Thanks to a proven customer satisfaction training program, Hilton executives are confident they can dramatically raise the level of customer service throughout their hotels. The program, called Daily Training Bites, was created three years ago by LXR Luxury Resorts & Hotels, a Boca Raton, Florida-based portfolio of independent properties that, like Hilton, are under the Blackstone Group umbrella. LXR’s goal was to develop standards for, and improve service from, every position in the hotel, and it worked. Guest experience surveys showed an overall improvement of at least 50 percent throughout the system.

Hilton began putting Daily Training Bites into action in January. The program consists of a 15-minute daily roll call in which do’s, don’ts, and other tips are read from flash cards, and employees actively discuss various service points.

The job of the shift manager, supervisor, or department head during roll call is to begin a dialogue that will get staffers enthused. Doug Zeif, VP of F&B-Americas for Hilton and the man who developed the program at LXR, explains, “They may say, ‘Here’s our standard for today, Table Maintenance, and we’re going to work on what it means to you. Sally, what does it mean to you as a server in the dining room?’ Sally may say, ‘Well, I try to get all the sugar packets off the table, and when people get up to go to the breakfast buffet, we fold their napkins.’ Then the manager goes through all the standards on the cards, asking leading questions.”

The program has “absolutely” been tailored to Hilton’s unique corporate culture, Zeif says. “There are many nuances at Hilton that are not in other properties,” he adds, “including everything from serving from the left and clearing from the right to how we greet the guest and when we drop the check. There are hundreds of little details like that.”

Those standards touch on issues such as:

• Proper handling of reservations (“Telephone must be answered within three rings using the appropriate greeting: ‘Good morning/afternoon/evening…’”).
  
• Greeting guests in person (“Make eye contact immediately, even if on the phone or interacting with another guest”).
  
• Seating guests (“Ask guest to follow him/her to the table and walk at a pace that allows the guest to keep up”).
  
  While there is no incentive program, per se, attached to Daily Training Bites, Zeif points out that the most basic incentive of all “is the fact that the best thing employees can do for themselves is get a higher gratuity from the guest.” He says it’s too early to tell how much improvement in guest satisfaction has begun to register at Hilton since January, but he expects “nominal” improvement year to date “because we haven’t quite gotten a foothold in it yet.”
  
  “By doing it every day—I mean every shift, every day, in every department—we have shown a commitment on behalf of hotel management at every property,” Zeif says. “And if you make training fun, it’s a lot easier to get people to buy into it. The idea is to get training woven into the fabric of the company. We’re just getting the mechanism rolling here. We’re probably six months out from having everybody on board.”
  
  Howard Riell is a Las Vegas-based veteran editor who has written for nearly 140 business and consumer magazines, blogs, newspapers, and newsletters.