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Amanda Hyndman’s tips for business success

21 Jun 2011

At last week’s One Year On event, many of those who attended said they were impressed and motivated by a talk given by lead speaker Amanda Hyndman.
Amanda had made the special journey from Washington DC, where she now works at the prestigious Mandarin Oriental Hotel, to join city partners at the Glasgow Service with Style event.
 
As a graduate of the Scottish Hotel School at Strathclyde University, Amanda started her career at the city's Copthorne Hotel. Following her 15-year tenure at Millennium & Copthorne Hotels where she held a number of roles in Glasgow, London and Aberdeen, Amanda became General Manager of The Waldorf, London, and  the Excelsior, Hong Kong, before joining the Mandarin Oriental, Washington DC in October 2009.
Here we bring you some of the highlights of Amanda’s talk in which she revealed, through her own experiences of career highlights and service standards, what it takes to become a high-achieving hospitality business.
As Amanda pointed out on the night, she doesn’t believe she is an expert at creating a succussful hotel, but she has learned a huge amount through her own career and experiences. Here’s a flavour of what delegates learned.
The three Ps: P is for Personalisation, People and Partnership. These are the three keys to running and managing a successful hotel/business.
Personalisation
Amanda describes personalisation as key to a guest’s experience. Every guest experience should be personalised so that they feel that their highest expectations are met. This could be superb value for money, a fabulous service or both – and more.
Butter them up: If a guest asks for unsalted butter on their breakfast table, ensure that unsalted butter is served up at every breakfast and keep a note of their preference so that every time the guest returns to the hotel the unsalted butter is placed on their table.
Pillow talk: If a guest has asked for a soft pillow when they stay at the hotel, keep a note of this requirement and ensure they have a soft pillow on their bed the next time they come to the hotel.
A moment of delight: Mandarin Oriental Hotels offer exclusively beautiful hotels in stunning locations. The hotels are legendary for their quality experience and the aim of the hotels is to delight and satisfy guests. The aim is to offer guests “a moment of delight”, whatever their moment of delight might be and in offering this special treat the hotels aim to “exceed personal expectations”. 
Loyalty: It’s cheaper and simpler to get customers to come back to a hotel than to find new guests.
People
Amanda believes that people – and the right people in the right places within a business – are vital for success. 
Happy workers: Working in a hotel, staff should be motivated, hard workers, team players and highly enthusiastic. 
Help them to smile: Supporting staff with health and fitness classes, such as yoga or weight watchers, assisting with budgeting issues, or offering help with childcare of community issues can create a happier staff. If staff are happier at home then they will be more energetic and positive in the workplace. 
Spread the love: Communicate openly about the success of staff. At the Mandarin Oriental, and at previous hotels that Amanda has worked at, she has introduced a monthly award that celebrates the success of staff. Everyone likes to be praised.
Grow more leaders: Aim to promote staff from within an organisation. Help staff to develop though training and empowerment and they will become happier and more motivated. 
Partnership
Key to a successful business and happy staff is a working partnership with the external community.
Community matters: Amanda has witnessed the success of skills training and programmes in the local community. 
Greater talent: Training people in the community in the skills that a business requires offers a greater talent pool from which to pick staff. It’s a win-win- situation.
… And when times get hard
In the words of Martin Luther King Jar: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”
Amanda picks this quote because she has seen that when times get tough in business, the best staff learn how to do more with less. They thrive and work through it. The help a business to stay afloat despite the difficult circumstances.
When you have good staff you can achieve so much more.

At last week’s One Year On event, many of those who attended said they were impressed and motivated by a talk given by lead speaker Amanda Hyndman.

Amanda had made the special journey from Washington DC, where she now works at the prestigious Mandarin Oriental Hotel, to join city partners at the Glasgow Service with Style event. 

As a graduate of the Scottish Hotel School at Strathclyde University, Amanda started her career at the city's Copthorne Hotel. Following her 15-year tenure at Millennium & Copthorne Hotels where she held a number of roles in Glasgow, London and Aberdeen, Amanda became General Manager of The Waldorf, London, and  the Excelsior, Hong Kong, before joining the Mandarin Oriental, Washington DC in October 2009.

Here we bring you some of the highlights of Amanda’s talk in which she revealed, through her own experiences of career highlights and service standards, what it takes to become a high-achieving hospitality business.

As Amanda pointed out on the night, she doesn’t believe she is an expert at creating a successful hotel, but she has learned a huge amount through her own career and experiences. Here’s a flavour of what delegates learned.

The three Ps: P is for Personalisation, People and Partnership. These are the three keys to running and managing a successful hotel, but which apply to running any business.

Personalisation

Amanda describes personalisation as key to a guest’s experience. Every guest experience should be personalised so that they feel that their highest expectations are met. This could be by offering superb value for money, a fabulous service or both – and more.

Butter them up: If a guest asks for unsalted butter on their breakfast table, ensure that unsalted butter is served up at every breakfast and keep a note of their preference so that every time the guest returns to the hotel the unsalted butter is placed on their table. This is a great example of personalisation.

Pillow talk: If a guest has asked for a soft pillow when they stay at the hotel, keep a note of this requirement and ensure they have a soft pillow on their bed the next time they come to the hotel.  

A moment of delight: Mandarin Oriental Hotels offer exclusively beautiful hotels in stunning locations. The hotels are legendary for their quality experience and staff strive to delight and satisfy guests. The aim is to offer each guest their "moment of delight”, whatever their moment of delight might be and in offering this special treat or service the hotels aim to “exceed personal expectations”. 

Loyalty: Amanda says: "It’s cheaper and simpler to get customers to come back to a hotel than to find new guests".  Make sure that customers wish to return as a result of the fantastic service they receive.

People

Amanda believes that people – and the right people in the right places within a business – are vital for success. She has huge experience of employing staff and has come to learn who will suit each role. "Sometimes you get a gut instinct," she says.  It's key to recruit for attitude, as the skills can then be learned.

Happy workers: Working in a hotel, staff should be motivated, hard workers, team players and highly enthusiastic. 

Help them to smile: Supporting staff with health and fitness classes, such as yoga or weight watchers, assisting with budgeting classes, or offering help with childcare or community issues can create a happier workforce. If staff are happier at home then they will be more energetic and positive in the workplace. 

Spread the love: Communicate openly about the success of staff. At the Mandarin Oriental, and at previous hotels where Amanda has worked, she has introduced a monthly award that celebrates the success of staff. Everyone likes to be praised.

Praise in public: But criticise quietly and discreetly.

Grow more leaders: Aim to promote people from within the organisation. Help staff to develop though ongoing coaching, training and empowerment and they will become happier and more motivated.  Amanda spends much of her time individually coaching and mentoring her management team. Succession planning is key.  

Partnership

Amanda believes that another vital key to a successful business and productive staff is a working partnership with the external community.  She has found real business benefit from the external profile and networking which results from working in partnership with agencies such as the tourist board, chamber of commerce, and enterprise organisations as well as industry associations.

Community matters: Amanda has also witnessed the success of skills training and programmes in the local community.  It's motivating for the team, they learn new skills and gain worthwhile experience, and at the same time the community benefits from this support.

Greater talent: Training people in the community in the skills that a business requires offers a greater talent pool from which to pick staff.  It's a win-win situation.

… And when times get tough

In the words of Martin Luther King Jr: “The ultimate measure of a man is not where he stands in moments of comfort and convenience, but where he stands at times of challenge and controversy.”

Amanda picks this quote because she has seen that when times get tough in business, the best staff learn how to do more with less. She says: "They thrive and work through it. They help a business to stay afloat despite the difficult circumstances. When you have good staff you can achieve so much more."