policy stinks, and here's why:
I've booked hotel rooms online for ages, and I've only noticed this policy in the past year, so I think it's fairly new. If a company makes major changes to the way it does business, it had better let its customers know about the change as quickly and as clearly as possible. In my opinion, hotels need to post any no-cancellation policy in huge print in a prominent position on their reservations pages. The Doubletree site does a good job of this. The Holiday Inn Express site does highlight some of its cancellation policy with red font, but many people would need a magnifying glass to read that font. Holiday Inn Express even has the nerve to begin its "Rate Description" section with the phrase "Special Savings!" It should read "Buyer Beware!" And almost all of the hotels' rates policies that I checked use industry jargon that many people might not understand.
The no-cancellation policy is not applied across the board. As far as I can tell, it applies only to certain bookings on the hotels' Web sites. If Mary Ann had called the hotel directly or gone down there to book in person, she would not have been charged for her cancellation; similarly, when I called the toll-free reservations number for a hotel company that applies this policy to online bookings, the operator mentioned only the standard 48-hour cancellation policy. If hotels choose to penalize online bookers, fine. But they need to clearly state on their Web sites that booking in other ways will allow guests to cancel their reservations under certain conditions. Also, if you look closely online, you will often find rates that are only slightly higher that do allow guests to cancel. Again, this should be more clearly explained. I shouldn't have to hunt around for a link to get an explanation of the rate structures.
It's not necessary. Don't get me wrong — I think cancellation policies are valid. If a hotel is sold out one night, and it turns down guests because it's sold out, and then people don't call to cancel their reservations, the hotel has lost business. The hotel shouldn't have to lose the revenue of unsold rooms just because lazy people can't be bothered to pick up a phone and cancel a reservation. But in theory, the hotel should invoke the cancellation policy only when it can't resell the room. If a guest cancels a reservation weeks, or even days, before the arrival date, the hotel has plenty of time to resell. Even if a guest cancels late, he should be charged only for the first night since the hotel has time to sell the room for the remaining nights of the stay. Only in rare circumstances, such as during huge events, should hotels keep all the money for a canceled reservation.
So now when you book a room through a hotel's Web site, you've got to make sure that the cheap rates don't come with restrictions that you might not be able to accept. You've got read the fine print every time you book, because hotels are making secretive changes that they don't want you to know about.
Does any of this story sound familiar to you? Does it sound like booking an airline flight, by any chance? Yes, it seems that hotels have now decided to charge rates and make policies just like the airlines do. Well guess what, hotels? People hate airlines. If you want to emulate a business model, how about one that makes lots of money by providing a great service and a great product, not one that makes money by screwing people over. Next thing we know, hotel chains will make us commit to staying at their hotels exclusively for two years. If we decide to go somewhere else, they'll charge us a $200 "early termination fee."
But here's the worst part, in my opinion, fellow travelers: We have let the travel industry do this to us. Every time we go searching for the absolute rock-bottom rate, we will get what we pay for. Every time we forget to cancel a reservation and then swear to our credit-card company that we did cancel it and the hotel is lying, the hotels will find even more ways to protect themselves. Just as businesses must be responsible and ethical, so must consumers.
The next time you book online, please read the fine print, even if you have to go searching for it. Question everything, and then decide whether the risk of highly restricted hotel rates is worth the reward of saving a few bucks.
Amy Bradley-Hole has worked in the hotel industry for many years in many different positions and at all types of properties — from small luxury boutique hotels to large resorts, both in the United States and abroad. E-mail her or read more of her articles on Tripso.com.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/22686345/page/2/
Thursday, January 17, 2008
Embassy Suites Hotels Launches New Hotel Restaurant Concept - Flying Spoons
Hotel Brand Creates New Hotel Restaurant Segment - Hip Casual
Part European-style café and part American coffeehouse, this new concept in hotel food & beverage expands upon the 'fast casual' concept made popular by Panera Bread and other bakery-cafes and creates a new segment: 'Hip Casual.' Embassy Suites is accommodating the changing needs of guests by providing a range of convenient, fresh dishes and beverages to fit a variety of schedules: from eating on the go to eating smaller, more frequent meals.
'For three years we've been studying guests' changing eating habits: guests who eat on-the-run, guests who replace meals with a specialty coffee drink and even those who eat at non-traditional times of the day,' remarked Jim Holthouser, senior vice president, brand management, Embassy Suites Hotels. 'We've taken these habits into consideration and have beta-tested a variety of new layouts, dishes and restaurant concepts in a sampling of hotels throughout the brand. Flying Spoons is the evolution of that research and we think we've created exactly what guests have been requesting.'
This new concept was first introduced as 'Marketplace' in 2006 as a part of the brand's new Design Option III prototype. Flying Spoons is the evolution of that concept and is designed to meet the needs of developers and owners looking to give business and leisure guests a complete food & beverage solution for every situation and hotel location, from airport to suburban and urban/city center hotels. The new concept offers hotel developers flexibility and cost efficiencies not afforded with a traditional hotel restaurant.
Flying Spoons will be strategically located in the hotel lobby and shares space with the brand's complimentary cooked-to-order breakfast and Manager's Reception, a reduced labor model and reduced square footage. The restaurant will cost an estimated 30 percent less to develop than a traditional atrium restaurant. The brand's first Flying Spoons will debut in late 2008 at the Embassy Suites Jackson-North/Ridgeland, Miss., which will also be the brand's first Design Option III prototype to open.
'We worked very carefully to make sure this restaurant offered developers flexible options and cost efficiencies by sharing the hotel's back-of-house facilities and equipment and a reduced labor model,' added Holthouser. 'From a development standpoint, this is definitely a more viable F & B alternative for markets where guests have a plethora of dining options right outside the hotel's door or is a part of a mixed use project.'
Design Elements and Menu Offerings
The new hip casual restaurant segment created by Flying Spoons offers guests a social environment in the hotel lobby where guests can check e-mail, connect with others or just 'be.' Signature design elements include:
• Display of Fornasetti dinner plates: Piero Fornasetti (1913-1988) was known for decorating everyday objects with fanciful motifs. The most famous is the 19th-century black-and-white magazine image of a woman's face, which he adapted for a series of dinner plates.
• Comfortable, casual furniture: Custom-made pieces include an access lamp with power ports and other free-standing elements, rather than built-in pieces, portraying a more residential feel.
• Variety of Seating Styles: Bar-height /transactional seating for people on the go, traditional restaurant seating with tables and chairs, wing-back chairs and ottomans with custom lamp and power ports for people who want to settle in for a relaxing dining experience.
• Inviting décor: The interior design of Flying Spoons encompasses a warm color palette of dark gray, light gray, chocolate brown, burnt orange and robin's egg blue. The ottomans featured in each hotel showcase the famous verse from the Declaration of Independence: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.'
• Flexible packages for developers: Hotel developers can choose from three design levels to meet their hotel's specific needs, from complete turnkey package to a smaller-scaled version.
Innovative menu items being offered at Flying Spoons feature lighter fare such as fresh soups, salads and gourmet sandwiches, to more sophisticated dinner options like salmon, scallops and lobster enchiladas. The menu will also feature a rotating selection of pastries and desserts, along with specialty coffee drinks, teas and boutique soft drinks.
Flying Spoons will offer convenient hours of operation for guests, no matter the travel schedule. The restaurant will be open from 5 a.m. until 1 a.m.
This article comes from Restaurant News Resource
http://www.restaurantnewsresource.com
The URL for this story is:
http://www.restaurantnewsresource.com/article30756.html
Part European-style café and part American coffeehouse, this new concept in hotel food & beverage expands upon the 'fast casual' concept made popular by Panera Bread and other bakery-cafes and creates a new segment: 'Hip Casual.' Embassy Suites is accommodating the changing needs of guests by providing a range of convenient, fresh dishes and beverages to fit a variety of schedules: from eating on the go to eating smaller, more frequent meals.
'For three years we've been studying guests' changing eating habits: guests who eat on-the-run, guests who replace meals with a specialty coffee drink and even those who eat at non-traditional times of the day,' remarked Jim Holthouser, senior vice president, brand management, Embassy Suites Hotels. 'We've taken these habits into consideration and have beta-tested a variety of new layouts, dishes and restaurant concepts in a sampling of hotels throughout the brand. Flying Spoons is the evolution of that research and we think we've created exactly what guests have been requesting.'
This new concept was first introduced as 'Marketplace' in 2006 as a part of the brand's new Design Option III prototype. Flying Spoons is the evolution of that concept and is designed to meet the needs of developers and owners looking to give business and leisure guests a complete food & beverage solution for every situation and hotel location, from airport to suburban and urban/city center hotels. The new concept offers hotel developers flexibility and cost efficiencies not afforded with a traditional hotel restaurant.
Flying Spoons will be strategically located in the hotel lobby and shares space with the brand's complimentary cooked-to-order breakfast and Manager's Reception, a reduced labor model and reduced square footage. The restaurant will cost an estimated 30 percent less to develop than a traditional atrium restaurant. The brand's first Flying Spoons will debut in late 2008 at the Embassy Suites Jackson-North/Ridgeland, Miss., which will also be the brand's first Design Option III prototype to open.
'We worked very carefully to make sure this restaurant offered developers flexible options and cost efficiencies by sharing the hotel's back-of-house facilities and equipment and a reduced labor model,' added Holthouser. 'From a development standpoint, this is definitely a more viable F & B alternative for markets where guests have a plethora of dining options right outside the hotel's door or is a part of a mixed use project.'
Design Elements and Menu Offerings
The new hip casual restaurant segment created by Flying Spoons offers guests a social environment in the hotel lobby where guests can check e-mail, connect with others or just 'be.' Signature design elements include:
• Display of Fornasetti dinner plates: Piero Fornasetti (1913-1988) was known for decorating everyday objects with fanciful motifs. The most famous is the 19th-century black-and-white magazine image of a woman's face, which he adapted for a series of dinner plates.
• Comfortable, casual furniture: Custom-made pieces include an access lamp with power ports and other free-standing elements, rather than built-in pieces, portraying a more residential feel.
• Variety of Seating Styles: Bar-height /transactional seating for people on the go, traditional restaurant seating with tables and chairs, wing-back chairs and ottomans with custom lamp and power ports for people who want to settle in for a relaxing dining experience.
• Inviting décor: The interior design of Flying Spoons encompasses a warm color palette of dark gray, light gray, chocolate brown, burnt orange and robin's egg blue. The ottomans featured in each hotel showcase the famous verse from the Declaration of Independence: 'We hold these truths to be self-evident, that all men are created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable Rights, that among these are Life, Liberty and the pursuit of Happiness.'
• Flexible packages for developers: Hotel developers can choose from three design levels to meet their hotel's specific needs, from complete turnkey package to a smaller-scaled version.
Innovative menu items being offered at Flying Spoons feature lighter fare such as fresh soups, salads and gourmet sandwiches, to more sophisticated dinner options like salmon, scallops and lobster enchiladas. The menu will also feature a rotating selection of pastries and desserts, along with specialty coffee drinks, teas and boutique soft drinks.
Flying Spoons will offer convenient hours of operation for guests, no matter the travel schedule. The restaurant will be open from 5 a.m. until 1 a.m.
This article comes from Restaurant News Resource
http://www.restaurantnewsresource.com
The URL for this story is:
http://www.restaurantnewsresource.com/article30756.html
Friday, January 11, 2008
Managing Emotions in the Workplace: Do Positive and Negative Attitudes Drive Performance?
You know the type: coworkers who never have anything positive to say, whether at the weekly staff meeting or in the cafeteria line. They can suck the energy from a brainstorming session with a few choice comments. Their bad mood frequently puts others in one, too. Their negativity can contaminate even good news.
"We engage in emotional contagion," says Sigal Barsade, a Wharton management professor who studies the influence of emotions on the workplace. "Emotions travel from person to person like a virus."
Barsade is the co-author of a new paper titled, "Why Does Affect Matter in Organizations?" ("Affect" is another word for "emotion" in organizational behavior studies.) The answer: Employees' moods, emotions, and overall dispositions have an impact on job performance, decision making, creativity, turnover, teamwork, negotiations and leadership.
"The state of the literature shows that affect matters because people are not isolated 'emotional islands.' Rather, they bring all of themselves to work, including their traits, moods and emotions, and their affective experiences and expressions influence others," according to the paper, co-authored by Donald Gibson of Fairfield University's Dolan School of Business.
An "affective revolution" has occurred over the last 30 years as academics and managers alike have come to realize that employees' emotions are integral to what happens in an organization, says Barsade, who has been doing research in the area of emotions and work dynamics for 15 years. "Everybody brings their emotions to work. You bring your brain to work. You bring your emotions to work. Feelings drive performance. They drive behavior and other feelings. Think of people as emotion conductors."
In the paper, Barsade and Gibson consider three different types of feelings:
• Discrete, short-lived emotions, such as joy, anger, fear and disgust.
• Moods, which are longer-lasting feelings and not necessarily tied to a particular cause. A person is in a cheerful mood, for instance, or feeling down.
• Dispositional, or personality, traits, which define a person's overall approach to life. "She's always so cheerful," or "He's always looking at the negative."
All three types of feelings can be contagious, and emotions don't have to be grand and obvious to have an impact. Subtle displays of emotion, such as a quick frown, can have an effect as well, Barsade says. She offers this example: "Say your boss is generally in very good humor, but you see him one day at a meeting and his eyes flash at you. Even if they don't glare at you for the rest of the meeting, his eyes have enunciated some valuable information that is going to have you concerned and worried and off center for the rest of the meeting."
Barsade suggests that while some people are better than others at controlling their emotions, that doesn't mean their coworkers aren't picking up on their moods. "You may not think you are showing emotion, but there's a good chance you are in your facial expression or body language. Emotions we don't even realize we are feeling can influence our thoughts and behaviors."
The researchers' paper discusses a concept known as "emotional labor," in which employees regulate their public displays of emotion to comply with certain expectations. Part of this is "surface acting," in which, for instance, the tired and stressed airline customer service agent forces himself to smile and be friendly with angry customers who have lost their luggage. That compares to "deep acting," in which employees exhibit emotions they have worked on feeling. In that scenario, the stressed-out airline worker sympathizes with the customer and shows emotions that suggest empathy. The second approach may be healthier, Barsade says, because it causes less stress and burnout, particularly emotional exhaustion from having to regulate one's emotions and "play a role."
But is there a downside to being too authentic? If the company is losing money and experiencing the effects of downsizing, should the manager, feeling stressed and overwhelmed, convey his despair to his workers? Or should the manager try to appear cheerful and act as if nothing is wrong? Barsade says it's possible for the manager to convey emotions that are both authentic and positive, saying something like, "I know you're worried. Things aren't looking good, but you know, we have a way out of this and we can work [on it] together." The employees will appreciate the honesty and take comfort in the optimism, she says.
Emotions as Valuable Data
Emotional intelligence -- buzz words already familiar in psychology and education -- is now talked about in business circles as well, Barsade says. Business schools are teaching executives how to be emotionally intelligent, and how to manage the emotions of their employees.
"The idea behind emotional intelligence in the workplace is that it is a skill through which employees treat emotions as valuable data in navigating a situation," according to the authors. "Let's say a sales manager has come up with an amazing idea that will increase corporate revenues by up to 200%, but knows his boss tends to be irritable and short-tempered in the morning. Having emotional intelligence means that the manager will first recognize and consider this emotional fact about his boss. Despite the stunning nature of his idea -- and his own excitement -- he will regulate his own emotions, curb his enthusiasm and wait until the afternoon to approach his boss."
Barsade says research suggests that positive people tend to do better in the workplace, and it isn't just because people like them more than naysayers. "Positive people cognitively process more efficiently and more appropriately. If you're in a negative mood, a fair amount of processing is going to that mood. When you're in a positive mood, you're more open to taking in information and handling it effectively."
While you can't necessarily change your coworkers, people can take steps to avoid catching a negative mood, according to Barsade. They can tell themselves before attending a staff meeting that they are not going to be bothered by the person who shoots down everyone's ideas, or that they are not going to let that person become the focus of their attention at the meeting (reducing the possibility for contagion). Or they can change their office routine. Barsade gave the example of a manager who was dragged down at the start of every day when passing by the desk of an employee who either grunted or gave no acknowledgement. The manager took control and simply started following a different route through the office.
Barsade's research has taken her into a variety of workplaces, most recently long-term care facilities. Her research found that in facilities where the employees report having a positive workplace culture -- she calls it a "culture of love" -- the residents end up faring better than residents in facilities with a less compassionate and caring work culture. The residents reported experiencing less pain, made fewer trips to the emergency room, and were more likely to report being satisfied and in a positive mood.
Overconfidence Online
E-mail, instant messaging and video conferencing have introduced new challenges to the workplace, Barsade adds. E-mails and instant messages can be misunderstood because they are devoid of facial expressions, intonation and body language -- cues that help convey emotions. Some people, she says, work hard at making their emails neutral, with the downside of sometimes sounding curt. On the other hand, while some writers may add a smattering of exclamation points, question marks and capital letters in an attempt to convey more emotion, this can also be a dangerous route, particularly when attempting humor or sarcasm to drive home a point.
"How can emotions be best conveyed via these media?" the paper asks. "What is the effect of conveying emotionally charged messages via text, when these messages are more likely to be misconstrued? How must we re-think emotional contagion and other social processes in an organizational world in which many meetings take place online?"
The paper cites a study showing that people tend to be overconfident about their ability to convey the emotion they wish in an e-mail, particularly when they are trying to be funny or sarcastic. "Video conferencing, also increasing in its use, has more cues, but it is also not yet the same as interacting face to face, particularly in group situations. Given that these technologies continue to grow as a primary means of communication within the business world, it is crucial that we understand how the interpretation and communication of affect occurs in these contexts," the paper says.
Workplaces need to get smart about the best use of e-mail, Barsade states. Her advice is that "if something is important, and you know that the emotional context is going to be an issue, then pick up the phone; don't just rely on e-mails." And even the phone may not be good enough. "Sometimes, if it is really important, you just have to fly to where they are and meet them face-to-face to get the message across."
This article is reprinted with permission from Knowledge@Wharton.
This article comes from Hotel News Resource
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com
The URL for this story is:
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article28535.html
"We engage in emotional contagion," says Sigal Barsade, a Wharton management professor who studies the influence of emotions on the workplace. "Emotions travel from person to person like a virus."
Barsade is the co-author of a new paper titled, "Why Does Affect Matter in Organizations?" ("Affect" is another word for "emotion" in organizational behavior studies.) The answer: Employees' moods, emotions, and overall dispositions have an impact on job performance, decision making, creativity, turnover, teamwork, negotiations and leadership.
"The state of the literature shows that affect matters because people are not isolated 'emotional islands.' Rather, they bring all of themselves to work, including their traits, moods and emotions, and their affective experiences and expressions influence others," according to the paper, co-authored by Donald Gibson of Fairfield University's Dolan School of Business.
An "affective revolution" has occurred over the last 30 years as academics and managers alike have come to realize that employees' emotions are integral to what happens in an organization, says Barsade, who has been doing research in the area of emotions and work dynamics for 15 years. "Everybody brings their emotions to work. You bring your brain to work. You bring your emotions to work. Feelings drive performance. They drive behavior and other feelings. Think of people as emotion conductors."
In the paper, Barsade and Gibson consider three different types of feelings:
• Discrete, short-lived emotions, such as joy, anger, fear and disgust.
• Moods, which are longer-lasting feelings and not necessarily tied to a particular cause. A person is in a cheerful mood, for instance, or feeling down.
• Dispositional, or personality, traits, which define a person's overall approach to life. "She's always so cheerful," or "He's always looking at the negative."
All three types of feelings can be contagious, and emotions don't have to be grand and obvious to have an impact. Subtle displays of emotion, such as a quick frown, can have an effect as well, Barsade says. She offers this example: "Say your boss is generally in very good humor, but you see him one day at a meeting and his eyes flash at you. Even if they don't glare at you for the rest of the meeting, his eyes have enunciated some valuable information that is going to have you concerned and worried and off center for the rest of the meeting."
Barsade suggests that while some people are better than others at controlling their emotions, that doesn't mean their coworkers aren't picking up on their moods. "You may not think you are showing emotion, but there's a good chance you are in your facial expression or body language. Emotions we don't even realize we are feeling can influence our thoughts and behaviors."
The researchers' paper discusses a concept known as "emotional labor," in which employees regulate their public displays of emotion to comply with certain expectations. Part of this is "surface acting," in which, for instance, the tired and stressed airline customer service agent forces himself to smile and be friendly with angry customers who have lost their luggage. That compares to "deep acting," in which employees exhibit emotions they have worked on feeling. In that scenario, the stressed-out airline worker sympathizes with the customer and shows emotions that suggest empathy. The second approach may be healthier, Barsade says, because it causes less stress and burnout, particularly emotional exhaustion from having to regulate one's emotions and "play a role."
But is there a downside to being too authentic? If the company is losing money and experiencing the effects of downsizing, should the manager, feeling stressed and overwhelmed, convey his despair to his workers? Or should the manager try to appear cheerful and act as if nothing is wrong? Barsade says it's possible for the manager to convey emotions that are both authentic and positive, saying something like, "I know you're worried. Things aren't looking good, but you know, we have a way out of this and we can work [on it] together." The employees will appreciate the honesty and take comfort in the optimism, she says.
Emotions as Valuable Data
Emotional intelligence -- buzz words already familiar in psychology and education -- is now talked about in business circles as well, Barsade says. Business schools are teaching executives how to be emotionally intelligent, and how to manage the emotions of their employees.
"The idea behind emotional intelligence in the workplace is that it is a skill through which employees treat emotions as valuable data in navigating a situation," according to the authors. "Let's say a sales manager has come up with an amazing idea that will increase corporate revenues by up to 200%, but knows his boss tends to be irritable and short-tempered in the morning. Having emotional intelligence means that the manager will first recognize and consider this emotional fact about his boss. Despite the stunning nature of his idea -- and his own excitement -- he will regulate his own emotions, curb his enthusiasm and wait until the afternoon to approach his boss."
Barsade says research suggests that positive people tend to do better in the workplace, and it isn't just because people like them more than naysayers. "Positive people cognitively process more efficiently and more appropriately. If you're in a negative mood, a fair amount of processing is going to that mood. When you're in a positive mood, you're more open to taking in information and handling it effectively."
While you can't necessarily change your coworkers, people can take steps to avoid catching a negative mood, according to Barsade. They can tell themselves before attending a staff meeting that they are not going to be bothered by the person who shoots down everyone's ideas, or that they are not going to let that person become the focus of their attention at the meeting (reducing the possibility for contagion). Or they can change their office routine. Barsade gave the example of a manager who was dragged down at the start of every day when passing by the desk of an employee who either grunted or gave no acknowledgement. The manager took control and simply started following a different route through the office.
Barsade's research has taken her into a variety of workplaces, most recently long-term care facilities. Her research found that in facilities where the employees report having a positive workplace culture -- she calls it a "culture of love" -- the residents end up faring better than residents in facilities with a less compassionate and caring work culture. The residents reported experiencing less pain, made fewer trips to the emergency room, and were more likely to report being satisfied and in a positive mood.
Overconfidence Online
E-mail, instant messaging and video conferencing have introduced new challenges to the workplace, Barsade adds. E-mails and instant messages can be misunderstood because they are devoid of facial expressions, intonation and body language -- cues that help convey emotions. Some people, she says, work hard at making their emails neutral, with the downside of sometimes sounding curt. On the other hand, while some writers may add a smattering of exclamation points, question marks and capital letters in an attempt to convey more emotion, this can also be a dangerous route, particularly when attempting humor or sarcasm to drive home a point.
"How can emotions be best conveyed via these media?" the paper asks. "What is the effect of conveying emotionally charged messages via text, when these messages are more likely to be misconstrued? How must we re-think emotional contagion and other social processes in an organizational world in which many meetings take place online?"
The paper cites a study showing that people tend to be overconfident about their ability to convey the emotion they wish in an e-mail, particularly when they are trying to be funny or sarcastic. "Video conferencing, also increasing in its use, has more cues, but it is also not yet the same as interacting face to face, particularly in group situations. Given that these technologies continue to grow as a primary means of communication within the business world, it is crucial that we understand how the interpretation and communication of affect occurs in these contexts," the paper says.
Workplaces need to get smart about the best use of e-mail, Barsade states. Her advice is that "if something is important, and you know that the emotional context is going to be an issue, then pick up the phone; don't just rely on e-mails." And even the phone may not be good enough. "Sometimes, if it is really important, you just have to fly to where they are and meet them face-to-face to get the message across."
This article is reprinted with permission from Knowledge@Wharton.
This article comes from Hotel News Resource
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com
The URL for this story is:
http://www.hotelnewsresource.com/article28535.html
Tuesday, January 08, 2008
MARRIOTT HOTELS & RESORTS OF CANADA AND WESTERKIRK CAPITAL SEEKING TO PARTNER AGAIN IN HALIFAX
January 7, 2008
Marriott Hotels & Resorts of Canada and Westerkirk Capital today announced an agreement with Aspotogan Sea Spa Limited to evaluate the feasibility of acquiring and completing the Sea Spa Nova Scotia property at Aspotogan.
If this study is successful, the property is slated to become a Marriott-managed, full-service hotel, complete with spa, conference and banquet services.
"We are excited about this opportunity because it represents new investment in the high end of the tourism sector in Nova Scotia. It's a largely untapped segment for this market. Should this prove successful, this new property will provide an economic benefit to the local economy through new jobs, group meetings and events, and higher margin travellers," said Scott Allison vice president, sales and marketing for Marriott Hotels & Resorts of Canada.
The Sea Spa was originally designed as a medical spa, but was never completed. Since the original property was built, the surrounding area has been developed with residential lots.
Marriott Hotels and Westerkirk have partnered together before. In March of 2005, they opened the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront to capacity bookings. This property was Marriott's 50th in Canada and the first full-service Marriott hotel in eastern Canada. The company continues to support the success of the Harbourfront property with capital renovations.
Westerkirk is committed to continuing its sizable financial and economic commitment in Nova Scotia.
Westerkirk is also working on a third project in Halifax with one of Marriott's largest development partners in Canada and the United States, Concord Hospitality Enterprises Company. The two companies have submitted a bid with Marriott Hotels & Resorts of Canada for a Marriott Courtyard at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport. This bid is in response to an RFP from the Halifax International Airport Authority.
Concord Hospitality entered Canada aggressively in August of 2002, with five Marriott-branded hotels in the Greater Toronto Area and has subsequently opened an additional five Marriott-branded hotels in Canada. This deal marks its first venture in eastern Canada.
Marriott Hotels & Resorts of Canada was also named one of Canada's 50 Best Employers in 2007.
www.marriott.com
Author: Natalie Little
Organization: Fleishman-Hillard for Marriott Hotels & Resorts of Canada
E-mail: natalie.little@fleishman.ca
Marriott Hotels & Resorts of Canada and Westerkirk Capital today announced an agreement with Aspotogan Sea Spa Limited to evaluate the feasibility of acquiring and completing the Sea Spa Nova Scotia property at Aspotogan.
If this study is successful, the property is slated to become a Marriott-managed, full-service hotel, complete with spa, conference and banquet services.
"We are excited about this opportunity because it represents new investment in the high end of the tourism sector in Nova Scotia. It's a largely untapped segment for this market. Should this prove successful, this new property will provide an economic benefit to the local economy through new jobs, group meetings and events, and higher margin travellers," said Scott Allison vice president, sales and marketing for Marriott Hotels & Resorts of Canada.
The Sea Spa was originally designed as a medical spa, but was never completed. Since the original property was built, the surrounding area has been developed with residential lots.
Marriott Hotels and Westerkirk have partnered together before. In March of 2005, they opened the Halifax Marriott Harbourfront to capacity bookings. This property was Marriott's 50th in Canada and the first full-service Marriott hotel in eastern Canada. The company continues to support the success of the Harbourfront property with capital renovations.
Westerkirk is committed to continuing its sizable financial and economic commitment in Nova Scotia.
Westerkirk is also working on a third project in Halifax with one of Marriott's largest development partners in Canada and the United States, Concord Hospitality Enterprises Company. The two companies have submitted a bid with Marriott Hotels & Resorts of Canada for a Marriott Courtyard at the Halifax Stanfield International Airport. This bid is in response to an RFP from the Halifax International Airport Authority.
Concord Hospitality entered Canada aggressively in August of 2002, with five Marriott-branded hotels in the Greater Toronto Area and has subsequently opened an additional five Marriott-branded hotels in Canada. This deal marks its first venture in eastern Canada.
Marriott Hotels & Resorts of Canada was also named one of Canada's 50 Best Employers in 2007.
www.marriott.com
Author: Natalie Little
Organization: Fleishman-Hillard for Marriott Hotels & Resorts of Canada
E-mail: natalie.little@fleishman.ca
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
Web 2.0, Learning 2.0, Travel 2.0, Marketing 2.0
What are Social Media and the 2.0 phenomena? If it is here to stay, how do we deal with it?
January 3, 2008 is the Nova Scotia Community College: Tourism Management “Industry/Faculty” professional development day. In May of 2007 we invited industry participants to join faculty in gaining insight to a tourism management business simulation. As a follow up to this event we decided that efforts would be made to search for further joint professional development opportunities.
This topic presented itself for selection. As faculty we had noticed over the past few years the arrival of the ubiquitous cell phone usage by our students and in more recent times in class text messaging and the computers logged on to Facebook or MySpace. The more we spoke of it, the more we also started to hear about the phenomenon in the media and from our students. When we discussed the topic in industry they seemed to express the same concerns and interest in finding our more about Web 2.0.
After researching this topic there is little doubt that social media is here to stay. This will be a dynamic process with some of its players coming briefly to the forefront and then vanishing as quickly. This does not change the underlying value proposition that this interactive communal activity brings to society and specifically for our purposes to the travel industry. Equally there is no question that it calls for a paradigm shift in how we think and that it will have significant unintended consequences.
As a tourism educator, who is a digital immigrant, I am excited by the possibilities of web 2.0 and aware of the risks and challenges inherent in learning new tools. However we must be also aware of the responsibility of educating students to be discriminating users of the 2.0 world and that quick (wiki) has its benefits and drawbacks.
Please add your comments on this blog and on today’s session .
http://akerleychatss.blogspot.com/
January 3, 2008 is the Nova Scotia Community College: Tourism Management “Industry/Faculty” professional development day. In May of 2007 we invited industry participants to join faculty in gaining insight to a tourism management business simulation. As a follow up to this event we decided that efforts would be made to search for further joint professional development opportunities.
This topic presented itself for selection. As faculty we had noticed over the past few years the arrival of the ubiquitous cell phone usage by our students and in more recent times in class text messaging and the computers logged on to Facebook or MySpace. The more we spoke of it, the more we also started to hear about the phenomenon in the media and from our students. When we discussed the topic in industry they seemed to express the same concerns and interest in finding our more about Web 2.0.
After researching this topic there is little doubt that social media is here to stay. This will be a dynamic process with some of its players coming briefly to the forefront and then vanishing as quickly. This does not change the underlying value proposition that this interactive communal activity brings to society and specifically for our purposes to the travel industry. Equally there is no question that it calls for a paradigm shift in how we think and that it will have significant unintended consequences.
As a tourism educator, who is a digital immigrant, I am excited by the possibilities of web 2.0 and aware of the risks and challenges inherent in learning new tools. However we must be also aware of the responsibility of educating students to be discriminating users of the 2.0 world and that quick (wiki) has its benefits and drawbacks.
Please add your comments on this blog and on today’s session .
http://akerleychatss.blogspot.com/
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Commentary: An Ethical New Year: Three Resolutions
by Rushworth M. Kidder
http://ethicsnewsline.wordpress.com/2008/01/01/commentary-an-ethical-new-year-three-resolutions/
The other day a newspaper editor rang up. She was writing a preview of the coming year and wondered what ethical hotspots I saw emerging in 2008.
Great question. But as I thought about her request, I realized that ethics is less about places and events than about characters and ideas. The real question is, What overarching ethical trends are developing in 2008, and what moral qualities will be needed most as we move forward?
What New Year’s resolutions can we commit to for 2008? Here are my three:
Civility. This coming year will require a willingness to outgrow the shallow notion of ethics as right-versus-wrong and replace it with a thoughtful clarity about right versus right. During his confirmation hearings, U.S. attorney general Michael Mukasey quoted Supreme Court justice Robert H. Jackson, who wrote that “the issue between … a right and a wrong … never presents a dilemma,” but that “the dilemma is because the conflict is between two rights, each in its own way important.” The challenge to ethics in public and corporate life is to replace a rule-bound, compliance-based, right-versus-wrong way of thinking with a values-based, right-versus-right reasoning. Resolution: I won’t resort to a rule when a value will make the point. And I will refuse to reduce the great debates of our day to the polarizing, I’m-right-and-you’re-wrong language of talk radio and blogosphere rant.
Vigilance. We’ll need watchfulness coupled with moral readiness. To spot ethical temptations but have no way to resist their subtle allure leaves you dangerously exposed. But never to recognize temptations in the first place is, in effect, to give your consent to them and be manipulated by them. Don Imus, the quick-witted, sharp-tongued talk-show host who was sacked in April from his $10-million-a-year job by CBS, apparently was so acclimated to personal slurs and moral slights that he failed to withhold his consent when an egregious insult about the Rutgers women’s basketball team tripped off a colleague’s tongue and then his own. Resolution: I won’t merely drift along with the passing moral currents. Instead, I will maintain control of my own conscience and have the moral courage to stand up against unethical behavior.
Fairness. We’ll be called upon to express new levels of equity, expressed through the principles of democracy. The test of a nation’s character lies in how it treats its aged and teaches its young. The growing disparity of income between the rich and the poor effectively shrinks resources toward the middle-aged and away from both the young and the aged. Resolution: I will not replace deep compassion with benign neglect, genuine respect with ritualized hand-wringing, and individual responsibility with buck-passing collectivism. Instead, I will argue at every turn for the ethics inherent in democracy, and for the democratizing power of ethics, not only at home but around the world.
Those are my three. What are yours?
©2007 Institute for Global Ethics
http://ethicsnewsline.wordpress.com/2008/01/01/commentary-an-ethical-new-year-three-resolutions/
The other day a newspaper editor rang up. She was writing a preview of the coming year and wondered what ethical hotspots I saw emerging in 2008.
Great question. But as I thought about her request, I realized that ethics is less about places and events than about characters and ideas. The real question is, What overarching ethical trends are developing in 2008, and what moral qualities will be needed most as we move forward?
What New Year’s resolutions can we commit to for 2008? Here are my three:
Civility. This coming year will require a willingness to outgrow the shallow notion of ethics as right-versus-wrong and replace it with a thoughtful clarity about right versus right. During his confirmation hearings, U.S. attorney general Michael Mukasey quoted Supreme Court justice Robert H. Jackson, who wrote that “the issue between … a right and a wrong … never presents a dilemma,” but that “the dilemma is because the conflict is between two rights, each in its own way important.” The challenge to ethics in public and corporate life is to replace a rule-bound, compliance-based, right-versus-wrong way of thinking with a values-based, right-versus-right reasoning. Resolution: I won’t resort to a rule when a value will make the point. And I will refuse to reduce the great debates of our day to the polarizing, I’m-right-and-you’re-wrong language of talk radio and blogosphere rant.
Vigilance. We’ll need watchfulness coupled with moral readiness. To spot ethical temptations but have no way to resist their subtle allure leaves you dangerously exposed. But never to recognize temptations in the first place is, in effect, to give your consent to them and be manipulated by them. Don Imus, the quick-witted, sharp-tongued talk-show host who was sacked in April from his $10-million-a-year job by CBS, apparently was so acclimated to personal slurs and moral slights that he failed to withhold his consent when an egregious insult about the Rutgers women’s basketball team tripped off a colleague’s tongue and then his own. Resolution: I won’t merely drift along with the passing moral currents. Instead, I will maintain control of my own conscience and have the moral courage to stand up against unethical behavior.
Fairness. We’ll be called upon to express new levels of equity, expressed through the principles of democracy. The test of a nation’s character lies in how it treats its aged and teaches its young. The growing disparity of income between the rich and the poor effectively shrinks resources toward the middle-aged and away from both the young and the aged. Resolution: I will not replace deep compassion with benign neglect, genuine respect with ritualized hand-wringing, and individual responsibility with buck-passing collectivism. Instead, I will argue at every turn for the ethics inherent in democracy, and for the democratizing power of ethics, not only at home but around the world.
Those are my three. What are yours?
©2007 Institute for Global Ethics
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