Reading & Feeding Signs: The 5 As in Hospitality

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In her recent presentation on “Achieving Hospitality Excellence” with our management team, Shelley Dickinson spoke about how important it is to read and feed signs in hospitality. When a situation arises on site that requires your attention, making your client feel important while defusing the situation should be your number one priority. To do so, you must read and feed signs using the 5 As:

  • Acknowledge to your client that a problem has arisen

  • Apologize for the inconvenience or discomfort the client has been caused because of the problem

  • Ask what action you can take to resolve the problem in a manner they feel is fair

  • Act to provide a resolution for them that both you and the client feel is appropriate

  • Assess what happened to cause the problem in the first place to ensure it does not happen again

Taking the time to acknowledge and apologize feeds the signs of discomfort the client is showing you. Asking the client what action you could take to solve the problem before acting with a solution makes the client feel heard as well as allows you to temper your response. Sometimes, we offer more than is required to resolve the problem. Stopping to ask the client’s opinion before you take action can allow you to respond appropriately for both you and the client. Assessing the situation once a resolution has occurred rather than before the resolution occurs allows you time to properly review what happened, thus ensuring it is unlikely to help again.

Do you use the 5 As when handling client problems? Share with us how in the comments below and you may be featured in an upcoming post!

Karen Craig