Austria
What changes you implemented due to Corona do you think will stay beyond the pandemic? Will it have a long-term impact for you?
We've seen a big and sudden increase in the use of digital tools to communicate with the guests on a daily basis. Like every change, this had its good and bad sides – with first being the ability to reach out to the guests at any moment and keep the guests up to date with everything that's happening in their resort, whilst the latter would be the lack of face-to-face communication, which especially affected the guests of the older age group who are not tech savvy.
Regardless of this, digital communication is undoubtedly the way forward for Service Delivery and with some extra training and further investment in the systems I am assured we will become renowned for offering exceptional service in the digital era. We have also had to become more digital in our way of communicating between our team members using Microsoft Teams as our main communication tool, doing all team meetings on video calls, interacting with each staff member this way. This has been a huge change – and although I will always think face-to-face is more personal – this has been a great tool. We have adapted well and it is definitely more time effective.
Going forward the digital changes are only going to become more advanced and easier for us to use in our daily role. I feel this will definitely impact my job role as a Service Delivery Team Manager in the way I will have to adapt even more to managing my team more digitally.
Do you have an example for creative solutions to new problems?
The problems we've dealt with this season are like nothing we've had to face before. In the Service Delivery point of view this would undoubtedly be how being paperless has pushed us to become more creative on how we promote our service and experiences to our guest. The best way to tackle this obstacle was to clearly clarify to the team what's required in order to successfully communicate with the guests, using TIMS* standards to provide all the info required. We've then had the team work together and share their knowledge, experience and ultimately template messages with each other. This really helped as we've seen an increase in sales following this exercise.
Another new challenge I feel I faced this season was really managing my team’s expectations with the season we are in. I feel I have been very open and honest with my team and had regular communication with them. We have had weekly catch ups over video chat Microsoft Teams where face-to-face hasn’t been possible. I have had to do a lot of remote managing including Albania and Montenegro. By having these regular weekly catch ups with them I have been able to build a great working relationship and communication has worked very well.
Is there anything or anyone you are currently extra grateful for?
I am truly grateful for having such an amazing team around me this summer. The reps and team leaders in my resorts have really took on challenges that are new to everyone and remained positive and enthusiastic throughout the season. I want to say a special thank you to my Team Leader Jan Popovic who was new to the role of Team Leader and really took to leading and guiding his team of mixed source markets in these unforeseeable times. Jan also took on extra responsibilities to assist with all team members in Croatia, which was a huge help to me during the season and has allowed me to have a true focus over my area.
* TIMS is the TUI DX system to digitally communicate with our guests.
