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Hospitality Coach 🏆

@michelle.pascoe

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🚀 Empowering leaders from Frontline to CEO
🌟 Middle Management Movement creator
🏅 31yrs, 2000+ trained
⬇️ Transform your team: Join MMM!

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I've been around for so long that many of you know me by now, but I've also made a lot of wonderful new connections in recent months so I thought it was time to re-introduce myself!

My passion for workplace training and the customer experience was sparked after a particularly challenging job interview in my 30’s. Determined to provide for my young family on my own terms, I created my own company, Optimum Operating Procedures and Services (better known as OOPS). I put years into cold calls, door-to-door sales pitches and impromptu training sessions - until a chance meeting with a friend led me to train my first frontline team in a Registered Club. After seeing the impact my words and experiences had on the team members in that room, I knew I had found my calling. Thirty years on, I'm still proudly serving my wonderful clients in the Registered Club and broader hospitality industry.

2020 was a tough year for many of us, but it was also an opportunity for us to step back and reassess what the future of customer service would look like once the pandemic was over, reframing our view of what today’s customers really want. It was a chance to focus on rebuilding the human connection; through extraordinary customer experiences, heart-centred leadership training and a true understanding of multi-generational workplaces. Core principles which all of my frontline and leadership training programs are based on.

From a Turkey farm in rural NSW to a successful Certified Professional Speaker (CSP), Accredited Trainer, author and podcaster, my learned experiences, deep understanding of what it takes to succeed, and unique skill set have equipped me to become a dynamic presenter and engaging storyteller. After thirty years in business, I am just as passionate about leadership development and the customer experience as I have ever been, and I am excited to continue sharing my knowledge with the next generation of leaders.

I love a half strength latte and a chat, so feel free to reach out any time.

#team #hospitalityindustry #vipcustomerexperience #vipcustomerservice #cxgeneration #oopsmysteryshopping #hospitalitycoach #middlemanagementmovement #frontlinetraining by @michelle.pascoe

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3 years ago

Your booking system knows a member’s birthday. Your CRM knows their usual table, how long it’s been since their last visit and which reward is about to expire. But none of that matters if your team on the floor never hears about it.

As AI takes over more of the routine work in our clubs and hotels, the moments left for your team become even more important: being recognised, having a problem fixed on the spot, and someone using their judgement when there’s no script.

These are the moments your venue will be judged on, and this week I'm covering the three checks venues should make before investing in another piece of tech.

Grab a coffee and read the full article at the LINK IN BIO 👆 by @michelle.pascoe

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a day ago

My Flybuys card is still in my maiden name and I’ve been married a very long time, so that tells you how long I’ve been a member!

What keeps me using it isn’t the card. It’s the little reminder at the checkout that I’ve got ten dollars to spend. That prompt is the moment I remember why I signed up in the first place.

James McIntyre told me that the average Australian holds somewhere between eight and eleven loyalty programs. With that many cards and apps competing for attention, it's no wonder that members stop trusting a program the moment it forgets or overlooks information they've already provided. It doesn’t matter whether a person or an AI dropped the ball, members want to feel "known" by the businesses they're loyal to.

In our clubs, that applies to everyone on the loyalty ladder, from the high rollers right down to the members who only visit twice a year.

Catch the full episode with James McIntyre at the LINK IN BIO 👆 by @michelle.pascoe

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a day ago

Every hospitality operator I talk to is asking the same question right now. Where does AI actually belong in the guest experience at your club, pub, hotel or restaurant, and where does it need to stay well out of the way?

The full tutorial gives you a simple three-part split. What to hand to automation, what always stays with a person, and who in your business needs to own what your booking system and chatbot are promising your guests.

If you want practical guidance on AI in hospitality customer service and the guest experience, the full tutorial is available at the LINK IN BIO 👆 by @michelle.pascoe

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2 days ago

I’ve had my business for 33 years and I’ve been with the same telco for every one of them. In all that time I’ve received nil loyalty, not a brass razoo. Yet if someone switched over from another provider tomorrow, they’d be offered a special deal on day one.

That frustration came up in my conversation with James McIntyre this week, along with another one I think we’ve all lived through. Something goes wrong, you go online for help, and you end up with a chatbot that doesn’t answer your question and then asks you to rate it. There’s no phone number and no person to talk to. A customer who started out a little disappointed, maybe a seven out of ten, is suddenly sitting at a one.

James has worked with some of Australia’s biggest loyalty brands, including Flybuys and Medibank. His advice: let AI take care of the predictable things, like wait times and routine requests. Service recovery, birthdays and anniversaries, and anything that isn’t black and white still belong to your people.

For me, the magic still happens when a server walking past a table hears it’s Bob’s birthday and does something about it, even though Bob never put it on the booking. Nobody shares that moment through a customer survey, but they will certainly tell their friends about it for years to come.

We also talked about what happens when a chatbot makes a promise your team can’t keep, and why so many loyalty members never get to the point of redeeming a reward. If you’re a club CEO or GM working out where AI fits in your venue, this one is worth your time.

Thank you for such a generous conversation James.

Listen to the full episode at the LINK IN BIO 👆 by @michelle.pascoe

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3 days ago

Somebody in your business is making promises to guests right now, and there's a decent chance you've never reviewed what they are.

I don't mean your staff. I mean whatever's running your booking confirmations, your chatbot, your automated review replies. These systems make commitments on your behalf constantly, and most operators don't sit down regularly enough and update what those commitments actually are.

Air Canada found this out the hard way when their chatbot gave a grieving customer incorrect information about bereavement fares, and the airline ended up legally on the hook for what a piece of software told them.

This wasn't a tech failure. It was simply that nobody on the leadership team had decided in advance what the system was allowed to promise or advise, so the system decided for itself, and the outcome was poor.

If a guest is told they're getting a room upgrade, a dietary accommodation sorted, a fast turnaround on something, and your team can't actually deliver on it, that promise still reached the guest whether a person or a piece of software made it. Whoever's running customer experience in your business needs to own that question directly. What can we promise, what can't we, and who's checking.

It's an element of your customer experience that's certainly worth an audit before it costs you something bigger than an awkward conversation at the front desk. by @michelle.pascoe

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4 days ago

CUSTOMER SERVICE CHALLENGE 💡

Grab a piece of paper and list every guest-facing touchpoint your venue runs through tech right now. Booking confirmations, automated review replies, the chatbot on your website, SMS reminders, whatever it is. Now split that list in two.

One column is anything predictable. Wait times, standard bookings, routine questions with one correct answer. Perfect for automation, and honestly, your guests probably prefer the speed.

The other column is everything else. Service recovery when something's gone wrong. Special occasions your team knows about. Anything even slightly ambiguous. If a piece of tech is currently handling something from that second column unsupervised, that's your line.

Pick the riskiest item on that second list and put a human back in the loop this week, even if it slows things down slightly. Slower and right beats fast and wrong every time a guest is upset or celebrating, and it could be costing you loyalty without anyone noticing. by @michelle.pascoe

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5 days ago

After twenty-five years of mystery shopping clubs across Australia, I can tell within three minutes whether a venue understands the difference between expectation and experience. And it's never in the big things.

This week I wrote about why this gap matters more in registered clubs than almost anywhere else in hospitality, because members don't just visit a club, they own it emotionally. That changes everything about what "experience" actually means.

Grab a coffee and visit the LINK IN BIO 👆 by @michelle.pascoe

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8 days ago

Monday morning. You walk into your venue. What's the first thing you'd fix?

Tracey Boeck, Executive Manager of Hospitality and Customer Experience at @maroochyrsl, has a simple answer that costs nothing, and most leaders don't even consider it.

Full episode at the LINK IN BIO 👆 by @michelle.pascoe

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8 days ago

You know your menu costings to the cent, but do you know what it feels like to order a drink at your bar or sit in your bistro for twenty minutes?

It's a gap that most hospitality operators never check and it could be thing stopping your guests from coming back.

You'll find the full breakdown and five ways to fix it in this week's tutorial. LINK IN BIO 👆 by @michelle.pascoe

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9 days ago

NEW EPISODE LIVE🎙️

Every regular who walks into your venue has their own 'Splendour in the Grass' moment.

Tracey Boeck, Executive Manager of Hospitality and Customer Experience at @maroochyrsl, calls it that because for a true regular, the visit isn't routine. They've been looking forward to it. They've already decided what they're having before they've even parked the car. And if anything gets in the way of that moment, you've let them down.

This week on the podcast, Tracey and I talked about the difference between expectation and experience, and the very specific things she does to get a 130-strong, five-generation team genuinely on board with it. Hand-picked middle managers who shift culture from the inside. Honest feedback from her staff influencers, even when it's not what she wants to hear. Supplier education sessions that turn nervous 19-year-olds into confident wine recommenders.

We also got into decor, why the female decor judges at Maroochy RSL take fabric and lighting as seriously as the menu, and the one Monday-morning fix Tracey tells every hospitality leader to make before they spend a dollar on anything else.

Grab a coffee and join us at the LINK IN BIO 👆 by @michelle.pascoe

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10 days ago

There's a big difference between meeting an expectation and creating an experience, and most venues are only doing the first one.

Expectation is the parmi arriving hot. It's the beer poured before the regular reaches the bar. It's table service that doesn't make anyone wait twenty minutes. Every half decent venue clears that bar now, which means that customers often don't notice when you meet it, they only notice when you miss it.

Experience is different. It's the team member behind the bar who can tell you why this rosé is worth trying and actually means it, because someone took half an hour one Tuesday afternoon to walk her through it properly. It's knowing that Bob comes in every Thursday for the roast, that Bob's already decided what he wants before he's parked the car, and that anything getting in the way of Bob and that roast is, for Bob, the whole visit going wrong!

I've watched clubs spend serious money chasing the first thing and wonder why customers still leave and never come back. You can have flawless service and still be forgettable. What people remember, and what they bring their friends back for, is the second thing. But you can't train your way to that with a laminated checklist. It comes from staff who actually understand why the customer in front of them is there, what that visit means to them, and what it costs the business when nobody's told them.

Where's the gap between what your venue promises and what it actually delivers, once the checklists been ticked off?

That's usually where the real work starts. Always happy to talk it through over a coffee if you're not sure where to look first. by @michelle.pascoe

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11 days ago