The most crucial way, however, of improving the labour cost structure at SAH ( Sydney Airport Hotel) was to find better, more productive ways of providing customer service. SAH management concluded this would first require a process of "benchmarking". The prime objective of the bench-marking process was to compare a range of service delivery processes across a range of criteria using teams made up of employees from different departments within the hotel which interacted with each other. This process resulted in performance measures that greatly enhanced SAH's ability to improve productivity and quality.
The front office team discovered through this project that a high proportion of AHI (Australian Hotels Inc) Club member reservations were incomplete. As a result, the service provided to these guests was below the standard promised to them as part of their membership agreement. Reducing the number of incomplete reservations greatly improved guest perceptions of service.
In addition, a program modelled on an earlier project called "Take Charge" was implemented. Essentially, Take Charge provides an effective feedback loop from both customers and employees. Customer comments, both positive and negative, are recorded by staff. These are collated regularly to identify opportunities for improvement. Just as importantly, employees are requested to note down their own suggestions for improvement. (AHI has set an expectation that employees will submit at least three suggestions for every one they receive from a customer.) Employee feedback is reviewed daily and suggestions are implemented within 48 hours, if possible, or a valid reason is given for non-implementation. If suggestions require analysis or data collection, the Take Charge team has 30 days in which to address the issue and come up with recommendations.
Although quantitative evidence of AHI's initiatives at SAH are limited at present, anecdotal evidence clearly suggests that these practices are working. Indeed AHI is progressively rolling out these initiatives in other hotels in Australia, whilst numerous overseas visitors have come to see how the program works.
Summary:

Teams of employees were selected from different hotel departments to participate in a bench-marking exercise. The information collected was used to compare a range of {{U}}(76) {{/U}} which, in turn, led to the development of {{U}}(77) {{/U}} that would be used to increase the hotel's capacity to improve {{U}}(78) {{/U}} as well as quality. Also, an older program known as {{U}}(79) {{/U}} was introduced at SAH. In this program, feedback is sought from customers an, staff. If possible, their suggestions are implemented within 48 hours. Some of these suggestions may be investigated for their feasibility for a period of up to {{U}}(80) {{/U}}