Hello!! My PP Island – I, ME, MY, MINE symptom (Part 2

Early July, 09, I was invited by the
Tourism Development Office, Ministry of Tourism and Sports (Thailand) to PP Island to conduct a training session on service excellence. The project was good and successful. 

In the evening after the session is
finished, a young hotel owner invites all of us, (4 officers from the tourist
office and me) to have dinner at his hotel.  Though I am tired, I politely
accept the invitation. 

The owner is Thai, young, energetic and
committed.  From a talk during dinner, I realized he has good knowledge of
what he is doing.  I am sure he will somehow be successful in managing the
hotel operation and the team.  However, I know that everyone has room for
improvement.  I talked to him about 4 and a half hours
from the first minute until last minute when I walked back to the hotel. 
I am sure that nobody would be able to count the hundreds of I,ME,MY,MINE in
his presentation and talk - from food, drink, guest rooms etc. etc.!  He is surly a bit extreme.  If he finally
will realize and accept to change his habit, he might need a specialist or
special clinic!!! I realize that he is very proud of his products; however, I
don’t feel like this place is truly welcoming.

Let me review some of the unique
experiences that evening: 

1. “Good evening, welcome to MY restaurant”
2. “I have a special drink to offer you today.  My
   drink today is pineapple juice with sweet basil leave, I am sure you will
   love MY drink.  Nobody can make the taste like MINE”.
   (I ask him “Oh, are you the one who made this drink?” he says “No, it was MY
   staff who did it!!!!!”
3. “When you want to test whether the food is nice, you have to
   try simple food like fried rice and spicy soup”.  And, I can tell you
   that you will love MY fried rice.  
4. “Normally, I test MY dishes by MYSELF and I
   will also invite MY department heads to test the food
   too”. 
5. “When we finish the dinner, I will take you to see MY
   hotel” 
6. “I also have a design hotel name….., this hotel of MINE
   is really unique, you will love it.  I hire the architect to help on
   the overall design with my brother but now I send my brother to attend
   training session on Phuket Island – my brother is MY twin" (I really feel from this sentence that he did
   control everybody’s life – from his staff to his brother).
7. Up to the hotel building, “I have a surprise; I will show the
   top type of MY room here, a honeymoon suite.   Look at
   this special tile, I select the style by myself, how is it?  MY
   tile is beautiful, isn’t it?”
8. I …my …I…my ….I …my …I ….my….my….my…I ….I ….. – I get so dizzy…
9. At the end, he says “I hope that MY hotel could be your
   choice next time”

My comment is….sir, please make it a bit
more interesting that why YOUR hotel has to be MY choice!!!

How about if he simply changes the wording
to: “I like to take you to visit your possible honey moon suite”, “may I
present the special drink made especially for you”, “I have kindly requested
our Executive Chef to prepare a simple but most special fried rice for you and
hope that you will enjoy your food this evening”, “I realize that you travel
quite a lot (I don’t think he realized that), you must have seen many beautiful
hotels, I am happy that I have a chance to personally welcome you
here”.     – With wordings like this, I would surly feel a
little bit more at ease and welcomed rater than the “I-ME-MY-MINE products”….

During his whole presentation, he mentions
only one time of the word “your” and I am surprised that he never asks about
customer’s needs and the potential format of our next trip to PP Island.

Basically, he does not ask any questions at
all.  He only presents his products from first to last minute. Simply, he has no interest in his guests, he only presents his
interests.  He does not even call his guests by name. Me, the guest, looks
at his name card and when I arrive at HIS restaurant I address him by
name.  Right now I am not sure anymore whether it is a culture in Thailand that
customers should remember owners’ names, but owners don’t need to remember
guest names.

He also makes a funny mistake: he mentions
that he has the most hi-tech key system on the Island,
as you don’t need to insert any key or key card, one only needs to touch the
door pat with the key card and the door security system will de-activate and
the door opens.  He is so happy about it
but as a matter of fact, the hotel where we stay and which is not a new hotel,
has the exact same key system as he has. 

A little more open-mind, a little more
details orientation and a little less ego with a visit to his competitors would
save him from future embarrassments.

© Tevabanchachai N.
(2009), Honorary Advisor / Director, Mai-BS (Thailand)  http://mai-bs.com

©
Tevabanchachai N. (2009), Program Director at Travel Industry Management
Division and Acting General Manager at Salaya Pavilion Hotel and Training
Center at Mahidol University International College http://www.mahidol.ac.th