When it comes to guest interactions, the front desk team at a hotel or extended stay accommodation almost always handles the majority of those. The front desk and the employees working behind it are often the first things guests see when checking into a facility, and just as often the last thing they see upon their departure. Having a well-trained and smooth-operating front desk team is crucial to creating a satisfactory guest experience. But what makes a front desk team successful?
Great Teams Need Great Leaders
Without a solid leader in place, it is difficult for any team to thrive. This is especially true in hospitality. Creating a great front desk team begins with finding and properly training a solid front desk manager to lead that team daily toward smooth operations and quality customer service. Excellent leaders are communicative, patient, and growth-orientated – both when referring to the organization and individuals working on the team. These leaders look for opportunities to support the growth of their team members. That may be adding responsibilities to help build skill sets or identifying opportunities for their growth within the company and industry.
Strong communication is another characteristic of great front-desk leadership. This means achieving clarity on job responsibilities and creating opportunities for open communication between leadership and team members. A solid front desk manager effectively communicates the company’s vision, culture, and expectations. They provide space for team members to ask questions, share concerns, and provide feedback. Communication leads to growth, especially when leaders utilize active listening and take staff feedback into consideration when making decisions for the team and the organization.
Quality Training
One key responsibility of front desk managers is ensuring those on the team are given the proper tools and training to be successful in their roles. Everyone learns differently, so providing opportunities to absorb necessary knowledge and skills in a variety of manners is a good idea. For example, having written documentation of processes and procedures gives team members a chance to look back on the information whenever they need it or to refer to it with questions during their time with the organization. With this, great managers provide hands-on training as well to really ensure staff understands their roles and gets a chance to see what success in those roles looks like first-hand.
Often, training involves an aspect of job shadowing – especially for those new to the company or industry. Shadowing allows new employees to get experience and training without being thrown into the role unprepared. They are generally paired with an experienced team member or dedicated trainer, which provides grace for the inevitable learning curve that comes with any new position. The experienced employee can answer questions, demonstrate various tasks and responsibilities and help the newcomer learn those tasks and gain confidence in their ability to perform them solo in the future.
Ongoing Staff Development
Training and development for staff don’t end with the conclusion of initial onboarding and training. Great front desk teams and their leaders prioritize ongoing training for employees, no matter how long they have been in their roles or with the company. Policies change, best practices evolve, and general operations within an organization are subject to change over time. It’s crucial to keep employees informed and trained on the most up-to-date information and procedures. Even in cases where duties generally remain the same over time, refresher training helps keep employees focused on providing quality service and representing the company well with every guest interaction.
Recognition & Accountability
Coming back to great leadership, successful leaders recognize hard work and dedication on their team. It’s important for managers and even business owners to acknowledge when employees are exceeding expectations. For a front desk team, that may be providing stellar customer service, maintaining excellent attendance, and generally just putting in the effort each day to support the team. Failing to recognize hard work often leads to employee burnout and poor job satisfaction. Those who are acknowledged often take more ownership over their role and the team’s success – creating a culture of accountability that helps front desk teams thrive. Recognition can come in many forms, including monetary rewards and things that don’t have a price tag – such as the first pick of days off.
Becoming a Front Desk Team Manager
Often, the best leaders come from positions as general contributors in that business function. This means many front desk agents go on to become supervisors or managers after gaining experience. For those currently in a front desk role at an organization that doesn’t have any leadership roles available, moving up within the industry might mean finding a new organization to grow with and thrive. Equipped with customer service experience – especially as a front desk agent – and a desire to take on more supervisory responsibilities makes someone an ideal candidate for a front desk manager position at any hotel.
Finding positions can seem intimidating with the number of different job boards and websites available to job seekers currently. To make things easier, we have compiled a database of ALL current opportunities within our organization – making it simple and quick to filter through the opportunities out there by variables like location and job function. Hint: select the “Front Office” job type to find front desk agent and manager positions. Whether you are looking to lead or simply contribute to a great front desk team, there are opportunities to do so across the county – see what is out there now!