Alpine and Gulley People - it's all about ATTITUDE.

The Gulley and the Alpine People, staff and customers alike. A thought from the Holiday Inn Glasgow - East Kilbride, Scotland.

Working in a hotel is interesting; every day is different and we engage with people from all walks while working closely with our colleagues and peers, 24 hours a day – 7 days a week – 365 days a year.

Customers come and go and without them we are nothing. To state the obvious, they pay our wages and make our day a success, a challenge or a disappointment. Our paying customers exhibit the traits of the Gulley and the Alpine person, and it’s our job to try and ensure they leave us as an Alpine person even having arrived with us in gulley mode. An Alpine person is normally happy one.

To ensure our customers enjoy their experience with is it’s down to a combination of factors; product quality, their personal situation and state of mind but mainly down to our staff approach – friendliness, efficiency and trying to ensure absolutely everything  meets their expectations. We can go on about “exceeding expectations” and the like but in my experience it comes down to attitude and the ability to exhibit a great attitude 100% of the time, irrespective of what is thrown in front of us.

All of us are human and many factors play a part in our life, work being one of them. I guess for some people the work factor plays a big part, and for others it’s not so big. We should all “work to live” and the importance of getting that right is crucial. Many managers work lots of hours, and think they are a great managers doing this – perhaps they are mistaken though. Quality work time and action, strong leadership etc. impacts on our customer’s journey through the hotel, and will determine whether or not that is a good journey. We often get tied up in dealing with “noise” that detracts us from dealing with what is important, while at the same time letting that “noise” impact on our own individual behaviour and attitude.

If every single team member arrives at work and thinks “Alpine” we’re on to a good start. The stereotypical Alpine Person is a happy one, with a smile and the attitude that they want to be here and want to do a good job. They are interested in what’s going on in the hotel, interested in what our customers are saying, interested in listening to what our customers have to say but more importantly, think ahead with what can be done to make the experience an even better one. They are “on top of the hill” and looking forward to an even brighter day tomorrow and will be the staff guests compliment when they leave the hotel. Yes, sounds good in an ideal world or hotel but, a big but is the team player who arrives thinking “Gulley” – picture it with the knuckles dragging behind them, tired, unhappy, untidy and complaining about what happened yesterday or even worse, what’s about to happen today!

Our aim is to try and ensure EVERY staff member thinks Alpine and exhibits an Alpine Attitude. In the real world this is highly unlikely as many people (even the good Alpine people) will fall into a Gulley mode every now and then. This can be down due to an array of factors; issues at home, personal money issues, family illness/bereavement but the one to avoid is being dragged into the gulley by the existing gulley people, who never manage to get their head up, smile and look forward – you know who they are!

Let’s all do our best today to THINK ALPINE!