Clients are full of requests - be patient!

"Good morning, Sales & PR!"

Clients, clients, and more clients. The day starts with answering to clients request and ends with it too - the endless calls from clients. Looking back to my first post of this blog, it shows the surface of what my job scope would be like working in this department of the hotel. Over the weeks, I have experienced a little bit more insight of what the deal is in this department of Imperial Hotel.

I recall that the first thing my manager reminded me was to know the hotel's products well. When he meant that, he really meant that. I have experienced clients ranging from hard to deal clients up to reasonable clients. Answering the phone is not just as easy as "Good morning, Sales & PR" but is more about what question that is coming. From the start, as I was not familiar with the products, there was a lot of difficulties I have to face answering to the clients demand. Thank God for helpful colleagues who has experienced in answering all the demands of the clients. As the weeks went by, I was able to provide information to the clients, since I am much more familiar to what the products of the hotel. 

Since the hotel offers clients in holding the function in their hotel, that is typically the daily basis of what the team does - providing the information on what the client wants to know if they want to hold their function in this hotel. A quotation would be given to the clients providing them with the charges and the information according to different specific demands. Once the clients have confirmed to the quotation of their event, the paperwork begins with an event order. This event order is considered as internal communication between the employees of different department. In this event order, it provides the information for the different department in which they have to take note and prepare when the event draws near. The team is also required to update with the clients via email, phone calls, Whatsapp, text messages, etc to ensure that the information that they have are exactly what the clients has requested for. 

The Sales and PR department is in charge to update the other departments with information if clients are subjected to any changes to their event held in the hotel. However, if no updated amendment is made and circulated, the different departments would assume that there are no changes. This would be then be a huge problem when the set up or the request of the clients are not fulfilled especially on the day of the clients' events draw near. Internal communication and employee engagement is important to prevent misinterpretation of information.

Every departments have their own tasks - for example, the banquet department is required to know what set up is needed for the client's functions (round table, u-shaped, theatre style , etc) and how many tables are needed to set up. As a result of this, good communication skills must be done and amendments or relevant documents must be given to the departments to ensure that they are able to do their job well and according to plan. In short, we would say that Sales and Public Relations branched out to communicate with all the departments. 

On the other hand, media releases are not so easy to write when it comes to writing for a corporate company. It was not as easy as it looks or done. For me, I am not a fan of writing and I would admit I have a hard time structuring my words into sentence. Though, it was a struggle writing media releases, but it was good way of learning and experiencing writing for a corporate company. 

On a little side track, I was given the opportunity in attending the Sales & PR department's meeting where they discussed on the past events of the hotel and the future events of what is to come. Not only that, in the meeting it also discusses about the feedbacks or any problems arise in the workplace. The team was also told to brainstorm ideas for upcoming events on what they should do to make the event stand out and to attract the public - such as Mothers' Day , Fathers's Day , etc. In the meeting, it also discusses about the sales market, sales target, occupancy of the hotel and also a little bit on the competition of the hotel in terms of tourism industry.

This post may sound somehow similar to my first post, but this is just actually a more insight view of what I have experienced first handedly working in a hotel line job. One thing for sure, as a professional, make sure you try your best to not lose your temper towards client if they are too full of requests! Let them know honestly that some of the requests cannot be fulfilled as the facilities provided may not be sufficient to their expectations. So, be patient and serve them with a smile!

Chung Jia Chyi
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