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Holly
Stiel, M.A.
is a pioneer in the field of customer service. Nearly
25 years ago, she walked into the international
convention of Les Clefs d’Or in Vienna as the
first American woman admitted to the exclusive international
concierges’ association.
Stiel single-handedly started the concierge department
at San Francisco’s Grand Hyatt, and was the
chief concierge for 16 years. Her leadership served
as the model throughout the Hyatt corporation.
Stiel’s hands on experience enriches her powerful
presentations. This is what sets her apart from
other speakers and trainers in the field. It has
made Stiel one of America’s foremost authorities
on service and hospitality.
Clients include: Nordstrom, Disneyland, Hewlett
Packard, Advanced Micro Devices, Motorola, Pebble
Beach, Vail Associates, Canadian Airlines, and Bank
of America.
Stiel has also been featured as the keynote speaker
at many professional organizations, including the
Hotel Sales Marketing Association, Meeting Planners
International, The California Governor’s Conference
on Tourism, Professional Association of Innkeepers
International, The Bank Marketing Association ,
Society of Human Resource Management, and the Association
of Homecare Providers.
Stiel is the author of Ultimate Service, The Complete
Handbook to the World of the Concierge, considered
to be the definitive work on this topic. Stiel’s
book Thank You Very Much- A Book For Anyone Who
Has Ever Said, “May I Help You” was published
by Ten Speed Press. Her latest book The Neon Signs
of Service will be available summer 2001
Her Masters Degree is in education. She has taught
at the Hospitality School of The University of Nevada,
Las Vegas.and the International Concierge Institute,
U.S.A. and Canada. In 1999 Holly was awarded the
“Distinguished Visiting Professor” award
from Johnson & Wales University, Charleston
Campus.
Holly Stiel brings experience, credibility, humor,
enthusiasm and consummate professionalism to every
speech, training session and consultation she delivers.
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Aimee
Lyndon-Adams,.
is a  teacher,
trainer, instructional designer, facilitator and
coach. She is also a seasoned executive in the corporate
world, having held such positions as Director of
Sales and Service Quality at Citibank, Nationwide
Director of Service for Charles Schwab and Senior
Consultant with Omega Performance, an internationally-based
training and performance improvement company.
With
Schwab and Citibank, she developed and implemented
strategies and tactics to realize their vision of
being the premier provider of service in their industry.
At Omega Performance, she wrote strategic plans,
facilitated corporate vision and values, designed,
developed and delivered a variety of sales, service
and call center training programs for both employees
and managers in all sectors of the financial services
industry.
Now
a partner in StielMedia, Aimee combines her wisdom
and experience of building sales and service cultures
with designing, writing and delivering in-depth
training programs that enjoy a proven track record
of improving profit, productivity, performance and
morale. An experienced coach and facilitator, she
understands how to effect lasting change in a way
that benefits everyone.
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Spirit in Service
Featuring the service wisdom that served her so
well during 16 years on the front line, Holly presents
her unique philosophy, immortalized as the "Neon
Signs of Service." Invented on the job, these
simple and memorable points give people anchors
that they can use to make a difference in the outcome
of any customer interaction. Sharing her bounty
of stories from the front lines, you will recognize
both the value and simplicity of skills that are
guaranteed to serve the server as well as the customer.
Putting these "Neon Signs" into practice
will elevate the work you do to art – service
as an art form.
Thank You Very Much – The True Bottom Line
Can customer service actually be a profit strategy?
Holly Stiel believes that it is. If you’re
not hearing and saying "Thank You Very Much"
every day, this message will inspire you to turn
that around. Holly not only recognizes, but embraces
the notion of emotion in customer interaction, transforming
that energy into people skills that increase customer
satisfaction an decrease customer turnover.
Bring Your Sense of Humor to Work
Exercising your humor muscle is a way to change
the perspective of a busy, stressful job into one
that is not only interesting, but filled with joy
and laughter. Sharing stories from the front line
(yours and hers), Holly shows you how to look at
situations through the eyes of humor. Learning how
to find the funny, will bring sanity to the ranks
while creating and maintaining a service-oriented
atmosphere and attitude.
Taking Care of Yourself So You Have What It Takes
to Take Care of Others
You can’t give away what you don’t have
and service ultimately comes from inside as each
one of us brings our unique, creative spirit to
work with us. Culled from Holly’s personal
quest for healing and self-discovery, this seminar
is filled with practical, time sensitive and budget
conscious ideas for balancing your life and re-defining
the way you view health and wealth.
Thinking Like A Concierge
The attitudes and skills that make a successful
concierge are applicable to many service-oriented
jobs, from administrative assistant to security
guard, ticket-counter clerk to telephone service
representative. It is the spirit in which the job
is performed that makes the difference. When finesse
rules over function, the art in customer service
occurs.
Ultimate Service – The Art of the Concierge
Based on her book, Ultimate Service, the Complete
Handbook to the World of the Concierge, the ultimate
concierge, Holly Stiel, explores this multi-faceted
profession, from the glamour to the guts of it.
Full day or multi-day classes explore the mechanics,
philosophy, skills, and necessary characteristics
for creating the comprehensive formula necessary
for a successful concierge department.
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"It
is never the job of the service
provider to teach customers how
to behave. Great service isn’t the
stuff on the outside. It’s the stuff
on the inside. Remember, the
relationship you have with your
customer, starts with the one
you have with yourself."
-Holly Stiel
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by Holly Stiel ©1999
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What
can Elvis teach us
as
it relates to hospitality?
Customer
service as a business focus seems to have companies
ALL SHOOK UP.
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Can
you let customers know
I
WANT YOU
I
NEED YOU
I
LOVE YOU
and
make sure that they constantly RETURN TO SENDER because
they’re totally STUCK ON YOU?
To retain customers you need to pay attention to the
people who interface with those customers.
If the BIG BOSS MAN is afraid that an empowered front
line will be stepping on his or her BLUE SUEDE SHOES,
the chances of consistently satisfying customers becomes
limited. These days, everyone, customers and employees
alike- seem to be screaming DON’T BE CRUEL and
TREAT ME NICE. If you want to steer clear of turning
into HEARTBREAK HOTEL, LET YOURSELF GO, and be open
to the lessons we can learn from the King of Rock ‘n
Roll. For every front-line service provider, every interaction
is NOW OR NEVER. We will really begin to win when we
ONLY BELIEVE that one guest at a time, one interaction
at a time, really depends on THE WONDER OF YOU!
Some of you will remember how Elvis used to curl his
top lip into a semi snarl after every song and say the
magic words - Thank You, Thankyouverymuch.
If you are too young or not fortunate enough to have
actually seen Elvis perform, you still know the songs,
the nuances, the spirit of Rock ‘n Roll that he
represented. His powerful memory lingers on 25 years
after he played his last note. To have become a pop
icon, and to be a part of the collective memory and
fabric of American culture. Elvis got into our very
souls by representing the many facets that companies
and individuals committed to offering quality customer
service need to embrace.
Let’s face it, the essence of Rock ‘n Roll
is all in the attitude.
Start with his famous tag line - Thank You, Thankyouverymuch....
the first lesson we can learn from Elvis is this: If
we are in a service business (and aren’t we all)
the four most important words in our business are Thank
You Very Much. If you aren’t hearing those words,
and saying those words many times a day, something has
gone terribly wrong. As Elvis would say, there is T.R.O.U.B.L.E.
The first thing I learned as a concierge was that I
was in the Thank You Very Much business. If I was hearing
those words consistently, I knew I was doing my job
correctly and I instinctively knew that those magic
words would separate us from the competition.
If you’re working in a front-line position or managing
people who do, you know that hearing an appreciative
Thank You Very Much can go a long way in fueling the
fire that keeps people saying “May I Help You”
in a sincere and effective way. Unfortunately, most
employees are not suffering from over appreciation and
sincere Thank You’s. Sincere Thank You’s have
become as rare as Elvis sightings outside of Memphis.
The word sincere is key here. It wasn’t just that
Elvis said the words, It was how he said them. Everyone
felt it, he said Thank You with heart, which is why
people responded. Most importantly, it was said with
humility. To truly serve customers with heart and humility
is to take the concept of Thank You Very Much to a new
level. Customers are human lie detectors, they know
if you are sincere or just going through the motions.
Elvis’s logo was TCB which means taking care of
business. Using Elvis as an over arching metaphor for
service, We can look at service as the performing art
that it really is. As with all great performers, when
Elvis was “on stage” it was I’m here,
look at me, be with me, ‘ll give you my best right
now!
The Disney Corporation has taken this concept of service
performance (cast members in costumes, performing on
stage[workstations]) to a high art. If you stop and
think about the last concert you attended, be it the
opera or a heavy metal group, ask yourself this question:
Did you care what kind of a day the performers were
having? Did you care if they had a good nights sleep,
were having personal problems, etc? Of course not-neither
do your customers, about you. Consistency is quality,
and Elvis knew he had to shake, rattle and roll every
time!
In the last ten years, the culture has changed vis-a-vis
customer expecations. Even the Internal Revenue Service
and Postal Service have adopted a customer service focus.
The basics of doing just what you are required to do
to get the job done isn’t enough. People want much
more.
Elvis was unique, creative, electric - he wowed us.
Wowing, is what is required in business today. It’s
important to ask the question, what am I doing? How
am I expressing my uniqueness? Are we just adding more
“stuff” or are we paying attention to the
customer’s agenda and meeting the human needs as
well as the business needs? This can be as simple as
using their names or creating the feeling that you actually
care about them personally.
To sustain such personal service requires that we become
aware of and develop our own rhythm and flow in performing
our jobs. Rhythm is an undeniable factor in the lessons
we can learn from the King of Rock ‘n Roll. Creating
a Rhythm is so important, because it elevates us from
the role of victim to the role of chooser. The best
example of creating a rhythm at work can be seen in
open restaurant kitchens. Without it, chaos would result;
with it, the line flows and the diners get to observe
the dance. I personally learned this valuable lesson
from my colleague Michael Welsh. We were both sitting
at the concierge desk during a slow moment, when suddenly
a busload of guests arrived. As the lobby rhythm picked
up considerably, Michael turned to me and said “come
on Holly, lets disco through this.” At that, we
both stood up and danced through the multiple phone
lines flashing, and rapid fire questions from guests
standing three deep in front of us. Being in touch with
this internal rhythm allowed us to serve with flair
and keep our stress to a minimum.
Anyone who knows anything about Elvis knows he had a
great sense of humor. Bringing a sense of humor to work
is one of the most important tools anyone can bring
to a job. Exercising one’s humor muscle is a way
to change the perspective of a busy, stressful job into
one that is interesting and filled with laughter. Switching
the perspective to think comedically can be as simple
as keeping a humor journal with you at work and jotting
down those priceless moments that pass quickly unless
we are paying attention. I always refer to my journal
as the anecdote to stress. It helps me to remember to
Choose laughter over annoyance. Without the tool of
the humor journal, I may react differently to this interaction.
An example: Three guests from New York approached the
desk. The conversation went something like this.
“We are sick of California food, we have had it.
We want New York food, you know, food like you can get
in New York?”
I responded by recommending the Palm restaurant, a restaurant
I knew they had in New York. Without skipping a beat,
this family said “The Palm? What do we want that
for, we have that in New York.” One reaction would
have been to be aggravated, or think people were ridiculous.
Armed with my humor journal, my reaction was to laugh,
think people are funny, and actually feel appreciative
that I had such a great story to put in my humor journal.
It’s great therapy and always good for a laugh.
After all is said and done, and much has been said and
written about hospitality and quality service. The bottom
line is, service comes from self. Each one of us brings
our unique, creative, spirit to work with us. It is
through our personal relationships that we sustain the
wow. We choose to be in touch with our own rhythm, perform
in good times and bad, laugh and spread joy, and create
an atmosphere of Thank You Very Much.
It really does boil down to the Wonder of You!
©1999 Holly Stiel
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SEMINAR
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In
this fun and stimulating seminar, Holly shares "The
Neon Signs of Service," the simple and profound
wisdom that she learned on the front line and has immortalized
for others to use. Participants will walk away with
skills they can apply immediately. The power in this
seminar is not only in the original material, the enthusiastic
delivery, and interactive format, but in the credibility
of it – participants recognize that they’re
learning from someone who has shared their experience.
SEMINAR
CURRICULUM INCLUDES:
Psychic
Salary™ -- (The other paycheck) Everyone will
answer the key question, "What benefit does serving
hold for you personally?" Learn how serving others
serves you and the importance of knowing that "Who
You Are Makes a Difference."
The
"ME" Sign – Learn to accept what
IS, and recognize people’s real agendas. Learn
the four human needs behind the business needs.
Staying
in Touch with the Challenge – It’s easy
to be nice when all is going well, but the real challenge
in service is in learning how to deal with that small
percentage of customers that trigger negative emotions
and cause us to act out in anger, frustration and annoyance.
Being
Right is the Booby Prize – Learn the traps
of being right, and how this subtle interaction causes
everyone to lose.
Power of Choice and the Elements Within It – Notice,
Name, Choose. In order for any change to occur,
awareness is the first step.
Keep
Dancing – Using dance as a metaphor, attendees
are taken on a journey through their rhythm at work.
What breaks it? How do you get it back?
Human needs and business needs – In a fun and interactive
way, attendees discover the human needs behind the specific
business needs they are asked to perform.
Finesse versus function – Through costumed role
plays that are both fun and memorable, attendees experience
the subtle yet powerful difference approaching service
as an art form offers.
Wings
of No™ -- There are times where "Yes"
is not an option. In those cases, it is important to
be skilled in the gentle art of making "No"
fly. Attendees learn how to do that by applying the
"Wings of NO."
The
Art of the Apology – Knowing when and how to
apologize. The way to get an "A" in customer
service – Agree, Apologize, take Action and Appreciate
– is an art form.
Bring
Your Sense of Humor to Work – There is incredible
humor available to people who work in the service industry.
Learn to look for it, cultivate it. Start your own humor
journal.
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“It
is clearly understood that you are highly respected within
the hospitality industry. However, after your presentation
last Wednesday, you can feel very comfortable in adding
the banking industry to your list. You have truly earned
a place in our company. . . I can’t begin to tell
you how you so positively impacted so many employees through
this one event!"
Mary
Kowalski, Bank of America
"You
rock, girl! Holly, I believe it is very important for
you to know that your talk in New Brunswick at The Algonquin,
is still touching many on a daily basis! Please know from
my heart how thankful I am that I was on the receiving
end of your magnificent talk about customer service from
the inside out! You Shine!”
Kelly
Jordin, Realtor, Coldwell Banker Elite Realty
"I
was very pleased with the results from the hospitality
workshops you presented to our security officers. The
time you took to observe the facilities and the officers,
and to adapt the sessions to personally pertain to their
jobs really worked. Your passion, energy, humor and sincerity
kept the learning experience interesting amd compelling.
Recently, my largest site was audited and I am proud to
say our security officer operations were cited as a Strength,
due in large part to our investment in the training. .
. Thank you for helping us to achieve high marks and to
continually strive for excellence."
Jeff
Millhouse, Compaq Computer Corporation
"The
Series of seminars you held for our staff have proven
to be an invaluable part of our continuing growth. Your
professional dedication and sense of humor along with
your total belief in what you are doing has shown through
on each occasion we have had to work with you.”
Brent A. Stone, SF Centre Nordstrom“Excellent service
is the key to loyal customers. Your presentation delivered
this information in terms that resonated with our organization.
Your “real life” examples clearly demonstrated
your points and enabled each of us to understand the aspects
of service that would ensure our success as we work toward
our vision.”
Trina
Mullen, Nortel Networks
“I
suspect you get stacks of letters & faxes thanking
you for your insight, humor and motivation in your unique
approach to service training. I hope they remind you daily
that there are thousands of people out there like myself
who are listening to what you have to say and learning
from what you have written.”
Leslie
Rona, Hyatt Regency Crystal City
“You
captured the audience and I can tell you that they are
still talking about it. Your presentation was filled with
practical, memorable concepts and tools that realistically
helped our people adapt to sometimes-difficult situations
while in the midst of performing a service job. Your combination
of humor, music and outstanding content kept the audience
alert and at the close of the program, you left them wanting
more.”
Christine
L. DiFalco, Specialty Advertising Assoc. of Greater New
York
“Coming
from the perspective of a concierge is a unique and extremely
worthwhile approach for the restaurant business. your
humor and enthusiasm kept everyone interested and your
“Neon Signs” will continue to be a reminder
to serve from our hearts.”
Tamara
A. Critch, Consolidated Restaurants, Inc.
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Holly
Stiel ©
2001 - 2004
For
information on this site contact
the webmaster
Contact
Holly Stiel at:
Phone: 415.383.4220
Fax: 415.383.1503
email: thankyouinc@aol.com
Holly
Stiel, internationally renowned concierge consultant,
professional speaker, delivering keynotes on customer
service. Stiel also does concierge training for the
hospitality industry, as well as customer service training.
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