December, 20218 BY GRAHAM PERRY, MANAGING DIRECTOR, BWH HOTEL GROUP AUSTRALASIAIN MYV EWTransforming business performance by taking an `outside-looking-in' customer perspectiveApersonal philosophy that has served me well throughout my career is to always maintain an `outside-looking-in' customer perspective. This enables a business to keep up with and respond to the ever-changing customer needs.This has acted as a guiding light and a reminder to constantly look externally and not fall into the trap of always working `in' rather than `on' the business. The past 12 months have forced us all to focus more than ever on our customers. In Australia, we first faced devastating drought and bushfires and then flooded before heading into the pandemic.The bushfires proved to be a particularly good test of our preparedness for what was to come. From the moment the first of our hotels were affected by road closures and threatened by fire, we went into action. The contingency plans we developed for these first hotels were then rolled out across other properties as the crisis broadened. Our response forged a partnership approach with our hotels, proactively going out of our way to assist with communications, sales, marketing, and operational support. We realised quickly that fires (and pandemics) don't respect borders ­ and as a result, we had to respond hour by hour, region by region, property by property.Taking a `how can we help' approachThe bushfires became a dry run for the pandemic. Employing the same philosophy and the need for change, we were always considering `how we could help?'. This came to the fore one weekend in late March 2020 when the senior team realised the world had just changed overnight, and we had to adapt and in an instant. We responded proactively, turning everything upside down, questioning how we could add value. Everything became `hyper local' in terms of our sales and marketing efforts, looking for and capturing every conceivable piece of business. We scoured disparate government and industry information to become the definitive one-stop-shop of all Covid-related knowledge for our hotels. Recognizing the isolation and uncertainty our hotels were facing, we refocused on seeing the situation from their perspective. We proactively offered fee relief to our hotels without waiting to be asked. We rallied our team, creating an account management system to look after the mental health and wellbeing of our hotels. We positioned our business as your local home away from home. We introduced guidelines and policies, such as our 'We Care Clean' hygiene and cleanliness protocols, to help the hotels focus on their customers, the guests, like never before. Graham Perry
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