CHOCOLATES ON THE PILLOW AREN’T ENOUGH
Q&A WITH JONATHAN TISCH
Thanks to Rachelle Lacroix, Blog Media Contact
Jonathan Tisch is chairman and CEO of Loews Hotels; chairman of the Travel Business Roundtable; a member of the Discover America Partnership Leadership Committee; and the author of Chocolates on the Pillow Aren’t Enough: Reinventing the Customer Experience. He joins us to talk about the concept of customer service; why creating an intimate, positive, and long lasting connection with customers is the key to success in any field; and how the U.S. government could benefit from implementing some simple and common-sense customer service principles.
You speak passionately about the need for, and benefit of, good customer service. How do you think the U.S. treats international visitors when they arrive in your country?
The Discover America Partnership, an organization that I helped found, recently conducted a survey of more than 2,000 international travelers. Among many findings from the survey, respondents said that the United States has the “world’s worst” entry process. Indeed, international travelers are more fearful of how they will be treated upon arrival in the U.S. than they are of the threat of crime or terrorism while in our country.
By a greater than 2 to 1 margin, the survey showed that the U.S. is the most unfriendly country in the world when it comes to welcoming international visitors. A majority of those surveyed said that U.S. immigration officials are “rude.”
Whether these feelings are based in perceptions or reality, we clearly have a problem.
As is the practice at Loews Hotels - and for the businesses profiled in Chocolates on the Pillow Aren’t Enough - we spend a great deal of time and energy (1) asking for peoples’ business, (2) treating them exceptionally well, and (3) turning a transaction into an experience and (4) working to make our customers in to life-long guests. So too should the United States when it welcomes international visitors.
In the post 9/11 world in which we live, U.S. companies and the U.S. government now emphasize security above all else. Is it possible to truly balance security with hospitality?
Absolutely. While we must maintain the integrity of our homeland security standards, I firmly believe that greeting people with a smile and welcoming them to our country does nothing to compromise security.
Perceptions of a rude and arrogant entry process are actually turning away potential visitors...and doing a great deal of damage to our image abroad.
According to the Discover America Partnership survey, people who have visited the U.S. are 74 percent more likely to have a favorable opinion of the country than those who have not visited.
In fact, a full 61 percent believed that a visit to the U.S. would make them more likely to support our country and its policies.
So while a bit counter-intuitive, by welcoming more international travelers we actually become more secure as a country.
We have spent the last five years trying to make our nation more secure. But during that same period we’ve seen a 17 percent decline in international visitors. As Tom Ridge, the country’s first Homeland Security secretary says, we need to do a better job at finding the right balance between security, prosperity and hospitality. I firmly believe we can have secure borders and open doors.
Can the concepts in your book apply beyond the business world? What is the one piece of advice that you would offer the U.S. government?
Yes they can. In the hotel industry the key to attracting lifelong patrons is transforming customers into guests, but this principle can be applied to just about every organization, the U.S. government included. This means behaving not like salespeople, but like hosts, with all the human qualities that implies--warmth, openness, generosity, welcome. Today, every organization needs to capture this spirit to build a growing fan base of loyal and appreciative patrons—especially at a time when customer loyalty is on the way out. We need to turn a transaction into a memorable experience.
The U.S. government must start thinking of itself as a business and international travelers as the customers.
Above all else, I would encourage our government to treat our guests graciously and welcome them. As simple as it sounds, all international travelers should be greeted with “Welcome to America” upon arrival. America’s returning from abroad should be greeted with “Welcome Home” or “Welcome Back.” This is how we treat our guests at Loews Hotels. The same should be true for “guests” to America.
Additionally, I would encourage the U.S. government to fix our broken visa system. It is broken, but not beyond repair...but it needs to be addressed immediately.
Lastly, we need to modernize our ports of entry - making them more secure and more efficient - and to make it widely known, world-wide, that America is open for business and that we are a welcoming and hospitable country.
