What a Consultant at Four Seasons Wishes They Had Known Before Entering The Hospitality Industry
Kassandra, a Four Seasons Consultant, learned that working with high-value assets, especially in luxury hospitality, involves navigating intense emotions from clients; "a lot of emotion tied to their stay, their assets, or even just their experience overall," requiring a shift in perspective from solely focusing on customer service challenges to understanding the emotional context of each interaction.
Emotional Intelligence, Customer Service, Luxury Hospitality, Stress Management, High-Stakes Problem Solving
Advizer Information
Name
Job Title
Company
Undergrad
Grad Programs
Majors
Industries
Job Functions
Traits
Kassandra Rodriguez
Consultant
Four Seasons Hotels and Resorts
Texas Christian University- 2009
Southern Methodist University - Masters in Teaching and Learning
Psychology
Hospitality, Restaurants & Events
Business Strategy
Honors Student, Scholarship Recipient, Pell Grant Recipient, Took Out Loans, Worked 20+ Hours in School
Video Highlights
1. The hospitality industry, especially in the luxury market, involves a lot of emotion from clients due to the high cost and significance of their stay or experience.
2. Clients' emotions can significantly impact their experience, so understanding the context behind their reactions is crucial for effective customer service.
3. A seemingly small issue, like a Wi-Fi outage, can be incredibly frustrating for clients due to the importance of their stay or business needs
Transcript
What have you learned about this role that you wish someone had told you before you entered the industry?
When I was in the hospitality side and now I'm working in a very specific sector of that, on the residential side, it can be very similar to working in a hotel operation. But when you are meeting someone's asset, especially a very expensive one, there are a lot of emotions tied to that, and I don't think I was mentally prepared for it.
I would say the same applies to any part of the hospitality industry, especially in the luxury market. People are very passionate about their stay or their vacation when they're spending so much money. There is a lot of emotion attached to that.
Whether it's a family that has saved up all year to afford this trip, or a family that wanted to do something special to celebrate or commemorate an event, you still want to understand that there's a lot of emotion tied to it. This is also true for the business traveler who needs things to go right because they have a very important meeting or something critical to execute.
So, something simple like Wi-Fi going down can be very frustrating for them. I think understanding that there's a lot of emotion tied to their stay can have a big impact. Sometimes, in customer service, you might think, "What a terrible person, they just yelled at me."
Taking yourself out of it and realizing that they might have a lot of emotion tied to their stay, their assets, or even just their overall experience is something I wish I had known coming into this.
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