9. Hospitality Service Culture with Justin McGurgan

[spp-transcript]

Justin McGurgan

Improving service culture

Justin McGurgan has worked in hospitality since he was 16 years old and in the club-venue space, he’s aware that when the product offerings don’t vary too greatly from venue to venue, the difference is in the delivery. As the owner of a registered training organisation for hospitality compliance, Justin McGurgan recognised the need for a culture shift in the venues he works with and created what he calls the sustainable and profitable service culture program. He shares his observations of what business lack, the reasons behind it and how they can shift their culture into what they hoped it would be.

During my conversation with Justin McGurgan, he shares:

• The story behind the need to incorporate a service culture program
• Why he believes compliance and technology has affected customer service levels
• Why increased profitability can come from a focus on culture
• Why staff are usually not the source of a business’ under-performance
• How a ‘sense of belonging’ for staff and customers is key
• How the word ‘guest’ changes the service mindset
• The difference between upselling and upserving
• How product education improves customer experience
• The value of qualitative service assessment
• The need for clear sequence of service documentation; and
• How to build rapport with customers during and after their visit

Author of ‘Raising the Barista: the 12 steps to an awesome and profitable service culture’, Justin is committed to helping put hospitality back into the hospitality industry.

Managers need guidance to become better leaders, staff need to understand the personal benefits of being more helpful, engaged team members. It doesn’t happen naturally so what needs to change? In this interview Justin shares with us tips and practices he incorporates to build a more cohesive, service-oriented team to drive a more profitable business.

Selected links for this episode

• www.zealifi.com.au
• Book and program – www.raisingthebarista.com.au

Who’s customer-centric?

Justin’s example of a customer-centric business:

• www.reece.com.au Burleigh Junction – for the helpful staff member who alerted Justin to a lifetime guarantee on a product that saved him from buying another. He’ll return without hesitation for future purchases and now recommends them to everyone he knows for their helpful approach.

“Everything we say or don’t say, shows how much we care. Everything we do or don’t do, shows how much we care” McGurgan

Would you like this episode on your blog or website?

Our podcast player will look like this on your site:

Get our podcast player onto your site by simply copying and pasting the following code:

<audio src="https://archive.org/download/TheCustomerCentricShowPodcast/009_Justin-McGurgan_customer-centric-show-podcast.mp3" controls></audio>