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Seeking Excellence in Scotland through Continuous Improvement
Linda Martin
Director of Programmes
Institute of Hospitality (formerly HCIMA)
In an increasingly competitive marketplace where the client is becoming ever more discerning, there is a need for hospitality organisations to exceed customer expectations by going the extra mile and achieving excellence in all that they do.
Perhaps an ideal role model for reaching this objective is the Dubai-based luxury hospitality group, Jumeirah. At the Out of This World Service and Business Excellence Conference, organised by the Right Direction Group at the Drumossie Hotel in Inverness, Guy Crawford, COO for the Jumeirah Group, told delegates that the Jumeirah relies on three critical aspects that contribute to its continued success: selecting the right people, providing the right service and a drive for excellence.
"The Jumeirah formula for success is Colleagues + Service = Success," says Guy. "Working to a clear set of principles, values and hallmarks are fundamental to setting and maintaining service excellence, and if we get the people side of the equation right, this in turn will improve the service to the customers and ultimately help us to improve our success."
The Jumeirah Group hallmarks are:
- I will always smile and greet our guests before they greet me
- My first response to a guest request will never be no
- I will treat all colleagues with respect and integrity
Such objectives can be achieved by consistent improvement through the Hospitality Assured Standard for delivering Service and Business Excellence. Championed by the Institute of Hospitality (formerly the HCIMA) and supported by the British Hospitality Association (BHA), the industry-specific Standard has been attained by organisations as diverse as Sodexho Scotland, James Watt College, Cairngorm Mountain Ltd, the seven-bedroom Lodge at Daviot Mains, near Inverness; and the eight-bedroom Sunny Brae Hotel at Nairn.
Indeed, VisitScotland is currently attempting to achieve Hospitality Assured. Riddell Graham, Director of Strategies, Partnerships and Communications at VisitScotland, believes in four key ingredients that, if combined together, are more likely to deliver an excellent level of service. These are:
- motivated staff dedicated to exceeding customer expectations
- a focus within the business on the customer
- a clear plan to which everyone has contributed
- a culture which constantly challenges the status quo and looks for better ways of doing things
Two years ago, Riddell moved to VisitScotland to take charge of Strategy, Partnership-Working and Corporate Communications, and he began to recognise how Hospitality Assured can help with a much bigger challenge: "The new organisation at VisitScotland resulted from the merger of 14 Area Tourist Boards with the national board," he explains. "It was a huge challenge that involved bringing together 1,000 staff, 15 cultures, 141 locations spread throughout Scotland and various different operating systems, processes and procedures."
What is Hospitality Assured?
Hospitality Assured is an industry standard that recognises excellence in the service environment, which requires meeting the expectations of a range of customers on a consistent and regular basis. The Hospitality Assured framework will help organisations with:
- Understanding customers' expectations
- Planning the service delivery
- Communicating the nature and rationale of the service
- ensuring adequate skills and resources are available
- instigating a process of improvement which becomes part of operations and self-perpetuating
Hospitality Assured promotes and rewards the highest level of business and service excellence for organisations in the hospitality industry. It is endorsed by the British Quality Foundation and the Quality Scotland Foundation as meeting the criteria in the European Foundation for Quality Management Excellence Model.
Put simply, Hospitality Assured is the only standard within the hospitality industry that focuses on the customer experience.
There is a rigorous process for achieving Hospitality Assured recognition, which takes into account customer opinion and considers all aspects of service from the customer's perspective. It is an ongoing process that provides a series of performance indicators against which an organisation can continually judge and measure itself.
Why is achieving Hospitality Assured so important?
Hospitality Assured reviews customer satisfaction, and there is considerable evidence to suggest that this indicator is the best predictor of financial performance in most markets. It is, therefore, a standard that recognises both service delivery and satisfaction, and links this to business performance.
Tourism is the most competitive industry in the world, and Scotland competes with over 200 countries, continues Graham. Hospitality Assured has the unique feature of providing a simple yet rigorous approach to customer service and service excellence that can be applied to all tourism businesses whatever their size.
The Edinburgh International Conference Centre( EICC) holds the highest overall score ever achieved by a Hospitality Assured organisation, continually scoring well for all ten steps of the standard - proof that it delivers world-class service and business excellence.
"EICC was first accredited with Hospitality Assured in 2000," says Reynaldo Guino-o, EICC Business Excellence Advisor. "We view the standard as an effective tool for continuous improvement and it has helped us reach a level where we are currently delivering 88% client delight – with 95% of our clients reporting that no other purpose-built venue has met their expectations better."
EICC has found that the ISO14001 standard has given them a good benchmark to work towards. The venue, which has a dedicated green team available to conference organisers, has also been helped by the Green Tourism Business Scheme and membership of the Institute of Hospitality's free-of-charge Carbon Trust-supported Hospitable Climates energy efficiency advisory programme.
A focus on saving energy and the environment is one response to Hospitality Assured's society perception requirement – a reason why many Hospitality Assured-accredited organisations are also members of Hospitable Climates. The Town House Company, a collection of luxury Edinburgh hotels including The Bonham, The Howard, Channings and The Edinburgh Residence, is one such organisation:
"We believe that one of the ways to stand out from the crowd is to strive for excellence in all areas, from how our staff and customers feel to the products and service we offer," says Fiona Strauss, Town House's Sales and Marketing Manager. "The Hospitality Assured model guided us through a process which involved reviewing all areas of the business, involving every member of staff across the company. As a result we have evaluated and improved current methods of practice and introduced some new initiatives throughout the individual hotels and across the company.
"We are competing on a world stage and the Hospitality Assured model gives tourism businesses the structure and the framework to move their business forward on a continuous improvement basis."
For more information, contact:
- Institute of Hospitality (formerly HCIMA) Director of Programmes Linda Martin on telephone: +44 (0) 20 8661 4916; email: linda.martin@hcima.co.uk
- 020 8661 4932
- hospitalityassured@hcima.co.uk or visit www.hospitalityassured.com
- Marina Huggett FIH, Hospitality Assured Coach, MH Training and Development, on telephone: 01381 621064
- John Burchell FIH, Hospitality Assured Coach, Business Excellence Consultancy, on telephone: 01463 772 518
Hospitable Climates energy efficiency advisory programme (www.hospitableclimates.org.uk).
This article has been edited from its original version. For the complete feature please see Catering in Scotland magazine May/June 2007.
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