Let’s all remember how to be human

“Remember human beings? I like talking to them. It’s time we encouraged people to talk to human beings.”

That’s an excerpt from a speech by travel expert and journalist Peter Greenberg, host of the nationally syndicated Peter Greenberg Worldwide Radio show, at the recent Choice Hotels International convention held near Washington, DC last month.

Several years back when I worked for a large organization, I had a hard time getting hold of anyone by phone. At that stage, people were hiding behind voice mail, and in some cases had the double barrier of an executive assistant who didn’t answer their voice mail either.  But I could send an e-mail and get an almost instantaneous response from the company president.

That was when e-mail was new and exciting.  These days it’s more of a chore—wading through the mass of messages that weigh down efficiency, requiring answers that used to be quickly addressed in a phone call.

Sending back an e-mail is a reflex these days, but I find that if I fight the reflex and put in a phone call to the person’s cell phone, I actually get a real person—it’s exciting!

It’s no wonder that the radio ad I hear on my daily drive to work tells companies that if they are still using electronic voice messaging, then they are losing business.
 
The tide is turning. Electronics are out. E-mail is becoming meaningless. It’s time to start talking to human beings again.

“The concept of a human being is one we loved and have to re-institute,” Greenberg said in his presentation. “Encourage everyone on your staff to engage guests in conversation.”

When guest conversations are followed up with interesting, location-specific experiences, the effect can be electrifying. Here are two stories Greenberg heard when he went to give a speech in Hawaii. Both involve unusual hotel services that aren’t in the brochures.

Asked what they did last night, one guest said, “The maid took me deep sea fishing.”
That’s certainly a much more interesting way to spend the evening than watching television and ordering room service.

In another hotel on the island of Kauai,  guests were told that Robert the Bellboy, would take you wild pig hunting at 4 a.m., and the chef would cook the pig in a big, clay pot.
Three weeks after this story was aired, the island of Kauai ran out of pigs. (Note: Greenberg was not recommending destruction of local wildlife.  He was just making a point.)

“You have such resources at your hotels.  If your staff know the community, the guests love it.  And word of mouth moves at lightning speed.

“Think about what you have, think of yourselves as enablers, and start promoting experiences.  Think about what you can do within 75 to 100 miles of your hotel—then make it happen.

“You have hubs of great experiences people don’t even know about.

“Tonight I’m staying at an Econo Lodge in Tulsa. The people behind the front desk offer a shuttle service to the airport.  Wow.  It’s reverse branding—it used to be only the Ritz-Carlton offering that type of service.

“Your problem is that people who come to your hotels [don’t necessarily] have a great opinion of them,” Greenberg said to the Choice franchisees.  “Wow them, and you might get to keep them.”

Being human works for the traveller, too. He gave an example of how a conversation with a real person has helped him get better deals.  Travelling to New York, he found an 8:00 a.m. flight from Chicago for $900 one way, coach class on the website. But by talking to someone at the airline, he found out that there was a 7:15 a.m. positioning flight for only $218.

“I beg you not to forget the power and long standing relationships you get by talking to human beings,” he said.

—Colleen Isherwood, Editor