A 23-year-old rookie in the hospitality industry, Jaclyn Ragette hustled through drills in her first day of “boot camp” in Westchester County.
“How many rings should you answer the phone?” asked her instructor, Alvin C. Alcera, pacing around a conference table in knotted tie and shirtsleeves. He is training manager and a 15-year employee at Doral Arrowwood, the 473,000-square-foot conference resort in Purchase, where Ragette recently signed on as a restaurant hostess.
“Within three,” she answered promptly. She was armed with a three-ring binder that held her homework in the company”™s hospitality guide.
“Smile” when speaking to guests on the phone, Alcera reminded the trainee. “They can hear it.”
For the national and international businesses that book the 114-acre resort for corporate conferences, “Training has become a big trend in meetings,” said Susan Bartholomew, sales manager at Doral Arrowwood. Personnel training has been a focus, too, of Doral management, which this year began a comprehensive staff program modeled in part on hospitality training at New York City hotels with “5 Diamond” ratings from AAA.
For the resort”™s 55 managers, the company also consulted on training in leadership, time management, employee training and personality awareness and identification with Bonnie H. Reiner, a former Doral Arrowwood training director who 13 years ago founded BHR Training Inc. in Boston. The in-house training manager”™s position had not been filled for eight years when Alcera took over the job in February, he said.
“We realized that it”™s not about just having a beautiful lobby,” said Alcera. “It”™s not about just having a beautiful property. We realized just as much as we”™re investing in the property itself, we really need to invest in this staff. You”™re only as good as your employees, no matter how good your property is.”
At the start, Alcera drilled more than 400 resort employees in luxury-class hospitality, starting at the top with General Manager Steve Mabus. “For seven weeks straight we did nothing but introduce these hospitality guidelines to improve our service,” he said.
Â
“There was a lot of cross-training involved in this,” with staff learning procedures in both their own and other departments in the sprawling complex, Alcera said. Servers learned the workings of the sports center; hostesses did role-playing as front-desk and room-service attendants, as Ragette did in her first day at boot camp for new hires. “The only way to be comfortable with something is to practice,” the trainer said. “Guests don”™t care what department you”™re in.” They expect the right answers and prompt service.
“It”™s a very good tool to get everybody on the same page,” said Michael Schmutzer, who received the hospitality training when he returned to Doral this year as executive chef. With role-playing to act out and critique scenarios involving irate late-arriving guests and other likely encounters, “It”™s fun and entertaining, instead of a dry lecture,” he said.
The training continues on the job for staff, who at the start of their shifts receive “team notes” with useful daily information that includes weather and room occupancy updates; contacts for companies holding meetings there, such as Pfizer and Morgan Stanley during the peak business season of September and October; the names of arriving VIPs and inspirational or humorous quotations. (“Hard work never killed anybody, but why take a chance?” was the sage advice from Edgar Bergen on a team note one recent Friday.)
In September, the conference resort launched a designated trainer program to continue on-the-job instruction. Each department has a trainer on staff during a.m. and p.m. shifts who reviews sections of the resort”™s upgraded procedural manual with workers.
“We”™re just going to keep reiterating it over and over again,” Mabus said of the training.
Since the launch of the hospitality training, “Clients are seeing it and feeling the difference,” Mabus said. “It”™s paying off big dividends for us from a customer-service standpoint.”
“A lot of hotels talk about training,” said Mabus, “but don”™t put the emphasis on it that they should and don”™t make the philosophical and financial commitment to do it.”
“We also found that there was a nice boost in morale” among employees better prepared to handle everyday workplace issues and responsibilities, Alcera said. “The feedback that I”™m getting from the staff is, the new employees, once they get to the department, they know things” that no longer have to be learned on the job.
Instructed by Alcera in one-on-one sessions or in small groups, Ragette and other new employees spend five days in four-hour training sessions. “We give them a kind of boot camp for what the culture is like here, on what we do here,” Alcera said.
Â
On the conference room wall, he had hung hand-lettered inspirational quotes for his charges. “A coach is someone who can give correction without causing resentment,” read one by former UCLA coach John Wooden.
“It”™s really thorough,” Ragette said of her Doral training. “They do give you a lot of information.” Though she has never worked in the hospitality business, “Hopefully with this training, I will feel confident enough and be prepared.”
“Upselling is good,” Alcera told Ragette and Nia Powell, a newly hired lifeguard and certified personal trainer who had joined the class for her second day at boot camp. It brings in more money for the company and larger tips for the server, he said.
“No problem” is a no-no when responding to guests, Alcera stressed repeatedly.
The proper reply instead? Powell used it when told to retrieve her training binder from the sports center.
“It”™s my pleasure,” she said.
Â
